11 Best Benefits Administration Systems (2024)

• I appreciate the accessibility of functions such as payroll, onboarding, and the ability to have Deel set up our employer entity in multiple locations while remaining compliant.
• The communication features within the Deel system allow for easy updates across teams.
• The tool streamlines complex HR and payroll processes into a unified platform.

We purchased Deel to support employees across multiple states and countries. It was a significant benefit to have the Deel team set up our company’s legal entity within a state without requiring our Finance team to pause and complete the registration themselves. This was a major advantage for us.

Deel also simplified our onboarding process, enabling us to expedite onboarding efficiently while providing a seamless experience for both the employer and the new hire. Additionally, we leveraged the payroll functionalities, which added further value.

These capabilities made the system a worthwhile investment for our organization.

• The site is not particularly user-friendly for new users.
• We occasionally encounter glitches and system errors.
• There have been instances where forms were difficult to locate, causing confusion.
• Errors in invoices and contracts have also occurred, sometimes stalling operations despite our ability to work through them.

One area where Deel stands out is its combination of contract management, global payroll, HRIS, and other functions within a single platform. Its capacity to support international clients is a major advantage, allowing companies to grow globally without having to navigate the complexities of international payroll and compliance independently.

Many competitors lack this feature or the ability to register companies in multiple states or countries, which can otherwise delay business operations by weeks as finance teams handle all necessary paperwork and state-specific procedures.

Compliance and international support are key criteria to evaluate. Even if an employer doesn't have international employees at the time of implementation, the option to add this functionality later can be extremely beneficial.

Comprehensive support for onboarding, payroll, and compliance is not available in all systems, so these factors should play a critical role when selecting a new HRIS system.

It appears that Deel has enhanced its automation workflows and now includes functionality to track paid time off requests.

Deel is well-suited for mid-sized to large organizations with an international presence. It’s also a strong option for large companies with smaller HR or Finance teams. The platform’s flexibility and scalable support provide considerable benefits in these scenarios.

While smaller companies can use Deel, there may be more cost-effective solutions tailored to their specific needs.

The ease of payroll and ability to have payroll run on auto-pilot is AWESOME. The customer service is friendly and for the most part quite efficient. The UI is pretty good compared to a lot of other platforms I've used.

We initially chose Gusto when the company was first established. We needed a simple payroll solution that would work for a company of our size, which at the time was just one W-2 employee on the payroll. We used the solution for about eight months before transitioning to a different solution that would allow us to manage payroll and offer benefits under one platform. Prior to that, I personally used the solution at another company for almost a year.

Since I also do freelance HR consulting, I am now working with a client who also uses Gusto. In this company, we use it for payroll, benefits management, and 401K.

Paying international contractors has been challenging in my experience. I'm not a huge fan of having the employees separated out by whether or not they are onboarded yet. I would rather see all employees with a status showing whether or not they have completed onboarding.

Payroll is a breeze! It's really one of the best tools I've used for payroll for a small company. The customer service is stellar.

Think about your long-term growth plans. I think Gusto is best for smaller companies. Think about whether or not you'll be paying contractors and especially international contractors because that can get complicated. And when you are first implementing the tool, do your best to have someone who understands the platform and how to best optimize it for your team do the set up.

I'm not sure but I do often see that they are rolling out beta features, which leads me to believe that they are always evolving to meet customer needs.

I think Gusto is best for small businesses, especially for small businesses that may not have a dedicated HR personnel. It's easy enough to use that the average business owner should be able to navigate it without too much trouble.

We are a small non-profit, and they provide us with a non-profit discount. It has all the functionality we need without being overly complicated. Processing payroll is quick and easy.

We bought OnPay because it seemed to be the best fit for our organization. It has all the functionality we need to handle HR and payroll for our small group of employees. It is robust enough to meet our needs but not overly complicated like some of the larger systems. It is easy to use, yet it allows us to process multi-state payroll and manage our employees' time off. It also includes all the basic reporting that we require.

It doesn't offer much in terms of custom reporting. Much of the HR information requires navigating to individual employee records to view. You can't edit a benefit plan once it's created; you have to make a new one to implement any changes.

OnPay is really the only system of its type and size that I've used, so I can't say how it compares to competitors. It is much simpler than ADP or UKG, which I have used, but we are getting it for a fraction of the cost. The simplicity of the system actually works well for our team.

Consider the needs of your business and team. OnPay is a fairly basic HR and payroll system. It covers all the essentials, but if you need extensive reporting or numerous integrations with other systems, you might want to explore a higher-tier HR/payroll solution. Additionally, consider cost. Even without the non-profit discount, it's a very economical solution compared to some of the larger providers.

