Our top picks for the best enterprise human resources (HR) software are:

Dec 12, 2023: Jessica Dennis added a video overview to the article.

Sep 24, 2023: We revised the article’s formatting for improved efficiency and visual flow. We also removed Saba, Skillsoft, and iCIMs from our choices and added SAP SuccessFactors HXM, ADP Vantage HCM, Ceridian Dayforce HCM, and Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM. Finally, we outlined our methodology.

We picked our choices with you in mind. 

First, we evaluated 15 enterprise HR software based on current options and the reviews of customers like you. We then narrowed our selections to the platforms that best addressed your top-of-mind concerns, such as global capabilities, succession planning, and custom automations. We evaluated the following vendors during our research:

  • SAP SuccessFactors HXM.
  • Workday HCM.
  • UKG Pro.
  • HROne.
  • greytHR.
  • ADP Vantage HCM.
  • Paycom.
  • Paylocity.
  • Ceridian Dayforce.
  • Paycor.
  • Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM.
  • isolved.
  • Deel.
  • Papaya Global.
  • Rippling.

As the market changes, we reevaluate our choices so you always receive the best insight for your purchasing decision.

Looking for more options? Explore our HR Software Guide.

What is the best enterprise HR software?

Enterprise-grade HR software targets companies needing agile and robust features to support their increasingly large and segmented employee population. As employee counts grow past 1,000, so does the need for customization to support the organization’s various locations, departments, divisions, and roles.

Most enterprise HR software is full-scale human capital management (HCM) systems that harness employee data to understand bigger-picture concerns, like attrition, succession planning, or compensation trends. Our curated list below can help narrow your choices to the ones that cover your business’s needs most, such as automation or global support.

Standout feature Notable customers
SAP SuccessFactors HXM Breadth of AI-enhanced add-ons. Microsoft, MOD Pizza, Coca-Cola Visit SAP
Workday HCM Ease of report customization. Target, Southwest, Shutterstock Visit Workday
ADP Vantage HCM Open API and huge integration marketplace. Conair, Cisco Systems, Dell Visit ADP
Ceridian Dayforce HCM Zero-code product integration studio. Spirit Aerosystems, Danone, Gannett Visit Ceridian
Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM Personalized employee workflows. FujiFilm, Xerox, Wendy’s Visit Oracle

You can also watch our video below for a quick overview of our favorite enterprise HR platforms.

SAP SuccessFactors HXM: Best for optimizing workflows through AI

SAP Sales Cloud logo

SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite is an HCM platform for enterprises needing products to cover the entire employee life cycle from brand recognition to separation. Its HXM suite also works with its complete line of enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, facilitating employee data flow among various business units, such as accounting.

More recently, SAP has expanded its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities by acquiring companies like Qualtrics. For example, SAP Qualtrics Employee Engagement bundle, included in the HXM suite, uses AI to analyze engagement surveys to identify the key areas driving employee satisfaction and prevent unwanted attrition.

Despite this, one of the biggest criticisms of SAP is that much of its software is a product of partnerships and acquisitions. By bolting on new capabilities from other software vendors to its core products, SAP’s software can be slower and less intuitive compared to competitors that build new modules or features from the ground up.

However, this strategy also means that SAP customers may access new capabilities faster, such as AI-powered digital assistants to personalize workflows for greater productivity.

Also read: Top 6 SAP ERP Alternatives

Pros

  • Huge product library: SAP offers solutions in finance, manufacturing, sales, marketing, and supply chain management for full-scale business processes in one solution.
  • Competitive price: SAP is more affordable than other enterprise HR solutions, and you can pick the products you want instead of purchasing the entire HXM suite.
  • Continuous learning features: HXM includes a robust learning platform to automate compliance training while making learning engaging through gamification.

