Namely vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Namely
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Namely is an end-to-end HR, benefits, and payroll solution for mid-sized businesses. The cloud-based platform can be used to manage the entire HR process.N/A
Paylocity
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
Pricing
NamelyPaylocity
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
NamelyPaylocity
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
NamelyPaylocity
Considered Both Products
Namely
Chose Namely
We had used Namely in conjunction with Wurk for payroll and Ease for benefits enrollment. Unfortunately the "fraken-system" was very cumbersome to manage. The fraken-system was used due to the limited options in the cannabis industry for providers who were willing to work with …
Chose Namely
Namely has a robust suite of offerings, and fallows for a la carte selection of add-ons (rather than a single bundled option). This has allowed our company to save money by not purchasing options / functionalities that we dont need, but may drive up the cost for other …
Chose Namely
I do recall that Namely appeared to be user friendly. The big promise not provided was the connection between Namely and NetSuite.
Chose Namely
ADP Workforce Now, Workday Professional Services Automation and Paychex Flex
Chose Namely
Paychex Flex offered more support for the payroll side. All of the disadvantages that Namely has stem from the fact that Paychex Flex provided these benefits for us before. We selected Namely because it had more features in one place than Paychex Flex did. The feel for the …
Chose Namely
Our experience has traditionally been with entertainment focused HR providers, as our company added other business verticals a need for more traditional HR services became manifest. Namely filled the gap and while is still missing some of the more granular time tracking aspects …
Chose Namely
Namely functionally worked better for our company size and industry. Namely also provides a higher level of customer service and resolves problems timely. Their tax team takes care of all our questions or concerns. Namely provided a higher quality of service and HR workflows …
Chose Namely
Namely was able to check all of the boxes in the most affordable way
Chose Namely
We LOVE rippling and prefer this tool. I would recommend.
Chose Namely
UKG has many bells and whistles that may sound awesome, yet they are not always necessary to complete the tasks necessary. Sometimes less is more. Suppose you make a product so complex in some areas you lose the ease of use. I like that I was able to jump right into using this …
Chose Namely
Namely was selected for their price and all the integrations that it has.
We evaluated more softwares but they didn’t accomplish everything we wanted to made with Namely
Chose Namely
Namely does not compare to Workday because the size and scale of the company is very different. There are a lot of automated features and ATS integrations that Workday offers and I hope Namely will be able to offer someday as well.
Chose Namely
The reason I continued to choose Namely at multiple employers is due to the continuity of employee experience. And the features have continued to grow since I initially onboarded in 2014. Also, through the years, I have had terrific benefits teams. The customer service has been …
Chose Namely
The easy to use feature makes it countable on others. Its compatibilty with other platforms along with management for employee number and employee rating is making it more useful.
Chose Namely
This tool is uniquely different than work productivity tools. When running a growing company it is necessary to have a virtual HR Resource service and Namely has facilitated the need. When I came to work for our company this was my first experience with this type of software …
Chose Namely
BambooHR has eNPS, which is pretty helpful and allows us to send pulse surveys to employees to get an understanding of how they are doing. Namely doesn't have anything like that.
Chose Namely
I think namely is a more user-friendly version of Ceridian for the teammates; however, Ceridian definitely functions more completely.
Chose Namely
In my opinion, the worst in every way. I have talked to other people that do payroll and they steered away from Namely and chose things like Paylocity or others.
Chose Namely
As a user (not administrator) of Namely, I can say that offers an all-in-one human resources software package that I preferred compared to industry-standard tools like Workday because of its excellent design and usability. However, my company switched to Workday (which I don’t …
Chose Namely
We're currently evaluating alternatives, but there appear to be only features to gain no matter where we look.
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
ADP API Central, Paycom, Workday Adaptive Planning and Oracle API Platform Cloud
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity was the easiest from an employee perspective and also had the most intuitive workflows from the HR side. The ability to create our own reports was very important to us and the open API has meant it is easy to use and integrate with our other solutions as we grow.
