Who are the largest HRMS vendors

Size is relative. The biggest companies don’t necessarily have the biggest names. And the biggest names don’t always sell the best software. But… size is an issue.

In a global HR software market now valued at tens of billions of dollars and forecast to reach $81 billion by 2029, the largest HRMS vendors may not always be the most innovative, but they do dominate the market (in fact, the top vendors account for nearly half of the total HCM market share).

While your HRMS needs might lead you to a smaller, more agile and flexible vendor, in terms of business stability – i.e., they’ll be around as long as you are – the big players remain a safe bet. So for those interested in a safe bet, here are some of the largest HRMS vendors, with a closer look at three of them:

Who are the largest HRMS vendors?

In purely alphabetical order:

1. ADP 
2. Ceridian 
3. Microsoft (LinkedIn) 
4. Oracle 
5. Paycom
6. Paylocity
7. Sage
8. SAP
9. UKG
10. Workday 

ADP 

ADP, or Automatic Data Processing, was founded in 1949, making it probably the oldest company making HR software. The self-described “largest global provider of HCM services in North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim” boasts around 67,000 employees worldwide and reported an annual revenue of $20.6 billion in FY2025.

The ADP website cites a client base of over 1.1 million customers in 140+ countries, and the company offers customizable products pitched at different sizes of organization, including:

• For organizations of 50 to 10,000 employees, ADP Workforce Now is an all-in-one platform providing payroll, talent management, benefits administration, workforce management, and data-driven analytics.
• RUN is ADP’s small business (up to 49 employees) payroll app, simplifying the payroll process and now also including hiring functionality in the form of ZipRecruiter.
• ADP Enterprise HR, for clients with up to 1,000 employees, offers payroll, recruitment, talent management, benefits, and time and attendance.
• DataCloud is ADP’s specialized data analysis and benchmarking tool, allowing organizations of 50 to 1,000 employees to compare their performance and data with a combined dataset of 30 million US employees across 90,000 organizations.

UKG

Founded in 1977, UKG also has a long history of providing workforce software. Beginning with computerized time clocks (they produced the world’s first in 1979), the company expanded to offer a range of workforce and human capital management products.

UKG had over 5,000 employees and reported a turnover of $1 billion in 2014; it also specialized in a variety of industry sectors from health care to manufacturing, higher education to government, and banking to policing.

In 2020, Kronos Incorporated merged with Ultimate Software to form UKG,  instantly creating one of the largest cloud HRMS vendors. Today, the combined company boasts over 12,000 employees and nearly $3.7 billion in annual revenue.

The UKG Pro suite offers data-driven automation and artificial intelligence to provide a range of HR functions and services, including recruitment, scheduling, benefits management, time and attendance, payroll, analytics, and performance management – all based on UKG’s own cloud platform (which serves as a common foundation for the company’s products for seamless compatibility across the UKG portfolio).

SAP

Beginning with five IBM engineers in 1972, SAP started out offering payroll and accounting software that stored data electronically instead of on punch cards. The company expanded into enterprise resource planning and today offers its 425,000 clients (in 180 countries) a wide range of business software, supporting procurement, supply chains, customer relationship management, and, of course, HR. 

SAP’s HCM suite (SuccessFactors) provides modules for payroll, recruitment and onboarding, time and attendance, performance management, learning, workforce analytics, and even a dedicated compliance module.

For smaller businesses, SAP provides simplified HR packages covering payroll and core HR, plus learning management, recruitment, workforce planning, and analytics, as well as performance management.

SAP also offers extra support for clients – from expert implementation partners to ongoing learning resources and communities for HR professionals.

Closing thoughts

Whether you need a big or a boutique HRMS vendor depends very much on your organization’s needs. A large HRMS vendor offers broad functionality and proven scalability, whereas a niche provider might deliver more personalized service or specialized features.

Ultimately, you should consider both your immediate HR requirements and long-term growth when choosing a solution. For more vendors, summarized in one place, try our HRMS vendor directory.