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SAP SuccessFactors vs SmartRecruiters comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.7
Organizations have mixed ROI results with SAP SuccessFactors, citing cost issues but valuing improved employee experience and multinational benefits.
Sentiment score
8.4
SmartRecruiters improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness, reducing hiring time and increasing user satisfaction with its intuitive design.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
SAP SuccessFactors' customer support receives mixed reviews, excelling in premium services but facing issues with response times and regional coordination.
Sentiment score
6.7
SmartRecruiters' support is praised for efficiency but faces criticism for ticketing; phone support is suggested for improvement.
Since they have a lot of understanding about HR metrics and KPIs, they understand what the expectations are.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
SAP SuccessFactors offers scalable, flexible cloud solutions for large organizations, seamlessly integrating with AWS for efficient expansion.
Sentiment score
7.0
SmartRecruiters is scalable and flexible, supporting diverse organizations globally with tailored capabilities for recruitment and internal mobility.
SAP SuccessFactors is 100 percent reliable and one of the biggest in the market.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
We have implemented it for 25,000 employees, scaling from 7,000 to 25,000 using the same set of rules, and it was not difficult.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
SAP SuccessFactors demonstrates strong stability despite occasional downtime and integration issues, consistently scoring 7-9 out of 10 in performance.
Sentiment score
8.1
SmartRecruiters is a reliable ATS with occasional minor issues, praised for stability and consistent performance in recruitment.
I hardly ever encounter any stability issues, as SAP SuccessFactors is very good and stable.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution is absolutely stable.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
There were challenges in the initial stage, but now it is fine.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
 

Room For Improvement

SAP SuccessFactors needs improved customization, better module integration, enhanced AI, and updated tools for global users and pricing models.
SmartRecruiters faces challenges in accessibility, integration, user experience, compliance, and requires improvements in tech support and feature robustness.
They should implement soft connectors through a marketplace for virtual learning integration with platforms such as Teams, Cisco, and Webex, rather than relying on hard connectors using APIs.
HR at McDonald's
Advisories can only be placed at the bottom, which is less effective as employees may not scroll down to see them.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
Workforce analytics is still challenging due to customizations. It does not provide flexibility in terms of analytics, and we have to customize extensively.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
 

Setup Cost

SAP SuccessFactors offers flexible, premium solutions with pricing impacted by user count, modules, and partner selection, suitable for enterprises.
SmartRecruiters pricing starts at $10,000 annually, varies by size and features, but offers discounts for non-profits.
The licensing cost is not expensive now.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
Pricing is a bit high and on the higher side.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
The licensing costs are quite high, which is a typical scenario for such solutions.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
 

Valuable Features

SAP SuccessFactors offers intuitive UI, AI tools, and robust integration, enhancing HR processes with customizable modules for diverse needs.
SmartRecruiters provides an intuitive interface, effective sourcing, integration, and customization, making it adaptable and suitable for diverse organizations.
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.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
The best features of SAP SuccessFactors are workflows, the storyboard, the workforce analytics, and customization in terms of doing those portlets and MDIs, which are much simpler.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
SAP SuccessFactors has advantages in providing AI-driven initiatives such as candidate screening and matching features within the recruitment module.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP SuccessFactors
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Talent Management (1st), Cloud HCM (1st), Global Payroll (2nd)
SmartRecruiters
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Talent Acquisition category, the mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 15.7%, down from 25.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartRecruiters is 2.6%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Talent Acquisition Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP SuccessFactors15.7%
SmartRecruiters2.6%
Other81.7%
Talent Acquisition
 

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.
Anudeep Kamuni - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Lead - TA ops & Analytics | Strategy Growth & Leadership at a recreational facilities/services company with 10,001+ employees
Efficiently automates tasks but lacks certain features in terms of usability
There are a couple of areas of improvement. SmartRecruiter lacks certain features in terms of usability. For instance, we cannot move candidate profiles, interview feedback, notes, and activities related to one candidate when transitioning from one job to another. We have to manually copy and paste everything for that specific candidate. This is a significant drawback. Additionally, the filters are not accurate. The results are inaccurate when filtering multiple criteria, such as country and hiring manager. This level of inaccuracy is unexpected for an application, especially for smaller organizations. It should have been corrected easily. Moreover, the CRM module lacks video reporting capabilities. These are some the biggest improvement I would like to see.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise69
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
 

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 ...
Ask a question
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Comparisons

 

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
Atlassian, Aol, IBM, Napa, Skechers
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP SuccessFactors vs. SmartRecruiters and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.