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SAP SuccessFactors 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

Sage People
Ranking in Talent Management
25th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
21st
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (17th), HR Analytics Software (8th)
SAP SuccessFactors
Ranking in Talent Management
1st
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Global Payroll (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Sage People is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 8.5%, down from 20.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP SuccessFactors8.5%
Sage People1.7%
Other89.8%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Anastacia Mahachi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior HR and Payroll Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Allows for storing comprehensive employee information
The most valuable features are employee historical information and reporting capabilities. Sage People is a comprehensive system that allows for storing a lot of employee information. Apart from basic details like name and surname, you can add links to other employee information such as cloud or team accounts, medical aids, and pension funds. You can also store historical data like position changes and salary increases. This information is valuable even for inactive employees. 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. So you can even build your own reports on top of the internal reports out of there. And on the reports, you have legally compliant reports available. So you won't even have to copy it. The auditors will give you a sample for reports. Those reports are already available in stage three and video group modules.
SS
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
HR has gained clear analytics for attrition, goals, and appraisals and manages talent efficiently
SAP SuccessFactors has a low error rate. We had many ad hoc reports that we needed to generate, and it was very easy to do so in SAP SuccessFactors. We also created many in-house reports according to our specific requirements with the help of this tool, which was a really big game changer for us. We did not depend on advanced Excel in those cases. We generated a lot of detailed reports whenever we needed them during emergency cases or board meetings. A lot of usefulness and time were saved in those cases. I will also mention that we conducted a comparative study for some recruitment cases. We had a recruitment model where we were looking for a very niche profile. Since the job profile was really different and rare, we had to depend on analytics to understand and shortlist from a large pool of candidates that we already had in our database. Analytics was really helpful in this situation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 solution provides the ability to trace back records, is reliable, makes life easy, and is secure."
"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."
"Without a doubt, the most valuable aspect of this solution is the reports, as it offers endless possibilities for report customization. You can easily build any report you can imagine with this system."
"The solution's initial setup was straightforward."
"The report builder and dashboard builder are very, very good."
"I guess I would say maybe that it is a more robust system."
"Sage makes all the information accessible, like pulling a file because an employee needs something ASAP. It's all in the system. It's easy to find old reports if I need them for payroll purposes. It might take days to do some of this work by hand."
"SAP SuccessFactors has positively impacted our organization as attrition has decreased, employee satisfaction in terms of help desk processes has improved, and the data transition from Excel, PowerPoint, or Tableau has become much more real-time."
"It has a global database, and it is globally accessible. By using this solution, we have moved away from paper, which is a big step for us."
"The tool has a unique talent management platform."
"The SuccessFactors learning applications within the SuccessFactors learning modules, as well as the performance management system, are highly beneficial for each and every employee in our organization. These tools eliminate the need for using Excel to manage data, allowing for direct input into the system. This streamlines the process, making it easier to view and analyze information. We can readily access our performance history, comparing our actions and achievements from the previous year. At present, we are consistently monitoring our day-to-day performance."
"From a user perspective, everything is straightforward; after login, we can easily navigate to any of the pages we need, and the organization structure, salary details, and training records are all available as drop-downs on the home page."
"The initial setup was pretty simple."
"The most valuable feature of SAP SuccessFactors is that it is a full suite of applications to enable your employees. Additionally, it has good integration with S4 HANA. Our payroll solution is from SAP and the integration becomes much easier when using SAP SuccessFactors."
"It's very user-friendly."
 

Cons

"In my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms."
"There is a mash-up of Visualforce and apex triggers which bear down heavily on the system."
"Its technical support could have been better."
"Within the absence screens, we have it set up to automatically allow up to five days holiday to carry over. If staff members are allowed to carry over, it’s a bit difficult to add it in easily."
"In comparison with other HRIS reporting tools (like Discoverer / OBIEE for Oracle, Business Objects, Crystal Reports etc. which I have used extensively for over 10 years), I think that Fairsail’s reports functionality is quite limited and only available for Administrator profiles."
"There were a couple of things that we wanted to customize, but we couldn’t do it ourselves."
"Its stability could be better."
"If Sage People were to become a fully cloud-based solution, it could lead to significant improvements. With the COVID pandemic highlighting the benefits of remote work, a complete shift to cloud-based functionality would be a welcome development for users."
"SAP resources are at the high end and anything you want to change or any customization is expensive."
"The organization is planning to move to Darwinbox from SAP SuccessFactors, primarily due to pricing considerations."
"SuccessFactors feels rigid. It should be more streamlined. Also, the interface design is outdated and needs an upgrade."
"SuccessFactors' experience management is not so user-friendly - the launch through the initial dashboard is okay, but when you do a deep dive into certain applications or specific scenarios, the navigation needs to be improved."
"The installation was a bit complex. They are more complicated than other cloud solutions."
"They should be more user friendly and give us more tools to make it more flexible."
"The product doesn't have a modernized look and is not very user-friendly like other products."
"There's room for improvement in SAP SuccessFactors, particularly in terms of innovation. I'd like more flexibility in its functionality and more customization. In terms of what additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the product, it depends on the module because you have various modules in SAP SuccessFactors, so it's easier to go module by module and understand what features you have in each module. The product has a lot of features coming up, but the product being more mobile, or having mobile features would be nice."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe we pay licensing on a yearly basis, but I can't comment on the total amount that we pay on licensing."
"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."
"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."
"We have to purchase the solution's license to use it."
"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."
"I think it's reasonably priced. But in comparison to other systems, I would choose them over Sage People, regardless of their prices."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Its cost is moderate for a multi-group licensing model."
"The cost of SAP SuccessFactors is reasonable."
"Due to the way in which we purchased SuccessFactors as a module along with other SAP modules, we were able to procure it at a slightly better price than usual. I would rate their pricing 5/5 stars."
"The pricing for SuccessFactors is ridiculously high, and there are costs in addition to the license fee for some features."
"It is not expensive because it is a complete suite with a module-based cost."
"I don't want to comment on the license cost, to be honest. It could be about $1,000 approximately per customer. However, it's very flexible in terms of the licensing costs depending on the volume and depending on the deal of installation."
"We don't utilize even half of the licenses because not everyone uses them. With SAP SuccessFactors, though, we're now conducting all our performance evaluations within the system, so I suppose we're making better use of those licenses. As for SAP for employee services and internal benefits processing, we do have licenses for those but don't utilize them."
"The solution is on the expensive side but is definitely worth the money."
"The price of the solution is highly expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise70
 

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...
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...
How easy is to maintain Workday, Oracle Cloud, and SuccessFactors?
I implemented Workday in 2024 and without having previous Workday experience, it was very challenging. I spent most of 2025 putting out fires and cleaning up the business processes that came with l...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Fairsail
SuccessFactors
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rocketship Education, Monitise, u-blox, SolarWinds, Mitsubishi, SmartStream, Canonical, Betfair
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, Skril
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP SuccessFactors vs. Sage People and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.