Paychex vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Paychex
Score 5.3 out of 10
N/A
Paychex Flex, of Paychex' Online Payroll Services, is a cloud-based human resource management and payroll platform. Paychex offers core and specialized services, and scales to meet the needs of small businesses, SMBs, and large enterprises.
$59
per month/+$4 per employee
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
PaychexPaylocity
Editions & Modules
Paychex Go
$59
per month/+$4 per employee
Paychex Flex Service
Contact sales team
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PaychexPaylocity
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
PaychexPaylocity
Considered Both Products
Paychex
Chose Paychex
They were alright, some of the same issues. Lots of turnover with payroll consultants.
Chose Paychex
More accessible and cost effective for our small business.
Chose Paychex
Both ADP and Paychex are very good at informing businesses of the latest changes regarding payroll. Not sure which one is better, but very much get the most out of each. Both are informative and always looking at additional topics in a world that is constantly changing. …
Chose Paychex
Paychex has been around for a long time and have used it at other organizations. The payroll functionality is the best out of the other systems I have used. They all are great with handling the HR needs of our organization but Paychex is the most streamlined.
Chose Paychex
We use BambooHR in tandem with Paychex. BambooHR is our timesheet service, and Paychex issues the checks/payments to our employees. Ideally we would use one service instead of two to achieve our payment and timesheet needs.
Chose Paychex
Paychex Flex has some room for improvement, I would choose ADP out of the different HRIS's I have used in the past
Chose Paychex
More user friendly works better for self service
Chose Paychex
I far prefer Rippling to Paychex Flex, with its easy to navigate interface and user friendly model. I also appreciate the payday emails from Rippling and the paystub breakdown. It is also very easy and simple to request and view PTO in Rippling. I really dread having to use …
Chose Paychex
In addition to the ones listed above, we also used BenePay, a local payroll company. We found Paychex Flex priced in the middle, with ADP the most expensive and too complicated, with many features that were unnecessary for us. We found that Paychex Flex's features and reporting …
Chose Paychex
I did not select Paychex. It was at 2 companies I started with and ended up having them switch out
Chose Paychex
Looking to switch over to ADP.
I think they are much less expensive
Chose Paychex
Based on what I've noticed, Paychex is comparable to DayForce, which has similar timekeeping functions. I think DayForce has a few easier-to-navigate tools from an Employee Self Service standpoint. iSolved is much better all around from my personal usage. If my company had more …
Chose Paychex
Gusto is more intuitive than Paychex and easier for smaller companies. Paychex has better customer support than Paylocity. Paychex is easier to navigate than Paycom.
Chose Paychex
I'm unable to give you a comparison because Paychex is the only payroll service I've used since I started my business over ten years ago. I've had no reason to explore other payroll services or make a change. I trust it will remain that way for as long as I'm in business.
Chose Paychex
The could not match the price we pay for the same service.
Chose Paychex
User interface and functionalities of Paycor edge out Paychex Flex, however, in my experience, Paycor has horrible service resulting in our discontinuation of services. I think Paychex Flex service is leaps and bounds above that of Paycor.
Chose Paychex
We didn't consider any other products.
