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Accounting software comes in many forms and many of these are now offered as web packages.

With a history steeped in accounting and financial software and a reputation for accuracy and reliability, it’s no wonder that Sage is a big contender in the HR software space.

Its Sage HR solution promises a no-nonsense set of capabilities that could save you time, cut down on admin, and accelerate recruitment, and is designed for businesses with up to 250 employees.

Sage HR makes it refreshingly easy to get started thanks to a straightforward interface – and your accounts department will be pleased, too, because Sage HR uses a modular pricing structure that makes it easier to see where you stand.

With features designed around SMBs and straightforward pricing, is Sage HR your next human resources solution?

See other options in our guide to the best HR software.

Sage HR: Plans and pricing

Lots of HR solution providers are not transparent about their pricing, so it’s refreshing that Sage provides plenty of financial detail upfront about its HR products alongside a free 30-day trial.

Sage HR starts at $6 per user per month, and for that investment you get access to the Core HR and Leave Management modules.

The Performance, Shift Scheduling, and Timesheets options each cost $3 extra per user per month, and the Expenses module costs $1.50. The Recruitment module, which is not priced on a per-employee basis, costs $200 per month, and you can pay $100 per month for an HR Advice Essentials package.

That refreshing transparency is paired with a straightforward pricing calculator that combines all of those modules with your headcount. Be aware that pricing can rise significantly if you start adding modules - and that, as always, pricing will vary by region.

(Image credit: Future)Sage HR: Features

Sage’s Core HR module provides a centralized employee database, onboarding, a workflow builder to automate key tasks, and an electronic signature tool. It also provides an organization chart, the option to store custom employee data, and a self-service employee portal for accessing company details.

Leave Management is included alongside Core HR and includes a shared calendar for scheduling and planning, a self-service employee portal for leave administration, and custom approval flows for your HR staff.

Reporting is solid for an SMB tool, and managers can approve time off from the Sage HR system, the mobile app, their email inbox, or even in Slack. You can also create custom time-off policies.

The Sage HR mobile app is one of the most helpful you’ll find anywhere, with options for managers to handle vacation requests, expenses, schedules, and calendars from their smartphones. Employees can use the app with single sign-on to book vacation, browse directories, and share feedback - and they can submit expense claims by simply taking photos of receipts.

Sage HR’s onboarding system is designed to be customizable and seamless thanks to a powerful workflow builder, and managers can access extensive reporting to track the progress of new hires.

When they’re integrated into the business, Sage’s Performance module enables goal and OKR setting, tracking, and management alongside 360-degree feedback, surveys, 1-1 meetings, and fast recognition options.

Elsewhere, the Sage HR Recruitment module includes end-to-end pipeline management, unique talent landing pages, interview scheduling, and custom scorecards.

Unsurprisingly, Sage HR integrates well with products across the Sage ecosystem, which makes this a more effective choice if your organization already uses the company’s products. In terms of third-party integrations, Sage works with Slack, Google, Zapier, Microsoft tools and products like Find My Shift, and it’s got API support.

There’s one thing missing in Sage HR: payroll. It’s not included natively, so you’ll need to sign up for one of Sage’s payroll solutions and integrate it with your HR system.

(Image credit: Future)Sage HR: Ease of use

Some HR solutions opt for ultra-modern, friendly designs with lots of color. Unsurprisingly, Sage HR takes a more mature approach, pairing an unfussy, effective layout with smart, mature visuals.

The dashboard gives you an immediate overview of tasks that require your attention alongside key information about your employees, from upcoming time away to 1-1 meetings and goals. The dashboard is fully configurable, so it can be tweaked to match your organizational requirements.

The calendar makes it easy to see employee activity and can be filtered by team and location, and the timesheet and scheduling modules are similarly intuitive and easy to understand. The company directory has impressive filtering and a straightforward organization chart, and the reporting module provides data that’s easy to understand thanks to uncomplicated visuals.

Some apps do go further when it comes to reporting and analytics. While that can increase complication, it could also prove more powerful and insightful, especially in larger organizations.