I haven't noticed any significant changes since we started using OnPay, but as I mentioned, it already meets our needs.

I believe OnPay is great for smaller companies that don't need extensive features in their HR and payroll system.

The platform makes it simple for employees to navigate benefits options and access important information without confusion. Bennie provides fast and reliable customer service, helping employees and HR teams resolve benefits-related questions efficiently. The clean and well-organized dashboard ensures a smooth user experience, making it easy to find what you need quickly.

Our organization purchased Bennie to address inefficiencies in managing employee benefits and improve accessibility for our workforce. Before Bennie, navigating benefits enrollment and handling HR inquiries was very time-consuming.

We needed a user-friendly platform that could simplify benefits selection, provide guidance to our employees, and integrate with our existing HR systems. Bennie has significantly streamlined our processes by offering personalized benefits recommendations, cost transparency, and real-time support for employees.

While Bennie offers great features, the pricing can be steep for smaller teams looking to manage costs effectively. Expanding the range of benefits, such as additional wellness perks or financial planning tools, would make the platform even more valuable. Some features could offer more flexibility to tailor the experience to our company’s specific needs.

I prefer all-in-one solutions such as Rippling and Justworks. However, Bennie provides a strong option for benefits management, especially for smaller organizations that do not want to invest in the higher cost of platforms like Rippling.

Buyers should consider the size of their company—Bennie is well-suited for smaller organizations. It's important to evaluate how the platform integrates with existing systems and whether it offers the flexibility to scale up or down as the company grows.

Bennie has remained fairly consistent over time, without significant changes or updates to adapt to evolving user needs. While the platform continues to provide a simple and intuitive interface, there haven't been many enhancements or expanded features beyond its core offerings. Users who have been on the platform for a while may notice that benefit options and integrations have stayed largely the same.

Bennie is best for smaller organizations.

• Easy Onboarding - Remote does make onboarding hires in remote locations quite easy.
• Online Portal - great to have all the hires from all international locations in one place.
• Expenses - easy for employees and companies to track/pay expenses.

With a shortage of talent in the U.S., our firm needed to hire in locations where we did not have an entity. Global EORs offer a way to do that without setting up a legal entity first. Remote was an up-and-coming player in the space that made getting setup much faster, less complex than traditional partners like Velocity Global. We have used the system for approximately 2 years now.

• Billing/Invoicing - Remote has had multiple billing errors in our invoices and their system is incredibly confusing for reconciling what is outstanding vs. the errors they have made.
• Management - Remote has changed management recently and they have changed terms & conditions from our original invoices and have taken away promotions by saying they were "introductory promotions" rather than the "negotiated terms" like we originally discussed.

Remote was a leader in simplicity when we first began using their services a couple of years ago. Now, I believe certain competitors have caught up and surpassed them.

• Cash flow - these services require upfront payment for payroll so be prepared to pay month end payroll by the 17th of that month.
• Terminating employees - Employment laws vary country by country. Remote is offering a service to make it easier on your company to hire elsewhere; however, terminating employees can be quite difficult.

Remote was very startup friendly 2 years ago. Their management has changed and their culture has changed drastically. It is no longer a customer-focused culture going above and beyond to win customers.

Remote is good for an established company in search of a way to explore hiring people in other regions of the world.

Customer service is exceptional; you really feel that they are part of your team. I also loved the guarantees of local compliance, which created great trust with our in-house auditors. The ability to see the big picture of our workforce globally was also crucial, as it provided a great understanding of the workforce map and enabled strategic moves on the people side of things.

I was setting up PapayaGlobal for one of my previous clients. The reason we needed a tool like this was that we wanted to hire talent from different countries. Previously, we bypassed this by hiring on a "contractor agreement," but we really wanted employees, not contractors. While managing paperwork for EU candidates was somewhat easier, when it came to hires from outside the EU, it was a bit of a nightmare. Our HR team had to learn local employment laws, and we even contacted local lawyers to send us an empty contract so we could be fully compliant. These were the pains that the service greatly alleviated. We saved a lot of time, and audits were less stressful. We used it for about two years, but then the business took another direction.

It took a long time to learn the navigation through the platform; you really need to invest time to learn everything—you cannot just jump in with no training. Sometimes the screen would not load properly; words were overlapping, and it took some reloads for it to work, which was disappointing for a service that charges so much. We also had some issues with invoices; it was not clear how to manage them, but customer service helped with that.

Compliance support and global presence are the main reasons we chose PapayaGlobal. Another key factor is the customer service, which was consistently excellent. I also enjoyed the real-time access to analytics, which was helpful in following trends and monitoring important metrics globally.

