Paychex vs. Paycor

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Paychex
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Paychex Flex, of Paychex' Online Payroll Services, is a cloud-based human resource management and payroll platform. Paychex offers core and specialized services, and scales to meet the needs of small businesses, SMBs, and large enterprises.N/A
Paycor
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Paycor provides core HR functions scaled towards small and mid-sized businesses. Paycor offers an integrated benefits platform for interfacing directly with insurance carriers and an adaptable time management platform.N/A
Pricing
PaychexPaycor
Editions & Modules
Paychex Flex Pro
Custom Pricing
per month/+$4 per employee
HR Pro
Custom Pricing
HR PEO
Custom Pricing
Paychex Flex Select
Custom Pricing
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Custom Pricing
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PaychexPaycor
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredOptional
Additional DetailsPaycor's pricing for small, mid, and enterprise companies varies based on product bundle and company size. Because Paycor HR software is built to help businesses scale and grow, plans are based on the mix of HR products needed, and company size. Payroll is at the core of Paycor's offering, and their products are sold as a part of their payroll and HR platform.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PaychexPaycor
Considered Both Products
Paychex
Chose Paychex
Paychex is much more user friendly than ADP Run or ADP Total Source. However, I do like that ADP has an option to upload documents related to payroll such as notices from the state (DOR, UI, etc) and creates a case where notes from their rep are added and a case # is provided. …
Chose Paychex
NA - Am not using other Paychex services
Chose Paychex
I used Bangor Payroll prior to Paychex and they were better than Paychex. I didn't select Paychex, it was already at the organization when I joined it.
Chose Paychex
I think the Paychex reporting menus are easier to use and navigate than ADP.
Chose Paychex
They were alright, some of the same issues. Lots of turnover with payroll consultants.
Chose Paychex
Both ADP and Paychex are very good at informing businesses of the latest changes regarding payroll. Not sure which one is better, but very much get the most out of each. Both are informative and always looking at additional topics in a world that is constantly changing. …
Chose Paychex
Paychex has been around for a long time and have used it at other organizations. The payroll functionality is the best out of the other systems I have used. They all are great with handling the HR needs of our organization but Paychex is the most streamlined.
Chose Paychex
We use BambooHR in tandem with Paychex. BambooHR is our timesheet service, and Paychex issues the checks/payments to our employees. Ideally we would use one service instead of two to achieve our payment and timesheet needs.
Chose Paychex
More accessible and cost effective for our small business.
Chose Paychex
I far prefer Rippling to Paychex Flex, with its easy to navigate interface and user friendly model. I also appreciate the payday emails from Rippling and the paystub breakdown. It is also very easy and simple to request and view PTO in Rippling. I really dread having to use …
Chose Paychex
Paychex Flex has some room for improvement, I would choose ADP out of the different HRIS's I have used in the past
Chose Paychex
More user friendly works better for self service
Chose Paychex
I'm unable to give you a comparison because Paychex is the only payroll service I've used since I started my business over ten years ago. I've had no reason to explore other payroll services or make a change. I trust it will remain that way for as long as I'm in business.
Chose Paychex
In addition to the ones listed above, we also used BenePay, a local payroll company. We found Paychex Flex priced in the middle, with ADP the most expensive and too complicated, with many features that were unnecessary for us. We found that Paychex Flex's features and reporting …
Chose Paychex
I did not select Paychex. It was at 2 companies I started with and ended up having them switch out
Chose Paychex
Looking to switch over to ADP.
I think they are much less expensive
Chose Paychex
Based on what I've noticed, Paychex is comparable to DayForce, which has similar timekeeping functions. I think DayForce has a few easier-to-navigate tools from an Employee Self Service standpoint. iSolved is much better all around from my personal usage. If my company had more …
Chose Paychex
Gusto is more intuitive than Paychex and easier for smaller companies. Paychex has better customer support than Paylocity. Paychex is easier to navigate than Paycom.
Chose Paychex
Paychex offers much more than just tracking employee attendance and managing employee records. It offers Payroll services, Human Resource Services, Retirement Services, On-Boarding Services, Employee-Self Services, Employee Benefits Management, Employee Handbook Services, …
Chose Paychex
The could not match the price we pay for the same service.
Chose Paychex
I have not used any flex pay options only for payroll and tax situations.
