1. Gusto - Best all-in-one Paycom alternative for payroll & HR
Overview
Gusto comes out on top of our list of top Paycom competitors with a more user-friendly platform at a far better price point. They offer many of the same features as Paycom, such as fully integrated payroll, HR, time and attendance, and benefits administration along with employee self-service, but Gusto’s customer service is more highly rated, their benefits options are superior, and they support international hiring.
Paycom lacks support for some common payroll features including multiple pay rates and schedules and next-day direct deposit. In contrast to Gusto’s intuitive platform with fully transparent pricing, Paycom charges exorbitant set-up fees and the software has a steep learning curve. In a head-to-head comparison from Fit Small Business, Gusto was the clear winner over Paycom, coming out ahead in nearly every category. Gusto also won best payroll software for small business in 2023 in independent analysis by NerdWallet, U.S. News and World Report, Business.org, and Fit Small Business, just to name a few.
Automatic Tax Filing & Compliance
With Gusto, every time you run payroll, all federal, state, and local taxes are automatically calculated, filed, and paid along with PTO, benefits deductions, and workers’ comp. Gusto handles all your 1099s and W-2s, and they’ll keep you compliant with meal times, breaks, and minimum wage. Paycom will also file and pay your taxes, but they only handle state and federal—you’ll have to file local taxes yourself, and you’ll have to pay extra if you want 1099s and W-2s filed for you.
Benefits Administration
Gusto offers custom no-cost, low-cost, and premium benefits options to help build a package that fits any budget. Benefits administration is included at no extra cost, which sets them apart from many Paycom competitors. Employees can also self-enroll, saving time and simplifying the enrollment process. Paycom doesn’t contract directly with benefits providers, instead offering integration with your existing provider, making it a bit clunky in comparison. And they charge extra for a benefits coordinator to help set up your plan.
The only downside to Gusto is that benefits administration is only available in 38 states and Washington, DC, so if you’re looking to offer benefits in one of those states, you’ll need to find an outside provider.
Employee Self-Service
Employee self-service makes it easy to upload documents, e-sign contracts, and gives employees lifetime access to paystubs, W-2s, and more. Employees can view their paychecks, manage PTO, clock in and out, and access financial management tools right from the app. Paycom also offers a solid employee self-service experience with their trademarked Beti system, allowing employees to review and approve their own paychecks each month.
Domestic and International Hiring
Gusto offers new-hire filing and compliance in all 50 states, and both FUTA and SUI payments are calculated and paid automatically. They also expanded international contractor support to 120+ countries, and their Employer of Record service, powered by Remote, is now live in both Canada and India with plenty more countries to follow. Paycom doesn’t support new hire state tax registration, and they have no international payroll available. Their misleading “Global HCM” product currently only supports HR management of cross-border employees—global payroll is yet to be rolled out.
Fully Integrated
Both Gusto and Paycom offer fully integrated solutions to manage the employee lifecycle from recruiting and hiring to onboarding and performance management. Both platforms have integrated payroll, time tracking, PTO, benefits, and compliance.
However, Paycom has almost zero software integrations with third-party platforms. Gusto offers hundreds of out-of-the-box integrations so you can switch to Gusto for payroll and HR while continuing to use your favorite time tracking, performance management, learning and development, or accounting software. Paycom is one of the few payroll providers on the market that doesn’t support integration with popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero. You’ll have to use their proprietary GL software.
The only area where Gusto falls short as a Paycom competitor is they don’t offer native learning and development or compensation analytics (though you can integrate with third-party providers for this). If you’re a midsize business looking for a Paycom alternative with these specific features, try Rippling or ADP Workforce Now instead.
Key Features
- Seamlessly integrated payroll, HR, time tracking, and benefits
- Payroll, taxes, and compliance in all 50 states
- Multiple pay rates and schedules
- Unlimited payroll runs
- Integrated time tracking tools
- Payroll on AutoPilot fully automates payroll for salaried employees
- Support for international contractors in 120+ countries; global payroll currently being expanded
- Employee-self service with lifetime access
- Benefits administration included in all plans at no additional cost
- Employee engagement & performance management suite
- AI-powered payroll and workforce reporting
- Hundreds of software integrations at no extra cost
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Intuitive, easy to use interface | More advanced HR tools only available on Plus and Premium plans |
| Taxes and compliance are fully automated and don’t cost extra | Mobile app lacks full payroll functionality |
| All-in-one solution for payroll, time, benefits, and HR | Time-tracking only included in Plus and Premium plans |
| Unlimited pay rates, schedules, and payroll runs at no extra cost | Benefits only available in 38 states + Washington, DC. |
| Transparent pricing, no hidden fees | |
| Fully integrated time tracking | |
| Excellent customer support | |
| Hundreds of software integrations included with all plans |
Pricing
Gusto offers three pricing plans, with the Simple plan starting at $40 per month plus $6 per person per month. The Simple plan lacks the more powerful HR tools like time tracking and performance management, but it still comes loaded with basic support for hiring and onboarding, PTO, and benefits administration.
