Ascentis vs Zenefits | TrustRadius

What users are saying about

Score 7.7 out of 10

Based on 321 reviews and ratings

Score 6.7 out of 10

Based on 128 reviews and ratings

Feature Rating Comparison

Ascentis

Zenefits

Employee demographic data

Employment history

Job profiles and administration

Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.

Organizational charting

Organization and location management

Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)

Ascentis

Zenefits

Pay calculation

Support for external payroll vendors

Off-cycle/On-Demand payment

Benefit plan administration

Direct deposit files

Salary revision and increment management

Reimbursement management

Ascentis

Zenefits

Approval workflow

Balance details

Annual carry-forward and encashment

Ascentis

Zenefits

View and generate pay and benefit information

Update personal information

View company policy documentation

Employee recognition

View job history

Ascentis

Zenefits

Tracking of all physical assets

Ascentis

Zenefits

Report builder

Pre-built reports

Ability to combine HR data with external data

Ascentis

Zenefits

New hire portal

Manager tracking tools

Ascentis

Zenefits

Corporate goal setting

Individual goal setting

Line-of sight-visibility

Performance tracking

Ascentis

Zenefits

Performance plans

Performance improvement plans

Review status tracking

Review reminders

Multiple review frequency

Ascentis

Zenefits

Create succession plans/pools

Candidate ranking

Candidate search

Candidate development

Ascentis

Zenefits

Job Requisition Management

Company Website Posting

Publish to Social Media

Job Search Site Posting

Duplicate Candidate Prevention

Applicant Tracking

Notifications and Alerts

Pros

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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Verified User

Director in Human Resources

Hospital & Health Care Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Simple platform for running payroll. It is easy to adjust pay, see deductions, reimburse employees, manage bonuses, etc. It takes literally 5 minutes or less to run payroll - which is huge.
Zenefits has a great system for getting new employees on boarded with the employee handbook, financial stuff, legal employment verification, and more. Makes it so that I can be a little more hand-off during that process.
Zenefits does a great job of reminding me if there are things coming up like benefits renewal, or legally mandated updates to renewing our employee handbook, new tax laws, etc. - so that I don't feel like there are important things slipping through the cracks.

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Operations & Project Manager

MercarisMarket Research, 1-10 employees

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Cons

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.

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Verified User

Director in Human Resources

Civil Engineering Company, 501-1000 employees

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Support is a little bit tricky - they always get back, but isn't the most intuitive support as you have to go through a list of preset options for what you are wanting to contact them about
No support for 9/80 schedule (every other Friday off)

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Verified User

Director in Corporate

Medical Device Company, 11-50 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Ascentis 6.3

Based on 13 answers

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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Kelly C. Neill, SPHR

Human Resources Manager

San Juan Construction, Inc.Construction, 201-500 employees

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Zenefits 9.0

Based on 5 answers

We've already renewed after our first year with Zenefits due to the cost savings, ease of administration, reduction in overhead required to perform HR functions, and the employees happily embracing and liking the software. I've found employees generally hate anything new, but we've had no complaints about Zenefits outside the first few weeks of getting used to it.

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Verified User

Executive in Corporate

Law Practice Company, 51-200 employees

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Usability

Ascentis 7.5

Based on 45 answers

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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Verified User

Director in Human Resources

Building Materials Company, 51-200 employees

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Zenefits 8.9

Based on 28 answers

It's extremely user friendly and customer service is super helpful. The app needed help a while back but it has greatly improved. There were issues with files being cut off, and when I was onboarded, it actually cut my offer letter off hiding important information. Since then, it's been fixed so they are continually improving.

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Verified User

Director in Marketing

Education Management Company, 11-50 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Ascentis 6.3

Based on 5 answers

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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Verified User

Employee in Human Resources

Government Administration Company, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Performance

Ascentis 6.7

Based on 4 answers

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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Verified User

Employee in Human Resources

Government Administration Company, 51-200 employees

View all 4 answers on this topic

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

Ascentis 8.0

Based on 157 answers

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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Verified User

Strategist in Marketing

Oil & Energy Company, 201-500 employees

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Zenefits 7.3

Based on 46 answers

Zenefits support staff and employees are great at what they do. They are friendly and extremely helpful. Questions and concerns submitted are always responded to in a timely manner. The explanations are thoughtful and quickly resolve the issues. If a solution can not be ready fixed they will work diligently until it’s resolved in full

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Verified User

Director in Corporate

Education Management Company, 51-200 employees

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In-Person Training

Ascentis 8.0

Based on 1 answer

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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Jennifer Steffens

IT & Marketing Coordinator

Howry Residential ServicesMental Health Care, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Online Training

Ascentis 8.0

Based on 4 answers

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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Jennifer Steffens

IT & Marketing Coordinator

Howry Residential ServicesMental Health Care, 201-500 employees

View all 4 answers on this topic

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

Ascentis 8.0

Based on 6 answers

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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Human Resources Manager

MultiLingual Solutions, Inc.Government Administration, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

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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Verified User

Manager in Human Resources

Logistics & Supply Chain Company, 201-500 employees

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Zenefits hads a range of integrations to other programs and services that we already used that made it easy to build into our day to day. Customer service has improved in the two years we've been a customer and their focus on improving employee experience won me over from other options

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Verified User

Manager in Human Resources

Telecommunications Company, 11-50 employees

View all 85 answers on this topic

Scalability

Ascentis 6.0

Based on 4 answers

Large acquisition would be very complicated, seems more appropriate for companies under 100

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Christina Miyamoto, PHR®

Human Resources Manager

N/AEntertainment, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

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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Verified User

Employee in Human Resources

Mechanical Or Industrial Engineering Company, 201-500 employees

View all 164 answers on this topic

California Meal Break Violations cost a full hour of each employees pay rate. If an employee clocks in 1 minute early it costs us at least 10.50 (minimum wage Ca, 15.00 in Los Angeles) which adds up quickly. We had 37 meal break violations when we first rolled it out. They need to add a feature that disallows them to clock in ahead of 30 minutes, or add a feature that shows them how long they've been on break.

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Brittany Martin, PHRca

People Operations Coordinator

MeUndiesApparel & Fashion, 51-200 employees

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Screenshots

See All (7) Ascentis Screenshots

See All (12) Zenefits Screenshots

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Ascentis Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

$8*

* per employee per month

Zenefits Editions & Modules

Edition

Essentials	$8¹
Growth	$14¹
Zen	$21¹

per employee/per month

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

Ascentis

Zenefits

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