Gusto – Best all-in-one Workday alternative for small business
Overview
Gusto tops our list of best Workday alternatives with a wealth of easy-to-use, people-first features and fully integrated functionality. Their intuitive interface simplifies even the most complex tasks, and their suite of time tracking tools together with their robust reporting and team management elevate HR to enterprise level even for startups and small businesses.
Fully Integrated
Having a single system to handle hiring, payroll, time tracking, PTO, sick days, performance management, and benefits administration reduces your admin burden and streamlines your tech stack while saving you money.
With Gusto, Every time you run payroll, all federal, state, and local taxes are automatically calculated, filed, and paid along with benefits deductions, workers’ comp, and PTO. Plus built-in compliance helps you stay one step ahead of changing regulations in everything from overtime and minimum wage to hiring and firing.
Time & Productivity Management
Gusto’s robust set of time and productivity tools go well beyond clocking in and out. Employees can easily request PTO and check their balances, and managers can review and approve timesheets and time off requests in just a few clicks.
In addition, Gusto’s powerful project tracking and AI-powered reporting options will help you easily leverage data to optimize labor costs and distribute your team’s time more wisely. They don’t offer native shift scheduling, but they provide seamless integration with all of the most popular shift scheduling tools like Workforce, Homebase 7Shifts, and more.
Hiring & Team Management
With company org charts and handbooks, employee happiness surveys, and integrated learning and professional development options, Gusto’s people-first team management tools are built to keep teams engaged and on track. Performance reviews include both 1-on-1 and self-evaluations, and their suite of hiring and onboarding tools help them stand out from competitors who offer similar functionality with a bigger price tag.
Wrap-up
More than just payroll, Gusto is a full-service HR platform. All of their tools feel designed with humans in mind, easily handling the entire employee lifecycle from recruiting and onboarding, to engagement and growth, to an employee’s last day. Gusto’s pricing is fully transparent, and the majority of their powerful HR tools are available on their mid-range Plus plan. Overall, they offer more functionality at a better price, winning them the top spot.
Key Features
- Seamlessly integrated payroll, HR, time tracking, and benefits
- Robust time tracking tools
- Integrated recruiting, hiring, and onboarding
- AI-powered workforce and project cost reporting
- Automated compliance and new-hire reporting in all 50 states
- Performance management suite
- Employee self-service portal
- Support for international contractors in 120+ countries; global payroll currently being rolled out
- Dedicated support from certified HR experts available
- Hundreds of software integrations
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Intuitive, easy to use interface | Shift scheduling only available through third-party integrations |
All-in-one solution for payroll, time, benefits, and HR | Simple plan includes only the most basic HR tools |
Transparent pricing, no hidden fees | Mobile app lacks full functionality |
Extensive payroll, HR, time-off, and workforce costing reports | |
Robust people management tools | |
Great customer service; dedicated HR support available | |
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 workforce management tools like time tracking and more advanced data and reporting, 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.
Free Trial? Yes, Gusto is free until you run your first payroll.
Free Version: No.
See how Gusto stacks up to ADP to find the perfect fit for your payroll needs. Explore now
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Get startedUKG Ready – Best alternative to Workday for reporting & analytics
Overview
UKG Ready is a comprehensive workforce management solution that integrates time and attendance, scheduling, talent management, workforce optimization, HR, and payroll into one powerful platform. All of their tools are designed with efficiency in mind—from real-time analytics to optimize staffing, to employee engagement monitoring to increase retention.
UKG boasts a modern, intuitive user interface that is relatively easy to navigate, though there is a learning curve for new users. The dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of key metrics and tasks, and employee self-service saves time and reduces errors. Where UKG really shines, however, is their robust reporting and analytics. In addition to hundreds of pre-built metrics and data, you can run custom reports on nearly any data housed in their system. They are focused on helping medium-sized businesses optimize their workforces from day one.
The platform offers a high degree of customization, enabling businesses to tailor it to their specific needs and workflows. This flexibility, combined with its scalability, makes UKG Ready an attractive option for growing, white-collar businesses looking to manage an expanding workforce without the need for significant system changes. For shift-based businesses, or businesses with complex payroll needs, however, UKG Ready is not the ideal solution.
Key Features
- Time tracking and time-off management
- Talent management & nurturing
- Hiring & onboarding tools
- Automated labor-law compliance
- Integrated payroll & tax services
- Over 150 standard reports + endless customization
- Employee self-service
- Mobile app
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Robust built-in and custom reporting options | No transparent pricing |
Fully integrated HR, payroll, time, and people tools | Expensive, and not great for smaller businesses |
Efficiency-driven approach to workforce management | Onboarding can be cumbersome |
Highly scalable | Customer support is lacking for smaller customers |
Difficulty with third-party integrations |
Pricing
UKG Ready does not offer any pricing information on their site. You’ll need to reach out for a custom quote. Their enterprise solution, UKG Pro is quoted at $600 per year for every 5 employees, however it’s unclear how that translates into their solution for small- and midsize businesses.
