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SAP SuccessFactors vs SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

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
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
3.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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
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

"It's very user-friendly."
"SAP SuccessFactors, in my opinion, is the best cloud-based HR solution tool for any size business."
"The interface is user-friendly. It is very simple and intuitive, so it's good."
"The tool's most valuable feature is document generation."
"SAP SuccessFactors is one of the most robust platforms in the world today. For a unique global company, they need a platform that is compliant, such as GDP compliant in Europe. The solution delivers high quality in their core HR IS system which is called Employee Central. The system is one of the strongest and sturdiest modules that are in existence in the world."
"The most important feature is the ability to follow up on the yearly performance of the team. It's very good for management to understand how people are performing."
"The solution is scalable. We have about 1,300 people using the solution."
"SuccessFactors' most valuable feature is performance management."
"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."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"The data management part can be improved in terms of how you can manage data from the HR admin's or HR team's perspective. It has some limitations in the reporting part in terms of how you can update the data and fetch the data. SAP HCM comparatively has a lot of capabilities in terms of backup loads, data management, data changes, etc. You can do these things easily, which is not the case with SAP SuccessFactors. Data management should be simplified in SAP SuccessFactors in terms of accessing the data, reporting, and then manipulating the data."
"The user experience could be simplified."
"Everything, including the provisioning dependency, should be moved to the instance, and coding should be kept to a minimum. Wherever possible, coding should be minimized, and everything should be a drag-and-drop."
"The reporting tool is not as good as IBM Cognos which is very, very powerful."
"I think there is room for improvement in user friendliness. In my experience, users are sometimes confused about how to use the solution."
"SAP resources are at the high end and anything you want to change or any customization is expensive."
"We would like to see improvement in the initial launch of the product, as it is currently quite slow."
"Some of the screens aren't that user-friendly, older employees especially have a hard time with it. They have some problems with it."
"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

"If you go by best practices and do it right from the outset, the setup won't be a costly endeavor. In terms of setup, there is a lot of flexibility compared to three years ago."
"The licensing fees are based on the number of modules that are being used, and the number of users."
"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."
"We have a yearly license. There are no additional costs."
"The cost of SAP SuccessFactors is reasonable."
"We are on an annual subscription to use SAP SuccessFactors. The pricing model is something that they could restructure a bit better. If it was based differently on the type of usage it would help."
"For SAP, the product is pricey, both CAPEX and the OPEX. It's something that could be improved."
"I don't want to comment on the license cost, to be honest. It could be about $1,000 approximately per customer. However, it's very flexible in terms of the licensing costs depending on the volume and depending on the deal of installation."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise69
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...
What do you like most about SAP SuccessFactors?
The tool is easy to use for performance management. We haven't experienced any issues with SAP SuccessFactors for performance management, which is great. However, since we're still learning to use ...
What needs improvement with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?
Regarding improvements or additional features for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, nowadays Generative AI is booming, and AI is integrated within SAP. I am planning to get certified in automati...
What is your primary use case for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is essentially the master data for an employee. Compared to on-premises, it is simply OM and PA taken to the cloud and becomes the master data for an employee. R...
What advice do you have for others considering SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?
The solution has helped to streamline organizational payroll processes. I have worked with many clients who used SAP on-premises, as well as clients with legacy systems, necessitating the retrieval...
 

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: December 2025.
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