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ADP Workforce Now vs UKG comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ADP Workforce Now
Ranking in Benefits Administration
7th
Ranking in Talent Management
17th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
11th
Ranking in HR Analytics Software
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
UKG
Ranking in Benefits Administration
4th
Ranking in Talent Management
5th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
5th
Ranking in HR Analytics Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
Employee Scheduling Software (1st), Employee Time Tracking Software (2nd), Talent Acquisition (5th), AI-Agents for HR (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of ADP Workforce Now is 2.1%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UKG is 4.9%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
UKG4.9%
ADP Workforce Now2.1%
Other93.0%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Vineeth John - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, People & Culture at a agriculture with 201-500 employees
Custom reporting tool with field grabber, easy modules for recruitment and provides numerous options for integration
The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key features you can possibly think of. If it isn't there, there's always a third-party vendor you can integrate that way. But the only issue is that because it's complex, there needs to be some sort of system, at least on the back end, for the admins to understand what leads to what. We expect AI to improve multiple things with HR processes. The most obvious and common one would be the self-service function for employees, like a chatbot to help with FAQs. We are also building an AI tool that can possibly help managers make better talent management decisions. This tool will pull from the performance management tool, the talent profile, and the reports that we generally have to score employees across all different dimensions.
Streamlined time tracking boosts operational efficiency across multiple regions
The time tracking feature is the most effective for employee management. UKG is used in Europe, the United States, Australia, and East Asian countries for HR activities like payroll. The application is like an ERP, providing comprehensive features for organizations, simplifying their processes, and reducing the need to use multiple software solutions.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"In my day-to-day work, attendance tracking would be most important. That's because I have a really diverse group of employees, and I have a subset of younger folks who are struggling with their attendance. So, that's the thing that I'm most involved with currently."
"The platform is on a private cloud that is fully secure with no way for hacker penetration."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The product allows for accurate, consistent payrolls."
"The most valuable features are the reporting and benefits piece."
"For small to mid-sized companies, Workforce Now is one of the better products on the market, clean with an easy interface that is simple to maneuver around, stable, and will continue to improve into the future."
"I love the integration of HR, payroll, tax filing, benefits, time and attendance, GL, ACA, employee/manager self-service, reporting and analytics."
"The way that ADP helped us improve our organization is by making the payroll process clean and efficient because if you make a mistake there, you're in big trouble."
"One system for all modules makes it easier to administer employee data."
"I have found the compensation management module to be very valuable and time saving."
"Benefits, Life Events and OE have allowed us to move away from paper and integrate and track our data with our benefit providers, allowing us to better focus on improving benefits and communications versus data entry."
"Pricing and licensing met the needs of the company."
"Customer service is great."
"Employees can go and look, and change their information."
"UltiPro is far and away the leader in SaaS products, especially when a $1M solution is not appropriate."
"Pending pay and retroactive pay are the most valuable features."
 

Cons

"Support leaves a lot to be desired."
"The ease of developing and creating reports could definitely use some improvement."
"Its benefits portal could be user-friendly."
"When I'm not working with the implementation team and I'm just talking to customer service or something, they're just not a lot of help. They don't understand how it works. They'll tell you to do something that I know would affect something else. So, it's less about the software and more about just training their folks to a higher level."
"The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP ."
"Their “new and improved” message center (where you get notifications and go to approve things like time off) is actually not as easy as it used to be."
"I would like to see the payroll side improved and there are a few kinks that need to be worked out."
"ADP provides a quarterly Error Notification Report that allows you to check for compliance errors based on payments made to employees that quarter. The report only shows employees by their file #; however, the recent ADP upgrade has an "Archive" feature that makes it impossible to search for employees by file number so currently, there is no way to identify the employees listed on the report without calling ADP."
"Customer service is poor; unless we are being the squeaky wheel, we haven't gotten the best service."
"LMS integration in Career Development needs to improve."
"I would like to see better platform config and benefits admin."
"General cases sometimes languish for weeks without resolution; have had varying levels of success with different technical resources."
"We have encountered scalability issues. Only 10 clock transactions are allowed to run at once; not the best for installing 300+ global clocks."
"Pricing is high for a limited license."
"A chat feature for customer support would be great. Some questions are simple that we shouldn't have to create a case just to get an answer for (emails do not get answered for several days, if at all)."
"Customer service is awful. Technical support is awful."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive."
"I know some of what we're currently paying. Most customers would say it's too high, but I don't have a comparison to know that."
"The pricing is expensive and I would say it is below average for the value it provides based on the high cost."
"I give the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The solution is expensive."
"The solution is expensive and everyone complains about the price."
"The pricing depends on the number of licenses we buy."
"If you're going for the full suite, it can be fairly pricey."
"While I am unsure of the licensing cost itself, the total cost of implementation and licensing for a company with over 5000 employees would be around 6,00,000. So, there are additional costs beyond licensing."
"UKG's pricing and licensing model involves ongoing expenses based on the number of employees paid. The initial implementation cost is low when UKG implements it directly. However, when partners handle the implementation, it becomes more expensive since partners don't receive the monthly recurring fees."
"The platform is not affordable but also not the most expensive."
"I wasn't involved in the pricing part. I'm a user, and I believe it is based on the user count. One thing that is nice about Ultimate is that you can learn how to use the system without additional fees. The learning aspect is the life of a product, and the training was a huge reason why we went with Ultimate. We did have some integration costs. They were a part of the implementation because of the integrations to other systems that we included in our implementation."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business48
Midsize Enterprise43
Large Enterprise48
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ADP Workforce Now?
The licensing is on the pricer side, given that there aren't a lot of other tools out there that are applicable, we just decided to go ahead with ADP anyway. I would definitely recommend ADP to oth...
What needs improvement with ADP Workforce Now?
The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key features you can possibly think of. If it isn't there, there's always a third-part...
What advice do you have for others considering ADP Workforce Now?
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It's got a lot of features. The reason I'm not giving it a full score is largely due to the complexity and the customer service.
What needs improvement with UKG?
UKG needs more publicity. It is a productive ERP ( /categories/erp ) application, but many people in the IT market are not aware of it. Greater awareness could increase its adoption.
What is your primary use case for UKG?
I worked for a healthcare organization and a university. Most organizations use UKG ( /products/ukg-reviews ) to track employee timesheets, capturing accurate swipe-in and swipe-out data. UKG ( /pr...
What advice do you have for others considering UKG?
Publicity is very important for any software. If people aren't aware of UKG, despite its productivity, they won't use it. Expanding the awareness is essential for greater adoption. Overall, I would...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
UKG Pro, UKG Dimensons, UKG Ready
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Lawrence and Schiller, The Children's Center, The Kansas City Royals
Tesla, Marriott, Yamaha, Aramark, Feeding America, Samsung, Sony Music, Dave & Buster's, Revlon
Find out what your peers are saying about ADP Workforce Now vs. UKG and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.