Connecteam and Paylocity look similar but target totally different business needs. Connecteam is the streamlined choice built for deskless, frontline teams. Paylocity is a far broader HR, Finance, and IT suite for large organizations. The decision comes down to operational simplicity versus integrated enterprise depth.
Essential Management Tool for Deskless Teams
We find Connecteam delivers an exceptionally comprehensive suite tailored perfectly for deskless teams, consolidating communication, scheduling, and HR tasks into a simple mobile application. Overall, it’s a highly valuable solution that offers unparalleled features, particularly through the generous free tier for small businesses.
Strong Platform, Severely Lacking Support.
Paylocity offers a highly comprehensive platform uniting HR, Finance, and IT capabilities, which is flexible and modular for various business needs. We noted the powerful feature set, but external feedback consistently highlights serious execution failures in critical areas like customer service and implementation quality. Overall, we recommend approaching Paylocity cautiously due to significant, recurring issues with tax accuracy and client support responsiveness.
Connecteam is designed specifically to help managers of deskless teams. It provides an impressive suite of smart work tools all in one simple mobile app. This platform ensures your workforce stays connected wherever they are, right on their phone. You can simplify complex processes from scheduling to payroll, making work flow much easier for everyone. It’s built to fit your industry, whether you’re in Construction, Cleaning, or Security. 💡
Paylocity is designed as the ultimate platform for today's workforce. It unifies essential business functions—HR, Finance, and IT—to empower your internal teams. The flexible solutions enable smarter decisions, fuel growth, and inspire confident leadership. Paylocity proudly supports businesses across the board, from small teams (1-99 employees) up through midsize and large enterprises (500+). Paylocity helps transform your workforce and ensures employees access everything daily, often right within the dedicated app. 💡
We highlight the main differences and pick a winner for each feature.
Connecteam is built for frontline workers; Paylocity aims for comprehensive back-office unification.
Connecteam is designed specifically for deskless teams like security or cleaning staff. It centralizes scheduling, clocking, and communication via mobile access. Connecteam makes operations simple and highly accessible for employees on the go. Paylocity focuses on combining HR, Finance, and IT under one highly modular umbrella. This platform suits organizations that need strategic data integration across all corporate functions. Connecteam provides specialized operational ease-of-use; Paylocity delivers deep enterprise feature depth. If your team lives in the field, Connecteam’s focused design is ideal.
Connecteam ensures accurate payroll data; Paylocity's core payroll execution is widely criticized.
Connecteam simplifies payroll preparation via precise time clock, GPS tracking, and timesheet approvals. This reduces manual errors leading to overall better payroll accuracy. Paylocity offers a complete core payroll engine with support across 100+ global countries. Sadly, numerous user reviews critically cite late and inconsistent direct deposit processing. While Paylocity has the full payroll engine, Connecteam’s reliability and execution are safer. Paylocity’s documented execution failures pose a major financial risk to employee trust.
Paylocity offers extensive Finance automation; Connecteam concentrates purely on workforce operations.
Connecteam does not inherently offer robust financial tools like expense management or AP automation. Its strength is maximizing field operations visibility and compliance. Paylocity features AI-powered expense management and corporate cards with built-in policy controls. It also includes Accounts Payable automation for streamlined invoice processing. If you absolutely need to manage company spend and automate complex AP processes, Paylocity is necessary. Connecteam users must rely on external software for comprehensive financial management functions.
Connecteam is transparent and cheap for small teams; Paylocity only uses high-cost custom quotes.
Connecteam offers a functional free plan and clearly published starting prices from $10. It is deliberately budget-friendly for small teams and operational headquarters. Paylocity requires contacting sales for a custom, quote-based plan; the cost signaling major enterprise commitment. This custom structure means Paylocity is almost certainly significantly more expensive than Connecteam. Connecteam provides accessible, transparent entry into workforce management for growing businesses.
Connecteam guarantees 24/7 support; Paylocity reviews report critically non-existent assistance.
