6 Best Paylocity Competitors 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Payroll Services.
Paylocity is a highly rated human resources (HR) and payroll software. Designed to automate employee management processes, its integrated suite of cloud-based solutions can help simplify basic to advanced HR tasks—from hiring and pay processing to performance management and training tracking. However, it’s better suited for medium and larger businesses.
If Paylocity is too expensive for you or does not quite meet your needs, there are many high-quality alternatives to choose from. These are our top six Paylocity competitors:
- ADP: Best overall Paylocity alternative
- Paychex: Best for expanding businesses that need a system that scales with them
- TriNet Zenefits: Best for budget-conscious businesses and those in highly regulated industries
- Rippling: Best for tech-dependent businesses wanting modular HR, payroll, and information technology (IT) solutions
- Papaya Global: Best for multinational businesses requiring international payroll and employer of record (EoR) services
- Gusto: Best for small businesses needing inexpensive and simple payroll with some HR services
Paylocity and Its Top Competitors Compared
If you’re not sure how to choose the best payroll and HR software for your needs, then check out our guide on how to choose payroll software for suggestions.
Paylocity is one of the pricier HR and payroll services we review, but it offers a lot of excellent features. Its system can take your employee from hiring to retiring, providing you with integrated solutions for handling payroll, performance reviews, compensation planning, and training tracking with ease. It can serve companies with fewer than 25 employees but is better for midsize and larger businesses.
Some of its standout features include automatic expense reimbursement, pay-on-demand functions (for pay advances), flexible benefits management for all 50 states, scheduling and time tracking, and hiring tools. The learning module comes with an online course builder if you want to create your own program, although Paylocity has 600-plus prebuilt courses that you can access. Robust third-party integrations are also available—allowing you to connect its platform to more than 300 software. However, because of its price and focus on larger businesses, it rarely makes it into our best-of lists.
If you want to learn more about Paylocity before deciding, check out our Paylocity review.
ADP: Best Overall Paylocity Competitor
Pros
- Offers pay card as well as direct deposit and check options for payroll
- Excellent range of integrations
- Easy to set up and use
- Excellent compliance support
- Has a wide suite of HR and payroll products, such as ADP Run for payroll and ADP TotalSource for PEO services
Cons
- Setup fees
- Need custom quotes; many things cost extra
- Long hold times when calling support
ADP Plans For
- Small businesses (1 to 49 employees)
- Medium businesses (50 to 999)
- Large businesses (1,000-plus)
ADP Pricing
ADP has custom pricing, depending on the services you need and the plans you choose.
Here are the quotes we received for some of ADP’s products:
- ADP Run (starter Essential plan): $40 per weekly pay run plus $3 per employee monthly
- ADP TotalSource: $85 per employee monthly
ADP is probably the priciest Paylocity competitor on our list. However, we also consider it the best because of the wide range of features it offers, its decades of experience, its overall user-friendliness, and the fact that it can work with both small companies and huge international corporations.
It has a robust product list with services and solutions for managing local and global HR processes. ADP Run for small businesses offers four plans, from simple payroll to payroll plus HR tools. For midsize businesses, ADP Workforce Now offers plans from basic payroll to complete HR management with performance and learning tools. Meanwhile, ADP TotalSource is a complete human capital management (HCM) program designed for businesses with over 1,000 workers. Finally, if you need a professional employer organization (PEO) that offers competitive benefit plans, ADP can cover that too.
ADP Is Featured In
ADP Run and ADP’s other HR products appear in many of our buyer’s guides, such as:
Paychex: Best for Growing Businesses
Pros
- Suite of integrated HR solutions, such as Paychex Flex for payroll, that you can add as your business grows
- Excellent benefits selection, especially for financial wellness tools
- Dedicated payroll specialist
- 24/7 US-based customer support
Cons
- Pricing isn’t all transparent
- Payroll tax administration and W2/1099 year-end reporting cost extra
- Doesn’t offer unlimited pay runs
Paychex Plans For
- Solopreneurs and household employers
- Small businesses (1 to 49 employees)
- Medium businesses (50 to 999)
- Large businesses (1,000-plus)
Paychex Pricing
Most of Paychex’s HR solutions require you to contact the provider to request a quote.
