ADP vs Paylocity: costs, contracts and who each fits

ADP vs Paylocity in brief

ADP RUN

Quote onlyEssential estimate: $79 + $4 per employee

Paylocity

Quote onlyestimate: $18 to $22 PEPM

ADP offer

3 months freesign and start payroll by Oct 22, 2026

Payroll score

32 vs 12ADP vs Paylocity, out of 100

This page compares RUN Powered by ADP, the ADP payroll product whose terms we have read, with Paylocity's HR and payroll suite. ADP also sells payroll suites for larger employers; we have not researched their pricing or terms, so if you have more than about 50 employees ask ADP which product it would quote and compare that quote with Paylocity's. For a co-employment option, ADP's PEO is covered in the ADP TotalSource review.

ADP RUN and Paylocity side by side

Estimated first-year cost for 10 and 30 employees

Neither vendor publishes these figures. The ADP column uses the user-report estimate for Essential, the cheapest package; the Paylocity column uses OutSail's low band for payroll plus core HR, which comes from mid-market data and may not hold for a 10-person team.

Read the ADP figures with three cautions. First, the Fit Small Business quote charged per weekly run: at $49 + (10 x $2.50) = $74 a run, a weekly payroll for 10 would be $74 x 52 = $3,848 a year, far above the Tech.co figure. Second, the free months cover standard payroll processing only; ADP's offer terms exclude non-payroll services, pass-through costs, courier and delivery fees, hardware, and penalties and interest. Third, the RUN terms let ADP raise base fees after six months. Ask for a written price for months 7 to 24.

For Paylocity, ask whether time, benefits and recruiting are in the quote; OutSail puts full HCM at $26 to $33 per employee per month. Compare both against providers that post prices on our payroll cost page and in ADP pricing in detail.

Choose ADP RUN if

• You have fewer than 50 employees and can start by October 22, 2026 to use the three free months.
• You want published tax filing terms: ADP's RUN agreement says when it pays penalties, which Paylocity does not publish.
• You want simple packages with phone and chat support and a big provider behind them.
• You may want a PEO later on the same payroll platform (ADP TotalSource scores 44 on our PEO scale).

Choose Paylocity if

• You have 20 to 1,000 employees and want HR, time, benefits and recruiting in one suite.
• You pay people outside the US: Paylocity lists global payroll in 100+ countries.
• You want an employee community and self-service app.
• You can budget for implementation, which OutSail estimates at 10% to 20% of first-year spend.

Cancellation, exit terms and switching

ADP publishes its exit terms and Paylocity does not. Under the RUN agreement either side may end it "on at least thirty (30) days prior written notice", you owe all invoiced fees, and ADP may keep your reports and tax forms "for a period of time" afterward. Billing after cancellation is a repeated ADP complaint (Trustpilot, Sep 23, 26 and 30, 2026), so send notice in writing, keep the confirmation and check the last invoice. For Paylocity, ask for the contract term, renewal, notice period, exit fee and record access period before you sign.

ADP RUN to Paylocity

• Give ADP written notice at least 30 days before your last ADP payroll.
• Download I-9s before the termination date (access ends then) and every tax form and register from Document Vault, which stays open only for "a limited amount of time".
• If you used the free-months offer, check its conditions: you must process payroll three consecutive months and stay in good standing to get the credits.

Paylocity to ADP RUN

• Read the Paylocity contract for the term end and notice period.
• Have your state tax ID numbers ready: ADP's terms expect you to supply them, and penalties caused by late ID numbers are excluded from its guarantee.
• Export time, PTO balances and benefits data, since RUN's lower packages have fewer HR modules than a full Paylocity suite.

Documented complaints and ratings

ADP

• Support that is hard to reach: "almost impossible to talk to a human being" (Sep 23, 2026) and "Their Customer Support is non-existent" (Oct 7, 2026).
• Billing after cancellation, including promised fee waivers sent to collections (Sep 23, 26 and 30, 2026).
• A price increase of "more than 10% without any notice" despite a promised one-year freeze (Oct 1, 2026), and charges "for things you never even signed up for" (Jun 7, 2026).
• A misfiled Form 941 that a reviewer says cost "over $31000.00" from an ERC refund (Oct 5, 2026).

Source: Trustpilot, ADP (1.2 from 3,126 reviews, covering every ADP product, not only RUN). RUN rates 4.7 from 6,579 on G2 (seen Oct 16, 2026).

Paylocity

Paylocity's public ratings split the same way ADP's do: 4.4 on G2 (6,311 reviews) and 1.3 on Trustpilot (129 reviews), both seen Oct 16, 2026. Unlike ADP, we have not documented Paylocity's recurring complaints from dated reviews yet, so the ADP list above is longer partly because it has been researched more. Check Paylocity's recent low-star reviews before you commit.

Related comparisons

Go deeper with what ADP RUN costs, package by package and our Paylocity review. More ADP matchups: ADP vs Paychex, Gusto vs ADP and Rippling vs ADP; more Paylocity matchups: Paycom vs Paylocity and Paycor vs Paylocity. Ranked lists: small business payroll by score and all-in-one HR and payroll systems. For co-employment and group benefits, see the best PEOs and what a PEO costs.