First, consider the cost and how the pricing is structured to determine how much value a company can derive from the service at the agreed price point. Another important factor is access to real people who can guide the onboarding and integration with existing tools, which was commendable. Additionally, global access to local labor laws is perhaps the biggest consideration.

PapayaGlobal has evolved, but I believe other platforms have caught up and may be more attractive in their pricing.

PapayaGlobal is great for rapidly scaling businesses that need support in managing a multinational workforce.

I like the aesthetic of the site; it is fun to use and user-friendly. The mobile version is functional during onboarding, unlike many other systems that claim to be mobile-friendly; Namely actually is! I like how things flow and the ease of uploading and storing documents. I like that our people enjoy using Namely.

We selected Namely because we wanted a personalized solution fit for our unique needs. We were tired of the same old runaround with big companies like ADP and being passed from one department to another to solve a simple issue. My company needed a better user experience for us as administrators and for our employees. Our primary pain point was transitioning off of a full-service PEO and needing a personalized touch and a good bit of handholding during setup. I used Namely for one year, and the company I was with is still using the product.

During the merger with Prism, there were some system bugs, but those seemed to get sorted out after a month or so. At times, the chat or help function can be slow to use, and I had to restart a few chats, which did not make me happy at that time. That said, the Namely reps were always courteous and went above and beyond to help us. Since we had no appointed contact team, I was always talking to a new person, which can be challenging when working through a long-term project like multi-state payroll tax setup or complex benefits.

I like that Namely allows the HR team to drive the bus. If someone is not tech-savvy, Namely will not be the best tool for them. Namely stacks up against its competitors well, and I loved using the system! I’d use it again.

Before investing in this platform, determine if your HR team is at least moderately tech-savvy; if not, look elsewhere. Do you have under 500 employees? If yes, Namely can easily accommodate your group. Do you have at least one HR person on staff per 75-100 employees? If not, you should consider adding an admin. Namely is a great tool, but it doesn’t think for you. People still need to do the work, especially benefits and payroll-related tasks.

Yes, it has, and they are doing a good job adjusting to market needs. Namely is cutting-edge and definitely improving over time.

Namely is a great tool for small to mid-sized businesses.

• The platform is user-friendly for both employers and employees.
• It provides a centralized system to manage all employee benefits.
• It simplifies and streamlines the open enrollment process.

Maxwell Health was provided to my company through our insurance provider. Prior to this, my company did not have a centralized platform for managing employee benefits. Maxwell streamlined our open enrollment process and overall benefits management. It provided a single platform for employees to access and manage their benefits easily.

Additionally, it simplified benefits administration for the HR team, making the process much more efficient.

• It can be challenging to get direct support within the system.
• There were occasional issues with employee records after they updated their personal information.
• From an employer’s perspective, it was difficult to make changes during open enrollment once the official deadline had passed.

Maxwell offers a simplified and user-friendly platform that employees can easily navigate and understand.

Pricing should be a key consideration when selecting a platform. Ensure the tool is user-friendly for both employers and employees to avoid unnecessary complications. Integration with your payroll platform is highly beneficial for seamless administration.

Confirm that it is compatible with your offered benefits and your insurance broker’s platform(s) to avoid technical issues.

he platform has undergone slight modifications to improve usability, making it more user-friendly for employees.

Maxwell is well-suited for organizations that provide multiple benefits to their employees.

• It is excellent for handling EOR, contractor, and employee payrolls in a single system.
• The platform is relatively easy for employees to navigate.
• Customer service is responsive and helpful when issues arise.

I originally purchased Rippling to serve as an Employer of Record (EOR) for international employees. I later migrated our HRIS to Rippling for U.S.-based employees as well. I have used Rippling for EOR functions since 2023 and for U.S. employees since early 2024.

One of the key benefits is the ability to pay both international and domestic employees through a single system. This has simplified payroll operations and improved overall administrative efficiency.

• The integration process was lengthy and difficult; our rep moved to a different country during implementation, delaying the hiring of two international employees by two months.
• There was an attempt to increase our negotiated monthly cost, though they honored the original rate once I provided documentation.
• Benefit integration is more manual than expected unless an additional service is purchased, which we do not currently find cost-effective.

Rippling offers a broad range of features and services in one platform. While its coverage is impressive, I would prefer to see more included functionality without additional fees.

If the goal is primarily payroll, Rippling is a strong option. If you need a fully comprehensive HRIS, there are other platforms that offer more robust features.

Rippling has added more countries to its EOR program and continues to expand device and IT services. The system has become more user-friendly, and its add-on services support the goal of an all-in-one solution, although these come at an additional cost.

Rippling is well-suited for small to mid-sized organizations with 10 to 150 employees.