Paychex Flex vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Paychex Flex
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
Paychex Flex, of Paychex' Online Payroll Services, is a cloud-based human resource management and payroll platform. Paychex offers core and specialized services, and scales to meet the needs of small businesses, SMBs, and large enterprises.
$59
per month/+$4 per employee
Paylocity
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
Pricing
Paychex FlexPaylocity
Editions & Modules
Paychex Go
$59
per month/+$4 per employee
Paychex Flex Service
Contact sales team
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Paychex FlexPaylocity
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Paychex FlexPaylocity
Considered Both Products
Paychex Flex
Chose Paychex Flex
I would say Paycor is very similar, although my last use was in 2015. I'm unsure about the changes made between then and now. I haven't used paylocity personally since 2013, but my wife currently uses it and it's also great, more features to the end user. That said, I didn't …
Chose Paychex Flex
Paychex Flex is a good system but honestly I prefer Paylocity's products over Flex. Paychex Flex doesn't seem to be as developed as other systems and not nearly as user friendly. I only use Paychex Flex because that is the system that was in place when I started my job over a …
Chose Paychex Flex
All solutions we have reviewed offer the same solutions, and all have pros/cons. Price is a factor, and we have found slightly less costly solutions, though any cost savings are negated in transition costs.
Chose Paychex Flex
Paychex is much easier to use. [...]
Chose Paychex Flex
Paychex Flex was a much more affordable option than some of those out there. For a small business, the quicker ROI makes a big difference. Some of the customization options were especially helpful to our team. Paychex Flex was also much more well-known in our market and we …
Chose Paychex Flex
The system automates the whole process of managing HR tasks helping businesses be more productive, save time and stay compliant.
Chose Paychex Flex
I didn't select Paychex, it was already in place when I joined the company and I'm getting us off them.
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
We were on Paychex for a number of years. We were on ADP before that, I was on Workday for my previous company. I was on UKG for when I was at [...]. So I've worked with a lot of different HRIS systems and I would say that Paylocity is by far the most intuitive and easy to use. …
Chose Paylocity
With Paychex, I feel like they have not really kept up with the times. I feel like Paylocity really expands as their users are growing. We changed from iSolved to Paylocity because when it came to processing payroll and getting support for anything, it was an absolute nightmare …
Chose Paylocity
It's actually my favorite one so far just because of the ease of use of it. And my employees who aren't very techy were able to use it also.
Chose Paylocity
We used just one other payroll company prior to Paylocity. We switched about three and a half years ago, I would say. But compared to that prior company, Paylocity has definitely way more features and definitely better support.
Chose Paylocity
I did not select Paylocity. It was in place when I joined the company, but I did select ADP for my previous company. Paylocity is difference is the customer service and the account management support. We did not have that level of support at ADP.
Chose Paylocity
We've used Paychex. They used something in Sage before I used it. We use a ADP as well. And I think Sage, I think those three. I've been with the organization for almost seven years and we've been through three different payroll programs I think it was Sage, ADP within a couple …
Chose Paylocity
We were using Paychex, so I'd say not necessarily really similar. I mean it was an HRIS system, payroll system, but probably not designed for a company of our size. When we looked at several products before we chose Paylocity, but by far Paylocity gave us more of what we …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is a simple user friendly platform.
Chose Paylocity
Matching or better services, more end-user friendly, and more cost effective.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is more informative and provides support
Chose Paylocity
It depends on the amount of money being invested, if all on equal playing field then it would be a strong 3rd
Chose Paylocity
Prefer Paylocity for ease of use and whole system in one platform.
Chose Paylocity
We evaluated Paychex as a payroll provider but we felt like Paylocity had more to offer overall. Paylocity's payroll and HR modules are superior and their customer service has always been helpful and we felt too much pressure from Paychex to sign up for their products or …
Chose Paylocity
We looked at this product - it did not seem to fit our needs nearly as well as Paylocity. We feel we made the right decision.
