On 9 September 2026, Cegid and Silae announced a merger that would create a technology group valued at over €10 billion (Cegid-Silae: a €10 billion merger). For any HR director or CFO running a company with 200 to 2,000 employees in France — whether already on Silae or simply due for a payroll platform renewal — this announcement raises a legitimate question: is now the right time to reassess the market?
This guide answers that question with a clear-eyed analysis of four payroll solutions suited to mid-sized companies operating in France.
The French Payroll Market in 2026: A Merger That Changes Everything
Background on the Merger
Silver Lake — majority shareholder of both Cegid (since 2016) and Silae (since 2020) — has decided to merge its two assets and build a European champion in business management software. The combined entity will bring together Cegid’s accounting, tax, and finance suite with Silae’s payroll platform. It will serve 2 million end-customers, over 15,000 partner accounting firms, and process 13 million payslips per month across Europe (Silicon.fr, September 2026).
Closing is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. No migration timeline or transition pricing has been announced yet.
What This Means for Current Silae Customers
Silae is today the reference payroll platform among French accounting firms: it processes 7.8 million payslips per month and is used by approximately 950,000 businesses — mainly through their accounting firms.
The question HR and Finance directors are asking is not “Will Silae disappear?” — the answer is no. It is: “Will my pricing and roadmap be affected, and how will I know?” The uncertainty around third-party connectors, the durability of existing ERP integrations, and post-merger pricing all justify reviewing the market, even without immediate urgency.
Why Now Is the Right Time to Compare
A payroll software RFP (including migration) typically takes four to six months. If your Silae contract comes up for renewal within the next 18 months, starting a competitive review now — before the terms of the Cegid-Silae integration are finalized — puts you in a stronger negotiating position.
Six Criteria for Selecting Payroll Software for a French Operation
1. French Regulatory Compliance: DSN, Net Employeur, Urssaf Updates
France’s DSN (Déclaration Sociale Nominative) is a mandatory monthly payroll data filing that has been in force since 2017; its specifications are updated every year. The Net Employeur simplified payslip, mandatory since 2018, must be generated correctly by any compliant system. In 2027, France’s new “payroll event-date rule” (fait générateur de paie) will come into force — it will require payroll items to be attributed to the pay period they relate to, regardless of when they are actually paid. This structural change requires the ability to reopen and amend closed payslips. Ask every vendor how they handle this specifically.
2. Multi-Collective-Agreement Coverage (Multi-CCN)
French labor law requires companies to apply one or more conventions collectives (sector-level collective agreements, or CCNs) — there are over 700 active CCNs in France. A multi-subsidiary company may apply three to five different CCNs across its entities. Multi-CCN management is not a configuration detail: it is the most discriminating robustness test for a French payroll platform. Ask for a live demo with two simultaneous CCNs before signing anything.
3. HRMS and ERP Connectivity
Native REST API vs. CSV import/export: the difference translates to several hours of manual work per month. For a company already running an ERP (SAP, Sage, Cegid, Odoo), the availability of native connectors directly impacts total cost of ownership. See also our analysis on integrated HRMS vs. dedicated payroll module.
4. Multi-Establishment and Multi-Entity Management
A mid-sized company growing through acquisitions may manage five to fifteen separate legal entities in the same payroll platform. Check the granularity of multi-establishment management: entity-level configuration, signatory delegation management, consolidated reporting.
5. Bonuses, Profit-Sharing, and Complex Benefits
Intéressement (profit-sharing), participation (statutory profit-sharing), company savings plans (PEE, PERCO), stock options, BSPCEs: these French schemes require specific configuration that not all platforms handle with the same level of reliability. For a company with a formal profit-sharing agreement, this criterion can eliminate several candidates outright.
6. True SaaS Architecture, Service Level, and SLA
A natively cloud-built platform (not a legacy on-premise system relaunched in cloud hosting) reduces maintenance costs and guarantees automatic regulatory updates. Ask about SLAs in the event of an incident on payroll run day, and about the onboarding model — dedicated consulting or a generic support hotline.
Silae by Cegid: What Happens for Existing Customers?
