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SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
5.3
SAP SuccessFactors offers efficiency and HR benefits, but high costs and long ROI periods challenge financial justification.
Sentiment score
7.3
Organizations report improved engagement and satisfaction with Workday, experiencing significant time savings and positive ROI through effective streamlining.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
SAP SuccessFactors support receives mixed reviews; praised for efficiency yet criticized for bureaucracy, response delays, and offshore handling.
Sentiment score
6.9
Workday customer service gets mixed reviews; appreciated for responsiveness, but lacks speed and expertise in regional needs.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
SAP SuccessFactors is scalable, supporting diverse user sizes, though some module limitations exist; users generally report satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.9
Workday's scalability and customization effectively support diverse organizations, ensuring adaptability and integration across departments and locations.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
SAP SuccessFactors is rated highly for stability despite occasional performance and integration issues during updates or high-demand periods.
Sentiment score
8.1
Workday is praised for its reliability, achieving 97% uptime, with most users rating stability between seven and ten.
I hardly ever encounter any stability issues, as SAP SuccessFactors is very good and stable.
 

Room For Improvement

SAP SuccessFactors needs analytics, integration, and usability improvements; users face customization, interface, and deployment challenges.
Workday needs improvements in analytics, global payroll, UI, integration, customization, support responsiveness, and cost-effectiveness to enhance user experience.
Advisories can only be placed at the bottom, which is less effective as employees may not scroll down to see them.
The change management process during the initial launch was not effectively handled, leading to a poor user experience.
 

Setup Cost

SAP SuccessFactors provides a flexible pricing model, suited for large enterprises, with annual licensing and negotiable costs.
Workday's high pricing is justified by comprehensive features and support, though smaller organizations may find it costly.
The licensing costs are quite high, which is a typical scenario for such solutions.
 

Valuable Features

SAP SuccessFactors offers user-friendly HR solutions with strong integration, mobile access, and AI-driven tools for efficient enterprise management.
Workday offers user-friendly navigation, integration tools, and HR capabilities, enhancing efficiency through customization, analytics, and secure data management.
Employees can view their goals, performance, ratings, and employee information, which enhances the employee experience.
SAP SuccessFactors has advantages in providing AI-driven initiatives such as candidate screening and matching features within the recruitment module.
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP SuccessFactors
Ranking in Talent Management
1st
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
95
Ranking in other categories
Global Payroll (2nd)
Workday
Ranking in Talent Management
2nd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
2nd
Ranking in Talent Acquisition
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 21.2%, down from 22.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 18.8%, up from 18.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

SandeepKumar7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful to manage employee life cycle management but is not very easy to implement
There are quite a few things, like goal management, in terms of transferring goals from manager to subordinates, which is probably not one of the best ways to look at SAP SuccessFactors, making it an area that could have been done better. Route management and template management are pretty good areas. The reporting in the tool is not as great as I would want it to be from a PMGM internal management perspective. I just hope that SAP SuccessFactors comes up with a payroll tool that suits India. I don't see it as one of the best tools for the Indian scenario. I would love to see much better document management in the system, like onboarding. Onboarding has document management, but if I want to report through it, there is not much that I can do about it. DMS in SAP would be great since, in most places, DMS is maintained outside the system. I would have loved to see better DMS in SAP SuccessFactors. In terms of the reporting, I understand that since everything is moving to SAP SAC. Even without SAP SAC, it would be great if we could have better analytics within SAP SuccessFactors.
Akash Nigam - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly, well-organized, offering a structured step-by-step process for configuration
I would really like to see a more robust timekeeping solution in Workday. Currently, most organizations are using Kronos for timekeeping and Workday for HR data. They then integrate Workday with Dimensions to manage time-related activities and payroll processing. I think if Workday could enhance its timekeeping solution to match the functionality and flexibility of Dimensions, it would be a really good product. Another area for improvement is payroll. Workday payroll is not very extensively used in the North American market, but it is more widely used in Europe. There is a lot of complexity in payroll processing in North America, but I think there is still a lot of room for improvement in Workday. In the next release, I would like to see pre-built or predefined connectors for Dimensions and other applications. Currently, we have to use Boomi or another middleware application to integrate Workday with these systems. I think pre-built connectors would be very helpful, especially for Dimensions, which we do not currently have a connector for.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
45%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Educational Organization
24%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 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...
What needs improvement with Workday?
If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive.
 

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
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 vs. Workday and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
852,098 professionals have used our research since 2012.