Paycor
Chose Paycor
Paylocity seems to be an IT company and adds a lot of user feedback into their upgrades and developments.
Chose Paycor
UKG Ready, Employee Navigator and MIP Fund Accounting
Chose Paycor
Paycor is a decent rival at a much lower price point. It has a lot of the functionality of its competitors at a lower price. I believe its general customer service is one of the best that I have dealt with. We don't have personalized customer service reps or teams which can …
Chose Paycor
Paycor was used by my leader in a previous organization and at the time was overall successful.
Chose Paycor
We selected Paycor due to price and the demo website was very user friendly. At the time, we did not realize that the demo site would not be an accurate reflection of what we were purchasing.
Chose Paycor
I have used Full Stack in the past, which isn't listed in the listings. And for the most part, it worked out well, however, it has its far share of issues. It was expensive, but also had some data tacking problems where all of our employees information was messed up.
Chose Paycor
We chose Paycor for its overall value and functionality. Paycor seems to have a clear future for innovations.
Chose Paycor
AS400, JIS, Quickbooks, Viventium
All these systems have their pros and cons. I do prefer Paycor but customer service gap and rising vendor cost is starting to affect loyalty.
Chose Paycor
We selected Paycor because of the user-friendly aspect and the fact that they are willing to work with us on what parts of the software we want to utilize. The price was also a big reason why we choose Paycor.
Chose Paycor
ADP API Central, Gusto and Bigin by Zoho CRM
Chose Paycor
We selected then primarily because of their 360° integration with our 401(k) provider. Additionally, they were reasonably priced.
Chose Paycor
We initially went with them because they were much less expensive. However, this was a case of you get what you pay for.
Chose Paycor
By far the easiest to use system. May not be able to dive into super deep details/advanced features, but easy to use
Chose Paycor
At the time Paycor was the best bang for our buck and was easier to operate than our previous platform.
Chose Paycor
Paycor seems to be the best for other systems integrations and reporting. The easy of set up and integrations into other platforms is great. While the report building is more robust than ADP with and easier approach to creating the reports. I would recommend Paycor over ADP as …
Chose Paycor
ADP was more expensive and we didn't utilize any of the modules because they were all an additional price.

Here we have way more features and it is a lot easier to navigate so it has been helpful to have these features and all in one place rather than using a bunch of other …
Chose Paycor
We are still exploring the differences between ADP and Paycor to determine whether addressing the pain points with a product switch is necessary.
Chose Paycor
The sales team was much better in terms of handling our needs, the products were overall better, and they have an extremely competitive price. We thought that Paycor was the best fit even though they were not the cheapest due to our needs and how they addressed them. It was a …
Chose Paycor
Paycor is what my company chose to use.
Chose Paycor
Paycor is nice from a user perspective. The employees have very easy navigation on their side.
Features
PaychexPaycor
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.0
Ratings
15% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Organizational charting5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Organization and location management7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)6.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.4
Ratings
9% below category average
Paycor
8.1
Ratings
2% below category average
Pay calculation7.80 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.50 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.20 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.30 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.90 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.20 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.2
Ratings
12% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
Approval workflow7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Balance details7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment6.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
6.1
Ratings
29% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
4.8
Ratings
51% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
Tracking of all physical assets4.80 Ratings00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
5.7
Ratings
27% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
Report builder6.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-built reports6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data4.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
6.6
Ratings
19% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
New hire portal6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools6.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.0
Ratings
11% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
Candidate search7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
5.3
Ratings
39% below category average
Paycor
-
Ratings
Job Requisition Management5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Company Website Posting5.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media5.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting5.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention4.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking4.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts6.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PaychexPaycor
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.2 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PaychexPaycor
Likelihood to Recommend
6.5
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.1
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
5.3
(0 ratings)
7.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(0 ratings)
5.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.2
(0 ratings)
3.6
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
4.5
(0 ratings)
4.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.2
(0 ratings)
5.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(0 ratings)
5.8
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(0 ratings)
4.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
5.6
(0 ratings)
3.3
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.6
(0 ratings)
3.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
6.1
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PaychexPaycor
Likelihood to Recommend
Overall we have had a good experience. The unfortunate part of being with them for over 10 years is the change-over in support specialists and sometimes the lack of transparency when that occurs or the lack of personalized communication. However, the ease of use and streamlined services for reporting and recording payroll and onboarding employees is definitely a benefit to the service. Being able to pull reports and review past employees information can be invaluable at times. Knowing I have peace of mind when it comes to tax documentation because someone else is ensuring it is handled and handled correctly is very important
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The Open enrollment tool is excellent. They need to improve the reporting tool and speed up the use of AI. I've seen other system demos and their integration of AI seems sophisticated in comparision to Paycor's. Paycor has integrated some AI into analytics but it lacking in terms of what it can do
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Pros
  • It provides a well account of Retirement Plan Account Information.