Cons

  • Slow backend: Users report the backend is “clunky,” with occasional slow load times due to its many bolted-on software features from partners.
  • Inconsistent interface: Connecting SAP SuccessFactors with other SAP products results in different system architectures, increasing the time it takes to learn the platform.
  • Add-ons: Certain modules require add-ons at an additional cost for necessary features, like ​​SAP U.S. Benefits Administration by Benefitfocus for ACA compliance.

Performance review writing assistant

People managers have access to a writing assistant during performance review cycles to help organize their thoughts and provide constructive feedback to employees. SAP’s AI also scans managers’ evaluations for inappropriate or discriminatory language and suggests different terminology.

These features can help speed up a manager’s efficiency during performance review cycles while ensuring feedback remains relevant, helpful, and culturally sensitive.

AI-suggested learning paths

Employees can access a library of curated content based on their roles, skill sets, goals, and interests. Beyond assigning employees mandatory training or courses, this gives them control over their professional development and growth. In turn, your company benefits as employees upskill, advance their industry knowledge, and speed up their productivity.

SAP SuccessFactors recommends training and internal project opportunities, giving employees agency to learn and grow in the areas valuable to them.
Source: SAP SuccessFactors

SAP SuccessFactors does not disclose pricing for its HXM suite. However, SAP does list starting prices for several of the standalone products that compose its HXM suite. Below is a chart with a list of products included in the suite.

HR FunctionSAP ProductStarting Price
PayrollSAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll$8.15/user/mo.
Benefits administration​SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central$6.30/user/mo.
Workforce managementSAP SuccessFactors Time TrackingQuote-based
​​SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding$1.18/user/mo.
SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting$2.66/user/mo.
SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics$2.79/user/mo.
Performance managementSAP SuccessFactors Performance and Goals$3.72/user/mo.
SAP SuccessFactors Learning$1.85/user/mo.
SAP SuccessFactors Compensation$1.95/user/mo.
SAP SuccessFactors Succession & Development$1.91/user/mo.
SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity MarketplaceUndisclosed
SAP Qualtrics Employee EngagementUndisclosed
Employee document management and self-serviceSAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Service CenterQuote-based
SAP SuccessFactors Management by DocuSign$940/100 transactions/yr.
SAP SuccessFactors Work ZoneUndisclosed
SAP SuccessFactors Document Management by OpenTextUndisclosed

SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite is great for enterprises needing to connect their different departmental activities into one system of record. In particular, SAP’s AI interface can make suggestions to optimize your workflows and provide insights into areas slowing down productivity that you may not notice otherwise.

And, despite your increased size, SAP’s AI makes your employee’s experience unique to them, including personalized home pages, digital assistants for faster task completion, and help with HR inquiries. As a result, employees get the help and service they need, so your HR departments can focus on more value-added projects or initiatives.

Visit SAP

Workday HCM: Best for its detailed reporting and analytics

Workday HCM logo

Workday HCM a cloud-native HR suite, unlike SAP and Oracle, which often adapt their cloud solutions from prior on-premise platforms. This makes it easier for IT departments to configure Workday to meet the specific cadences of their business, such as an open application programming interface (API) to extend functionality and streamline data via third-party integrations.

Workday is also well known for its robust reporting and analytics capabilities that make employee data easier to understand. These features range from standardized payroll and EEO-1 reports to analytics that measure and interpret attrition, employee sentiment, and pay equity data points.

In addition, Workday leverages customer benchmarking data to compare your employee satisfaction and compensation metrics against competitors. With this data, you can understand where you excel and fall short and take strategic measures to engage and retain your talent.

Pros

  • Intuitive user interface: Workday’s interface is aesthetically pleasing and relatively easy to navigate, speeding up implementation and training across the company.
  • Opportunity marketplace: Employees can access various internal opportunities, such as side-projects or training courses, for professional development at their convenience.
  • Interactive mobile reports: Managers can access a list of reports on mobile to make data-driven decisions on the go.

