Forrester names ADP, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors Leaders in Q4 2025 HCM Wave
ADP highlighting WFN as 2026 "core system of record" for mid-market. Paycor in Contenders post-acquisition. Rippling not included.
Forrester’s Q4 2025 Wave for HCM Solutions named ADP, Workday, and SAP SuccessFactors as Leaders in the integrated mid-market and enterprise HCM category. ADP highlighted Workforce Now as its "core system of record" for the 2026 mid-market push, with strong scores on benefits administration, payroll execution, and compliance breadth.
Strong Performers in the Wave included Paylocity, UKG, Ceridian Dayforce, and Oracle. Contenders included BambooHR and Paycor (now post-acquisition by Paychex). Rippling was not included in this particular Wave.
Buyer-side takeaway
Wave reports are imperfect (vendor-funded, scoring methodology has known biases) but they’re useful as a relative-positioning sanity check during evaluation. The placement is consistent with what mid-market buyers experience in deals — the integrated suites lead on breadth, the modern vendors compete on velocity and modular pricing.