Paychex vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Paychex
Score 6.6 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.
$59
per month/+$4 per employee
Paylocity
Score 8.2 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
PaychexPaylocity
Editions & Modules
Paychex Go
$59
per month/+$4 per employee
Paychex Flex Service
Contact sales team
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PaychexPaylocity
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PaychexPaylocity
Considered Both Products
Paychex
Chose Paychex
I would say Paycor is very similar, although my last use was in 2015. I'm unsure about the changes made between then and now. I haven't used paylocity personally since 2013, but my wife currently uses it and it's also great, more features to the end user. That said, I didn't …
Chose Paychex
Paychex Flex is a good system but honestly I prefer Paylocity's products over Flex. Paychex Flex doesn't seem to be as developed as other systems and not nearly as user friendly. I only use Paychex Flex because that is the system that was in place when I started my job over a …
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 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
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
All solutions we have reviewed offer the same solutions, and all have pros/cons. Price is a factor, and we have found slightly less costly solutions, though any cost savings are negated in transition costs.
Chose Paychex
Paychex is much easier to use. [...]
Chose Paychex
Paychex Flex was a much more affordable option than some of those out there. For a small business, the quicker ROI makes a big difference. Some of the customization options were especially helpful to our team. Paychex Flex was also much more well-known in our market and we …
Chose Paychex
The system automates the whole process of managing HR tasks helping businesses be more productive, save time and stay compliant.
Chose Paychex
I didn't select Paychex, it was already in place when I joined the company and I'm getting us off them.
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
We used to use ADP and Paychex when we had a particularly problematic time with Paylocity. We looked into Paycor, but they're very, very expensive for what they were giving us too. So we stuck it out with Paylocity. We did get some extra involvement in that, like a support …
Chose Paylocity
We used Paychex back when it was Preview and switched before we used Paychex Flex. So, this is really the only platform we've used.
Chose Paylocity
As long as I am the Director of HR, we will never be a Paychex customer again. The report writer of Paychex, I felt I needed a Paychex college degree to navigate. When we decided to leave Paychex, they did not help in any way to help me navigate retaining my employee records …
Chose Paylocity
The reports for Corpay were very difficult to decipher. Monthly payroll reconciliations would take three times as long as they do with Paylocity. When we had our annual audits, the auditors had difficulty matching up the payroll amounts with the 941s.
Paychex was all about …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity has the reports that I need and what our auditors require, and reports that are easily read. Customer service is great.
Chose Paylocity
We have given notice to terminate Paylocity and are returning to ADP
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is better organized and way more robust.
Chose Paylocity
They had an LMS and Benefits along with integrated Time and Attendance so that is was brought us to overall choosing Paylocity. We also would like to work on integrating the onboarding modules and the recruiting modules but we just have not gotten there yet. We do also want to …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is so much better. But we did have an issue, and the person who sold us the software never returned our calls.
Chose Paylocity
It is less complicated that others
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity was already in place when I took over my position.
Chose Paylocity
Time and Labor, in my prior organizations we didn't use time and labor, I think it's a game changer.
Chose Paylocity
Advantage Payroll was going out of business and was being bought out by Paychex. After viewing several payroll companies and demoing each one, I chose Paylocity and haven't regretted my decision.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity has far surpassed other payroll companies that we have used in the past. Our sales rep not only did a phenomenal job of selling and pricing the product to us but remains available now, years after we first started using the product, for any questions or issues we may …
Chose Paylocity
The ease of use and service is so much better!
Chose Paylocity
Velocity was the right priced system with the right modules for our business. Although many other systems do similar things to Paylocity, we found that Paylocity provided us with all of the modules that we needed for the right price per employee per month. I have seen some …
Chose Paylocity
I prefer the flexibility of Paylocity to Paychex. (I don't remember Flex or PEO; they might not have had those distinctions when I used them over 10 years ago.) I really like doing payroll all by myself when I have time to do it.
Chose Paylocity
The systems functionalities are very similar, but no matter how great a system may be is good customer care does not represent the program, the reviews will always be poor.