Chose Paylocity
We had Paychex for many years. While we weren't completely unhappy with them, we made the switch to Paylocity for many reasons. Paylocity was able to offer us one platform for time & labor and payroll. In addition, we saved over $10k per year after making the switch. With …
Chose Paylocity
I like it as its more user friendly and response time of call and customer service is great. It allow most of the things to be done manually.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is generally better than all these other systems
Chose Paylocity
There is no comparison at all. Paychex just has not come up with the advancements that Paylocity has.
Chose Paylocity
Excellent. Userface in Gusto and bamboo more intuitive but MUCH better system and service assistance than ADP or Paychex.
Chose Paylocity
I think payroll processing in Paylocity is much simpler than with either ADP or Paychex. Having the pre-process view and the ability to make corrections easily makes processing payroll much more straightforward than with either of the other products I have worked with. The …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Paychex FlexPaylocity
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
6.6
247 Ratings
18% below category average
Paylocity
7.8
976 Ratings
1% below category average
Employee demographic data8.0197 Ratings8.5923 Ratings
Employment history8.1220 Ratings8.2892 Ratings
Job profiles and administration6.8155 Ratings7.9829 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.2154 Ratings7.6842 Ratings
Organizational charting1.01 Ratings7.1773 Ratings
Organization and location management7.8138 Ratings7.8754 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.4132 Ratings7.6645 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
8.5
288 Ratings
6% above category average
Paylocity
8.2
951 Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation9.0271 Ratings8.6925 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment9.2136 Ratings8.5681 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.2156 Ratings7.4646 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.2270 Ratings9.0921 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.5193 Ratings8.2734 Ratings
Reimbursement management8.0105 Ratings8.0458 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings7.4455 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
7.0
144 Ratings
15% below category average
Paylocity
7.6
802 Ratings
7% below category average
Approval workflow6.2102 Ratings7.9716 Ratings
Balance details7.4136 Ratings7.5764 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment7.2110 Ratings7.5598 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
8.5
249 Ratings
4% above category average
Paylocity
8.4
965 Ratings
3% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information8.5228 Ratings8.6939 Ratings
Update personal information9.0239 Ratings8.7956 Ratings
View company policy documentation7.7111 Ratings8.1760 Ratings
View job history8.7168 Ratings8.4813 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.3677 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
7.7
40 Ratings
1% below category average
Paylocity
7.4
287 Ratings
5% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets7.740 Ratings7.4287 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
5.9
164 Ratings
26% below category average
Paylocity
7.1
884 Ratings
7% below category average
Report builder5.6134 Ratings7.1845 Ratings
Pre-built reports6.7154 Ratings7.5861 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data5.383 Ratings6.7536 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
7.9
158 Ratings
2% below category average
Paylocity
8.2
828 Ratings
2% above category average
New hire portal8.0151 Ratings8.4822 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.8100 Ratings8.1650 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
8.4
59 Ratings
7% above category average
Paylocity
7.8
544 Ratings
0% below category average
Job Requisition Management9.732 Ratings7.9456 Ratings
Company Website Posting9.830 Ratings8.1479 Ratings
Publish to Social Media6.723 Ratings7.7373 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting6.630 Ratings7.8454 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention6.828 Ratings7.2387 Ratings
Applicant Tracking9.733 Ratings8.1499 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts9.853 Ratings7.9500 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.5
450 Ratings
9% below category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.5347 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.6413 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.5304 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings7.5416 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.4
571 Ratings
8% below category average
Performance plans00 Ratings7.3511 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.3432 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings7.4524 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings7.6529 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings7.6435 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Paychex Flex
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.4
283 Ratings
7% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings7.0190 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.3231 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings7.6257 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.5206 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Paychex FlexPaylocity
Small Businesses
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.1 out of 10
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.6 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.2 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Paychex FlexPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
7.6
(298 ratings)
7.9
(1041 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(42 ratings)
8.9
(95 ratings)
Usability
7.9
(240 ratings)
8.6
(65 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(10 ratings)
8.8
(11 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(10 ratings)
9.4
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
7.6
(245 ratings)
7.2
(87 ratings)
In-Person Training
4.5
(1 ratings)
9.6
(2 ratings)
Online Training
7.1
(4 ratings)
8.2
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.4
(11 ratings)
8.0
(40 ratings)
Configurability
7.6
(8 ratings)
8.3
(9 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(7 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(3 ratings)
6.7
(8 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.3
(10 ratings)
8.8
(10 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(31 ratings)
7.7
(10 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.2
(32 ratings)
9.2
(9 ratings)
User Testimonials
Paychex FlexPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
Paychex, Inc.
