2023 Rippling vs Paychex: Which Is the Right HR Solution for You?

Rippling and Paychex provide businesses with human resources (HR), tax, compliance, and payroll service support. They both help companies manage employees of all types, such as salaried, hourly, contract, remote, and foreign. However, Rippling has a wider suite of online solutions and makes it easy for you to mix and match the HR, payroll, and information technology (IT) services you need (customizing a-la-carte style). Paychex, on the other hand, focuses on offering a range of combined payroll and HR solutions.

Here are our recommendations to help you determine whether Rippling vs Paychex is the ideal HR software for you:

• Rippling: Best for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) that need a strong employee management and payroll system, especially those with remote and international workers
• Paychex: Best for businesses planning to scale significantly that need payroll services and HR support

Rippling vs Paychex Compared

The providers have many similar features such as employee onboarding and full-service payroll with tax payment and filing services. Rippling and Paychex also offer time tracking, paid time off (PTO) management, hiring, employee benefits, learning tools, and employee self-service solutions. Below are some of the standout features.

*Pricing is based on a quote we received; includes payroll, time tracking, and access to Rippling’s core workforce management platform.
**Some benefits plans cost extra or have participation fees.

When to Use Rippling

With workforce management as Rippling’s core platform, you can easily organize your employee information to ensure data accuracy across its wide range of solutions. It also comes with customizable workflows, enabling you to automate tasks and maintain efficient processes.

Rippling also offers hiring, time tracking, employee benefits, learning management, and payroll modules, which are all available separately but fully integrate with its workflow management platform. You can get the platform and its payroll module first and then add other solutions as needed. It has basic IT tools to help you manage business apps and laptops that you assign to employees. Rippling will even assist you in ordering laptops for your new employees and installing business software, security profiles, and more before they get started.

Visit Rippling

When to Use Paychex

Paychex’s base product is Paychex Flex, which includes full-service payroll in all of its plans and integrates seamlessly with other Paychex products, such as time tracking. It has several entry points, so whether you’re a solopreneur or a 50- or 200-employee business, you have options that will fit your needs. Its diverse packages and 24/7 support also make it great for companies planning to grow over time. If you choose a premium plan or add features, you can get access to HR consulting, hiring and onboarding services, benefits, reporting, and compliance experts.

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When to Use an Alternative

*Includes payroll add-on ($6 per employee monthly); requires at least five employees.

Best in Pricing: Rippling

*Pricing is based on a quote we received; includes payroll, time tracking, and access to Rippling’s core workforce management platform.

Rippling is one of the few HR services that allow you to create a custom plan with the solutions you need—provided you get its core workforce management platform. This is great for businesses that want a mix of HR, IT, and payroll tools to streamline day-to-day processes. If you have business offices outside of the United States, Rippling can help you hire and pay international staff with its EOR and global payroll services. You only get international payroll with Paychex but through its partner, FMP Global. Plus, Rippling doesn’t charge setup fees as Paychex does.

However, as with most HR software, the cost will increase as you add more features and advanced support options. You also have to pay extra to get support from HR experts, a service that Paychex offers in the higher tiers of its Paychex Flex plans, along with access to a dedicated payroll specialist.

In our evaluation of Rippling vs Paychex for pricing, Paychex received a low score in this criterion (2.88 out of 5) because it charges setup fees and doesn’t offer unlimited pay runs. With Rippling, you don’t have to pay extra to set its system up and run multiple payrolls, including off-cycle payments, in a month.

However, the Paychex Flex Essentials plan is still a good payroll system for small business owners, especially those with a handful of employees to pay on a monthly basis that only need basic HR payroll tools. To run payroll for nine workers, Paychex will only charge you $84 monthly (computed as nine employees X $5 plus $39), whereas Rippling costs $107 monthly (computed as nine employees X $8 plus $35). Although note that Rippling’s plan includes time tracking tools (based on the quote we received), which is a paid add-on with Paychex.

Paychex is also optimal for solopreneurs given its Paychex Solo plan (Rippling doesn’t have this). This package comes with incorporation services, pay processing tools, expert payroll support, and a 401(k) plan for self-employed individuals who want secure retirement savings.

What’s also great about Paychex is its flexible payroll plans, which is ideal for businesses with plans to scale. You can start from either its Paychex Solo or Paychex Flex Essential plan and then upgrade to higher packages or get additional Paychex products (like hiring, time tracking, and PEO services) as your HR needs grow.

Rippling vs Paychex Pricing Calculator

If you want to compare how much you would pay if you are considering Rippling vs Paychex, use our online calculator.

Best for Payroll: Rippling

While both providers offer full-service payroll and can handle payments for contractors, hourly workers, and salaried employees, Rippling’s payroll tax administration services are more budget-friendly. It doesn’t charge additional fees for year-end tax reporting (this costs extra with Paychex).

It’s also great for businesses with employees working in different countries because its solid global payroll tools can help you pay them accurately and in their local currencies. It’s even one of our recommended international payroll services. With Paychex, you get similar tools but through its partner, FMP Global.

