--- title: "SumTotal Talent Development Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra" description: "With the help of Capterra, learn about SumTotal Talent Development Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Human Resources products and more." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/10001581/SumTotal-Talent-Development/" page_type: "product" language: "en" --- # SumTotal Talent Development Software Review 2026: Features, Reviews, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on August 20, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[FAQs](#faqs)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) SumTotal Talent Development ## What is SumTotal Talent Development? To thrive today, individuals and organizations need adaptability, agility, and resilience. SumTotal helps develop these essential skills with our unified, comprehensive, Talent Development suite delivering measurable impact across the entire employee lifecycle. Our suite focuses on the following critical areas: -Learning Management -Recruiting & Onboarding -Performance Management -Succession Planning -Compensation -Career Pathing & Development ## What is SumTotal Talent Development used for? [Performance Management System](https://www.capterra.com/performance-appraisal-software/)[Recruiting](https://www.capterra.com/recruiting-software/)[Onboarding](https://www.capterra.com/onboarding-software/) Top alternative Featured Overall rating Based on 3 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive \- Neutral \- Negative \- Starting price $10000 Flat Rate, Per Year Free trial not available Free version not included Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for SumTotal Talent Development?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=http://www.cornerstoneondemand.com&name=SumTotal Talent Development) ## SumTotal Talent Development Overview Updated August 2026 AI summary SumTotal Talent Development is a cloud-based platform for enterprises and midsize organizations seeking to manage talent, performance, and learning in one system. It covers areas such as 360 degree feedback, onboarding, succession planning, and training management, with features for employee records, recruitment, goal setting, and workflow management. Mobile access and integration options support varied deployment needs. ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### SumTotal Talent Development 2.7 (3) VS. [4.5 (1,769)](https://www.capterra.com/p/66908/Workday-HCM/reviews/) Starting Price $10000 Flat Rate, Per Year Starting Price Contact vendor Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 2.3 (3) Ease Of Use 4.3 (1,755) Value For Money 2.0 (3) Value For Money 4.3 (1,059) Customer Service 2.3 (3) Customer Service 4.3 (1,097) ## SumTotal Talent Development alternatives [4.3 (3,074)](https://www.capterra.com/p/133745/Paycor-Perform/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 87% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [4.7 (229)](https://www.capterra.com/p/119740/Criteria/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [4.4 (1,392)](https://www.capterra.com/p/130949/Paycom/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 87% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars Highest Rated [4.9 (4,309)](https://www.capterra.com/p/205015/Deel/reviews/) Starting price $5.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 98% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars ## FAQs about SumTotal Talent Development Overview ### What company size and specific industries is SumTotal Talent Development built for? SumTotal Talent Development is designed for enterprise organizations with complex learning and talent development needs. It is built for large companies rather than small businesses or mid-market teams, and it does not specify any particular industry, so it suits enterprises across sectors that require extensive talent development management. Features and Usability ### What are the key features of SumTotal Talent Development? SumTotal Talent Development offers talent management, performance management, and learning management features, along with goal setting/tracking, competency management, and succession planning. It also includes recruiting tools such as candidate tracking, interview scheduling, resume parsing, and job posting, plus reporting/analytics, workflow management, and mobile access. Getting Started and Support ### What training and onboarding options does SumTotal Talent Development offer? SumTotal Talent Development provides in person training, live online sessions, webinars, documentation, and videos. These formats can support guided instruction, scheduled group learning, and self-paced reference material for teams getting started with the product. Getting Started and Support ### What customer support options does SumTotal Talent Development offer? SumTotal Talent Development provides email/help desk, a knowledge base, phone support, 24/7 live rep, and chat. No reviewer feedback about support is available in the catalog data, so no claims can be made about response times, helpfulness, or common support frustrations. ## Features AI summary Based on 14,356 Human Resources reviews Capterra reviewers highlight these features as the most important when choosing Human Resources software: - **Employee Management** (**43%** of reviewers rated this feature as critical) - **Payroll Management** (**59%**) - **HR Management** (**45%**) SumTotal Talent Development supports **Employee Management**. However, it does not include **Payroll Management** or **HR Management**. Instead, it offers **Employee Database** (**46%**), which gives teams a central place to store and access workforce records. This can help businesses keep employee information organized and easier to manage, allowing teams to handle day-to-day HR tasks more efficiently. 360 Degree Feedback Tools for collecting comprehensive feedback on an employee from peers, subordinates, and manager Activity Dashboard Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities Analytics Tools for the systematic analysis of various types of data or statistics API Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases Assessment Management Creation, administration, and evaluation of assessments or tests Background Screening Researching and validating a person's criminal, educational, job or financial records SumTotal Talent Development 66 features ### All Features - 360 Degree Feedback: Tools for collecting comprehensive feedback on an employee from peers, subordinates, and manager - Activity Dashboard: Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities - Analytics: Tools for the systematic analysis of various types of data or statistics - API: Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases - Assessment Management: Creation, administration, and evaluation of assessments or tests - Background Screening: Researching and validating a person's criminal, educational, job or financial records - Billing & Invoicing: Create, manage, and send invoices or bills to customers - Boolean Search: Capability to use a search engine via operators like AND, NOT, and OR - Candidate Management: Build, track, and maintain relationships with candidates - Candidate Profiles: Record candidates' information such as role, professional qualifications, experiences, skills or attributes - Candidate Tracking: Record interactions, notes, and developments with candidates - Career Development: Process of enhancing skills & experiences for continuous professional growth & advancement - Collaboration Tools: Provides a channel for team members to share AI models, media files, communicate, and work together - Compensation Management: Manages compensation such as salary, bonus, and benefits processes, aligning with