SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central vs Workday comparison

SAP SuccessFactors Employee...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 2026

Workday and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central are competing products in the human capital management space. Data comparisons indicate that while Workday users are often more satisfied with pricing and support, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central provides features that users find valuable despite possibly higher costs.

Features: Workday offers comprehensive talent management, financial insights, and adaptable modules, appealing to organizations seeking an all-encompassing solution. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central shines in global HR functions and integration capabilities, focusing on employee data management and localization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Workday is known for its cloud-based deployment, which is seamless but may require significant initial investment in change management. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central also uses a cloud-based model, benefiting from strong post-deployment support through its established ecosystem, ensuring ongoing support with fewer deployment hurdles.

Pricing and ROI: Workday might have higher initial setup costs but offers strong long-term ROI through extensive capabilities. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central could present a more favorable initial cost scenario, though it can be perceived as higher over time due to premium features and services. The ROI for both platforms is contingent on the organization's specific needs and alignment of product strengths with those requirements.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central vs. Workday Report (Updated: March 2026).

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central vs. Workday

March 2026

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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

SAP SuccessFactors Employee...

Ranking in Cloud HCM

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

3.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Workday

Ranking in Cloud HCM

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (1st), Talent Management (2nd), Talent Acquisition (2nd)

Featured Reviews

SajidFarooq

Senior Consultant

Comprehensive payroll and reporting have improved HR insights but still require reduced duplication

There are some activities that we perform in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and similar activities that we must also perform in Employee Central Payroll. If information has been entered in Employee Central, why is there a need to add the same information in another module of SAP SuccessFactors? This duplication of activities is a concern we have faced. One thing is opened in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, and the same activity must be performed in Employee Central Payroll as well. If the product is the same and contains two to three modules, why does SAP require us to perform duplication of work under the same product? The pricing is very high. There is significant competition in the market, and we face challenges in selling the product due to the high prices that SAP is offering. SAP needs to reconsider their pricing strategy.

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Eslam Abo Elnaga

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With just a single click, you can retrieve comprehensive information about an employee, such as their current profile, where they work, how many organizations they have changed, their years of experience, and their capacities and capabilities."

"SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is cloud-based, eliminating the need for any infrastructure with readily available data centers, and it is very user-friendly and integrates seamlessly with the Employee Central Payroll and all other talent modules."

"I find SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central to be user-friendly, with a good UI, accessible through Fiori, making it easy to navigate without using T-codes."

"The platform itself is very robust and I generally like the reporting and analytics capability."

"Workday beats them all; in my opinion, they are leaps and bounds above the competition, and part of the reason is that it is built with modern technology and has no legacy coding in it at all."

"It's easy to set up."

"The interface of Workday is superior; it is easy and clear, everything is organized effectively, and I enjoy using Workday extensively."

"Workday is a holistic HR solution."

"The product is useful for storing employee records."

"We have fewer systems, less manual data entry, and less processing."

"There is a lot to like about it. I really enjoy the business process framework. It's something that's really seamless. It allows you to have people within the flow. They get assigned a task to complete something to approve, etc. That's a really good piece of functionality that Workday offers. Their out-of-the-box reporting framework is also really powerful in terms of what it provides. These would be two things that I would highlight."

More Workday pros

Cons

"There are some activities that we perform in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and similar activities that we must also perform in Employee Central Payroll. If information has been entered in Employee Central, why is there a need to add the same information in another module of SAP SuccessFactors?"

"SAP can improve RDP and reports by making them more user-friendly, as there are complex processes in understanding and handling them."

"If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive."

"The navigation of Workday is good but could be better."

"The solution needs to be updated with generative UI."

"There is a lot of complexity in the configuration of this solution."

"It does not integrate with some of the career management softwares, like LinkedIn."

"In a future release we could like to have access to asset, supply and treasury management functionalities."

"They don't have worker payroll in the product. We have to solve our payroll. I hope one day they will be able to have their own localized standard payrolls for all countries."

"It is good that much of the development is based on community input but often that can lead to details being ignored and small, nagging issues are ignored."

More Workday cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."

"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten."

"Workday is an expensive solution."

"I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten."

"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."

"It is on a yearly basis."

"The pricing is good from an HR perspective, although management gets upset after spending $500,000 a year, every year."

"By and large, Workday is expensive. It is based on the headcount. I'd probably rate it a three or four out of five in terms of pricing. It'd be like buying a Mercedes or a high-end car. It's expensive, but there's a specific value that you're getting with additional features and things of that nature. Using that metaphor, Workday probably tends to be more of a luxury. There are others like ADP that can do your payroll, your time off, and other things, but they don't do it as well."

More Workday pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

University

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	42

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?

What is your primary use case for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?

SAP Business One targets small to medium-sized enterprises, while SAP Cloud ERP targets large enterprises. There is a clear difference between the target markets for these two products. I am curren...

What advice do you have for others considering SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?

SAP Cloud ERP, previously called Grow with SAP, had its name changed last year in 2025. It is a complete SaaS model ERP with more modules included, such as sales, purchase, production, after-sales ...

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 do you like most about Workday?

I like its UI and UX. When we were using Oracle or SAP, the UI/UX wasn't very user-friendly for the employees.

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...

SAP SuccessFactors vs SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Download SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central product report

Cloud HCM

March 2026

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central report

Download Workday product report

February 2026

Overview

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is a cloud-based HRIS designed to streamline global HR processes and provide real-time insights for informed HR decisions.

With automated workflows and intelligent services, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central facilitates end-to-end HR management rather than treating tasks individually. It enhances operational efficiency, delves into deeper insights, and strengthens business results by standardizing HR functions worldwide.

What are the key features of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?

Employee Profile & Org Structures: Effectively manage employee data and organizational setups.
Global HR Compliance: Maintain HR compliance across over 100 countries and industries.
Self-Service Tools: Enhance productivity with intuitive self-service functionalities and notifications.
Benefits & Absence Management: Simplify management with built-in capabilities for benefits and absence handling.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlined HR processes lead to improved time and resource management.
Improved Decision-Making: Real-time insights aid in making informed HR decisions.
Global Scalability: Capability to seamlessly manage HR functions worldwide.

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is implemented across various industries to support HR processes tailored to specific industry needs. Its flexibility allows for adaptation, ensuring HR compliance and boosting productivity in diverse business sectors.

SAP

The Workday Platform is an AI-powered platform that unifies HR, financial, and operational data, enabling seamless planning, execution, and analysis. It improves decision-making, streamlines cross-team processes, and leverages Workday Illuminate™ for advanced AI insights from vast HR and finance datasets. Workday empowers organizations of all sizes to innovate and optimize performance.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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!