Paylocity vs. UKG Ready

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
UKG Ready
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
The UKG Ready® software suite is a centralized HCM solution designed for small to mid-sized businesses. It automates and streamlines HR, payroll, benefits, time, talent, and scheduling processes. UKG Ready's suite of tools offer actionable insights while helping to ensure compliance. Using AI, it draws on work, people, and culture data to boost efficiency and productivity. For example, UKG Ready streamlines core HR functions by centralizing…N/A
Pricing
PaylocityUKG Ready
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PaylocityUKG Ready
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PaylocityUKG Ready
Considered Both Products
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
My predecessor selected Paylocity, however I prefer it over the other HRIS products that I have used in the past. The only platform that I might prefer more is the UKG Ready system. It has a lot of customizable options that allow the end user to set up the system based on their …
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
The two were obviously good, but as for Bamboo, once you cross the 150 plus employees and need deeper compliance, it starts to feel lightweight. Paylocity scaled better. UKG on the other hand had a user experience that felt dated and the admin overhead was just too high. …
Chose Paylocity
At the time we went with Paylocity - it was the feedback from other clients that made me go with Paylocity.
Chose Paylocity
We were a previous client of UKG and had a horrible implementation followed by several years of problematic software. Everything is "bolted" on, so nothing talks to each other despite what sales will tell you. They have merged so many products that one incorrect field can break …
Chose Paylocity
Pricing and ease of use were much better with Paylocity.
Chose Paylocity
I have been with my current employer for less than a year. Coming into a Paylocity environment for the 1st time I am impressed with what Paylocity has to offer.
I would like to see Paylocity offer an in person "Meeting of the Minds" style meeting for networking and learning …
Chose Paylocity
UKG was very robust and customizable but expensive and hard to manage without a very experienced HRIS/IT person on staff.
ADP was archaic and choppy.
Chose Paylocity
UKG and Paylocity were fairly similar, but we thought the user experience seemed simpler with Paylocity. Paycom did not have as great of customer service and was much more expensive.
Chose Paylocity
We left ADP because of their horrific customer service. Although Paylocity's can certainly improve, I would say it's easier to communicate with their support staff than with ADP. The only thing I miss from ADP is our time off balances were never affected by the fact we pay …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity by far has the best reporting, during a time import it can break out into multiple payrates, I really like the ACA reporting.