At the top of the window is a list of handy quick actions, there’s a search bar at the top left of the app, and the user interface is consistent throughout – something that isn’t always the case on many rival HR solutions. Sage also pairs this system with a mobile app that’s just as easy to use for both managers and employees.

The sensible, consistent interface means that Sage HR has a gentle learning curve, which should make integration into your business easier. Online user sentiment suggests that Sage is easy to use for everyday HR tasks.

Two of the only minor complaints we’ve seen online are that the interface looks a little dated and that some workflows are basic compared to deeper products.

(Image credit: Future)Sage HR: Support

Sage HR’s support starts with a help center that’s packed with guides and FAQs. The size and popularity of the wider Sage ecosystem mean there’s a huge amount of information available for troubleshooting common issues. You’ll also find a community forum and a wealth of training materials.

As with most HR solution businesses, Sage now provides an AI chatbot that connects to human agents if you need immediate advice. Users can file support tickets and manage them from within the help center, too.

(Image credit: Future)Sage HR: Competition

Sage HR’s ease of use and fast implementation are both welcome in the SMB market, but this product faces strong competition from a host of accomplished rivals.

If you’re not keen on payroll being handled by another product, even if it’s from the Sage family, then RUN Powered by ADP and Gusto are both strong choices that include native payroll functionality.

Sage HR’s interface is clean and effective, but HiBob has more modern visuals paired with deeper employee engagement and experience features, and BambooHR is a good choice if you need a clean interface and in-depth onboarding functionality.

For recruitment, we’d recommend Workable with its extensive, dedicated features, and Rippling is an excellent choice if you want to experiment more with automation.

Sage HR: Final verdict

Sage HR competes well in the SMB space: it’s easy to deploy and use, it’s packed with helpful features, and its mobile app and leave management functionality are both best-in-class.

The modular pricing structure lets you easily evaluate costs and gives your organization the flexibility to scale its HR solution as business needs evolve.

The lack of native payroll and a slight lack of reporting and analytics depth are negatives, but neither is a dealbreaker. If your organization needs an HR solution that prioritizes simplicity, functionality, and transparency, start with Sage.

An SMB-specific option from one of the biggest names in business software – is this your next HR upgrade?

Lots of big-name HR apps have had to adapt as the world has leaned more towards remote and hybrid work – but HiBob has been built from day one to support that kind of flexible employment.

With scalability and agility baked into the platform, HiBob claims to help organizations of all sizes be more productive and boost employee engagement and retention.

The company was founded in 2015 and began by offering HR solutions to SMBs, and HiBob has since expanded to cater for businesses of all sizes, including over a dozen enterprise clients. The company now serves over 1.4 million employees.

Unsurprisingly, HiBob is packed with features that prioritize employee recognition and performance alongside tools designed to promote and grow company culture. On paper it sounds great, but can HiBob compete with the big names?

Take a look at other options in our guide to the best HR software.

HiBob: Plans and pricing

As with many other HR solutions, HiBob doesn’t publish pricing publicly – so if you want to find out HiBob costs, you’ll need to request a quote and build your own package.

While that means you’ll get a personalized price that’s closely aligned with what you need in your business, it can make initial research and evaluation difficult.

And while the modular approach is undoubtedly useful, it can also mean that your costs grow as your business expands, especially if you need to add more functionality.

(Image credit: Future)HiBob: Features

HiBob’s features promise to simplify complexity, boost agility, and lead with data so HR teams can make confident decisions, all with a design ethos that’s focused on modern ways of working. At the top level, the company’s HR solution is divided into three areas – operations, culture, and strategy – with every module falling under one of these designations.

Unsurprisingly, HiBob is packed with custom automation and workflow options that enable HR teams to save time by accelerating repetitive tasks. Workflows, tasks, and timelines can be easily adjusted to reflect changes within your organization, and those workflows can be further personalized for different departments or teams. You can build customized task lists, too, and permission groups for the various teams in your organization.

HiBob’s homepage looks more like a social media feed than a data-rich dashboard, which immediately helps it stand out against other HR solutions. It’s a brilliant way to keep up with what’s going on in the business, and it does a great job of balancing culture-first updates about your staff with notifications about pressing HR issues that need your attention. HiBob’s core HR offering includes a visual organization chart with plenty of customization options.

