There is probably not a bigger name in payroll than ADP. It’s been around forever, millions of people use it, the monthly ADP Employment Report literally moves US markets–but is it good option for payroll and HR?
The short answer yes, there is no deeper payroll platform on the market. It’s not the cheapest, but with ADP you get a set of payroll and HR tools that fully match your unique situation, along with the ability to outsource responsibilities if need be.
Comparing ADP to The Best Online Payroll Services
ADP stands out in its ability to scale with your business, starting with the smallest of companies up to accommodating companies with teams of 1,000 or more. ADP’s custom-built plans give you everything your business needs, specifically, allowing you to grow with its tools relevant to your business.
Many payroll companies like to say they serve every size business–ADP actually does.
You will be able to find an ADP plan that lines up with what you need. As you grow and expand, you can stay with ADP. It can handle every edge-case tax situation, unique municipal employment law, and new regulations without a problem. ADP runs payroll for companies with five people and companies on five continents.
The tradeoff is that other payroll software that targets specific niches can serve those particular clients better.
As a company that has used payroll services to work with freelancers and employees over the years, we have a lot of stake in this particular product type. Our top list of the best online payroll services compares and contrasts ADP and other services to help you determine a winner for your business. See all of our top picks.
What about Roll By ADP?
Small businesses looking for a no-frills payroll solution and thinking about ADP should check out Roll by ADP. This is a modern, streamlined payroll service designed for busy owners that have to run payroll themselves.
Unlike the other ADP plans we cover in this review, Roll is easy to price out, simple to use, and isn’t freighted by features designed for much bigger offices.
ADP: The Good and The Bad
The Good
Easily Scalable: ADP’s different plans accommodate small, medium, and large businesses. You can always start with a modest plan and switch to a different one as your business and needs grow without changing and getting yourself accustomed to a new program.
Full HR Suite: If you plan to scale with ADP or are already large enough to have an HR department, ADP can meet you where you are with its additional tools. Aside from payroll, the software can include employee benefits management, outsourcing tools, talent acquisition tools, and other HR resources to save your team time.
Employee Accessibility: Not only does ADP save your business time, but it also adds convenience to your employees, allowing them to log in to view their pay stubs or change their employee information. They can also view information about their benefits and retirement plan using their own account within your ADP system.
Customized Solutions: Some payroll software options offer a few structured plans for clients to choose from. In contrast, ADP provides custom solutions that fit your business, whether you strictly need payroll tools or require a full suite of HR services. The ADP Marketplace also helps you tailor your software with apps for productivity, finance, health care, and more.
Detailed Reporting: Get insights into your workforce demographics, compensation strategies, pay equity, and other data. Detailed reports can assist your recruiters in fine-tuning their talent acquisition strategies and help your HR department discover quality issues in benefits and turnover rates.
Accessible from Multiple Devices: With ADP being a cloud-based software, clients and employees can access it from multiple devices. Use the office computer or check on employee tax documents from your smartphone on your lunch break. Payroll processing is even available through the iOS or Android mobile app.
Collaborative Scheduling: Scheduling can get messy when multiple people handle time off and scheduling-switching requests. Collaborative scheduling makes it easier for your team and employees to create schedules that work for everyone. Allow employees to log in from their mobile device to request time off or switch schedules with someone else with pre-approval.
Per-Payroll Charges: Unlike other payroll services, ADP charges a fee per payroll based on the size of your team. Most payroll services charge a flat fee plus a per-employee fee, which isn’t as cost-effective for a large business. This pricing model accommodates mid-to-large teams well, allowing them to choose the plan that fits their payroll.
The Bad
Pricey for Small Business: ADP is built to scale with your business. With that said, it’s not necessarily priced for small businesses that aren’t planning to scale, especially those strictly needing just a payroll service. Small businesses are better off using a smaller-scale service like SurePayroll, or even a free service like Payroll4Free.
Technical Errors on Employee Side: While technical errors can undoubtedly put a damper on the business side of things, ADP doesn’t seem to have many flaws that affect the backend. Instead, employees run into issues with ADP not displaying their information correctly or not calculating hours or taxes accurately. This is not just an issue for employees, but for your business as well–ultimately, it’s your business that will need to correct these payroll mistakes.
Customer Service: A common complaint from real ADP users is that its customer service leaves a lot of room for improvement. Companies of all sizes rely on their payroll process to run smoothly for both the business and employees, but hiccups inevitably occur at some point. When that happens, it’s crucial to have a reliable support team at your service. However, ADP can be challenging to get a hold of and struggles to provide quick solutions to big problems.
Non-Transparent Pricing: There’s no free trial for ADP, and you’ll need to request and wait for a demo to see how it all works. That may not be a deal-breaker in most cases, but ADP also doesn’t lay out its prices on the website for you to decide whether it’s in your budget before requesting a demo. It’s an age-old sales tactic that you’ll need to determine if you want to ride out before choosing payroll software.