Silae’s Current Strengths
Silae has built its position on two core advantages. The first is the depth of its French CCN coverage: with near-automatic regulatory updates, it is the reference platform for accounting firms managing clients in sectors with complex collective agreements (construction, hospitality, transport). The second is its collaborative model: the platform streamlines the handoff between the accounting firm and its client, with a shared workspace for entering variable payroll items.
What Is Confirmed, What Remains Uncertain
Confirmed post-announcement: no service interruption, progressive integration with the Cegid ecosystem (accounting, e-invoicing), ambition for a unified platform. Still uncertain: renewal pricing, compatibility of existing third-party connectors, handling of the 2027 payroll event-date transition.
Who Should Stay on Silae
Staying on Silae is rational if:
- Your accounting firm manages your payroll and already uses Silae (switching creates more friction than value)
- Your company is on the smaller end (fewer than 300 employees) with standard CCNs and limited ERP integration requirements
- Your contract does not come up for renewal before mid-2027
In all other cases, a market comparison exercise is warranted.
ADP Decidium: The International Reference
Positioning and Coverage
ADP is one of the world’s leading payroll and HCM vendors, with 64,000 employees present in 140 countries. In France, ADP processes the payroll of 3 million employees each month (ADP France). ADP Decidium comes in two tiers: Decidium PME for companies with 200 to 499 employees, and Decidium GE for mid-market and large enterprises with 500 to 5,000 employees.
ADP Decidium Strengths
International robustness: for a company with subsidiaries outside France (Germany, Spain, Benelux, UK), ADP is one of the very few platforms capable of managing multi-country payroll in local compliance standards from a single interface.
Extended HCM scope: payroll, time management, talent management (recruitment, training, compensation), HR analytics — the functional footprint is comprehensive, and the modular architecture allows companies to start with payroll alone.
Managed payroll option: ADP also offers partial or full payroll outsourcing services, which is an attractive lever for a company that does not want to build the entire competency in-house.
Weaknesses to Anticipate
The initial configuration complexity is real: launching ADP Decidium across a multi-establishment, multi-CCN perimeter can take six to nine months with a dedicated project team. Pricing is at the high end of the market. Support for very specific CCNs (agriculture, associations) can be less responsive than with specialist French providers.
Ideal Profile
Companies with 400 to 2,000 employees in France, with European subsidiaries or international growth ambitions, with a structured HR team and a meaningful HRMS budget.
Cegedim RH: The French Challenger
Positioning
Cegedim RH, with its Teams RH suite, is a French vendor whose mastery of CCNs and French employment law is comparable to Silae’s. Its positioning is that of a fully-featured, modular SaaS HRMS — with native time and attendance management (GTA) built in, which neither Silae nor ADP Decidium offer without an add-on module or third-party integration.
Cegedim Teams RH Strengths
Native time and attendance: time tracking and absence management are embedded in the core suite with no connector to maintain. For a company in manufacturing or healthcare, where hours tracking is complex, this is a structural advantage.
French CCN mastery: Teams Paie is pre-configured with the legal and collective agreement rules for all major French CCNs. The rate of automatic regulatory updates is high.
ATS and training integration: the HR scope is broad, with recruitment and training management modules directly connected to payroll, which simplifies the management of training costs and OPCO (skills operator) reporting.
Limitations
Cegedim RH is weaker on international coverage: the solution is optimized for France and a few French-speaking countries. For a company with entities in Germany or the Netherlands, you will need connectors to a local solution or should consider ADP instead.
Ideal Profile
Companies with 200 to 1,000 employees operating primarily in France or French-speaking markets, with strong time management requirements and an in-house HR organization.
SD Worx: The European Alternative
An Accelerating Presence in France
SD Worx is a Belgian group specializing in payroll and HR, with a strong foothold in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. In France, SD Worx accelerated its presence with the integration of Paie & RH Solutions in 2026, which added local market depth and a volume of 130,000 payslips processed per month (SD Worx France).