For its payroll tool, Paychex Flex, only the fees of its starter plan are posted on its website.
- Paychex Flex Essentials: $39 base fee plus $5 per employee monthly
Paychex is a well-known and versatile payroll service with a multitude of HR tools. While it offers basic plans, it lets you add items, meaning that as your needs change, you can add or subtract tools accordingly.
Paychex works with all sizes of businesses. It even added a solopreneur plan—something you won’t find with any of the other services on our list (except ADP). While its basic plans for small businesses are great, more than 10% of its customers are companies with more than 1,000 employees, which is a sign that it’s a good service to grow with.
Paychex Is Featured In
TriNet Zenefits: Best for Businesses on a Tight Budget & in Highly Regulated Industries
Pros
- Unlimited pay runs
- Tailors your plan to your industry
- Fees decrease when Social Security or unemployment rate maximums are reached
- Has an affordable starter Essentials plan (with basic HR tools)
Cons
- Payroll tool and HR/payroll expert advising cost extra
- No health insurance available in Hawaii
- Dedicated reps for larger businesses only
TriNet Zenefits Plans For
- Small businesses (1 to 49 employees)
- Medium businesses (50 to 999)
TriNet Pricing
Three plans*:
- Essentials: $10 per employee monthly
- Growth: $18 per employee monthly
- Zen: $27 per employee monthly
Contingent workers: $6 per worker monthly with any plan
Add-ons*
- Payroll: $6 per employee monthly
- HR advisory services: $10 per employee monthly
- Benefits administration if you have your own broker: $5 per employee monthly
*All plans and add-ons require at least five employees.
TriNet Zenefits offers inexpensive, HR-first solutions, costing you as little as $10 per employee monthly—making it best for businesses on a tight budget. This easy-to-use platform handles onboarding, PTO tracking, performance reviews, and more. Its robust compliance solutions and compliance status tracking tool also make it great for companies in highly regulated industries. TriNet has a PEO we also recommend for highly regulated industries because it can adapt its services to your industry, meeting your needs for insurance, compliance, and benefits, as well as for safety regulations.
TriNet Zenefits Is Featured In
- Best HRIS Systems
- Best HR Software for Small Businesses
- Best Human Resources Payroll Software
- Best Performance Management Systems
Rippling: Best for Tech-reliant Businesses That Need Modular HR, Payroll & IT Tools
Pros
- Modular HR, payroll, and IT solutions to build your own system
- Easy to switch PEO option on and off
- Over 500 third-party integrations
- IT tools make provisioning and deprovisioning computers and apps easy
- Has global payroll and EoR services
Cons
- Must purchase core Workforce Management solution first
- Limited employee payment options
- Gets pricey as you add features
Rippling Plans For
- Small businesses (1 to 49 employees)
- Medium businesses (50 to 999)
- Large businesses (1,000-plus)
Rippling Pricing*
- Custom plan**: $35 base fee plus $8 per employee monthly
- Global payroll: $20 per employee monthly
- Global contractor payroll: $20 per employee monthly
- EoR services: $599 per employee monthly
Other Per-Module Costs*
- App, device, and computer inventory management: $8 per employee monthly
- Benefits administration: Pricing varies, depending on your insurance broker
- HR help desk: Custom priced
*Pricing is based on a quote we received.
**Includes Rippling’s core workforce management platform, full-service payroll, and time tracking.
Rippling is a favorite provider for us and among real-world users. The interface is one of the most intuitive we’ve seen, especially when it comes to third-party integrations. The modular approach can take you from simple HR administration, through payroll, and up to a full-service PEO. Even more, the PEO option can be turned on and off at will. Modules are individually priced, but you need to call for a quote. But, act fast! If you sign up before December 1, 2023, your first month is FREE.