Free Trial? No.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about UKG Ready
Remote – Best Workday alternative for global teams
Overview
The future of work is global, and Remote makes it easy to hire, pay, and manage your team in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Their impressive suite of international support includes global payroll, contractors, time tracking, hiring, self-service onboarding, compliance, and benefits. 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 understands the local markets, keeping you competitive with local employers, and they handle all of the compliance as an employer of record (EOR). They don’t contract with outside entities, which means better, faster support.
Remote’s time and attendance tools allow you to track hours worked for both employees and contractors, and easily manage PTO, all while ensuring compliance with local labor laws wherever your team members call home. In addition to providing compliant contracts for international contractors, they also offer a ‘contractor misclassification risk tool’ to make sure you’re not hiring contractors that should be considered employees. This can save your business from facing devastating penalties down the line.
One downside is that Remote doesn’t offer the same workforce and project cost reporting that many Workday 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 200+ countries and territories
- Global payroll and EOR in 80+ countries
- Fully integrated payroll, benefits, and HR
- Time-tracking, PTO, and expense management for both employees and contractors
- Seamless onboarding and employee self-service portal
- 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
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 or project cost reporting |
Country-specific compliance and benefits | |
No extra charge for benefits administration |
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 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
ADP Workforce Now – Best Workday alternative for quickly scaling businesses
Overview
ADP stands out as a giant in the industry, providing two distinct payroll and HR offerings tailored for small to medium-sized enterprises: ADP Run, designed for companies with under 50 employees, and ADP Workforce Now, aimed at companies with 50 to 999 employees. ADP Run offers payroll services, employee onboarding, and reporting capabilities. ADP Workforce Now expands on this by incorporating retention strategies such as employee engagement and development tools. Additionally, ADP has a PEO solution, ADP Total Source, for businesses seeking full-service support.
While ADP Run is a highly rated platform, and includes hiring and onboarding tools, its lack of employee engagement and retention tools puts them at a significant disadvantage. It’s primarily a payroll tool with a few extra HR functions, and their pricing puts them out of reach for many. For this reason, we don’t recommend it for startups or smaller businesses. For businesses with more than 50 employers, however, their Workforce Now packages provide a robust solution for managing teams.
ADP frequently ranks as a leader in workforce management solutions, a distinction that can be attributed to its extensive range of features. Workforce Now provides a comprehensive suite 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. A major advantage is the ability to customize your package with only the services you require. The only questions are: how much does it cost, and is that included in the plan I have? Getting the answer requires reaching out for a custom quote.
Key Features
- Fully integrated HR, payroll, benefits, and time tracking
- Robust employee scheduling capabilities
- PTO / Time-off accruals
- Comprehensive analytics and reporting
- Over 700 software integrations available
- Mobile app
- Every HR, time, and people tool imaginable
- Features siloed based on # of employees
- Highly rated payroll tool
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
HR Outsourcing and PEO options available | Pricing quickly adds up |
Robust options for businesses with 50–999 employees | Software feels clunky and dated |
Tons of products and features for maximum scalability | Slow customer service |
Largest offering of learning & development courses | More powerful workforce management tools are only available in Premium plan or as add-ons |
No employee retention tools or benefits administration available in small business packages |
Pricing
ADP’s pricing tiers are confusing at best. For businesses with fewer than 50 employees, they offer 4 pricing tiers: Essential Payroll, Enhanced Payroll that includes wage garnishment, unemployment, background checks and job postings, Complete Payroll and HR+ that adds on some HR tools like employee handbooks, proactive compliance alerts, a job description wizard, and access to the HR help desk, and HR Pro Payroll and HR, that includes an applicant tracking system, onboarding tools, and an LMS.
Where ADP stands out is their Workforce Now packages for medium-sized businesses from 50–999 employees. They offer three tiers: Select, Plus, and Premium. Select is a basic suite of HR and payroll tools. Plus includes benefits administration, and Premium adds on their suite of workforce management tools including time tracking, scheduling, and PTO management.
With any of the Workforce Now packages, you can add on modules for Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Compensation Management, HR Assist, Analytics and Enhanced Insights, and Learning Management.
According to Forbes, users reported pricing starts from $62 per month, but the average business should expect to spend a lot more than that. For example, the ADP support team quoted payroll only for 50 employees at $400 per month.
Free Trial? Yes, three months free on select products.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about ADP
BambooHR – Best HR-focused alternative to Workday
Overview
BambooHR is great for both small- and medium-sized businesses who want to easily manage personnel records, payroll, and perks. 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, employee satisfaction, and robust reporting options are all built right in. 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.
