Softwr

Accounting · head to head

ADP vs Cledara

ADP logo

ADP

Accounting

Always Designing for People

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Cledara logo

Cledara

Accounting

Software subscription management with a virtual card per application, priced from £100 a month

From
£100/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: ADP no pricing is published; every quote is custom and driven by employee count and which services are taken; Cledara control only extends to subscriptions paid on a Cledara card, so anything billed by invoice, bank transfer or a legacy company card is invisible to the system and undermines the inventory it promises.
  • They diverge on capability: ADP covers Payroll, Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which ADP and Cledara actually diverge.

Attributes where ADP and Cledara differ
AttributeADPCledara
Starting price$29/month£100/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month by number of applications
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb
Founded1949Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

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 Cledara

  • Virtual card per subscription
  • Cancel by card
  • Application inventory
  • Approval workflow
  • Invoice collection
  • Accounting export
  • Spend optimisation module
  • IT management and compliance modules

What people use each for

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

ADP

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

Cledara

  • A finance team that cannot say what software the company pays for because everything is on three people's company cardsnot ADP
  • A company that keeps paying for tools nobody uses and cannot get the vendor to process a cancellationnot ADP
  • A startup wanting approval on new software purchases before the first charge rather than at the auditnot ADP
  • A finance function that spends days each month chasing SaaS invoices for the accountantnot 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

Cledara

  • Control only extends to subscriptions paid on a Cledara card, so anything billed by invoice, bank transfer or a legacy company card is invisible to the system and undermines the inventory it promises.
  • Tier limits are set by number of applications rather than headcount, and twenty applications on the Basic plan is fewer than most companies of fifty actually run, so buyers often land on a higher tier than the entry price suggests.
  • The modules that turn it from a payment layer into a management platform, spend optimisation, IT management and compliance, are each priced at £150 to £200 a month, comparable to the base plan itself.
  • Usage data is inferred from payment and integration signals rather than deep application telemetry, so its judgement of whether a tool is underused is weaker than a discovery product built on single sign-on and API usage.
  • It is a card issuer as well as a software vendor, which adds financial counterparty considerations and means a change in its banking arrangements would affect how the company pays every one of its suppliers.

Pricing, plan by plan

ADP

$29/month
  • Essential$79/month
    • Payroll
    • Tax filing
    • Direct deposit
  • Enhanced$139/month
    • HR tools
    • Background checks
    • Job posting

Cledara

£100/month
  • Basic$100/month
    • Up to 20 software applications
    • Virtual card per subscription
    • Application inventory and approvals
  • Premium$undefined/month
    • Up to 75 software applications
    • Typically 51 to 150 staff
    • 1% cashback in the first year, capped at the subscription cost
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • For organisations above roughly 150 staff
    • Scoped individually
    • 1% cashback in the first year, capped at plan cost
  • Add-on modules$200/month
    • Spend Optimization £200 a month or £1,500 a year
    • IT Management £150 a month or £1,500 a year
    • Software Compliance £150 a month or £1,500 a year

Which should you pick?

Choose ADP if

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

Choose Cledara if

  • You need virtual card per subscription.
  • You also want cancel by card.
Cledara review

Questions people ask

Is ADP or Cledara better?
Neither clearly leads. ADP starts at $29/month and Cledara at £100/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, ADP or Cledara?
ADP starts at $29/month and Cledara at £100/month.
Does ADP or Cledara run on more platforms?
ADP runs on Web, Ios, Android. Cledara runs on Web.
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 Cledara is typically brought in for.
What can ADP do that Cledara cannot?
ADP covers Payroll, Tax services, HR management, Time & attendance. Cledara covers Virtual card per subscription, Cancel by card, Application inventory, Approval workflow.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

ADP: How is ADP pricing organized?

ADP organizes pricing by business size: Small Business (1-49 employees), Midsized (50-999 employees), and Enterprise (1,000+ employees). Each segment receives customized pricing tailored to specific business needs.

Source
Cledara: What does it cost?

Basic is £100 a month for up to 20 applications, with Premium covering up to 75 and Pro above that. Add-on modules are £150 to £200 a month each, and annual payment saves 16%.

ADP: Is there a current promotional offer for ADP payroll?

ADP currently offers 3 months free when signing up for small business payroll (promotion ends 9/24). Contact sales at 800-225-5237 for details and to request pricing based on your employee count.

Source
Cledara: Does it find software we did not tell it about?

Only what passes through its cards or connected integrations. Subscriptions paid by invoice or another card stay hidden, which is the main limitation of the model.

Cledara: How does cancelling work?

You cancel the virtual card for that subscription, which stops the payment. It does not remove your contractual obligation, so check notice periods.

Cledara: Is the application limit by users or by tools?

By tools. Twenty on Basic, seventy-five on Premium. Count your actual subscriptions before assuming the entry price applies to you.

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