Cons

  • Expensive: Both users and third-party sources indicate that Workday is one of the most expensive enterprise HR solutions on the market.
  • Minimal global payroll support: Workday only has native payroll support for the U.S., U.K., Canada, and France.
  • Limited ERP options: Workday offers solutions in finance, workplace, and operational planning, but they are not very robust compared to other ERP software solutions.

Workday consists of the following modules:

  • Talent acquisition.
  • Payroll and benefits administration.
  • Workforce planning.
  • Analytics and reporting.
  • Employee self-service and help management.
  • Learning and performance management.

Anomaly identification

Workday surfaces reports in key areas such as retention, talent and performance, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). You can even make your reports granular enough to pinpoint anomalies driving changes.

For example, if you notice a 2% increase in females in management positions, you can see the employees you promoted or hired into those roles. You can then see their specific career journeys to promote similar decisions going forward.

Descriptive natural language analyses

Workday uses AI and machine learning to monitor workplace reports or trends to generate “stories” that analyze and describe the data. By writing what the data is showing in an easy-to-understand format, your HR staff no longer have to be data analyst experts to understand key insights to plan and execute company-wide initiatives.

Workday displays an analytics dashboard with graphs representing trends in a company's female representation.
Workday’s AI writes out in easy-to-understand language what the data shows, making HR reports more accessible and understandable to multiple stakeholders. Source: Workday

Like many enterprise-grade HR solutions, Workday does not disclose its price. However, most outlets indicate Workday is on the high end, costing as much as $300,000 annually or between $40 and $60 per employee, per month (PEPM).

This does not include Workday’s one-time implementation fee, which can be one to two times more than your annual subscription fee.

Workday’s reporting and analytics help measure your workforce’s impact as your HR departments evolve from purely operational to strategic functions. This is especially important if your enterprise needs to address challenges like skills gaps and workplace diversity.

Workday is a great choice if you need a flexible platform with data-rich reports to support your company’s expansion efforts and an easy-to-use interface for end-users.

Visit Workday

ADP Vantage HCM: Best for growing, U.S.-based enterprises

adp logo

Vantage HCM is ADP’s solution for U.S.-based, multinational enterprises that need additional support to keep up with their growth rate. The platform covers all of the typical HR capabilities with extra features that give your HR team a boost, like automated processes, broad integrations, and managed services.

Compared to others on our shortlist, ADP’s solution is the most scalable. If you are already using an ADP product, it is easy to stay within ADP’s product catalog and graduate to its more robust solutions as you grow. In turn, your company can avoid potential data loss and training headaches that would come with switching to a product outside the ADP family.

Learn more about changing HR systems in our HRIS Implementation Guide: The Steps for Success.

Pros

  • Integration library: ADP’s marketplace consists of over 700 integrations to add to, extend, or enhance Vantage’s current feature set.
  • All-in-one solution: Compared to ADP Enterprise HR, Vantage HCM is an all-in-one product that does not focus on selling you additional add-ons to drive up costs
  • Automated payroll compliance: ADP automates unemployment insurance claims, ACA affordability guidelines, wage garnishments, and tax filing to minimize compliance risks.

Cons

  • Steep learning curve: If you have not used ADP before, users report a steep learning curve to get used to its interface.
  • Slow customer support: Users indicate that turnaround times for technical support are long and navigating the phone support system is complicated.

Vantage HCM includes the following capabilities:

  • Recruiting.
  • Onboarding.
  • Performance management.
  • Learning management.
  • Succession planning.
  • Benefits administration.
  • Workforce management.
  • Payroll.
  • Managed services.

Enterprises without an international presence can also leverage Vantage HCM’s U.S. compliance features, including automatic tax filing, advisory services, and ACA and FMLA tracking.

Extensive HCM services

With ADP Vantage HCM, you can opt in for additional services, including:

  • Business payroll outsourcing (BPO): Ensures you maintain domestic and international payroll compliance.
  • Benefits outsourcing: Provides best practices for your open enrollment cadences.
  • Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO): Uses public information to find the most qualified candidates for your open roles worldwide.

