Dayforce vs. Workday vs. Rippling: Payroll & HR comparison (2025)

Nobody reads HCM software comparisons when their current system is working fine. You're here because something's broken and you're trying to find out if Dayforce or Workday, or Rippling can fix it.

So, that’s what we'll do.

This guide breaks down exactly how these three platforms handle specific payroll and HR challenges that keep you up at night so you can skip the trial-and-error phase.

Quick comparison: Dayforce vs. Workday vs. Rippling at a glance

Here's a quick peek at the three HCM platforms we'll do a deep dive on:

Methodology: How I reviewed different payroll software

I started by diving into product and pricing pages. Then, I tested the claims through product demos, paying particular attention to where automation was limited. I cross-referenced my findings against their core product documentation, press releases, and official product updates.

Next, I went to the experts: users like you. I analyzed hundreds of verified reviews on G2 and Capterra to study how these platforms (Rippling inclusive) perform when real payroll data, benefits enrollments, and compliance requirements flow through them. I focused on recurring patterns (both positive and negative) and filtered out one-off complaints.

What you're reading comes from hours of comparing real workflows to see whether these platforms simplify workforce management or just add more complexity.

Rippling editorial policy: Rippling puts our customers (and prospective customers!) first. The Rippling team is committed to providing information supported by product data, insights, and customer feedback to inform our content.

Features comparison: Dayforce vs. Workday vs. Rippling

Payroll management

Here's how our three HR platforms simplify payroll management.

Rippling

Rippling turns payroll into a one-click, 90-second process. Every data point from hours worked to expense reimbursement flows automatically from the same system where you manage HR, finance, and IT.

You can pay people in 185+ countries and complete off-cycle payments (for bonuses, corrections, or terminations) at no extra cost. It even reverse-calculates gross pay when you only know the net amount, which is a lifesaver for certain contract scenarios. Little wonder people who switch to Rippling consistently say they've cut payroll processing time by more than half.

Unlike Workday which outsources to partners, Rippling’s global payroll engine is native. It handles multi-state and international payroll in the same workflow, and automatically files taxes at the federal, state, and local levels.

One of my absolute favorite features is how Rippling handles corrections. Missed a commission or underpaid someone? It automatically recalculates taxes and deductions across the affected pay periods. You can also compare current and previous pay runs side-by-side to spot payroll anomalies before you approve anything.

Dayforce

Dayforce's payroll feature is an add-on to their HR module. It handles payroll in 200 countries+ and throws in Dayforce Wallet, which lets employees access their earned wages early through a mobile app. If you're managing hourly workers with complex scheduling and shift differentials, Dayforce links all that directly into payroll so you're not rebuilding calculations manually.

Another interesting find is that Dayforce doesn't wait until the end of pay periods to calculate payroll. It happens in real time as employees clock in and out. You can preview what everyone's getting paid throughout the cycle and catch errors before they become legal problems.

Workday

Workday's payroll module automates pay runs and tax calculations, and it integrates with Workday's financial management tools, which is great for budgeting and workforce planning if you already live in their ecosystem. 

The downside is that Workday only runs native payroll in five countries (the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and France). If you need global coverage, you'll have to coordinate with their third-party partners.

Payroll feature snapshot

My verdict

Dayforce is ideal for companies with complex hourly workforces who need real-time labor cost visibility. Workday works well for large enterprises already invested in its financial planning suite.

Rippling stands out by unifying HR, IT, and finance on a single data source, allowing for maximum automation and superior global scalability.

Benefits administration

Let's now see how Rippling, Dayforce, and Workday HCM compare in the benefits administration space.

Rippling

Rippling is one of the only platforms where benefits administration actually feels automated. It runs on the same unified platform as your HR, payroll, and IT systems, which means eligibility, enrollment, and deductions all sync automatically. When one of your employees gets married, has a baby, or changes jobs, their benefits update instantly across the entire system.

Rippling integrates directly with 4,000+ carriers and brokers through automated EDI and API connections, so plan updates flow in automatically. You can bring your own broker (BYOB) or use Rippling Insurance Services. Your employees also get a mobile-first enrollment experience where they can compare plans side-by-side with cost breakdowns and enroll digitally.

Another standout feature is how Rippling automates ACA, COBRA, HIPAA, and GDPR tracking and flags issues. If you're managing a smaller team, Rippling PEO gives you access to enterprise-grade benefits packages at competitive rates.

Dayforce

Dayforce also integrates benefits administration into its HCM platform so deductions sync accurately without manual reconciliation. 

Employees can enroll through a self-service portal during open enrollment, where they get guided support to compare plans and make informed decisions.

