Looking to say goodbye to tedious paperwork? In today’s virtual workplace, HR software has evolved to meet the changing demands, and the engine at the very heart of that seismic transformation has been cloud HR software.

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If you’re already on the online HR software bandwagon, now’s the best time to explore the market. After all, there’s nothing wrong with an upgrade, right? Thanks to ever-changing and ever-growing HR industry expectations, vendors are stepping their game up and putting their best foot forward. That’s a win-win for you!

Whether you’re just joining the cloud HR club or you’ve been there a while, we’ll dive into the following key aspects of cloud HR software:

Best Cloud HR Software

In the ever-evolving landscape of modern HR, choosing the right cloud HR software is paramount. Your HR team’s efficiency and your organization’s success depend on it. Fortunately, you don’t have to navigate this journey alone.

Our team of seasoned experts has meticulously combed through the leading solutions, curating a selection of the finest cloud HR software available. Now, let’s dive straight into the cream of the crop.

UKG Pro

UKG Pro provides a unified, cloud-deployed suite that helps companies manage human capital at a global scale. Offering an array of core features like payroll, benefits, recruiting, onboarding and learning, users can better manage employee data and files, compensation, time and attendance, performance, and succession plans.

A look into the payroll gateway of UKG Pro.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Document Management — 100
• Succession Management — 100
• Employee Engagement — 97
• Payroll Management — 97
• Employee Onboarding and Administration — 95

Top Benefits

• Improved Data Access: Users can track a wide range of high-level employee and HR data via a central platform.
• Actionable Insights: Get AI-based predictions, suggested actions and sentiment analysis. The insights also help boost performance, identify problem areas and enhance employee engagement.
• Smarter Decision-Making: Improve and streamline hiring, promotions and retention decisions with predictive analytics.
• Lower Costs: Minimize high turnover costs via better employee engagement, problem area analysis and in-depth risk factors insights into factors driving employee turnover.
• Quality Employee Experience: Improve employee work experiences with automated internal service processes. Grant employees access to helpful materials to promote self-reliance.

Primary Features

• Compensation Management: Reward employees based on their achievements. Facilitates salary planning, configurable compensation plans, merit rules and analytics.
• Performance Management: Boost employee engagement with manager insights about individual and team performance. Includes tracking dashboards, automated reviews and achievement ratings.
• File Management: Organize and manage employee documents using a central repository with role and type-based permissions. Automatically populates employee information templates.
• Succession Management: Nurture in-house talent pipelines to prep employees for new roles. Includes talent evaluation, predictive analytics, reporting and personal development tools.
• Onboarding: Gives new hires access to dashboards with task timelines, job-related tutorials and required e-forms. Facilitates goal setting and teammate connections.

Limitations

• Steep learning curve.
• Clunky interface and confusing design and navigation.
• Glitchy tax payment services.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• Mobile Recruiting — Not Supported
• AI-Based Benefits Advisor — Not Supported
• Mobile Benefits Access — Not Supported
• COBRA Administration — Supported With Integrations
• Compensation Packages — Not Supported

Compare HR Software Pricing & Costs with our Pricing Guide

Oracle HCM Cloud

Oracle HCM Cloud assists businesses in planning and executing effective HRM strategies. It empowers HR professionals to create talent-rich applicant pools, recruit and retain quality hires, and establish practices to boost employee engagement and retention.

Give managers access to workforce directories, employee profiles and in-depth skills information for a comprehensive overview of their workforce.

Performance management by Oracle HCM Cloud.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Succession Management — 98
• Employee Self-Service — 98
• Applicant Tracking and Recruiting — 97
• Reporting and Dashboard — 97
• Payroll Management — 96

Top Benefits

• Smarter Decision-Making: Use role recommendations and essential predictions like employee turnover, expected scale of new hiring required and employee engagement trends using Oracle HCM’s AI technology.
• Better Engagement and Productivity: Create humanized experiences with digital assistants, a conversational UI, self-guided transactions and intuitive workflows.
• Quality Customer Experience: Build simple chatbots and advanced digital assistants to improve the customer experience.
• Optimized Workflows: Seamlessly implement effective changes with predictive analytics, data modeling and reporting tools.
• Faster Time-to-Hire: Reduce hiring time using employee referrals, leveraging recruitment marketing techniques and streamlining onboarding processes.

Primary Features

• Worker Lifecycle: Enable end-to-end employee management, keeping applicable legislation and global practices in consideration. For instance, it offers configurable forms and workflow approvals for EEOC/OFCCP compliance and automatically stores reasons for non-selection, flow logs and hire/offer logs.
• Talent Management: Hire the right people, nurture growth and employee development, and better plan for succession with talent management tools.
• AI Apps: Improve candidate pool quality, boost employee engagement and productivity, minimize time-to-hire, and optimize workflows using artificial intelligence and data-driven functionalities.
• Advanced HCM Controls: Automate analysis for compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and prevent payroll errors. Helps users control exception workflows.
• Workforce Management: Build an agile workforce with seamless time tracking, labor tracking, cost control and compliance risk management.

