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Dayforce HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Dayforce HCM is 2.9%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 21.7%, down from 22.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 19.0%, up from 18.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Noorkah - PeerSpot reviewer
Greatly improved our efficiency with its integrated time and attendance module
Dayforce has given us near to real-time access to time sheets and clockings since it has an integrated time and attendance module. Within six minutes of someone clocking in, we can see them on the timesheets. Dayforce has enabled us to smooth out our payroll system so not everything is happening at the end of the payroll cycle. We can see the impacts during the week and make it a lot more manageable. It's also been helpful for benefits administration with employees being able to file life and work events online. They can access their pay stubs, request leave, change their address, update their direct deposit details, and other things. We've become much more efficient, and much less paper driven.
Marissa Schwan - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable
SuccessFactors has a best practices model for HR across the board, but there are multiple industries. For example, the pharmaceutical, engineering, and professional services industries may have different processes based on their business requirements and operations. SAP and Workday have one approach across industries. As employee experience becomes increasingly important, the kind of employees appointed in an engineering environment, a pharmaceutical environment, and a professional service environment are very different, meaning their experience touchpoints may differ and require adjustments. SuccessFactors should consider building their best practices around critical industries to help companies become more differentiated in the markets they operate in. As a company, we have 118,000 followers on LinkedIn, and the unemployment rate in South Africa is quite high, at more than 30 percent. When we advertise a job, the number of CVs and applications we receive from people who want to work for us is overwhelming, we can get up to 600 CVs for a single vacancy. To make the process more efficient, we need to use artificial intelligence to identify the key elements of the job profile and match them to the CVs of the applicants. The pre-selection questions are helpful in reducing the number of applicants, but they don't measure the suitability of the CVs and profiles. This is something that needs to be built into the system, but it doesn't currently exist in the market. We have a good pre-selection program, but it doesn't take into account experience, qualifications, professional memberships, work experience, or critical performance indicators. We have enough information from CVs and LinkedIn profiles for the system to match the vacancy profile with the applicant's information and rank them from most suitable to least suitable.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Ceridian Dayforce HCM is a stable product."
"Our employee benefits enrollment is managed through Ceridian Dayforce, which makes for a limited manual process."
"Dayforce has transformed how we operate by saving us time, paper, accuracy, money, and the employee/supervisor experience."
"It provides real-time information with great reports."
"Statutory holiday pay is calculated automatically."
"The implementation was through a team assigned to us by Ceridian. They were extremely knowledgeable and it made the implementation go very smoothly."
"Configuring your HR policies and rules is straightforward."
"The fact that the time and attendance system is built into the HRIS is very valuable because, in the past, we had to use two different systems."
"The tool has a unique talent management platform."
"SAP SuccessFactors is a very reliable and stable solution."
"Currently, we are using the performance and goals management functionality the most. It is connected with the enterprise solution, and it is seamless. It can be easily accessed because it is available via the net. It is readily available, provided you have an internet connection. Their technical support is also very good."
"I hardly ever encounter any stability issues, as SAP SuccessFactors is very good and stable."
"It is a very stable solution."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its integration capabilities with on-premise ERPs and other systems."
"Considering the flexibility of the system and its ability to accommodate complex business processes, the product is ready to be used in multiple industries."
"The feature I like the most is the notification bar where we can see upcoming courses that the organization requires from time to time. It's easy to track any pending courses. I also like the search feature in SuccessFactors. We can search for newly available courses that are updated in the system for completion."
"It's easy to set up."
"In the process of obtaining representative sites in NaviNet, it assists us in facilitating decision-making and taking action."
"The most helpful Workday features for our HR processes were in HCM, particularly in areas like talent, compensation, benefits, and learning."
"Workday is a holistic HR solution."
"The technical support services are excellent."
"It is a one-stop solution for everything. You can look for information about other employees or you can track your information. There is a directory, so you can search for other employees. You can also see and track your personal details and salary details on the employee profile page."
"We use this solution to manage financials, payroll and recruiting."
"The solution is extremely stable."
 

Cons

"Dayforce has its gaps like every HR system, but nothing comes to mind at the moment."
