ADP vs. Paychex: Which is best in 2024? (2024)

Running payroll for your small business is easier with the right tool on your side. In the search for that tool, you might come across ADP and Paychex. Both companies offer top-rated payroll tools for small businesses — determining which one will work better for your business requires understanding how these two systems differ from one another.

To that end, we took a deep dive into Roll (ADP’s small-business payroll platform) and Paychex Flex. Based on our experience interacting with the tools and the companies themselves, we created a full ADP vs. Paychex comparison so you can decide which is the right fit for you and your business.

Roll by ADP pricing

While ADP offers a few tools that can be used for processing payroll (including Run, Workforce Now and GlobalView), Roll is the company’s small-business payroll platform. Roll only has one plan option, which starts at $39 per month plus $5 per employee paid per month.

Roll offers unlimited payroll runs in the United States for W-2 and 1099 workers. Roll will calculate and apply deductions to payroll runs for taxes and benefits, and it will also help employees who earn tips report their income accurately.

Roll’s reporting feature will automatically send you an email with payment and deduction details at the close of each pay period. New hire reporting is also taken care of with Roll, and you can manage wage garnishments with the tool’s AI-powered chat assistant (a feature at the core of the platform that carries out almost all of Roll’s functions). This same assistant provides real-time error checks on your payroll data to help you catch mistakes before they cost you, and you can ask it any questions you have about payroll or tax filing (like in the example below).

Paychex pricing

Paychex Flex is an all-in-one human capital management solution built to support key HR tasks such as payroll, benefits administration and time and attendance. Paychex Flex is a highly customizable system, but the company has created three different bundles based on the features your business might want: Essentials, Select and Pro.

Paychex Essentials has a base price of $39 per month plus $5 per employee paid per month. The Essentials plan includes full-service payroll and tax administration for W-2 and 1099 workers. You can onboard new hires to the platform with this plan, and Paychex will make sure you meet your state’s new hire reporting requirements. Access to Paychex’s reporting tool — which comes with 160 pre-built standard reports — is also included with the Essentials plan.

Pricing information for Paychex’s Select and Pro plans is not listed publicly; we spoke with Paychex reps and learned that pricing for the Select and Pro plans varies widely due to the level of customization available.

The Select plan — which is Paychex’s most popular option — includes everything in the Essentials plan with a few additions. On-demand pay, also called EWA (earned wage access), is available for Select users, as well as automatic tip disbursem*nt for tipped employees. Select users also get access to Paychex’s learning management system that comes with prebuilt online courses for employees, and there’s an HR library that can be used to find various human resources templates and documents. Paychex will send Select customers printed or electronic federal and state posters to display in their workplaces.

Paychex’s Pro plan is the most comprehensive option the company offers. Everything in the Essentials and Select plans is included with Pro, plus general ledger and wage garnishment services, an employee handbook builder and preemployment screening. Paychex also offers state unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation payment services to Pro customers.

Verdict: Roll by ADP and Paychex have similar pricing

Roll’s monthly base price is the same as Paychex’s, and considering that both platforms offer similar features at the baseline level (namely, payroll and tax administration services), we’re calling a tie.

Payroll features

Roll by ADP and Paychex Flex both offer full-service payroll and tax filing. Below, we take a closer look at each system’s payroll features and what’s unique about them.

Roll by ADP payroll features

Note: ADP supplied our team with a test account to use for review purposes. Our observations are based on our experience with the Roll by ADP app for iPad.

• AI-assisted payroll processing: Roll offers full-service payroll administration for W-2 and 1099 workers. You can pay workers through check or direct deposit and if you choose the latter, Roll will deliver funds to your employees within 24 hours after processing a payroll run. Sending a message that says “run payroll” to Roll’s chat feature is all it takes to start the process; from there, the chat will present a summary of your team’s hours and earnings. Once approved, Roll will process the run and prepare to pay employees before sending you a final notification on payday to confirm that checks were sent.

• Tax filing and remittance: Roll handles federal, state and local payroll tax filing on behalf of its customers. Deductions are automatically calculated and applied by Roll — all you have to do is supply your company’s tax ID during setup. And if you need to update your tax information later on, you can do so easily through Roll’s chat with commands like “update my company tax ID” or “change an employee’s home address.”

