Lever vs Workday
Lever is talent acquisition suite combining ATS and CRM for proactive recruiting, while Workday is enterprise cloud platform for HR, finance, and planning. Lever is built for talent teams wanting a combined ats + crm, whereas Workday targets large enterprises needing unified hr and finance management.
At a glance
|
Lever
|
Workday | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Talent teams wanting a combined ATS + CRM | Large enterprises needing unified HR and finance management |
| Starting price | Custom | Custom pricing |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Free tier available | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| ATS + CRM | ✓ | — |
| Analytics | ✓ | — |
| Benefits | — | ✓ |
| Diversity | ✓ | — |
| Financial planning | — | ✓ |
| HCM | — | ✓ |
| Nurture Campaigns | ✓ | — |
| Payroll | — | ✓ |
| Performance management | — | ✓ |
Lever
Strengths
- Includes ATS + CRM as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows
- Includes Nurture Campaigns as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows
- Focused toolset keeps the interface clean and easy to navigate
- Established product with 14+ years on the market and a mature ecosystem
Weaknesses
- No free tier, so you can't try it without committing to a paid plan
- Fewer built-in features means you may need additional tools to cover gaps
- Ecosystem of third-party integrations is smaller than the market leaders in hr & recruiting
- Mobile experience lags behind the desktop version in features and polish
Workday
Strengths
- Comprehensive HCM covering the entire employee lifecycle
- Unified platform for HR and finance reduces data silos
- Strong analytics and workforce planning capabilities
- Regular feature updates on a single cloud platform
Weaknesses
- Extremely expensive — enterprise pricing only
- Implementation can take 6-12 months
- Steep learning curve for administrators
- Overkill for companies under 1,000 employees
The bottom line
Pricing: Both Lever and Workday are free. You can try both without spending a dollar.
Feature gaps: Lever offers ATS + CRM, Analytics and Diversity that Workday lacks. Workday brings Benefits, Financial planning and HCM that Lever does not have.
Where each tool shines: Lever's biggest strengths are: includes ats + crm as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows. includes nurture campaigns as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows. Workday's biggest strengths are: comprehensive hcm covering the entire employee lifecycle. unified platform for hr and finance reduces data silos.
Watch out for: With Lever, users commonly note that no free tier, so you can't try it without committing to a paid plan. With Workday, the main complaint is that extremely expensive — enterprise pricing only.
Choose Lever if...
- You need a tool built for talent teams wanting a combined ats + crm
- You specifically need ATS + CRM and Analytics
- You care about includes nurture campaigns as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows
Choose Workday if...
- You need a tool built for large enterprises needing unified hr and finance management
- You specifically need Benefits and Financial planning
- You care about unified platform for hr and finance reduces data silos
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