Plus plans start at $80 per month plus $12 per person per month and include the full suite of time tracking, reporting, and team management tools along with the bulk of their advanced HR suite. Plus plans also come loaded with popular features like next-day direct deposit and multi-state payroll.
Dedicated support from certified HR pros along with compliance alerts is available only with the Premium plan or through the HR add-on at $8 per person per month.
Premium plans are priced exclusively, and include everything Gusto has to offer with no hidden monthly fees. For more info on Premium pricing, contact their sales team today.
Paycom’s pricing is only available upon request, and you’ll need to set up a demo and sales call to find out how much it will cost. They also charge setup fees, which were reported by users as $500 for 15 employees and $1,200 for 40 employees.
Free Trial? Yes, Gusto is free until you run your first payroll.
Free Version: No.
See how Gusto stacks up to Paycom to find the perfect fit for your payroll needs. Explore now.
Transform your HR processes with Gusto, a platform that’s already the choice of over 300,000 businesses.
Create account2. Paycor – Most similar alternative to Paycom
Overview
If you’re looking to switch from Paycom but aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel, Paycor is the most similar tool available on the market in terms of features, pricing, and target market. Like Paycom, it’s a one-stop payroll and HR solution targeted mostly toward midsize and larger businesses. Like Paycom, they offer limited integrations to keep you locked into their platform. And like most larger players in the space, while they offer solutions for small businesses, Paycor isn’t very competitively priced at these levels. But once you cross the 50-employee threshold, Paycor has everything you need to optimize your business while taking care of your team.
Time and attendance tools are run of the mill, though their scheduling tool is a step above Paycom’s. Recruiting is bolstered by an AI-powered applicant tracking system (ATS), and employee self-service onboarding and automated workflows help lighten the load for your HR team. Though their onboarding workflows lack some of the welcoming touches of Gusto or BambooHR.
From an employee management and retention perspective, Paycor checks all the industry boxes with pulse surveys, an LMS, performance reviews, and compensation planning. In addition, they offer a career management portal for employees to build succession plans and track critical goals. Paycor also offers advanced reporting and analytics that are a breeze to use compared to Paycom’s clunky and difficult reporting feature.
Overall, Paycor is a solid Paycom competitor that ticks just about every box on the list without standing too tall above the competition. Their strongest points of differentiation are their industry-specific solutions, “On Demand Payroll,” and their highly-rated mobile app.
Key Features
- Fully integrated HR, payroll, and benefits
- Unlimited payroll runs & automated payroll
- AI-powered talent acquisition
- Time & attendance tools
- Scheduling & shift swapping with labor forecasting
- Career management portal
- Industry-specific solutions
- Employee self-service & mobile app
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| “On Demand Payroll” lets employees choose how often they get paid | Not competitively priced for smaller businesses |
| Industry-specific solutions for compliance, tax credits, and more | Local tax filing not included |
| Excellent mobile app | Limited integrations available |
| Setup fees are often waived |
Pricing
Like most solutions for midsize businesses, Paycor doesn’t offer transparent pricing, and you’ll need to reach out for a custom quote. They do offer four tiers for businesses with fewer than 50 employees: Basic, Essential, Core, and Complete. Benefits and time-tracking are both paid add-ons to these plans, but pricing isn’t available for these either. User-reported pricing comes in at $99 to $199 per month plus $5 to $14 per person, per month. Paycor also charges an initial setup fee, but some users have reported having this fee waived.
Free Trial: Yes, you can access a demo from their website.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about Paycor
3. Workday – Best Paycom alternative for workforce optimization
Overview
Much like Paycom, Workday is targeted at larger businesses with complex HR needs. So if you’re looking for Paycom competitors that still offer high-octane optimization for your HR, look no further. Workday’s impressive human capital management (HCM) solution includes a native communication platform, a customizable dashboard for easy navigation and access to essential tasks and tools, and provides mobile apps for payroll, time tracking, and HR tasks.
