By Zoha Ahmed · Nov 1, 2026
We read all 433 replies in 76 threads from the past year, mostly in r/humanresources, r/smallbusiness and r/AskHR, with r/Bookkeeping behind them, counted one vote per person, and removed vendors posting about their own products.
This is the most negative category we have measured. Four of the biggest names in HR and payroll draw more complaints than recommendations, and the two most recommended tools are barely net positive: Rippling at 31 recommendations against 27 complaints, Gusto at 35 against 18. There is no clean winner to name, so we are not naming one. The clearest signal in the data is BambooHR, with 18 recommendations and one complaint, and it is a deliberately simple product for companies under about 100 people.
One brand is missing from this table on purpose. HiBob drew 19 recommendations and no complaints, which would have put it level with Paylocity in third. Every one of those 19 comments sat at exactly one point, with no upvotes at all, while Gusto, Rippling and Paylocity all have recommendations other Redditors voted up. Seventeen of the 19 accounts had two or fewer comments anywhere in this pull, which alone proves nothing. What decided it is that the comments paraphrase one claim, that HiBob centralises employee data, time off, onboarding and reporting in one place for a growing mid-market team, and several recommend it by saying it is a tool that tends to get recommended. We drop opinions copy-pasted word for word across accounts, but a claim reworded across accounts passes that test. We cannot prove what is behind it either way, so we have left it out rather than rank it on it.
The ranking
| Tool | Recommend | Complain | Threads | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 35 | 18 | 29 | |
| 2 | 31 | 27 | 24 | |
| 3 | 19 | 14 | 15 | |
| 4 | 18 | 1 | 20 | |
| 5 | 7 | 2 | 13 | |
| 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | |
| 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
"Recommend" and "Complain" count different people, not comments. Also named, with too few opinions to rank: Keka, Zoho People, Lucca, Sage HR, Justworks, TriNet, Remote.com, Factorial and Papaya Global. HiBob is excluded for the reason given above.
1. Gusto
Gusto
Best for small US payroll
The most recommended tool here, and almost all of it comes from small companies and the bookkeepers who file for them.
Why people recommend it
- Easy enough to run without an HR person on staff
- Clean fees and straightforward mapping into QuickBooks and Xero
Common complaints
- Support is the single biggest complaint, with people describing being bounced between agents
- Breaks down on edge cases: multi-state payroll, unusual deductions, corrections
- Bookkeepers who troubleshoot it report a worse experience than the owners who use it
What Redditors said
Gusto is payroll for people who aren't HR professionals, super easy
Gusto turns payroll into tech support
Gusto is great until you hit an edge case.
2. Rippling
Rippling
Best all-in-one, most divisive
The second most recommended and the most argued about. Thirty-one people recommended it and twenty-seven complained, often in the same thread.
Why people recommend it
- One system for HR, payroll, IT and device management, which suits teams with no IT staff
- Onboarding automation is the feature named most often
- Teams implemented it themselves without a consultant
Common complaints
- Support response times are the most repeated complaint, with people describing days of waiting
- Higher monthly cost than mid-market alternatives
- Teams say the product they were sold did not match what shipped
- The recruiting module is weaker than a dedicated ATS
What Redditors said
rippling's strength is the unified system, one login for hr, payroll, it, devices, which matters if you're running lean on IT staff.
At my last company, we migrated from ADP to Rippling, and we ran into issues because they sold us something they hadn't actually built.
But their support is HORRIBLE.
3. Paylocity
Paylocity
Best employee interface, worst service
The most split result in the data apart from Rippling. Employees and admins like the interface; the people responsible for payroll accuracy do not.
Why people recommend it
- The interface is called intuitive for both employees and admins
- Covers timekeeping and benefits as well as payroll
Common complaints
- Time-off accruals calculating incorrectly is the most repeated bug
- Several people reported data integrity problems in their own records, with no warning before things break
What Redditors said
Paylocity's UI is very intuitive and user-friendly for admins.
I’m currently experiencing data integrity issues with Paylocity.
Paylocity is fine if you're staying relatively static, but the second you try to absorb new entities, multi-state tax mapping turns into a nightmare.
4. BambooHR
BambooHR
Cleanest record in the data
Eighteen recommendations and one complaint, the cleanest record of any widely discussed tool here.
Why people recommend it
- The simplest option named for a company under about 100 people
- HR-focused rather than payroll-first, so there is less to configure
- The sensible first HRIS before an all-in-one platform
Common complaints
- One person called it glitchy and unintuitive
- People say it strains past roughly 100 employees and needs add-ons for reporting
What Redditors said
BambooHR is the easiest to use, highest customer satisfaction
Glitchy and unintuitive.
5. Deel
Deel
Best for international hiring
Named almost entirely for hiring across borders rather than as a domestic HRIS.
Why people recommend it
- The most flexible option people name for international employment
- Handles multiple countries without a local entity
- Founders here describe switching to it from all-in-one platforms
Common complaints
- Treated as a thin HRIS if you want it to do domestic HR as well
- One commenter raised compliance concerns alongside the same complaint about Rippling
What Redditors said
Deel is the most flexible for international.
Deel is a very basic HRIS, I would not rely on it.
6. CharlieHR
CharlieHR
Best for UK startups
A UK-focused option for small teams, with no complaints in our sample.
Why people recommend it
- Suited to startups that need the basics only
- Usually named alongside BreatheHR as the simple UK pair
Common complaints
- None in our sample
What Redditors said
BreatheHR and CharlieHR are both genuinely reasonable options
7. Paycor
Paycor
Mixed reviews
Two recommendations and two complaints, and the complaints are about service tiers rather than the product.