• Off-cycle payments, rapid raises, bonuses and wage garnishments: Roll allows for off-cycle payments, making it easy to compensate employees when they earn overtime, commission and bonuses. You can also award an employee a raise at any time; just text “off-cycle payment” or “give John a raise” to Roll’s chat feature to perform either of these tasks. Wage garnishments, which are court-ordered debts, can also be managed in Roll. Once they’re created (a task that can be done through Roll’s chat feature or by contacting the Roll team), the tool will make and track garnishment payments for your employees so that you stay in compliance.

• Reporting: Roll’s reporting feature can be used by sending “reports” to the chat. This command will prompt the tool to create a payroll summary. You can choose whether you’d like the report to cover a year, business quarter, pay date or custom date range. Once generated, you can receive the report through email or within Roll’s timeline feature.

Paychex payroll features

Note: We reached out to Paychex but were unable to secure access to the platform for testing purposes. The findings below are based on a demo of the product provided by the Paychex team and publicly available information on Paychex’s website.

• Full-service payroll processing: All of Paychex’s plans include full-service payroll processing for W-2 and 1099 employees, and you can deliver funds to employees through direct deposit, check or pay card. One unique feature that Paychex offers as an add-on to its plans is called Pre-check. Pre-check allows you to send a preview of pay stubs to employees, giving them a chance to catch any errors (such as missed reimbursem*nts or rate changes) before the funds hit their accounts.

• Tax filing and remittance: Taxpay, one of Paychex’s core services, is included with each of the platform’s plans. With Taxpay, Paychex will automatically calculate, file and pay your payroll taxes for you. Plus, Paychex will ensure there’s a well-documented audit trail so you stay compliant.

• Additional pay options: Select and Pro customers have additional options when it comes to how they pay their employees, such as Paychex’s pay-on-demand and real-time payments features. Both of these features allow employees to access some or all of their wages before payday. Automatic tip disbursem*nt — which is necessary when employees are tipped by a customer who pays with a debit or credit card — is also offered to Select and Pro customers.

• Garnishment payment service: Paychex Pro customers have access to the company’s garnishment payment services (Essentials and Select customers can also add this feature to their plan). With this service, Paychex will automatically deduct and remit garnished wages with the appropriate agencies.

• General ledger service: Pro customers also get access to Paychex’s ledger transfer service, a function that automatically sends your payroll data to your accounting software. Similar to Paychex’s garnishment services, Essentials and Select customers can choose to add ledger transfer to their plan. There’s a full list of software systems Paychex integrates with on the company’s website, so we suggest visiting that resource to determine whether a ledger transfer is possible with your current accounting tool.

Verdict: Roll and Paychex’s payroll features are neck and neck

Both Roll and Paychex offer full-service payroll administration for W-2 and 1099 employees, as well as tax filing and remittance services. Both tools also support tip reporting and wage garnishments, and are each built with a reporting feature. For that reason, we’re calling it a tie.

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Benefits administration features

While Paychex offers users the ability to find insurance providers and purchase plans through its platform, Roll only allows users to manage payroll deductions for existing benefits plans. Learn more about the differences between these tools’ benefits administration features below.

Roll by ADP benefits administration features

• AI-assisted deductions calculations: While Roll does not offer brokerage services, you can use it to calculate deductions for externally managed benefits. There are over 20 types of benefits that Roll is built to support, including all of the standard options you’d expect such as medical, dental and vision insurance. All you have to do to start the process of calculating and applying deductions is type “benefits management” into Roll’s chat feature and follow the prompts.

Note: It’s worth mentioning that some of ADP’s other systems (such as Workforce Now) do offer full benefits administration services. These systems don’t integrate with Roll, but ADP will assist customers who want to migrate from one tool to another.

Paychex benefits administration features

• Self-managed benefit deductions: You can manually add existing benefit plans to your Paychex Flex account. Once you’ve added the plans to your system, Paychex will automatically apply deductions to employees’ paychecks based on the plans they’re enrolled in, but it will not pay providers on your behalf. That said, Paychex’s reporting feature can be used to summarize deduction details each month, making it easy to understand how much you owe providers.

