Honest UKG Review 2025: Pros, Cons, Features & Pricing

UKG Pricing

Unfortunately, UKG doesn’t share its pricing online. When I reached out to the sales team for information, they asked me a few questions about my business and connected me with a NY-based UKG reseller called Baron Payroll, so I never got a clear answer about UKG’s original platform prices. 

That said, here’s what I did find out. 

UKG has 3 plans: 

Plan	Features
UKG Workforce Management Software	Time and attendanceSchedulingCommunication Workforce planningAnalyticsCompliance supportBryte AI
UKG Ready for small to medium-sized businesses	Everything in UKG Workforce Management, plus:HR and benefits management PayrollRecruiting and onboardingLearning and development Employee engagement Reporting and analytics Intergrations
UKG Pro for enterprise businesses	Global payroll supportAdvanced tax and compliance support Advanced reporting and analytics HRIS and ERP integrationEmployee financial planning Build-your-own integrations hub

With some digging, I found several websites and user reviews that provided insight into UKG’s pricing. 

Apparently, UK Ready typically ranges from $21-$29/user/month, depending on your company size and needs, but some reviews suggest prices can start at $10/user/month. 

Meanwhile, multiple websites claim UKG Pro is priced between $26 and $37/user/month, and one website prices UKG Pro at over $100/user/month. 

Additionally, I got an instant price with Baron Payroll—the UKG Ready reseller I was connected with. 

For a company with 30 employees, Baron Payroll quoted a whopping $275-$330/month for payroll, $150-$180/month for time and attendance tools, and a costly one-time training fee of between $500 and $600 for each system. And that’s for UKG Ready, not Pro.

Let’s look at what some of UKG’s competitors cost. 

Team size	UKG (Ready)	Paycore (Core)	Gusto (Plus)	Deel (US Payroll + HR)	Connecteam (Advanced)
		View pricing	View pricing	View pricing	View pricing
10 Users	Contact vendor	Contact vendor	$200/mo	$390/mo	Free for life—All features and dashboards
20 Users	Contact vendor	Contact vendor	$320/mo	$780/mo	$49/mo
30 Users	Contact vendor	Contact vendor	$440/mo	$1,170/mo	$49/mo
50 Users	Contact vendor	Contact vendor	$680/mo	$1,950/mo	$79/mo
		Read our full Paycore review	Read our full Gusto review		Learn more about Connecteam.
* All prices show the monthly cost when billed annually as of May 2025.

Finally, I was disappointed that UKG didn’t offer a free trial or a free plan for small businesses, especially since competitors like Connecteam offer both. 

UKG Usability and Interface

While UKG doesn’t have a free plan or trial and I couldn’t test the platform firsthand, I watched a live demo, which gave me plenty of insights into its usability and features. 

UKG’s interface has a sleek design with a teal green and white color theme and a clean and readable font. While the look and feel are similar for employees and admins, UKG’s interface is designed differently for both parties. 

When employees log in to their dashboard, the time clock is in the center. The widgets at the top provide access to a range of self-service tools for managing their accounts, timesheets, schedules, career development, pending and approved requests, and benefits enrollment. 

The admin portal is packed with much more, making it much more complicated. 

On the upside, you can toggle between features like recruitment, benefits, performance, compensation, and workforce management. The customizable widgets let you access your account, employee timesheets, HR maintenance, reporting, and more. And you can see your team, pending leave requests, upcoming tasks, attendance data, and more—all front and center in your dashboard. 

I think this is a clever way to ensure you don’t miss any critical actions and aren’t the bottleneck for your team.  

That said, when you click into individual features, it’s easy to get lost and confused. While I appreciate data and analytics, almost every UKG feature is flooded with graphs, charts, and numbers—making it challenging to perform simple tasks like creating schedules or administering benefits. Features are cluttered and can feel very overwhelming. 

I’m not alone. I read several complaints about UKG’s usability. One user explained, “Because UKG Pro contains so many things, it can be overwhelming or confusing to a regular user.” Meanwhile, another reviewer shared that “the transition is challenging for a small team.” 

UKG has much to offer, but it can take companies time and effort to learn how to use it. On the bright side, UKG offers various accessibility features like screen reader compatibility, keyboard-only navigation, and color contrast options to support users with visual or motor impairments. 

Mobile app

UKG offers mobile apps for iOS and Android. 

Design-wise, the mobile app is very similar to the web portal. The employee app offers the same features and functionality, but I found the mobile app easier to navigate and use than the web portal. 

