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In this Rippling review, we’ll examine the platform’s features and functionalities in depth and compare it to other leading HR tools so you can make an informed decision and determine whether Rippling is the right fit for your business.
Rippling Plans & Pricing
The available modules include payroll, time tracking, employee benefits administration, hiring, learning and development, employee surveys, PEO (Professional Employer Organization) services, and EOR (Employer of Record) services.
This approach is quite beneficial, especially for smaller and medium-sized businesses. You get to pick and choose which features you need and you’ll only pay for the features you’ll actually use.
To get a custom quote, you’ll need to schedule a 30-minute product demo and see Rippling in action. You’ll then receive a free quote based on your needs and business size.
Rippling Overview
| Starting price | $8/month per user |
|---|---|
| Best for | SMBs looking to streamline every aspect of their HR |
| Customer support | Help Center, Live Chat, virtual call |
| App integrations | Google Workspace, Webhooks, Zendesk, Jira |
| Security & Compliance | Physically secured AWS facilities, data encryption (AES-256), security certifications, industry-standard compliance |
| Payroll | Yes |
| Reporting & analytics | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes |
| Benefits administration | Yes |
| E-signatures | Yes |
| Auto-alerts and reminders | Yes |
Features
Rippling is a feature-rich platform that can help you streamline, automate, or outright outsource virtually every aspect of your HR function.
As we mentioned, the main advantage of Rippling over its competitors is that it allows you to choose exactly what features you need, so it’s easily customizable according to your industry, needs, and team size.
The core features in Rippling’s HR cloud include:
- Recruiting
- Time and Attendance
- Performance Management
- Learning Management
- Benefits Administration
- Global Payroll and Employment
New Product Update
Aug 23rd, 2024 Update: Rippling has released many feature updates to help interviewers, IT managers, global hiring, and finance teams work more effectively. Rippling’s smart scheduling works for interviewers by scanning their work calendars to find the most optimal sessions to schedule an interview. Also, the interviewee can leverage Rippling’s self-scheduling functionality to book interviews based on the interviewers’ open availability on their calendars. These features are good as they help HR focus mainly on hiring without spending hours deciding the best time for interviewing applicants.
IT teams can now conveniently view and manage all employees, devices, and their access right from Ripplings’ IT management app dashboard. Furthermore, IT managers can build custom approval policies. I found its new advanced search, a time-serving tool that helps all users move swiftly without clicking through several features.
Finally, to serve more countries, Rippling now covers Denmark, New Zealand, and Switzerland for EOR.
Recruiting
When it comes to hiring, Rippling takes a unique approach that aims to include everyone, from recruiters to HR managers and department heads, in the process. They all get access to the tools and data they need to make smart hiring decisions, so everyone can track the hiring process and each candidate’s journey through your hiring funnel.
Furthermore, Rippling allows each of your teams to customize their recruiting process. This gives your department heads the much-needed flexibility to devise a hiring cycle with specific interview questions and test assignments rather than relying on a generic interviewing process.
Rippling also facilitates headcount planning and candidate sourcing, streamlines onboarding, eliminates the need for manual data entry and offers valuable insights that allow you to accurately assess the effectiveness of your hiring cycles and success rates of different job boards.
Time and Attendance
Rippling leverages time cards to make it super easy for employees to clock in and out. Managers can quickly review and approve everyone’s hours worked, and the data is automatically synced with payroll, dramatically reducing the time necessary to execute payroll runs and minimizing the chance of errors.
You’ll also be able to automate workflows for tracking time with custom rules and logic. This is invaluable when planning and executing projects with sensitive deadlines.
The platform also automatically notifies both the employee and their managers or direct superiors whenever they approach overtime, miss a break, or work unapproved hours.
With Rippling, you’ll also have insight into your workforce costs. You can create charts and custom reports using variables like location, project, overtime hours, and more to see an exact breakdown of your expenses.
