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SAP HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 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
1.0
SAP HCM boosts ROI by automating processes, improving decision-making, and supporting talent management with quick results.
Sentiment score
4.7
Organizations have mixed ROI results with SAP SuccessFactors, citing cost issues but valuing improved employee experience and multinational benefits.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
SAP HCM support is generally satisfactory but inconsistent, with delayed enhancements and variable response times needing improvement.
Sentiment score
6.2
SAP SuccessFactors' customer support receives mixed reviews, excelling in premium services but facing issues with response times and regional coordination.
Not all requests are attended to promptly.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
I am totally satisfied with the response time and quality of support.
sap technical lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
My impression of SAP HCM's technical support is great, as we get a lot of help and good feedback from them.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
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
7.2
SAP HCM offers scalable and adaptable solutions for enterprises and smaller organizations, supporting global compliance and thousands of users.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP SuccessFactors offers scalable, flexible cloud solutions for large organizations, seamlessly integrating with AWS for efficient expansion.
This solution deserves a 10 because we can easily scale and upgrade to new versions.
DevOps Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
SAP HCM is quite scalable.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
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
7.1
SAP HCM is stable and reliable, with occasional issues, and transitioning to cloud solutions is suggested for future stability.
Sentiment score
7.5
SAP SuccessFactors demonstrates strong stability despite occasional downtime and integration issues, consistently scoring 7-9 out of 10 in performance.
I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
I would rate the stability of SAP HCM as seven out of ten.
Manager IT at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
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
The expectation from a non-IT representative is high.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
 

Room For Improvement

SAP HCM struggles with an outdated interface, integration issues, complex payroll, and high costs deterring smaller enterprises.
SAP SuccessFactors needs improved customization, better module integration, enhanced AI, and updated tools for global users and pricing models.
SAP HCM needs to be more customizable to fit unique organizational processes.
Manager IT at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
SuccessFactors, a globally recognized and more easy-to-use tool, serves as a great substitute for some SAP HCM needs.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
The organizational management (OM) side needs improvement due to frequent reorganization.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
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
The change management process during the initial launch was not effectively handled, leading to a poor user experience.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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 HCM is costly, suited for large businesses, with complex licensing and possibly competitive pricing with bundled modules.
SAP SuccessFactors offers flexible, premium solutions with pricing impacted by user count, modules, and partner selection, suitable for enterprises.
SAP HCM is quite expensive, but considering solutions like Oracle, they are similar.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
SAP HCM is costly compared to other ERPs like Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle, and I would rate the cost as one out of ten.
Manager IT at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
I would rate pricing for SAP as one because the price is high.
sap technical lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
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 HCM delivers automation, seamless integration, and robust features for productivity, insights, and scalable data management with user-friendly interfaces.
SAP SuccessFactors offers intuitive UI, AI tools, and robust integration, enhancing HR processes with customizable modules for diverse needs.
When we face challenges and raise tickets, Red Hat provides support within an hour, fixes bugs, and allows us to move to production after resolving issues.
DevOps Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The main benefit SAP HCM provides is that we have all the information in one place; it is basically one centralized system with all the information rather than having multiple systems across the organization.
sap technical lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Capturing all the attendances and absences is a huge task that must be completed before running payroll.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
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
Employees can view their goals, performance, ratings, and employee information, which enhances the employee experience.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
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 HCM
Ranking in Talent Management
3rd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (3rd)
SAP SuccessFactors
Ranking in Talent Management
1st
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (1st), Global Payroll (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of SAP HCM is 5.4%, down from 15.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 11.3%, down from 22.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP SuccessFactors11.3%
SAP HCM5.4%
Other83.3%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

SS
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
Centralized global HR data has improved expense control and supports secure employee management
The features of SAP HCM are valued by me as it had a clear idea about what was expected from the user point. The person or the application has a lot of features and it had actually all the information needed from our part. That aspect is nice. Apart from that, the T-codes are really helpful to understand which particular option we need when we put the T-code in the search box. The stability and reliability of SAP HCM product are really nice, very helpful, and secured. It has no point of leakage and is mostly reliable, as most companies and organizations prefer SAP over many tools. As for security, it's already secured from the beginning itself, and that is the only reason our organization relies on it. Since it's very useful at a global scale, it is a very useful tool and is very easy to access and handle.
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud HCM solutions are best for your needs.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

NC
Content Manager at PeerSpot
Jan 25, 2024
Jan 25, 2024
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 to simplify the process, giving life back to HR systems so that they can be more modern and flexible, and rely more on the heart of HR – the employee. On the other hand, while SF is technically less ...
See 2 answers
YZ
SAP Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 6, 2021
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 to simplify the process, giving life back to HR systems so that they can be more modern and flexible, and rely more on the heart of HR – the employee. On the other hand, while SF is technically less complex than SAP HCM, it also has significantly less capability, particularly when it comes to integration with other SAP modules. For example, while SAP's integration between the SAP Project system and the SAP HCM process is robust, SuccessFactors' integration is limited and still in its early stages. In all circumstances, SAP SF represents the future of HR, with a highly promising road map. I believe that if SAP continues to create more features, SF will have greater functionality than SAP HCM in 5 years.
Kseniia Gravis - PeerSpot reviewer
SEO at a tech company with 201-500 employees
Jan 25, 2024
So are you striving to successfully deploy and utilize SAP systems to centralize data, streamline operations, gain real-time insights and achieve business efficiency? SAP applications are the backbone of every business. We also discuss the best SAP implementation process as an ideal solution for such problems: https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/why-outsource-sap/ 
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise39
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP HCM?
SAP HCM is the one of the best ERP for an organization with a small to large scale business. It has the most efficient payroll functionality. Regards : SAP HR classes in pune
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
HCM is a very important module that each organization should want to use. It will help any organization to calculate and control the cost of their human resources.
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 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 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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP SuccessFactors?
The licensing cost is not expensive now. It is much more competitive.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SAP Human Capital Management
SuccessFactors
 

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, Skrill Group Ltd.
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
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.