Where Workday stands out from the crowd is their AI-powered, data-driven decision making that boosts productivity while keeping your team happy, motivated, and on track. For hiring, they provide robust data on skills gaps and compensation, along with impressive workforce optimization insights. From an employee management perspective, they help keep employees engaged through tailored professional development and personalized HR experiences.
In addition, Workday offers a standard suite of HR tools including integrated recruiting, hiring, and onboarding along with AI-powered time tracking and scheduling. Employees can easily clock in and out, swap shifts, and scheduling is both automated and compliant.
While Workday does offer integrated payroll, it’s somewhat limited and is more of an add-on to their core employee management software. Additionally, their global payroll solution is only available in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and France, though they do offer integrations with a handful of global payroll providers.
If you’re a midsize company looking for Paycom alternatives to jumpstart productivity, discover efficiencies, and ramp up employee engagement, Workday is a great tool for the job. But if you’re a smaller business looking for a simpler option than Paycom, Workday likely isn’t the right choice.
Key Features
- Integrated payroll, benefits, and HR
- Robust, AI-powered analytics and reporting
- Financial, workforce, and operational optimization
- Native communication tool
- Customized employee experiences
- Scheduling & shift swapping capability
- Employee self-service & mobile app
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Best-in-class reporting and analytics | Not cost effective for smaller businesses |
| AI-powered workforce optimization | Payroll functionality is lacking |
| Employee-centric development and growth features | Global payroll is limited to just 5 countries |
| No transparent pricing |
Pricing
Workday’s pricing is not transparent, and you’ll need to contact them for a custom quote. However, according to Forbes, users have reported pricing around $99 per user month.
Free Trial? No.
Free Plan: No. Learn more about Workday
4. Remote – Best Paycom alternative for global payroll
Overview
If your business is going global, it’s no surprise you’re looking for Paycom alternatives. Paycom doesn’t support any international payments—not even for contractors. Their Global HCM product helps you manage your team in 180 countries around the world, but their global payroll solution has yet to be rolled out. Luckily, Remote offers an impressive suite of international support, including global payroll, contractors, hiring, self-service onboarding, compliance, and benefits all in a wonderfully user-friendly platform. The best part is you can pay all of your team members around the world—whether contractor, full-time, or EOR—with a single payment.
Remote offers global payroll services in 100+ countries where your business already has an established entity. If you don’t have an entity, you can take advantage of their Employer of Record (EOR) service, currently available in more than 80 countries. For their EOR, they don’t contract with third-party vendors, which means better, faster support. For international contractors, they provide compliant local contracts and support for local taxes.
Their website also includes a helpful guide to local laws, compliance, and holiday and mandatory leave policies in every country they cover, which is a great resource as you’re thinking about expanding your talent pool to new countries.
One downside is that Remote doesn’t offer the same workforce and project cost reporting that many Paycom competitors do. While they make it easy to manage and pay teams across borders, they don’t have a suite of tools to help you optimize staffing or automate scheduling.
Key Features
- Contractor payments in 180+ countries
- Global payroll and EOR in 80+ countries
- Payment supported via wire transfer, ACH, SEPA, and card
- 100+ currencies supported with no conversion fees
- Localized compliance, contracts, and benefits administration including stock options
- Contractor misclassification risk assessment included
- One-click or autopay contractor invoices
- Seamless onboarding and employee self-service portal
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Integration for domestic and international employees, contractors, full-time and part-time | Customer support via email only |
| Easy onboarding process | No transparent pricing for global payroll |
| Owned entities are not outsourced to third-party vendors | No support for common international payment methods like Payoneer and PayPal |
| Great, user-friendly interface | No workforce costing or scheduling functionality |
| Country-specific compliance and benefits |
Pricing
Remote prices their services based on which kind of global hiring you need. For their EOR service, it costs $599 per employee per month (on an annual plan), which is in line with industry standards. To go month-to-month it increases to $699. Their international contractor payments are reasonable at $29 per month, but if you only have international contractors and not full-time employees (or if you are operating 100% within the US), there are much more affordable solutions out there.
For global payroll in countries where you operate your own entity, you have to contact sales for pricing.
