ADP vs Paychex: Payroll Comparison 2025

ADP Workforce Now has three plans: Select, Plus, and Premium. Basic HR functions are included in all tiers, but modules for advanced HR features are also available as paid add-ons. To get pricing details, you will need to contact ADP’s sales team. 

*Features time off accruals, staff scheduling, and mobile time collection tools

Paychex considers its Paychex Flex Select, Pro, and Enterprise plans as ideal options for medium to large-sized businesses. You have to call its sales team to request quotes for those tiers. The vendor only disclosed pricing information for Paychex Flex’s starter Essentials tier, which is priced at $39 per month plus $5 per employee.

*Includes time off accruals, staff scheduling, and touchless clock-in options

It’s a tie. Here’s why. Both win in this category for different reasons. If we compare Paychex vs ADP in terms of pricing transparency, Paychex is slightly better because it provides the monthly fee of its Paychex Flex Essentials plan. This gives you an idea of how reasonably priced its services are—unlike ADP, which requires you to contact its sales team for pricing details. Plus, you don’t have to switch products if you grow your workforce to more than 50 employees as you would with ADP.

However, if we compare the features included in their payroll packages for medium to large-sized businesses, ADP provides more HR functions in its ADP Workforce Now plans. With Paychex Flex, you have to pay extra for some of those tools, such as time tracking, if you’re not on Paychex’s highest tier.

ADP offers core payroll features in all of its ADP Workforce Now plans. You can run payroll directly from its dashboard, and it can even handle certified payroll reporting if you need to pay contractors who work on federally funded construction projects. 

In addition to its compliance and tax expertise to handle US payroll, combining ADP Workforce Now with ADP Celergo or ADP GlobalView Payroll extends its pay processing coverage to over 140 countries. This allows you to compliantly pay international employees and handle deductions for global employee benefits.

ADP Workforce Now is also equipped with an AI tool, ADP Assist, that validates payroll information and flags potential errors for you. It even serves as a virtual assistant if you need help setting up employee reminders for timesheet submissions and other HR tasks.

Paychex’s flagship offering is the online payroll service, Paychex Flex. It comes with the standard pay processing tools that SMBs need, including access to a single platform with multiple options to input and view payroll. This is unlike ADP, which has separate payroll platforms for small businesses, medium to large-sized companies, and global pay processing. 

While ADP also offers AI tools to further streamline payroll processes, Paychex takes it a step further with its Voice Assist solution. This provides a secure hands-free way to process payroll by integrating with Google Assistant-enabled devices. It comes with security features, such as a secure voice PIN and voice match technology, to ensure that only your payroll administrator has access to this solution.

ADP Workforce Now. Here’s why. Both may have similar payroll functionalities that can simplify processes, but ADP provides more flexibility in paying workers. Adding its global payroll products such as ADP Celergo to ADP Workforce Now allows you to process employee payments in more than 140 countries.

In contrast, Paychex doesn’t have a native global payroll tool. While it offers international payroll services, this is provided via partner global payroll systems.

While ADP offers direct connections to carriers, this is optional. You are free to bring your own broker, integrate the carrier’s benefits administration software with ADP Workforce Now, and then manage benefits data and employee enrollments via ADP’s benefits module. However, you need to subscribe to ADP Workforce Now’s higher tiers to access this module.

If you want to offer a financial wellness program, Wisely by ADP comes with tracking tools to help your employees understand and improve their spending habits. They can also choose to move a portion of their paycheck each pay period to an online “savings envelope” that’s only accessible through the Wisely by ADP app.  

Are you thinking of adding employee financial wellness to your company’s benefits? Here’s a primer on Employee Financial Wellness: Programs & Benefits

Paychex lets you use your own broker like ADP or sign up with one of its partner carriers. If you’re looking for retirement plans, Paychex offers flexible 401(k) options and retirement planning services. Unlike ADP, you have to manage employee enrollments and benefits data through a separate Paychex product—a benefits software, Flock.

However, Paychex’s financial wellness program is slightly more robust than ADP’s. Available via its partner system, FinFit, your employees can get personalized financial assessments, avail of short-term loans for emergencies, and access financial wellness learning sessions online.

If you think you’re missing out on lesser-known benefits that make employees’ lives easier, check out this Employee Benefits Guide: Types of Benefits to Offer.

It’s a tie. Here’s why. After comparing ADP versus Paychex for benefits administration, I found that both offer similar benefits options and benefits administration tools. Choosing one over the other depends on your preference and your company’s needs.

Although, if you already have benefits plans and brokers that you’re happy with, we recommend ADP. But while it has partner carriers you can connect with, ADP’s network isn’t as extensive as Paychex’s (31 vs 99 partner benefits solutions). Moreover, Paychex is a good option if you use financial wellness programs to help improve employee retention.

With ZipRecruiter embedded into ADP Workforce Now, you can post jobs to over 25,000 job boards. This is also valuable if you use social recruiting to find qualified candidates as ADP’s integration with ZipRecruiter lets you share job postings on social media platforms. Plus, you even get a mobile career site for candidates—a feature that Paychex lacks.

When it comes to onboarding, ADP Workforce Now is equipped with fillable forms, an electronic signature tool, and configurable workflows to fit different employee classifications. With ADP, you also get to enjoy some of the key benefits of HRIS tools, such as access to a global employee database with unlimited storage and search functionalities for digital record keeping.

Paychex also has recruiting functionalities, but posting jobs isn’t as seamless as ADP Workforce Now. It relies on its partner job boards to share your open jobs online. However, this costs extra with Paychex. Additionally, you also have to pay for document management functionalities if you want a centralized repository for company forms, policies, staff documents, and employee certifications.

After a candidate has been hired in the system, all applicable data from Paychex’s applicant tracking module will flow into its onboarding software. You can track workflows and assign onboarding tasks to new hires so they can submit documents, input personal and bank information, review policies, and electronically sign forms.

ADP Workforce Now. Here’s why. You get more hiring functionalities and a wider job posting reach with ADP given its partnership with ZipRecruiter. While both ADP and Paychex have onboarding tools, ADP Workforce Now offers document management features in all plans. This is unlike Paychex, which charges extra for it.

With ADP Workforce Now’s talent management solutions, you can manage performance reviews, track compensation, and do succession planning. It also supports multi-rater feedback and can help you track performance goals. What differentiates it from Paychex are the market insights you can get to plan performance increases, bonus payouts, and more. ADP’s learning management solution also has an extensive library of training sessions to help keep you compliant, promote diversity in the workplace, and improve employee skills.

Paychex’s performance management features are less robust than ADP’s but can handle customizable forms and continuous feedback. If you need to create and manage training courses, Paychex has a native learning management system for designing, assigning, and tracking learning sessions. Similar to ADP, it has a library of training courses, but the options are more limited compared to ADP.

ADP Workforce Now. Here’s why. ADP offers a more robust toolset if you want to track employee performance, assess skills gaps to develop workers, and reward high-performing employees with performance-based pay increases or bonuses. Further, you get a larger library of compliance and development training with ADP, as Paychex only has 300+ courses compared to ADP’s more than 70,000 training programs.