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Workday Adaptive Planning vs Workiva Wdesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 21, 2026

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

Workday Adaptive Planning
Ranking in Business Performance Management
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Financial Performance and Strategy Management (4th), Reporting (24th), Data Visualization (21st), ESG Reporting Software (13th)
Workiva Wdesk
Ranking in Business Performance Management
13th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
GRC (9th), Financial Close Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Business Performance Management category, the mindshare of Workday Adaptive Planning is 5.0%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workiva Wdesk is 3.3%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Performance Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Adaptive Insights5.0%
Workiva Wdesk3.3%
Other91.7%
Business Performance Management
 

Featured Reviews

Andrew Rosenberg - PeerSpot reviewer
Adaptive Planning Manager at Alight
Adaptive scales well, simple to create new budget versions and models
For the organization I used to work at, it streamlined the process of creating budgets. It's very simple to create a new version and do some more modeling based on your need for planning things like headcount, other expenses, and revenue, everything is configurable within Workday. So that made it easy. Reporting was pretty easy to set up as well. It streamlined the amount of time it took to do the budget as well as kind of making it simple to implement a rolling forecast process. So, it really was more just a productivity increase and time shortening for the budgeting and forecasting process.
TB
Senior Financial Analyst at Bakelite Synthetics
Allows multiple users, each responsible for specific sections, to collaborate efficiently
One area where Workiva Wdesk could improve is by ensuring that its cloud-based system is fully compatible with the most current versions of PowerPoint and Excel. Sometimes, the features available in their versions of these applications fell short of the company's standards, which could be limiting. Having access to the latest versions might increase costs, but it is essential to keep up with the evolving technology landscape and meet the demands of companies that require faster reporting processes. This would make it easier to handle custom requests and adjustments, like creating specific data categories in Excel and seamlessly transferring them into Wdesk for presentations without the need for time-consuming manual adjustments.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"More accurate, reliable, and timely forecasting."
"The important feature is integration with source data. It connects to various ERP systems, including Workday, Intact, and others. It can also import actuals and compare them to PlanPoint quite easily."
"Provides ability for business users to directly manage their plans, data, and budgets."
"The system has allowed us to take more than 90 spreadsheets and combine them into one system which automatically calculates based on assumptions, dimensions, etc."
"We have gone from an organization that looked backwards at financials and had a one-time annual budget to an organization that looks forward, has rolling forecasts, long-term planning, metrics, and push button reporting."
"It's very stable."
"It helps develop a more unified work format throughout the company."
"Reports are allowed to be edited for aesthetic purposes, which is lacking in a lot of other dashboard tools."
"Workiva Wdesk is pretty good in terms of getting the data from the system, automating the reporting schedules...It has a very good integration with ERP tools."
"It helps you to maintain a backup of your data, including the connectivity with the tables, which provides a user-friendly way to handle and access your files."
"The collaboration within the platform is valuable."
"Workiva Wdesk has a flow diagram that is standardized, making it easy for people to file documents on ECDAs, which are in HTML format."
"The most valuable feature is its ability to easily upload and update financial results, creating a dynamic data sheet."
"The cross-functionality between connectivity, whether through API connections between different software platforms or the connection of data collection to the actual written ESG report, is highly valuable. The connectivity of all these aspects significantly aids in data assurance, which I consider a bonus."
"It makes the compliance process more efficient and more effective."
 

Cons

"The upload feature exists, but isn't terribly useful."
"Pricing can be made better affordable to SMEs. Every year price increase is an issue."
"Being able to drill down when using OfficeConnect needs work."
"The integrations could be simpler. It takes quite a bit of internal and IT know-how to set up."
"It's complex; thinking about the business models and capabilities in Adaptive."
"We do have issues getting information on our customer success turnover."
"The planning functionalities are the weakest part of Adaptive Insights."
"Discovery (the data visualization module): Needs to catch up with BI leaders, such as MS and Tableau. E.g., sorting by amounts in column charts and page slicers to control all visuals."
"One area where Workiva Wdesk could improve is by ensuring that its cloud-based system is fully compatible with the most current versions of PowerPoint and Excel."
"The speed must be improved."
"The most critical issue is the need to shift between uppercase and lowercase."
"With this product, it's more about the integrated data model where you can have a one-to-many/many-to-one relationship between your policies and processes, risks, and controls. They need to showcase how you can put those pieces together."
"The tool's script encoding needs to be updated to make it more user-friendly and less of a manual process when changes are made to a company's program. Those changes happen frequently due to mandatory or voluntary reporting requirements, leading to lost linkage connections that must be manually reset each time a change is made. This aspect is not functional now, and I see it as an opportunity for improvement."
"Regarding the solution, reporting has certain areas that can be considered for improvement."
"At this point, I don't see a compelling reason to invest in Workiva. It may be necessary for compliance and controlling the version of SCC, but not everyone needs its high-end capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Everything is negotiable, but this solution is low cost compared to others."
"Ensure that you have the proper pricing plan in place."
"Prior to purchasing licenses, make sure you understand which users will only need planning and which users will need both planning and OfficeConnect."
"Adaptive Insights' pricing is relative to its peer competitors. It's certainly competitive compared to a spreadsheet template that you build in Excel. It can be expensive if you need to have 100-500 budget holders giving input and building financial plans. However, in that case, it becomes an extremely good bargain. Compared to its competitors, it offers an excellent value."
"It's affordable."
"Adaptive Insights' pricing is reasonable."
"Licensing seems to be worth the cost considering the efficiency Adaptive brings."
"Pricing is in line with other cloud-based EPM tools. It is a subscription-based model based upon the number of users and site type if it's an admin or end-user type thing."
"Our clients in Asia think that the solution is too expensive."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Workiva Wdesk?
The tool's script encoding needs to be updated to make it more user-friendly and less of a manual process when changes are made to a company's program. Those changes happen frequently due to mandat...
What advice do you have for others considering Workiva Wdesk?
I've been working with the tool's script encoding departments and top management to address gaps in their script encoding. They are working towards closing these gaps to ensure we can continue usin...
 

Also Known As

Workday Adaptive Planning, Adaptive Discovery , Workday Adaptive Planning
Wdesk
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. Cisco Systems 2. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated 3. Deloitte 4. DocuSign 5. Dropbox 6. Electronic Arts 7. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation 8. Fitbit 9. Fossil Group 10. Groupon 11. Hilton Worldwide 12. HP Inc. 13. Intuit 14. Johnson & Johnson 15. LinkedIn 16. Lyft 17. McAfee 18. Medtronic 19. Netflix 20. Oracle 21. Pandora 22. PayPal 23. Pinterest 24. Red Hat 25. Salesforce 26. ServiceNow 27. Slack Technologies 28. Spotify 29. Symantec 30. Tableau Software 31. Twitter 32. Workday
Noodles Company, eBay, Winnebago, American Assets Trust, AmericanEnterprise, Calpian, Capstone Infrastructure, Cascades, Circor International, Coeur Mining, Davey, Dr Pepper Snapple
Find out what your peers are saying about Workday Adaptive Planning vs. Workiva Wdesk and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
905,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.