Cornerstone HR Suite vs Workday comparison

Read 56 Workday reviews

9,885 Views
6,821 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cornerstone HR Suite

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Workday and Cornerstone HR Suite are competing products in the HR software market, with each offering robust workforce management solutions. Cornerstone HR Suite is perceived to have the upper hand because of its comprehensive features that justify its cost.

Features: Workday provides advanced reporting and analytics for detailed workforce insights, seamless integration with enterprise systems, and a wide range of HR functionalities. Cornerstone HR Suite is strong in learning and development with tools for performance management, career planning, and enriching employee growth experiences.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Workday's cloud-native deployment is known for smooth integration but requires an intensive initial setup. Its customer service is reliable and responsive. Cornerstone HR Suite features a cloud-based solution with quicker implementation, intuitive interfaces, and a dedicated support system that proactively assists during deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Workday's setup costs are higher, reflecting its extensive capabilities, yet promises strong ROI through efficiency and workforce visibility. Cornerstone HR Suite is more economical initially, focusing on employee development, leading to better long-term ROI with enhanced employee engagement and retention.

To learn more, read our detailed Cornerstone HR Suite vs. Workday Report (Updated: August 2025).

Cornerstone HR Suite vs. Workday

Download the complete report

Helped 866,088 peers since 2012

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

Cornerstone HR Suite

Ranking in Talent Management

44th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

33rd

Average Rating

6.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

HR Analytics Software (8th)

Workday

Ranking in Talent Management

1st

Ranking in Cloud HCM

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (1st), Talent Acquisition (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Cornerstone HR Suite is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 17.9%, up from 17.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Workday	17.9%
Cornerstone HR Suite	0.5%
Other	81.6%

Cloud HCM

Featured Reviews

mmaldonadoj

Manager, BO Transformation at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

A easy-to-use solution for onboarding and training that needs to let its users locate information easily

The most concerning point about these applications is that they offer cloud solutions, and everything goes and works well. But they are not committed or involved in the connection activity. We need to run those applications on the cloud. Since we are a company, We have a lot of information on on-premise platforms. So they are not responsible for building any connection, interconnection, or interface between those legacy systems. And most of the time, the company must consider the proposed plans in making the interfaces. And building the interfaces is something we need to do on our own, and it's separate from the solution. I rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Read full review

Sarvesh Kumar Jha

Senior Technology Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cornerstone is easy to use...Cornerstone is used for playing training courses and short videos based on company requirements."

"The advantage of choosing Cornerstone HR Suite is that if a company does not have an existing tool and plans to adopt automation, then there is a chance to gain from implementing this solution."

"The flexibility and the fact that it covers all different HR modules is the most valuable aspect of Cornerstone. They did organically built, so all modules are integrated with the same way of managing the configuration, contextualization, availability, and reporting across all of the modules."

"It's a fully consolidated system. All the transactions and configuration are co-located in one fully in-memory system, so there is no need to go to different data sources (multiple DBs) to pull data; it’s all in one place."

"It is a one-stop solution for everything. You can look for information about other employees or you can track your information. There is a directory, so you can search for other employees. You can also see and track your personal details and salary details on the employee profile page."

"The software is easy to learn and use. When compared to SAP HR and SAP HCM, the tool is easy to access and understand. We have a hierarchy and structural connectivity in Workday. There is a certification for the solution and when we do it, we become the certified partners of the company"

"I found the analysis features to be very useful for our company. I also found the modules installed to be aligned with our company's KPIs. These were the two features that stood out."

"The most helpful Workday features for our HR processes were in HCM, particularly in areas like talent, compensation, benefits, and learning."

"I like that it's easy to use and flexible."

"The most valuable feature of Workday is the ease of navigation to browse the application. The solution can hold information about the company and people with accounts can be discovered by others in the whole company."

"The technical support services are excellent."

More Workday pros

Cons

"The recruitment module can be improved and also the general reporting can be improved."

"We're using different tools like tracking systems, exploring workforce management, and also using payroll, which is another tool, so we need to know where exactly the information is present. This feature needs improvement in the next release."

"The solution's interface is really, really old and requires improvements...Cornerstone should use newer technologies to improve its UI, UX, and content."

"Workday has several helpful features. It has categorized payroll processes into sections, such as CTC separation and pay slips. It also provides detailed information on promotions and salary hikes, showing changes from the previous year to the current year. This includes a clear view of the new CTC and the monthly paycheck breakdown."

"They don't have worker payroll in the product. We have to solve our payroll. I hope one day they will be able to have their own localized standard payrolls for all countries."

"One area that could be improved with Workday is the analytics side."

"The user interface could be better. Everything else was fine."

