RUN Powered by ADP® vs. Cornerstone Galaxy

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
RUN Powered by ADP®
Score 9.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
The RUN Powered by ADP® cloud-based solution is used to pay employees. It also includes HR and hiring tools, as well as benefits, helping small businesses grow and manage their teams.N/A
Cornerstone Galaxy
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Cornerstone Galaxy is a cloud-based application for talent management. Cornerstone offers suites for recruiting, training, performance monitoring and planning, learning, and HR data management. It is scaled for enterprises.N/A
Pricing
RUN Powered by ADP®Cornerstone Galaxy
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
RUN Powered by ADP®Cornerstone Galaxy
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
RUN Powered by ADP®Cornerstone Galaxy
Features
RUN Powered by ADP®Cornerstone Galaxy
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
RUN Powered by ADP®
8.3
370 Ratings
0% above category average
Cornerstone Galaxy
-
Ratings
Pay calculation9.5358 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.6107 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment9.1264 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.7166 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.6348 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.8275 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management5.138 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
RUN Powered by ADP®
-
Ratings
Cornerstone Galaxy
6.5
134 Ratings
11% below category average
New hire portal00 Ratings7.569 Ratings
Manager tracking tools00 Ratings5.7116 Ratings
Compliance tracking and reporting00 Ratings6.4127 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
RUN Powered by ADP®
-
Ratings
Cornerstone Galaxy
8.4
115 Ratings
14% above category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings8.596 Ratings
Subordinate goal setting00 Ratings8.099 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings8.0107 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings8.595 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings9.0110 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
RUN Powered by ADP®
-
Ratings
Cornerstone Galaxy
8.5
122 Ratings
21% above category average
Performance plans00 Ratings8.594 Ratings
Plan weighting00 Ratings8.581 Ratings
Manager note taking00 Ratings9.070 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings9.082 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings9.097 Ratings
Rater nomination workflow00 Ratings8.064 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings8.094 Ratings
Workflow restrictions00 Ratings9.086 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings9.083 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings7.3116 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
RUN Powered by ADP®
-
Ratings
Cornerstone Galaxy
6.5
58 Ratings
4% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings6.049 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings5.049 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings8.052 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.049 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
RUN Powered by ADP®
-
Ratings
Cornerstone Galaxy
5.8
67 Ratings
20% below category average
Job Requisition Management00 Ratings7.045 Ratings
Company Website Posting00 Ratings8.041 Ratings
Publish to Social Media00 Ratings9.038 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings9.038 Ratings
Customized Application Form00 Ratings8.040 Ratings
Resume Management00 Ratings5.043 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings5.040 Ratings
Candidate Search00 Ratings6.041 Ratings
Applicant Tracking00 Ratings6.041 Ratings
Collaboration00 Ratings4.036 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation00 Ratings5.038 Ratings
Email Templates00 Ratings4.560 Ratings
User Permissions00 Ratings3.061 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings3.556 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings3.564 Ratings
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
RUN Powered by ADP®
-
Ratings
Cornerstone Galaxy
7.4
191 Ratings
5% above category average
Course authoring00 Ratings7.7141 Ratings
Course catalog or library00 Ratings7.4189 Ratings
Player/Portal00 Ratings8.0176 Ratings
Learning content00 Ratings7.2151 Ratings
Mobile friendly00 Ratings6.5138 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications00 Ratings6.0172 Ratings
Assignments00 Ratings8.0185 Ratings
Compliance management00 Ratings7.8166 Ratings
Learning administration00 Ratings8.0188 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics00 Ratings7.6187 Ratings
Social learning00 Ratings6.7119 Ratings
Best Alternatives
RUN Powered by ADP®Cornerstone Galaxy
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10
Paycor
Paycor
Score 7.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Engagedly
Engagedly
Score 8.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
RUN Powered by ADP®Cornerstone Galaxy
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(388 ratings)
10.0
(253 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(35 ratings)
9.9
(37 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(24 ratings)
10.0
(38 ratings)
Availability
9.5
(12 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Performance
9.7
(12 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(36 ratings)
6.6
(36 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.7
(7 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(5 ratings)
10.0
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.8
(20 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Configurability
7.4
(9 ratings)
7.1
(114 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(4 ratings)
8.5
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.5
(13 ratings)
9.5
(4 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.8
(8 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.7
(9 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
RUN Powered by ADP®Cornerstone Galaxy
Likelihood to Recommend
ADP
Anyone running a service or mobile business would love the ease of clocking in and out with GPS services. Small and medium sized businesses looking to offload some of their accounting and HR functionality would all appreciate it. I helped my brother-in-laws housecleaning business get set up with RUN Powered by ADP®, as well as a friend's dry cleaning company.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone Galaxy is a good solution for larger companies that focus on training and want to offer a variety of options to their employees and departments. It is highly customizable. It does require a tech savvy team to set-up, and maintain. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it system. From an LMS perspective, it wouldn't be my top choice for employees who only need a mobile-friendly approach.
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Pros