Connecteam advertises 24/7 live support with a stated response goal under five minutes. Users typically praise the responsiveness during implementation and operational issues. Paylocity clientele frequently reports a severe lack of human support and high account manager turnover. Reviews describe having “absolutely no support available” when needed. Connecteam offers guaranteed accessibility as a core product feature. Paylocity's poor customer service is a massive risk to ongoing operations and user satisfaction.
Connecteam is simple for frontline staff; Paylocity is an integrated behemoth with a steeper learning curve.
Connecteam is consistently praised for its intuitive interface, designed for non-technical deskless workers. Onboarding is smooth, supported by excellent training resources. Paylocity offers vast, modular depth across HR, IT, and Finance, inherently creating complexity. While powerful, many users cite glitches and difficulty using core functions like timesheets. Connecteam achieves simplicity by expertly controlling its feature scope. Paylocity accepts complexity in exchange for unified business management.
Paylocity delivers sophisticated talent tools; Connecteam covers only basic HR and basic learning.
Connecteam provides essential HR functions, file storage, and bite-sized learning courses for compliance. It focuses on necessary workforce record-keeping and forms digitization. Paylocity includes robust strategic features like 360-degree feedback and compensation planning tools. Specialized modules enhance deep employee development strategies. Connecteam specializes in operational task management for compliance. Paylocity excels at fostering employee growth and complex talent strategies.
Paylocity handles enterprise IT infrastructure; Connecteam focuses on data compliance only.
Connecteam’s security primarily focuses on audit-ready records and digital documentation compliance. It does not offer specific tools for IT infrastructure or device control. Paylocity incorporates full IT solutions like secure SSO, MFA, automated provisioning features. It also offers centralized asset management to track employee devices. Paylocity provides enterprise-grade infrastructure management, essential for larger businesses with high IT security needs.
This comparison is a choice between reliability and comprehensive feature breadth. Connecteam is the clear winner for operational ease and user satisfaction. Paylocity offers unmatched enterprise integration but introduces major execution risks. Connecteam's superpower is simplifying complicated operational workflows for the deskless workforce. Its mobile-first design makes scheduling, time clocking, and training seamless for frontline staff. The accessible pricing and guaranteed 24/7 support provide immense value for small to mid-sized organizations. Paylocity's strength lies in its unified vision across HR, Finance, and IT departments. If you need deep talent management, complex expense control, or IT asset tracking, Paylocity delivers those modules. It is explicitly built to serve large enterprise organizations with complex feature demands. The deciding factor must be execution and reliability, specifically around payroll and support. Connecteam's excellent user reviews attest to reliable service and responsive support. Conversely, Paylocity faces severe criticism regarding payroll inconsistencies and poor customer service. If you manage a deskless team and prioritize a reliable, easy experience, choose Connecteam. If your enterprise absolutely requires unified Finance, HR, and IT modules, Paylocity *may* be your only fit despite the high implementation risk.
Connecteam is significantly better for small businesses and mid-sized deskless teams. It offers a free plan and transparent pricing starting at $10. Paylocity uses custom enterprise quotes and is generally much more expensive.
No, Connecteam focuses on workforce operations like scheduling and time tracking. Paylocity provides deep financial tools like AP automation and corporate card management. Connecteam users often need a separate accounting integration.
Paylocity scores poorly (2.0 rating) due to major complaints about customer support quality and payroll inconsistency. Connecteam (4.7 rating) is praised for reliable performance and fast, responsive support. This difference is critical.
Connecteam is explicitly designed for deskless teams in industries like construction and cleaning. It centralizes operations, communication, and training in a mobile app. Paylocity focuses more on office-based, strategic HR functions.
Paylocity is worth the cost only if your business absolutely requires its deeply unified HR, IT, and Finance modules. Connecteam offers significantly better overall value if you only need staff scheduling and communication features.
No, Paylocity does not offer a free trial or free plan; you must request a demo and custom quote. Connecteam is much more accessible, offering both a 14-day free trial plus a permanent free tier.
Both tools have their strengths. Choose based on your specific needs.