Chose Paylocity
It was long ago, but we previously used ADP… not sure which version.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is much better than ADP
Chose Paylocity
ADP- the adp we had was old and outdated.

Paylocity is more modern and fun to look at
Chose Paylocity
SAP SuccessFactors HCM and UKG Pro
Chose Paylocity
we have only ever used Paylocity, but we were not huge fans of the pay
Chose Paylocity
I prefer the flexibility of Paylocity to Paychex. (I don't remember Flex or PEO; they might not have had those distinctions when I used them over 10 years ago.) I really like doing payroll all by myself when I have time to do it.
Chose Paylocity
Superior mobile app, reporting capability, ease of use for employees to leadership, system administration is simple.
Chose Paylocity
Found Paylocity as more user and administrator friendly.
Chose Paylocity
Our company previously used Exponent HR, and we have since transitioned to a paperless system with streamlined processes. I believe that each product has areas in which it works exceptionally well and also leaves room for improvement.
Features
NamelyPaylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Namely
7.0
Ratings
11% below category average
Paylocity
7.9
Ratings
1% above category average
Employee demographic data7.70 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Employment history7.90 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Organizational charting4.60 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Organization and location management6.30 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)8.30 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Namely
6.9
Ratings
14% below category average
Paylocity
8.1
Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation9.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors5.50 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment6.00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.10 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.90 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management4.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Reimbursement management6.60 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Namely
7.4
Ratings
8% below category average
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
6% below category average
Approval workflow6.50 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Balance details7.10 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.50 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Namely
8.3
Ratings
3% above category average
Paylocity
8.4
Ratings
4% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information8.50 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Update personal information9.10 Ratings8.80 Ratings
View company policy documentation7.50 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Employee recognition7.80 Ratings8.20 Ratings
View job history8.40 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Namely
5.9
Ratings
31% below category average
Paylocity
7.0
Ratings
14% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets5.90 Ratings7.00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Namely
8.2
Ratings
9% above category average
Paylocity
7.4
Ratings
1% below category average
Report builder8.50 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Pre-built reports8.50 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data7.50 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Namely
6.7
Ratings
16% below category average
Paylocity
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
New hire portal8.70 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Manager tracking tools4.80 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Namely
4.1
Ratings
64% below category average
Paylocity
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
Corporate goal setting6.00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Individual goal setting3.10 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility3.10 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Performance tracking4.10 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Namely
5.9
Ratings
28% below category average
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
Performance plans4.60 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Performance improvement plans2.20 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Review status tracking7.60 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Review reminders7.60 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.40 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Namely
5.9
Ratings
28% below category average
Paylocity
7.2
Ratings
8% below category average
Candidate search5.90 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Namely
8.8
Ratings
13% above category average
Paylocity
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management8.90 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.80 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.80 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting8.90 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention8.80 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.90 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.60 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Best Alternatives
NamelyPaylocity
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
NamelyPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.5
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
NamelyPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
Namely is nice because it has everything all in one place: performance, applicant tracking through Greenhouse, payroll, time off, hourly timesheets, and benefits. From the payroll side, Namely is especially helpful for remote employers who have employees in multiple states, especially Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. Namely will automatically update the payroll profile of the employee with the state and local tax for the work or home location, whichever the employer chooses. I have found a few mistakes with the local tax being assigned not matching the Ohio Tax Finder, but for the most part, it is accurate. It is also helpful that we can create multiple payrolls for multiple periods and they are included in the overall fee
Read full review
Paylocity appears to be well-suited for startups to large businesses. As with any product, finding the right price point for the services provided is the challenge. Always remember that one small company that would really appreciate the "benefits essentials" or some other part of the platform but can't afford them right now, may be the ones to get you that large company through word of mouth...IF they had been able to experience that part of the product and refer it to others.
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Pros
  • Namely has helped with our COVID sick leave response. It has made a major difference both with the weekly payroll and the 941 tax filing
  • Keeping track of our multiple PTO plans. Thank goodness for Namely, I have shredded my old PTO spreadsheets.