ADP
  • Payroll runs are consistent, timely, and error‑free, even when handling multiple pay rates, deductions, or changes. Direct deposits process smoothly and predictably.
  • RUN Powered by ADP® manages federal, state, and local tax withholding, filings, and payments without requiring manual oversight. This significantly reduces compliance risk and administrative workload.
  • Common actions—running payroll, adding new employees, updating pay rates—are straightforward and guided, which helps prevent mistakes.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
  • Ability to provide multiple customizable access roles from general end user to full system admin and anything in between
  • Powerful reporting system in the LMS to track a plethora of data points within the platform (user data, training information, transcript information)
  • Great options to customize the look and feel of your "home page" to best meet your company's needs and goals.
  • Ability to customize the transcript view for learners (i.e. when Completed training will move to their Archived transcript, what to do with Inactive training on transcripts)
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Cons
ADP
  • I do wish there were additional custom deductions available rather than a limited amount.
  • Sometimes employees have trouble accessing their account after the initial invite has been sent.
  • Sometimes employee accounts get locked due to a reused email if their profile is deleted before they've signed up. Only a call to support can correct it.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
  • Sometimes finding the right answer to your support question can be a bit more difficult than it should be.
  • I would like to see more OSHA related courses.
  • At times, the administrative interface seems to need to be updated, but the tradeoff honestly might be the absolute rock-solid stability of the platform.
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Likelihood to Renew
ADP
It is much better than the payroll system I used previously. The integrations that RUN has for on-boarding new hires are very convenient when they work properly. It saves a tremendous amount of time being able to email a link to new employees that allows them to enter much of their own demographic information. Payroll feature alerts me when someone's pay is significantly less or more than usual.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
As long as pricing stays reasonable, we will likely stay with Cornerstone for at least one more contract renewal. It would be a large task to migrate all of our content to a new system. However, the LMS landscape is diversifying with new startups that are showing some real innovation.
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Usability
ADP
I have been using this system for years and they have actually made it easier and easier. The system is always making great upgrades that don't necessarily require any additional information or training. I love when I log in and see a new feature or button that I get to use to make my life easier!
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Cornerstone OnDemand
Easy to use, easy to learn, lots of support during the learning process. There are a few parts of the system we don't use and I'm hesitant to begin using because other clients have said they're difficult and cumbersome (certifications) or outdated (libraries)
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Reliability and Availability
ADP
We've had very little issue with RUN availability, only a couple times there were outages when least expected which occurred on our actual payroll due date
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Cornerstone OnDemand
I haven't really had any major availability problems. The service is practically impeccable but it is true that at times, due to server and latency problems, the application has been slower. But these have been specific issues that have resolved themselves.
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Performance
ADP
ADP Run loads a bit slowly at times, once I put in my credentials. However, that said, I think my perception of the time it takes is impacted by our "instant gratification" expectation of being able to get into everything quickly.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
I haven't seen many issues at all with load times. Sometimes learning assignments will take longer then expected but it is still reasonable. They have taken great effort over the last couple years to speed things up like reports and search results so I expect that effort to continue in the coming year.
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Support Rating
ADP
I appreciated having that issue finally take care of. it was extremely disheartening to see the issue had not been resolved. I also had my employees looking to me and thinking I was not trying to resolve the issue so it reflected poorly on my character. I do not know if i was because of a miscommunication, but nonetheless I was happy it was taken care of
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Cornerstone OnDemand
Its always important to have support when you are facing problems and when you are the main admin of the organization. Cornerstone Support is very supporting when you have not found the answer in the help guide. its very useful to have a team support to guide you.
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In-Person Training
ADP
they helped up with the 1st payroll after that we were fine - it is very user friendly- they wanted to be sure everything had imported correctly.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
we use also to admin all our training in person events and sessions. Its easy to admin this kind of trainings and automatize some processes we have. Also de user experience and the integration with other systems helps to the employees to use more. All modules integrated oriented to develop people is the principal reason to have CSOD. The training administration is very complete and allows to automate many processes.
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Online Training
ADP
very easy to learn i think it took maybe one payroll to have it down and we were up and running
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Cornerstone OnDemand
The online modules are pretty good. You can access them at any time, which we have done. You learn a lot in the beginning, but having the ability to retake short lessons when you are working on those items was very helpful.
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Implementation Rating
ADP
Make sure there's plenty of time between payrolls for the implementation and be sure to test all the manually inputted fields.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
The implementation was pretty difficult. We felt they (Cornerstone) didn’t properly allocate the resources to complete our implementation in the timetable we wanted.