Workday

Workday's benefits come with localized compliance and automated workflows that determine eligibility based on job role, employment status, or life events.

Employees get an intuitive enrollment experience on desktop or mobile, with guided plan comparisons and dependent management. For specialized benefits administration, Workday partners with third-party providers like Insperity.

Workday also offers a partner ecosystem for health assessments, fitness challenges, and holistic wellness programs.

Benefits administration feature snapshot

My verdict

Workday is great for managing global benefits programs, though it often leans on third-party partners for some of the heavy lifting. Dayforce keeps benefits and payroll under one roof, on the same platform. Rippling takes it up a notch by running benefits, payroll, HR, IT, and finance from a single employee database.

Automated. Compliant. Truly unified.

See Rippling

Time tracking and scheduling

If you've ever manually exported timesheets into payroll or spent hours fixing scheduling conflicts that triggered compliance violations, you know workforce management shouldn't be fragmented. At all.

Here's how all three vendors deliver time tracking.

Rippling

Scheduling is where Rippling really shines for operational efficiency. You and your managers can build compliant schedules in minutes using live human resource information system (HRIS) data like employee availability, certifications, PTO balances, and pay rates. 

You can also set up custom rules that automatically add new hires to scheduling templates based on their role, location, or team. 

Rippling employee scheduling software gives you real-time visibility into labor costs while you're building the schedule, so you can prevent unplanned overtime before it happens, not after payroll closes. Your employees can clock in via mobile app, web browser, kiosk mode, or with GPS geofencing. They use one app for everything: schedules, time tracking, and PTO requests.

Dayforce

Workforce management is one of Dayforce's strengths. It's particularly well-suited for industries with complex hourly workforces and dynamic scheduling needs like retail and manufacturing.

Their scheduling tools are robust: you can forecast labor needs, automatically generate best-fit schedules, and share employees across locations or job roles. Employees can clock in and out, request time off, swap shifts, and view schedules through the mobile app or desktop portal. 

Dayforce also supports mobile geofencing and fingerprint scanning for punch-ins.

Workday

Workday includes time tracking and scheduling as part of its human capital management (HCM) suite, but it's generally geared toward large enterprises rather than shift-based industries. Its workforce analytics also help manage labor costs and forecast hiring needs.

The platform can also integrate with various third-party HR, IT, and security tools, but if dynamic employee scheduling is a critical part of your operations, you might find it lacking compared to Dayforce and Rippling.

Time tracking and scheduling feature snapshot

My verdict

Dayforce is a solid choice for shift-based industries and hourly workforces. Workday offers time tracking, but requires dynamic scheduling requires complex and time-consuming configuration.

Rippling delivers the best of both worlds: native integration with hours synced directly into payroll, real-time labor cost visibility to budget overruns, and automated compliance enforcement you can trust. You won’t need to jump between tools at all.

Compliance and security

Now, let’s see how Rippling, Dayforce, and Workday handle compliance.

Rippling

Rippling's Compliance 360 engine monitors federal, state, and local labor laws in real time. It flags potential minimum wage infractions, missed breaks, or sick leave errors, and gives you recommended solutions.

Rippling also automatically calculates, withholds, and pays taxes and automates ACA and COBRA compliance.

On the IT side, Rippling IAM handles identity and access management natively. It can automatically provision and deprovision user accounts across 650+ applications, adjusting access based on real-time employee data.

Dayforce

Dayforce adheres to international compliance standards like GDPR and provides data security measures with encryption in transit and at rest. It also integrates workforce management and payroll, which helps with compliance automation.

Dayforce offers compliance alerts, advanced data insights, and real-time payroll processing tied to workforce management.

Workday

Workday provides enterprise-grade security with GDPR adherence, encryption, and role-based data security to control who can access information and initiate tasks. This compliance is offered across multiple regions and countries.

Workday also employs anomaly detection to identify irregular patterns or behaviors, and you can set up configurable alerts for suspicious access attempts. However, Workday's compliance features often require third-party consultants.

Compliance feature snapshot

My verdict

Rippling achieves superior compliance and security thanks to its all-in-one solution that enforces policies across the board, flags violations, and manages application access natively.

Take the guesswork out of compliance

See Rippling

Dayforce vs. Workday vs. Rippling: Pricing

Rippling

Rippling's pricing is modular and subscription-based, which means you only pay for what you need.

The core HRIS starts at $8 per employee per month, with add-ons for payroll, benefits, IT, and finance modules, as your needs grow. There are no long-term contracts, and you can scale without reimplementation.