• Flock automated benefits administration: Flock is a benefits administration system that was purchased by Paychex in 2021. While not included with Paychex Flex, customers can opt into Flock and integrate the tool with Paychex Flex. With Flock, you can browse and select plans from Paychex’s vast network of insurance carriers. Plus, Paychex helps Flock users manage every aspect of employee benefits, from eligibility tracking and enrollment to reporting.

Verdict: Paychex wins this one due to its expansive provider network

Although Flock is not included with Paychex Flex, it is a part of the Paychex brand that conveniently integrates with the payroll system. Flock customers can onboard their own broker to the platform or have Paychex act as a broker for them, and Flock’s provider network — which includes hundreds of carriers — has options for businesses of all sizes. Because of these options, Paychex is taking home the win in the benefits administration bout of the ADP vs. Paychex debate.

HR tools

Roll by ADP HR tools

• Employee self-service onboarding: Once sent an invite link, employees can onboard themselves to Roll and carry out tasks such as setting up direct deposit and completing new hire paperwork. The employee self-service portal can also be used to access their job, pay and benefit info, manage payday notifications, and download pay stubs and tax documents.

• Time tracking: There are several different ways that employees’ time can be managed in Roll. For starters, admins can manually update their team members’ hours through Roll’s chat function by initiating a payroll run. Roll is also built with a virtual time clock that employees can use to punch in and out of work for the day. This feature can be accessed through the timeline tab of the tool, and admins can set it up so that Roll captures a geolocation from employees when they use it. Or, salaried employees can use Roll’s timesheet feature (which is also within the timeline tab) to manually enter their hours for the workweek. No matter which approach to time tracking you and your team take, your employees’ hours will be automatically factored into the platform’s payroll calculations.

• Generative AI-powered HR support: Roll’s chat assistant can provide answers to questions related to payroll, taxes or growing your business. For example, you can ask the chat for help crafting a job description for an open role or for advice on how to conduct a structured interview.

Paychex HR tools

• Employee self-service portal: Paychex’s employee self-service portal can be used to complete a variety of activities, from accessing paychecks and updating bank information to viewing and downloading tax documents. Employees can also use the portal to make changes to their phone number, address or other relevant personal information.

• Time and attendance tracking: Though not included with Flex, Paychex’s Flex Time software easily integrates with the system’s payroll function and can be added on to any plan. Paychex Flex Time offers a variety of time-tracking methods, including a web-based time clock, mobile and kiosk apps with facial verification, an interactive voice response system and more.

• Applicant tracking, job posting and pre-employment screening: A handful of recruiting features are available as add-ons to any Paychex Flex plan or as a part of the full Paychex Flex Hiring solution. There’s a job posting website integration that can be used to promote openings on sites like Indeed and LinkedIn. There’s also automated applicant tracking and a pre-employment screening service (the latter of which is included in Paychex Flex Pro and allows you to verify candidates’ employment history and education).

• HR library: Select and Pro customers get access to a library of human resources documents through Paychex’s partnership with Mineral. This library can be used to find up-to-date compliance information, as well as best practices and how-to guides that help you accomplish various HR tasks.

• Learning management system (LMS): Also available to Select and Pro customers is Paychex’s learning management system. An LMS hosts online content for employees and can be used to create new hire onboarding paths or development programs. Paychex’s LMS comes preloaded with over 300 courses related to business operations, HR compliance, workplace safety and more. It also boasts the ability to create your own courses, but you have to upgrade to the Enhanced version of the tool to unlock that feature.

Verdict: Paychex takes the win due to its optional HR integrations

Paychex has more HR features to offer than Roll. That said, many of these features — including the LMS and HR library — are only included with the Select and Pro plans. Others, such as time tracking and performance management, are only available as add-ons. Even still, Paychex customers definitely have more add-ons and integrations available to them than Roll customers, so we’re giving this one to Paychex.

Ease of use and customer service

Ease of use is a measurement that refers to how difficult or easy it is to navigate a platform and use its features. To measure ease of use, we consider how long it takes to accomplish a task in a system and whether there are any challenges along the way.