The app supports electronic signatures, centralized document storage, and analytics dashboards with visual representations of key company data, lots of filtering, and options to create reports. Those dashboards are excellent: there are 12 pre-configured options to choose from, including a dedicated DEI dashboard, and they all offer deep customization – you can drag, drop, and resize modules, change colors and appearance, and more. They all have extensive data export options, too.

HiBob’s payroll hub includes visual tracking, notifications, and automatic updates to help make the process easier, and HiBob’s payroll modules include dedicated tools for US, UK, and global functionality with compliance, flexible pay types, and tax regulations included. Employee self-service includes access to payslips, too.

If you don’t opt to include one of HiBob’s payroll modules in your HR package, third-party integrations are supported, too. HiBob supports software from ADP, Dayforce, Paylocity, Trinet, Xero, and more.

There are more financial features in HiBob beyond the payroll module, too, thanks to in-depth compensation management. You can create, standardize, and adjust pay bands, make decisions based on updated salary, tenure, and performance data, and use charts and sliders to allocate base pay, bonuses, and equity plans. Salary reviews are bolstered by recommendations, alerts, and guidelines.

Employees can request PTO and managers can respond to them in the HiBob app or in Slack and Microsoft Teams, and you can create custom vacation policies and view team schedules with calendars.

Clocking in and out is as easy as employees clicking a button, and managers can adjust working time from the app or via third-party integrations.

To help your employees perform at their best, HiBob offers customizable performance reviews with AI-powered insights and 360-degree feedback. Managers can use calibration worksheets to evaluate teams, create individual, team, and organizational goals, and enhance 1-1 meetings with templating, follow-up reminders, and more.

Employee data from across the system is collated in a KPI dashboard that covers headcount, retention, growth, and more, and managers can build custom reports. Employee surveys include opportunities for anonymous feedback and there’s a full succession planning suite included in HiBob.

Hiring is covered in HiBob, too. Customizable hiring pipelines, AI-powered CV summaries and candidate self-scheduling make the start of the recruitment journey easier. The app provides AI-generated job descriptions and can post to over 2,300 global job boards, and you can build your own branded career page.

Interviewing is easier thanks to native Outlook and Google Calendar integration and automated reminders. Candidates can access their own portal, and managers can analyze hiring data in a dashboard that’s packed with analysis options.

When you’ve hired, you can build your own onboarding process, create tasks for your colleagues to ensure a smooth arrival for the new employee, and provide the new hire with materials about the company culture to help them get started.

As with most modern HR solutions, HiBob offers API support so companies can develop their own integrations alongside hundreds of third-party integrations that are ready to deploy with less technical knowledge.

As well as the payroll tools we mentioned earlier, HiBob integrates with software from Culture Amp, Deel, Google, Jira, Oracle, PWC, Slack, and more. Microsoft integration comes from Azure Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365 calendar integration, and Teams, but you’ll find more elsewhere if you’re really committed to working with Microsoft tools.

Unsurprisingly, HiBob has already begun to deploy AI tools throughout its software, and the options available here are already more extensive than many you’ll find elsewhere. The AI assistant pops up throughout HiBob to assist with common tasks, like writing.

HiBob provides more transparency than most rivals when it comes to AI usage. Dive into the settings menu and you can see the guiding principles based around permissions, data privacy, and security, alongside settings to tweak AI functionality – including options to only allow AI usage in certain areas of the tool, and a toggle to turn it off entirely.

Data never leaves HiBob when you’re using AI, which improves security, and a cross-platform tool called Bob Companion is currently in beta testing. It’ll read documents and give responses based on company policies, analyze your data to answer your questions, and assist with more complex tasks.

(Image credit: Future)HiBob: Ease of use

HiBob is one of the best-looking HR solutions you’ll find on the market. The central dashboard is set out like a social media feed, with the latest updates, notifications, events, and even birthdays – and you can use a handy panel on the right-hand side to access your integrations, which is a smart piece of design we’ve not seen anywhere else.