Chose Paylocity
Less expensive and the reports are much better
Features
PaychexPaylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
6.5
268 Ratings
22% below category average
Paylocity
7.8
1445 Ratings
4% below category average
Employee demographic data7.6215 Ratings8.41377 Ratings
Employment history8.0239 Ratings8.11328 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.5173 Ratings7.91240 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.4168 Ratings7.71253 Ratings
Organizational charting1.01 Ratings7.41153 Ratings
Organization and location management7.4155 Ratings7.91134 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)6.5144 Ratings7.5968 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.5
310 Ratings
8% below category average
Paylocity
8.3
1383 Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation8.0292 Ratings8.61351 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment6.6150 Ratings8.71050 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.8171 Ratings7.6937 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.2291 Ratings8.91345 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.7207 Ratings8.21086 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.6116 Ratings7.9684 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings7.8682 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.1
158 Ratings
14% below category average
Paylocity
7.6
1172 Ratings
7% below category average
Approval workflow7.0112 Ratings7.71044 Ratings
Balance details7.3150 Ratings7.41120 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment7.0119 Ratings7.7889 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
7.7
267 Ratings
6% below category average
Paylocity
8.4
1391 Ratings
2% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information7.7245 Ratings8.61355 Ratings
Update personal information7.8257 Ratings8.71379 Ratings
View company policy documentation7.5119 Ratings8.11126 Ratings
View job history7.7181 Ratings8.51210 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.21021 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
5.2
43 Ratings
42% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
450 Ratings
7% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets5.243 Ratings7.4450 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
6.0
175 Ratings
23% below category average
Paylocity
7.3
1287 Ratings
3% below category average
Report builder6.4145 Ratings7.31235 Ratings
Pre-built reports6.3164 Ratings7.51253 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data5.291 Ratings7.2823 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
6.2
171 Ratings
25% below category average
Paylocity
8.2
1209 Ratings
3% above category average
New hire portal6.8164 Ratings8.31199 Ratings
Manager tracking tools5.6106 Ratings8.1973 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
5.2
68 Ratings
38% below category average
Paylocity
8.0
814 Ratings
4% above category average
Job Requisition Management5.636 Ratings8.1699 Ratings
Company Website Posting5.434 Ratings8.2727 Ratings
Publish to Social Media4.928 Ratings8.0567 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting5.335 Ratings8.1694 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention5.034 Ratings7.6597 Ratings
Applicant Tracking5.039 Ratings8.2754 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts5.262 Ratings7.9751 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.8
686 Ratings
3% below category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.7550 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.8633 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.7490 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings7.9642 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.6
860 Ratings
4% below category average
Performance plans00 Ratings7.4784 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.4679 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings7.7790 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings7.8797 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings7.7674 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paychex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.6
461 Ratings
3% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings7.3317 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.5372 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings8.0417 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.6342 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PaychexPaylocity
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.4 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.2 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PaychexPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
6.6
(323 ratings)
8.3
(1520 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.4
(44 ratings)
8.8
(166 ratings)
Usability
6.9
(264 ratings)
8.2
(329 ratings)
Availability
5.9
(12 ratings)
8.9
(36 ratings)
Performance
7.1
(12 ratings)
8.5
(35 ratings)
Support Rating
6.5
(265 ratings)
7.1
(148 ratings)
In-Person Training
4.5
(1 ratings)
8.1
(6 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(4 ratings)
7.9
(29 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.6
(13 ratings)
7.1
(92 ratings)
Configurability
5.1
(9 ratings)
7.0
(26 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(25 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(3 ratings)
7.2
(28 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.5
(12 ratings)
8.2
(34 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(18 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
2.5
(33 ratings)
7.4
(34 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
3.5
(34 ratings)
8.4
(31 ratings)
User Testimonials
PaychexPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
Paychex Inc.
