Human resource software includes features like payroll, benefits management, and compliance assistance. It is one of the most critical software tools alongside other foundational software systems like document management software and accounting software.

This article will discuss the differences between two of the largest players in this space: Justworks and ADP RUN. We’ll discuss the notable strengths and weaknesses of each tool, and provide recommendations for who each tool will suit best.

All of our recommendations are based on first-hand research, product demos with the software companies, and dozens of hours spent hand-testing human resource tools. More details regarding our research process can be found on our human resource category page.

Justworks & ADP RUN Comparison Summary

We researched and extensively tested both Justworks and ADP RUN. Justworks received a SoftwarePundit Analyst Rating of 93 while ADP RUN received a rating of 83.

Here’s a breakdown of our review criteria and how Justworks and ADP RUN performed in each category.

Justworks’s pricing is transparent while ADP RUN’s is not. Justworks's pricing starts at $49 per user per month. ADP RUN’s pricing is ambiguous and not listed on their website.

Both solutions offer essential features found across human resource software tools. These include payroll, benefits, onboarding, time tracking, and custom reports. Justworks’s strongest points are its unlimited payroll and compliance assistance. ADP RUN offers business insurance and robust custom report creation.

Overall, we recommend Justworks over ADP RUN for small businesses. Justworks is more accessible and feature-rich than ADP RUN. ADP RUN lacks features like expense management and offers more limited time tracking capabilities. Many of the features ADP RUN does support are easier to set up and run in Justworks.

Here’s a quick breakdown of who will prefer each option:

Table of Contents

• Justworks & ADP RUN Comparison Summary
• Justworks & ADP RUN Price Comparison
  • Justworks Pricing
  • ADP RUN Pricing
• Justworks & ADP RUN Top Feature Comparison
  • Payroll
  • Employee Onboarding
  • Benefits
  • Time Tracking
  • Custom Reports
• Justworks & ADP RUN Integrations
• Bottom Line

Justworks & ADP RUN Price Comparison

Justworks’s pricing is relatively less affordable than its two direct competitors, Gusto and Zenefits. ADP RUN’s pricing is ambiguous and not available to the general public.

Justworks Pricing Details

Justworks’ pricing starts at $49 per month per employee. Pricing is split in two tiers, Basic and Plus. Note that the following plans are for businesses with less than 25 employees. Justworks is around 15% more affordable if you have anywhere between 25 and 99 employees.

ADP RUN Pricing Details

ADP RUN’s pricing is ambiguous and not stated transparently 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.

Justworks & ADP RUN Feature Comparison

Overall, Justworks has a wider breadth of features than ADP RUN. However, both solutions do not offer applicant tracking features such as job posting and distribution.

For a full analysis of each solution’s features, read our Justworks review and ADP RUN review.

Payroll

We recommend Justworks over ADP RUN if running unlimited payroll is a determining factor for you. Both Justworks and ADP RUN offer strong, unlimited payroll. However, Justworks’ payroll is more user-friendly than it is in ADP RUN. We do recommend considering Gusto if you’re in need of a more affordable payroll solution.

Justworks and ADP RUN offer high level views of the employees being paid in their payroll dashboards. Both applications also handle federal and state taxes for your payroll. Justworks and ADP RUN can calculate, remit, and file common tax documents such as W-2s and 1099s.

Both applications also let you run a number of off-cycle payments. Here are some common off-cycle payments you might run if your business uses Justworks or ADP RUN:

Employee Onboarding

Onboarding in Justworks is more flexible than in ADP RUN. Many of ADP RUN’s onboarding processes involve payroll and earnings. Justworks allows you to onboard employees on payroll and benefits, as well as send onboarding documents and set user permissions.

Onboarding in ADP RUN is seen above. ADP RUN assists you with seven steps when onboarding new employees:

ADP RUN does not assist you with onboarding outside of these steps. Justworks can assist you with onboarding payroll and benefits, as well as sending offer letters, hiring agreements, and company handbooks to be sent to your new hire. This is similar to Gusto and Zenefits.

Justworks’ standout onboarding feature is its ability to set permissions for employees. This is not a feature available in other HR solutions. A typical use case for this is giving more access to accountants and HR representatives than other employees.

Benefits

We recommend that small businesses use Justworks to manage their benefits due to its accessible interface. Justworks supports benefits management in all 50 states unlike Gusto and Zenefits. We only recommend selecting ADP RUN over Justworks if you want to purchase business insurance for your company.

Tracking and selecting benefits in Justworks is more user-friendly than ADP RUN. Both Justworks and ADP RUN support common medical, dental, and vision plans. You can also offer employees health care FSAs, HSAs, 401(k)s, and commuter benefits.

ADP RUN’s only advantage over Justworks in this category is its business insurance management. This allows you to select insurance plans for your business. Common business coverage services that ADP RUN offers include:

Time Tracking

Time tracking in Justworks is more powerful than ADP RUN. Justworks allows you to create unlimited paid-time-off (PTO) policies while ADP RUN only supports barebones time tracking features.

Justworks and ADP RUN have a similar user-interface for employee hours. You are given a high-level view of employee time cards with additional drill down capabilities.

Time tracking in ADP RUN is handled through its Timekeeping add-on. This add-on brings additional, yet basic time tracking features similar to Sage HR and BambooHR.

Justworks’ strongest advantage over ADP RUN in this category is its ability to create unlimited PTO policies. ADP RUN does not support custom PTO policy creation at all. Much like Zenefits, Justworks offers a number of pre-made PTO policies that you can further customize to suit your company.

Reports

Creating and accessing reports in Justworks is less user-friendly than in ADP RUN. Custom report creation is one of ADP RUN’s strongest features. You can select from a variety of statistics to include in your report as well as preview reports before exporting them.

Custom report creation in ADP RUN is seen above. ADP RUN’s custom report creator is similar to Gusto and Zoho People.

Finally, both applications come with a number of pre-made reports, including:

Integrations

Justworks and ADP RUN both offer a number of popular integrations found in standard human resource software. Both solutions primarily integrate with accounting, document management, and integration software. Here are some of the most popular native integrations both solutions offer:

Bottom Line

Overall, we recommend Justworks over ADP RUN for small businesses. Justworks is more accessible and feature-rich than ADP RUN. ADP RUN lacks features like expense management and offers more limited time tracking capabilities. Many of the features ADP RUN does support are easier to set up and run in Justworks.

If you’re interested, visit Justworks or ADP RUN today to get started.