ADP also provides a third-party service through their partnership with The Hackett Group to guide you through HCM best practices, such as measuring the software’s implementation and performance success.

If you are a growing enterprise using HCM software for the first time, these services can help uncover how to get the most out of your software. It also helps prepare your HR staff to understand the complexities and strategies involved in managing your larger, global workforce.

Strategic HR analytics 

ADP Vantage HCM comes standard with ADP DataCloud, an extensive reporting and analytics tool. DataCloud uses internal employee data and external benchmarking to provide insights into areas like turnover cost, compensation, overtime rates, and industry-specific recruitment metrics.

Besides ensuring your business remains competitive, Vantage HCM shows how your business is doing compared to historical data. That way, you can constantly adjust your processes for better productivity and efficiency while making your workforce happy.

ADP displays a dashboard with analytics charts and graphs.
ADP DataCloud on Vantage HCM can mash up data from various areas to focus on data essential to you, such as layering labor costs against your budget to see if your expenses remain on track. Source: ADP

ADP does not disclose its ADP Vantage HCM prices. You must call for a customized quote. Price typically depends on your employee count and whether you opt for ADP add-ons or services.

ADP Vantage HCM is best for enterprises needing extra support adjusting to enterprise-grade software and managing their large, diverse workforce. ADP’s services can provide you with the extra assistance you need to comply with global regulations.

Moreover, ADP’s popularity means it’s easy to switch over to its more robust Vantage HCM if you already use one of its products. This reduces the ramp-up time for staff to learn the new system and increases the likelihood they will use it daily.

Visit ADP

Ceridian Dayforce HCM: Best for customization and extensibility

Ceridian Dayforce HCM logo

Ceridian Dayforce HCM most closely rivals ADP Vantage HCM in terms of features and functionality, especially global payroll capabilities. Dayforce boasts its platform supports 160 countries for payroll, compared to ADP’s 140. Both also offer on-demand payroll schedules through their employee payroll apps — ADP’s Wisely and Dayforce Wallet.

However, Dayforce stands out for its learning and career development modules. For instance, Dayforce uses AI to help identify skill gaps in your organization while recommending internal opportunities to existing employees with matching skills, experience, or interests.

Meanwhile, employees can leverage the same AI to suggest and explore internal opportunities and create their own career paths. In fact, the software facilitates collaboration between managers and direct reports on development plans that align with employees’ professional goals and the future needs of the business.

Also read: A Guide to Creating a Global Compensation Strategy

Pros

  • Continuous payroll: Dayforce constantly calculates pay as it receives time data, speeding up payroll processing at the end of the pay period.
  • Personality profiles: Dayforce’s TeamRelate module gives managers access to employees’ motivations, communication, and work styles to promote strong team dynamics.
  • Managed services: Ceridian offers payroll, benefits, talent, tax, and account management services to reduce your team’s administrative tasks and improve your software’s return on investment (ROI).

Cons

  • Limited to HR functions: Like ADP, Ceridian focuses on HR software and does not offer ERP software solutions, like accounting, IT, or supply chain management software.
  • Unhelpful customer support: Users report that Dayforce customer support can be slow, with some staff unsure how to assist or direct customers to the right person for help.
  • Poor implementation: Multiple users indicate a frustrating implementation experience, including a long timeline and frequent stakeholder miscommunication.

Dayforce includes the following modules: 

Open API and integration studio

Ceridian Dayforce includes a public API to connect your favorite third-party programs. Even more unique is Ceridian’s Integration Studio, which gives customers the ability to build, manage, and own integrations, even with limited IT departments.

As a result, you can integrate the niche tools of your industry and facilitate employee data transfer across your entire enterprise system.

AI assistant

Dayforce Assistant is an AI-powered program that allows employees to complete self-service functions through either chat or voice commands. Dayforce’s AI uses natural language processing to understand the requests, access your company’s knowledge base, and provide answers compliant with your company’s policies and procedures.

