Dayforce HCM vs UKG comparison

Read 125 UKG reviews

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89% willing to recommend

Dayforce HCM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

UKG and Dayforce HCM are leading HCM solutions competing in the same category, both with strengths and weaknesses observed in their feature sets and user reviews. UKG seems to have an upper hand in some areas due to its seamless integration and configurability, while Dayforce HCM is praised for its real-time payroll and time-tracking accuracy.

Features: UKG is recognized for its strong data integration, ease of use in payroll and benefits administration, and efficient self-service modules, with a notable compensation management module that minimizes manual tasks. Dayforce HCM stands out with its sophisticated time and attendance systems and the comprehensive integration of HRIS and payroll processes. It provides a unified view of employee data, from application through performance reviews.

Room for Improvement: UKG needs to address issues with support consistency and integration complexities with acquired products. Enhancing real-time assistance and overall functionality integration could also be beneficial. Dayforce HCM users suggest simplifying reporting and improving customer service communication to better align modules and streamline implementation processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: UKG supports deployment across private, public, and hybrid clouds, though customer service experiences vary, with reports of inconsistent support responsiveness. Dayforce HCM's on-premises and public cloud deployment options offer substantial customization but also face critiques for complex setup processes. Both providers offer strong technical support, though users experience occasional delays in problem-solving.

Pricing and ROI: UKG is perceived as having higher pricing, yet many users find value in its comprehensive features and bundled discounts, ideal for organizations with significant needs. Dayforce HCM has competitive pricing suitable for large enterprises, albeit with higher costs than some users initially expect. ROI tends to be realized gradually through improved operational efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed Dayforce HCM vs. UKG Report (Updated: January 2026).

Dayforce HCM vs. UKG

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Helped 881,082 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

Dayforce HCM

Ranking in Talent Management

14th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Talent Intelligence (2nd)

UKG

Ranking in Talent Management

6th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (4th), Employee Scheduling Software (1st), Employee Time Tracking Software (1st), HR Analytics Software (2nd), Talent Acquisition (6th), AI-Agents for HR (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Dayforce HCM is 2.5%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UKG is 4.9%, up from 4.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
UKG	4.9%
Dayforce HCM	2.5%
Other	92.6%

Cloud HCM

Featured Reviews

Thomas Noorkah

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.

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Harish_Mahanta

Works

Streamlined time tracking boosts operational efficiency across multiple regions

The time tracking feature is the most effective for employee management. UKG is used in Europe, the United States, Australia, and East Asian countries for HR activities like payroll. The application is like an ERP, providing comprehensive features for organizations, simplifying their processes, and reducing the need to use multiple software solutions.

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

"Statutory holiday pay is calculated automatically."

"The solution's payroll portion is very streamlined."

"The fact that the time and attendance system is built into the HRIS is very valuable because, in the past, we had to use two different systems."

"It has created efficiencies in HR and Payroll by eliminating double entry into two systems, implementing a time clock feature for hourly employees, and by having a downloadable general ledger (G/L) constructing journal entering for payroll."

"We have been able to automate many of our manual processes."

"The integrated time clock has provided efficiencies in payroll, as we no longer have to decipher handwritten time sheets and input them into the system."

"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."

More Dayforce HCM pros

"UKG allows us to customize our home screen so that we can easily monitor important items on a daily basis."

"The setup process is straightforward."

"The solution has improved our organization by helping us cut hours and lessen our labor force. It saved us probably over $100,000 in just the last couple of years."

"The most valuable feature is being able to get time management reports which break out reclassified jobs and departments to separate areas of the company. This allows for better tracking of hours spent in certain jobs and where more hours may be needed."

"The fact that I can see the whole HR information in a single point is valuable. There is a unified view of everything, which is good. Previously, we had many different systems for each part of the information. Now, it is all centralized. It is very good."

"The product's most valuable feature is the ability to establish connectivity between the front and the back end, particularly the single point of data entry, to minimize mistakes."

"The solution's employee experience is pretty good."

"The solution's UI is good. Also, it is very easy to use."

More UKG pros

Cons

"Customizing the home screen was difficult; I could not remove certain tabs that were irrelevant to our users."

"The reporting could be improved."

"Our current software program offers a home page with important company documents and a place for company announcements. Unfortunately, Ceridian Dayfoce does not offer this."

"Management and reporting of the GL costing could be improved."

"Many things are presented as though they will be included with the system but then require costly upgrades."

"The solution has a lot of glitches."

"The solution's initial setup was difficult. Also, the solution's initial deployment took around six months."

"One area to be improved is the solution's reporting function, which can be cumbersome."

More Dayforce HCM cons

"The tool needs improvement on the configuration side."

"The solution could use better reporting with standard reports. We use the Cognos platform in BI for a lot of our reporting. However, they need to have more robust standard reporting available to their user base."

"The solution could improve by simplifying it even more core reports, such as more sample reports, more generic reports that you can edit and improve on yourself."

"UKG has complex clock-in and clock-out features. It changes things too often, and it feels like the tool is constantly changing things without testing before implementing changes in production. Additionally, it doesn't communicate these changes very well."

"One area where UKG could improve is in its ability to understand its own competency and then work hard to improve it."