In my experience, Paychex Flex is well suited for small to medium sized businesses. It has been helpful in streamlining the onboarding process and it is easy to update and maintain employee profiles and records. It has worked will in a non-profit environment where there is clergy pay and housing, which can get quite complicated. I cannot think of a scenario where it would be less appropriate.
Read full review
Paylocity
We used to use a different product and it was not very easy to onboard people. It was kind of a manual process for onboarding. I feel like Paylocity's onboarding, is very, very well thought out, handles it very well. So I would say onboarding is probably one of the things that they do well. I honestly can't think of anything it's not suited for.
Read full review
Pros
Paychex, Inc.
  • I like I can enter payroll and if I need to leave the program, I can resume at a later time and my information is saved.
  • I like the analytics & reports features.
  • I like how all my employees have easy access to their portal.
Read full review
Paylocity
  • The payroll software is top notch. Recruitment module has been great. I think the workflow and the way you can customize all of the features of the recruitment module is awesome. Same thing with performance, you can really tailor everything to your specific company needs.
Read full review
Cons
Paychex, Inc.
  • Reporting writing is difficult to figure out
  • Employee turnover inside Paychex was a problem, until we were assigned to Neil Williams - since that time it has settled down
  • Pressure to convert personal connection with payroll advisor to using automated service
Read full review
Paylocity
  • Probably what I've heard the most, and I'm on it probably the least of all of our users, I am more involved in the planning, but what I hear is they'd like to see like improvement maybe in some of the customization. Maybe we can customize some of the reports. I think in recruitment we're able to do some of our offer letters, but maybe a little bit easier in the customization of the data. And then as always, HR employees always want more communication as do users. We always want more accessibility to the support service. When we get them, it's great, but sometimes it's a little bit of a delay.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Paychex, Inc.
Overall I like the features that Paychex Flex offers. I am sure that there are other features that I am unaware of, so I am excited to see if there is more that Flex is capable of to make my job easier. The basic features are really user friendly and easy to access. If there ever is an issue customer service is great
Read full review
Paylocity
We have had many issues with the way our platform was set up at implementation that still continue to plague us. In addition, our benefits, in particular our FSA, have been mis-managed causing a balance due from an employee (and also a lot of work for our accounting and HR team, as well as stress for the employee). Our service rep continues to answer incorrectly on many fronts (original response is usually check out this paylocity article, vs. helping) and recently our COBRA management was mishandled (not adding Dental to a person on Cobra who had requested it). So- all in all...we are not particularly happy w/ Paylocity
Read full review
Usability
Paychex, Inc.
Some things could be streamlined. For example, we could do custom options for the "add items" tab which has so many options that we never use. "Medical Pay" could be something that the system remembers for the applicable employees. Salaried employees' salaries should definitely be auto-filled. Overall the system works well but I think it could be improved to be easier to use and read.
Read full review
Paylocity
I find Paylocity to be almost too robust so that its functionalities are sometimes too complex to use. Sometimes it appears that they don't get a user's experience and keep a software developers mindset which doesn't always work well with users that are not at their technical level of expertise. A perfect example is the way the payroll dashboard USED to look compared to the recent update
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Paychex, Inc.
We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
Read full review
Paylocity
Paylocity support is always available and I never have to wait endlessly on hold. If our dedicated account manage is not available, there is an entire team assigned to our account. Every one of them is knowledgeable about our organization and Paylocity's process.
Read full review
Performance
Paychex, Inc.
Unless there is lag time within the internet, the Paychex Flex website loads exceptional fast, pages load quickly and reports that I need to print or download load quickly. If I need to create a specialized report, once I complete it I receive an e-mail telling me my report is ready to be downloaded. Changing between web pages is fast as well.
