ActiveCollab vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCollab
Score 4.4 out of 10
N/A
Active Collab is a project management solution built around features such as task management, collaboration, time tracking, and invoicing.
$8
per member/per month
Paylocity
Score 7.8 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
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Editions & Modules
ActiveCollab Project Management
$8
per member/per month
Self-Hosted Plan
$999.00
license
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup Fee$6.25 per member, per month, annual billingNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
3.7
13 Ratings
68% below category average
Paylocity
-
Ratings
Task Management6.012 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling1.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.513 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology7.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management3.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration4.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access1.510 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking2.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management2.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
5.7
8 Ratings
26% below category average
Paylocity
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates6.97 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing6.96 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.94 Ratings00 Ratings
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.8
846 Ratings
0% below category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.5797 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings8.2778 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings7.8715 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings7.6727 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings7.1667 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings7.8649 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings7.5555 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.1
834 Ratings
1% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings8.6810 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings7.3381 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings8.5580 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.2554 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings8.9809 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.2641 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.9395 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.6
697 Ratings
6% below category average
Approval workflow00 Ratings7.9618 Ratings
Balance details00 Ratings7.4667 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment00 Ratings7.4517 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.3
846 Ratings
2% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information00 Ratings8.5823 Ratings
Update personal information00 Ratings8.6837 Ratings
View company policy documentation00 Ratings8.0664 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.3580 Ratings
View job history00 Ratings8.3702 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.5
237 Ratings
3% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings7.5237 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.0
772 Ratings
8% below category average
Report builder00 Ratings7.0738 Ratings
Pre-built reports00 Ratings7.4752 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data00 Ratings6.5448 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.2
720 Ratings
2% above category average
New hire portal00 Ratings8.3716 Ratings
Manager tracking tools00 Ratings8.0558 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.4
373 Ratings
10% below category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.4282 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.4344 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.3244 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings7.4347 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.4
479 Ratings
7% below category average
Performance plans00 Ratings7.2428 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.2354 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings7.4440 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings7.5442 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings7.6362 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.1
220 Ratings
10% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings6.7147 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.1180 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings7.4200 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.4161 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.7
452 Ratings
1% below category average
Job Requisition Management00 Ratings7.8371 Ratings
Company Website Posting00 Ratings8.1395 Ratings
Publish to Social Media00 Ratings7.7304 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings7.7370 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings7.0310 Ratings
Applicant Tracking00 Ratings8.0415 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings7.9413 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
3.8
(13 ratings)
7.7
(881 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(82 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(58 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(9 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(9 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(3 ratings)
7.2
(79 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(33 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(7 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(4 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.6
(7 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(8 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCollab
Scenarios where ActiveCollab works well 1) ActiveCollab works well for small teams specifically T&M teams.Its invoicing feature is unique & can make your life easy. 2) It is very easy to use & posses good range of filters like on the task list, we can drag/drop tasks, Filter by assignee's,
tasks lists, due dates, or completed tasks. 3) It has some simple but awesome features like when you're in
the middle of writing something i.e a comment on story and get interrupted,
it retains what you wrote. 4) It allows you to tag team members in threads of comments to grab their attention, its really needed when teams are distributed. Thus helping team members to collaborate easily & stay on same page. 5) It integrates pretty well with other web apps like quickbooks , Slack, Trello, HubSpot, Zapier etc Scenarios where ActiveCollab did not work well 1) Tasks can not have multiple assignee's here so if two members are working on same task it did not allow you to reflect that. 2) Sorting capability is not their under invoicing 3) It did not work well for larger teams 4) Search option is not very detailed & you may end up wasting lot of time searching one particular bug or issue.












Read full review
Paylocity
Paylocity works well for our organization. Ease of use for our managers and employees is very important. Makes it easier for us in HR to manage. Time and attendance works very well. Efficient and effective. Payroll runs very smoothly. We appreciate the performance and compensation module for tracking employees performance, journals and getting feedback and annual compensation.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCollab
  • Great for project and task assignments, project workflow and communications.
  • Solid web-based platform that doesn't require software downloads, also includes great mobile platform.
  • Great reporting tools for managing billing, estimating, project workflow and other essential project details.
  • Allows for both the agency and its clients to interact on a single platform using role-specific permissions.
Read full review
Paylocity
  • Customer Service is always helpful with little wait time.
  • Always improving; for example, the recent change to processing payroll. So much easier.
  • Onboarding makes it simple and the fact that the company can personalize the messaging to new hires allows us to make it more personalized.
  • Having an assigned account manager regardless of company size is definitely a plus.