"The platform's features need enhancement while being used as a recruiting tool."

"I would like to see more functionality in the next release to be able to get hours and dollars per calendar month rather than just by payroll in the Business Intelligence reports."

"The navigation on the screen could be better. Sometimes, I have to dig a little bit deep to find what I need. Everything is there. It just needs to be a little bit smoother."

More UKG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"I rate the solution's pricing a seven on a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive."

"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."

"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."

"Earlier, the price of the product was reasonable. Under present circumstances, the price or cost of the product has been increased."

"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."

"I wasn't involved in the pricing part. I'm a user, and I believe it is based on the user count. One thing that is nice about Ultimate is that you can learn how to use the system without additional fees. The learning aspect is the life of a product, and the training was a huge reason why we went with Ultimate. We did have some integration costs. They were a part of the implementation because of the integrations to other systems that we included in our implementation."

"The pricing depends on the number of licenses we buy."

"UKG's pricing and licensing model involves ongoing expenses based on the number of employees paid. The initial implementation cost is low when UKG implements it directly. However, when partners handle the implementation, it becomes more expensive since partners don't receive the monthly recurring fees."

"If you're going for the full suite, it can be fairly pricey."

"While I am unsure of the licensing cost itself, the total cost of implementation and licensing for a company with over 5000 employees would be around 6,00,000. So, there are additional costs beyond licensing."

"The platform is not affordable but also not the most expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Non Profit

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	48
Midsize Enterprise	43
Large Enterprise	48

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 needs improvement with UKG?

UKG needs more publicity. It is a productive ERP ( /categories/erp ) application, but many people in the IT market are not aware of it. Greater awareness could increase its adoption.

What is your primary use case for UKG?

I worked for a healthcare organization and a university. Most organizations use UKG ( /products/ukg-reviews ) to track employee timesheets, capturing accurate swipe-in and swipe-out data. UKG ( /pr...

What advice do you have for others considering UKG?

Publicity is very important for any software. If people aren't aware of UKG, despite its productivity, they won't use it. Expanding the awareness is essential for greater adoption. Overall, I would...

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Product Reports

Dayforce HCM

Download Dayforce HCM product report

Download UKG product report

Also Known As

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal

UKG Pro, UKG Dimensons, UKG Ready

Overview

Dayforce HCM is a global, cloud-based human capital management (HCM) software platform for managing the complete employee lifecycle. This solution was designed to improve the employee experience by bringing together data from across the employment cycle to help managers make better decisions at all levels.

Dayforce HCM is an HR, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management platform. The scalable software uses a single, flexible rules engine, as well as real-time updates and calculations, to help you meet complicated regulatory requirements.

Dayforce reduces the burden of disconnected applications by delivering a single application for all of your human capital management needs. All transactions made anywhere within the application flow seamlessly across all functional areas in real time, eliminating the need for repeated data entry, manual workarounds, and batch operations. This is thanks to a single employee record and a single rule engine. Organizations can achieve shorter training time, faster user adoption, and a faster return on investment.

With Dayforce HCM, users can view all HR data in real time in one place.

Here are some key tasks companies can do with the solution:

Hire the right people
Design work/life balance plans
Manage employee development
Handle payments
Administer benefits
Track compliance throughout the employee lifecycle

Dayforce HCM Features

Dayforce HCM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Continuous payroll for staff: Dayforce HCM aids in paying staff accurately and on schedule. Give your payroll staff the ability to access and audit data at any time during the pay cycle.

Personnel management: Empower and engage your frontline employees while keeping labor expenses and compliance under control. Make proactive, data-driven decisions that can help you run your business more efficiently.

Optimized staff benefits: Assist employees in selecting the best benefit plans while streamlining administrative tasks. With the help of analytics, you can maximize the value of your benefits investments and gain a better understanding of your costs.

Streamlined human resources: With a single consolidated, real-time solution, you can eliminate HR information silos. Improve HR productivity by streamlining administrative tasks and gaining access to key HR analytics.

Dayforce HCM Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Dayforce HCM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Dayforce HCM aids in planning, hiring, retaining, and building your team, whether they be full-time employees or hourly workers. Insights based on data can help you see around corners and predict the future.

Dayforce HCM helps you keep track of compliance everywhere in order to reduce risk. Simplify compliance in a global workplace. Keep up with complicated payroll and tax requirements from different regions and countries, as well as internal policies and processes. Dayforce can help you reduce the risk – and the cost – of noncompliance.

Dayforce HCM empowers your workforce by improving your employee experience with always-on technologies like Dayforce Wallet. Transform pay, enable self-service, and assist your employees in developing future skills, no matter where they are or what device they are using.

Dayforce

At UKG, our purpose is people — real people with real challenges, and a simple request. Help me keep my employees productive, connected, and happy. So that’s what we did.

We’ve created an unmatched suite of HR and workforce management solutions, backed by our people who care about yours. Our solutions deliver global workforce experiences that truly reflect the connection between life and work today. That means insights are deeper. Work is easier. And interactions are more meaningful.

Sample Customers

ACCO Brands

Tesla, Marriott, Yamaha, Aramark, Feeding America, Samsung, Sony Music, Dave & Buster's, Revlon

Dayforce HCM vs. UKG