Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ascentis (discontinued)
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Ascentis HR uses web-based management programs to help automate complex HR processes. Ascentis’ other services included customizable payroll, time and attendance and recruiting modules. Ascentis was acquired by UKG in March of 2022, and will be discontinued.N/A
TriNet
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
TriNet provides small and medium size businesses (SMBs) with full-service HR and payroll solutions tailored by industry. TriNet also offers specialized services through client access to HR representatives for advice and notifications on impactful regulatory changes.N/A
Pricing
Ascentis (discontinued)TriNet
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Ascentis (discontinued)TriNet
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Ascentis (discontinued)TriNet
Considered Both Products
Ascentis (discontinued)

No answer on this topic

TriNet
Chose TriNet
Very bottom of the list - I did not select TriNet, as I joined the company after it had already been implemented and in use for some time. If I had been involved, Rippling and/or Zenefits would have been my top choices due to their wide breadth of HR/Payroll/People support …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Ascentis (discontinued)TriNet
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.1
150 Ratings
10% below category average
TriNet
7.0
629 Ratings
12% below category average
Employee demographic data6.7137 Ratings7.0428 Ratings
Employment history7.3140 Ratings7.0468 Ratings
Job profiles and administration6.9128 Ratings6.7438 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.6.7126 Ratings7.2526 Ratings
Organizational charting5.290 Ratings6.5359 Ratings
Organization and location management8.0109 Ratings7.0379 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)8.8102 Ratings7.7490 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.8
125 Ratings
3% below category average
TriNet
8.1
686 Ratings
1% above category average
Pay calculation7.1115 Ratings8.2660 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.162 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.328 Ratings8.1185 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.7108 Ratings7.9671 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.2100 Ratings8.8623 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.692 Ratings8.1545 Ratings
Reimbursement management8.851 Ratings7.4334 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.8
105 Ratings
4% below category average
TriNet
7.0
433 Ratings
14% below category average
Approval workflow7.999 Ratings6.9351 Ratings
Balance details7.099 Ratings7.1413 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.484 Ratings7.0333 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.0
153 Ratings
15% below category average
TriNet
8.1
669 Ratings
0% below category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.8138 Ratings9.1647 Ratings
Update personal information8.6151 Ratings8.3661 Ratings
View company policy documentation5.4110 Ratings8.5557 Ratings
Employee recognition6.061 Ratings5.7191 Ratings
View job history7.3108 Ratings8.7486 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.8
33 Ratings
29% below category average
TriNet
1.0
1 Ratings
154% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets5.833 Ratings1.01 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
6.4
147 Ratings
17% below category average
TriNet
7.4
554 Ratings
3% below category average
Report builder7.0144 Ratings7.2469 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.5142 Ratings7.5523 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data4.673 Ratings7.5256 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.1
98 Ratings
45% below category average
TriNet
8.0
548 Ratings
0% below category average
New hire portal5.398 Ratings8.3547 Ratings
Manager tracking tools4.976 Ratings7.7333 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
7.2
57 Ratings
13% below category average
TriNet
6.5
84 Ratings
23% below category average
Corporate goal setting6.743 Ratings6.474 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.653 Ratings6.382 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.138 Ratings6.673 Ratings
Performance tracking7.250 Ratings6.581 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
6.0
63 Ratings
28% below category average
TriNet
7.3
153 Ratings
9% below category average
Performance plans5.659 Ratings7.0130 Ratings
Performance improvement plans5.650 Ratings7.2127 Ratings
Review status tracking5.857 Ratings7.1122 Ratings
Review reminders6.555 Ratings8.0131 Ratings
Multiple review frequency6.650 Ratings7.23 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.9
27 Ratings
29% below category average
TriNet
7.3
60 Ratings
8% below category average
Create succession plans/pools6.421 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking6.421 Ratings8.21 Ratings
Candidate search5.027 Ratings7.057 Ratings
Candidate development5.823 Ratings6.653 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Ascentis (discontinued)
5.5
89 Ratings
34% below category average
TriNet
6.5
95 Ratings
18% below category average
Job Requisition Management5.585 Ratings6.472 Ratings
Company Website Posting5.279 Ratings5.51 Ratings
Publish to Social Media5.759 Ratings4.958 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting5.871 Ratings6.372 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention5.657 Ratings9.11 Ratings
Applicant Tracking5.783 Ratings6.676 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts5.369 Ratings6.585 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Ascentis (discontinued)TriNet
Small Businesses
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.1 out of 10
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.2 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Ascentis (discontinued)TriNet
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(164 ratings)
7.2
(702 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.3
(12 ratings)
6.7
(49 ratings)
Usability
7.6
(44 ratings)
7.4
(597 ratings)
Availability
6.7
(5 ratings)
6.8
(18 ratings)
Performance
7.1
(4 ratings)
6.8
(18 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(150 ratings)
6.9
(683 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(6 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(4 ratings)
8.7
(8 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.3
(5 ratings)
3.2
(27 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.9
(11 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
3.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(7 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.7
(4 ratings)
8.3
(17 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(4 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
7.8
(14 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.6
(3 ratings)
7.8
(14 ratings)
User Testimonials
Ascentis (discontinued)TriNet
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
In working with Ascentis in payroll, the program makes my job so much easier. I am new to this position and the learning process has been so much easier with this product than those in the past. I appreciate the patience I am given when I call in for assistance as well.
