Sage People vs Workday comparison

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Sage People

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Workday and Sage People compete in the HR services sector. Workday appears to have the upper hand due to its strong integration capabilities and user-friendly design, whereas Sage People offers robust reporting and better adaptability to organizational needs.

Features: Workday excels in providing comprehensive HR services with a strong emphasis on user experience. Notably, its intuitive business process framework and extensive integration capabilities simplify annual reviews and enhance reporting. Sage People, leveraging Salesforce technology, is recognized for its customizable and powerful reporting capabilities. It facilitates integrated financial system functions and provides support for comprehensive employee information management.

Room for Improvement: Workday users point out analytics limitations, payroll system integration challenges, and configuration complexities. It lacks flexibility in handling global payroll, requiring outside assistance for reporting tweaks. Sage People could enhance performance management and automation areas. Additionally, better HR ticket management and more intuitive error messaging would improve user experience. Customization options in Sage People do not fully meet expectations compared to broader systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Workday offers deployment across public, private, and hybrid clouds, with a supportive user community despite occasional support delays. Sage People widely utilizes public and private clouds, with generally prompt direct support. Occasionally, technical support issues arise. Workday benefits from a stronger community support network.

Pricing and ROI: Workday is geared towards larger organizations with significant upfront costs, justified by comprehensive features and integration benefits, improving ROI through streamlined processes. Sage People targets SMEs with flexible licensing options, offering robust HR functionalities at balanced pricing, ensuring affordability and accessibility for mid-sized and growing businesses without incurring premium expenses associated with Workday.

To learn more, read our detailed Sage People vs. Workday Report (Updated: May 2026).

Sage People vs. Workday

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Helped 896,803 peers since 2012

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

Sage People

Ranking in Benefits Administration

17th

Ranking in Talent Management

25th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

21st

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

HR Analytics Software (8th)

Workday

Ranking in Benefits Administration

1st

Ranking in Talent Management

2nd

Ranking in Cloud HCM

2nd

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Sage People is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 8.6%, down from 18.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Workday	8.6%
Sage People	1.7%
Other	89.7%

Cloud HCM

Featured Reviews

Ruth Baker

HRIS Implementation Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

A highly scalable product that provides excellent dashboard and reporting features

The initial setup is easy. We need to be technically savvy. We need to have experience with HR systems to be involved in the setups. For someone who's never had an HR system before, it's going to be very overwhelming. The solution has got a lot of functionalities, which is brilliant. It is 90% customizable. We can configure it exactly as we want it. We would definitely need someone with HR systems experience to understand the backend. We can configure the back end as much as we like. We can also do it once we’ve gone live with the system.

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Eslam Abo Elnaga

Senior people and systems analyst at B_labs & Mylo

Has improved HR process efficiency through intuitive workflows and responsive support

There is something that could be improved in Workday, specifically in the time tracking module. While I am not working on Workday now, I was a regional HRIS working for Egypt, Malta, India, and China. I mention these countries to relate to high population countries and companies. In our company, we use assigned work schedules for our teams. Because we work with the time tracking module, we need to assign shifts. In the manufacturing industry, we might need to change shifts every day or week. Manufacturing teams are huge, approximately 50 to 200 people in one team. If this team has one leader, the leader needs to assign a work schedule for each person individually. While there is mass upload functionality where we can load shifts for all people or specific groups, we need to select multiple people and assign them to a schedule from the interface itself. I have requested this functionality many times. When extracting business processes awaiting actions report, I can select different processes in one box, hit okay, and the report comes up. However, the same functionality does not work for work schedule assigning. If implemented, it would help many people in companies with high populations and big teams.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The reporting features are also very valuable because, on top of 300+ reports available on the system, you can also customize quite a number of reports."

"I guess I would say maybe that it is a more robust system."

"The most valuable features of Sage People are the reports that are useful for decision-making and the API that can be integrated well. Additionally, the solution can be accessed from mobile devices onto the cloud."

"The most valuable feature of Sage People is the integration with our payroll system."

"Without a doubt, the most valuable aspect of this solution is the reports, as it offers endless possibilities for report customization. You can easily build any report you can imagine with this system."

"We are now able to visualize global team structures, and as we rollout other features, the organization will benefit from an easy to use system and standard processes."

"The technical support is astounding and they are one of the best support teams I have had the pleasure to work with."

"The product is really easy to customise and configure, and the automation has enabled us to manage several HR processes at the right time in the correct manner."

More Sage People pros

"What I appreciate best about Workday is the recruiting component."

"I found the analysis features to be very useful for our company. I also found the modules installed to be aligned with our company's KPIs. These were the two features that stood out."

"Provides flexibility to integrate with the product. It has several tools, out-of-the-box, for integrations. It delivers pre-built interfaces for specific vendors, pre-built generic integrations to extract or push data into Workday through configuration."

"We like the fact that this solution is very user-friendly, with a straightforward user interface."

"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."

"The scalability is amazing."

"Workday is a secure product."

"Workday is a holistic HR solution."

More Workday pros

Cons

"There is a mash-up of Visualforce and apex triggers which bear down heavily on the system."

"Right now, Sage doesn't seem to have what we are looking for when it comes to managing HR tickets. In my previous experiences with other HR software, we had to buy another solution to obtain this functionality, and it would be a great feature for Sage to consider adding. For an HR system, Sage would do very well to include it."

"Its technical support could have been better."

"In my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms."

"Its stability could be better."

