Ceridian Dayforce Review (2023): Pricing, Features, and More

Ceridian Dayforce: Fast Facts Price: Individual price offer only. Main characteristics: Global payroll in 160+ countries. Advantages with self-directed employee hiring. 24-hour customer service.

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Ceridian’s Dayforce human capital management software combines key payroll, human resources and talent management tools, enabling companies to manage all their HR activities on a single platform instead of working between different third-party programs. While the Dayforce platform is best suited for businesses with over 1,000 employees due to its price and complexity, it can also be used by businesses with just a few hundred employees.

In our Ceridian Dayforce review, we take a look at who this HR software is best for, identify its strengths and weaknesses, describe its key features, and suggest alternatives if you decide that Ceridian Dayforce isn’t the right HCM program for you.

Ceridian Dayforce Pricing

Ceridian doesn’t list its prices online, though individual plan costs vary depending on what modules you add to the package and how many employees you have on staff. Note that the lack of up-front pricing is typical of most enterprise payroll, HR, and HCM software solutions—Ceridian’s quote-based pricing is not out of line with typical (albeit frustrating) industry norms.

Ceridian Dayforce: Key Features

Global payroll

Using Ceridian, employers can pay subcontractors and full-time workers in over 160 countries. Employees can choose from multiple payment options, including direct deposit and on-demand payments through Dayforce Wallet. While you can use Ceridian Dayforce to run payroll in-house, you can fully outsource payroll tasks to Ceridian’s team using a managed payroll service.

Recruitment and enrollment

Dayforce’s artificial intelligence software automates most aspects of finding the right candidate for a given job. The system screens and ranks candidates based on their skills, experience and resumes, and from there, hiring managers can use Ceridian to communicate with candidates via text.

When they hire a new employee, Dayforce’s onboarding tools and mobile app guide them through self-service onboarding. Employers can customize the onboarding experience to include welcome videos, company culture introductions, and overviews of each employee’s leaders and team members.

Individual employee metrics

Dayforce’s in-depth reporting functionality includes flight risk reports generated by an AI-powered analytics tool. HR software also collects individual performance data that allows managers to quickly monitor employee successes and productivity indicators.

The system’s unique knowledge management program helps employers understand how employees feel about the company and test new communication tools. Additionally, Dayforce’s Personality Profiler tool helps team leaders tailor their communication and feedback style to each individual’s personality and preferences.

An ideal talent marketplace

Ceridian Dayforce’s flexible labor marketplace connects employers with on-demand workers who can work hourly or seasonally to fill schedule gaps. Once you find an employee whose skills and availability match your needs, Ceridian will handle the recruitment, onboarding, compliance and payment aspects of adding a flexible worker to your team.

Ceridian Pros

Comprehensive HR services: Ceridian Dayforce completely eliminates the need for third-party HR software. The full software offering includes benefits enrollment, detailed HR analytics and reporting, self-service applications for employees and managers, payroll integration and workforce forecasting based on HR metrics.

Custom industry-specific plans: Like its major competitors, Ceridian offers a range of industry-specific HCM solutions, including custom HCM designs and tools for niche industries such as sports entertainment.

Well reviewed mobile apps: The Dayforce app for employers and managers can be used to check in and out, track time, request paid time off, enroll in benefits, and access pay stub information. Both the Android and iOS versions of the app are highly rated in the App Store and Google Play, 4.7 (out of 5) in the App Store and 4.2 (out of 5) in on Google Play.

Dayforce Wallet: Employees can access their net pay on demand with Dayforce’s prepaid debit card instead of waiting for payday. Dayforce Wallet is part of Ceridian’s Dayforce payroll solution at no additional cost.

Ceridian cons

There is no transparent online price: As is typical of enterprise-level HCM solutions, Ceridian HR software does not list its asking price online. Customers should contact a Ceridian representative directly to schedule a personalized demonstration and request a quote.

Frequent software updates: According to several user reviews, Ceridian frequently updates – or even improves – its software system. While the frequent upgrades indicate that the company is investing in providing a great HCM experience for its customers, users have reported frustration with the frequency of updates, bugs, and lack of support or training. Users of the app are reporting the same issues with frequent faulty mobile updates.

Slow responsive customer service: Ceridian’s customers mostly do not have a dedicated account manager. Instead, issues must be submitted as online tickets, which are not always resolved as quickly or satisfactorily as users would like.

Alternatives to Ceridian Dayforce

Working day HCM

Workday HCM, like Ceridian Dayforce, is an all-in-one HR, payroll, benefits, workforce and talent management platform. Its extensive AI-powered reporting and analysis tools include industry benchmark comparisons that enable businesses to competitively position their benefits and rewards. Workday’s skills-based recruiting tools and LMS courses help companies recruit top talent and promote ongoing skill development after hires.

For more information, read our detailed comparison of Workday and ADP.

Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM

Oracle’s HCM software is designed to offer as many HR tools as possible on one platform, reducing the need for confusing or complex third-party integrations. Its built-in time tracking, payroll, learning management system and native analytics tools help companies manage their huge workforce. Its workforce management product includes workforce health and safety metrics, automated event reporting, and alerts that notify key stakeholders of potentially hazardous situations (such as disease exposure).

For more information, read our detailed comparison of Workday and Oracle.

ADP workforce now

ADP Workforce Now is ADP’s HR solution for small, medium and large businesses. It combines full payroll with time and attendance tracking, employee benefits administration, reporting and talent management. Our employee self-service application is one of the top-rated time tracking and payroll applications in the HR software industry.

ADP Workforce Now probably has enough tools and HR functionality for smaller businesses with 250+ employees. As they grow, multinational corporations and enterprises with more than 1,000 employees can upgrade to ADP Vantage HCM, ADP’s more robust enterprise-specific HCM solution.

Read our detailed ADP review for more information.

Who is Ceridian Dayforce best for?

Enterprise-level companies with hundreds of employees can benefit from Ceridian Dayforce’s streamlined, all-in-one HR and payroll platform. Because Dayforce allows employees to be paid in more than 160 countries, it is especially valuable for multinational companies that pay employees in multiple currencies around the world.

Because Ceridian Dayforce works best for large enterprises, it is not an ideal solution for small and medium-sized businesses. If you’re interested in a small business payroll, HR, benefits and talent management solution that can scale with you, consider ADP or BambooHR over Ceridian.

How we rated Ceridian Dayforce

To evaluate Ceridian Dayforce HR software, we watched the company’s self-guided demo to explore its services, tools, and dashboards. We carefully considered user reviews in various app stores and third-party websites such as Gartner Peer Insights. In combing through the data, we specifically focused on Ceridian’s interface, ease of use and accessibility, features and customer support, which we compared with close competitors like Workday HCM to assess Dayforce’s outstanding features and desirability in the overall HCM market.