  • Employees like the convenience of the cell phone app. As a payroll administrator, I like the Geo Tracking tool where I can see where some are when the clock is in or out.
  • The flexibility inside of the payroll system both as you are finalizing an employee profile and when you are processing payroll is a major advantage.
  • The reports I get out of Namely in Excel format work well for me.
Read full review
  • Obviously, time and labor and payroll. It's time and labor time sheets are so easy, so easy for employees. We have been for many years a company that's allowed our employees to self-report that was easy to set up. California is a tough company or tough state to work in, so there's been a lot of restrictions and Paylocity has really helped us establish the rules and regulations and make sure we're compliant. We've recently moved to time clocks, so something that we had to do and that was a really easy transition to do and it's going very well. And also payroll. Payroll is so easy to run, so it's two good systems that I think have been really great.
Read full review
Cons
  • in my opinion, HORRIBLE performance review platform, we had a really hard time with it and would not recommend that you use this function
  • In my experience, poor customer service, difficult to get ahold of them when you need support
  • Capabilities are limited in comparison to other more robust HRIS systems
Read full review
  • We have had lots of year end issues specifically with Partners W2's.
  • We had an accrual issue that was causing 2 additional vacation/sick accruals per year.
  • When updating accruals- the paperwork to do so is confusing at times. I feel there is little support to assist you in filling the paperwork correctly to reflect what you need the accrual to actually do.
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Likelihood to Renew
Administrators and employees love Namely. It is very easy to use and streamlined. Employees stay engaged with news feed updates and enjoy all the self service options. The time cards are very easy to access and clocking in and out for non-exempt employees is a breeze. Namely is part of our family.
Read full review
We most likely will because we are learning how to use it better all the time. It does integrate with our Advanced Benefits. But the customer service is not responsive when needing help. It almost always requires several contacts to get anywhere, and the contacts can be several days apart. Once you actually get to TALK to someone, things are usually resolved fairly quickly, but their email system is not efficient. I get half answers and they close the ticket! But once I can get to someone, it is almost always great service. Very hard to get someone though.
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Usability
It is very simple to use for myself, the HR team, and our employees. I find the payroll process very user-friendly. Reporting is simple to navigate and produce the required information requested. I know our employees enjoy the self-service feature and use it on a regular basis, which saves me time.
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Staff hasn't had that many glitches and they don't come with as many problems as we had with, we had a DP before. And there will always be issues sometimes with time clocks, time, time we clocking in and stuff. We've really seen downsides with that. That staff is not complaining as much.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
Over the last 3 years, we've only had one major service issue that rendered Airbase unusable for us for about 24 hours. That said, they navigated the SVB bank crisis very well and made sure funds were available during that time.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
We had some minor hiccups throughout the year but they have all been fixable. Paylocity integrates well with our 401k provider, Principal, and our benefits, OneDigital. It makes it simple to house everything and have it all connected. It doesn't slow anything down to have Principal integrated. It makes it more efficient
Read full review
Support Rating
Unfortunately, in more recent years we've had a lot of difficulty with Namely as they've undergone a lot of internal changes. It took 4 returned emails saying the person no longer worked at Namely to find someone to help me (I finally called payroll) and it took a while to get connected with a direct source of help. Namely now has set up their "pod" feature of communication which works well for the most part, but is different. I felt spoiled when we first started with Namely, but now it feels very much like working with most large companies' help centers. There is a system to go through and you do have the option to click "urgent". In general the help is efficient, but it still takes a few days and it's hard to speak with someone directly. It is all done via online communications and is difficult to actually speak to someone on the phone. This works well for most cases, but I do feel frustrated more often than I'd like to with this type of communication. (2019/2020)
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I really appreciate that we are assigned a support manager. That person is very familiar with our set up, our needs and our history. However, I've spoken to others on the support team and have had very positive interactions and get the help needed.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
I didn't have in-person training, but I'm sure it was just as great as any other training/assistance Paylocity provides. Paylocity customer service is always available. You never have to be on hold and their answers are always accurate and timely. Documents in the help section are helpful as well. My in-person training was conducted y one of our employees who was involved in the initial set-up and training of all employees. She was excellent.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
The training was live online, but was with a group of other companies. We did not receive any personalized training with our team. Whenever we would ask for training, we would be sent a peak article link or a video. It felt like the reps we dealt with didn't know the answer to the questions.