For example, Dayforce Assistant can help employees make paid time off requests. Meanwhile, managers can use the assistant to review, approve, or deny requests quickly.

Dayforce displays an AI chatbot that answers an employee's questions about scheduling and PTO.
Dayforce Assistant can act as employees’ first point of contact with questions regarding schedules, vacation, pay, or company policies, allowing managers to focus on tasks affecting your enterprise’s bottom line. Source: Ceridian

Like the others on our shortlist, Ceridian Dayforce does not disclose its prices. The overall cost depends on the modules you need and your employee headcount. Third-party sources indicate costs range from $21–$29 PEPM, plus a one-time implementation of 40-60% of your annual subscription.

Ceridian Dayforce makes adding the features you need easy, even if they do not offer a native solution. Moreover, Dayforce’s extensive payroll support in over 160 countries can help extend your company’s reach into promising global markets.

As a result, Dayforce is a great choice if your company plans to expand but still wants to provide a local or personalized experience for your employees in the process.

Visit Ceridian

Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM: Best HCM for a streamlined tech stack

Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM logo

Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM combines global talent and workforce management capabilities with next-generation AI tools to support every stage of the employee life cycle.

In addition to Fusion Cloud HCM, Oracle’s portfolio includes cloud applications for marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), enterprise performance management (EPM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Integrating Fusion Cloud HCM with these other products helps consolidate your company’s tech stack and creates a single source of truth for end-to-end business processes.

It’s worth noting that Oracle does not natively offer the same level of international payroll support as ADP, SAP, or Ceridian, which may create complications for some multinational corporations. However, Oracle’s Payroll Connect lets you embed third-party payroll platforms in the Fusion HCM interface, so there are workarounds to extend Oracle’s global coverage if needed.

Pros

  • On-premises option: Oracle offers an on-premises deployment option, PeopleSoft, for enterprises wanting an advanced HR platform in a secure, closed environment.
  • Access certification workflows: Customizable access approval workflows ensure new users added to the system, internal or external, have the proper credentials to view or take action with sensitive data.
  • Internet of Things (IoT) apps: Oracle provides apps for physical objects to monitor work progress, prevent unsafe activities, or quickly respond to workplace accidents.

Cons

  • Complicated interface: Oracle’s interface is quite intimidating, requiring extensive training for users to understand how to make the most of its reports and connections to various modules.
  • Update occurrences: Users indicate that Oracle goes through frequent updates, which can cause the entire system to lag if you integrate with third-party solutions.
  • Slow load times: Fusion Cloud occasionally takes time to retrieve and load data as it works through its many integrated systems.

Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM includes native functions for:

  • Payroll.
  • Benefits administration.
  • Recruiting.
  • Onboarding.
  • Learning.
  • Career development.
  • Performance management.
  • Compensation.
  • Succession planning.
  • Time and labor. 
  • Absence management.
  • Workforce health and safety.
  • Reports and analytics.

Intersectional business insights

Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM promotes collaboration and data exchange between disparate modules for more efficient workflows and intelligent data insights. For example, workers can chat with Oracle’s AI-powered Digital Assistant to accomplish various cross-business tasks from one place, like downloading paystubs, ordering more supplies, or requesting a report.

Predictive analytics

Oracle’s predictive analytics uses your historical internal data to forecast future events, such as employee flight risks or the time to fill open roles. Predicting recruitment or HR metrics can help you manage your HR strategy and take a more proactive approach to workforce trends.

Learn more about Oracle Fusion Cloud’s HCM analytics in the video below:

Oracle HCM’s Base Cloud Service costs $15 PEPM with a minimum of 500 employees and a three-year contract. This means you will pay at least $7,500 monthly, even if you have fewer than 500 employees. The price also does not include Oracle’s one-time product implementation or consultation.

