Which HRIS/HCM Vendors Have the Happiest Customers?

There is no single strict accounting standard for how companies report “customer retention,” “gross revenue retention,” or “annual retention.” Each vendor can use a slightly different formula, which makes direct apples‑to‑apples comparisons difficult.

That said, it’s safe to assume each vendor chooses the calculation that allows them to publish the strongest credible rate. For our purposes, we can treat these as each vendor’s best retention metric, and still learn something from comparing them at a high level.

HR Technology Advice insights

HR Technology Advice receives hundreds of inquiries from HR leaders who are actively researching a switch to a new HRIS. This gives us a unique real‑time window into which systems customers are planning to exit.

Among HR leaders who tell us they are planning to exit from a current system, here’s the share of total inquiries by vendor:

• Dayforce – 1.6%
• ADP – 21%
• Paylocity – 15%
• Paycom – 9%

“Buyers planning a switch” is not the same as an internal retention calculation, but it does indicate a meaningful trend line you should pay attention to when evaluating your next HRIS/HCM.

Note: We did not include results for Workday or Paychex because most HR leaders visiting our site today are from organizations with 100–2,000 employees, which are not typically the core target market for those solutions.

Honorable mention – BambooHR, isolved, and UKG Ready

Several vendors show very few HR leaders planning to switch away from them:

• BambooHR – 4%
• isolved – 4%
• UKG Ready – 4%

These are all private companies and do not publicly disclose customer retention metrics, so we don’t know their internal numbers. However, each has thousands of customers, and only a tiny fraction have told HR Technology Advice they are actively looking to replace them. That suggests they are among the top‑tier solutions for customer retention and satisfaction in their segment.

If our “switch‑away” percentages roughly correlate with retention, these vendors could be operating at something like a 96% customer retention rate.

Final thoughts

When selecting your next HRIS/HCM solution, it’s wise to treat customer retention as a key indicator of satisfaction. Truly dissatisfied customers eventually “vote with their feet” and leave for a better‑fit system.

By adding current buyer behavior—HR leaders actively researching a switch—to published vendor retention rates, you get a more nuanced and current picture of where customers are genuinely happy (or unhappy).

What I always suggest to HR leaders is this: don’t think of it as buying your next HRIS; think of it as choosing the last HRIS you ever want to buy. When you reframe the decision that way, you naturally focus more on long‑term fit, customer satisfaction, and the vendor’s ability to grow with your organization, not just on features and price at go‑live.