Its IT modules allow you to onboard software and hardware easily or Rippling can handle it for you, making it the top choice for companies that depend heavily on software applications to run their business.
In terms of company size (based on the number of employees), 40% of Rippling’s user base are large businesses (as of this writing). For revenue, the majority are small and large companies.
Rippling Is Featured In
Papaya Global: Best for Multinational Businesses
Pros
- Transparent pricing
- Payroll, contractor management, and EoR services cover 160-plus countries
- Compliance support includes worker classification checks for contractors
Cons
- EoR can get expensive; high starting price
- Lacks performance and learning management
- Support not 24/7
Papaya Global Plans For
- Small businesses (1 to 49 employees)
- Medium businesses (50 to 999)
- Large businesses (1,000-plus)
Papaya Global Pricing
- Global payroll and payments: Starts from $12 per employee monthly
- EoR: Starts from $650 per employee monthly
- Contractor management: Starts from $2 per employee monthly
Add-on
- Data and insights platform license: Starts from $150 per location monthly
We suggest Papaya Global as an alternative to Paylocity for multinational companies that want to jump to a complete global PEO service (called EoR) or seek a payroll company to handle paying all its international employees. It has three plans with transparent pricing, and each of these includes payroll, local tax filing, full benefits management, and HR support. You can choose from payroll-only, complete Global EoR, or a contractor-only plan that includes HR support.
Since Our Last Update:
Papaya Global has changed some of its pricing plans, reducing the per-worker monthly fees of its EOR (from $770 to $650) and contractor management (from $25 to $2) plans.
Papaya Global Is Featured In
- Best PEO Companies
- Best International Payroll Services
- Best Payroll Services for Small Businesses
- Best Employer of Record Services
Gusto: Best for Small Businesses That Need Inexpensive & Simple Payroll
Pros
- Contractor-only plan works for international contractors, too
- Easy to use
- Unlimited pay runs
- HR solutions include hiring, onboarding, and performance tools
Cons
- Not good for larger businesses
- Health benefits unavailable in all 50 states
- Time tracking and PTO management included only in premium plans
Gusto Plans For
- Small businesses (1 to 49 employees)
- Small-medium businesses (50 to 100-plus)
Gusto Pricing
- Simple: $40 base fee plus $6 per employee monthly
- Plus: $80 base fee plus $12 per employee monthly
- Premium: Custom-priced
- Contractor-only payroll plan: $35 base fee plus $6 per contractor monthly
Add-ons
- State payroll tax registration: Pricing varies per state
- HR advisory services for Plus plan only: $8 per employee monthly (this is included for free in the Premium tier)
- International contractor payments across 90-plus countries: Custom priced
Gusto makes our list because it’s consistently a top choice for us for small business payroll. If you have fewer than 100 employees and are in any of the 37 states where it offers health insurance, you’ll find Gusto offers excellent services at a great price. These include unlimited payroll, HR solutions for hiring and onboarding, and benefits like health, vision, dental, flexible spending account (FSA)/HSA, and 401(k) insurance.
Gusto Is Featured In
How We Chose the Top Paylocity Competitors
When looking for the top Paylocity alternatives, we naturally chose top-rated HRIS payroll software, many of which you can find in our other reviews. Therefore, the question is not which is best, but which is best for your needs. Since Paylocity primarily serves medium and larger businesses, most of the products on this list do so as well—Gusto being the exception, in case you’re a small business needing a smaller alternative. The rest cover the gamut and can grow as your business does.
Bottom Line
There are many worthy Paylocity alternatives out there. We looked at six of the best for different use cases. All of them have earned high marks from us in this and other reviews. However, we think ADP is the top competitor. While pricier, it offers a huge feature set, an abundance of payroll and HR tools, and plans to fit you no matter what your business size.
Contact ADP for a demo and quote to get started.