Buddy Punch vs. Patriot Payroll

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Buddy Punch
Score 9.1 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Buddy Punch is an online time tracking, scheduling, and payroll application. Track time, time off, locations, and jobs. The solution aims to help make punching in and out intuitive for employees and easy for users to view and export time. Employees can clock in using a browser or the Buddy Punch Google, iOS, and Android apps. Users can view who's working, their GPS position, or even limit where they can punch. The solution integrates with QuickBooks, ADP, Paychex, and SurePayroll, to name a…
$5.49
per month per user
Patriot Payroll
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Patriot Software headquartered in Canton, Ohio offers Patriot PAY, their benefits administration and payroll software.
$174
Pricing
Buddy PunchPatriot Payroll
Editions & Modules
Starter
$5.49
per month per user
Pro
$6.99
per month per user
Enterprise
$11.99
per month per user
Basic Payroll
$17/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
Accounting Basic
$20/mo (unlimited use)
Accounting Premium
$30/mo (unlimited use)
Full Service Payroll
$37/mo + $4 per employee/contractor
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Buddy PunchPatriot Payroll
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThree plans are available via a monthly or annual payment option. Each plan has a per user price and a base fee of $19. There are no startup, cancellation, support, or additional fees of any kind. A discount is available for the annual payment option.Patriot Software has two payroll options to choose from: Basic Payroll, and Full Service payroll software. Both start with a simple three-step payroll process. With the Full Service Payroll, Patriot will collect, deposit, and file federal, state, and local payroll taxes on the customer's behalf; end-of-the-year payroll tax filing is included at no extra charge. Print W2s on 8 x 1/2 x 11 plain white office paper to hand to employees, or post to the free employee portal. Also, Patriot Software offers free direct deposit.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Buddy PunchPatriot Payroll
Considered Both Products
Buddy Punch
Chose Buddy Punch
It features a feature that Connecteam dislikes: GPS tracking, PTO monitoring, and photo capture when someone logs in and out.
Chose Buddy Punch
It's been over 15 years where I had to punch in for work. I did this with two different companies. Prior to this, both of those companies had their own personal punching system. It was much harder to use than this when it came to editing or entering in PTO. Even though I …
Chose Buddy Punch
I really like everything about Buddy Punch.
Chose Buddy Punch
going from Paychex Flex to Buddy Punch has been a huge improvement! For peace of mind and time management. As a manager, it's streamlined for me with the website being easy to use and navigate. I am very thankful for the move.
Chose Buddy Punch
This was the first platform this organization has tried to implement. I cannot remember if we used a trial on another company like this.
Chose Buddy Punch
I would prefer Buddy Punch, every day, any time.
Chose Buddy Punch
When we decided to try Buddy Punch we were using a normal time clock and needed to have a better way to track time. I reviewed a few products, but went with Buddy Punch and have been happy ever since.
Chose Buddy Punch
Buddy Punch was chosen for it's security. In the past service we used had a breach in their user base, i.e., it was hacked. We found Buddy Punch easy to access and edit.
Chose Buddy Punch
I have not used any other product that I can remember. I used whatever system the retail stores had when I worked there short term and part time 6,7, 8 years ago.
Chose Buddy Punch
I have not reviewed or evaluated any other similar products and this is the first time I am using this type of product. I have been a salaried employee for 25 years and this is my first contract position, but Buddy Punch has made the time tracking very simple and efficient.
Chose Buddy Punch
I did not use a system prior to Buddy, but when comparing they were the best price and had all the features I needed.
Chose Buddy Punch
We originally scheduled and ran payroll through Homebase, but in the last few months the software became very buggy, customer service was slow and when they did respond, was not helpful. When we cancelled our account they didn't even try to make things right. We are so happy …
Patriot Payroll
Chose Patriot Payroll
I haven't tried any online ones.
Chose Patriot Payroll
Paychex is considerably more expensive software granted they have services and analytics that are not available in Patriot. I am a small business with a tight budget, and that's why I ultimately selected Patriot Software because I can reinvest the savings in so many ways.
Chose Patriot Payroll
Overall a much easier to use interface, a more competitive price point, excellent customer service—just what we needed for our small nonprofit.
Chose Patriot Payroll
