ADP RUN Review, Pricing & Features

What is ADP RUN?

ADP RUN is a human resource software solution used by over 700,000 businesses. It is used by businesses primarily to run payroll. It is built for businesses with 1-49 employees.

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Table of Contents

ADP RUN Review Summary

ADP was founded in 1949 by Henry Taub as a manual payroll processing business. It has since become one of the largest players in the human resource software space. ADP RUN is ADP’s proprietary payroll and HR software built specifically for businesses with 49 employees or less. ADP RUN has served over 700,000 businesses from its headquarters in Roseland, New Jersey.

ADP RUN’s best feature is its payroll. It also includes benefits and employee onboarding features. Generally speaking, ADP RUN’s additional human resource features outside of payroll are lackluster in comparison to alternatives.

ADP RUN’s pricing is ambiguous and not stated on their website. They offer four plans with pricing based on employee count, frequency of use, and feature needs. Unfortunately, we were not able to obtain more details through our research.

Overall, ADP RUN’s lack of user-friendly human resource features do not justify its purchase over direct alternatives like Gusto or Zenefits for newer businesses. Not only do these tools offer a wider breadth of features, but they present these features in a very helpful and user-friendly manner.

Small businesses who are looking for payroll capabilities will likely be more satisfied with Gusto or Zenefits’ platforms, which offer payroll and other HR tools. Newer businesses will find these alternatives’ features far more accessible than ADP RUN.

  • If you need payroll software with strong additional HR features, consider Gusto.
  • If you need payroll software that is more accommodating for contingent workers, try Zenefits.
  • If payroll is not a priority at all and affordable HR management features are more important for you, consider Zoho People.

ADP RUN Pricing & Cost

ADP RUN’s pricing is ambiguous and not stated clearly on the company’s site. Four plans are available with varying degrees of features offered. Note that your company’s employee count, frequency of ADP RUN use, and feature needs will be important factors in pricing.

Plan

Features
Essential
  • Payroll on multiple devices
  • Direct deposit
  • Onboarding
Enhanced
  • Everything in Essential plan
  • Ziprecruiter integration
  • Background checks
Complete
  • Everything in Enhanced plan
  • HR tracking
  • HR helpdesk support
HR Pro
  • Everything in Complete plan
  • Access to HR businesses
  • Employer and employee training

ADP RUN Features

Below, we'll discuss ADP RUN’s key features. We include product screenshots to give you a sense of this solution’s interface and usability.

Payroll

Payroll is ADP RUN’s best feature. It is feature-rich, yet less user-friendly than both Zenefits and Gusto. Because of this, we recommend ADP RUN if running payroll in all 50 states is the top priority for your business.

ADP RUN Payroll

ADP RUN’s payroll dashboard gives you a high level view of which employees are being paid. You can see individual details regarding each employee and their pay through this view.

ADP RUN handles federal and state taxes for your payroll. ADP RUN can calculate, remit, and file your taxes for your business. ADP RUN also allows you to pay off-cycle payroll. You can run three different types of off-cycle payrolls:

  • Basic Off-Cycle Payroll: This is ADP RUN’s most flexible off-cycle payroll option, able to run at any time.
  • Bonus: This allows you to pay bonuses to employees outside of your regular payroll.
  • Missed Payment: This off-cycle payroll is designed specifically for employees you forgot to pay in regular payroll.

Employee Onboarding & Offboarding

Managing employee onboarding in ADP RUN is reasonably intuitive. However, its simple user interface is less inviting for newer businesses that require onboarding assistance.

Alternatives like Zenefits offer a more user-friendly employee onboarding experience. With Zenefits, you can hire salaried and hourly employees, as well as contractors.

Offboarding employees is less feature-rich than onboarding. However, let’s first discuss how ADP RUN can assist your business in onboarding new employees.

ADP RUN Onboarding

Because ADP RUN is primarily a payroll tool, many of the onboarding processes involve payroll and earnings. Here are the seven steps ADP RUN assists you in when onboarding new employees:

  • Employee info
  • Employment info
  • Tax info
  • Payroll info
  • Earnings deductions
  • Garnishments
  • Direct deposit

Onboarding employees with ADP RUN is simple. However, alternatives like Zenefits take more aspects of employee onboarding into consideration such as offer letters, integrated applications, and most importantly, health benefits. ADP RUN does not even allow customers to automate sending documents to new employees.

ADP Run’s employee offboarding is far more limited than onboarding. An example is seen below.

ADP RUN Offboarding

As you can see above, offboarding employees requires you to fill out their termination date, reason, and description. Unlike Zenefits, there is no assistance in discontinuing payroll and benefits for employees.