GoCo Had a really good clint management system would meet on a weekly bases.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity was a good value for our agency and we wish the recruiting and applicant tracking was more robust, but given the value of the product, we have chosen to work around that area.
Chose Paylocity
I felt like Paylocity had more to offer and would be more intuitive for our employees at the time. I do like UKG's platform and have seriously considered it. Paylocity was levels above Paychex when I used that.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is easily the worst one. It's clunky and the modules do not talk to each other well. It requires a lot of manual work, the user interface is horrible, and the system is glitchy.
UKG Ready
Chose UKG Ready
Not allowing me to list Ultimate Software (most likely due to the merger), but there is a comparison to be had. UKG Ready HR management is a great product and stacks up above Paylocity. I would say it is similar to Ultimate software (not listed as I assume that you are …
Chose UKG Ready
UKG is great for reporting and for having a pleasant UI. I find that Paylocity has a lot more innovation, but sometimes its reach exceeds its grasp when it comes to implementation of those features. ADP is bog standard, and it works pretty well, but there's little interest in …
Chose UKG Ready
UKG is much easier to use and customize for our business needs. I enjoy that the time piece is directly connected with the payroll function. This is something that we didn't see when working with Paylocity. There was a manual time data upload that we needed to process into the …
Chose UKG Ready
UKG Ready reporting is one of their best features. If you enter data into the system you can run a report on it and export it in multiple formats. It is an invaluable tool which most other payroll/HR platforms lack.
Chose UKG Ready
A huge benefit to having Kronos is the Resources available. Our organization has received so much assistance from Michelle.
Features
PaylocityUKG Ready
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.8
1446 Ratings
4% below category average
UKG Ready
8.4
247 Ratings
4% above category average
Employee demographic data8.41378 Ratings8.9217 Ratings
Employment history8.11328 Ratings8.4211 Ratings
Job profiles and administration7.91241 Ratings8.3211 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.61254 Ratings8.4197 Ratings
Organizational charting7.41154 Ratings8.0161 Ratings
Organization and location management7.91135 Ratings8.3186 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.5969 Ratings8.8159 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.3
1384 Ratings
2% above category average
UKG Ready
8.5
240 Ratings
4% above category average
Pay calculation8.61352 Ratings8.6222 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors7.8683 Ratings8.1135 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment8.71051 Ratings8.0116 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.6938 Ratings8.6176 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.91346 Ratings8.7182 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.21087 Ratings8.8166 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.9685 Ratings00 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.6
1173 Ratings
7% below category average
UKG Ready
8.1
216 Ratings
1% below category average
Approval workflow7.71045 Ratings7.6198 Ratings
Balance details7.41121 Ratings7.6206 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment7.7890 Ratings8.9177 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.4
1392 Ratings
2% above category average
UKG Ready
8.2
229 Ratings
0% below category average
View and generate pay and benefit information8.61356 Ratings8.2209 Ratings
Update personal information8.71380 Ratings8.4216 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.11127 Ratings7.9177 Ratings
Employee recognition8.31022 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history8.51211 Ratings8.5185 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.4
451 Ratings
7% below category average
UKG Ready
8.9
88 Ratings
11% above category average
Tracking of all physical assets7.4451 Ratings8.988 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.3
1288 Ratings
3% below category average
UKG Ready
8.2
232 Ratings
8% above category average
Report builder7.31236 Ratings8.0225 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.51254 Ratings8.5225 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data7.2824 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.2
1210 Ratings
3% above category average
UKG Ready
7.8
161 Ratings
2% below category average
New hire portal8.41200 Ratings8.0159 Ratings
Manager tracking tools8.1974 Ratings7.7131 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.8
687 Ratings
3% below category average
UKG Ready
7.1
99 Ratings
12% below category average
Corporate goal setting7.7551 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.8634 Ratings7.191 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.7491 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.9643 Ratings7.198 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.6
861 Ratings
4% below category average
UKG Ready
7.5
125 Ratings
5% below category average
Performance plans7.4785 Ratings6.8113 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.4680 Ratings6.8103 Ratings
Review status tracking7.7791 Ratings8.3112 Ratings
Review reminders7.8798 Ratings8.4116 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.7675 Ratings7.2101 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
7.6
462 Ratings
3% below category average
UKG Ready
6.6
51 Ratings
17% below category average
Create succession plans/pools7.3318 Ratings5.743 Ratings
Candidate ranking7.5373 Ratings6.624 Ratings
Candidate search8.0418 Ratings7.230 Ratings
Candidate development7.6343 Ratings7.125 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paylocity
8.0
815 Ratings
4% above category average
UKG Ready
7.5
131 Ratings
2% below category average
Job Requisition Management8.1700 Ratings7.5111 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.2728 Ratings7.8107 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.0568 Ratings7.283 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting8.1695 Ratings7.589 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.6598 Ratings7.384 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.2755 Ratings7.8112 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts7.9752 Ratings7.2120 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PaylocityUKG Ready
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 9.7 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 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
PaylocityUKG Ready
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(1524 ratings)
8.3
(273 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.8
(166 ratings)
7.8
(19 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(332 ratings)
8.4
(156 ratings)
Availability
8.9
(36 ratings)
5.3
(4 ratings)
Performance
8.5
(35 ratings)
5.0
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(148 ratings)
5.2
(75 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(6 ratings)
7.8
(2 ratings)
Online Training
7.9
(29 ratings)
6.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.2
(92 ratings)
5.1
(11 ratings)
Configurability
7.1
(26 ratings)
5.2
(5 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.2
(28 ratings)
6.1
(120 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(34 ratings)
3.3
(4 ratings)
Professional Services
8.6
(18 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.4
(34 ratings)
5.2
(4 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.5
(31 ratings)
5.2
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
PaylocityUKG Ready
Likelihood to Recommend
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