"The reporting could be improved."
"Our current software program offers a home page with important company documents and a place for company announcements. Unfortunately, Ceridian Dayfoce does not offer this."
"The solution's dashboards and geofencing could be improved."
"Customizing the home screen was difficult; I could not remove certain tabs that were irrelevant to our users."
"The solution has a lot of glitches."
"An area for improvement could be a little more testing before implementing hotfixes to make sure they do not interfere with any active customized products."
"Management and reporting of the GL costing could be improved."
"SAP SuccessFactors needs to improve the LMS and performance management."
"The user experience could be simplified."
"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."
"SAP SuccessFactors could improve learning management. The module is desperate and should be included in the primary solution. Additionally, it is missing some business use cases."
"Some of the screens aren't that user-friendly, older employees especially have a hard time with it. They have some problems with it."
"The solution needs more localization, especially for the Middle East and Russia."
"SuccessFactors' experience management is not so user-friendly."
"We would like to see improvement in the initial launch of the product, as it is currently quite slow."
"Analytical tools have needed improvement. Workday has just released Prism Analytics, to replace the current analytical tools, so it’s in the early stages."
"The user interface could be better. Everything else was fine."
"The user interface can be enhanced."
"They don't offer any backend database access. This is one limitation that I found in this product. Workday hasn't opened up about what kind of database they are into, which can make it easy for the technical team to emulate issues. It would be good if they can offer backend access to the technical team. It would be helpful if they can also provide a Troubleshooting Guide that we can use to troubleshoot issues. When we have an issue, there are very limited resources to refer to."
"It has missing functionalities. Specific countries, like Germany, didn't have the option to do payroll. Now we need to look for another product for HR."
"The security console should be made less complex."
"We would like to see improvement in the mobile app variant of this solution. The time sheet entry and approval, and the geo-tagging features all need to have their functionality updated, in order to be comparable with other products on the market."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Ceridian continually enhances Dayforce HCM. Some of these enhancements they charge for and some are just straight enhancements with no extra charge."
"We found the setup costs and pricing to be very reasonable."
"In terms of pricing, the product is expensive. However, it is crucial to take into account the manner in which the solution will be utilized and the availability of other alternatives."
"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven on a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive."
"The XOXO program associated with Dayforce allows you to earn credits towards registration and accommodations at their annual Insight Conferences, which can be a real savings to the company when sending employees to the conference."
"Negotiate for everything you want."
"Earlier, the price of the product was reasonable. Under present circumstances, the price or cost of the product has been increased."
"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."
"We don't utilize even half of the licenses because not everyone uses them. With SAP SuccessFactors, though, we're now conducting all our performance evaluations within the system, so I suppose we're making better use of those licenses. As for SAP for employee services and internal benefits processing, we do have licenses for those but don't utilize them."
"This is a more costly solution than comparable products, and training is not available in the open-market, so this has to be purchased separately from the vendor."
"It is not cheap, but it is reasonable."
"It is not expensive because it is a complete suite with a module-based cost."
"It could be cheaper."
"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."
"For SAP, the product is pricey, both CAPEX and the OPEX. It's something that could be improved."
"The pricing for this solution is fairly high. It is not affordable for small and mid-sized companies."
"The solution is flexible in terms of pricing."
"You have the license fee per module, and then you have a kind of annual training fee, which is a kind of add-on. I wouldn't say it is exhaustive; it is minor. Licensing is pretty transparent for most of the part."
"With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."
"Workday is an expensive solution."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six 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."
"It's very, very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
48%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Educational Organization
48%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Educational Organization
28%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
The solution's payroll portion is very streamlined.
What needs improvement with Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
Customizing the home screen was difficult; I could not remove certain tabs that were irrelevant to our users. The sea...
What is your primary use case for Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
We have used Dayforce HCM for our HR functionalities and for the learning module over the last five years. We actuall...
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 customizatio...
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 expe...
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 per...
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 m...
What needs improvement with Workday?
If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal
SuccessFactors
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACCO Brands
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, Workday, Oracle and others in Cloud HCM. Updated: March 2025.
849,475 professionals have used our research since 2012.