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TriNet
TriNet is perfect for a smaller business or nonprofits that can't get competitive rates for health care. I can't really speak to larger businesses as I don't have comparison data, but even when we used a PEO in the past, we still were paying high rates. The savings were almost enough to offset the cost of having a PEO vs just a Payroll service, but our employees appreciate the personal savings as well, as we were able to cover a larger portion of the cost due to the price difference. Specifically, our rates for most of our employees were cut in about half
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Pros
Discontinued Products
  • Easy to use software. I have had several new HR employees comment on how easy the system is to learn!
  • Problem Solving- Ascentis is always problem solving! When we were in the process of selecting a new payroll company, we needed unemployment claims management assistance for our locations, something Ascentis did not currently offer. The sales rep went out of his way to find a unemployment claims management company that would work with Ascentis and us. That company has helped us keep an 80% win rate for our claims!
  • User conference- Engage is an awesome way to learn more about the products Ascentis has available as well and meet up with the staff you work with every day!
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TriNet
  • Extensive variety of benefit program plan designs and partners. Something for everyone.
  • One stop shopping for all health and wellness benefits.
  • Continue to add new offerings, such as access to Salary.com at a discount and access to Carta at a discount to manage employee stock programs.
  • On top of compliance by state.
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Cons
Discontinued Products
  • Updating the system so it is one platform and not two.
  • Create changes to the benefit enrollment process and upgrade the system so hire dates do not need to be changed to trigger benefits for status changes.
  • Focus updates on HR Admin, mobile application, ATS and transitioning to one platform. Larger areas of focus have been on the payroll portion of the system with a few updates to other areas.
  • When something is broken, quicker turn time on fixing the issue.
  • System needs updates to support AAP reporting.
Read full review
TriNet
  • a better ATS - the current functionality is very limited. For an organization our size we more "power". I like to be able to run custom reports from the ATS as an example
  • Reporting - there's a stack of standard reports but we need and want custom
  • stop changing the layout. We don't care about the layout its the content that matters. get rid of the turtles or hippos or whatever they are
  • Manager access. Let us give managers access to their employees info without having access to EVERYONE
  • Be honest. If you cant do something, you cant do it. Let us know so we can make other plans and move on
  • "I'll put a ticket in" = this is where your dreams go to fade away. See above
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Likelihood to Renew
Discontinued Products
This rating would be a 10 if it were not for some issues we have been having recently with the benefit carrier connections. The carrier connections are critical for us so how these issues are resolved will be key in our renewal decision.
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TriNet
This is one stop shopping perse. They provide tools for Benefits and 401k. There reports are easy to read and the support given from Trinet support is awesome. Having everything in one place is best then having multiple places for things. Why change if things are working well? All the information is all there when needed.
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Usability
Discontinued Products
I'd give it a 7.5. If the modules were easier to access and not so buried (or placed in left field to find), I would give it a higher rating. As I said, as the potential to be great if ACCESS to other modules was easier.
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TriNet
There is just so much information in the system and sometimes it is attached to other systems in a way that it's hard to know where to find things and a TriNet rep needs to walk you through finding it. Using chat they tend to copy and paste huge strings of instructions into the chat which is challenging to test while scrolling through all that text
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Reliability and Availability
Discontinued Products
They normally give you notice when an update will affect the use of the system. Otherwise, when we have an error , we send a message to the support team. Sometimes someone will get right back with you and sometimes it takes a while.
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TriNet
We had an issue with application errors - took TriNet 5 months to fix it, mean while we had someone manually tracking and keeping up with many requests and questions about the application error which affected time off. When we were all registering for Benefits during open enrollment there were lots of bugs that caused issues with registering for benefits or being able to see what benefits were available
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Performance
Discontinued Products
Yes, this pages do load pretty good but there are times when things are slow and I believe that's because they are sometimes trying to do updates.
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TriNet
For the most part pages load quickly. Working for a software company we understand performance is everything, even a few seconds delay can feel like a lifetime, that being said, we ran into a few times where pages didn't load, information didn't load correctly, and an influx in users (like open enrollment) cause things to slow down
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Support Rating
Discontinued Products
Support is attentive and quick to answer the call and get the answer for you. If they for any reason cannot answer right then, they are back to you within a day and always seem to have a sense of urgency. You truly get the impression that they are aiming to make you happy.
