<p>In this paper, a comparative investigation of different intriguing physical parameters (i.e. eigenfrequencies, susceptance, participation factor, and energy dynamics), for piezoceramics and piezopolymer composites are investigated in order to balance energy harvesting capability with enhanced sensing efficiencies. As a proof of concept, piezoceramics including lead-zirconate-titanate family (PZT4, PZT5A, and PZT8), barium titanate (BaTiO₃), aluminum nitride (AIN), NEPEC6, lithium niobate (LiNbO₃), and piezopolymers including polyvinylidene-fluoride (PVDF), polyvinylidene-fluoride-trifluoro-ethylene (PVDF-TrFE), and nylon 11 are selected for investigation. Simulation results confirmed that among the lead-zirconate-titanate family, PZT8 offers extremely high mechanical stiffness even at elevated eigenfrequencies (~141.32 KHz), which makes it suitable for high-frequency actuation applications. In contrast, PZT4 and PZT5A reveal significant susceptance peaks around 40 KHz and 90–100 KHz eigenfrequencies and substantial variation in susceptance (0.0031–0.0040 S <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">\(),\)</EquationSource> <EquationSource Format="MATHML"><math> <mrow> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mo>,</mo> </mrow> </math></EquationSource> </InlineEquation>, thereby indicating enhanced sensing properties. On the contrary, BaTiO₃, NEPEC6, and LiNbO₃ offer relatively lower sensitivity owing to insignificant susceptance fluctuation in different eigenfrequencies. A comparative study shows that NEPEC6 is more energy efficient compared with polymers PVDF. Among the piezoceramics family, PZT5A demonstrates the most significant displacement along the <i>z</i>-axis, whereas PZT4 and PZT8 exhibit a higher effective modal mass, hence lower energy efficiency. Moreover, it is observed that soft materials including nylon 11 exhibit lower energy conversion efficiency, whereas, rigid materials (e.g. BaTiO₃, NEPEC6) are capable of storing and releasing greater amounts of energy.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>