I briefly used Intuit Online Payroll, and it was expensive, had no support, and was very frustrating to use.
I also used 3 local tax companies for payroll - they were extremely expensive and messed up all of the time. Their employee turnover was very annoying (and it seemed to …
Chose Patriot Payroll
Patriot Payroll is cheaper with their partner program and customer service seems better. As well Quickbooks Desktop Payroll specifically was charging per direct deposit action which is cost prohibitive and Quickbooks customer service is virtually non existent. As well, Patriot …
Chose Patriot Payroll
I found Patriot Software to offer the best price and service package for me to be able to process payroll for a number of my smaller clients while still allowing me to make a profit on the added revenue.
Chose Patriot Payroll
Quickbooks Online Payroll is literally the devil. They make things unclear, very difficult to tell what has been filed and what has been missed, hard to adjust owner salary whenever you want. I hate it! Gusto is more robust than Patriot and so for bigger companies with more …
Chose Patriot Payroll
I did an internet research and it seemed like Patriot Pay was the most user-friendly and affordable and I am glad I chose Patriot.
Chose Patriot Payroll
My early experience with Gusto was exceptional...then the wheels started falling off. I won't go into the details but I lost a couple payroll clients due to their errors and was on the verge of losing more. That coupled with massive fee increases made it necessary to find …
Chose Patriot Payroll
I did A LOT of research prior to making a decision on which software to use. Patriot had an abundance of high reviews, so I finally decided to give them a try. And while I don't normally find reasons to rave about software, I loved both the product and the service!
Chose Patriot Payroll
I switched from ADP to Patriot PAY almost 2 years ago. I switched because Patriot was a much better financial deal. Also, Patriot has MUCH better customer service than ADP. They have an online chat, which is very quick and easy to obtain an answer. They also (usually) …
Chose Patriot Payroll
I don't think that Patriot PAY is more powerful than QuickBooks. However, it is way cheaper and so much easier to use.
Chose Patriot Payroll
I prefer Patriot to Paychex for several reasons. First of all, for a small business with less than 10 employees, the fees charged by Paychex are unnecessary overhead when Patriot offers high quality and more than sufficient tools to perform the same tasks. Paychex also does not …
Chose Patriot Payroll
Cost is the major factor here, but the ease of use (and design of the interface) is a big advantage for Patriot PAY. Items are (ironically) more "intuitive" to find and manage in Patriot PAY than Intuit. Patriot PAY is closer to ADP/Gusto/Paychex in how it looks and feels and …
Features
Buddy PunchPatriot Payroll
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Buddy Punch
-
Ratings
Patriot Payroll
8.3
Ratings
1% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
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Buddy PunchPatriot Payroll
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User Ratings
Buddy PunchPatriot Payroll
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Buddy PunchPatriot Payroll
Likelihood to Recommend
I think that is very convenient as far as tracking your employees when they are punching in or out to ensure they are physically at the location they are supposed to be for that shift. I also think that the option to download this app to your personal phone is amazing, it makes it more convenient to punch in or out when you aren't near a laptop or a residence to use one. The feature of being able to attach a note with your punches explaining possible late punchers or absences is very beneficial to the employee allows show proof if needed.
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Patriot is well suited for an office with a small staff without complicated tax issues to manage. My office had 2 employees: one full-time and one part-time. There were no 1099's issued, and no special tax exemptions or other special tax situations for employees. The owner was a sole proprietor, so she was not paid as an employee through Patriot. It was easy to quickly run simple payroll tasks on a bi-weekly basis in my situation. However, I believe a more complex situation with more employees would still be suitable for this software if there was an employee dedicated to performing payroll and human resources tasks. Information must be manually entered each payroll period and submitted before 8pm to process at the scheduled pay date, so if there was not a dedicated employee for the task, it would be easy to end up paying employees a business-day late. I know that Patriot offers add-on services for human resource tasks, such as time sheets and tools to manage sick days, benefits, and record employee attendance. I did not require these extra services, but I like that Patriot offers services a la carte so that there is no need to pay for tools you do not need