"Within the absence screens, we have it set up to automatically allow up to five days holiday to carry over. If staff members are allowed to carry over, it’s a bit difficult to add it in easily."

"The automation in Sage People could improve. The solution is the best used for data storage but the automation could be better to have more functionality."

"The budget module does not work. Sage People need to maybe make it more user-friendly."

More Sage People cons

"The user interface could be better. Everything else was fine."

"It's possible that the way things are integrated could be improved but if you've used SAP then Workday is actually pretty good."

"In addition to the lost data, the solution is slow to pull up information and I am not sure if this is due to the botched implementation or if it is the solution itself."

"Workday could give us industry-specific or vertical-specific solutions."

"It does not integrate with some of the career management softwares, like LinkedIn."

"They can work on getting the clients to work on their support model."

"The solution can be improved by speeding up the load time when pulling up information."

"The expenses and reimbursements module could be improved. Creating expense reports is time consuming and inefficient compared to other expense solutions."

More Workday cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its cost is moderate for a multi-group licensing model."

"I think it's reasonably priced. But in comparison to other systems, I would choose them over Sage People, regardless of their prices."

"There is other software on the market that can do similar functions to Sage People that could be better in price. Some solution allows you to do your payroll processes by month or by the process. Small companies could benefit by using another solution."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"The cost of Sage People varies depending on the financial resources of the organization. While it may be affordable for middle-level companies, it may be more challenging for young companies to bear the cost."

"From an SME standpoint, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as expensive. However, for the average startup, it may not be affordable since our current annual expenditure on the system, which supports approximately 210-220 users, amounts to approximately £15,000 to £18,000."

"I believe we pay licensing on a yearly basis, but I can't comment on the total amount that we pay on licensing."

"The pricing is reasonable."

More Sage People pricing and cost advice

"I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten."

"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."

"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."

"Its price is pretty high. It is more expensive than what is offered by other competitors in the market."

"It is on a yearly basis."

"The pricing is good from an HR perspective, although management gets upset after spending $500,000 a year, every year."

"I need to pay for a license. It is expensive."

"Workday is an expensive solution."

More Workday pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

15%

Construction Company

11%

Marketing Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

University

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	43

Questions from the Community

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 1% of the time

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Product Reports

Sage People

Download Sage People product report

Download Workday product report

Also Known As

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Overview

Sage People offers customizable reporting, system integration, and HR management capabilities tailored to companies managing diverse teams globally through Salesforce technology. It enhances workforce engagement and enables seamless interaction with payroll and financial systems.

Sage People is built for managing HR services, including payroll integration, employee data handling, and talent acquisition. It provides a visually appealing interface powered by Salesforce, enhancing employee processes with functions like time-off management and legally compliant reporting. Implementation supports global operations across APAC, EMEA, and Americas, optimizing workforce engagement and standardizing HR processes.

What are Sage People's key features?

Customizable Reporting: Enables detailed analysis and evaluation of HR metrics
Payroll Integration: Seamlessly connects with payroll systems to streamline financial transactions
Global Team Visualization: Visualizes team structures for better management
Employee Information Management: Centralizes employee data for easy access and updates
Cloud and On-Premise Support: Allows flexibility in deployment and ensures robust performance

What benefits are important to consider in reviews?

Process Standardization: Facilitates consistent HR practices across various regions
Employee Engagement: Enhances workforce interaction and satisfaction
Mobile Access: Provides remote accessibility for team management
Efficient Integration: Connects with existing financial systems for simplified workflows

Sage People is widely used across industries for efficient HR management, especially in talent acquisition and onboarding processes. Its adaptability enables companies to customize according to workforce requirements, whether in the cloud or on-premise, supporting comprehensive payroll management and application oversight.

Sage

Workday provides a cloud-based platform offering robust human capital management features, emphasizing security, user-friendliness, and operational efficiency through workflow automation.

Workday is utilized by organizations for human capital management, supporting everything from employee recruitment to retirement, payroll processing, and performance tracking. It centralizes HR operations to increase efficiency and manage employee data effectively. Its business process framework allows for drag-and-drop functionality, which along with real-time reporting, enriches the user experience. Workday's modules cover talent, compensation, benefits, and learning, enhancing the workforce management approach. Though integration with external systems can be complex, its usability and flexible configuration support adaptability. Users seek enhancements in customization, reporting, interface usability, and speed, particularly in financial, timekeeping, and payroll modules. Expanding automation, API connectors, language support, and introducing country and industry-specific modules would significantly boost its capabilities. Pricing remains a concern among users.

What are Workday's most important features?

Security: Ensures data protection with robust measures.
User-Friendliness: Intuitive design for ease of use.
Centralized Data Management: Consolidates employee information in one platform.
Real-Time Reporting: Delivers up-to-the-minute insights for decision-making.
Workflow Automation: Streamlines processes to reduce manual tasks.

What benefits should be evaluated when considering Workday?

Operational Efficiency: Automation streamlines HR processes and reduces redundancies.
Enhanced Usability: Integrated modules improve user interaction and efficiency.
Scalability: Adaptable configurations meet diverse business requirements.
Integration Capabilities: Connections with other systems bolster functionality.

Workday is implemented in a range of industries, including finance, healthcare, and technology, offering specialized HR management solutions tailored to each sector's unique requirements. These implementations improve workforce management and align HR strategies with organizational goals, showcasing its adaptability across different business landscapes.

Sample Customers

Rocketship Education, Monitise, u-blox, SolarWinds, Mitsubishi, SmartStream, Canonical, Betfair

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!

Sage People vs. Workday