Paylocity vs Workday HCM
Paylocity and Workday HCM are both hr & payroll options. Paylocity lists 8 features across 3 platforms; Workday HCM lists 8 features across 3 platforms — see the full breakdown below, sourced from each vendor's own site rather than ratings or reviews.
Side-by-side summary
Best for Paylocity
Mid-sized employers wanting HR, payroll, and finance modules on one platform and willing to go through a sales quote rather than self-serve published pricing.
Best for Workday HCM
Large and complex enterprises wanting HCM unified with financial and operational data on one platform, backed by extensive compliance certifications.
Feature comparison
Every feature listed here comes directly from each vendor's own official site.
Paylocity
- Core payroll processing with tax services, on-demand pay, and garnishment services
- Time & Labor management including scheduling, attendance, and time collection
- Talent management: recruiting, onboarding, performance, compensation, and learning
- Benefits administration and retirement planning
- Finance modules: expense management, corporate cards, AP automation, guided procurement, and spend analytics with fraud detection
- IT modules for asset management and access/identity management
- Ignite AI features for automation and insights across HR and finance workflows
- Employee experience tools including community, recognition, and employee-voice surveys
Workday HCM
- Unified data model spanning financial, operational, and workforce information alongside Workday's finance products
- Global payroll management with local compliance support
- Talent acquisition and candidate engagement tools
- Learning and development, internal mobility, and skills-matching tools
- Contingent worker management alongside employee records
- Time tracking and absence management, including AI-driven scheduling and demand forecasting
- Augmented analytics for workforce planning, forecasting, and employee-experience feedback
- Low/no-code app development tools for building custom extensions on Workday data
Pros and cons
Paylocity
- Core payroll processing with tax services, on-demand pay, and garnishment services
- Time & Labor management including scheduling, attendance, and time collection
- Talent management: recruiting, onboarding, performance, compensation, and learning
- Benefits administration and retirement planning
- Finance modules: expense management, corporate cards, AP automation, guided procurement, and spend analytics with fraud detection
- IT modules for asset management and access/identity management
- Ignite AI features for automation and insights across HR and finance workflows
- Employee experience tools including community, recognition, and employee-voice surveys
- No pricing is published on paylocity.com; obtaining even a rough estimate requires submitting a form with company size and contact details
- No named, self-serve pricing tiers are shown, unlike competitors that publish at least a starting per-employee rate
Workday HCM
- Unified data model spanning financial, operational, and workforce information alongside Workday's finance products
- Global payroll management with local compliance support
- Talent acquisition and candidate engagement tools
- Learning and development, internal mobility, and skills-matching tools
- Contingent worker management alongside employee records
- Time tracking and absence management, including AI-driven scheduling and demand forecasting
- Augmented analytics for workforce planning, forecasting, and employee-experience feedback
- Low/no-code app development tools for building custom extensions on Workday data
- No pricing is published anywhere on workday.com; every deployment requires a sales conversation and custom quote
- The platform's enterprise scope and configuration depth typically require a longer, more involved implementation than SMB-focused HR/payroll tools
Key differences
- Paylocity lists Core payroll processing with tax services, on-demand pay, and garnishment services, Time & Labor management including scheduling, attendance, and time collection, Talent management: recruiting, onboarding, performance, compensation, and learning, Benefits administration and retirement planning, Finance modules: expense management, corporate cards, AP automation, guided procurement, and spend analytics with fraud detection, IT modules for asset management and access/identity management, Ignite AI features for automation and insights across HR and finance workflows, Employee experience tools including community, recognition, and employee-voice surveys that Workday HCM doesn't list.
- Workday HCM lists Unified data model spanning financial, operational, and workforce information alongside Workday's finance products, Global payroll management with local compliance support, Talent acquisition and candidate engagement tools, Learning and development, internal mobility, and skills-matching tools, Contingent worker management alongside employee records, Time tracking and absence management, including AI-driven scheduling and demand forecasting, Augmented analytics for workforce planning, forecasting, and employee-experience feedback, Low/no-code app development tools for building custom extensions on Workday data that Paylocity doesn't list.
Choose Paylocity if…
Choose Paylocity if this fits: Mid-sized employers wanting HR, payroll, and finance modules on one platform and willing to go through a sales quote rather than self-serve published pricing. Compared with Workday HCM specifically, Paylocity also offers Core payroll processing with tax services, on-demand pay, and garnishment services, Time & Labor management including scheduling, attendance, and time collection, Talent management: recruiting, onboarding, performance, compensation, and learning, and 5 more features that Workday HCM doesn't list.
Choose Workday HCM if…
Choose Workday HCM if this fits: Large and complex enterprises wanting HCM unified with financial and operational data on one platform, backed by extensive compliance certifications. Compared with Paylocity specifically, Workday HCM also offers Unified data model spanning financial, operational, and workforce information alongside Workday's finance products, Global payroll management with local compliance support, Talent acquisition and candidate engagement tools, and 5 more features that Paylocity doesn't list.
Facts on this page are sourced from each vendor's official site (linked below), not from ratings or reviews. Products change — verify anything that matters to your decision directly on the vendor's own site before switching. See our Disclaimer and Sources Policy.
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