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Pros
  • Customer service is the best we've seen! Their knowledge base is clear, and when we do have a question it can't answer, we get a quick, informed solution.
  • The software allows us to schedule our staff seamlessly for work in more than one department in a day, so tracking how many payroll hours are being used in each department is easy.
  • The reporting for Payroll hours is easy and fast.
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  • Patriot's software is very easy to use for running payroll. It takes about 30 seconds to do.
  • The payroll reports are abundant, easy to find and print, and make my accounting very easy.
  • Having a full service payroll provider as easy to use as Patriot leaves me with more availability to focus on treating patients and running other aspects of my business.
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Cons
  • the simplicity can go to far in that direction. So it seems a bit sparse at times. Theres a lot of dead space on some page landings.
  • update on colors to be more vibrant and fun.
  • menu buttons to go to particular specifics like vacation and sick submissions
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  • The third party direct deposit processor Patriot previously used was not particularly easy to work with...but Patriot just brought all direct deposit processing in house.
  • Clergy housing allowance has to be manually entered each payday. They tell me they're close to adding the capability of making it (and other similar pay types) as a recurring item.
  • The setup process is geared toward novice users who need to be hand-held through the process. That's great for those who need it but a more streamlined, no-frills process payroll pros would be welcome.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It works well because it is cheap for us.
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Usability
Buddy Punch is really easy to use. It's easy to punch in and out when needed as it's on the home page. It's also easy to track your colleagues who are on leave so you know how to plan for coverage. This makes it easy for us to adjust accordingly.
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I think it is great once things are setup as for general user looking to look for simple things like a copy of a paystub or a current pay rate for an employee. However, to find specialized things like a state withholding number or payroll integration settings those do require a bit more digging to find or possibly a call to customer service for help.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Generally speaking it is pretty good that when I need to call somebody up for a payroll question I can generally within five minutes get somebody on the phone and they can help me resolve the problem or specify where specifically I need to go or contact to find my answers. However, that being said, for my specific situation as a partner my assigned contact has not always been very responsive.
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Alternatives Considered
I have not reviewed or evaluated any other similar products and this is the first time I am using this type of product. I have been a salaried employee for 25 years and this is my first contract position, but Buddy Punch has made the time tracking very simple and efficient.
Read full review
Cost is the major factor here, but the ease of use (and design of the interface) is a big advantage for Patriot PAY. Items are (ironically) more "intuitive" to find and manage in Patriot PAY than Intuit.

Patriot PAY is closer to ADP/Gusto/Paychex in how it looks and feels and operates in a full-service capacity, but it is much more affordable.
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Return on Investment
  • Improved Efficiency: Allows us to track time when employees are on site.
  • Reduced Costs: Able to avoid unnecessary OT due to employees getting alerts.
  • Reduced Costs: No longer paying an employee to tally hours like when we used a regular time clock.
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  • Patriot allows the entire team to be on the same page when it comes to a campaign or donor. All of the information is in one place to see how much a donor gave or communication with that donor by a specific team member.
  • It provides comparative historic data and donor analysis. The organization of donations by appeal allows teams to know which campaigns were successful in previous years.
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ScreenShots

Buddy Punch Screenshots

Screenshot of the Administrator's DashboardScreenshot of Time Off CalendarScreenshot of Schedule View

Patriot Payroll Screenshots

Screenshot of the 3-step process to carry out payrollScreenshot of the Payroll interface, which can be used run payroll on any device with internet or data connection. There is no need to download and maintain a separate payroll app.Screenshot of a payroll report, to sort by work location, employee, and date range.