The organization chart is attractive and well-designed, too: you can click an employee’s name to bring up a panel with key information, click down to see their direct reports, and use easy filtering options.

Employee profiles are another highlight: people’s pages contain a vast amount of information in an effective layout, there are color-coded attrition indicators, a menu of handy quick-actions, and a huge amount of depth.

HiBob’s colorful, detail-packed, customizable dashboards are a highlight, with key information made easily available, smart and imaginative charting formats, and loads of filtering.

The only downside is that it’ll take you a little time to build dashboards and use this feature effectively – and that initial implementation can take a little while, too, especially if you want to make the most out of HiBob and use plenty of customization.

To access different modules, users can click the navigation button in the top-left of the app – you’ll find links to switch to the Talent, Workforce Planning, Hiring, Learning, Payroll, and Compensation tools, depending on what’s included in your package.

No matter the module you use, you’ll find the same clever UI throughout, with a keen balance struck between data and design. HiBob’s Workforce Planning tool displays useful analytics about your employees, including onboarding updates, and the Payroll hub makes complex information easy to understand.

A sandbox mode is available for testing new functionality. There’s always a help button available in the bottom-left corner, and you don’t have to mess around with different versions of the tool – HiBob only ever uses one version of the software.

You can tell that HiBob is a modern HR system that’s designed for modern ways of working thanks to its clever design, handy features, and rock-solid mix of depth and functionality – it’s certainly not a legacy system that’s struggled to keep up with the times.

(Image credit: Future)HiBob: Support

As well as the in-app support widget that uses AI to triage issues, HiBob offers email-based support to users alongside a Help Center that’s packed with articles, guides, and videos that are useful to administrators, managers, and employees.

If you file a support ticket, you’ll be supported by a team that offers global coverage across multiple time zones, and you can flag issues with varying priority levels depending on their status to your business.

During implementation, HiBob customers can work with a dedicated manager and a success manager to support product functionality once the solution has been deployed.

(Image credit: Future)HiBob: Competition

There’s no shortage of competition for HiBob in the mid-market HR space, but this tool does a fantastic job of standing out thanks to its design, engagement tools, and focus on employee culture.

That said, if you want something that’s more straightforward, perhaps for a smaller business, then BambooHR is a common alternative, and Rippling generally provides more automation and even more features to support IT teams.

If you’d like to step up to an enterprise-grade product, then SAP SuccessFactors and Workday deliver more power alongside a proportionate step up in complexity.

HiBob: Final verdict

HiBob is an HR standout if you want your software solution to feel modern, engaging, and effective – especially when it comes to employee culture and performance.

Its interface is excellent, the social feed home page is one of the best around, and the entire platform is extremely configurable and scalable. Its reporting is excellent, too, and it’s excellent for hybrid, remote, and geographically disparate workforces.

It can take a little time to implement and learn HiBob properly, though, and costs may rise as your business grows and you add more modules.

Those are relatively minor issues, though, and HiBob remains one of the best HR solutions on the market. If you want to prioritize employee wellbeing and engagement, HiBob should be at the top of your shopping list.

A modern, flexible HR solution that prioritizes culture, community, and customization – is it time to say hello to HiBob?

Factorial is a Barcelona-based HR software provider that already serves over 15,000 businesses, and its array of features sounds impressive – it covers most of the bases for core HR capabilities and promises to tackle project management, IT management, and procurement, too.

Combine its extensive range of abilities with a transparent structure, and you’ve got the starting point for an effective piece of HR software.

An AI agent has recently launched and promises to further streamline workflows while allowing humans to handle more important tasks, and the company says it will be particularly useful to SMBs across Europe and Latin America.

See more options in our guide to the best HR software

Factorial: Plans and pricing

Factorial’s plans start at $8 per user per month, although, as with most HR solution providers, the company will tailor quotes and packages on a case-by-case basis.

Indeed, creating a tailored experience is a key part of the Factorial solution. Every organization that signs up gets access to Factorial Core, which provides a broad range of conventional HR functionality. Beyond that, you can choose from Time, Talent, and Finance Management options depending on your needs.