Limitations

• Challenging integration and data extraction.
• Tedious user interface.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• AI-Based Benefits Advisor — Not Supported
• Benefits Plan Recommendation — Not Supported
• AI-Based Dashboard View — Supported With Integrations
• Leave Requests — Supported With Integrations
• Penalty Alerts — Not Supported

Compare HR Software Pricing & Costs with our Pricing Guide

Dayforce

Dayforce combines major HR components to tackle all aspects of the employee lifecycle. It’s suitable for both smaller companies and enterprises with thousands of employees, offering payroll tax filing and standardized implementation processes via Dayforce Activate.

A peek into the self-service dashboard of Dayforce.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Employee Engagement — 100
• Reporting and Dashboard — 100
• Succession Management — 100
• Time and Attendance Management — 90
• Compensation Management — 88

Top Benefits

• Centralized Information: Centralize all employee information. Employees and managers can access complete employee overviews, compensation levels and performance metrics.
• Unified Processes: Eliminate common payroll processing roadblocks by combining time and payroll. Administrators can conveniently access data and real-time updates during each pay period.
• Better Team Engagement: The TeamRelate feature allows managers to track employee engagement, provide personalized coaching and understand employee communication with surveys.
• Improved Compliance Handling: Keeps your company legally compliant in real time. Allows custom configurations of what the system monitors based on your organization’s needs.
• More Accessibility: View and update information on the go. Users can also access data from anywhere, at any time.

Primary Features

• Core HR: Primary offerings include document management, standard and customized dashboards, employee self-service (ESS), and reporting.
• Payroll: Handles payroll tasks like tax management, employee verification and data entry. Enable payroll reconciliation with reporting tools and actionable insights from dashboards.
• Benefits Administration: Speed up employee self-enrolling. Admins can access enrollment totals, a library of qualification rules, COBRA management and other tools.
• Talent Management: Manage all employee lifecycle phases seamlessly with tools built for onboarding employees, tracking performance and planning budgets.
• Workforce Management: Offers leave and task management, scheduling, labor planning, and overspending alerts. Streamlines scheduling, reviewing and payment approval.

Limitations

• Lacks on-premise solutions.
• Lacks training management support.
• Lacks a user-friendly interface.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• AI-Based Benefits Advisor — Not Supported
• Interview Management — Not Supported
• LinkedIn Applicant Prospecting — Not Supported
• Mobile Recruiting — Not Supported
• Workforce Modelling — Not Supported

Compare HR Software Pricing & Costs with our Pricing Guide

SuccessFactors

SuccessFactors is a complete suite for HCM, helping companies execute all aspects of HRM, enabling comprehensive HRM and strategic planning.

SuccessFactors uses AI and machine learning for pressing HR demands. In addition, it offers consulting and professional services to help companies implement integrations efficiently.

Leave management by Successfactors.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Document Management — 100
• Applicant Tracking and Recruiting — 95
• Succession Management — 95
• Reporting and Dashboard — 92
• Employee Self-Service — 87

Top Benefits

• Better Accessibility: Access several capabilities — including time and attendance management, learning and development, and performance management — on the go via mobile devices. Employees can view their information, fill timesheets and request time off.
• Smarter Decision-Making: Provides a comprehensive view of different departments via digital boardrooms. Other tools to facilitate better decision-making include what-if scenarios and ad hoc analysis.
• Reduced Skills Gap: Continuous learning helps employees gain skills and fill company voids.
• More Global Capabilities: Check eligibility, control data in line with GDPR, manage work permits and visas, and comply with local labor laws relevant to a global workforce.
• Exceptional Employee Experience: Employees can access real-time updates about overtime, accruals and other information. Employees can also contact the HR department via tickets, phone, email or chat.

Primary Features

• Payroll: Streamline payroll and benefits while staying compliant with laws, rules and regulations. Allows employees easy access to their information with its self-service capabilities.
• Time and Attendance Management: Automate time and absence tracking for efficient scheduling, hours and pay calculations.
• Recruiting and Onboarding: Access relationship and applicant management tools alongside global sourcing. Facilitates an engaging, personalized and streamlined onboarding process with its pre-day one and new hire experiences and digital new hire paperwork.
• Learning and Development: Offers succession management and career development modules, helping prepare for the future.
• Performance Compensation: Track employee performance and provide feedback to help them set and achieve goals, facilitating the creation of compensation programs to reward top performers.

Limitations

• Lacks data synchronization capabilities with other systems.
• Tedious and expensive implementation process.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• AI-Based Benefits Advisor — Not Supported
• Automatic Payroll Update — Not Supported
• AI-Based HR Recommendations — Not Supported
• Fraud Protection — Not Supported
• Compensation Survey Management — Supported With Integrations

Compare HR Software Pricing & Costs with our Pricing Guide

ADP Workforce Now

ADP Workforce Now handles payroll, time and attendance, talent management, benefits administration, and other HR processes. It also supports efficient employee lifecycle management, facilitating data syncing within departments for minimal data entry errors.