Read full review
Paylocity
pages load in an acceptable amount of time, reports come back quickly, but integration is very complicated and hasn't been possible
Read full review
Support Rating
Paychex, Inc.
Our dedicated representative is one of the main reasons we are sticking with Paychex Flex. If it were not for this person, other platforms could provide the same/similar functionality. It is the ability to speak with someone that understands our business and is willing to get questions answered in a timely fashion that keeps us with Paychex Flex.
Read full review
Paylocity
Everyone wants immediate assistance. Awaiting a response from an email only to ask 2-3 more questions is time consuming. Within the first six months of setup, I would rather respond back to the instructors who provided me the training in each category of my contract.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Paychex, Inc.
We did online training only
Read full review
Paylocity
I didn't have in-person training, but I'm sure it was just as great as any other training/assistance Paylocity provides. Paylocity customer service is always available. You never have to be on hold and their answers are always accurate and timely. Documents in the help section are helpful as well. My in-person training was conducted y one of our employees who was involved in the initial set-up and training of all employees. She was excellent.
Read full review
Online Training
Paychex, Inc.
It was easy to understand and follow along. I do like the informational videos that we can utilize before we opt to call in for customer service support. It has made a difference since sometimes that resolves the issue I may have had and saved myself a phone call to Paychex support.
Read full review
Paylocity
The training was live online, but was with a group of other companies. We did not receive any personalized training with our team. Whenever we would ask for training, we would be sent a peak article link or a video. It felt like the reps we dealt with didn't know the answer to the questions.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Paychex, Inc.
Implementation was very smooth. The most cumbersome task was entering the current employees into the system during initial set up, but Paychex staff handled most of that and verified against prior system reports as well as internal reports provided to ensure 100% accuracy.
Read full review
Paylocity
I had gone through an implementation process of another HR platform (Paycom) in my previous job and was traumatized, it was painful. I was surprised how easy and fast it was with Paylocity, the team was very helpful and set us up for success
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Paychex, Inc.
We still use QB Desktop Pro to maintain a Check Register / Overall Balance for the company, but once having tried QB Payroll Online for about 3 months prior to finding Paychex Flex I can tell you that there's just no comparison. QB online is VERY EXPENSIVE and not so user-friendly. I hated every minute of those 6 payrolls we ran through QB online.
Read full review
Paylocity
ADP is not user-friendly. It was hard to run payroll, hard to pull reports. And the customer service, they just aren't willing to help and it takes a long time and when you have employees that need things and you are under a deadline or under pressure to get certain things done, like payroll. You need someone that's going to show up for you on time and get you to the things that you need right away. Paylocity has done that.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Paychex, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Include more services in the packages they offer.
Read full review
Scalability
Paychex, Inc.
Employees can log in at home and get up to date information on their FSA balance and any medical bill reimbursements they may have uploaded. At renewal time they have the ability to make changes to their FSA or for new employees star the enrollment.
Read full review
Paylocity
You have an account manager assigned to you on a daily basis but that person is barely available to you
Read full review
Professional Services
Paychex, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Paylocity
Support is quick and proffessional
Read full review
Return on Investment
Paychex, Inc.
  • I do not believe we have saved anything additionally. The time we've had to spend to get things to hopefully work is sad. This is the reason we've had to turn off all extra "products" of Paychex Flex. Time and Attendance is horrible. Benefits management is horrible. The user experience is horrible.
  • One thing I do not understand is why are updates for states, cities, counties, school districts, etc. not automatically updated? Should we not get a big red flag if we have an employee living/working, being paid in CA, but they aren't set up for CA sick time? If it is required to be on the paycheck stub to show the balance of the sick time, why would we not be notified that we are out of compliance?
Read full review
Paylocity
  • I think reduction in time would be probably the most reason we use it. Some of the other systems we use, they don't always connect and communicate with one another, which can be more time consuming. So I think that's something definitely we want to improve on.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Paychex Flex Screenshots

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