Have you been waiting on hold for over an hour for another ADP rep that doesn’t understand your issue? Are you feeling the limits of what ADP can handle in terms of payroll and HR? You’re not alone.
ADP is one of the bigger payroll and HR software companies in the United States, but that doesn’t mean they provide quality service to everyone. ADP’s business model isn’t to care about individual customers — but rather capture as much market share as possible. Over the years, ADP has acquired several different companies and products with the features they need to build their massive product empire, but there’s one problem: they’re all just patched together. These aren’t products built specifically for HR teams. They’re rebranded tools, stitched together with loose connections.
At Criterion, our mission is to provide the best and most flexible HCM software. With more than 20 years of experience refining our HCM for real HR teams, we know our customers’ HR challenges and how to overcome them.
Looking for a better way to handle your payroll, HR, and talent engagement? Discover how Criterion HCM is better than ADP in virtually every way.
ADP’s products are all just different databases linked together loosely. This configuration delays syncing, leading to duplicate data entry and costly errors in payroll and reporting.
ADP won’t allow you to combine data from several different areas of your HR or payroll system. You’ll need to try to pull all that data into another product and generate reports with rudimentary spreadsheet functionality.
“There are some issues with ADP Workforce Now's underlying architecture which make it so that certain data and fields can only be transferred manually” - Brett Ungashick (Outsail)
In Criterion, your data is connected in a single, unified database. Your HR, payroll, time tracking and more, all share the same records across all modules.
When you update a field, that information is updated everywhere instantly, with no syncing delays or errors. That data is then automatically factored into other key functions.
For example, when you update an employee record with union affiliation or a new location, etc. their wage rates automatically update and are calculated in the next payroll cycle — without needing to manually update the payroll module. You can combine all of this information into unique custom reports with virtually endless possibilities.
When you use ADP, you’re outsourcing your payroll to another company that doesn't totally understand your operation or give you control over the system. To make changes or unique configurations, you’ll need to process those requests through ADP’s customer service department.
How well they handle those requests is a different story. Multiple users have reported terrible service from the corporation, with catastrophic payroll errors in some instances:
“ADP also did not pay the payroll taxes on time and did not even file a couple of taxes. 2 years later — I am still cleaning up the mess they made of my taxes.” - Anne Y. (G2 Review)
With Criterion, you own your HCM system and its operation. While you can ask us for help with configuring the platform to your liking, you can also choose to own the entire process yourself.
We give you access to all of the backend tables and settings so you can configure how your payroll, HR, and talent engagement workflows are set up.
You can run payroll according to your own procedures and put your best employees in charge of making sure everyone gets paid.
If your business grows to over 150-200 employees, you’ll quickly start to feel the limits of ADP. They’re a service bureau business, not a robust solution for payroll processing. They aren’t well-suited to handle large payroll challenges, complex configurations, or all of your HCM data at scale.
It’s like towing a semi with a pickup truck — it might be possible, but it’s going to be slow and stressful on your system.
With Criterion you can continue to build and add new employees, new reports, and new data - processing payroll for virtually any size workforce. Our pod-style structure naturally expands to account for your growing data needs and complexity. It also makes it easier to find and fix any errors fast.
As your team grows or your payroll and reporting needs get more challenging, you’ll find Criterion is capable of handling the changes.
ADP’s business model is to serve as many people as possible so they aren’t deeply affected when a customer leaves.
When you contact ADP you’re just a number in their system. Rather than receiving the care and attention you need when facing issues with their software, you get patched through to a call center with a representative you’ve probably never spoken to before (and probably never will again).
That is, if you can get through at all. Wait times for ADP are notoriously high, with some customers reporting they waited on hold for over an hour before receiving poor service.
“They are a dinosaur that is living off of their size and act as if they are too big to fail…AVOID AVOID AVOID. Until they figure out their operations I wouldn't touch ADP with a 10-foot pole. Go with another company that actually cares.” - Scott A. (G2 Review)
Criterion’s aim isn’t to acquire as many customers as possible. It’s to provide great service to all of our existing customers with top-notch HCM software and support.
All Criterion users get a dedicated customer success rep they can call or email directly about anything. When you contact Criterion, you get the same rep every time. Plus, you won’t need to wait on hold for an hour — you’ll receive quick service from a company that actually cares about your needs.
For any problem you face, you’ll have a representative who knows your business and unique software configurations.
“I've learned that with a software company, you're not just buying the application, you're buying the people behind it. Sometimes you focus on the application and forget you need the people behind it. And that's the secret sauce." - Julie Kellman (Criterion User)
From long hold times to getting a different rep each time you call, it's clear that APD isn't properly serving customers.
