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Sage People vs Workday HCM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 21, 2026

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
17th
Ranking in Talent Management
23rd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
19th
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
HR Analytics Software (8th)
Workday HCM
Ranking in Benefits Administration
1st
Ranking in Talent Management
2nd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Sage People is 1.7%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday HCM is 9.7%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Workday9.7%
Sage People1.7%
Other88.6%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Spencer Gray - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Eslam Abo Elnaga - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"The product is really easy to customise and configure, and the automation has enabled us to manage several HR processes at the right time in the correct manner."
"The solution provides the ability to trace back records, is reliable, makes life easy, and is secure."
"The report builder and dashboard builder are very, very good."
"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."
"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 reporting capability is perfectly adequate in 90% of cases, given the requisite training."
"Workday is a holistic HR solution."
"It stores everything for the employee. It has also been able to store the information that we use for our payroll demand."
"Workday is highly intuitive from a customer experience perspective, and it was effortless for us to understand what to do even though we didn't have any related training, making it easy to use without guidance."
"I would highly recommend it to anyone."
"It's actually a cloud-native solution and based on the community for development, with a very good open architecture that is able to interconnect with other systems, and it is very stable and very fast in terms of response."
"I like that it's easy to use and flexible."
"The GUI is beautiful and we don't need to provide much training for the users because it is easy to navigate."
 

Cons

"Right now, Sage doesn't seem to have what we are looking for when it comes to managing HR tickets."
"The budget module does not work. Sage People need to maybe make it more user-friendly."
"The user interface is not great."
"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."
"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."
"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 my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms."
"The product lacks several features available in more mature products."
"It's possible that the way things are integrated could be improved but if you've used SAP then Workday is actually pretty good."
"The compensation module is not dynamic enough or flexible enough to accommodate the complexities in our salary structure."
"Workday could improve by adding other features, such as messaging to candidates and other recruiting capabilities that other new-age solutions have."
"They don't offer any backend database access. This is one limitation that I found in this product. Workday hasn't opened up about what kind of database they are into, which can make it easy for the technical team to emulate issues. It would be good if they can offer backend access to the technical team. It would be helpful if they can also provide a Troubleshooting Guide that we can use to troubleshoot issues. When we have an issue, there are very limited resources to refer to."
"The solution can be improved by speeding up the load time when pulling up information."
"Analytical tools have needed improvement."
"The price could be lower."
"Currently, the product's payroll feature works only in four countries. It should work for more countries."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"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."
"We have to purchase the solution's license to use it."
"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."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Its cost is moderate for a multi-group licensing model."
"I believe we pay licensing on a yearly basis, but I can't comment on the total amount that we pay on licensing."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten."
"It is on a yearly basis."
"Its price is pretty high. It is more expensive than what is offered by other competitors in the market."
"Each module comes with an additional cost. It operates on a mid-price model. So, there is an additional payment for each module needed. The solution might be costlier for smaller companies, making it more suitable for mid to large-sized enterprises."
"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's very, very expensive."
"The solution is flexible in terms of pricing."
"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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 Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise50
 

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...
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...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Fairsail
Workday Human Capital Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rocketship Education, Monitise, u-blox, SolarWinds, Mitsubishi, SmartStream, Canonical, Betfair
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!
Find out what your peers are saying about Sage People vs. Workday HCM and other solutions. Updated: July 2026.
906,852 professionals have used our research since 2012.