Chose Paychex
many of your competitors are either more complicated to use or have major mistakes while using
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
PaychexPaylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.3
Ratings
7% below category average
Paylocity
7.9
Ratings
1% above category average
Employee demographic data7.40 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Employment history9.40 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.90 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.8.50 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Organizational charting1.00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Organization and location management9.10 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)6.70 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
9.2
Ratings
14% above category average
Paylocity
8.1
Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation9.70 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.20 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.90 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.70 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management9.20 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Reimbursement management9.60 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
6% below category average
Approval workflow8.50 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Balance details8.70 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.60 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
8.7
Ratings
8% above category average
Paylocity
8.4
Ratings
4% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information9.10 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Update personal information8.40 Ratings8.80 Ratings
View company policy documentation9.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
View job history7.60 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.5
Ratings
7% below category average
Paylocity
7.0
Ratings
14% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets7.50 Ratings7.00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.0
Ratings
7% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
Ratings
1% below category average
Report builder7.90 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Pre-built reports8.20 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data5.00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.0
Ratings
12% below category average
Paylocity
8.3
Ratings
5% above category average
New hire portal7.60 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Manager tracking tools6.30 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.9
Ratings
2% above category average
Paylocity
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Job Requisition Management7.80 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Company Website Posting9.40 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Publish to Social Media7.20 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.10 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention8.00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.10 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
Performance plans00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.2
Ratings
8% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PaychexPaylocity
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
PaychexPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
5.5
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.4
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
4.5
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.5
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.4
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.2
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PaychexPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
It's better for larger businesses (50+) with various types of pay structures. Employees need to be comfortable with technology to take advantage of the self-service features. I've struggled with the default in the state tax section; extra steps must be taken when an employee lives in a different state than they work, and we don't know where they live until after completing their profile. So we have to go into the system and make the corrections, then notify the employee to go in and complete the state-specific withholding forms and follow up to confirm they do so.
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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
  • It provides a well account of Retirement Plan Account Information.
  • Alerts are sent to email when there is new information to access.
  • Employee access both online and thru app.
  • Paperless options.
  • Easy and quick access to paystubs and tax forms.
  • Easy employee retirement management.
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.
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Cons
  • When it comes to audit reports, Paychex Flex could improve on helping clients locate the correct reports for audit purposes more easily
  • When a client receives a discount, it would be helpful if the discount were automatically provided each year, or if the Paychex rep proactively reached out to the client first, versus the client having to call and request that the discount continue.
  • It would be helpful if the invoice was emailed to the client versus the client logging in to access invoices.
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  • 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
there are a lot of competitors on the market such as BambooHR and Insperity. Paychex need to make significant improvement on their offline customer service in order to compete with the other guys. Everything is online now and timely response to customer's questions is vital. Customers won't enjoy being put on hold for 45 mins every time they have a question regarding their HSA problems
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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
Some things could be streamlined. For example, we could do custom options for the "add items" tab which has so many options that we never use. "Medical Pay" could be something that the system remembers for the applicable employees. Salaried employees' salaries should definitely be auto-filled. Overall the system works well but I think it could be improved to be easier to use and read.
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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
We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
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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
Unless there is lag time within the internet, the Paychex Flex website loads exceptional fast, pages load quickly and reports that I need to print or download load quickly. If I need to create a specialized report, once I complete it I receive an e-mail telling me my report is ready to be downloaded. Changing between web pages is fast as well.
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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
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Support Rating
Neil Williams makes this entire system work - without our direct contact with our professional advisor - this would be just like any other platform and the relationship would not have the dimension that is has. Using chat or phone support with a new person every time you need support wastes time, as generally the person you are talking to does not have an intimate knowledge of our company. By having an assigned professional representative that knows our companies, this provides a level of confidence of caring coming from the Paychex side.
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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
We did online training only
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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
It was easy to understand and follow along. I do like the informational videos that we can utilize before we opt to call in for customer service support. It has made a difference since sometimes that resolves the issue I may have had and saved myself a phone call to Paychex support.
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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
Implementation was very smooth. The most cumbersome task was entering the current employees into the system during initial set up, but Paychex staff handled most of that and verified against prior system reports as well as internal reports provided to ensure 100% accuracy.
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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
In addition to the ones listed above, we also used BenePay, a local payroll company. We found Paychex Flex priced in the middle, with ADP the most expensive and too complicated, with many features that were unnecessary for us. We found that Paychex Flex's features and reporting to be sized right for our size (around 30 employees). Paychex Flex also offered a very reasonable service to apply for the ERTC
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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
Employees can log in at home and get up to date information on their FSA balance and any medical bill reimbursements they may have uploaded. At renewal time they have the ability to make changes to their FSA or for new employees star the enrollment.
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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
  • With Paychex Flex we have been able to improve our compliance with required documentation for new/rehires
  • Moving everyone to direct deposit and mobile clock in/out eliminated lines at punching stations and paycheck pickup stations
  • Lost checks is a thing of the past
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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

Paychex Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

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.