It supports data security and privacy with features like intelligent detection and fraud defense.

An individual pay profile on ADP Workforce Now.

Highest Rated Modules According to Our Data

• Document Management — 94
• Payroll Management— 94
• Employee Self-Service — 89
• Employee Onboarding and Administration — 88
• Applicant Tracking and Recruiting — 86

Top Benefits

• Optimized Procedures: Automate and streamline onboarding, record-keeping and employee status changes. Lets users track and report certifications, licenses and compliance data.
• Quality Employee Experience: Encourage employee self-reliance via easy pay, benefits and time information access. Employees can request time off, view work schedules and download pay statements.
• Actionable Insights: Access labor costs, overtime, actual vs. scheduled hours, turnover rate and other KPIs with data analysis tools.
• Seamless Integration: Allows glitch-free integration with solutions like Workday, Litmos, ZipRecruiter, TSheets, QuickBooks, Slack and Microsoft Teams.
• Improved Accessibility: Access time and attendance features and benefits data with iOS and Android mobile apps.

Primary Features

• Workforce Management: ADP Workforce Now allows mobile time collection with employee scheduling. Employees can log and process their own time-off requests. Offers overtime and absence analytics.
• Digital Record Keeping: Store and secure confidential company data in the cloud, providing easy access to search for and audit information. Users can upload data in batches to save time.
• ADP® DataCloud: Access reliable industry data and seamlessly compare it to company trends and data. Analytics also helps users predict voluntary turnover and reveal contributing factors with the Turnover Probability Explorer feature.
• ADP® StandOut: Personalize digital coaching content and use 15-minute strength assessments. Supports real-time team engagement, customized performance pulse surveys and coaching intelligence.
• ADP AE Snapshot™: As a part of its benefits management offering, the solution lets managers access employee metrics on enrollment preferences and decisions.

Limitations

• Less cost-effective for mid and small-sized businesses.
• Lacks robust reporting functionality.
• Tedious customer service.

Features Not Fully Supported According to Our Data

• AI-Based Benefits Advisor — Not Supported
• Mobile Recruiting — Not Supported
• Dashboard Builder — Not Supported
• Survey Generation— Supported With Integrations
• Compensation Survey Management — Not Supported

Compare Top HR Software Leaders

How We Choose Products

Our team of writers and analysts at SelectHub is committed to giving you the best recommendations based on our data. To make our list, products had to meet two criteria:

1. Closely match the topic
2. Earn a top-5 analyst score in our selection platform

Our analyst scores are based on an in-depth research process using primary and secondary sources. This includes SelectHub Analyst Briefings, direct communication with vendors, and reviewing materials such as user reviews, product brochures, specification sheets, case studies, user manuals, and technical documentation.

Our platform’s Scoring Engine processes the research and computes the analyst score. The score also factors in platform settings such as industry and company size.

Learn more about our research methodology and editorial standards

What Is Cloud HR Software?

Cloud HR software is a web-based management platform hosted on a product vendor’s server. These solutions are designed to improve HR department efficiency. It enhances HR department efficiency, allowing seamless management of HR-related tasks on various internet-connected devices.

Cloud HR software streamlines employee data, payroll, benefits, employee experience, HR policy, job posting and more, eliminating the need for costly setups and constant IT updates.

Market Significance

As of 2022, the cloud HR software market accounted for a whopping 70.54% share, valued at $10,996.90 million. It’s projected to grow at an impressive CAGR of 11.12% during the forecast period.

Primary Benefits

Picking the right cloud HR software means saying goodbye to the HR system’s traditional limitations and welcoming its many benefits.

Whether you’re a small startup or a global enterprise, harnessing the software’s scalability, accessibility and efficiency is a must. Get ready to elevate your HR game and embrace the future of workforce management.

• Easy Installation and Maintenance: Cloud solutions don’t require any extra resources for installation or maintenance. No need for extra resources; the vendor handles implementation and support.
• Better Accessibility: Access cloud HR software from anywhere using internet-supported devices, giving employees greater flexibility for when and where they work.
• Increased Cost-Effectiveness: Cloud HR tools don’t require expensive maintenance or upgrades. Save on maintenance and upgrades, eliminating installation costs and expensive hardware.
• More Scalability: Users can add apps, adjust storage capacity and automate workflow processes to scale the tool according to business needs.
• Improved Security: Ensure high-level data security to protect company information from unwanted outside access.
• Better Employee Experience: Empower employees with easy, cloud-based access to their data, reducing the need for HR intervention.

Compare Top HR Software Leaders

Next Steps

With the workplace evolving and your HR department likely growing along with it, prioritizing nailing down quality cloud HR software is an absolute necessity. After all, it offers everything an on-premise HR solution does, with better accessibility, data security and connectivity.

While the products mentioned above are leading solutions, there’s a lot to explore in the HR market. Our free, interactive comparison report on different HR solutions is a great resource for a deeper understanding of how products compare against each other and your needs.

What do you expect from your cloud HR software? Do you have any suggestions for solutions apart from the ones mentioned above? Let us know in the comments below.