Key pricing:

• Core HRIS: From $8 PEPM

• EOR: From $499 PEPM

• Global Payroll: From $32-35 PEPM

• Contractors: From $30/month per contractor

• Contractor of Record: From $325/month per contractor

• T&A: From $2 PEPM

• Benefits: From $5 PEPM

• Global Benefits: From $20 PEPM

Dayforce

Dayforce's pricing is quote-based.

Workday

Like Dayforce, Workday's pricing is quote-based.

Dayforce vs. Workday vs. Rippling: Reviews

Business is complex. Payroll shouldn’t be.

See Rippling

Dayforce vs. Workday vs. Rippling: Pros and cons

Rippling pros and cons

Rippling pros

• Rippling unifies HR, IT, and Finance on a single employee database.

• You can build custom, no-code automation workflows with advanced cross-module reporting.

• Rippling works for businesses of all sizes without requiring platform switching, reimplementation, or migrations.

• Rippling connects with 650+ business apps bi-directionally.

• It includes a full IT management suite (app provisioning, device management), not natively offered by Dayforce or Workday.

• Rippling provides in-house and dedicated Account Managers and Technical Account Managers (over a $50k ACV threshold). Dayforce and Workday depend on third parties for implementation and ongoing support.

• Rippling is easy to use. Unlike Dayforce and Workday, adding or changing permissions, policies, or custom fields is all available via self-service.

Rippling cons

Initial setup requires planning due to the platform's depth, but most companies are live in weeks, and the long-term ROI is up to 136%.

Dayforce pros and cons

Dayforce pros

• Excels at time tracking, employee scheduling, and labor cost optimization for shift-based industries.

• Offers global payroll and labor law compliance in 200+ regions.

• Employees get instant access to earned wages before payday (via Dayforce Wallet).

Dayforce cons

• Primarily designed for organizations with complex scheduling needs and less ideal for other business models.

• Implementing Dayforce requires a dedicated internal team of at least 10 employees for most customers.

• Dayforce charges consulting fees for additional customization support.

• Steep learning curve. Implementation takes months, and your team will spend weeks getting up to speed.

• Reporting in Dayforce is time-consuming and difficult to customize.

Workday pros and cons

Workday pros

• Workday offers advanced analytics and workforce planning with succession planning, skills mapping, and performance management.

• You can configure workflows to match your organizational needs and share access based on user profile.

Workday cons

• Workday is a product of 17 different acquisitions, resulting in disjointed modules that don't integrate seamlessly.

• Native payroll is only available in five countries (the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and France).

• Implementation time can be 12 months or longer and requires dedicated specialists or third-party consultants.

• Workday administration is costly and cumbersome, with a longer learning curve to master extensive features.

• No pre-built integrations, unlike Rippling.

Why Rippling is better than Dayforce and Workday

Dayforce and Workday are barges: powerful systems with lots of features, but nearly impossible to configure without an army of consultants. They promise unified platforms but deliver modules held together with third-party partners and API calls.

Rippling is different. Instead of simply processing pay, Rippling offers a complete workforce platform that unifies HR, payroll, benefits, and IT on a single source of truth. Not through integrations. Not through acquisitions. Built from the ground up as one system.

Some key differences that matter:

• The Ripple Effect: One change triggers downstream updates across your entire organization. Workday? Built from 17 different acquisitions. Dayforce? Better than most, but still siloed. Rippling eliminates data silos.

• Advanced automation: With Rippling's Workflow Studio, you can build custom automations using any data attribute as a trigger, without coding. According to one customer, you need a "computer science degree to operate Workday," but Rippling does it in a "fraction of the time with a fraction of the manpower."

• Built-in IT management: Dayforce and Workday stop at HR and financial management features. Rippling includes a full IT Cloud: Identity & Access Management across 600+ apps, device management, automated provisioning, and deprovisioning tied to the employee lifecycle.

• Extensive integrations: Rippling connects seamlessly with over 650 business apps, far more than both competitors. This means your HR data flows automatically to all your essential business systems, from accounting to productivity tools.

• Half the headcount: Companies without Rippling need twice as many people in HR, IT, and Finance as companies using Rippling. Non-Rippling customers hire at least 71% more people across these departments just to keep things running.

• Better global operations: Rippling runs payroll, manages benefits, and manages compliance with local requirements in over 185+ countries, all from one straightforward dashboard.

While Dayforce and Workday are both solid HR and payroll providers, Rippling is the more innovative and user-friendly solution. You've come this far, so don't settle for "good enough" systems. See how Rippling can transform HR in your organization.

Business is complex. Payroll shouldn’t be.

See Rippling

Dayforce vs. Workday vs. Rippling FAQs