“Customer service is not up to par. [Calls] and emails are not returned in a timely manner.” - Katie B (G2 Review)
“My customer service person was always changing. I was often told to use the 1-800 for customer support. I had to call that 1-800 every week.” - Anne Y. (G2 Review)
“ADP has inferior customer service, all the time, you need to mail them and wait until they resolve it, and that may take another 72 hours probably; that needs to be improved” - Aditya P. (G2 Review)
“Customer service was horrible. Hours on the phone to get answers.” - (Anonymous G2 Review)
“The support is very reliable, and it’s nice to know that your issue will be resolved quickly.” - Dan Beards, Computer Generated Solutions
“Their support is crackerjack. They get right back to us. They’re really helpful and knowledgeable.” - Adam Pinsky, Bayley Construction
“We had the support that we needed… which was nice. Like we weren’t left on the side. They were supportive all the way through, which was definitely a big plus.” - Joe Vinski, Britton Electric
“I would recommend Criterion to other companies in our industry because their customer service is easy to talk to, very responsive, and super helpful — which I think is the biggest part of any company that you do your payroll or HR through.” - Emily Kraft, Mount Hermon
At Criterion, we’re built to handle complexity. We do things that other HR software products simply can’t, with a human touch that big companies like ADP won’t provide.
“I think [Criterion’s] whole implementation process is really good. It’s really well managed. We had a chance to compare it to some others … Criterion is definitely the best.”
“Mid-Continent Casualty has been a user of Criterion for nearly 20 years. We have always been satisfied with the quality of the products and have been more than satisfied with the level of service we have received.”
“With what we found in our investigations, especially with prevailing wage and other complexities that we have with our payroll, we're very happy to be with Criterion."
Any field in Criterion can be used in a custom report (even custom fields). You can combine fields from other integrated programs to build unique visualizations and gain insight into your workforce and operations.
Criterion’s API is truly open so you can connect Criterion to any third-party software with no callback limits or additional charges. We help you make HR and payroll an integral part of your unique tech stack.
Manage resumes and easily move candidates through your customized interviewing and hiring sequence within a unified interface. You can build unique procedures to engage new hires and accelerate onboarding.
We care about our customers. At Criterion, our goal is to provide a truly helpful HCM service to make your HR processes more efficient, error-free, and compliant with all laws. If you’re not satisfied with our platform, we do everything we can to make it right for you. We can’t say the same for ADP. If you (like others) aren’t satisfied with one of ADP’s many software products, and you decide to leave, it's doubtful they’ll even notice you’re gone.
Yes. In fact, Criterion specializes in multi-state, multi-union payroll. We’ll calculate payroll automatically for employees with different union affiliations, even considering collective bargaining agreements and local regulations for certain unions. All of this can be automated within Criterion, and many key calculations and reporting functions are already built in.
At Criterion, our Service Level Agreement includes a 90% or higher Customer Satisfaction level. If you are only 90% satisfied (or less) for a year, you get a 1% annual subscription refund. We also promise a 99.9% uptime for all contracts. ADP’s Service Level Agreement is different with each client they serve.
Unlike ADP’s collection of disparate programs, Criterion is built on a single database with three primary modules: HR, Payroll, and Talent Engagement. Within that, we offer solutions for just about anything you need in the HR software space. Automate payroll, pay taxes, manage employee records and document permissions, track time, create benefits packages, develop custom training and onboarding sequences, and offer self-service features for virtually every part of the employee experience. There’s so much you can do with Criterion in a single, unified interface.
Yes. Criterion is well-suited for integration with ERP or any third-party software. Our open API allows for seamless integration with programs like Microsoft Dynamics, Unanet, Acumatica, and more. We can even integrate with custom, in-house software so you can take advantage of our HCM functionality without disrupting your existing system.
In Criterion, any field can be the subject for a new custom report. You can also combine fields from different modules (including custom fields you’ve created yourself) to track specific data correlations and generate unique reports from virtually any part of your system. With integrations, you have even more granular control, pulling data from your project management system, ERP, or anything else you connect to our HCM. All of it is available at your fingertips.
If you go with ADP, you’re just another number in their system. That means you’re expendable.
At Criterion, you’re much more important to us. We provide you with a dedicated customer success representative for as long as you use our platform.
We also stay on top of new trends and laws in the HR software landscape so your team is always operating according to best practices, in full compliance with the laws in your industry.
Discover an HCM that’s built to make HR more efficient and effective.
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