Free Trial? You can set up an account and explore features including hiring and onboarding at no cost for 30 days. You’ll only be charged when you pay global workers.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about Remote
5. ADP Workforce Now – Best Paycom alternative for learning and development
Overview
ADP is the largest payroll provider in the world and offers multiple payroll solutions depending on the size of your business. For small- and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 50 employees, they offer ADP Run. But where ADP stands out as a solid alternative to Paycom is their Workforce Now solution for businesses with 50–1000 employees. Workforce Now offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing HR, payroll, benefits, and more, complemented by over 700 software integrations. The platform includes time tracking, paid time off (PTO) management, accruals, performance and compensation management, an extensive collection of learning resources, and sophisticated reporting and analytics tools.
For learning and development in particular, Workforce Now is a cut above the rest. Similar to Paycom, they offer employee’s mobile access to the learning platform, as well as the ability to build custom courses tailored to your business. But ADP’s LMS comes loaded with more than 70,000 pre-built courses from safety and sexual harassment to sales and skills training.
Unfortunately, many of their best employee and performance management tools, including their LMS, are only available as add-ons to an already expensive base price. And HR functionality that comes standard with other providers, like time tracking and performance reviews, is only included with the top-tier plans.
ADP makes sense for quickly growing companies who need a custom-built package that's ready to scale, but for more agile startups and small businesses looking for an easy, out-of-the box solution, Gusto consistently takes the top spot.
Key Features
- Fully integrated payroll, HR, time tracking, and benefits
- Payroll, taxes, and compliance in all 50 states
- Multiple pay rates and schedules
- Next-day direct deposit
- Over 700 software integrations available
- Job and workforce costing reports
- Extensive LMS
- Hiring, onboarding, and document storage
- Employee self-service & mobile app
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Tons of products and features for maximum scalability | Most attractive features only available as add-on modules |
| Largest payroll provider in the world | Software feels clunky and dated |
| Robust HR options for businesses with 50–999 employees | Slow customer service |
| Pricing is not transparent and difficult to piece together | |
| No out-of-the-box payroll solution | |
| Requires an additional product to pay contractors |
Pricing
ADP’s pricing tiers are tailored based on your business size. The Workforce Now platform offers three tiers: Select, Plus, and Premium. Select is basically a payroll product with basic HR and onboarding included. Plus includes benefits administration, and Premium adds on their suite of time management tools including time tracking, scheduling, and PTO. Most of their best team management tools like talent acquisition, performance and compensation management, enhanced analytics, and their LMS are all paid add-ons.
ADP no longer posts pricing for any of their packages, so you’ll need to contact sales in order to get a custom quote. According to Forbes, the ADP support team quoted payroll-only for 50 employees at $400 per month. No doubt the price per month can start adding up quickly.
Free Trial? Yes, three months free on select products.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about ADP Workforce Now
6. BambooHR – Best Paycom alternative for employee engagement
Overview
BambooHR is great for both small- and medium-sized businesses who want to streamline HR while providing a positive employee experience. BambooHR is the most HR-focused entry on this list—it’s a purebred Human Resources Information System (HRIS) with payroll, benefits, and time tracking as extras. Onboarding, offboarding, document storage, and robust reporting options come loaded with every plan. Out-of-the-box workflows for time off requests, salary changes, and more make it easy to save time on admin while being sure nothing slips through the cracks.
When it comes to employee engagement and retention, BambooHR’s tools are best in class. Quick, anonymous surveys make it easy to take company-wide pulses on employee experience and wellbeing, and AI-powered reporting provides visualizations of everything from performance and satisfaction to department turnover. BambooHR is also an industry leader when it comes to employee self-service for onboarding, document storage, and personal information.
If you’re looking for a user-friendly Paycom alternative to help streamline your HR department and keep your team motivated and on track, BambooHR is a solid solution with a long history of customer satisfaction. Their payroll isn’t the most feature-rich on the market, but they integrate with most popular payroll providers for the best of both worlds.
Key Features
- Best-in-class performance management and visualizations
- User-friendly onboarding and offboarding workflows
- Automated workflows for common HR tasks
- Payroll processing in all 50 states
- Multiple PTO policies and automated accruals
- Integrated Applicant Tracking System
- Custom reporting options on any data housed in the system
- Payroll, benefits, time tracking, and performance management available as add-ons
- Employee self-service & mobile app
- 125+ software integrations
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Industry-leading HR suite | Limited functionality in mobile app |
| Best-in-class onboarding, offboarding, and employee self-service | Essentials plan is bare-bones |
| Powerful engagement and performance management tools | Benefits administration is clunky |
| Automated workflows save time and ensure accuracy | No international support |
| Chat & phone support only available on Advanced plan |
Pricing
BambooHR no longer shares pricing information on their website, and you’ll need to reach out to get a custom quote. For companies with more than 20 employees, their HR software is priced on a per-employee, per-month basis. For companies with 20 employees or fewer, pricing is charged at a monthly flat rate.
