Paycor vs ELMO Software

Deel

Rippling

Paylocity

Deel is the only global-first people platform that enables companies to hire, pay, manage, and develop talent in 150+ countries without compliance headaches or third-party dependencies. Deel supports 40,000 customers and 1.5 million workers through a single, scalable global system.

Rippling is a cloud-based workforce management system that helps businesses manage operations across HR, finance, and IT.

One unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Connect people, processes, and data. Automate tasks and drive business growth. 

Paycor is an all-in-one, cloud-based HR solution for managing recruiting, onboarding, benefits administration, payroll, time & attendance, talent, and more

Payroll Management

Time & Attendance

Onboarding

Performance Management

Applicant Tracking

Employee Management

Recruitment Management

Benefits Management

Compensation Management

Reviews for Paycor come from a wide variety of industries, including non-profit organization management (7% of reviewers), hospital & health care (5%), and construction (5%). The most frequent use case for Paycor cited by reviewers is payroll (66% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

Some reviewers feel Paycor offers strong value for money, citing affordability and a wide range of features. However, some users report extra fees for add-ons, less transparent pricing, and diminishing value for larger organizations.

Value for money

The Paycor integration most frequently cited by reviewers is Employee Navigator, a benefits administration product rated 4.5 out of 5 for its integration with Paycor.

Integrations

Paycor is a payroll solution with key features that include direct deposit, payroll management, payroll reporting, tax compliance, W-2 preparation, online time clock, and more.

Proprietary

Paycor

Web-based

iPhone

Android

iPad

Windows

Basic

 Essential

 Core

 Complete

Accountant

Overall, Paycor has solved many issues we have had in the past and now we are working with our team to ensure full use of the all the tools has available to assist them in making Payroll, Scheduling, Recruiting and Employee Management easier on the day to day.

Manager

Any request, even basic ones, requires hours of follow ups, explanations, and escalations, and many issues still remain unresolved. If you choose Paycor, be prepared to spend at least five hours trying to fix problems that should be straightforward, with no guarantee they will be resolved.

Director for HR

Paycor allows them to simply enter the number of hrs worked (without start and end times) on their app which means corrections before payroll. When employees request PTO they often request the wrong type not noticing the drop down Paycor provides for types of PTO.

Professional Learning Events and Programs Coordinator

The mobile-friendly capability that allows both employers and employees to access HR tasks and payroll information remotely, enhancing flexibility and convenience.

Strong customer support, better understanding than others we've used of the unique regulations that impact pastoral taxes, ease of doing additional payrolls or adding special tasks to a particular payroll, strong on demand training.

HR Director

Reporting is especially poor, with limited customization, outdated formats, and a lack of real-time insights, making it difficult to extract meaningful data without heavy manual effort.

Strategy and Operations Manager

I like how it shoves payroll, time tracking, and onboarding into one dashboard, giving us a clear view of the whole operational landscape.

The reporting module could be more customizable along with providing canned reports and dashboards for c-suite level analysis.

HR Generalist

It allows benefits data to automatically flow into payroll and out to our vendors, creating a seamless and efficient process.

Director of Quality

The dashboard quickly alerts me to any unscheduled absences, overtime use, time-off requests, and incomplete tasks.

Critical payroll issues take far too long to resolve, support is difficult to reach and often unhelpful, and there is little accountability once contracts are signed.

Financial Controller

I need to request help on a weekly basis and wait weeks to get a response sometimes and other times, I get tired of trying to re-explain my issue, so I give up

Director of Products

Again, it mostly got the job done on the main things, but I remember the login experience being especially awful. If you backgrounded the app for more than a few seconds, your session would expire and you'd have to re-authenticate.

Rather than streamlining HR and payroll processes, Paycor has required excessive time and effort to manage issues that should be simple.

The login relentlessly needed the full 2-factor authentication as well, even if you selected "Remember this device".

Payroll - Benefits Manager

Our taxes weren't paid on time and this caused late fees and other issues with the different states we are located in.

Operations Management

you rely on customer to take all of the lessons and watch all webinars and charge for proper training.

HR Manager

Because of their constant growth and innovation, they can't keep up with good customer service and run into lots of system issues that effect regular daily work sometimes causing significant delays, or keeping us from being able to complete work at all, or even causing more work by trying to fix things.

Production Supervisor

It's an extremely versatile program that we use for payroll, employee benefits, tracking of both personal and employees performance, tax prep and so much more!

Safety Manager

I take vacation yearly and I am able to input my leave and know that a glitch won't change my plans.

What was marketed as a comprehensive, supportive payroll and HR solution has instead been a constant source of stress and inefficiency.

I don’t love that we don’t have direct email addresses or specific contact numbers for our premium support staff.

User

My small business employer utilizes it for schedules and time off

Talent Acquisition Manager

From call centers where people can't hear you and you can't hear them, to a sales rep named [sensitive content hidden] who refused to return calls and emails, basic issues takes weeks to resolve.

We are able to do everything from applicant tracking to onboarding to benefits to performance and everything else in between.