  • Alerts are sent to email when there is new information to access.
  • Employee access both online and thru app.
  • Paperless options.
  • Easy and quick access to paystubs and tax forms.
  • Easy employee retirement management.
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  • Onboarding works very well for us with a lot of Self-Service for employees it gives us time back and ensures data accuracy is in the employees control.
  • Recruiting works well because it links to specific jobs and automatically posts jobs when an employee is separated from service.
  • Tax filings work fairly well for us and have always been accurate.
Read full review
Cons
  • When it comes to audit reports, Paychex Flex could improve on helping clients locate the correct reports for audit purposes more easily
  • When a client receives a discount, it would be helpful if the discount were automatically provided each year, or if the Paychex rep proactively reached out to the client first, versus the client having to call and request that the discount continue.
  • It would be helpful if the invoice was emailed to the client versus the client logging in to access invoices.
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  • Administrative/C-Suite level of canned reports and dashboards
  • Displaying company reminders or documents to sign that are urgent in a way that doesn’t allow an employee to clock out until they have completed the task.
  • More options to build an org chart
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Likelihood to Renew
there are a lot of competitors on the market such as BambooHR and Insperity. Paychex need to make significant improvement on their offline customer service in order to compete with the other guys. Everything is online now and timely response to customer's questions is vital. Customers won't enjoy being put on hold for 45 mins every time they have a question regarding their HSA problems
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The product is really good overall. The customer service is not the best and the benefits administration is kind of painful. However, the good outweighs the bad. We might get a different benefit admin system that can be integrated into Paycor. My controller doesn't want to switch anything for a [long] time.
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Usability
Employee usability is very good and user-friendly. For the most part, the employer usability is good, but for complicated rules and policies, it requires technical assistance, which in our case, was clunky and slow in implementation. Once is place, everything works as it should
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Glitches. So many glitches. The customer service number provides basic troubleshooting, which doesn’t help; some issues take weeks to resolve, with no apparent reason why they occur. The system does not work on Safari. We have dealt with Payroll not working, which has caused a manual payroll to be run. Paycor representatives do not provide any assistance.
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Reliability and Availability
We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
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I feel like Paycor is always up and running! If they are planning downtime, they communicate it clearly. Every once in a while, I get something that says the system isn't working but it is usually back up within the hour. I typically find by the time that the employees complain about it, that it is resolved within the system.
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Performance
Unless there is lag time within the internet, the Paychex Flex website loads exceptional fast, pages load quickly and reports that I need to print or download load quickly. If I need to create a specialized report, once I complete it I receive an e-mail telling me my report is ready to be downloaded. Changing between web pages is fast as well.
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For the most part, everything moves super fast. There are a few sections (Expense Management) that sometimes take a bit to load correctly. Or if they are interesting, it takes a minute to talk to each other! But reports are quickly downloaded and available! Even data heavy reports run fairly fast!
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Support Rating
Chat has been helpful but the person I chat with isn't always able to help me with my questions. Phone support is ok, depending on your payroll specialist. We have a great one currently, but the few before that were never available and did not return calls.
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I feel like support will transfer you back and forth between departments and put you on hold forever. I believe it is very difficult to see the status of an open ticket. During my experience, it feels like the client has to push all communication and request updates from support regularly.
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In-Person Training
We did online training only
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The training was helpful and covered the basic functionality of the system, but it did not stand out as exceptional. The presenter was knowledgeable and answered questions appropriately, but much of the content felt focused on standard product features rather than our specific business processes and use cases. I would have liked to see more hands-on exercises, deeper workflow examples, and practical demonstrations tied to real-world scenarios. Overall, the training was good and provided value, but there is opportunity to make it more engaging, more customized to our organization, and more impactful for long-term user adoption.
