ActiveCollab vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCollab
Score 5.2 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 8.1 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
3.6
13 Ratings
71% below category average
Paylocity
-
Ratings
Task Management5.412 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling1.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.213 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 Access1.210 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
27% 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
1001 Ratings
1% below category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.6946 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings8.2913 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings8.0850 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings7.6865 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings7.1794 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings7.8776 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings7.5667 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.2
976 Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings8.6950 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings7.6466 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings8.6705 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.4662 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.0946 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.2757 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings8.1473 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.5
823 Ratings
8% below category average
Approval workflow00 Ratings7.8732 Ratings
Balance details00 Ratings7.4784 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment00 Ratings7.4613 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.4
990 Ratings
3% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information00 Ratings8.5962 Ratings
Update personal information00 Ratings8.7981 Ratings
View company policy documentation00 Ratings8.1781 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.3696 Ratings
View job history00 Ratings8.4835 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.4
295 Ratings
6% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings7.4295 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.1
907 Ratings
7% below category average
Report builder00 Ratings7.1866 Ratings
Pre-built reports00 Ratings7.5884 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data00 Ratings6.8551 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.2
847 Ratings
2% above category average
New hire portal00 Ratings8.4841 Ratings
Manager tracking tools00 Ratings8.1665 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.7
457 Ratings
5% below category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.7350 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.7417 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.7305 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings7.6422 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.5
586 Ratings
6% below category average
Performance plans00 Ratings7.4526 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.4447 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings7.5538 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings7.6543 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings7.6446 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.4
290 Ratings
7% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings6.9194 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.4236 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings7.8263 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.6210 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCollab
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.9
555 Ratings
1% above category average
Job Requisition Management00 Ratings8.0466 Ratings
Company Website Posting00 Ratings8.1489 Ratings
Publish to Social Media00 Ratings7.9381 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings7.8463 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings7.4394 Ratings
Applicant Tracking00 Ratings8.1508 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings7.9509 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Small Businesses
Avaza
Avaza
Score 9.8 out of 10
Zoho People
Zoho People
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCollabPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
2.7
(13 ratings)
8.0
(1070 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(101 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(68 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(3 ratings)
7.2
(93 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.8
(12 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(45 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(9 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.9
(7 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(8 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(10 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.2
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(10 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(9 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 really well for a company our size (approx. 600 employees). I think if we were to triple in size it would likely work just as well. Especially if the changes requested on a prior question were implemented. Some things, such as being able to e-verify an employee, is tied to using the onboarding feature of Paylocity that we cannot use, due requirements of the new owners of the company. That means we have to everify outside of the payroll system. This is the one thing our prior payroll provided did that is better than what Paylocity can provide. Bundling features is understandable but it would be nice if some functionality could be used outside of the bundle to accommodate the needs of the customer.
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
  • Provides the majority of our data for our employees and reporting in one software product.
  • Once setup; the Onboarding feature makes bringing in new employees very smooth while collecting and completing all compliance information from the candidate themselves.
  • Performance Module with Journals provides a good platform for documenting positive as well as disciplinary events.
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
  • Competency of Dedicated Customer Service Reps: These individuals' competency range varies greatly. We have had reps assigned to us who couldn't compose a legible email and couldn't answer questions promptly. We've had other reps who didn't share their names. We've had other reps that were incredibly knowledgeable and responsive to our inquiries.
  • The Scheduling Tool: This tool doesn't speak to time sheets. Cost centers used on the scheduling tool are overridden by "rules" inside the timesheet program, and there's no way to override this element. This results in hours of manual entry that need to be done every payroll.
  • Help Tools: The general help database is TOO cumbersome to the extent that it is unusable in many/most cases. The videos in the Training Catalog are wonderful; however, they are often outdated and use mobile device applications as the example vs. desktop or both (e.g., some of the time and labor videos).
  • Reports: The report writer is usable; however, the last update with an AI search bar is clunky and hasn't been helpful.
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
I find Paylocity to be almost too robust so that its functionalities are sometimes too complex to use. Sometimes it appears that they don't get a user's experience and keep a software developers mindset which doesn't always work well with users that are not at their technical level of expertise. A perfect example is the way the payroll dashboard USED to look compared to the recent update
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
In-Person Training
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
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.
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
With Paychex, I feel like they have not really kept up with the times. I feel like Paylocity really expands as their users are growing. We changed from iSolved to Paylocity because when it came to processing payroll and getting support for anything, it was an absolute nightmare for us. So Paylocity has been leaps and bounds above the others. As far as support goes.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
ActiveCollab
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Include more services in the packages they offer.
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
  • We are working towards better data-driven decision making, so we're in the process of putting all of that in place and building the data. As far as errors specifically with the timekeeping, employees can take ownership over their own time by adding their missed punches and notes into the system directly. So that has reduced admin time as well as errors on Paychex
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.