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SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central 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

SAP SuccessFactors Employee...
Ranking in Cloud HCM
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
3.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Workday HCM
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (1st), Talent Management (2nd), Talent Acquisition (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is 1.0%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday HCM is 9.6%, down from 18.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Workday HCM9.6%
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central1.0%
Other89.4%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

SajidFarooq - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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.
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

"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."
"What I appreciate best about Workday is the recruiting component."
"I found the analysis features to be very useful for our company. I also found the modules installed to be aligned with our company's KPIs. These were the two features that stood out."
"The user interface is good and very easy to use."
"The software is easy to learn and use. When compared to SAP HR and SAP HCM, the tool is easy to access and understand. We have a hierarchy and structural connectivity in Workday. There is a certification for the solution and when we do it, we become the certified partners of the company"
"We like the fact that this solution is very user-friendly, with a straightforward user interface."
"I like that it's easy to use and flexible."
"Overall, this solution provides a good user experience and is very easy to use."
"It's really stable, we use it globally and have 100,000 employees, and I know that there are no big issues with the stability of the tool."
 

Cons

"SAP can improve RDP and reports by making them more user-friendly, as there are complex processes in understanding and handling them."
"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?"
"In terms of reporting, we have to rely on a consultant to do the report customization. The most important thing is to be able to do your own reporting, which it can't do. We rely so much on our consultant to customize reports for us."
"My opinion is that this solution can improve the overall integrations and add more automation. I think anything that could be on a self-serve basis would work quite well."
"Reporting systems should be improved. If you want to report it on paper, if you want something more BI oriented, more high level predictive or more data-driven, it should be improved."
"It's great for operational / detailed reporting and some low-level analytics, but for heavy-duty analysis against large data sets, I find it's a bit lacking."
"The user interface could be better. Everything else was fine."
"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."
"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."
"The UI, UX (user experience) is very bad. It is not very interactive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."
"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."
"I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten."
"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."
"The pricing is good from an HR perspective, although management gets upset after spending $500,000 a year, every year."
"Workday is an expensive solution."
"Its price is pretty high. It is more expensive than what is offered by other competitors in the market."
"It has an annual subscription rate, but I'm not sure how it will work."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Insurance Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise50
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?
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 Emp...
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Workday Human Capital Management
 

Overview

 

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!
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central vs. Workday HCM and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.