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TriNet
I like TriNet's multi-layered support. We have dedicated support for payroll and platform, HR, and benefits. We also have an account manager we can contact when we need to escalate an issue or get additional help. The 24/7 chat support is also outstanding for smaller routine issues. All support at TriNet has been extremely responsive. We sometimes have complicated issues like restricted stock vesting, 83(b) elections and other matters and our dedicated support team always helps us do things correctly and on time.
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In-Person Training
Discontinued Products
First, to clarify our "in-person" training was done mainly through Web-X meetings and conference calls. It was the closest thing we got to as far as an "in-person" training for this software. However, for the large majority of it, this type of training worked out well. We were able to share our screens and the trainer was able to share his/her screen. We could follow along with what we were doing in our database in real time and see how different functions worked and how manipulating our information could produce different results. It was also nice in that it provided for real-time results if something hadn't been coded correctly or we were having issues as to why something wasn't working the way we thought it should be. However, it did have some downsides in that we often had to rely on a conference phone and that made it difficult to hear people on both sides. Also, sometimes the trainers had internet difficulties when working from home and that caused issues with the WebX meetings.
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TriNet
it's been awhile, but I recall them being helpful. I got through a lot of it and when I needed help, they can walk me through it over the phone. It's also pretty user friendly in general at a platform. I don't really know what else to type, but they came and helped me in person and also when there was something new, they came and talked to me. They have not done that since with the new model that I hate
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Online Training
Discontinued Products
Ascentis HR has a number of online training videos to watch on a number of different topics. I gave it a lower rating because there is not much interactivity with the videos and it seems to cater to really only one or two learning styles. Plus, one has to be pretty motivated to go to a separate area to access the videos and then pull up a specific one to watch it and then learn. From my experience, people know that they are there, many just don't take the time and effort to go find them and actually watch them - especially since the username and password are different from their normal username and password.
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TriNet
Since this was already implemented. I have another employee briefly train me. Then Trinet rep gave me some training as needed for things that came up. For one payroll preview report I figured it could be done, but I had asked the rep to be sure. One important training was when there was an employee leaving the company.
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Implementation Rating
Discontinued Products
It was very easy to implement, but the customization pieces should really be fleshed out in order to determine the full need of an organization at the time of implementation. I believe if a little more time was spent on the requirements, the recruiting module would not have to be customized again at a cost at a later date.
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TriNet
not applicable as I implementation was done 5 years ago and have no recollection of the details of the process. Above it says to skip question if not involved in the process but it will not allow me to skip it as it states explanation requitred thus making this process extremely frustrating.
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Alternatives Considered
Discontinued Products
Ascentis has far better customer service and the implementation experience was also better. The ability to do a lot of customization is also easier with Ascentis as it's smaller organization. The payroll has positive and negatives compared to ADP but the accuracy is the same in both. Ascentis just started their community site which doesn't have a lot of traffic but hopefully can become more like ADP's community site, which was extremely helpful to me as an administrator.
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TriNet
TriNet worked with our smaller employee headcount and offered coverage for both the US and Canada. And we switched from Insperity because of the cost savings which were significant. I liked Insperity but TriNet has been an excellent firm to work with as well.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
TriNet
I was not part of the process
Read full review
Scalability
Discontinued Products
Large acquisition would be very complicated, seems more appropriate for companies under 100
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TriNet
We are a small company, do we use it across departments and sites? Yes, we are all remote working, so there are as many sites as there are people. We also have our entire staff using TriNet, so every department from Accounting, Admin, HR, Development, QA, and Management are all using this. Can't say for sure how great the scalability is as we are only about 30 employees
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Professional Services
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
TriNet
Not sure it was used or not as the implementation was completed before I started working for the company
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Return on Investment
Discontinued Products
  • HR DPT. is much more effective, as we can assess any employee information no matter where we are, etc. This helps to provide information immediately when requested!
  • Employees have access to Ascentis, and therefore to their timecard, open enrollment, etc., from anywhere at any time!
  • Time, PTO requests, employee goals, and evaluations can be approved from anywhere at any time!
  • Recruiting can be accessed any where at any time, and this helps with hiring, internal communication, etc.
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TriNet
  • I mainly used the ATS and I had to do a lot of extra work than other ATS's I have used in the past.
  • When hiring a candidate, transferring the information from the ATS to the HRIS is nil, there is a lot you have to manually put in, which can be very frustrating.
  • I like the way how I can upload a candidates resume seamlessly.
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ScreenShots

Ascentis (discontinued) Screenshots

Screenshot of Access all of your details including, paychecks, personal file, timeclock, etc via our mobile app.Screenshot of Punch-in and punch-out on the go.Screenshot of Centralized location for everything related to a user or admin.Screenshot of Every employee has access to their personal information in one location.Screenshot of Pre-built reporting along with Ad Hoc reporting gives you the ability to understand your business as a whole.Screenshot of Benefit enrollment made easy for your employees.