Time Tracking

ADP RUN’s time tracking tools are not up to par with other HR software solutions built for small businesses. This is primarily because you cannot create paid-time-off (PTO) policies like in Zoho People or Sage HR.

We do not recommend ADP RUN for businesses in need of advanced time tracking capabilities.

ADP RUN Timesheet Example

As you can see above, ADP RUN’s time tracking is designed around its payroll capabilities. This is why the main time tracking feature is reviewing and approving time cards.

With ADP’s Timekeeping add-on, you gain barebones time tracking features similar to Sage HR and BambooHR.

ADP RUN Time Tracking

The standout feature of ADP RUN’s time tracking is its alerts system. ADP RUN clearly states which employees are missing time punches with the exact date and time. This is a user-friendly way to visualize lapses in your employees’ timesheets. However, it does not make up for the otherwise limited time tracking capabilities of ADP RUN.

Benefits

ADP RUN’s benefits are easy to set up. However, the user experience is more difficult in ADP RUN than it is in Gusto or Zenefits. If you are a new business in need of transparent and easy to understand guidance when it comes to selecting employee benefits, we recommend Gusto or Zenefits over ADP RUN.

You can manage your team’s benefits in the benefits dashboard, seen below.

ADP RUN Benefits

ADP RUN also allows you to manage your business insurance. This is a feature that other software solutions in this space do not support. Common business coverage services that ADP RUN supports include:

Coverage PlanDescription
General LiabilityGeneral liability protects you from risks that arise from your business operations, such as injury or property.
Umbrella InsuranceThis type of insurance covers more catastrophic losses that general liability cannot cover.
Commercial Auto InsuranceThis insurance protects your business against costs resulting from business-related auto accidents.

Analytics and Reporting

ADP RUN comes with comprehensive reporting. Here is an overview of some of the most common reports your company can benefit from:

CategoryReports
Payroll
  • Pay stubs
  • Payroll summary
  • Payroll details
Taxes
  • Quarterly local tax withholding
  • Quarterly local tax reconciliation
  • Deposit statements
Benefits
  • Deduction summary
  • Retirement contributions
  • Employee PTO
Miscellaneous
  • Employee summary
  • Billing invoices
  • W-2 preview
Human Resources
  • Emergency contacts
  • Employee directory
  • Employee skills
ADP RUN Report Creator

Creating reports is rather feature-rich in ADP RUN. Similar to Gusto and Zenefits, you are able to preview your report before you export it as any of the following file options:

  • Pdf
  • Xls
  • Xlsx
  • Csv

Integrations

ADP RUN integrates with a number of applications that improve your company’s productivity and unlock features like expense management. ADP RUN primarily integrates with document management, accounting, and applicant tracking software. Here are some of ADP RUN’s most popular third party integrations:

Customer Support

ADP RUN’s customer support team is responsive but only available through phone. ADP has international call centers available to call Monday through Friday, 8AM to 8PM.

ADP RUN has a resource hub specifically for small businesses. Its resource hub offers case studies, legislative updates, and HR FAQs. These are all effective resources to learn more about ADP RUN and HR software as a whole.

Customer Support ChannelsPhone
Other Support ResourcesResource hub
Application Status PageNo

ADP RUN Alternatives & Competitors

ADP RUN competes with a variety of human resources management solutions that offer similar functionality. The best choice for you will depend on your budget and feature preferences. It is most comparable to payroll tools such as Gusto.

ADP RUN's top competitors are:

Learn more about how ADP RUN stacks up against its top individual competitors:

Is ADP RUN Right For You?

Overall, ADP RUN’s lack of user-friendly human resource features do not justify its purchase over direct alternatives like Gusto or Zenefits for newer businesses. Not only do these tools offer a wider breadth of features, but they present these features in a very helpful and user-friendly manner.

Small businesses who are looking for payroll software will be satisfied with Gusto or Zenefits’ payroll, and benefit from their additional tools. Newer businesses will find their features far more accessible than ADP RUN.

  • If you need payroll software with strong additional HR features, consider Gusto.
  • If you need payroll software that is more accommodating for contingent workers, try Zenefits.
  • If payroll is not a priority at all and affordable HR management features are more important for you, consider Zoho People.

If you're interested, you can try ADP RUN here.

Yousef Fatehpour

Yousef Fatehpour is a Junior Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit. He graduated from University of California, San Diego, where he studied Human Centered Design and Communications. His work at UCSD's Design Lab emphasized UX research and product management.

Yousef's primary areas of interest are software design, user journeys, and how user experience is handled across software markets. Yousef also has experience in product design and multimedia content production. You can connect with Yousef on LinkedIn.

Yousef is an expert in several software categories including:

  • SMS marketing software
  • Document management software
  • Human resource software
  • Applicant tracking software
  • Design software