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCollab
  • It isn't possible to set members of staff as part time, so if someone is unavailable on certain days you must manually enter them as OOO every single day that they are not in, that other teammates work. Hours also can't be edited individually - everyone is treated as working the same hours in a day, rendering capacity planner useless for flexi working teams
  • Subtasks cannot be assigned their own hours and deadlines, meaning the To Do list view can't be seen in actual date order and capacity planner does not reflect all time allocated to an individual's schedule unless every task is set up as a separate task rather than subtask
  • There is no way to see all tasks of a certain type across multiple campaigns (e.g all copywriting tasks vs all technical tasks) - support team suggested exporting data and making spreadsheets
  • Kanban view isn't available for people's own task lists ('board' view here shows a list)
  • Not possible to have one task be assigned to more than one person
  • Notifications are not sent when tasks are updated, so you have to leave comments and tag people each time
Read full review
Paylocity
  • Recruiting piece/ATS could be improved.
  • A candidate being able to save progress on their application is really a must as they can't leave and come back to their application without having to restart, i.e. if they need to get a phone number for a reference for example.
  • Could use more room in entering the job for internal notes.
  • Quirky when doing cut and paste of job details that leaves spaces that aren't in the document being pasted.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
We have had many issues with the way our platform was set up at implementation that still continue to plague us. In addition, our benefits, in particular our FSA, have been mis-managed causing a balance due from an employee (and also a lot of work for our accounting and HR team, as well as stress for the employee). Our service rep continues to answer incorrectly on many fronts (original response is usually check out this paylocity article, vs. helping) and recently our COBRA management was mishandled (not adding Dental to a person on Cobra who had requested it). So- all in all...we are not particularly happy w/ Paylocity
Read full review
Usability
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Overall, in my experience, Paylocity has been easy to use for both staff and administrators. First, the staff has an application and inputting Paid Time Off is easy to do. I then get an alert on my app and I am able to approve it on the spot from my app that gives me access as an employee and an administrator without having to use multiple apps or logins. As an administrator I think the portal is easy to use, Paylocity did a great job showing me tools and rolling out training classes before rollout.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Paylocity support is always available and I never have to wait endlessly on hold. If our dedicated account manage is not available, there is an entire team assigned to our account. Every one of them is knowledgeable about our organization and Paylocity's process.
Read full review
Performance
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
pages load in an acceptable amount of time, reports come back quickly, but integration is very complicated and hasn't been possible
Read full review
Support Rating
ActiveCollab
We have not required support for ActiveCollab as it works pretty seamlessly. We didn't have any issues with using the platform or with any billing issues. The self-service aspect of the platform is robust and easy to navigate so we have not encountered any errors that required assistance from the support team.
Read full review
Paylocity
Everyone wants immediate assistance. Awaiting a response from an email only to ask 2-3 more questions is time consuming. Within the first six months of setup, I would rather respond back to the instructors who provided me the training in each category of my contract.
Read full review
Online Training
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
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.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
I had gone through an implementation process of another HR platform (Paycom) in my previous job and was traumatized, it was painful. I was surprised how easy and fast it was with Paylocity, the team was very helpful and set us up for success
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is easier to use and simpler in its setup. It has the right mix of features and simplicity. It's also project-oriented which is important for our workflow. Other tools are often too task-oriented, making it hard to track projects. Overall, ActiveCollab has a great mix of simplicity with good features.
Read full review
Paylocity
We honestly had a program that only kept track of our Demographics, salaries, etc. then all of our Payroll was done on paper with paper leave slips etc. When I saw Paylocity, I was very excited about how easy it is/would be to use. [...] Our Paylocity rep that I spoke to was super GREAT in the explanation of Paylocity and I didn't even shop around much.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
I wasn't involved in the sales process. I joined the organization after Paylocity was implemented.
Read full review
Scalability
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
You have an account manager assigned to you on a daily basis but that person is barely available to you
Read full review
Professional Services
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Support is quick and proffessional
Read full review
Return on Investment
ActiveCollab
  • Allows our team to stay organized and keep conversations on tasks.
  • The To-Do List email every morning helps me mentally prepare and know exactly what I should be doing as soon as I start work.
  • Powerful and useful integrations save lots of time (Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, Zapier and more!).
Read full review
Paylocity
  • Definitely more consistent processes. Everything is very user friendly and it reduces the amount of time it has taken us in the past before we started using Paylocity. Everything flows super smoothly.
  • We have an improved retention since we have used Paylocity. Before hand, many employees thought it was difficult to find anything like tax forms, pay stubs, benefit elections, etc. when we used other platforms before we implemented our data into Paylocity.
  • Costs have been reduced and the decision-making process has improved and got quicker. Before Paylocity, it would take at least a week to get a salary increase approved, or a job title change approved. Now, it take less than a day and is super easy.
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCollab Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboard with an overview of projects.Screenshot of multiple task views currently showing a Kanban view of the tasklists and tasks.Screenshot of Overview of all recent activity.Screenshot of Calendar view with task dependencies.Screenshot of Permission settings (owner, member, client, client+).Screenshot of List of available Add-ons.