Unfortunately, the prices for these modules are not listed on Factorial’s website. That’s not particularly unusual in the HR solutions market, but prices could easily accelerate once you start building a package, and you’ll need to talk to sales to get a personalized quote.

That can make it harder, at least initially, to weigh up potential investment against rivals that are more transparent about pricing.

Before you dive in, also check if Factorial is supported in your country. At the time of writing, the website offers localization for the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile - alongside a global site aligned with the US.

(Image credit: Future)Factorial: Features

Factorial Core includes a comprehensive selection of HR features, from contract and legal management to approvals, permissions, and custom workflows - all designed to keep your business moving.

Task management is included alongside document management, and you get an employee directory, organization chart, onboarding, scheduling, and more. The entire Core module includes accessible reporting and data presentation, which makes it easier for HR teams to spot potential opportunities and issues, and you get mobile access and reasonable customization.

Financially, you can use Factorial Core to get in-depth and real-time insights on company performance, and the platform can guide you through the payroll process.

Step up to the Enterprise product, and you get more customization, from template and report creation to API keys, fillable PDFs, and support for multiple currencies.

The Time Management platform, available as an extra module, adds loads of functionality. If you opt to expand with this, you’ll get an in-depth time-off system that supports overtime and additional flexibility, along with geolocation-powered employee time tracking in the complete working and productivity module. There’s a shift management tool, too, if that’s how your people work, as well as employee self-service for documents, scheduling, and vacations.

The Talent Management solution offers tools for tracking and improving performance, including 360-degree reviews, analysis, and a recruitment suite. Factorial provides employee engagement features like goal-setting, OKR tracking, training management, onboarding, offboarding, and evaluations.

Choose the Finance Management module to add project management, expenses, and procurement tools. Add the payroll module for automated bonuses, custom agreements, and overtime support.

One of Factorial’s newer features is IT management, which allows your teams to support staff with zero-touch device deployment and instant SaaS access. Your teams can track hardware, licenses, and compliance across multiple operating systems and environments, apply policies, lock devices, and generate reports. You can even handle procurement here, with pre-configured devices available for shipment to employees in over 60 countries.

Factorial now includes a new AI agent that promises to streamline processes and save time. It’s the kind of addition that’s being rolled out across many HR solutions at the moment, and Factorial’s AI tool can generate meeting summaries and handle research tasks, reporting, and employee surveys.

There are more than eighty third-party integrations available for the Factorial system, including Zapier, Workable, Slack, WhatsApp, Jira, and software from Apple and Google. Microsoft support is also extensive and includes Power BI, Dynamics 365, Outlook, and more. The system offers an API, although you’ll find more pre-built, third-party integrations elsewhere.

This is all very impressive, but there’s a caveat: you’ll only get all of these features if you sign up for every module, which can increase cost. Also consider that Factorial’s payroll settings are good, but you’ll get stronger abilities here if you opt for a dedicated payroll product or an HR solution that places more emphasis on this area, like Paylocity.

(Image credit: Future)Factorial: Ease of use

Factorial’s design is brighter and more engaging than many other HR solutions – the dashboard is immediately colorful, with bold alerts reminding you of urgent tasks and events, color-coded indications of employee locations, and photos used frequently for staff profiles.

One inbox handles every request in Factorial, and most requests include quick-action buttons so HR managers can easily reject or approve common requests. It’s a smart bit of design that speeds up workflows across the system.

As with many other HR solutions, a menu bar on the left-hand side contains links to the product’s various modules, including analytics, recruitment, and performance.

The organization chart is packed with photos, just like those employee profiles, which makes it easier to navigate. The profiles are well laid out, with timesheets, details, current status, and alerts all foregrounded.

A color-coded calendar makes time off easy to manage, and more colors are used to help HR managers tackle recruitment, with bold graphics used to illustrate the funnel of candidates for open positions.

Our impressions of Factorial were bolstered by broad user sentiment. Real-world users of the system praise Factorial’s clean user interface and the breadth of features available for SMBs. That said, some users mention that more customization can be found elsewhere and that you’ll get deeper analytics and reporting with other HR solutions, too.