Senior People Partner

We currently use Paycor for their performance managment, feedback, recognition, objective setting and and career navigator tools.  

Director of HR

The onboarding features that allow you to push documents for signature and verify completion.

Sr Generalist

General support isnt always beneficial and find that resonse times are extremely lengthy and goes to multiple departments to solve problems.

Lending Compliance Specialist

I can easily view and edit my time off request, timecard, and benefits all in one place.

HR Specialist

Customer support - sometimes Paycor representatives are difficult to work to and figuring out the department to best assist you take 10+ minutes a

I like the notifications feature, where I can immediately address a time-off request from my team.

When an employee needs to log in to do a review or sign off on a document it can feel more clunky for those who don't regularly need to log in.

CEO and Founder

It helps to easily create and manage employees records, streamline tax activity and automating onboarding process.

HR administrator

Our time and attendance transition did not go smoothly but [sensitive content hidden]  helped us with a lot of our questions.

Assistant Director of Finance

I know my supervisor would have issues with getting the allocations line up correctly for specific people?

Talent Acquisition Specialist

The reporting features are very limited and customization is difficult - which means sometimes you don’t always get what you want for metrics.

Founder

Payroll was reliable and assuming it's not too complex, I'm confident that Paycor can handle most situations. Once they went public/were acquired by a large competitor, the support and system went downhill and we ultimately left.

Transport Broker

I apply this to make everybody paid on time which makes the employees to be handled easily.

What is most frustrating is that when contacting support, it often feels like I understand the system better than the representatives assisting me.

like expense management and storing all documents electronically

Accounting Manager

Client support has not been very helpful, most my open cases have to be escalated to the next support level.

Overall, I did not do the behind the scenes set up or anything, but it was easy to clock in and out. When we were using it at the time we did not have access to any of our information/ w2 when needed.

I unfortunately run into a high number of glitches or issues in Paycor’s system that can be time consuming to find work arounds for.

Vice President

Access permissions and custom security roles (outside of default Paycor roles) are overly complex and comprehensive training is not available on this area.

HR coordinator

There are updates that seem half baked and take a bit more time before it truly works for our teams.

Not good at all.   After we made the move to another HRIS, it was weeks and they reached out and said they noticed we had not processed payroll.  

Paycor has partnered with other software providers to expand the services they offer and at times the connection between how those products work together has been a challenge.

Our benefit implementation was set up wrong and the user interface was having issues constantly.

Youth Coordinator

Their payroll processing is accurate, timely, and efficient, which has greatly simplified our payroll management.

Regulatory Coordinator

I have used Paycor for paystub, payroll and application management.

Payroll

Bugs and Issues

Customer Support

User Interface

Team Collaboration

Tax Management

Report Generation

Security and Access Control

Review and Approval

Training and Learning Curve

Inefficient email communication

53% of reviewers feel negative about Paycor’s email notifications. Users report frustration with excessive or redundant security emails, delayed or missing responses from support, and inconsistent delivery of important notifications. They say that critical emails, such as maintenance alerts or payroll confirmations, are sometimes late or not received. Many mention that support emails often go unanswered for extended periods, making it difficult to resolve issues promptly. Some users also find the email templates outdated and lacking in functionality.

Disruptive and poorly communicated updates

42% of reviewers feel negative about Paycor’s software updates. Users report that frequent updates sometimes introduce new bugs or disrupt existing features without improving functionality. They say updates are often poorly communicated, leaving teams unprepared for changes. Many reviewers mention that the interface can feel outdated, and documentation does not always match the current version. Some users experience lag, compatibility issues, and a lack of innovation, making it difficult to adapt to ongoing changes.

Challenging phone support experience

VP of HR

I then created a case number by reaching out to through their support email, a week later I had to follow up with another phone call and they told me they had not even started working on this, so I had to sit on the phone for an hour while they worked on it.

49% of reviewers feel negative about Paycor’s phone support. Users indicate that reaching knowledgeable representatives is difficult, with long hold times and frequent transfers between departments. They say that support staff often lack familiarity with specific accounts, requiring repeated explanations. Many reviewers mention that issues are escalated without timely follow-up, and dedicated representatives are rarely available. Some users report that resolving problems often takes multiple calls, leading to wasted time and ongoing frustration.

Cumbersome review and approval processes

44% of reviewers feel negative about Paycor’s review and approval workflows. Users find the process for approving timecards, vacation requests, and document sign-offs confusing and inefficient. They mention that terminology is unclear, navigation is clunky, and some approvals can only be completed on the desktop version. Many reviewers highlight limitations in customizing review forms, lack of audit trails, and difficulties in managing or archiving past reviews. Some users also report challenges with updating or correcting direct deposit and PTO information.

Frequent technical glitches

We have had to discontinue the use of the request time off feature because it was throwing our PTO balances off.

Human Resources Manager

Employees have reported issues logging into the system to make leave or vacation requests or administering excused absences, highlighting a persistent difficulty with the self-service interface.