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Implementation Rating
There were so many specialists in the implementation process; it would have been nice to have fewer people who had a more holistic understanding of the platform. Also, the onboarding meetings covered so much technical information that there was relatively little time for questions (though questions were invited). Eventually, everything worked out.
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We were handed off to multiple implementation people, some quit, one went on leave, one left suddenly, one was transfered to a diff dept...all causing a significant amount of disruption for our team. Many had conflicting info on how to properly set things up...hence a complete mess was left for us to figure out
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Alternatives Considered
We had used Namely in conjunction with Wurk for payroll and Ease for benefits enrollment. Unfortunately the "fraken-system" was very cumbersome to manage. The fraken-system was used due to the limited options in the cannabis industry for providers who were willing to work with us. We eventually transitioned to OnePoint to have an all-in-one system but also left it because it was not able to scale with the organization.
Read full review
I would say that Paylocity is a significant upgrade from my experience with Paycor. I would say that it's a similar product to Paycom. The one thing I liked, Paycom did pay the PTOA little bit differently. It was in real time, but Paycom did not value us as a customer and they lost us due the pricing. And then they've tried to come back and they've tried to match. They have tried to match Paylocity pricing, but we chose not to go back because we're happy with Paylocity and I'm not going to make a huge move like that if I'm happy where I am.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
We have gone from a medium sized company to a larger company with no issues whatsoever with Paylocity being able to keep up or do what we need it to do for the size of our needs. In fact, it does more than we even use at this juncture
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Return on Investment
  • When we were over 100, it provided a huge benefit to us due to the accuracy of payroll, benefits integration and management, and org chart and performance tracking. Having all of that in one place was a huge improvement from the former disjointed user experience.
  • When we dropped below 100 due to covid, our insurance rates went up 93% to offer comparable plans, and we had to move over to a PEO for benefits which meant we also had to move payroll. It was hugely disruptive, and now our employees have a bad experience when trying to manage their HR lives in multiple places. It is confusing and, again, disjointed.
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  • All of the above, the data is readily available so that we can actually see what our turnover ratio is or the data that we need to make decisions. So I think overall it made our process a bit more seamless. There are training that's readily available that we can deploy to our employees as opposed to creating it and it's customizable so we can add things to it that is specific to our organization and just build on to what's already there.
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ScreenShots

Namely Screenshots

Screenshot of the Namely employee dashboard. This creates a central hub to access payroll and benefits info, share announcements, celebrate milestones, and navigate everything HR, from a desk or on the go.Screenshot of Namely Payroll, which is backed by automation and built-in compliance.Screenshot of the Onboarding interface, for new hires.Screenshot of the Applicant Tracking interface, which supports processes from job posting to onboarding with tools for hiring teams and candidates.Screenshot of the Benefits Administration interface, which supports open enrollment, plan changes, and employee elections.Screenshot of the Workforce Management interface. From here, viewers can track time, manage schedules, and handle complex workforce needs.

Paylocity Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of real-time employee data and performance metrics used to uncover and analyze trends. This creates an impactful understanding of the business, increase retention, understand labor costs, and plan for changes.Screenshot of where to automate manual processes with Paylocity's self-serve automation engine, Workflows. Users can implement routines for time-consuming manual tasks.Screenshot of where to manage and comply with employment law. Paylocity's HR Compliance solution helps users to stay on track and view important employee compliance items, from Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), healthcare, and compensation.Screenshot of how Paylocity Recruiting can automate hiring processes. amplify outreach, showcase a company's culture, and build stronger candidate connections to swiftly fill positions.Screenshot of recognition and rewards in Paylocity.