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ADP Workforce Now vs Cornerstone HR Suite comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ADP Workforce Now
Ranking in Talent Management
17th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
11th
Ranking in HR Analytics Software
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (7th)
Cornerstone HR Suite
Ranking in Talent Management
46th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
30th
Ranking in HR Analytics Software
10th
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of ADP Workforce Now is 2.1%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cornerstone HR Suite is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ADP Workforce Now2.1%
Cornerstone HR Suite0.9%
Other97.0%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Vineeth John - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, People & Culture at a agriculture with 201-500 employees
Custom reporting tool with field grabber, easy modules for recruitment and provides numerous options for integration
The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key features you can possibly think of. If it isn't there, there's always a third-party vendor you can integrate that way. But the only issue is that because it's complex, there needs to be some sort of system, at least on the back end, for the admins to understand what leads to what. We expect AI to improve multiple things with HR processes. The most obvious and common one would be the self-service function for employees, like a chatbot to help with FAQs. We are also building an AI tool that can possibly help managers make better talent management decisions. This tool will pull from the performance management tool, the talent profile, and the reports that we generally have to score employees across all different dimensions.
AM
Manager, BO Transformation at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
A easy-to-use solution for onboarding and training that needs to let its users locate information easily
The most concerning point about these applications is that they offer cloud solutions, and everything goes and works well. But they are not committed or involved in the connection activity. We need to run those applications on the cloud. Since we are a company, We have a lot of information on on-premise platforms. So they are not responsible for building any connection, interconnection, or interface between those legacy systems. And most of the time, the company must consider the proposed plans in making the interfaces. And building the interfaces is something we need to do on our own, and it's separate from the solution. I rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I love the integration of HR, payroll, tax filing, benefits, time and attendance, GL, ACA, employee/manager self-service, reporting and analytics."
"In my day-to-day work, attendance tracking would be most important. That's because I have a really diverse group of employees, and I have a subset of younger folks who are struggling with their attendance. So, that's the thing that I'm most involved with currently."
"It is hard to go wrong with choosing ADP as a solution for nearly any company."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The way that ADP helped us improve our organization is by making the payroll process clean and efficient because if you make a mistake there, you're in big trouble."
"The most valuable features are the reporting and benefits piece."
"The most valuable feature to me is performance management because we just started using that."
"For small to mid-sized companies, Workforce Now is one of the better products on the market, clean with an easy interface that is simple to maneuver around, stable, and will continue to improve into the future."
"The flexibility and the fact that it covers all different HR modules is the most valuable aspect of Cornerstone. They did organically built, so all modules are integrated with the same way of managing the configuration, contextualization, availability, and reporting across all of the modules."
"The advantage of choosing Cornerstone HR Suite is that if a company does not have an existing tool and plans to adopt automation, then there is a chance to gain from implementing this solution."
"Cornerstone is easy to use...Cornerstone is used for playing training courses and short videos based on company requirements."
 

Cons

"The ease of developing and creating reports could definitely use some improvement."
"Its benefits portal could be user-friendly."
"The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP ."
"The report functionality is not as good as competitive products."
"The workflow is a bit weak."
"I would like to see the payroll side improved and there are a few kinks that need to be worked out."
"ADP provides a quarterly Error Notification Report that allows you to check for compliance errors based on payments made to employees that quarter. The report only shows employees by their file #; however, the recent ADP upgrade has an "Archive" feature that makes it impossible to search for employees by file number so currently, there is no way to identify the employees listed on the report without calling ADP."
"When I'm not working with the implementation team and I'm just talking to customer service or something, they're just not a lot of help. They don't understand how it works. They'll tell you to do something that I know would affect something else. So, it's less about the software and more about just training their folks to a higher level."
"The recruitment module can be improved and also the general reporting can be improved."
"The solution's interface is really, really old and requires improvements...Cornerstone should use newer technologies to improve its UI, UX, and content."
"We're using different tools like tracking systems, exploring workforce management, and also using payroll, which is another tool, so we need to know where exactly the information is present. This feature needs improvement in the next release."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive."
"The solution is expensive and everyone complains about the price."
"I know some of what we're currently paying. Most customers would say it's too high, but I don't have a comparison to know that."
"The pricing is expensive and I would say it is below average for the value it provides based on the high cost."
"I give the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The solution is expensive."
"The product can be considered as not being on the high-end side of the price spectrum, as many other products are much more expensive. However, it cannot be said that it is cheap either."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ADP Workforce Now?
The licensing is on the pricer side, given that there aren't a lot of other tools out there that are applicable, we just decided to go ahead with ADP anyway. I would definitely recommend ADP to oth...
What needs improvement with ADP Workforce Now?
The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key features you can possibly think of. If it isn't there, there's always a third-part...
What advice do you have for others considering ADP Workforce Now?
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It's got a lot of features. The reason I'm not giving it a full score is largely due to the complexity and the customer service.
Ask a question
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Lawrence and Schiller, The Children's Center, The Kansas City Royals
Wendys, RSM, Nestle, New Belgium
Find out what your peers are saying about ADP Workforce Now vs. Cornerstone HR Suite and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.