UKG
I might recommend UKG to a larger organization than ours. The complexity is rich, but perhaps it is too powerful a tool for what we need. That or it's a bit messy in its construction, having so many tools available but difficult to find or not working appropriately. UKG Ready processes payroll efficiently and with ease, but unless you are using a simple accounting platform it may not be able to easily integrate with yours
Read full review
Pros
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.
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UKG
  • Support—UKG support, from the Account Managers to CSMs to Ready Support, is amazing. They are always willing to help!
  • Documentation—UKG has built-in online documentation, which is a live, easy-to-use version of a very lengthy manual.
  • Ease of use- the system is intuitive, easy to train others to use.
Read full review
Cons
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
UKG
  • We have had ongoing issues with our accruals.
  • Auto generate timesheets in the "Team Timesheets" view.
  • Granting manager access is cumbersome - access needs to be given in multiple places.
  • The sync between Pro and Ready in my opinion is terrible and needs much improvement.
  • Auto assign Employee Time Zones based on work location.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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.
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UKG
We plan to renew our support and use of UKG Ready each year unless it becomes unavailable or the district seeks another vendor. As of now, there are no plans to changes vendors. The district staff is now familiar with using UKG. Another vendor will need to meet the same expectations we have come to enjoy with using UKG
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Usability
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.
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UKG
UKG is the platform with the best overall usability on both an admin and user side. Employees find it easy to update personal information, the dashboards are clear and easy to follow, and the navigation of it is also easy to follow. Overall my favorite platform to use and learn more about.
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Reliability and Availability
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.
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UKG
The system seems very stable. Being hosted in the cloud, we are vulnerable to internet speeds and busy times. The system has been down a couple times over the 3 months we have been live, but Kronos resolved the issues very quickly. To have access from a desktop, tablet, time clock, or phone app is one of the best features....users have almost NO REASON they can't clock in.
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Performance
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
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UKG
We were always told that Kronos was the best, but there are reports that we got out of ADP and other payroll providers that we cannot get out of Kronos. One example is a report of Productive/Non-productive hours by department. We also need the dollar amount associated with the hours. This is information that is required on our cost report and we were told that that report is unavailable. It is very frustrating when I can't get what I need.
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Support Rating
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.
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UKG
If I was only rating support itself that would be a 10. Every support case I have entered has been addressed efficiently and with the desired result. On the implementation and transition to support there were multiple issues that those doing the implementation or transition could not answer or workflows and various settings left undone only to be discovered later. We implemented 3 different modules and the expertise we got for each one varied widely.
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In-Person Training
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.
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UKG
Our in-person training was a hybrid. Live online training with an instructor. They were very knowledgeable of the product & the area they were training on. I asked several specific questions and if they didn't know the answer immediately they followed up after class.
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Online Training
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.
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UKG
Pretty good online training, you have many how to options and can watch them several times. It can be hard at times to dig through the amount of data online but can usually find what you are looking for. Also you can download documentation for setting up the profiles and policies.
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Implementation Rating
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.
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UKG
Make sure the people who are doing the build have extensive knowledge on employment law and asking the right questions. I would bet that the people who helped with our builds did not read any of our employment contracts or ordinances; and when I asked questions about how other companies handled certain basic dictates from federal employment laws, they didn't have any idea what FMLA, FLSA, etc were.
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Alternatives Considered
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.
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UKG
We currently use Paycom and are extremely dissatisfied with the lack of functionality and poor customer service. Rippling and ADP were other vendors we evaluated who performed well and offer a lot of functionality but we decided UKG was the best fit for our needs now and to scale with our strategic growth plans.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Paylocity
I didn't help but I like the pricing
Read full review
UKG
No answers on this topic
Scalability
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
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UKG
Thus far we are able to add as many users as necessary, implement 3 different bargaining units, 5 different types of user groups. Very flexible.
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Professional Services
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
UKG
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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.
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UKG
  • This is basic, but we finally know how many employees we have! It sounds ridiculous, but prior to UKG Ready we were on a payroll system that's reports were only as accurate as the last payroll cycle, so they were always 2 weeks behind and static. UKG Ready allows for realtime, daily reporting of information.
  • We are able to get salary data for our various locations to be able to compare them to each other, as well as across our "competitors" and external competition.
  • The data provided allows us to be able to understand the trends at individual locations including attrition, advancement, raise information, and other data points that we haven't historically done comparisons on
  • We can see the demographic and geographical information for our employees and the benefits that they elect
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ScreenShots

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.

UKG Ready Screenshots

Screenshot of the employee mobile interface.Screenshot of trust index survey results.Screenshot of the manager dashboard.Screenshot of payroll analytics.