Why people recommend it
- One person implemented it and called the result decent
- A mainstream mid-market choice
Common complaints
- Teams report hearing that useful support sits behind a paid tier
- Overtime reclassification mid-period needs voided cheques or a year-end adjustment
What Redditors said
I implemented Paycor at my company and it’s pretty decent.
We also heard terrible things about their service unless you pay for the "extra" support.
The four Reddit complains about
These four draw more complaints than recommendations, and together they cover most of the payroll market by headcount. The pattern across all four is the same: the complaints are about support, account management and implementation, not about whether the software calculates payroll correctly.
ADP's own users say the platform works and the service does not. Paycom's complaints come from HR managers who rate the features and then describe an implementation nobody owned. Paychex is criticised for how it is sold and priced in years two and three. Workday is the exception: there the objection is the cost and staffing the product itself demands.
Rippling sits in the ranking above rather than here, because its 31 recommendations outnumber its 27 complaints. Its complaints read as product and service complaints: slow support, cost, and teams saying what they were sold did not match what they got. There was widely reported litigation between Rippling and Deel in 2025, which we are not characterising here. Nobody in our sample raised it.
ADP
ADP
The incumbent people leave
The most discussed name in the category and the clearest negative result: sixteen recommendations against twenty-six complaints.
Why people recommend it
- Called the gold standard by people who value it being boring and predictable
- Survives acquisitions, so you are not replacing it again in two years
- The accountant portal is a genuine reason bookkeepers recommend it
Common complaints
- Customer service is the complaint, repeated more than any other point in our sample
- Small accounts say they do not get the support they pay for
- Implementation errors, including tax codes copied across incorrectly
- Several people said every employer they worked for eventually left, and the interface is called outdated
What Redditors said
ADP is probably the gold standard for a reason
ADP wfn if you want to hate your job and sometimes your life lol zero customer service and the system is way outdated.
The support is subbed out to India and they setup pre tax transit and parking deductions as post tax because implementation copied the old Totalsource codes.
Workday
Workday
Enterprise, and priced like it
Respected for what it can do and resented for what it costs to run. Seven recommendations against sixteen complaints.
Why people recommend it
- More capability than anything else named here
- One system for finance and HR at a large organisation
Common complaints
- You need dedicated staff to run it, which people put at two or three
- Six-figure configuration costs for results people say cheaper systems match
- Recruiters complain about the candidate experience and long applications
What Redditors said
The tool is insane, beyond anything else capability wise, but it’s only as effective as the team using it.
you have to literally hire 2-3 people just to run it
workday if you enjoy paying six figures to customize the same thing dayforce does.
Paycom
Paycom
The one HR people warn about
The sharpest negative result in the data: two recommendations against fourteen complaints, almost all from HR managers who have run it.
Why people recommend it
- Named twice as a step up for a company that has outgrown a lightweight system
Common complaints
- Customer service is the specific complaint, from people who otherwise rate the features
- One detailed account of an implementation where pay and job history did not transfer
- Third-party integrations are thinner than ADP's or Paylocity's
What Redditors said
At your employee count, I would lean towards a more robust system like Paycom.
I recently went through a VERY BAD implementation with Paycom.
Paycom is ok for everything you listed, but their customer service sucks.
Paychex
Paychex
Two platforms, one bill
Five recommendations against six complaints, and the complaints are about pricing and account management rather than the software.
Why people recommend it
- One person rated its support team above the alternatives they had used
- Accountants name it as one of the few providers they put clients on
Common complaints
- Heavy first-year discounts followed by sharp increases in years two and three
- Two separate platforms from an acquisition, which confuses people
- Called expensive for a small business once the discount ends
What Redditors said
If I HAD to pick one of those I'd lean slightly more towards Paychex, just because I've had better experience with their support team.
The PayChex platform is basically 3 different systems in a trench coat.
PayChex is notorious for bringing uninformed clients in on +70% discounts and then year 2-3-4+ are an absolute nightmare in terms of price, service etc.
How we built this ranking
We pulled every Reddit thread from the past 12 months in HR, small business, accounting and recruiting subreddits, then kept the threads about HRIS platforms, payroll providers and employer of record services. An AI model read each comment that named a tool and labelled it as a recommendation, a complaint or a neutral mention, and we checked that every quote appears word for word in the original comment. Vendors posting about their own products were removed, as was any opinion copy-pasted across different accounts. That last filter only catches word-for-word copies, so we also read the recommendation patterns by hand here and excluded one brand on what we found. We refresh the data regularly.
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What is the best HR software according to Reddit?
Gusto on volume, with 35 recommendations, but it also drew 18 complaints. The cleanest result is BambooHR at 18 recommendations and 1 complaint. No tool here wins the way the leader does in other categories we have measured.
Why is Reddit so negative about HR and payroll software?
Because four of the biggest names draw more complaints than recommendations: ADP at 16 against 26, Workday at 7 against 16, Paycom at 2 against 14 and Paychex at 5 against 6. Almost all of it is support and implementation rather than features.
Gusto or Rippling?
Gusto for a small US company that mostly needs payroll filed correctly, Rippling if you want HR, payroll and device management in one system and have nobody running IT. Both are barely net positive, and the complaint is the same for both: how long it takes to get a useful answer out of support.
Is ADP worth it?
Reddit's complaints about ADP are not about whether payroll runs. They are about service: support moved offshore, small accounts feeling ignored, implementation errors nobody owns. The people who recommend it value the thing that makes it dull, which is that it survives company changes.