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SAP SuccessFactors HCM vs Workday comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 7, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP SuccessFactors HCM
Ranking in Cloud HCM
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Workday
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (1st), Talent Management (1st), Talent Acquisition (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Increased onboarding efficiency and enhanced user engagement with comprehensive performance management
All features have been valuable, particularly as we are investigating whether to connect it with Talent Management. Currently, we have a solution with Degree, and we are considering moving it to SAP Talent Management. This would provide a single location to house everything, allowing all employees to use the same platform rather than two separate platforms. This also reduces integration expense and management costs. Different stakeholders benefit from various aspects of the interface and dashboards. Managers can examine their team members' skill sets. From an employee perspective, they can track their progress and match it with their objectives and goals. From an organizational perspective, we can maintain a comprehensive view when considering upskilling or other resource-related decisions. The dashboards are highly effective. The employee experience management tools have had a very positive impact on employee satisfaction and well-being within our organization.
Sarvesh Kumar Jha - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use and provides great flexibility and security
Implementing the solution is generally not easy because it depends on our client's landscape. In the last one and a half years, Workday has started a new implementation approach called launch implementation. This approach allows you, as a client organization, to implement Workday in a shorter amount of time, given that you fulfill certain criteria. It depends on the number of subsidiaries and employees you have and their compensation structure. If it's not too complex, Workday provides its clients with this new approach called launch, where they can quickly onboard with the Workday without many complex requirements. The general implementation for Fortune 500 companies is always complex.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The employee experience management tools have had a very positive impact on employee satisfaction and well-being within our organization."
"SAP SuccessFactors HCM has positively impacted my customer's environment by ensuring they are digital; we promote using DocuSign for document signing and ensuring effective onboarding, and post-implementation we provide hyper-care and digital adoption reports after six months or a year to show how much more paperless and workflow-enabled their organization has become after SAP SuccessFactors HCM implementation."
"The SAP SuccessFactors HCM tool is a fantastic platform to work with, offering end-to-end employee lifecycle coverage."
"The technical support services are excellent."
"Workday is a holistic HR solution."
"It's easy to set up."
"It is fairly easy to set up"
"I would say that we have definitely seen a return on investment."
"This product is leaps and bounds above the competition. Part of the reason is that it is built with modern technology. It has no legacy coding in it at all."
"Workday is a secure product."
"Workday's best features are planning and finance."
 

Cons

"The main area for improvement would be implementing a better pricing model. It is expensive, and with people discussing Workday more frequently, SAP needs to compete by becoming more free-flowing and dynamic compared to traditional SAP systems."
"The SAP SuccessFactors HCM has room for improvement in terms of product development nimbleness. Additionally, the speed of the application platform occasionally reduces, primarily due to data center related issues."
"The price could be lower."
"I would be happy if it was faster. Currently, when I try to navigate within the solution itself, it is a bit slow in terms of the page load time. When I click on something, it usually takes time to load. When you click on different icons or areas on the website, it is slow. Even when you navigate between different models, it is a bit slow. I would like to see a bit faster performance and a better user experience."
"The expenses and reimbursements module could be improved. Creating expense reports is time consuming and inefficient compared to other expense solutions."
"Workday does have a community site where people can go on and off for suggestions. They call them Brainstorms, and you can vote them up. That is something that they do well, but oftentimes, they seem to be racing to deliver something based on what a competitor is delivering. For example, if they hear SAP has this new functionality and learning that's going to be coming out, they prioritize there, which makes sense, but unfortunately, some of these Brainstorms may get neglected where the product might not be improved as quickly or as needed for the customers. You might be waiting for a year or two to get a feature that you'd like released. They should pay more attention to customer feedback and ensure that customer feedback is an essential part of their product roadmap."
"If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive."
"They could improve the product areas such as enhancing the interview scheduling module to support more flexible online assessments within the platform."
"The implementation could have gone a little smoother."
"The navigation of Workday is good but could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."
"The pricing for this solution is fairly high. It is not affordable for small and mid-sized companies."
"You have the license fee per module, and then you have a kind of annual training fee, which is a kind of add-on. I wouldn't say it is exhaustive; it is minor. Licensing is pretty transparent for most of the part."
"I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten."
"Workday is an expensive solution."
"It is on a yearly basis."
"It's very, very expensive."
"I need to pay for a license. It is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP SuccessFactors HCM?
Regarding pricing, it is a significant consideration. Though I have secured a good deal, I would rate the pricing at 8, indicating it is expensive.
What needs improvement with SAP SuccessFactors HCM?
The main area for improvement would be implementing a better pricing model. It is expensive, and with people discussing Workday more frequently, SAP needs to compete by becoming more free-flowing a...
What is your primary use case for SAP SuccessFactors HCM?
I started with S/4HANA with a utilities company at British Gas. It was focused on service contracts and billing domain. After that, I have used S/4HANA in order to cash, record to report processes,...
What are the biggest differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors?
Differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud,w and SAP SuccessFactors:w Oracle: "simple interface and deep customization to suit the purpose." SAP: Multiple functionalities that increase process effi...
What do you like most about Workday?
I like its UI and UX. When we were using Oracle or SAP, the UI/UX wasn't very user-friendly for the employees.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Workday?
If you go with the launch implementation approach, the solution is generally not very expensive. If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive. The solution is fl...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
AAA, Allied Global, Avago Technologies Limited, Aviva, Cardinal Health, CareFusion, Chiquita Brands International, Equifax, Flextronics, HP, Life Time Fitness, McKee Foods, MGM Resorts International, Sanofi, ServiceSource International, Symantec, TripAdvisor, Yahoo!
Find out what your peers are saying about Workday, SAP, Oracle and others in Cloud HCM. Updated: July 2025.
862,289 professionals have used our research since 2012.