Key features are listed right in the center of your homepage, and you can access your profile, notifications, and search bar from the top right corner. 

Here’s how the mobile app compares to the web app. 

Menu Item	App
	Web	Mobile
Core features
Time tracking	✅	✅
Timesheets	✅	✅
Schedules	✅	✅
Access to pay, pay stubs, and tax documents	✅	✅
Benefits enrollment	✅	✅
Employee self-service (personal details, availability, and shift preferences)	✅	✅
Time off requesting	✅	✅
Mailbox	✅	✅
Onboarding	✅	✅
Employee engagement and development	✅	✅
Analysis features
Reporting and analytics	✅	✅
ATS	✅	✅
Management features
Push notifications	❌	✅
Payroll processing	✅	✅
Account management	✅	✅
Customer support	✅	✅

UKG’s mobile app offers the same employee self-service tools and admin capabilities as the web portal, including payroll processing, which isn’t typical of other platforms. This was also something the UKG team mentioned with pride during the live demo. 

Moreover, UKG’s time tracking tool works offline, too. This makes it well-suited to companies that operate from remote locations with no internet connection. 

That said, several customers are unhappy with the mobile app’s functionality. For example, one shared a specific complaint, “The tabs are hard to navigate, and good luck reaching the lower half of the bar on the left side when you accidentally pull up the keyboard.” 

Another user said, “This app has so many problems. It’s picky for sign ins, if you don’t use biometric it’s a headache to just log in, there is no simple clock in out widget.” 

Overall, while the mobile app is full-featured, there seems to be room to improve the user experience. 

UKG Core Functionalities

Here are UKG’s core workforce management, payroll, and HR features. 

Scheduling and time off management

Employees can use their mobile apps to add their preferences and availability, while you can create shifts in the app and add information like shift notes, start and end times, budgets, cost centers (departments that bear costs like labor costs), and more. 

UKG has a smart scheduling tool that considers all this and automatically populates a schedule that prevents conflicts and keeps you compliant. But I’m unsure if there’s a way to assign shifts to employees manually—for example, could I add just a few shifts and manually assign them to specific workers? 

The good thing is, if you’re unhappy with a schedule, you can move things around with drag-and-drop tools instead of running the tool from scratch.

UKG also lets you save schedules as “patterns” for future use and copy-paste recurring shifts and schedules to save time, though setting this up isn’t straightforward. 

Additionally, I like that you can leave shifts open, empowering employees to claim what they’re interested in. Plus, they can swap shifts if needed, saving you the hassle of getting involved.

Finally, UKG also has its own time off management system. Employees can view their leave balances and accruals and request leave on the app. You can create custom leave policies for different types of time off and respond to requests, all from your dashboard. 

Importantly, you can see workers’ time off in a calendar format to ensure you’re always covered, and UKG’s auto-scheduler considers it when assigning jobs. 

Time tracking and timesheets

Employees can track their hours using UKG’s “InTouch DX” physical time clock—or they can punch in and out from their mobile apps. UKG lets employees adjust errors in time entries, but only with approval. 

As an admin, you can create “known places” to use UKG’s geofencing capabilities. These are work zones, outside of which employees can’t clock in or out of shifts. 

However, I don’t believe there’s a way to track workers’ live GPS locations while they’re on the clock. Competitors like Connecteam offer this, making it easy to track, say, delivery staff, who are constantly on the move and don’t have set “known places.”

Time entries feed into employees’ timesheets, which you can view, adjust, and approve from your admin dashboard. Here, you can also see critical information like labor costs, the cost center used for pay, and overtime stats—but again, how the information was presented didn’t feel intuitive. 

Additionally, I don’t think UKG lets users classify hours as billable or non-billable. If it doesn’t, this could present challenges when you’re creating client invoices. 

Payroll 

UKG has an entirely separate dashboard for payroll, which houses everything from payroll processing and timesheet data to reports and analytics. 

I was pleased to see that despite being separate dashboards, the systems talk to each other. When employees update their benefits, bank details, or life events that affect their taxes, it automatically feeds into the payroll system, reducing potential errors. 

While you can see approved timesheets ready for payroll, you can also see real-time updates showing which timesheets are pending approval so you can nudge managers. 

When you’re processing payroll, I like that UKG has an alert system to caution you when something looks off—for instance, excessive hours, unusually high pay, etc. You can also compare payroll reports with previous monthly or quarterly reports to spot any large variances. Edit the data easily and then lock payroll to prevent any further changes. 

Once finalized, UKG does the heavy lifting, including filing taxes, handling garnishments, and processing direct deposits or mailing paper checks. Employees can download their pay stubs, tax documents, and more from their mobile apps.