68% of reviewers feel negative about Paycor’s bugs and technical issues. Users report persistent problems with system slowdowns, login difficulties, and glitches in time tracking and PTO accruals. They say these issues often require manual workarounds and can disrupt daily operations. Many reviewers mention that technical support is slow to resolve problems, and recurring errors in syncing data between modules lead to frustration. Some users highlight that system updates can introduce new bugs or break existing features.

Significant time and cost efficiency

95% of reviewers feel positive about Paycor’s time and cost savings. Users report that automation and self-service features reduce manual tasks, allowing HR teams and employees to focus on more strategic work. They appreciate being able to input data once and have calculations handled automatically, which minimizes errors and paperwork. Many reviewers mention that Paycor streamlines payroll, record keeping, and reporting, saving hours each month. They also highlight the platform’s affordability and the ability to go paperless, which further reduces operational costs and administrative burdens.

Streamlined recruitment workflow

IT Manager

Their online applicant portal was just what we needed to transform our job application process from hardcopy to digital, and helped make onboarding new employees lots easier than what we had been accustomed to.  

83% of reviewers feel positive about Paycor’s applicant tracking system. Users say it simplifies the hiring process by centralizing job postings, candidate tracking, and communication. They value the integration with onboarding and HR, making transitions seamless. Many appreciate the intuitive dashboards, analytics, and automation that reduce manual work and speed up hiring. Reviewers also note that the system supports collaboration between recruiters and hiring managers, improving visibility and efficiency throughout the recruitment cycle.

Comprehensive tracking capabilities

Intern

They also have a mobile app allowing easier tracking when I don't have access to a computer/laptop.

88% of reviewers feel positive about Paycor’s tracking features. Users find it valuable for monitoring employee hours, attendance, PTO, and performance goals. They appreciate the ability to track progress at individual, departmental, and company levels, which aids in accountability and transparency. Many mention that the system provides helpful notifications, clear accrual balances, and detailed reporting, making it easier to manage time off, certifications, and project-based work. Reviewers also value the mobile app for tracking on the go.

Small Business

Mid-size Business

Large Enterprises

Freelancers

Connecteam

An all-in-one employee app that's both powerful, affordable and easy to use, especially for the mobile workforce.

ELMO Learning Management assists HR teams with managing organisational learning and development initiatives. With access to an extensive range of online courses in which organisations can create, customise and repurpose eLearning courses to meet business objectives.

Reporting/Analytics

Learner Portal

Learning Management

Learning Paths/Tracks

Mobile Learning

Tests/Assessments

Blended Learning

Progress Tracking

Asynchronous Learning

Built-in LMS

Certification & Licensing

SCORM Compliance

ELMO Software

Payroll Specialist and HR Generalist

As we currently use SWAG for staff to log on and off, as well as complete leave requests, i would really like them to be able to use something more compatible to link in with Elmo.

People and Culture Coordinator

It would work well for corporate offices but without an app is tricky for organisations that do not have laptops or computer access for every team member. When the automation is able to be configured to your exact needs it works REALLY well.

HR Officer

We started with HR core and extended it to recruitment, onboarding, and other modules.

Learning and Capability Manager

ELMO provides us with all the essentials to create a great learning & capability development culture.

We realised that some data not transferable from ELMO HR Core to ELMO Payroll

Data architect

The real-time data insights provided are second to none, allowing for actionable decisions to improve workforce engagement and productivity.

Sales Rep

E  there prehaps should be some more flexibility with selecting  working job roles and   also  market sectors to choose from  or enter our specific  application in job and  market approach  .  

Administration Assistant

Lost most of my hair setting it up, lost more trying to change how departments wanted it to run, and more when trying to sort out their software bugs for them.

E  ,  we sell engineering steels to the general fabrication market  also the heavy  structural steel industry here in New Zealand.

Senior Accountant

Features that are critical are least developed such as reports from which to compile a general ladger payroll journal for uploading to an accounting system; termination transactions get included in the pay period of termination reports rather then being able to produce an 'extra' pay period; the conversion from existing to new system was as bad as it could possibly get in terms of communication with ELMO, manual data entry when uploading files fails and inconsistency with leave entitlements computation - ELMO expresses annual leave in days and long service leave in weeks - what happened to hours ??

Human Resources Generalist

The employee data part is not as aesthetically pleasing as the rest of the screen display.

Head of People and Culture 

There is no option to save pdf's or other documents (emails) in employee's profile , believe it or not, so we have to compile employee files separately which defeats the purpose for the system .

Also  the salary doesn't automatically feed to key pay (our payroll system) , so we have to add the salary in both ELMO and our payroll system separately .

Course Director

Seamlessly integrated with our HR requests for our professional development compliance activities.

The versatility of the platform truly shines when coordinating a multitude of HR tasks.

Service Delivery Lead - ICT & Cloud

ELMO provides you a platform to manage your daily HR operations through a system driven governed process.

Paycor vs ELMO Software Comparison (2026)

Paycor

ELMO Software

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives