About CompareHCM

Our Mission

CompareHCM exists because buying HCM software is harder than it should be. Most "review" sites rank whoever pays the most, and most vendor demos are built to hide weaknesses, not show them. This site publishes side-by-side comparisons for mid-market buyers, with the trade-offs we actually see in the field.

There are no pay-to-play ranking slots here. Vendors cannot buy a better score, a higher placement, or a softer review. If a platform has a weak time and attendance module or a pricing model that doubles in year two, we say so.

How We Evaluate

Every platform we profile gets scored on the same six criteria:

• Payroll engine. Accuracy, tax handling, multi-state capability, and how it handles the messy stuff like retro pay and mid-cycle changes.
• Workforce management. Time, attendance, and scheduling depth, especially for hourly and shift-based workforces.
• Usability. What the system is like for administrators, managers, and employees on a normal Tuesday, not in a scripted demo.
• Pricing transparency. How close the quote is to what you actually pay after add-ons, year-end fees, and renewals.
• Implementation experience. Typical timelines, data migration quality, and how often projects slip.
• Support quality. Response times, escalation paths, and whether you get a named contact or a queue.

How We Make Money

The shortlist is free for buyers. CompareHCM may earn a referral fee when someone later chooses implementation help through this site. That is the whole business model.

Those fees never buy a ranking slot. The evaluation criteria above are applied the same way to every platform, whether or not a partner implements it.

If you ask for implementation help after the shortlist, Andy will say who he works with: Axiom HRS, a UKG Ready partner. You can decline. Nothing about that conversation changes a rating or a placement on this site.

Who We Are

CompareHCM was founded and is operated by Andy Zelt. Over about 25 years he has sat in 1,000+ HCM buying processes on the buying side — demos, parallel payrolls, messy data migrations, and cleanups after vendor-direct implementations that went sideways.

Andy is founder and CEO of Axiom Human Resource Solutions in Indianapolis.

That buying-side experience is the point of the site. These are not press-release summaries. Every profile, comparison, and guide comes from configuring pay rules and seeing where platforms break.

Contact: Andy Zelt on LinkedIn.