If you want multiple payment options, Paychex can help you pay employees via same-day ACH, two-day direct deposits, manual checks, and pay cards. For employers who prefer to pay via manual checks, Paychex provides check logo and signing services if you need them. Rippling only offers checks that you print yourself and direct deposit payments.

Best for HR Features: Paychex

In our evaluation of Rippling vs Paychex for HR features and benefits, Paychex outscored Rippling, earning perfect marks in this criterion. Its advanced HR tools are slightly more robust, providing both learning and performance management solutions. Rippling doesn’t have online tools to track employee performance at work.

Paychex’s financial wellness program is also one of the things that set it apart from Rippling. It grants you and your employees access to financial management tools and educational resources as well as short-term loans. Plus, you only need to upgrade to Paychex Flex’s higher tiers to get dedicated HR and payroll support, which is a paid add-on for Rippling.

Rippling makes HR management easier with its automated features, such as applicant and document tracking, onboarding and training, and employee information management tools. Data flows seamlessly across its various HR and payroll solutions, even extending to IT provisioning and deprovisioning, allowing you to manage business apps and laptops assigned to employees with ease (Paychex doesn’t have IT tools). This is ideal for businesses with remote workers because Rippling can help you retrieve company laptops from resigning staff at the end of their last working day and remotely lock computer access for security.

If you’re looking to outsource your day-to-day HR and payroll tasks, Rippling offers a PEO service that is more flexible than Paychex’s. For example, if you decide that you no longer need a PEO, Rippling allows you to directly turn this service off from your account and then start using its HR platform again. This flexible option is one of the reasons Rippling is included in our top PEO companies guide. With Paychex, you have to go through a service cancellation process before you can use its online solutions again.

In terms of employee benefits, Rippling can help you compare and enroll in more than 4,000 benefits plans. It also offers Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) compliance, but this is a paid add-on.

Best for Reporting: Tie

In the battle between Rippling and Paychex for reporting, both earned perfect marks. The two providers offer standard payroll and HR reports, including customization options. However, if you want a more robust reporting tool, we recommend Rippling. It has filters and Excel-like formulas that you can add to reports. Getting employee-related information from Rippling and its network of partner apps is also possible, allowing you to extract the data you need without having to open third-party systems separately to run reports.

Paychex may not have Rippling’s Excel-like formulas and robust reporting that even includes employee-related data from third-party partner apps, but it has the capability to compare your HR data against industry benchmarks. This enables you to use data-driven insights for building business cases to help improve HR services and processes.

Best for Ease of Use & Customer Support: Paychex

In comparing Rippling vs Paychex for ease of use and customer support, Paychex scored 3.5 out of 5 while Rippling only received 2.75 out of 5. Both providers have platforms that are intuitive, relatively easy to use, and come with setup wizards. However, Paychex’s 24/7 chat, phone, and email support and guided system setup (if you subscribe to its Paychex Flex Pro plan) boost its scores up a bit. These features also make it a better choice for small business users who need expert assistance in setting up Paychex Flex and navigating through its features.

It didn’t get a higher rating in this criterion because its integration options aren’t as robust as Rippling’s 500-plus partner systems. It also lost points since its dedicated payroll support isn’t available across all plans. As of this writing, you have to subscribe to its higher tiers to enjoy this service.

Rippling lacks the phone support and setup help that Paychex offers to its clients, which is why it scores lower. It does, however, provide you with a more extensive network of third-party software integrations (more than 500 versus Paychex’s 50-plus options). This makes Rippling an ideal HR software for tech-heavy companies, as it’s highly likely that the business systems they typically use are included in the provider’s robust partner network.

Best for Popularity Among Users: Tie

To evaluate Rippling vs Paychex user popularity, we looked at each provider’s average number of user reviews and the average overall ratings on third-party review sites like G2 and Capterra. Both received perfect marks in this category but, in terms of ratings from actual users, Rippling outscored Paychex (4.85 vs 4.15 out of 5).

What Users Think: Rippling vs Paychex

How We Evaluated Rippling vs Paychex

We compared Rippling vs Paychex by using a five-star scale designed to assess HR payroll solutions and services for small businesses. We compared both providers’ features—from pay processing and tax filings to HR tools and employee benefits options. We also looked into other key criteria, such as ease of use, pricing, and customer support, including whether users have access to expert professionals who can provide HR and payroll advice.

Click through the tabs below for a detailed breakdown of our evaluation criteria:

Bottom Line

When selecting between Paychex vs Rippling, you’ll want to consider how much support you need and in which areas you require extra help. Rippling provides integrated HR and payroll solutions, app and device management tools, US-based PEO services, and global EOR support. These make it suitable for businesses needing robust employee management, pay processing, and IT features. Meanwhile, Paychex is optimal for growing businesses needing HR and payroll support, mainly because of its scalable plans and products that cater to different business sizes.