(Image credit: Future)Factorial: Support

The first port of call for Factorial support is the Help Center, which includes quick-start guides, FAQs, and helpful articles.

If you need to get in touch, you can file a support ticket, use live chat, or rely on phone support. The latter is advertised as being the best option for urgent support, and phone and live chat support options are available between Monday and Friday from 9am to 6pm in European and Latin American time zones.

Live chat is only available to Factorial users with administrator permissions, and it’s best used for urgent or fast clarifications. The system uses an AI assistant for initial triage.

(Image credit: Future)Factorial: Competition

The SMB HR market is extremely competitive, which means that Factorial has no shortage of rivals that bring something different to the table.

If you need strong core HR functionality with a concentration on onboarding in a growing business, then BambooHR could be your best option – and if you want to explore an alternative that matches Factorial’s strong UI and employee engagement options, then consider HiBob.

Rippling could be a compelling option for an SMB that wants to prioritize automation and integration with IT systems.

Factorial: Final verdict

Factorial is a strong option for SMBs that want to streamline HR tasks and deploy one app with a huge range of core HR functionality – with everything covered from time and performance management to recruiting, devices, and learning, there’s a huge amount of capability here inside an excellent interface.

The main issue, though, is cost and modularity. You’ll need to add several modules to get the full Factorial experience, and that could drive costs up to a potentially prohibitive degree. Also bear in mind that integration and payroll depth are stronger elsewhere.

Factorial is a polished and scalable SMB platform that will be easy to use for most HR teams and professionals, but make sure you’ve done your research into features and pricing before taking the plunge.

It’s designed to streamline SMB operations. Could Factorial be your next HR upgrade?

UKG is a global HR solutions provider on a mission to take its clients beyond individual software solutions by providing a “Workforce Operating Platform” that combines HR, payroll, and workforce management.

The organization aims to combine a deep understanding of people, HR processes, and AI to turn insights into confident decisions, and UKG provides a huge array of modules that span core HR functionality, payroll, data centralization, employee connectivity, and more.

For SMBs, UKG Ready is the all-in-one HR and payroll solution that gathers several of those modules together in a platform that’s built to guide and empower growing businesses.

For more options visit our guide to the best HR software

UKG Ready: Plans and pricing

It’s not uncommon to find HR solutions providers that are frustratingly unclear about pricing, and UKG doesn’t provide pricing information about UKG Ready – you need to request a quote.

UKG Ready pricing is devised on a case-by-case basis, and you’ll have to talk to the business to get a personalized quote. Positively, that means you’ll get numbers that are designed around your organization and its needs. Negatively, that makes initial research and comparison difficult.

UKG Ready is available in three plans: Essentials, Plus, and Premium. Different features are available at each level, and Essentials and Plus are restricted to businesses with less than 200 employees – so if you scale past that number, you’ll have to upgrade to the Premium option.

All three of those UKG Ready packages include core HR functionality like compliance, reporting, dashboards, graphical displays, and a mobile app. Each tier supports pre-built technology integrations, employee self-service, and the UKG Bryte AI system.

This new AI addition helps you streamline processes, reduce administrative burdens, and deliver personalized solutions to your employees. It can help you create job descriptions, uncover performance insights, manage shifts, improve engagement, analyze your organization, and more.

If the SMB-focused UKG Ready product isn’t going to be suitable for your business, then UKG Pro Workforce Management is the company’s enterprise-level solution.

(Image credit: Future)UKG Ready: Features

The Essentials plan is just that – a basic HR offering suitable only for smaller organizations.

It includes employee directory and record management, HR actions and checklists, all-important customizable workflows, and new-hire onboarding. Essentials also offers timesheet and time-off management and employee schedule creation.

On the financial side, Essentials includes direct-deposit payroll runs, garnishments and vendor payments, tax deposits and filing, and automated state and local tax identification. This package also includes benefit deductions and integrations with third-party benefit administration tools.

The entry-level product rounds out its feature set with new-hire reporting, payroll comparisons, compliance analysis, and a dashboard with exporting options.