policies - Competency Management: Catalog, manage, and develop employee skill sets - Compliance Management: Track and manage adherence to policies for any service, product, process, or supplier - Compliance Tracking: Track and report regulatory data to either internal management or external stakeholders - Continuous Feedback: Provide ongoing performance feedback to employees on a regular basis, rather than giving feedback at designated times - Course Management: Create, organize, and assign courses to users - CRM: Built-in customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities or integration with a third-party CRM system - Customizable Templates: Pre-designed layouts that can be customized to match preferences and requirements - Dashboard: Assembly of graphs and charts for visualizing and tracking statistics/metrics - Electronic Forms: Digital forms that are shared and accessed online - Employee Database: Electronic storage of staff/employee contact information and job status in a centralized repository - Employee Engagement: Tools to improve and measure employee satisfaction and involvement - Employee Management: Track employee schedules, availability, and performance across projects and tasks - Employee Profiles: Centralized storage for employee data, records, and performance metrics - Goal Management: Allows employees to set and manage work or career related goals - Goal Setting/Tracking: Establish measurable goals and objectives and track their progress over a specific period of time - Individual Development Plans: Document completed by employee to assist with career and personal development to reach short term and long term goals - Internal HR: Designed to be used by internal recruiters or HR hiring managers - Interview Management: Create and track interviews with a reminder system - Interview Scheduling: Plan, organize and set up the date, time and location of a candidate's individualized interview - Job Posting: Post, track, and manage open jobs on multiple channels (e.g. job board, company's career site) - Job Requisition: Request a new hire, explain the need, and determine available budget - Learning Management: Organize and track educational activities - Mobile Access: Access software remotely via mobile devices - Offboarding: Closing out contracts by reviewing contract/project completion, finalizing payments, and ensuring terms and compliance as been achieved - Onboarding: Process of familiarizing new clients, stakeholders or employees with the company, a new location, or a service - Ongoing Performance Tracking: Provides real-time feedback and assessments on employee performance, skills, and accomplishments - Orientation Workflow Management: Create orientation programs for new employees or students - Peer Appraisals: Peer/teammate feedback and review on individual's performance - Performance Management: Organize and manage the accomplishments and development of employees or performance of applications or systems - Performance Review Management: Create, fill out, and send performance reviews to individual employees - Progress Tracking: Reporting on how each user, task or process has advanced since its initiation - Question Library: Pre-written repository of questions that can be reused within a course or for assessment or interviews - Rater Selection: Process of choosing individuals who will assess and provide feedback on an employee's performance during a performance appraisal - Recruiting Firms: Designed to be used by external or 3rd party recruiting or staffing firms - Recruitment Management: Tools to find, assess, and hire suitable candidates for a job within an organization - Reference Checking: Process used by hiring managers to get more information about a candidate by contacting previous employers - Reporting/Analytics: View and track pertinent metrics to find patterns and gain insights from data - Resume Parsing: Automates the extraction and analysis of key information from resumes or CVs - Resume Search: Search through the software for stored resumes - Review Cycle Tracking: Follow the progression of a task associated with performance reviews - Self Assessment: An individual's evaluation of his or her own strengths, weaknesses, and skills - Self Service Portal: Online portal through which end users can access the system, manage tasks, or obtain information - Skills Assessment: Observe employees over a period of time to gain an understanding of their abilities to perform certain tasks - Social Media Integration: Integrate with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. - Succession Planning: Planning, tracking and developing internal talent for future key position filling - Surveys & Feedback: Gauge satisfaction and receive information for improvement and success - Talent Management: Integrate with Talent Managment software to better track learners progress and training sessions - Task Management: Create, manage and track all task activities and progression - Training Administration: Back-office tasks (i.e. schedule courses, organize resources, course registrations, and email reminders) - Training Management: Track employee/learner's progression through training programs - Weighted Performance Measures: Assess skills, outcomes and results using preset metrics and averages - Workflow Management: Create, design and manage workflows for repetitive tasks --- Get Advice We can help you find the software with the features you need. Features 3.0 (3) 3.0 Based on 3 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 2.0 (3) Basic $10,000 Flat Rate,Per Year Value for money 2.0 (3) 2.0 Based on 3 reviews Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs. ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 2.3 (3) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 2.3 (3) 2.3 Based on 3 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 2.7 Based on 3 reviews Filter by rating 5(0) 4(0) 3(2) 2(1) 1(0) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent AN Anonymous User Workforce Planning Bureau Chief Government Administration ### "Difficult to use, lacking functionality" 2.0 Overall Rating 2.0 2.0 Ease of Use 2.0 2.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 2.0 2.0 Likelihood to Recommend 1/10 September 12, 2018 Their sales pitch and communication at first was great. I don't know if the company was maybe going through some change. It didn't work out for us. Pros Initial customer support and the sales pitch sure sounded great. As we got closer to contract closing, things changed. Cons lacking desired functionality which was originally promised, customization that was advertised and promised was not there. High startup and implementation cost. We ultimately did not close on the contract and moved on to a different solution. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. KD katie D. ### "Difficult Administration Functionality" 3.0 Overall Rating 3.0 3.0 Ease of Use 2.0 2.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 2.0 2.0 Likelihood to Recommend 0/10 February 7, 2017 It's easy for staff and most supervisors to use this solution, but the administrative user roles are complicated. It seems like they took pieces of functionality from other systems and smashed them together. I have a gut feeling they are not experts in their code. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MC Madeleine C. ### "Needs an update" 3.0 Overall Rating 3.0 3.0 Ease of Use 3.0 3.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 3.0 3.0 Likelihood to Recommend 6/10 December 15, 2016 SumTotal seems like a clunky, outdated software to use. User experience is awful and frustrating, but I suppose it at least works. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. ## Top-rated software of 2026 ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.