ADP
Depends
Confidence: High
Buy if you're a 10-500 person company that wants one battle-tested vendor for payroll, HR, and benefits.
New check
Comparison
ADP vs Rippling
ADP and Rippling both land on Depends.
Rippling
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you're a growing company with admin bandwidth replacing separate HR, IT, and payroll tools.
| Compare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | Small businesses on RUN (1-49 employees) | Growing startups replacing separate HR, IT, payroll tools |
| Who it's not for | Tiny teams wanting flat, transparent pricing | Tiny teams that just need simple payroll |
| Privacy | Mature security program with published alerts; two past incidents appear in reviewed sources, no evidence of active breach.12 | SOC 2 Type II certified with a named CSO, but a 2025 insider-espionage incident involving a Deel spy drew major coverage. |
| Support quality | Unresponsive rep complaints even at $52k/year spend | Recurring support and payroll complaints |
| Public sentiment | Small-business users often praise RUN's reliability while Reddit payroll professionals and critics vent about support, pricing, and service quality.⁵ | Reviews are polarized: many love the unified, polished product, while payroll errors, support struggles, and opaque pricing drive loud complaints.15 |
| Biggest gotcha | Dedicated reps can go unresponsive after signing; support is the top complaint.³ | Modular per-employee pricing adds up; real costs often unclear until a sales call |
Pick ADP when
- Small businesses on RUN (1-49 employees)
- Mid-market firms needing Workforce Now
- Multi-state, compliance-heavy payroll
- Consolidating payroll, benefits, and retirement
When ADP is not a fit
- Tiny teams wanting flat, transparent pricing
- Anyone who depends on fast, hands-on support
- Buyers who refuse quote-only sales processes
- Solo founders . Roll by ADP or simpler tools fit better
Pick Rippling when
- Growing startups replacing separate HR, IT, payroll tools
- Multi-state or global teams
- Companies with a dedicated ops/HR admin
- Teams wanting one employee database
When Rippling is not a fit
- Tiny teams that just need simple payroll
- Buyers demanding transparent, published pricing
- Hourly/shift-heavy workforces
- Teams with no one to admin a modular suite
Sources
review
- ADP Reviews . Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
review
- ADP is the worst . r/humanresourcesreddit.comreview
- RUN Powered by ADP Reviews . TrustRadiustrustradius.comreview
review
official
- Roll by ADP pricingrollbyadp.comofficial
- Workforce Now best mid-market software . ADP Media Centermediacenter.adp.comofficial
- ADP Payroll Pricing and Fees . Forbesforbes.comnews
- ADP Pricing: Hidden Costs . Workstreamworkstream.usnews
- Cybercriminals Infiltrate ADP Tax Portal . Fintech Futuresfintechfutures.comsecurity
- Companies using ADP Payroll . Enlyftenlyft.comnews
- Rippling Reviews on G2g2.comreview