My main complaint? UKG boasts about its global payroll capabilities, but this isn’t an option for small to medium businesses that opt for UKG Ready. 

Moreover, there are some negative online reviews about the complexity of the payroll tool—for instance, this Reddit review, which says, “Their payroll processing gateway can be confusing if you have multiple pay groups on the same pay schedule.”

HR and benefits administration

UKG has a built-in HRIS (HR information system)—a central hub that lets you store, manage, and organize employee information, such as their personal details, job histories, payroll information, time off data, and more. 

Every employee has their own digital profile containing this information, plus their shift preferences, and they can access and update their information from their mobile apps. Changes automatically feed into UKG’s other features. 

Furthermore, UKG’s AI tool called Bryte acts as a chatbot, providing employees with any information they need to save the time HR professionals spend on queries. 

In addition to this, UKG simplifies benefits administration. You can configure flexible benefits plans depending on your employees’ needs. The intuitive benefits enrollment process really stood out to me. 

Employees go through a “shopping cart” experience, where they can view available plans, compare them side by side, update or add dependents, and see their estimated costs before they finalize their selections. 

The best part? UKG provides employees with helpful guides, videos, and plan recommendations, unlike many platforms that leave employees to their own devices.   

Finally, you can monitor real-time enrollment stats, ensuring everyone completes the process on time. 

Hiring and onboarding 

UKG’s recruiting feature acts like an ATS. You can create jobs with role descriptions in multiple languages and customize recruiting processes and screening questions based on job type, location, and more. 

UKG lets you post jobs to more than 3,000 job boards, including LinkedIn. As candidates come through, you can edit their profiles or even create new profiles for those who come through the pipeline offline—for instance, through a recommendation. 

Finally, the ATS lets you track applicants, manage pipelines, communicate with candidates, schedule interviews, extend offers, and view critical reports, such as applications received, time to hire, cost to hire, and many more. 

Once someone’s hired, their details feed into UKG’s HRIS. They can then access an onboarding dashboard showing all required tasks, information, and tools. 

While all this sounds impressive in theory, a few users have reported concerns about these features, and I also found the recruiting workspace cluttered with too many analytics. 

One user said, “UKG is designed to be HRIS, and they threw together an ATS as an afterthought,” while another was even more upset. “As a recruiter, I hate the ATS. Search within your ATS is trash, you need something on top like Lever, Gem, etc, to make it usable.”

Employee engagement

UKG’s performance management tools let you create, assign, and track individual, team, or company-wide goals for your employees. I like that you can create goal, competency, and core value libraries to standardize expectations across roles. 

Moreover, UKG’s performance review feature lets you provide employees with feedback via customizable forms and flexible ratings. You can also enable peer feedback on the system and allow multiple managers to contribute to an employee’s evaluation. 

In addition, UKG has a built-in learning system, which you can use to create customized and branded training courses in multiple languages and roll them out to target groups. Track progress through real-time dashboards and send employees notifications to alert them about deadlines. 

While these tools seemed great, I was disappointed that the only way to communicate internally with employees was through push notifications in a “mailbox.” UKG does have a UKG Talk system—with real-time messaging—but this is available as a “specialty” feature, which likely means it costs more. 

Integrations

Unfortunately, UKG doesn’t seem to have a list of its native integrations on its website. From my understanding, you can use the UKG Developer Hub to connect UKG with other business systems, such as payroll, hiring, accounting, etc., using APIs and working with their support team to configure the integrations you need. 

While this is a highly customizable solution, it’s unsuitable for businesses that don’t have the time or resources to build integrations from scratch, so I wasn’t a fan. 

UKG Security Features

Here are some of UKG’s key security and data privacy protocols. 

• UKG has obtained the ISO 27001 certification, which is the gold standard in information security management. 
• It also has ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 certifications for cloud security controls and the protection of personal data in the cloud, respectively. 
• It undergoes annual audits to assess security, confidentiality, privacy, and processing integrity. 
• In addition to role-based access, employees also receive role-specific security training. 
• Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) provides an additional layer of security to your UKG account.
• The platform has strong password requirements, though some users have complained about the inconvenience of needing to log back in every time they use the mobile app. You can also configure your account to accommodate single sign-on (SSO). 

Finally, I was happy to see UKG complies with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but disappointed at no mention of HIPAA, which makes it less suitable for US healthcare businesses (these businesses might want to explore HIPAA-compliant apps like Connecteam). 

