Rippling Review (2024): Features, Pros & Cons

Rippling is a top-rated payroll management software that also offers an array of HR tools and opportunities to help you manage your business effectively. From its ATS to its payroll software and now its PEO service option, Rippling can help you take care of anything to do with the management of your employees.

One of the best things about Rippling is how its staff helps you get through every step of the setup process. A team member helps you get going and make sure that they can service your needs before you ever commit to using the product. Unfortunately, it also means you must get a custom quote to get exact pricing for your needs and you can’t get started until you work with the team.

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1

Rippling

Benefits administration

Yes

Contractor Payments

Yes

Base Price

$35/month plus $8 PEPM

1

Rippling

Learn More

On Rippling's Website

2

OnPay

Benefits administration

Yes

Contractor payments

Yes

Base monthly price

$40 per month + $6 per user

2

OnPay

Learn More

On OnPay's Website

3

Paychex Flex

Benefits administration

Yes

Contractor payments

Yes

Base monthly price

$39-plus per month, depending on company size and needs (6 month free offer)

3

Paychex Flex

Learn More

On Paychex's Website

4

Gusto

Benefits administration

Yes

Contractor payments

Yes

Base monthly price

$40 per month plus $6 per user

4

Gusto

Learn More

On Gusto's Website

Regardless of the size of your business, Rippling could be a solid solution. It’s best for businesses that are either medium-sized (75 or more employees) or that need a full solution in a single software to manage the entire HR function. Rippling might be one of the best overall solutions, but for the price, you can find other solutions that are better for single functionality if you’re just looking for something such as payroll management by itself.

This leads to another thing to be aware of, which is the fact that the product itself might be a bit complex to pick up for smaller teams because it is built to be a powerful solution.

Rippling Is Best For:

• Medium-sized businesses
• Companies that need a comprehensive solution in a single platform
• Enterprises that want a sleek, modern payroll platform
• Large startups that need payroll and benefits administration

Rippling Is Not Recommended For:

• Small businesses (75 or fewer employees)
• Companies that need a single functionality, such as payroll

Founded in 2016, Rippling is one of the newest players in the payroll processor market. Its sleek, modern design and user interface appeals to startup tech companies, but it’s not designed to play small. Unlike many newer platforms, Rippling offers a comprehensive suite of products to cover a range of HR, benefits and payroll needs. It combines the customization of legacy platforms with the user-friendly design of new tech companies—a strength worth considering for your employees’ sake.

Here’s how Rippling stacks up:

Ease of Use

Rippling falls in the middle of the herd for usability. Its user-friendly design makes it easy to navigate compared with bogged-down legacy platforms such as ADP. But the sheer number of features it offers can make it challenging to get started and come with a steep learning curve.

Compliance

As a global services company, Rippling is licensed and compliant with global data protection and compliance regulations, and it has set up licensed subsidiaries to manage specialized services in the business: insurance, PEO and payments. They’re all overseen by the Rippling Insurance and Regulatory Committee.

Onboarding

Through its HR Cloud, Rippling offers applicant tracking for job postings, online onboarding and document storage and learning management for employee training materials.

Tax Filing

Payroll through Rippling includes local, federal and state tax calculation, deduction and filing.

Time Tracking

Through the Rippling app on a tablet kiosk, mobile app or on their browsers, employees can clock in and out, and you can review and approve hours to have them synced with payroll. If you run payroll manually, you can approve time cards from within your pay run.

Benefits Administration

Rippling offers locally relevant benefits for global employees, including 401(k), medical, dental and HSA/FSA administration in the U.S. You can administer existing coverage through the platform, or shop through Rippling for new coverage.

Analytics and Reporting

Rippling offers robust analytics and reporting, but there can be quite a steep learning curve to the reporting. It isn’t natural or easy to learn but once you do, you’ll unlock a lot of power in your dashboard.

Accessibility

The downside to Rippling compared to similar platforms is that you can’t try it out beforehand. They make you sit through a demo if you want to learn more about the functionality while the other two solutions just let you sign up online without even talking to their team. This approach is a bit dated in the SaaS market and might be a deal-breaker for a lot of smaller businesses.

Rippling offers plans as low as $8 per user per month. However, Rippling does not offer fixed plans, so all users must get a custom quote. Depending on your needs and business size, Rippling can get expensive as pricing.

	Details
Starting Price	$8 per month per user
U.S. Payroll	Direct deposit or paper check
Global Payroll	Yes; global employer of record available
Onboarding	Applicant tracking, onboarding and learning management
Tax Filing	Federal, state and local tax filing for employees and 1099 workers
Benefits Administration	Locally relevant global benefits, online enrollment, payroll deductions
Time Tracking	Integrated with payroll
Expense Management	Expense tracking, employee reimbursement and automatic receipt matching
Workflow Automations	Automatically send and analyze employee surveys
Mobile Apps	Available for employees and employer
Reporting and Analytics	Custom reporting, including employee app management
Third-Party Integrations	Set up and manage employee apps such as Google Workspace and Slack
Error-Free Guarantee	100% error-free guarantee
Customer Support	Call or email certified HR pros, and get real-time compliance updates

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Rippling Pricing

Rippling starts at $8 per month per user to pay workers, but additional features might quickly boost your monthly base rate. To get accurate pricing for your company, you have to contact the company for a quote based on the features you want to use.