Performance Management
Rippling helps turn performance reviews from something everyone dreads into a constructive process that helps ensure everyone is aligned on goals, properly compensated for their work, and aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
It allows you to set measurable goals and OKRs and monitor their progress in real-time, set up regular review cycles, collaborate on promotions and raises, and identify performance trends.
You’ll also be able to leverage Pulse Surveys to gather anonymous feedback from your employees, gauge overall job satisfaction, and take the required action based on the responses.
Learning Management
If you want to take it a step further and help your team improve existing and develop new skills, Rippling will help you create, deliver, and track the progress of custom training programs.
The platform features a library of pre-built courses, mostly covering general topics like cybersecurity and workplace harassment training. Additionally, you’ll be able to upload a custom course that teaches industry or role-specific skills, set up enrollment rules, and track each individual’s progress and score.
Rippling can even provide certification to employees, as well as store them on the platform for compliance reasons. Moreover, you can ensure that your team completes the required courses by requiring them to hold specific certifications before being able to clock in.
Benefits Administration
Benefits are the best way to retain top talent, so Rippling makes sure that all your employees are introduced to the benefits packages you’re offering and prompted to enroll in the package that suits them best.
New hires are automatically enrolled in your existing benefits programs, and existing workers can quickly apply for additional benefits from their Rippling dashboard.
If your company is located in the UK, Rippling can refer benefits brokers and help you build your benefits packages. Otherwise, you’ll be able to use your own preferred broker, regardless of where they’re located.
This does require some manual setup, but the upside is that you’ll be able to offer localized benefits to a global workforce, which is a must for international teams.
Global Payroll and Employment
Rippling also offers Employer of Record (EOR) services to companies looking to hire top talent globally. This saves you valuable time and money you’d otherwise have to invest in setting up local legal entities and eliminates misclassification risk that can lead to hefty fines.
Additionally, the platform lets you handle global payroll in 90 seconds, pay your employees in their local currencies, and automatically calculate taxes for international employees.
Integrations
When you’re looking into getting a robust HR platform, it’s crucial to ensure that it integrates with the apps and tools you’re already using in your business.
Rippling natively integrates with a wide variety of apps and tools. Some of the most popular integrations include GitHub, Google Workspace, Slack, Greenhouse, Jira, Trello, Asana, Webhooks, Mailchimp, and DocuSign.
Additionally, Rippling offers an API (Application Programming Interface), which you can leverage to build internal integrations with virtually any software you’re using. Granted, this takes a lot of time and considerable technical knowledge, but it’s always good to have that option.
Rippling Customer Reviews
Rippling has stellar customer reviews on major review sites, such as G2, Getapp, Trustpilot, Trustradius, and Capterra. Customers highlight the ease of use, value for money, and its versatility as Rippling’s main advantages.
There are a few complaints as well, mostly concerning the response time of customer service and difficulties with the cancellation of particular services (functionalities).
What is Rippling Good For?
Overall, we’d say Rippling is the best option for medium-to-large companies that are looking to employ a large number of international employees (whether full-time or contractors).
It can help streamline your recruiting, speed up onboarding, ensure compliance with local labor laws, fast-track payroll runs, automate benefits administration, and even act as an Employer of Record on your behalf.
The beauty of Rippling lies in the fact that it’s customizable according to the needs of your business. You can pick and choose which functionalities you need, so you’re only paying for the features you’ll actually be using.
Rippling vs. Top Competitors
| Provider | Best for | Starting Price | Payroll | Benefits Admin | Reporting/Analytics | Mobile App |
| Rippling | SMBs looking to streamline every aspect of their HR | $8/month per employee | Yes | Yes | Pre-built and custom workforce and compliance reports | Yes |
| Deel | Hiring an international team and providing visa support and relocation | Free with limited features | Yes | Yes | Global payroll reports, Standard HR reports | No |
| Gusto | Talent management, payroll, and benefits administration | $40/month + $6/month per person | Yes | Yes | Customizable, advanced reports | No |
| SageHR | Leave management, expense tracking, and shift scheduling | $7/month per employee | Yes | No | Standard reports | Yes |
Rippling vs. Deel
While Rippling is an all-in-one HR platform, Deel primarily focuses on hiring and employee management. That makes Deel better suited for companies who are looking to hire and relocate global talent, given that it offers EOR services, visa support, compliant background checks, and equipment provisioning.
