Cornerstone HR Suite vs Workday comparison

Cornerstone OnDemand and Workday are both solutions in the Cloud HCM category. Cornerstone OnDemand is ranked #30, while Workday is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. Cornerstone OnDemand holds a 0.9% mindshare in CHCM, compared to Workday’s 10.5% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of Cornerstone OnDemand users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Workday users who would recommend it.

Cornerstone HR Suite

Read 3 Cornerstone HR Suite reviews

648 Views
441 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

Workday

Read 58 Workday reviews

9,682 Views
6,777 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Cornerstone HR Suite

Workday

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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: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cornerstone HR Suite vs. Workday

March 2026

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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

46th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

30th

Average Rating

6.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

HR Analytics Software (10th)

Workday

Ranking in Talent Management

2nd

Ranking in Cloud HCM

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (1st), Talent Acquisition (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Cornerstone HR Suite is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 10.5%, down from 18.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Workday	10.5%
Cornerstone HR Suite	0.9%
Other	88.6%

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.

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Eslam Abo Elnaga

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"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 solution is extremely stable."

"The solution is easy to use and provides great flexibility and security."

"Workday is highly intuitive from a customer experience perspective. It was effortless for us to understand what to do even though we didn't have any related training. It was easy to use without guidance."

"Between risk reduction, audit reduction and knowing that in many ways we can stop thinking about HR as an issue to solve, we have seen great value."

"It is fairly easy to set up"

"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."

"The interface of Workday is superior; it is easy and clear, everything is organized effectively, and I enjoy using Workday extensively."

"First time users, understanding accessibility and consolidated data is fairly easy. The solution improves productivity for users and reduces the need to switch between different tools."

More Workday pros

Cons

"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."

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

"The price could be lower."

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

"It is good that much of the development is based on community input but often that can lead to details being ignored and small, nagging issues are ignored."

"It's possible that the way things are integrated could be improved"

"One potential feature that could be added is the ability to streamline business processes through quick tips and guided tours. This would allow for a smoother and more guided experience for colleagues as they navigate through different processes and steps. It would be similar to a guidance system or a step-by-step tutorial that could be added after the business process to guide users through it."

"If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive."

"The implementation could have gone a little smoother."

"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."

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."

"With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."

"It's very, very expensive."

"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six 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."

"It has an annual subscription rate, but I'm not sure how it will work."

"The pricing for this solution is fairly high. It is not affordable for small and mid-sized companies."

"It is on a yearly basis."

"The pricing is good from an HR perspective, although management gets upset after spending $500,000 a year, every year."

More Workday pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

University

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	42

Questions from the Community

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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...

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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.

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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...

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Compared 8% of the time

SAP SuccessFactors vs Cornerstone HR Suite

Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 23% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

UKG vs Workday

Compared 8% of the time

SAP HCM vs Workday

Compared 7% of the time

Dayforce HCM vs Workday

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud HCM

March 2026

Download Cornerstone HR Suite product report

Buyer's Guide

Workday

February 2026

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

The Workday Platform is an AI-powered platform that unifies HR, financial, and operational data, enabling seamless planning, execution, and analysis. It improves decision-making, streamlines cross-team processes, and leverages Workday Illuminate™ for advanced AI insights from vast HR and finance datasets. Workday empowers organizations of all sizes to innovate and optimize performance.

Workday

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!

Buyer's Guide

Cornerstone HR Suite vs. Workday

March 2026

Free Report: Cornerstone HR Suite vs. Workday

Find out what your peers are saying about Cornerstone HR Suite vs. Workday and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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