This is a basic offering that you can expand with more benefits and staff engagement features for an extra cost. If you pay more, you can add benefit plan designers, employee enrollment, automated carrier and financial connections, and year-end processing.

If you’d like an add-on product to enhance your employee engagement capability, you’ll get annual trust surveys, staff benchmarking and analytics, certification badges, and AI-assisted leadership recommendations.

Those benefit and employee engagement add-ons are included by default in the Plus tier, and this improved option also enhances the time and attendance module with support for shift differentials, pay premiums, and overtime pay.

Opt for the Plus package and you also get performance tools, including employee reviews, a rating builder, goal-setting and 90-day review functionality. You get recruitment features in this tier, too, including applicant tracking and reporting, an interview question generator, and modules to build external career sites and job requests.

The Plus tier adds learning management functionality and expense tracking, and you can pay extra to add leave tracking, pay grades, budget modeling, sentiment analysis, benchmarking, and employee burnout detection.

Invest in the Premium package and you get everything we’ve already mentioned here alongside some extra top-level features.

Premium enables position management in the employee directory, expanded checklist and workflow capability, the option to run global and certified payroll processes, project costing, and union management features.

The Premium tier includes drag-and-drop schedule builders, more flexibility around shift coverage, timecards, and shift-swapping, and the option for peer reviews, continuous feedback, and succession planning. It’s only at this level where you’ll find job board integrations and pre-screening questions for job applicants, too.

UKG Ready provides a great selection of features for SMBs with a particularly impressive slate of payroll, scheduling, and time-tracking capabilities. That said, be aware that many of those features are locked away in the higher tiers or provided as add-ons, so your costs may start to spiral if you want to add extra functionality to the system.

(Image credit: Future)UKG Ready: Ease of use

At the time of writing, UKG wasn’t able to provide access to the software for this review, and the company doesn’t offer free trials.

User sentiment gives a good indication about what to expect, though, and many UKG Ready administrators praise the app’s logical design, its wide support for HR and payroll processes, and its strong option for customizable workflow creation. Users say that its views and filtering are impressive, and that its automated reporting is a strong point for the tool.

Negatively, administrative users say that UKG Ready suffers from a steep learning curve and occasionally complex design.

Employees using its self-service tools regularly say that UKG is a straightforward option for time, schedule, and PTO management, and that the mobile app is a highlight.

(Image credit: Future)UKG Ready: Support

UKG provides customers with the same level of support no matter which UKG Ready package they’re using.

Support starts with training provided to system administrators when they deploy UKG Ready, and the business also offers rapid-response support for mission-critical incidents.

Elsewhere, the company provides access to product domain experts, an extensive HR and Payroll Resource Library, and a customer community forum.

Support requests are handled by a ticketing system, but there’s little indication on the product-facing website about the communication methods available or how long this will take.

(Image credit: Future)UKG Ready: Competition

UKG Ready sits in a crowded SMB marketplace and is surrounded by rivals that excel in different areas.

If you’d prefer a solution that prioritizes payroll, then RUN Powered by ADP is a top choice alongside Gusto, and HiBob is a strong contender for any organization that needs advanced tools for employee engagement.

If the strong automation in UKG Ready is attractive but you want to weigh up your options, then Rippling also goes big on automation. And for simpler setup and a clean UI, BambooHR is a perennial favorite.

UKG Ready: Final verdict

UKG Ready is a rock-solid option for any SMB that needs a centralized platform for core HR, payroll, time tracking, and scheduling. It’s particularly well-suited to businesses with employees who work in shifts – and where compliance is a constant priority.

Positively, the three-tier pricing structure used by UKG Ready gives a logical upgrade path to SMBs looking to expand – but, negatively, it means lots of functionality is locked away behind unclear pricing structures and potentially prohibitive costs.

If you don’t mind talking to UKG Ready to get a quote and you’re prepared to pay extra for a fully-featured product, though, then this is well-suited to SMBs that need broad HR coverage and room to grow.

It’s a strong option, especially for shift work, but can UKG Ready compete with a competitive group of rivals?

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