Employee Onboarding Software
Workday: features, pricing and who it fits
Workday offers onboarding as a self-service module of Workday HCM, sold through sales-led contracts to large employers. It supports SAML and OpenID Connect.
Who Workday is for
Best for
- Large enterprises that want onboarding inside the same system as core HR and payroll
- Regulated or government buyers needing FedRAMP and similar attestations
Look elsewhere if
- Small businesses that need published prices
- Teams that want a standalone onboarding tool
Workday features
- Onboarding workflows and task automation
- Onboarding offered as self-service within Workday HCM
- Paperwork and e-signatures
- Review Documents step can require e-signature on each document
- Preboarding and new-hire portal
- Onboarding plans start before day one via Candidate Home or tenant login
- Training and learning content
- Required learning shows on onboarding plans; pre-hire access after start date set
- HRIS, ATS and payroll integrations
- Review mentions seamless integrations
- Pricing model
- Quote
- Target company size
- Enterprise
Integrations, security and hosting
- Security and compliance
- SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 27701, ISO 42001, FedRAMP Moderate (Government Cloud), HIPAA attestation (Enterprise Products)
Worth knowing before you buy
- Rating shown is for Workday HCM, the product that contains onboarding.
- SAML and OpenID Connect SSO supported.
- Holds FedRAMP Moderate for the Government Cloud plus TISAX, IRAP and G-Cloud.
- Acquired Paradox in 2025, adding conversational recruiting and onboarding automation.
- Aneel Bhusri returned as CEO in 2026.
Workday alternatives
Vendor dossier
Fit by company size
| Category | 1-10 people | 11-50 people | 51-500 people | 500+ people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employee Onboarding Software | Poor fit | Poor fit | Workable | Strong fit |
Strong fitWorkablePoor fitNo data from the vendor
How buying Workday works
- How you buy
- Through sales
- Demo or quote needed for
- All offerings (no public prices)
Security and data protection
- SOC 2
- Type II
- ISO 27001
- Yes
- Single sign-on (SAML)
- SAML and OpenID Connect supported; plan not stated
- HIPAA
- Third-party HIPAA attestation for Enterprise Products
From Workday's trust center, security and legal pages. Anything not listed is not published.
About the company
- Founded
- 2005
- Headquarters
- Pleasanton, US
- Ownership
- public (Nasdaq: WDAY)
- Employees
- 20,400 (2025)
- 2012
- IPO
- 2025
- Acquired Paradox
- 2024
- Acquired HiredScore and Evisort
What vendors in this category ask before quoting
Answer these once in a SaaSBid request and Workday and its alternatives quote against the same facts.
- How many hires do you expect per year, and in how many locations?Volume and locations drive per-employee pricing and which compliance forms are needed.
- Which HRIS, payroll and applicant tracking systems do you use today?Native connections avoid add-on integration fees and manual exports.
- Do you hire in the US only, or also in other countries?Some products offer payroll and compliance forms for US employees only.
- Do hires need training content, or only paperwork and tasks?Training-led tools and paperwork-led tools are priced and built differently.
- Who should complete tasks besides HR, such as managers and IT?The number of task owners affects user licenses and workflow design.
- Do you need single sign-on or a specific data region?These controls are often available only on upper tiers.