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ADP Workforce Now vs Sage People comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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

ADP Workforce Now
Ranking in Benefits Administration
7th
Ranking in Talent Management
14th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
11th
Ranking in HR Analytics Software
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sage People
Ranking in Benefits Administration
19th
Ranking in Talent Management
27th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
23rd
Ranking in HR Analytics Software
9th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of ADP Workforce Now is 2.3%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sage People is 1.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ADP Workforce Now2.3%
Sage People1.6%
Other96.1%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Vineeth John - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, People & Culture at a agriculture with 201-500 employees
Custom reporting tool with field grabber, easy modules for recruitment and provides numerous options for integration
The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key features you can possibly think of. If it isn't there, there's always a third-party vendor you can integrate that way. But the only issue is that because it's complex, there needs to be some sort of system, at least on the back end, for the admins to understand what leads to what. We expect AI to improve multiple things with HR processes. The most obvious and common one would be the self-service function for employees, like a chatbot to help with FAQs. We are also building an AI tool that can possibly help managers make better talent management decisions. This tool will pull from the performance management tool, the talent profile, and the reports that we generally have to score employees across all different dimensions.
Ruth Baker - PeerSpot reviewer
HRIS Implementation Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
A highly scalable product that provides excellent dashboard and reporting features
The initial setup is easy. We need to be technically savvy. We need to have experience with HR systems to be involved in the setups. For someone who's never had an HR system before, it's going to be very overwhelming. The solution has got a lot of functionalities, which is brilliant. It is 90% customizable. We can configure it exactly as we want it. We would definitely need someone with HR systems experience to understand the backend. We can configure the back end as much as we like. We can also do it once we’ve gone live with the system.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Payroll: It is very easy and user-friendly."
"The most interesting feature for me on ADP is the custom reporting tool. It's got something called a field grabber, which makes it so much easier to generate your own custom reports simply by pulling tabs from any feature."
"It is hard to go wrong with choosing ADP as a solution for nearly any company."
"The most valuable features are the reporting and benefits piece."
"In my day-to-day work, attendance tracking would be most important. That's because I have a really diverse group of employees, and I have a subset of younger folks who are struggling with their attendance. So, that's the thing that I'm most involved with currently."
"The product allows for accurate, consistent payrolls."
"The most valuable feature to me is performance management because we just started using that."
"I love the integration of HR, payroll, tax filing, benefits, time and attendance, GL, ACA, employee/manager self-service, reporting and analytics."
"The product is really easy to customise and configure, and the automation has enabled us to manage several HR processes at the right time in the correct manner."
"I guess I would say maybe that it is a more robust system."
"Compared to the other system that we were using, I think Sage is more friendly. As an administrator, Sage's dashboard is visually friendly and many tasks are easier to accomplish. Another feature that we've liked since we started using Sage is the reporting. With the other system, we needed to configure a lot of things manually when it came to reporting, but with Sage the reporting tasks are much simpler."
"Compared to the other HR systems I have used in the past, I can say that Sage is in my top five when it comes to recommendations."
"The most valuable feature of Sage People is the integration with our payroll system."
"The solution provides the ability to trace back records, is reliable, makes life easy, and is secure."
"The reporting features are also very valuable because, on top of 300+ reports available on the system, you can also customize quite a number of reports."
"The most valuable features of Sage People are the reports that are useful for decision-making and the API that can be integrated well. Additionally, the solution can be accessed from mobile devices onto the cloud."
 

Cons

"The report functionality is not as good as competitive products."
"The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP ."
"The Call Centre: The extension number takes too many digits to get through and the wait time is too long."
"Their “new and improved” message center (where you get notifications and go to approve things like time off) is actually not as easy as it used to be."
"Its benefits portal could be user-friendly."
"ADP provides a quarterly Error Notification Report that allows you to check for compliance errors based on payments made to employees that quarter. The report only shows employees by their file #; however, the recent ADP upgrade has an "Archive" feature that makes it impossible to search for employees by file number so currently, there is no way to identify the employees listed on the report without calling ADP."
"The ease of developing and creating reports could definitely use some improvement."
"Support leaves a lot to be desired."
"There were a couple of things that we wanted to customize, but we couldn’t do it ourselves."
"There is a mash-up of Visualforce and apex triggers which bear down heavily on the system."
"Right now, Sage doesn't seem to have what we are looking for when it comes to managing HR tickets. In my previous experiences with other HR software, we had to buy another solution to obtain this functionality, and it would be a great feature for Sage to consider adding. For an HR system, Sage would do very well to include it."
"Its technical support could have been better."
"Its stability could be better."
"The automation in Sage People could improve. The solution is the best used for data storage but the automation could be better to have more functionality."
"The user interface is not great."
"The budget module does not work. Sage People need to maybe make it more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I give the pricing a seven out of ten."
"It is expensive."
"The pricing is expensive and I would say it is below average for the value it provides based on the high cost."
"The solution is expensive."
"I know some of what we're currently paying. Most customers would say it's too high, but I don't have a comparison to know that."
"The solution is expensive and everyone complains about the price."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The cost of Sage People varies depending on the financial resources of the organization. While it may be affordable for middle-level companies, it may be more challenging for young companies to bear the cost."
"There is other software on the market that can do similar functions to Sage People that could be better in price. Some solution allows you to do your payroll processes by month or by the process. Small companies could benefit by using another solution."
"From an SME standpoint, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as expensive. However, for the average startup, it may not be affordable since our current annual expenditure on the system, which supports approximately 210-220 users, amounts to approximately £15,000 to £18,000."
"I believe we pay licensing on a yearly basis, but I can't comment on the total amount that we pay on licensing."
"I think it's reasonably priced. But in comparison to other systems, I would choose them over Sage People, regardless of their prices."
"We have to purchase the solution's license to use it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
Healthcare Company
5%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Construction Company
11%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ADP Workforce Now?
The licensing is on the pricer side, given that there aren't a lot of other tools out there that are applicable, we just decided to go ahead with ADP anyway. I would definitely recommend ADP to oth...
What needs improvement with ADP Workforce Now?
The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key features you can possibly think of. If it isn't there, there's always a third-part...
What advice do you have for others considering ADP Workforce Now?
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It's got a lot of features. The reason I'm not giving it a full score is largely due to the complexity and the customer service.
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Lawrence and Schiller, The Children's Center, The Kansas City Royals
Rocketship Education, Monitise, u-blox, SolarWinds, Mitsubishi, SmartStream, Canonical, Betfair
Find out what your peers are saying about ADP Workforce Now vs. Sage People and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.