For the most part, Paychex Flex is a very good payroll system and is well suited for a small business. Most basic features are simple and user friendly. For businesses that have hourly employees, its timeclock system is a good feature. For businesses that have a large number of employees and more complicated rules and policies, it might not be as appropriate because of the difficulty to set up for these rules and policies
Read full review
Paylocity
Paylocity is a very user-friendly system. It is very easy to learn and use. They offer features like Time and Labor, Payroll, integrations with other software and Human Resources benefits. They have an excellent onboarding process and feature recruitment right at your fingertips, so you do not have to go on so many job boards. I like their self-service portal because it allows our staff independence on clocking in and out as well as requesting paid time off and our staff can make their own corrections when they miss a punch on their time sheet or forget to clock in and out for lunch or during the day.
Read full review
Pros
Paychex Inc.
  • 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.
Read full review
Paylocity
  • Payroll is made pretty easy. I love that we have the ability to log into payroll, we just upload the information from commissions, things like that where there are exceptions to a regular payroll run. It may make it very easy to do that, just a quick upload. Additionally, when we're in the payroll grid, it gives us the ability to just make quick changes to people's pay or their tax schedule, tax withholdings, things like that without having to go through a lot of different screens. It's just very easy to access just for the click of a button. Love that.
  • We talked about performance reviews, talked about payroll with benefits administration, it allows us to utilize EDI feeds with our benefit vendors so it creates a seamless, but we just enter the information into Paylocity and then it seamlessly provides that information to our vendors. That's been really helpful. And adjusting benefits is also very easy within Paylocity. I love the recent edition of compensation analysis information, so I'm able to go into the compensation module and look for jobs that are similar to a job title at our company. I can enter the job description, I give them what state that the person or the job is in, and it pops out compensation data. It gives me different options, so titles that might be similar. So if there's not something that's an exact fit, I'm able to find something really, really close. It's been a huge upgrade because before that I was having to use a different vendor and paying $400 per job and now it's significantly less expensive to Paylocity and I'm still getting great quality data. It's been very helpful.
Read full review
Cons
Paychex Inc.
  • 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.
Read full review
Paylocity
  • Develop a full AP/AR process that integrates with the other financial tools like payroll, expenses, etc.
  • Have the platform DCAA compliant and have it audited so that companies can use it as a definitive government contracting platform.
  • Develop an improvement that would allow for Time and Labor integration and reporting to Medicaid for service providers so they don't need multiple systems.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Paychex Inc.
Overall I like the features that Paychex Flex offers. I am sure that there are other features that I am unaware of, so I am excited to see if there is more that Flex is capable of to make my job easier. The basic features are really user friendly and easy to access. If there ever is an issue customer service is great
Read full review
Paylocity
There are several technical issues we have experienced this past year with the employee onboarding process that we are still waiting to have resolved. Overall our experience with Paylocity has been positive, and we love how user-friendly and easy to navigate the system is. It has made all of our HR processes much more streamlined and efficient.
Read full review
Usability
Paychex Inc.
Some things could be streamlined. For example, we could do custom options for the "add items" tab which has so many options that we never use. "Medical Pay" could be something that the system remembers for the applicable employees. Salaried employees' salaries should definitely be auto-filled. Overall the system works well but I think it could be improved to be easier to use and read.
Read full review
Paylocity
I would give it that overall rating because we implemented in 2023 and so although that may feel like a lot of time, it still is, we still have a lot to learn and so I'm optimistic that as we learn more that rating will increase.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Paychex Inc.
We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
Read full review
Paylocity
Over the last 3 years, we've only had one major service issue that rendered Airbase unusable for us for about 24 hours. That said, they navigated the SVB bank crisis very well and made sure funds were available during that time.
Read full review
Performance
Paychex Inc.
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.
Read full review
Paylocity
We had some minor hiccups throughout the year but they have all been fixable. Paylocity integrates well with our 401k provider, Principal, and our benefits, OneDigital. It makes it simple to house everything and have it all connected. It doesn't slow anything down to have Principal integrated. It makes it more efficient
Read full review
Support Rating
Paychex Inc.
Our dedicated representative is one of the main reasons we are sticking with Paychex Flex. If it were not for this person, other platforms could provide the same/similar functionality. It is the ability to speak with someone that understands our business and is willing to get questions answered in a timely fashion that keeps us with Paychex Flex.