Rippling’s advantages over Deel stem from the fact that it offers performance management functionalities and an LMS (Learning Management System). This makes it a better option for building high-performing teams and upskilling your existing workers to ensure peak performance.
Rippling is also better suited for smaller and medium companies due to its modular approach to pricing. You can choose only the functionalities you need and will be paying for each individual one rather than for a full-service platform, which often makes Rippling a lot more cost-effective.
Rippling vs. Gusto
Gusto is a great choice for talent management, thanks to features like automated feedback requests, performance review templates, and a variety of learning and development tools.
It comes with a built-in ATS (Applicant Tracking System) that helps you quickly identify and engage the most qualified candidates. The platform further assists you in performing background checks, scoring candidates, sending offer letters, and onboarding new hires.
That said, Gusto is slightly more expensive than Rippling, it lacks the EOR services that Rippling provides, and its reporting functionality isn’t as robust.
Rippling vs. SageHR
SageHR excels at leave management, expense tracking, and shift scheduling, making it a better option for brick-and-mortar businesses.
It makes it easy to create and edit work schedules, ensure all your shifts are covered, keep track of your team’s productivity, and ensure everyone is paid the correct amount on time.
The drawback of SageHR is that payroll is a standalone product, which is several times more expensive than the Core HR platform. It also lacks benefits administration and an LMS, so Rippling is a better choice for these HR functions.
Rippling is also more flexible and customizable, and overall much better suited for remote and hybrid companies.
How We Test HR Software
There are multiple factors we take into consideration when evaluating and comparing the leading HR software on the market. Here’s a quick breakdown of the most important ones:
- Features — The number of features and functionalities related to different HR functions, including both core and advanced features.
- Automation — The level of automation available, including workflow automation, payroll automation, automated email correspondence with candidates, alerts, and notifications.
- Integration — The number of integrations with other popular HR, financial, time-tracking, IT, and project management software.
- Reporting — The level of customization and depth of the available reports, as well as reporting templates.
- Pricing — Monthly and annual pricing plans, as well as the availability of certain features on different subscriptions and overall value for money.
- Ease of Use — How easy the platform is to implement and use in day-to-day business, plus the time required to properly train all staff members to utilize it.
- User Reviews — The overall sentiment of the platform’s users across the leading review websites, with attention to both the commonly cited advantages and drawbacks.
How To Choose the Best HR Software
Every business is unique in terms of its structure, size, policies, and needs. That’s why it’s important to ensure that the HR platform you’re considering is the right fit for you. Here are the key factors you should consider before making your final decision:
- Type of HR Software — HR software is a rather broad category, so you should carefully consider what features and functionalities you need. Depending on the size of your business and the tools you’re already using, you might need a full-featured HR platform or a more dedicated solution for specific areas like payroll, benefits, or hiring.
- Essential HR Features — Make sure the software offers essential features like workflow automation, onboarding, time tracking, and payroll and that all the unique needs of your business are covered by the software’s functionalities.
- Pricing — Determine your budget beforehand and carefully go over all the different pricing plans the HR platform offers. Not all features are available on lower subscription tiers, so make sure you end up choosing the one that meets your needs.
- Ease of use — An HR platform should streamline various aspects of your business, so you should opt for one that’s easy to implement and use. If you need to spend months training your staff or precious hours correcting mistakes from improper use of the software, you’ll end up wasting instead of saving time.
- Integrations — Your HR platform must integrate with the other tools you’re already using so you don’t have to deal with duplicate data entry or data discrepancies.
- Customer Support — It’s vital to be able to easily reach customer support and get technical assistance if any issues arise and/or answers to any questions you may have. Ideally, you also want to have a dedicated support rep tied to your account.