For tools like performance management, payroll, and benefits administration, you’ll need to pay extra. But their performance management tools are best-in-class, and visualizations of employee progress and satisfaction, along with customizable automations and reporting on almost any piece of data set them apart as a team management tool. They’re also an industry leader when it comes to employee self-service for onboarding, document storage, and personal information, as well as automated HR workflows.
While BambooHR does come with “benefits tracking,” it’s a clunky feature that requires a lot of manual entry. If you’re looking for companies like Workday that offer benefits, you’re better off paying for their benefits administration add-on or choosing a provider that includes benefits, like Gusto.
If you don’t have complex payroll needs, and you’re looking for a more HR-focused tool, BambooHR has all the bells and whistles to help streamline admin and manage your team while improving productivity across the board. Or, if you already have payroll and time tracking tools you love, using Bamboo to jumpstart your performance management is a great choice.
Key Features
- Best-in-class performance management tools 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
- 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 reporting on any data in the system | No transparent pricing |
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
Homebase – Best alternative to Workday for shift-based businesses
Overview
Homebase serves as a one-stop solution for scheduling, time tracking, payroll, and HR, designed specifically for shift-based businesses. HR requirements for restaurants and retail are markedly different from conventional office settings. Yet, many of Workday’s competitors are focused on tools for salaried enterprises, often overlooking essential features for hourly workers like scheduling and shift swapping.
Luckily, Homebase has one of the most robust scheduling tools on the market. You can auto-schedule by availability or using sales and labor forecasts. You can further optimize your workforce with team management tools like collecting shift feedback to take employee pulses, team ‘shouts’ to give kudos to fellow employees, and powerful shift swapping tools to save time with minimal involvement from management.
While Homebase is more of a time-tracking tool with an HR add-on, they’ve got everything hourly-based businesses need to manage their teams. Their HR suite includes hiring and onboarding with automated job postings across multiple job boards, employee happiness surveys and no-cost benefit options, and secure document storage and compliance designed with shift-based businesses in mind. Sick leave, PTO, and vacation time are easy to manage and track, and a team of HR pros is available to answer your compliance questions.
While there are more powerful HR-focused platforms on the market, Homebase is the easy winner for shift-based businesses looking to streamline their tech stack while still accessing all the people tools and functionality they need.
Key Features
- Designed specifically for shift-based businesses
- Powerful time and scheduling tools
- Recruiting, hiring, and paperless onboarding
- Payroll add-on available with automated tax filings
- Track employee certifications
- Built-in compliance for meal time, breaks, and minimum wage
- Integrations with popular POS, recruiting, accounting, and payroll software
- Robust, native communication tools
- Mobile app for time tracking, communication, shift swapping, and more
- Employee happiness surveys and retention tools
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Automated scheduling saves hours each month | Payroll add-on is expensive |
People-focused tools to keep your team happy and engaged | Full suite of HR tools is only available in the All-in-One plan |
Competitively priced, even for top-tier plan | Difficult to correct time for incorrect clock-ins |
Easily integrates with payroll providers | Occasional software bugs reported |
Pricing
Homebase offers four pricing tiers. Their Basic plan is free and includes basic scheduling and time tracking and POS integration for up to 20 employees at a single location.
The Essentials plan is $20 a month per location and includes advanced scheduling and time tracking and team communication tools.
At $48 per location per month (billed annually), the Plus plan adds on hiring, performance management, and PTO, as well as permissions and policies. The All-in-One plan adds the HR tools you need to thrive including new-hire onboarding, employee document storage, labor cost reporting, and their full HR and compliance suite at $80 per month.
For the payroll add-on, it’s $39 a month + $6 per employee paid per month.
Homebase offers no-commitment monthly plans at slightly higher prices than listed above.
Free Trial? Yes, 14 days.
Free Plan: Yes, basic scheduling, time, and hiring features for up to 20 employees at a single location.
Learn more about Homebase
TriNet HR – Best affordable alternative to Workday
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 called TriNet PEO. The recommendation here is for the standalone HRIS software, not for their PEO.
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, data and document management, company directories and org charts, software integrations, mobile app access, and their basic analytics dashboard. For most companies looking for an HRIS to manage employee data, this is more than enough. And at just $8 per employee with no base package fee, it’s incredibly affordable.
However, 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. Payroll is only included in their highest-tier package, though it does come with automated federal and state tax filing, as well as new-hire reporting.
At the end of the day, TriNet HR isn’t the most powerful Workday competitor on the block, but their affordable pricing makes it possible to access the HRIS functionality you need for much cheaper than most competitors in the space.
Key Features
- Affordable base plan
- Time tracking, PTO, and scheduling tools
- Paperless employee self-onboarding
- Payroll add-on available with automated tax filings
- Robust, native communication tools
- Mobile app for time tracking, communication, PTO requests, and more
- Employee happiness surveys and retention tools
Pros and Cons
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
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 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