The base fee is the minimum requirement to access Oracle HCM; every module incurs an additional PEPM cost. Some modules, like payroll, also have a minimum requirement of 1,000 employees.

Check out Oracle’s Fusion Cloud Service Global Price List to estimate the cost for your needed features.

Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM collects your workforce’s people data to uncover insights across your business. Besides giving HR departments the tools to act proactively on issues like attrition, DEI, or compensation, you can see how your people determine labor costs, business risk, and customer relationships.

Oracle also offers one of the most extensive product lines at a price more competitive than Workday HCM. This makes it an excellent choice for enterprises wanting one system to unify their organizations without sacrificing overall cost savings.

Visit Oracle

Enterprise HR software FAQ

Enterprise HR software supports human resource processes for businesses with over 1,000 employees. The software handles day-to-day HR operations, including scheduling, payroll, and PTO management, plus collects employee data for strategic workforce planning, like filling skill gaps or identifying successors to prevent knowledge loss.

Enterprise HR software focuses mainly on supporting organizations with a large employee headcount across multiple locations, divisions, and countries. On the other hand, HCM software focuses on collecting employee data to uncover inefficiencies and promote strategic planning.

Enterprise HR systems and HCM software frequently overlap since an increased headcount means companies need software to parse large datasets before making major company decisions, like expansion or reorganization.

But, at the right price, fast-growing startups and small and medium businesses (SMBs) can also use HCM solutions to help with brand awareness, international expansion, or workflow optimization, unlike purely HRIS or human resources management systems (HRMSs).

Enterprise-grade HR software vendors notoriously hide their prices, requiring interested buyers to call for personalized quotes or consultations.

Although a frustrating industry practice, the nature of enterprise software often involves the interaction of several invested stakeholders with specific requirements and feature requests. This makes it difficult for vendors to provide uniform pricing since enterprises’ needs and workflows differ.

The cost of enterprise HR software typically revolves around your employee headcount, business goals, necessary modules, and customized feature requests. Learn more about HR software pricing in How Much Does HR Software Cost in 2023?

  • Advanced analytics for strategic workforce management.
  • Employee support from onboarding to offboarding.
  • Customized workflows for speedier task completion organization-wide.
  • Support for expansion into international markets.
  • Candidate relationship management tools to engage passive candidates.
  • AI to handle tedious tasks and provide customized employee experiences.

How to choose the best enterprise HR software

Reaching enterprise status requires software that automates tasks at scale, supports international workforces, and provides in-depth analytics for informed decision-making. All of the products on our shortlist hit these components, but some shine in particular areas over others.

  • Choose SAP SuccessFactors HXM if you prioritize simplifying HR tasks through AI.
  • Select Workday HCM if you need customizable reports and analytics for strategic planning.
  • Go with ADP Vantage HCM if you’re a U.S. enterprise needing scalable products and outsourced services.
  • Pick Ceridian Dayforce HCM if you value the freedom to extend the functionality of your platform through third-party integrations.
  • Choose Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM if you’re looking for a complete ERP solution to automate every facet of your company.

But if none of the vendors on our shortlist sound like the right fit, browse our HR Software Guide for other all-in-one HR platforms.

TechnologyAdvice is able to offer our services for free because some vendors may pay us for web traffic or other sales opportunities. Our mission is to help technology buyers make better purchasing decisions, so we provide you with information for all vendors — even those that don’t pay us.

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Jessica Dennis Avatar
Jessica Dennis
Lead Writer
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Jessica Dennis is the HR lead writer at TechnologyAdvice. She has B.A. in English Literature from the University of Michigan and over six years of experience in onboarding, payroll, benefits, compliance, and workforce management as an HR generalist. Since joining TA, she’s covered additional topics like DEI, engagement, training, communication, hiring, and performance management best practices. Her expertise, in-depth research, and hands-on experience with HR software ensures she provides the best people operations and technology insights to readers. When she’s not writing, you can find her obsessing over her labrador retriever, crocheting, or jumping into the nearest body of water.