Read full review
Paylocity
It is very hard to get answers to your questions, you cannot speak to someone without days of requesting assistance or answers and then eventually can get a call back and then it is usually resolved fairly quickly. But NOT easy to get that help.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Paychex Inc.
We did online training only
Read full review
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
Paychex Inc.
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.
Read full review
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
Paychex Inc.
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.
Read full review
Paylocity
Implementation was a bit bumpy and Paylocity team not always available for next steps and/or questions. I feel like Paylocity could have done a better job in their fact finding as far as what we were currently doing, our payroll policies and needs, etc. so that we would have run into less issues as we moved forward.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Paychex Inc.
We still use QB Desktop Pro to maintain a Check Register / Overall Balance for the company, but once having tried QB Payroll Online for about 3 months prior to finding Paychex Flex I can tell you that there's just no comparison. QB online is VERY EXPENSIVE and not so user-friendly. I hated every minute of those 6 payrolls we ran through QB online.
Read full review
Paylocity
We went through demos five years ago and we evaluated ADP and UKG in the past, and we used Paycor previously. In the past, I've used ADP and Kronos when it was still Kronos at other companies. So several different ones. One of the main reasons was that it was all one platform and you didn't have to log into other platforms for it to communicate with each other. Payroll talks to time that talks back to payroll and you don't have to log into anything separate. The reporting was also really easy and you didn't have to have a master's degree to do it.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Paychex Inc.
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
I didn't help but I like the pricing
Read full review
Scalability
Paychex Inc.
I generally do payroll at the office, however I have had to go remote due to internet issues and also had to take payroll on vacation with me. Very easy to log in wherever you are and manage your TAA and payroll
Read full review
Paylocity
We have gone from a medium sized company to a larger company with no issues whatsoever with Paylocity being able to keep up or do what we need it to do for the size of our needs. In fact, it does more than we even use at this juncture
Read full review
Professional Services
Paychex Inc.
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
They are thorough, care about quality and success, take the time needed to implement properly, answer questions, build data feeds. A professional, caring, very skilled team there.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Paychex Inc.
  • I do not believe we have saved anything additionally. The time we've had to spend to get things to hopefully work is sad. This is the reason we've had to turn off all extra "products" of Paychex Flex. Time and Attendance is horrible. Benefits management is horrible. The user experience is horrible.
  • One thing I do not understand is why are updates for states, cities, counties, school districts, etc. not automatically updated? Should we not get a big red flag if we have an employee living/working, being paid in CA, but they aren't set up for CA sick time? If it is required to be on the paycheck stub to show the balance of the sick time, why would we not be notified that we are out of compliance?
Read full review
Paylocity
  • So when I first found Paylocity back in 2013 and was pitching it to the senior leadership company, my PowerPoint presentation, our return on investment was reducing errors in time and labor. We did paper time sheets back in the day back in 2007, 2008. So we were always running paper time sheets, Microsoft Excel or other standalone products, printing them out and hand keying them into a payroll system. So my ROI to our company was to save money and time on data entry and also to better manage the taxes. So we pay for the tax service, we're in 27 states having to manage that. Previously we were responsible for knowing what every state tax codes were, what every state tax compliance rules were. So with Paylocity we signed up for a tax service and that has been a huge return on investment.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Paychex Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Paylocity Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of real-time employee data and performance metrics used to uncover and analyze trends. This creates an impactful understanding of the business, increase retention, understand labor costs, and plan for changes.Screenshot of where to automate manual processes with Paylocity's self-serve automation engine, Workflows. Users can implement routines for time-consuming manual tasks.Screenshot of where to manage and comply with employment law. Paylocity's HR Compliance solution helps users to stay on track and view important employee compliance items, from Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), healthcare, and compensation.Screenshot of how Paylocity Recruiting can automate hiring processes. amplify outreach, showcase a company's culture, and build stronger candidate connections to swiftly fill positions.Screenshot of recognition and rewards in Paylocity.