"For time management, it does not have a calendar generator. For example, if you want to have a shift calendar for an entire year, you need to push the entire year's calendar into the system instead of being able to generate it using a time management pattern."

"The user interface can be enhanced."

"This solution could be improved by providing user-level access to customization capabilities. Users currently rely on more technical teams to customize reports, for example."

"Workday could improve by adding other features, such as messaging to candidates and other recruiting capabilities that other new-age solutions have."

More Workday cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product can be considered as not being on the high-end side of the price spectrum, as many other products are much more expensive. However, it cannot be said that it is cheap either."

"Workday is an expensive solution."

"It is on a yearly basis."

"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."

"By and large, Workday is expensive. It is based on the headcount. I'd probably rate it a three or four out of five in terms of pricing. It'd be like buying a Mercedes or a high-end car. It's expensive, but there's a specific value that you're getting with additional features and things of that nature. Using that metaphor, Workday probably tends to be more of a luxury. There are others like ADP that can do your payroll, your time off, and other things, but they don't do it as well."

"I need to pay for a license. It is expensive."

"I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten."

"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 would rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten."

More Workday pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud HCM solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

866,088 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	41

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

UKG vs Cornerstone HR Suite

Compared 44% of the time

More Cornerstone HR Suite Competitors

SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday

Compared 28% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs Workday

Compared 12% of the time

SAP HCM vs Workday

Compared 9% of the time

UKG vs Workday

Compared 7% of the time

PeopleSoft vs Workday

Compared 5% of the time

More Workday Competitors

Product Reports

Cloud HCM

Download Cornerstone HR Suite product report

Download Workday product report

Overview

Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ: CSOD) was founded with a passion for empowering people through learning and a conviction that people should be your organization’s greatest competitive advantage. Cornerstone is a recognized global human capital management (HCM) leader with a core belief that companies thrive when they help their employees to realize their potential. Putting this belief into practice, Cornerstone offers solutions to help companies strategically manage and continuously develop their talent throughout the entire employee lifecycle. Featuring comprehensive recruiting, personalized learning, development-driven performance management and holistic HR planning, Cornerstone’s human capital management is successfully used by more than 3,500 global clients of all sizes, representing all major industries, spanning over 40 million users across 192 countries and 43 languages. Using one data model and one integrated, extensible platform, Cornerstone HCM platform gives clients greater talent insights, recommendations and supporting tools to meet their growing human capital management needs.

Cornerstone OnDemand

Workday is a cloud-based software solution that specializes in developing applications for capital and finance management applications. The system is built to work in global workforces and is adaptable. The global system ensures that users are up to date and can manage internal career-related information, and everyday business problems like timesheets, payrolls, and time off.

“A Pioneer in Software-as-a-Service”

Workday Human Capital Management tool is designed to simplify and streamline your work. It leverages machine learning to adapt capital management to a changing environment.

The Workday model is based on delivering a single system that uses a single source of data and a single security model to deliver a unique user experience. The system is user-friendly and ensures that employees and management can use it from any and all devices. Workday HCM integrates into a central system that includes financial management, payroll, recruiting, learning, and planning. Managers and employees can provide feedback to one another, too.

Workday’s features include:

Flexible framework that lets you organize your staff according to different criteria. You can group employees by function, hierarchy, or department.
Personalized career guidance: Knowledge management and career guidance that can be easily customized for each staff member and also done at scale.
Augmented reporting and analytics: Configure, change, update, and publish reports, scorecards, and dashboards. The system centralizes the transactional and analytical data so you can act on the data from anywhere.
Compensation tools: Compensatio, payroll, and time tracking are automated and simplified.
Workforce planning allows you to uncover and address talent gaps and get visibility of your staff.
Mobile-first ensign approach: Users can access all resources from any device, and they are always in sync.
Machine learning capabilities enable personalized enterprise experiences and faster business processes.

Workday smart platform consists of the following modules:

Human resource management
Business process management
Reporting and analytics
Benefits administration
Compensation management
Talent management
Survey framework
Employee and management self-service

Reviews from Real Users

Many organizations choose Workday because it provides an all-in-one modular solution for human capital and finance management. Our users say they like the ease of use for time-off requests, career and development segments, and overall HR management. The records and reporting capabilities are another popular feature.

"The solution was very good at reconfiguration and customization of their software. It helped us to meet federal regulations," said one user. Another said that the best feature is the optimization of the work day experience with a unified platform that can be applied across different business units. “You will never find a use case that cannot be covered," said a third.

Sample Customers

Wendys, RSM, Nestle, New Belgium

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!

Cornerstone HR Suite vs. Workday