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Online Training
It was easy to understand and follow along. I do like the informational videos that we can utilize before we opt to call in for customer service support. It has made a difference since sometimes that resolves the issue I may have had and saved myself a phone call to Paychex support.
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The online training was adequate and covered the core functionality of the platform, but it felt similar to many standard software training libraries available today. The content was easy to access and generally well organized, but it lacked the depth, interactivity, and real-world application needed to make it particularly memorable or impactful. I would have liked to see more role-based learning paths, practical business scenarios, hands-on exercises, and guidance tailored to different user groups. Overall, the training met basic expectations and provided useful information, but it did not differentiate itself from typical web-based training programs offered by most HCM providers.
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Implementation Rating
Implementation was very smooth. The most cumbersome task was entering the current employees into the system during initial set up, but Paychex staff handled most of that and verified against prior system reports as well as internal reports provided to ensure 100% accuracy.
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I've been through a payroll software implementation multiple times in my career, ranging from upgrades to an existing platform to complete replacement of providers. This implementation was the easiest from the standpoint of confidence in my implementation personnel. The implementation consultants at Paycor were AMAZINGLY knowledgeable about the software and offered us advice at every step of the way. We never had any concerns that they didn't know what we wanted or needed.
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Alternatives Considered
Paychex is much more user friendly than ADP Run or ADP Total Source. However, I do like that ADP has an option to upload documents related to payroll such as notices from the state (DOR, UI, etc) and creates a case where notes from their rep are added and a case # is provided. This helps create a good way to track a notice and be sure it is resolved. I have sent requests to close different states when a company no longer has an employee there or have been told an item has been filed/completed, only to receive a notice later from Paychex notification or the the state claiming the issue is unresolved. When you have as many clients as we do, this can feel messy.
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The sales team was much better in terms of handling our needs, the products were overall better, and they have an extremely competitive price. We thought that Paycor was the best fit even though they were not the cheapest due to our needs and how they addressed them. It was a tossup between Paylocity and Paycor
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Scalability
Employees can log in at home and get up to date information on their FSA balance and any medical bill reimbursements they may have uploaded. At renewal time they have the ability to make changes to their FSA or for new employees star the enrollment.
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I gave it a 10 because we only use it across one organization. However, it has allowed us to break it into multiple departments and layers of management. It is also easy for us to utilize across different locations but still under one master company. They have always provided us support when we decide to change something on an organizational level
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Return on Investment
  • This software has provided visibility to shift managers and department leads that they never had before in managing their subordinates. They now have an easy-to-use go-to source for seeing who has PTO, how much they have available, and what the work calendar looks like, allowing them to make better-informed decisions.
  • With this software to manage open enrollment, we can now get through that process with a tool we use regularly, rather than jumping into enrollment management software only once a year and having to relearn it each year.
  • Literally thousands of steps are saved each week by not needing to traverse the entire shop floor or track people down to clear up questions with time cards. With everything digital, so much can be observed and addressed in real-time through the app.
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  • By streamlining job postings and candidate tracking Paycor Recruiting has helped shorten the average time to fill for our job postings from an average of 45 days days to 32 days (for certain job postings). This is due to the efficiency of the system when moving candidates through the pipeline.
  • Recruiting costs have lowered due to the systems ability to post openings to multiple job board from one central location. This takes a lot of the administrative burden off recruiters and saves us time on manual follow ups and agency fees.
  • Higher quality candidates! The tools Paycor Recruiting offers has provided the recruiters with a more effective form of evaluation. This leads to more informed decisions which results in better quality hires. When people stay longer this reduces turnover related costs.
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ScreenShots

Paychex Screenshots

Screenshot of Paychex Payroll DashboardScreenshot of Employee Background ChecksScreenshot of Paychex HR DashboardScreenshot of Paychex Flex Perks

Paycor Screenshots

Screenshot of the real-time data insights that support critical business decisions.Screenshot of Paycor's expense reportingScreenshot of the recruiting processes streamlined in PaycorScreenshot of workforce scheduling in PaycorScreenshot of Paycor's mobile app, that allows employees to punch in and out from their phonesScreenshot of the Paycor Home Screen