Rippling vs Workday: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Rippling reported $1B of revenue in FY2026 and — of net income. Workday reported $9.6B of revenue in FY2026 and $693M of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
Rippling
Rippling is private and does not publish audited financials. Sacra estimates annualized revenue of about $850 million at the end of 2025 and $1 billion by March 2026. CNBC reported that Rippling crossed $1 billion in ARR in 2025. In April 2026 Parker Conrad said revenue was growing 78% year over year, and that growth had sped up for three straight quarters. Rippling has raised about $1.8 billion in equity, most recently a $450 million Series G in May 2025 at a $16.8 billion valuation, along with a $200 million employee tender offer.
Workday
Workday reported fiscal 2026 revenue of $9.552B, up 13.1%, with subscription revenue of $8.833B, up 14.5%. GAAP operating income was $721M after $303M of restructuring costs, and GAAP net income was $693M, or $2.59 per diluted share. In Q2 fiscal 2027 (quarter ended July 31, 2026), revenue rose 12.8% to $2.649B and subscription revenue rose 13.9% to $2.471B. GAAP operating margin was 11.8% and non-GAAP operating margin was 31.1%. Diluted EPS of $2.57 included a one-time $1.52 per share tax benefit from an internal IP transfer. The company bought back about $1.3B of stock in the quarter and the board added a $4.0B repurchase authorization.
Revenue and profit by year
Rippling
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $1B | — | 0.0% | +17.6% | Source |
| FY2025 | $850M | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
Workday
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $9.6B | $693M | 7.3% | +13.1% | Source |
| FY2025 | $8.4B | $526M | 6.2% | +16.4% | Source |
| FY2024 | $7.3B | $1.4B | 19.0% | +16.8% | Source |
| FY2023 | $6.2B | -$367M | -5.9% | +21.0% | Source |
| FY2022 | $5.1B | $29M | 0.6% | +19.0% | Source |
| FY2021 | $4.3B | -$282.4M | -6.5% | +19.0% | Source |
| FY2020 | $3.6B | -$480.7M | -13.3% | +28.5% | Source |
| FY2019 | $2.8B | -$418.3M | -14.8% | +31.7% | Source |
| FY2018 | $2.1B | -$321.2M | -15.0% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Rippling
- HR and payroll subscriptions
Per-employee monthly fees for payroll, benefits administration, time tracking and recruiting.
- IT subscriptions
Fees for app provisioning, single sign-on, password management and device management.
- Finance and global products
Spend management, bill pay, card interchange, plus employer-of-record and global payroll fees.
Workday
- Subscription services
About 92% of fiscal 2026 revenue
Recurring fees for HCM, Financial Management, planning, payroll, learning, and AI products; $8.833B in fiscal 2026.
- Professional services
About 8% of fiscal 2026 revenue
Deployment, training, and advisory services that support customer implementations.
Business model and strategy
Rippling
How it makes money
Rippling sells subscription software, mostly priced per employee per month. Customers start with a core platform (the employee record, org chart and permissions) and add modules: payroll, benefits, time tracking and recruiting in HR; app provisioning, single sign-on and device management in IT; corporate cards, expenses and bill pay in finance; and employer-of-record and global payroll for staff abroad.
Growth strategy
Rippling grows by adding products to the same platform and selling them to existing customers, a strategy Conrad calls the 'compound startup'. Its current focus is on Rippling AI, which turns plain-language requests into actions across HR, IT and finance, on global payroll and employer-of-record services for companies hiring abroad, and on moving upmarket to larger employers.
Competitive advantage
Rippling built its HR, IT and finance products itself instead of buying them, so they all run on one data model. When an employee is hired, promoted or let go, that one change can update payroll, software access, the laptop and the card limit automatically. Competitors that grew through acquisitions or that only do one of these things usually need integrations to do the same work.
Workday
How it makes money
Most of Workday's revenue comes from multi-year cloud subscriptions. In fiscal 2026, subscription revenue was $8.833B of $9.552B total, about 92%. The rest is professional services: deployment, training, and advisory work, much of which is handled alongside implementation partners. Customers usually start with HCM or Financial Management and later add planning, payroll, recruiting, learning, and AI agent products.
Growth strategy
Workday is pushing AI agents built on its HR and finance data, adding integration and learning capabilities through acquisitions (Paradox, Sana, Pipedream), selling Financial Management into its HCM base, and expanding industry-specific offerings. It is pairing that with cost cuts and large share buybacks.
Competitive advantage
Workday's main advantage is a single data model shared across HR, payroll, finance, and planning, which it has run as a multi-tenant cloud service from the start. That gives AI agents clean access to employee and financial records, and Workday argues its agents are safer because they act through the same business-process rules and permissions as human users.
Questions about Rippling vs Workday
Which company has higher revenue — Rippling (People Center, Inc.) or Workday, Inc.?
Rippling (People Center, Inc.) reported $1.0B (FY2026), while Workday, Inc. reported $9.6B (FY2026). By last reported revenue, Workday, Inc. is the larger business, with Rippling (People Center, Inc.) reporting a smaller revenue base.
What is the market cap of Rippling (People Center, Inc.) vs Workday, Inc.?
Workday, Inc. has a market capitalisation of $51.0B. A public market cap figure for Rippling (People Center, Inc.) was not available (it may be privately held).
Which is more financially efficient — Rippling (People Center, Inc.) or Workday, Inc.?
Workday, Inc. generates $453k / employee in revenue per employee. A comparable figure for Rippling (People Center, Inc.) requires matching employee and revenue data from the same reporting period.
How do Rippling (People Center, Inc.) and Workday, Inc. make money?
Rippling (People Center, Inc.) and Workday, Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Rippling (People Center, Inc.): Rippling sells subscription software, mostly priced per employee per month. Workday, Inc.: Most of Workday's revenue comes from multi-year cloud subscriptions.
Is Rippling (People Center, Inc.) bigger than Workday, Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Workday, Inc. ($9.6B (FY2026)) is the larger company compared to Rippling (People Center, Inc.) ($1.0B (FY2026)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Rippling vs Workday overview