BambooHR has two available plans along with a handful of optional add-ons. The Essentials Plan comes with employee records management, standard reporting and analytics, time-off management, as well as a few automated workflows. Previous pricing started at $108 per month for the first 20 employees.
The Advantage Plan includes advanced reporting, custom workflows, onboarding and offboarding, their applicant tracking system, and employee wellness features.
They also offer four add-on packages: payroll (previously priced at $150 per month for up to 20 employees + $7.25 per employee per month after that), benefits administration (previously priced at $5 per employee per month), performance management (previously priced at $5.75 per employee per month), and time tracking (previously priced at $3 per employee per month). These modules all have volume discounts, so the per-employee cost will drop as your business grows.
Free Trial? Yes, 7 days.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about BambooHR
7. TriNet HR – Best value Paycom alternative
Overview
TriNet used to operate solely as a PEO, before they merged with Zenefits. Their product became TriNet Zenefits for a time, and now Zenefits has been dropped entirely. Their standalone HRIS is now called TriNet HR and their PEO is branded as TriNet PEO. The recommendation here is for the standalone HR solution.
If you’re looking for a more HR-focused solution and don’t need payroll with a laundry list of features, TriNet HR is a solid alternative to Paycom. It sports a user-friendly interface along with a scalable platform, mostly targeted toward small- and medium-sized businesses.
All of TriNet HR’s packages include automated self-onboarding with offer letters and background checks, employee self-service, digital docs and signatures, and account provisioning. They also come loaded with employee scheduling, time off tracking, PTO, company directories and org charts, software integrations, mobile app access, and their basic analytics dashboard. Compared to most entry-level HR packages—and especially compared to Paycom—TriNet offers a longer list of features at a better price. If you’re looking for benefits administration, recruiting tools, or learning management, these are available only as add-on modules to their packages at a per-employee-per-month rate, but it’s still reasonable for what you get.
At the end of the day, TriNet HR isn’t the best solution for large or midsize businesses, but their affordable pricing makes it possible to access the HR tools you need for much cheaper than most Paycom competitors in the space.
Key Features
- Time tracking, PTO, and scheduling tools
- Paperless employee self-onboarding
- Benefits administration
- Payroll with federal, state, and local taxes
- Robust, native communication tools
- Employee self-service & mobile app
- Employee happiness surveys and retention tools
- Integrated learning management
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Pros |
|---|---|
| Very affordable base plan | Payroll is not highly rated and not included in any plans |
| Base plan comes with more tools than most | Minimum 5-employee requirement for all plans |
| Transparent pricing | Limited integrations |
| Robust reporting options | Benefits, hiring tools, payroll, and HR advisory are all paid add-ons |
| Can be difficult to reach customer service |
Pricing
TriNet’s HR Platform starts with the “Essentials” plan at $8 per employee per month, and then offers two higher-tier plans, “Growth” at $16 and “Zen” at $27 per employee per month. But these prices are only available if you make an annual commitment. For month-to-month packages, the prices go up to $10, $20, and $33 per employee per month, respectively.
The Essentials plan comes loaded with all of the basic HR functionality you need including onboarding and offboarding and employee and data management, but it lacks more robust reporting and analytics.
For their full suite of reporting, analytics, data, compensation, and performance management, you’ll need to upgrade to their Growth plan. Payroll can be added to either of these plans for $6 per employee per month.
Finally, the Zen plan adds on retention tools like employee engagement, a “People Hub” to facilitate communication, and payroll at no extra cost. However payroll is only included for select industries.
Benefits administration, recruiting tools (powered by JazzHR), and HR advisory services aren’t included in any plans. The benefits administration fee is waived only if you choose a benefits broker referred by TriNet.
It’s also worth noting that Zenefits isn’t built for start-ups and very small businesses. They have a minimum requirement of 5 employees for any of their pricing plans. You can still use their service if you only have two or three employees on payroll, but you’ll still have to pay for all five.
Free Trial? No.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about TriNet HR