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Dayforce HCM vs SAP HCM 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

Dayforce HCM
Ranking in Talent Management
14th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Talent Intelligence (2nd)
SAP HCM
Ranking in Talent Management
3rd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Dayforce HCM is 2.5%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HCM is 4.8%, down from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP HCM4.8%
Dayforce HCM2.5%
Other92.7%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Noorkah - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Enterprise Financial Systems at City of Columbus
Greatly improved our efficiency with its integrated time and attendance module
Dayforce has given us near to real-time access to time sheets and clockings since it has an integrated time and attendance module. Within six minutes of someone clocking in, we can see them on the timesheets. Dayforce has enabled us to smooth out our payroll system so not everything is happening at the end of the payroll cycle. We can see the impacts during the week and make it a lot more manageable. It's also been helpful for benefits administration with employees being able to file life and work events online. They can access their pay stubs, request leave, change their address, update their direct deposit details, and other things. We've become much more efficient, and much less paper driven.
SS
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
Centralized global HR data has improved expense control and supports secure employee management
The features of SAP HCM are valued by me as it had a clear idea about what was expected from the user point. The person or the application has a lot of features and it had actually all the information needed from our part. That aspect is nice. Apart from that, the T-codes are really helpful to understand which particular option we need when we put the T-code in the search box. The stability and reliability of SAP HCM product are really nice, very helpful, and secured. It has no point of leakage and is mostly reliable, as most companies and organizations prefer SAP over many tools. As for security, it's already secured from the beginning itself, and that is the only reason our organization relies on it. Since it's very useful at a global scale, it is a very useful tool and is very easy to access and handle.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product has a pretty clean look."
"It provides real-time information with great reports."
"Ceridian Dayforce HCM is a stable product."
"We used the solution to do a lot of performance management during the review cycle and it helped us alleviate the administrative burden."
"Dayforce has transformed how we operate by saving us time, paper, accuracy, money, and the employee/supervisor experience."
"The initial setup is easy."
"I have not encountered many bugs, and in the rare instances where problems occurred, Ceridian Dayforce HCM promptly fixed them. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Great time and attendance payroll and benefits administration which has improved our efficiency."
"SAP HCM has a good performance."
"We are satisfied with the reporting by SAP HCM."
"The most valuable feature is the Personnel Administration."
"The feature I like most in SAP HCM is its effectiveness for talent management."
"We've found that the solution has the capability to scale."
"The most valuable feature is Organizational Management (OM)."
"The setup was straightforward."
"The main benefit SAP HCM provides is that we have all the information in one place; it is basically one centralized system with all the information rather than having multiple systems across the organization."
 

Cons

"Dayforce has its gaps like every HR system, but nothing comes to mind at the moment."
"I would like to continue to see improvements in the Recruiting module. I would like to see this module interact with Calendars, such as Outlook, etc."
"Management and reporting of the GL costing could be improved."
"One area to be improved is the solution's reporting function, which can be cumbersome."
"Customizing the home screen was difficult; I could not remove certain tabs that were irrelevant to our users."
"The solution has a lot of glitches."
"It would be nice if retro pay calculations were made automatically for salaried payroll, so a calculation and manual entry do not have to be done."
"The reporting could be improved."
"It needs a lot of end user training as it is not intuitive at all."
"The organizational management (OM) side needs improvement due to frequent reorganization which makes it tedious to make all the movement changes and combinations."
"SAP HCM needs to improve its UI."
"The setup process for SAP HCM is a bit complex; it is not simple."
"Managing changes in applications can be challenging since it complicates testing and unit testing, resulting in longer testing phases. This time-consuming process often leaves little room for actual work."
"The customer support from SAP is reasonable, yet I would rate it five out of ten."
"The organizational structure visualization could be improved in future releases. The solution has a very poor interface."
"Regarding vSAN ReadyNodes, there needs to be a clear assessment of areas that require improvement from the product perspective."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We found the setup costs and pricing to be very reasonable."
"Ceridian continually enhances Dayforce HCM. Some of these enhancements they charge for and some are just straight enhancements with no extra charge."
"Earlier, the price of the product was reasonable. Under present circumstances, the price or cost of the product has been increased."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven on a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive."
"In terms of pricing, the product is expensive. However, it is crucial to take into account the manner in which the solution will be utilized and the availability of other alternatives."
"The XOXO program associated with Dayforce allows you to earn credits towards registration and accommodations at their annual Insight Conferences, which can be a real savings to the company when sending employees to the conference."
"Negotiate for everything you want."
"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."
"The cost depends on the size of the organization. Compared to others, I'd say Oracle is number one, followed by Workday and SAP HCM."
"The pricing depends upon the specific model and number of user accounts included in a bundle."
"I believe HCM is a little expensive, but I don't know the exact price because I'm involved with the sales team. However, I think the price must be reasonable because many organizations are migrating their current ERPs to SAP. It's excellent software, and the price is competitive."
"Licensing fees are paid yearly."
"The solution is a little expensive and we are charged per user for the license. The solution can be paid monthly or annually."
"SAP is extremely expensive. The integration costs and customization costs are also a lot."
"The terms on which you buy licenses might change due to the way they license in a particular product."
"In my view, this product is a waste of money for SMB because there are much better products available and licensing is an issue."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Non Profit
7%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise39
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
The solution's payroll portion is very streamlined.
What needs improvement with Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
Customizing the home screen was difficult; I could not remove certain tabs that were irrelevant to our users. The search functionality is poor as there's no way for administrators to tag keywords t...
What is your primary use case for Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
We have used Dayforce HCM for our HR functionalities and for the learning module over the last five years. We actually just migrated to a new learning management system.
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
SAP HCM is the one of the best ERP for an organization with a small to large scale business. It has the most efficient payroll functionality. Regards : SAP HR classes in pune
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
HCM is a very important module that each organization should want to use. It will help any organization to calculate and control the cost of their human resources.
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal
SAP Human Capital Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACCO Brands
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, Skrill Group Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Dayforce HCM vs. SAP HCM and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.