ADP Pricing and Options
ADP pricing isn’t disclosed on its website, mostly because the service can be tailored to your business. You can choose from payroll-only tools or add HR, hiring, and other solutions, depending on company size. To get an accurate price quote, you’ll need to start the quote process online or call ADP to speak with a representative who can offer some guidance.
ADP offers several base packages for Small (1-49 employees), Midsized (50-999 employees) and Large Businesses (1000+ employees).
Small Business plans come with everything you would expect from a top online payroll provider, with the option to add additional HR services as necessary. Midsized Business plans have deeper HR software and workforce management tools that can handle the additional headcount, along with tools for keeping pay fair and competitive as you grow.
Large Business plans have additional tools for compliance, human capital management, pay equity, and other aspects of compensation that get tricky at scale.
The lack of a clear sticker price for ADP is a little frustrating, but on the other hand, you’ll get a customized solution featuring only the things you need, which could save you money compared to other services that charge a flat price for a bundle of features.
ADP Time and Attendance Tracking
Workers can clock in and clock out directly from their phone, or at a kiosk. Everything is tracked automatically and tied right into your payroll. This saves time each pay period and greatly reduces the risk of mistakes.
Your employees can use a touchless kiosk to start tracking their time or indicate that they’re going on break. Face and voice recognition power the software, allowing each employee to track their time without papers or keypads.
Even without the touchless kiosk system, your team can clock in or out using their mobile device or a computer connected to the system.
ADP also lets you configure a scheduling system that works for everyone. The software can learn your company’s staffing needs and show you where you might want to add a person or two to cover a shift. Tweak the schedule from within the system and allow employees to log in to view it. Employees may also request time off if enabled, and your scheduling team can view employee eligibility for leave and absences through the system.
These features can undoubtedly help your team automate time tracking and attendance, but you might not see them shine the way they should if your team uses the ADP Workforce Manager app. The app is glitchy at best, often causing login and time-tracking issues that could land more work on your team’s hands to correct.
ADP Talent Sourcing and Management
When your business grows, it needs more talent to fill open job positions. ADP’s talent sourcing and talent management tools govern the recruiting process to get the right talent on your team. This feature isn’t automatically added when you sign up for ADP, but it’s one you might consider using if you have multiple job openings available at any given time.
Not only will ADP help you recruit and hire new employees, but it will also onboard them through a digital onboarding experience that gathers necessary paperwork and shows new hires the company ropes. Onboarded employees can then access a range of employee benefits your company sets up with the help of ADP’s software and its affiliates, which provide retirement plans, health insurance, and more.
Need freelancers instead of employees? Unlike other software geared toward just employees, ADP provides a full-featured solution for teams with freelancers. ADP’s WorkMarket will keep track of your contractors, stay on top of their hours or projects, ensure compliance, and pay them promptly.
ADP HR Services
Save your HR department time and stress with a full suite of HR services provided by ADP. Have a dedicated HR support professional to get help from as needed, automate some processes by setting up employee self-service accounts, and get reports on employee benefits and company compliance.
Your HR team also gets access to non-stop support through the HR HelpDesk, the ADP community, and HR checkups that note how well your company’s HR measures compare to standard practices.
The best part is that these solutions don’t just target companies with HR departments. If you run a small business, you can benefit from using these tools in place of an HR team, getting 24/7 support for employee and compliance issues as they arise.
How ADP Ranks
ADP is tailor-made to fit the needs of any size company, from just-starting-out small businesses to full-blown enterprises. That’s why we’ve chosen it as the number one pick for businesses that want to avoid typical growing pains with payroll services that can’t keep up as the company scales.
Let ADP know how many employees you have right from the get-go, and your service will meet your size needs. If your company expands, you can access other helpful features, like recruiting tools and resources for your HR department, to keep things running smoothly.
We’ve compared dozens of the best online payroll services to determine their strengths and weaknesses for different businesses. Explore our top picks to find the best option for your company.
- Rippling – Best online payroll service for most
- BambooHR – Best for an employee-first solution
- Deel – Best for automating multiple payroll tasks
- Remofirst – Best for receiving payroll analytics
- TriNet – Best for payroll services for SMBs
- Paycor– Best for payroll compliance
- Gusto – Best online payroll service for most
- QuickBooks – Best for knocking out payroll & accounting in one step
- ADP – Best for avoiding payroll growing pains
- Deluxe Payroll – Best way to attract more talent
- SurePayroll – Best worry-free guarantee for small business taxes
- Payroll4Free.com – Best feature-rich free-forever online payroll service
- Remote.com – Best for global hiring and payroll
Summary
ADP can be a cost-effective solution for companies planning to scale without switching payroll services. Start small with all the essential tools you need, and ADP will help you move onto big-business territory with HR resources, talent sourcing, and other perks for large teams. We suggest requesting a demo of ADP and speaking with a representative to see if it’s the best option for your current business needs, as micro-businesses might be better off sticking with more affordable or free software.