Rippling offers customer support for administrators via online chat in your account, as well as a thorough FAQ help center for logged-in customers. But it doesn’t offer any direct support for employees; employees with questions about using Rippling are encouraged to contact their account administrators, which can add a barrier to resolving issues on the platform.

Rippling is extremely customizable. From its employee management and profile inputs to the reporting that you’ll want to set up, the whole product is one of the easiest and most productive to customize. This gives businesses that need this type of solution a terrific option as it can meet the needs of just about any business, regardless of size, that can afford it. The product is very scalable and will help you as you continue to grow and bring on new team members.

Rippling, as most Y Combinator companies are, is very integrated with other tools. Plenty of industry-leading solutions already have integrations that exist and Rippling is even willing to work with you if you need an integration that its product isn’t currently compatible with.

	Rippling	Gusto	Paychex Flex	ADP RUN
Rating
Starting Price	$8 per user, per month	$40 per month plus per-person rate based on plan	$39 per month plus per-person rate based on company needs	$59 per month plus per-person rate and fees for add-on features
U.S. Payroll	Direct deposit	Automated payroll, direct deposit for employees and contractors, and online pay stubs	Payroll with direct deposit or in-house printed checks for employees and contractors, self-service portal. Option to add on filing and reporting for payroll taxes.	Direct deposit or check delivery for employees, automatic filing and reporting for payroll taxes
Global Payroll	Pay global employees and contractors in their local currency	No payroll for global employees; support for international contractors	Managed through partner IRIS FMP	International payments through ADP Global Payroll
Onboarding	New hire onboarding included in all plans	Customizable hiring and onboarding templates available	Paperless, digital onboarding experience; job posting integration; employee handbook builder	New hire onboarding included in all plans
Tax Filing	Automatic filing and reporting for payroll taxes	Automatic filing and reporting for payroll taxes	Automatically calculate, file and pay payroll taxes	Automatic filing and reporting for payroll taxes
Benefits Administration	Online enrollment for health insurance, retirement benefits and more	Administer health, wellness, retirement, transportation, housing and custom benefits	Add-on	Add-on features for retirement, health insurance and workers’ comp
Time Tracking	Automatically record employee work hours with online check-in	Integrations available with beginner plan; time tracking included with higher-cost plans	Add-on	Add-on
Expense Management	Available through employee self-service platform	Available through employee self-service platform	Add-on	Available through Expensify for RUN add-on
Workflow Automations	Included	Integrations available	Integrations available	Integrations available
Mobile Apps	Employee time tracking through mobile; other features available through mobile browser only	Gusto Wallet app for employee online banking; other features available through mobile browser only	Employees can register for a Paychex Flex account to view pay and tax information via mobile app	Employer and employee functions available on app for iOS and Android
Reporting and Analytics	PTO and time reporting, compliance reports	Customized reports; integrations available	Add-on	Available through Workforce Now add-on
Third-party Integrations	Slack, Google Workspace, integrations among Rippling apps	Workflow automation, reporting and insights, benefits administration and more	Voice assistant and accounting software integrations and Paychex add-ons	Integrations with automation and accounting software, add-ons for other ADP products
Error-free Guarantee	100% error-free guarantee	X	X	X
Customer Support	24/7 support via email or online chat	24/7 support via email or online chat	24/7 support via app or online chat	Automated phone support or online FAQs; localized phone support centers
Learn More	On Rippling’s Website	On Gusto’s Website	On Paychex Flex’s Website	On ADP Run’s Website
Read Reviews	–	Read Gusto Review	Read Paychex Flex Review	Read ADP RUN Review

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Rippling vs. Gusto

Gusto is an online payroll and HR administration platform designed with dynamic startups in mind. It facilitates payroll for both employees and contractors under a single plan, plus employee benefits including health, retirement and custom benefits such as wellness programs. The platform also includes automated charitable donations (as an option) and a wallet that helps employees access their money when they need it. Along with Rippling, it has straightforward and transparent pricing that’s attractive to small businesses. Learn more about Rippling vs Gusto.

Rippling vs. Paychex Flex

Paychex Flex is the small-business version of Paychex’s payroll platform. It serves small businesses with less than 50 employees and provides simplified payroll processing. Unlike Rippling, Paychex Flex doesn’t offer packages or add-ons for benefits administration.

Rippling vs. ADP RUN

ADP is a traditional payroll and HR services platform for organizations of all sizes. Its small-business solution, RUN, serves companies with less than 50 employees. It facilitates payroll for U.S.-based employees, plus automatic tax filing and reporting, and optional benefits administration in a self-service platform for your employees, with a pricing structure and add-on fees that are more complex than Rippling’s.

Rippling is a robust payroll and HR platform that combines the smooth user experience of a new tech company with the comprehensive services available on legacy platforms such as ADP and Paychex. Along with the legacy platforms, it offers a suite of apps you can mix and match to customize the platform to meet your company’s needs. But the integrations are more seamless and easier to navigate than the hodgepodge of apps on older platforms because they were designed in tandem to work together.

Rippling’s pricing structure puts it at a slightly higher price point than some competitors, and that could add up if you have a lot of employees. But it’s worth doing a side-by-side comparison once you know all the features you’ll use on any platform because the add-ons required on many platforms can bloat the price in a way you won’t realize until you’ve gone through the sales process.