UKG Reporting & Analytics

UKG Ready users have access to about 150 pre-built reports, while Pro users get around 350 reports, including a mix of high-level reports like headcount summaries and productivity, and granular reports like accrual details, benefits reconciliation, and more. 

Moreover, thanks to UKG’s single database structure, every data point entered into the system can be used to build custom reports. For example, you can pull fields like employee addresses and cell phone numbers, or even create a report for the average pay by gender or ethnicity. 

Also, I like that UKG not only lets you export reports in multiple formats (like Excel, CSV, and text) but also lets you schedule and share them with relevant stakeholders in a few clicks. 

Finally, as we’ve seen, UKG provides analytics and dashboards within nearly every individual feature. While the intent seems positive, many reviewers—myself included—struggle with the clutter and complexity this adds. 

UKG Customer Support

You can contact UKG’s customer support by phone or through the in-app chat that the UKG team claims responds within seconds (though I couldn’t verify this because customer support is only available to enrolled customers). 

Additionally, here’s what they offer:

• Access to a dedicated customer success team with 8 specialists who can help with different aspects of the platform.

• A rapid response team available 24/7 (365 days/year) for US clients.

• A help center and UKG community page where customers can access guides, demos, and get answers to frequently asked questions. 

• UKG’s generative AI tool, which stores specific information related to your company’s policies, documents, and more so employees and admins can ask it questions. 

As a prospective customer, I didn’t even have the option to contact customer support—which was unfortunate, as I’d have loved to confirm if certain features (like the ability to mark time as billable/nonbillable) exist on the platform. 

But I contacted the sales team for a demo, specifying I wanted a global payroll solution. Despite this, they handed me off to a third-party payroll platform that handles only US payroll, so I wasn’t impressed. 

Additionally, if you work with a UKG reseller, you’ll gain access to the reseller’s customer support only, so the above offerings don’t apply. 

What Are UKG’s Review Ratings from Review Sites?

Ratings for UKG Pro (as of May 2025):

Capterra: 4.2/5
G2: 4.2/5
Software Advice: 4.2/5
TrustRadius: 8.0/10
GetApp: 4.2/5
Google Play Store: 4.3/5
Apple App Store: 4.7/5

UKG App Review

UKG is a comprehensive HR, payroll, and workforce management platform. I was very impressed by its vast range of features, integrated systems, and the extent to which one can customize the platform for their needs. 

That said, UKG doesn’t have a great reputation for its usability. Many features are packed with analytics, and the product has a steep learning curve, which isn’t suitable for smaller businesses looking to move quickly. 

Connecteam: The Better UKG Alternative

Connecteam is the best UKG alternative. It’s user-friendly, affordable, suitable for businesses of all sizes, and offers even more than HR, payroll, and workforce management support. 

Let’s dive into some of its features. 

Time tracking and payroll  

Connecteam’s employee time clock lets workers punch in and out from any device or a shared kiosk—perfect for desk and non-desk teams. You can set geofences, but unlike UKG, you can also track live GPS locations, which prevents time theft in teams on the move. 

Your admin dashboard lets you view, edit, and approve all timesheets for payroll and get really granular with details on overtime and billable vs. non-billable hours. Once approved, you can sync timesheets with one of Connecteam’s popular payroll partners, such as Gusto, Paychex, Xero, and more. 

Scheduling and time off management 

Connecteam’s staff scheduling tools let you create and assign shifts from scratch using drag-and-drop tools. You can also copy schedules, save them as templates (easier than creating “patterns” on UKG), or import them from Excel. 

Alternatively, use the auto-scheduler—my favorite feature—which automatically assigns shifts based on employees’ locations, preferences, skills, and availability. Workers can also pick from open shifts and swap shifts with or without manager approval. 

With Connecteam’s time off management tools, workers can view their balances and request leave from their apps, while you can review and respond from your admin dashboard. 

HR, employee engagement, and so much more

Connecteam offers many HR tools, including an org chart creator, a centralized document center, a built-in learning management system, surveys, and feedback tools. 

What really put it above UKG for me are its operations and communications features, like customizable forms and checklists, employee task tracking, an in-app chat, a company newsfeed, and more—truly an all-in-one solution. 

Free trial and plan 

Connecteam starts at just $29/month for up to 30 users. It also offers a free plan for small businesses and a free trial. 

FAQs

Does UGK offer a free trial?

No, UKG doesn’t offer a free trial or a free plan.  

Is UKG HIPAA compliant?

UKG isn’t HIPAA compliant. US businesses consider other platforms to store or share protected health information.