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SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.7
Organizations have mixed ROI results with SAP SuccessFactors, citing cost issues but valuing improved employee experience and multinational benefits.
Sentiment score
5.2
Transitioning to Workday from on-premises HR platforms improved engagement, saved time, and enhanced ROI satisfaction with competitive pricing.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
SAP SuccessFactors' customer support receives mixed reviews, excelling in premium services but facing issues with response times and regional coordination.
Sentiment score
6.7
Workday's customer service is highly rated for quick responses and efficiency, though regional expertise in Korea needs improvement.
Since they have a lot of understanding about HR metrics and KPIs, they understand what the expectations are.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
With Workday, I can pick up the phone, call them on Teams, and they answer immediately.
Senior people and systems analyst at B_labs & Mylo
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
SAP SuccessFactors offers scalable, flexible cloud solutions for large organizations, seamlessly integrating with AWS for efficient expansion.
Sentiment score
7.6
Workday excels in scalability, integrating seamlessly and efficiently with platforms for small to large enterprises, despite its cost.
SAP SuccessFactors is 100 percent reliable and one of the biggest in the market.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
We have implemented it for 25,000 employees, scaling from 7,000 to 25,000 using the same set of rules, and it was not difficult.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
SAP SuccessFactors demonstrates strong stability despite occasional downtime and integration issues, consistently scoring 7-9 out of 10 in performance.
Sentiment score
7.9
Users praise Workday's stability, reliability, and efficient performance, despite occasional brief slowness or login issues, rating it highly.
I hardly ever encounter any stability issues, as SAP SuccessFactors is very good and stable.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution is absolutely stable.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
The expectation from a non-IT representative is high.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
 

Room For Improvement

SAP SuccessFactors needs improved customization, better module integration, enhanced AI, and updated tools for global users and pricing models.
Workday needs significant improvements in data handling, integration, UI, and functionality to better meet diverse user needs.
Advisories can only be placed at the bottom, which is less effective as employees may not scroll down to see them.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
The change management process during the initial launch was not effectively handled, leading to a poor user experience.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Workforce analytics is still challenging due to customizations. It does not provide flexibility in terms of analytics, and we have to customize extensively.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
While there is mass upload functionality where we can load shifts for all people or specific groups, we need to select multiple people and assign them to a schedule from the interface itself.
Senior people and systems analyst at B_labs & Mylo
Creating complex reports has a steep learning curve and often requires specified training.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
The ease of use is notable because seeing all the videos and demos, the user interface is quite simple to use.
Senior Analyst at Eos Intelligence
 

Setup Cost

SAP SuccessFactors offers flexible, premium solutions with pricing impacted by user count, modules, and partner selection, suitable for enterprises.
Workday is a costly HCM solution with tiered pricing, offering value and ROI despite high fees for smaller organizations.
The licensing cost is not expensive now.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
Pricing is a bit high and on the higher side.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
The licensing costs are quite high, which is a typical scenario for such solutions.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
 

Valuable Features

SAP SuccessFactors offers intuitive UI, AI tools, and robust integration, enhancing HR processes with customizable modules for diverse needs.
Workday excels with intuitive interface, robust reporting, seamless integration, and advanced analytics, efficiently managing payroll, benefits, and recruitment.
We also created many in-house reports according to our specific requirements with the help of this tool, which was a really big game changer for us.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
Employees can view their goals, performance, ratings, and employee information, which enhances the employee experience.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
SAP SuccessFactors has advantages in providing AI-driven initiatives such as candidate screening and matching features within the recruitment module.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We now have real-time visibility into our global headcount and labor costs, which allows our leadership to make faster data-driven decisions.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
What I appreciate best about Workday is the recruiting component.
Senior Analyst at Eos Intelligence
The interface of Workday is superior.
Senior people and systems analyst at B_labs & Mylo
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP SuccessFactors
Ranking in Talent Management
1st
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Global Payroll (2nd)
Workday
Ranking in Talent Management
2nd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
3rd
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 11.3%, down from 22.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 10.8%, down from 17.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP SuccessFactors11.3%
Workday10.8%
Other77.9%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

SS
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
HR has gained clear analytics for attrition, goals, and appraisals and manages talent efficiently
SAP SuccessFactors has a low error rate. We had many ad hoc reports that we needed to generate, and it was very easy to do so in SAP SuccessFactors. We also created many in-house reports according to our specific requirements with the help of this tool, which was a really big game changer for us. We did not depend on advanced Excel in those cases. We generated a lot of detailed reports whenever we needed them during emergency cases or board meetings. A lot of usefulness and time were saved in those cases. I will also mention that we conducted a comparative study for some recruitment cases. We had a recruitment model where we were looking for a very niche profile. Since the job profile was really different and rare, we had to depend on analytics to understand and shortlist from a large pool of candidates that we already had in our database. Analytics was really helpful in this situation.
Eslam Abo Elnaga - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior people and systems analyst at B_labs & Mylo
Has improved HR process efficiency through intuitive workflows and responsive support
There is something that could be improved in Workday, specifically in the time tracking module. While I am not working on Workday now, I was a regional HRIS working for Egypt, Malta, India, and China. I mention these countries to relate to high population countries and companies. In our company, we use assigned work schedules for our teams. Because we work with the time tracking module, we need to assign shifts. In the manufacturing industry, we might need to change shifts every day or week. Manufacturing teams are huge, approximately 50 to 200 people in one team. If this team has one leader, the leader needs to assign a work schedule for each person individually. While there is mass upload functionality where we can load shifts for all people or specific groups, we need to select multiple people and assign them to a schedule from the interface itself. I have requested this functionality many times. When extracting business processes awaiting actions report, I can select different processes in one box, hit okay, and the report comes up. However, the same functionality does not work for work schedule assigning. If implemented, it would help many people in companies with high populations and big teams.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise69
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise42
 

Questions from the Community

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 is better, SAP HCM or SAP SuccessFactors?
When it comes to user experience, SuccessFactors is unquestionably superior, as it provides end users with a new experience and an advanced user interface. Additionally, the entire concept of SF is...
What do you like most about SAP SuccessFactors?
The tool is easy to use for performance management. We haven't experienced any issues with SAP SuccessFactors for performance management, which is great. However, since we're still learning to use ...
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...
What needs improvement with Workday?
There is something that could be improved in Workday, specifically in the time tracking module. While I am not working on Workday now, I was a regional HRIS working for Egypt, Malta, India, and Chi...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SuccessFactors
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Cape Town, ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd., TransAlta Corporation, Keolis, PT XL Axiata Tbk, National Football League (NFL), Plan International, Yoh, A Day & Zimmermann Company, China Talent Group (CTG TMO), Umicore S.A., Butterfield Bank, Skril
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 SAP SuccessFactors vs. Workday and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,490 professionals have used our research since 2012.