For example, we worked on Workday and SSO integrations - work that we had specifically contracted for in advance. When we were ready to work on that project, they didn’t have the people ready to help us, so it took a lot longer than necessary. That was my biggest pain point.

The implementation approach we went with was a self-led implementation. We would speak to the implementation manager once per week, and self-trained. We met with implementation manager to discuss issues, review things that we’d learned for 1 hour. We found that wasn’t enough. Other things would come up outside that one hour window that we couldn’t get answers to. We didn’t have anyone to ask about those things and we had to wait to ask during our weekly meeting.

The advantage of the self-led implementation approach was that it was really inexpensive – significantly less than the implementation cost for the other systems that we looked at. I also liked that we could pace ourselves. There were however big roadblocks. We would have to make sure the right resources were available. We had an implementation/project manager with a lot of experience and felt that the person was knowledgeable but missed on a few things.

In hindsight, I would still go with the self-led implementation, but knowing what I know now, I would ask for the integration person to be available more. I would work that into the contract. With single sign-on, we needed deep linking to build direct links through a Single Sign-On tool, e.g. when someone gets an email, it directs them to training. But it has to go through SSO to get them to the correct link. Deep linking wasn’t turned on in our system and they had to activate it. We encountered little things like that – sequencing pre-requisites which were problematic. We tried to troubleshoot ourselves.

I recommend you consider contracting for some extra implementation hours and determine when they are going to be available. Work it into the contract that you have the ability to call tech support during implementation. In addition to weekly implementation meetings, they have technical webexes – 4 every week, but 2 didn’t apply to us – one as we were using SSO. The challenge is they were not always relevant – we had specific questions that didn’t fall into those categories
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Alternatives Considered
ADP
Based on our experience, RUN Powered by ADP® was selected by our small business because our owner was seeking a robust, all-in-one payroll and HR solution that scales with our growth. It allowed us to move away from manual spreadsheets and our less sophisticated payroll systems to ensure accurate tax compliance.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
The user experience is a lot better than using SumTotal as an admin CSOD makes working easy. Without having workarounds. Reporting is a lot better than both platforms. Reporting in CSOD is complex however easy to manage and create when you understand the data points collected
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
ADP
No answers on this topic
Cornerstone OnDemand
It is important to be familiar with the terms and annual increases in licenses and other aspects of the contract. I recommend analyzing this from the beginning and the permanence is relevant because Cornerstone updates its modules and brings out new features that may allow you to leave a module to acquire another
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Scalability
ADP
Every summer, we hire three new college interns who have to be entered into the system. They can enter their information themselves, which takes a load off me. The onboarding is quite straightforward, and today's college kids are techy enough to be able to understand it.
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Cornerstone OnDemand
It's a great product with some pieces that are set but many things that can be customized as needed for individual needs
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Professional Services
ADP
No answers on this topic
Cornerstone OnDemand
As I have said before, I have no doubt that the services of the Cornerstone sales people were very good. In particular, our salesperson spent a lot of time in contact with us to make the process go smoothly. Perhaps being a large company in some cases the times were slowed down but it is something normal to take into account.
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Return on Investment
ADP
  • Time savings: Automated payroll and tax filing reduced manual processing by 40%, freeing staff for growth initiatives
  • Cost efficiency: Lowered compliance errors and penalties, saving an estimated $5,000 annually
  • Scalability: Supported onboarding across multiple states, enabling expansion without adding HR headcount
  • Accuracy & trust: Improved employee satisfaction with timely pay and reliable W‑2/1099 delivery
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Cornerstone OnDemand
  • We are in the process of trying to increase employee engagement through content expansion. We are in the early stages of this.
  • The Edge Import Tool, in conjunction with Reporting 2.0, has done a great job of helping to automate/semi-automate tasks for huge time savings.
  • Maintaining compliance. Achieved through dynamic/automated groups, assignments, communication, and reporting.
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ScreenShots

RUN Powered by ADP® Screenshots

Screenshot of the RUN Dashboard with the business' key info front-and-centerScreenshot of the payroll interfaceScreenshot of access to payroll reports and liability amountsScreenshot of the RUN Powered by ADP mobile app, used to process payroll on the goScreenshot of the ADP mobile app, where employees can access their historical payroll statements and year-end tax documents

Cornerstone Galaxy Screenshots

Screenshot of A personalized, modern user experience and self-service capabilities to engage employees, ensure productivity, and centralize employee dataScreenshot of With Cornerstone Learning, go beyond compliance and training - truly develop an engaged and collaborative workforce.Screenshot of Cornerstone Recruiting takes care of all talent acquisition needs and provides candidates with an amazing experience.Screenshot of With Cornerstone Performance, benchmark your people's performance, align them with your strategy, and provide feedback that matters.Screenshot of Cornerstone HR offers a personalized, modern user experience and self-service capabilities to engage employees, ensure productivity, and centralize employee data.Screenshot of With Content Anytime, quickly deliver hundreds of eLearning courses covering key soft-skills such as communication, time management, leadership, teamwork, and emotional intelligence.