To measure customer service, we factor in the number of options available for contacting support (such as chat, email or phone line) and how long it takes to use them. We also look at the company’s website to determine how readily available information is — for instance, we look for resources such as knowledge bases and FAQ sections.

Roll by ADP ease of use and customer service

To measure Roll’s ease of use, we downloaded the app on an iPad and used a set of login credentials provided by ADP.

Roll’s user interface is simple, with only five main tabs in the app: people, timeline, chat, company and scan. This interface and the generative AI chat assistant that powers most of the app make it incredibly easy to use.

Turns out, this is intentional — during our research, we spoke with Roll’s creator, Roberto Masiero, who explained that most of Roll’s customers are small businesses that have between one and 15 employees. Roll is built to be used on the go, and you don’t need any HR know-how to use the platform successfully. Roll’s chat feature will walk you through each task step by step and prevent you from taking any actions that violate compliance.

While there isn’t a desktop version of Roll, the scan feature can be used to access Roll in-browser via a QR code. (FYI, we tested this feature and were able to quickly and successfully log in to Roll in Google Chrome.)

Lastly, ADP’s customer service is easily accessible through Roll. There’s a help button present on each interface throughout the app that brings up a list of FAQs and answers, as well as the option to connect with a customer service agent through live chat. We tested this feature and were instantly connected with a customer support agent, boding well for ADP’s response time.

Paychex ease of use and customer service

It’s important to note that we weren’t able to test Paychex’s system, so our analysis of the tool’s ease of use is based on a provided demo and reviews from users on sites such as Capterra and G2.

The average rating from Paychex users for ease of use is just over four out of five stars on Capterra. On G2, reviewers report that Paychex’s intuitive interface is part of what makes it so user-friendly.

This is particularly impressive considering how comprehensive Paychex’s Flex system is. The platform offers everything a modern HR department needs to be effective and houses several different tools within its ecosystem (for example, there’s an LMS, Paychex Flex Time and the Flock benefits administration system). Even so, each functionality is built to communicate and share information with the rest of the system to simplify the user experience.

As far as customer support goes, Paychex offers several ways for users to get help when they need it. They can get in touch with their assigned Paychex specialist, use the Paychex Flex Assistant chat feature (which is accessible through the tool), call the phone support line or check the “Dashboard Topics” widget for immediate information on how to use the different features. Customers can also fill out the support contact form on Paychex’s website.

Verdict: Roll wins based on its simplicity and high level of automation

It’s tough to compare two tools that are inherently different in their design. Roll is a simple, focused tool that’s specifically developed to help small teams process payroll and manage their taxes. Paychex can do these things and a whole lot more, but that does come with the challenge of learning how to use a larger, more comprehensive system. With Roll, running payroll is as easy as sending a few texts, and that’s something that Paychex — which is still a great choice — just can’t do.

We’re calling a tie in the Roll by ADP vs. Paychex debate

Here’s a recap: Roll is more affordable than Paychex and offers an easier user experience, but Paychex has more advanced benefits administration and HR features to offer.

When should you choose Roll by ADP?

Most of Roll’s customers are businesses with fewer than 15 employees that use the tool via mobile. This suggests that Roll works well for startups, single-person operations and small businesses that perform work on the go rather than from a single location.

If your business is growing exponentially or just big enough that you foresee needing some of the advanced HR features that Roll lacks, check out ADP’s other HR software tools such as Run and Workforce Now. These platforms are built with features that compare to Paychex Flex, such as hiring and recruiting tools and insurance brokerage services. Plus, our discussion with Masiero made it clear that businesses that start with Roll can migrate over to Run or Workforce Now with ease when their business needs call for it.

When should you choose Paychex?

The Paychex team shared with us that its system is designed to support businesses with anywhere from one to over 1,000 employees. They also mentioned that the majority of customers access Paychex through the Paychex Flex mobile app — something the platform shares in common with Roll. This makes sense when you consider the mobile nature of the businesses that Paychex’s system supports, such as organizations in the hospitality, restaurant, trade and healthcare industries.

Whether your business operates within one of these industries or not, Paychex could be a good option for you. It’s a scalable platform designed to provide solutions for all aspects of modern HR (strategic and administrative), and if you’re looking to consolidate how you manage HR tasks in one platform, Paychex is a better choice than Roll.