SD Worx Strengths
Real pan-European coverage: for a company with two to five entities across different European countries, SD Worx is one of the very few vendors offering locally compliant payroll (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, UK, Spain) from a single interface and a unified contract. This is the key differentiator versus ADP in the 250–1,000 employee segment.
Belgian and Dutch maturity: in those markets, SD Worx is the undisputed leader. For a company with Belgian or Dutch ownership operating in France, the solution simplifies HR consolidation.
Service-oriented approach: the SaaS platform can be combined with managed payroll services, backed by strong domain expertise.
Maturity Varies by Market
In France, SD Worx is still in a growth phase compared to Silae or ADP. Its French customer base is smaller, and integrations with common French HRMS tools (Lucca, Kelio, Eurecia) are less documented. This is a point to verify carefully during demos.
Ideal Profile
Companies with 250 to 2,000 employees with entities in Belgium, the Netherlands, or Germany; or companies seeking a pan-European alternative to ADP with a French-based commercial contact.
Comparison Table: Four Solutions Across Six Criteria
| Criterion | Silae by Cegid | ADP Decidium | Cegedim RH | SD Worx |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| French DSN compliance / regulatory updates | Excellent | Good | Excellent | Good |
| Multi-CCN France coverage | Excellent | Good | Excellent | Moderate |
| Native time & attendance (GTA) | No (third-party module) | Add-on module | Yes (native) | Yes (via Protime) |
| Native ERP connectors (SAP, Cegid, Sage) | Cegid native | Standard connectors | REST API | REST API |
| Multi-country Europe coverage | France only | 140 countries | France + select countries | 10+ EU countries |
| Data migration included | Contract-dependent | Paid project | Paid project | Paid project |
Note: none of these vendors publish list pricing for the mid-market segment. Observed market ranges run from €15 to €45 per payslip per month, depending on functional scope, volume, and service level. Always request a fully loaded cost including implementation.
Recommendations by Company Profile
200–500 employees, France-only, payroll managed through an accounting firm Stay on Silae or move to Cegedim RH. Both have deep French CCN expertise and strong local regulatory coverage. If time and attendance is a priority, Cegedim RH has the edge with its native GTA.
500–2,000 employees with European subsidiaries (two or more countries) ADP Decidium or SD Worx. ADP for global coverage or more than five countries. SD Worx if your footprint concentrates on Northern and Western Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany) with France.
Silae customer wanting to stay in the Cegid ecosystem Keep Silae, monitor the Cegid-Silae integration roadmap once it is published post-close (expected Q1 2027). The potential upside of a unified accounting-and-payroll platform can be real, particularly for companies already running Cegid XRP or Cegid Expert.
Silae customer wanting to get ahead of the integration Launch an RFP now, before post-merger contract terms are set. Three natural candidates: Cegedim RH (French challenger, comparable CCN depth), ADP Decidium (for international requirements), SD Worx (for multi-country Europe). Budget four to six months for the migration project.
Checklist: 10 Questions You Must Ask in Every Demo
- How does the platform handle France’s new payroll event-date rule (fait générateur) effective 1 January 2027? Can it reopen and amend a closed payslip?
- Which CCNs are pre-configured natively? How many regulatory updates were deployed in 2025?
- What is the SLA if there is an incident on payroll run day? Who do I call at 11 PM if the DSN fails to go through?
- Which connectors exist for my current ERP? Are they included in the base price or charged as an option?
- How is multi-establishment handled: can individual entities have different payroll rules within the same platform?
- What is included in the base price (time management, employee self-service, HR analytics) and which modules are optional?
- What is the typical implementation timeline for our scope? With what consultant profile?
- How are three years of historical payslips, leave balances, and active contracts migrated?
- What are the exit rights: can we retrieve all our data in a usable format if we change platforms?
- What is the all-in price (license + implementation + training + year-one maintenance) for our exact scope?
For further reading, see our full guide on the Cegid-Silae merger and its impact on French payroll and our analysis of integrated HRMS vs. dedicated payroll module. If you are managing payroll for fewer than 200 employees in France, our Lucca vs. PayFit vs. Factorial vs. Sage Payroll comparison is a better starting point.
