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Most buyers should pick Heartland Payroll.
Choose Heartland Payroll if you want published entry pricing and a bundled US payroll, tax and HR suite: Essentials starts at $89 per month for businesses with 1–5 employees. Choose UKG Ready if workforce management is the priority and you are willing to request a quote. UKG’s public materials describe payroll, HR, scheduling, time and attendance, compliance and analytics, but do not publish Ready-specific feature detail, pricing, seat limits or usage limits. Neither lists a free plan.
01Side by side
| Heartland Payroll | UKG Ready | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Essentials starts at $89/month for 1–5 employees | Custom quote; starting price not published |
| Free plan | No free plan listed | No free plan listed |
| Best for | Businesses seeking bundled payroll and HR | Organizations seeking workforce management |
| Core strength | Payroll, tax, time tracking and HR tools | Payroll and workforce management solutions |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations/data | Integration details not published | Integration details not published |
| Team/seat costs | Essentials covers 1–5 employees | Seat limits and costs not published |
| Support | Live HR support listed | Support terms not published |
Heartland Payroll Choose Heartland Payroll if
- Choose Heartland Payroll if you want published entry pricing.
- Choose Heartland Payroll if you need payroll, tax and HR tools together.
- Choose Heartland Payroll if your team has 1–5 employees.
UKG Ready Choose UKG Ready if
- Choose UKG Ready if workforce management is your priority.
- Choose UKG Ready if you are prepared to request custom pricing.
- Choose UKG Ready if scheduling, time and attendance matter to your evaluation.
02Pricing compared
Heartland has the clearer starting point: its pricing page lists Essentials at $89 per month for businesses with 1–5 employees. That is a published entry price, not a full cost comparison: the source does not list which features Essentials includes, annual pricing, or prices for Advanced and Complete. Heartland Time is an add-on with no published price.
UKG Ready is quote-based. UKG does not publish a starting price, billing terms, seat limits or usage limits, so you will need a quote to compare it with Heartland. Neither product lists a free plan, and neither has a published free-trial offer in the published pricing information. If price predictability matters, Heartland gives you more to work with—but ask for a complete quote, including add-ons, before switching.
03Features and depth
Heartland’s listed features make its US payroll and HR scope relatively concrete: it processes multi-state payroll, handles federal, state and local payroll taxes, and supports direct deposit, printed checks, pay cards and year-end tax forms. Its broader suite also lists time and attendance, scheduling, PTO, hiring and onboarding, employee self-service, and HR resources such as handbook tools and templates. The available information does not show which of these features come with each plan.
UKG’s public materials describe UKG Ready in the context of UKG’s wider HR, payroll and workforce-management lineup. They list payroll, HR, scheduling, time and attendance, compliance and analytics, but do not provide Ready-specific feature details. That makes a like-for-like feature check difficult: ask UKG to confirm which capabilities are in Ready, what integrations or limits apply, and what the quote includes. Heartland’s public description is more specific; that alone does not establish that it has greater overall depth.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Our review scores rate Heartland’s ease of use at 7 and UKG Ready’s at 4.5, but the published material does not explain the scoring method or provide enough detail to predict your team’s learning curve. We would treat that as a signal to investigate, not proof that one product is easier for every business.
Heartland’s materials describe employee self-service for pay stubs, tax forms, personal details and hours. UKG’s public information gives less Ready-specific detail, so ask for a product walkthrough and implementation, training and support terms. Before switching, confirm how payroll, time tracking and employee records will move; those migration details are not published on the vendor's site.
Questions people ask
Is UKG a payroll vendor?
Yes. UKG’s lineup includes payroll products, and its materials describe UKG Ready as supporting payroll. The published public information does not give a Ready-specific feature breakdown, so confirm the payroll functions and tax services included in your quote.
What’s the difference between UKG Pro and UKG Ready?
UKG lists UKG Pro and UKG Ready as separate products, alongside UKG Pro Workforce Management. The published materials do not spell out a feature-by-feature difference between Pro and Ready, so ask UKG for a product comparison and confirm which features and limits apply to your quote.
Does UKG provide WFH?
The published UKG materials do not specify whether UKG Ready includes work-from-home features or describe a WFH product. They list broader workforce capabilities such as scheduling, time and attendance, compliance and analytics. Ask UKG whether the functions you need are included in Ready.
How much is UKG Pro per month?
UKG Pro monthly pricing is not published on the vendor's site. UKG Ready is described as custom-priced, but that does not establish UKG Pro’s price. Contact UKG for a quote and ask for billing terms, implementation costs and any seat or usage limits.