Sage People vs UKG comparison

Sage and UKG are both solutions in the Cloud HCM category. Sage is ranked #23, while UKG is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0. Sage holds a 1.4% mindshare in CHCM, compared to UKG’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of Sage users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of UKG users who would recommend it.

Sage People

Read 15 Sage People reviews

1,497 Views
763 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

UKG

Read 125 UKG reviews

5,984 Views
3,590 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Sage People

UKG

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

UKG and Sage People compete in the HR software category, with UKG having the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and user satisfaction with business intelligence tools, while Sage People is preferred for its customizable reporting capabilities.

Features: UKG provides comprehensive payroll functionalities, seamless integration with third-party systems, and user-friendly self-service options for performance management and onboarding. Its business intelligence tools are also highly regarded. Sage People is known for strong reporting capabilities that are highly customizable, employee self-service, and convenient mobile access, ensuring flexibility.

Room for Improvement: UKG users note the complexity of advanced scheduling and benefits integration as areas needing enhancement, along with better integration across modules and an improved customer experience during implementations. Sage People users emphasize expanding customization capabilities, improving user-friendliness, and addressing functionality gaps like performance management, with configuration simplifications suggested to enhance usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: UKG offers private, hybrid, and public cloud hosting options, although customer service experiences are mixed, with some users citing response delays. Sage People primarily uses public and private clouds, with variable customer support quality depending on personnel.

Pricing and ROI: UKG positions itself as a premium solution with higher costs, yet users value the return on investment through efficiency and comprehensive features. Sage People offers economical pricing attractive to SMEs, with competitive licensing arrangements. Its ROI is somewhat uncertain initially, but its cost structure is accessible for mid-sized businesses exploring HCM solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Sage People vs. UKG Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Sage People vs. UKG

March 2026

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Helped 884,933 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

Sage People

Ranking in Benefits Administration

20th

Ranking in Talent Management

27th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

23rd

Ranking in HR Analytics Software

9th

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

UKG

Ranking in Benefits Administration

4th

Ranking in Talent Management

5th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

5th

Ranking in HR Analytics Software

2nd

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Employee Scheduling Software (1st), Employee Time Tracking Software (2nd), AI-Agents for HR (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Sage People is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UKG is 4.9%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
UKG	4.9%
Sage People	1.4%
Other	93.7%

Cloud HCM

Featured Reviews

Spencer Gray

People Advisor at Thomas International

Highly customizable, robust, and access to helpful online community

In my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms. While I understand that this system is not solely focused on performance management and is more of a generalist solution, it still lacks the capabilities and features that you can find in other specialized platforms. If we were to switch to a provider solely focused on performance management, we would have access to a wider range of features and capabilities that are not currently available in this system. Sage People offers a wide range of functions that meet most requirements. However, there is still room for improvement. One feature that I would like to see added is the ability to detect and address any failures in the custom processes or functions built within the system. I would like to see a tool that can automatically sense and identify any issues in the system. Currently, when something goes wrong, it's not always immediately obvious and requires a lot of manual troubleshooting. It would be helpful if there was an error message that clearly explained why the system is failing. This would speed up the investigation process and make it ten times faster.

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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

"The report builder and dashboard builder are very, very good."

"We are now able to visualize global team structures, and as we rollout other features, the organization will benefit from an easy to use system and standard processes."

"It is easy to see all the information we have for a person across two screens, and reports are easy to run, view, amend, and add."

"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 most valuable feature of Sage People is the integration with our payroll system."

"The solution is beneficial overall."

"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."

"Compared to the other system that we were using, I think Sage is more friendly. As an administrator, Sage's dashboard is visually friendly and many tasks are easier to accomplish. Another feature that we've liked since we started using Sage is the reporting. With the other system, we needed to configure a lot of things manually when it came to reporting, but with Sage the reporting tasks are much simpler."

More Sage People pros

"We have been able to put responsibility out to managers to manage their employee information instead of submitting forms."

"Customer service is very good when you get their attention."

"We are able to report on all HR data with ease."

"Having an integrated HRIS system has saved time and increased efficiency."

"The ease of use; UltiPro is easy for both the tech savvy HR person and those with limited knowledge of using HCM applications."

"Allows us to keep HR functions centralized."

"All aspects of the employee lifecycle can be handled within the Ultipro system: Recruiting/onboarding, employment validation, payroll processing, performance plans and reviews, and salary planning."

"Customer service is fabulous by some levels."

More UKG pros

Cons

"The integration with our payroll system could improve. However, it is managed by another company."

"Its stability could be better."

"The automation in Sage People could improve. The solution is the best used for data storage but the automation could be better to have more functionality."

"Its technical support could have been better."

"The user interface is not great."

"In my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms."

"Right now, Sage doesn't seem to have what we are looking for when it comes to managing HR tickets. In my previous experiences with other HR software, we had to buy another solution to obtain this functionality, and it would be a great feature for Sage to consider adding. For an HR system, Sage would do very well to include it."

"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."

More Sage People cons

"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."

"Benefit administration is probably the weakest part of the system."

"We have encountered scalability issues. Only 10 clock transactions are allowed to run at once; not the best for installing 300+ global clocks."

"The feature needs to be able to differentiate weekdays from weekends when calculating the PTO hours when requesting PTO days."

"Inactivates DD when employees leave for a short period."

"Our deployment had a lot of issues...but with my few months at the company, I am finding these are self inflicted."

"Export of time takes too much time; would like to be able to push through some changes once we open payroll; would like to "undo" an import after submit and calc without having to start over from the start; benefits feeds; negative deduction refunds without earnings and improved communication from Ulti to tax filing."

"We have encountered scalability issues."

More UKG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

"I think it's reasonably priced. But in comparison to other systems, I would choose them over Sage People, regardless of their prices."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"I believe we pay licensing on a yearly basis, but I can't comment on the total amount that we pay on licensing."

"We have to purchase the solution's license to use it."

"The pricing is reasonable."

More Sage People pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

14%

Marketing Services Firm

12%

Educational Organization

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	6

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

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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Compared 5% of the time

PeopleSoft vs UKG

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Sage People

February 2026

Download Sage People product report

Buyer's Guide

UKG

February 2026

Download UKG product report

Also Known As

Fairsail

UKG Pro, UKG Dimensons, UKG Ready

Overview

Connect teams across borders

Customise communications: Deliver business updates to specific groups and gather feedback with surveys.
Personalise experiences: Create engaging, branded experiences – tailored by group or region.
Connect global teams: Manage your entire workforce, wherever they are. Embed global policies while enforcing local regulations.
Help teams thrive, anywhere: Support wellbeing, provide localised benefits packages, and more.

Get ahead with actionable HR analytics

Make informed decisions: Use People analytics for actionable insights in seconds.
Provide real-time insights: Give up-to-the-minute recommendations so leaders jump on trends and adjust plans.
Customise dashboards: Plan hiring, analyse attrition, manage absence, and more.
Get actionable feedback: Understand the employee experience through surveys, tailored to different groups.

Compete successfully for top talent

Deliver a differentiated, stand-out candidate experience with easy-to-use employer branding themes and options that shows off your culture and company story.
Fill roles faster with skilled talent using our unique, AI-powered, intelligent candidate matching.
Have new employees hit the ground running with seamless remote pre-boarding and onboarding experiences.

Sage

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.

UKG

Sample Customers

Rocketship Education, Monitise, u-blox, SolarWinds, Mitsubishi, SmartStream, Canonical, Betfair

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

Buyer's Guide

Sage People vs. UKG

March 2026

Free Report: Sage People vs. UKG

Find out what your peers are saying about Sage People vs. UKG and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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