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SAP SuccessFactors vs SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 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
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Talent Management (1st), Talent Acquisition (1st), Global Payroll (2nd)
SAP SuccessFactors Employee...
Ranking in Cloud HCM
14th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
3.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 8.5%, down from 20.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is 1.0%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP SuccessFactors8.5%
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central1.0%
Other90.5%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

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.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The overall functionality of the solution is very good."
"SuccessFactors' most valuable feature is performance management."
"A suite of SuccessFactors Talent Management tools helps us in managing the entire employee journey."
"We use the cloud version to maintain all the employee records, payroll, etc., and we use everything that comes with the HR suite."
"SuccessFactors is a great product, offering a lot of flexibility, customization, integration and disintegration points as well, which are the most preferred requirements in an optimized solution so you should take a look."
"This solution support our HR Transformation strategy. Provide ESS and MSS functionalities to employees."
"The solution is a very good product, it is very stable, it has lots of great features and lots of support available from SAP."
"All of SuccessFactors' features are useful, but there are several modules within SuccessFactors that I find handy. You have Employee Central, which manages employee records within the system. It manages all the information about an employee, including names, addresses, account numbers, positions, org charts, etc. It also handles performance reviews and KPIs for employees within an organization. Then you have succession planning and development as well."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"One area for improvement is making SuccessFactors more compatible with other countries, especially in terms of payroll and other functionalities."
"SAP resources are at the high end and anything you want to change or any customization is expensive."
"The complete integration process between SuccessFactors modules is not at the level that all customers expect when it comes to complete HR user experience from all angles."
"There's room for improvement in SAP SuccessFactors, particularly in terms of innovation. I'd like more flexibility in its functionality and more customization."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"Overall, the documentation could be improved, and I think the learning management module needs to include more capabilities when it comes to matching an organization's particular learning approach."
"SuccessFactors is a perfect tool if you use it the way it is meant to be, but if you start building custom sessions and try to use it differently, then it is a total mess."
"The process for long modules needs to be improved, because compared to how it's done with a competitor (Meta4), the competitor's process was simpler."
"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?"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 licensing fees are based on the number of modules that are being used, and the number of users."
"Our costs for the solution are subsidized by our parent company, I am not aware of the exact cost because of this. However, we pay $50,000 annually. If we move to another solution it will be more expensive."
"The cost of SAP SuccessFactors is reasonable."
"Probably, it is one of the priciest products, and is very costly to put up and maintain but because it is a good solution end to end, people take it."
"So now, SAP charges me 300 Euros for 14,000 employees. I still have to pay 2,000 euros because I'm using SAP on-prem."
"The price of the solution depends on too many factors to provide an estimate. However, the price of SAP SuccessFactors is competitive."
"I think the pricing is a little better than most solutions out there. There are reasonable prices when it comes to some of the modules such as the Payroll module, and for the remaining modules I believe the pricing is fair in comparison to the rest of the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Insurance Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise70
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

SuccessFactors
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
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Find out what your peers are saying about SAP SuccessFactors vs. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.