Is ADP or Census better?

Neither clearly leads. ADP starts at $29/month and Census at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, ADP or Census?

Census has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29/month for ADP and Free for Census.

Does ADP or Census run on more platforms?

ADP runs on Web, Ios, Android. Census runs on Web, Api.

Can I use Census for free?

Yes. Census has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. ADP starts at $29/month.

What is ADP best used for?

ADP is most often used for payroll processing and tax filing, hr administration and employee records, time and attendance tracking, benefits administration. Of those, payroll processing and tax filing and hr administration and employee records are not what Census is typically brought in for.

What can ADP do that Census cannot?

ADP covers Payroll, Tax services, HR management, Time & attendance. Census covers Reverse ETL, Data syncing, Transformation, Real-time activation. Both handle Web support.

Accounting & Finance · head to head

ADP vs Census

ADP

Accounting & Finance

Always Designing for People

From: $29/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Census

Automation & Integration

The reverse ETL infrastructure for data activation

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Census has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: ADP no pricing is published; every quote is custom and driven by employee count and which services are taken; Census census was folded into Fivetran Activations, per the vendor: "Previously, this was called a sync in Census", and its own pricing page redirects to Fivetran pricing rather than showing Census plans
They diverge on capability: ADP covers Payroll, Census covers Reverse ETL.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which ADP and Census actually diverge.

Attributes where ADP and Census differ
Attribute	ADP	Census
Starting price	$29/month	Free
Pricing model	subscription	usage-based
Free tier	No	Yes
Platforms	Web, Ios, Android	Web, Api
Category	Accounting & Finance	Automation & Integration
Founded	1949	2020

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in ADP

Payroll
Tax services
HR management
Time & attendance
Benefits administration
QuickBooks
Sage
Oracle

Only in Census

Reverse ETL
Data syncing
Transformation
Real-time activation
Error handling
Monitoring
Analytics
150+ destinations

Both cover

Web support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

ADP

Payroll processing and tax filingnot Census
HR administration and employee recordsnot Census
Time and attendance trackingnot Census
Benefits administrationnot Census
Talent management on the mid-market and enterprise productsnot Census

Census

Syncing customer data from a warehouse into marketing and sales tools (reverse ETL)not ADP

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

ADP

No pricing is published; every quote is custom and driven by employee count and which services are taken
Split into three separate products by company size, RUN for 1 to 49 employees, Workforce Now for 50 and above, and Lyric HCM for enterprise, so growing across a threshold means changing product rather than plan

Census

Census was folded into Fivetran Activations, per the vendor: "Previously, this was called a sync in Census", and its own pricing page redirects to Fivetran pricing rather than showing Census plans
Free Fivetran Activations tier caps at 3,500 monthly active rows

Pricing, plan by plan

ADP

$29/month

Essential$79/month
- Payroll
- Tax filing
- Direct deposit
Enhanced$139/month
- HR tools
- Background checks
- Job posting

Census

Free

FreeFree
- Basic syncing
- Limited destinations
Pro$250/month
- Advanced syncing
- Email support
Enterprise$1500/month
- Unlimited syncing
- Dedicated support

Which should you pick?

Choose ADP if

You need payroll.
You work on Web, Ios, Android.
You also want tax services.

ADP review

Choose Census if

You need reverse etl.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Api.
You also want data syncing.

Census review

Questions people ask

Is ADP or Census better?: Neither clearly leads. ADP starts at $29/month and Census at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, ADP or Census?: Census has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29/month for ADP and Free for Census.
Does ADP or Census run on more platforms?: ADP runs on Web, Ios, Android. Census runs on Web, Api.
Can I use Census for free?: Yes. Census has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. ADP starts at $29/month.
What is ADP best used for?: ADP is most often used for payroll processing and tax filing, hr administration and employee records, time and attendance tracking, benefits administration. Of those, payroll processing and tax filing and hr administration and employee records are not what Census is typically brought in for.
What can ADP do that Census cannot?: ADP covers Payroll, Tax services, HR management, Time & attendance. Census covers Reverse ETL, Data syncing, Transformation, Real-time activation. Both handle Web support.

ADP vs Census

ADP

Census

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in ADP

Only in Census

Both cover

What people use each for

ADP

Census

Where each one falls short

ADP

Census

Pricing, plan by plan

ADP

Census

Which should you pick?

Choose ADP if

Choose Census if

Questions people ask

Related pages

More on ADP

More on Census

Keep looking

Other head to heads