Managing a global workforce requires navigating diverse labor laws, handling cross-border payroll, and ensuring compliance with international regulations. These complexities often demand robust solutions tailored to meet the needs of modern HR professionals.

Rippling and Remote stand out as two prominent software solutions designed to simplify global workforce management. Rippling offers a unified platform that integrates HR, IT, and finance functions, while Remote specializes in global employment solutions with a focus on employer-of-record (EOR) services and international compliance.

In this article, we’re going to compare Rippling and Remote, exploring their features, benefits, and service offerings to help you determine which software aligns best with your organization's global HR needs.

Rippling Vs Remote: At A Glance

Features

Rippling

Remote

Payroll Management

Offers a comprehensive solution that allows businesses to manage both domestic and international employees

Simplifies the process of paying employees and contractors worldwide

Time Tracking

Provides a fully customizable solution that automates time tracking from clock-in to paycheck

Allows businesses to effortlessly monitor time and attendance for employees across various time zones

Benefits Administration

Consolidates health insurance, 401(k), commuter benefits, and more into a single system

Designed to help companies offer competitive and compliant benefits packages to their international teams

Onboarding

Streamlines the onboarding process with the automation of repetitive tasks and data management

Integrates its global team through a structured five-step approach

Mobile App   

Provides employees with the capability to clock in and out   

Provides self-service access to essential HR functions, regardless of location 

Integrations     

Integrates with a wide variety of third-party platforms such as Asana, Salesforce, GitHub, etc.  

Integrates with software such as Slack, HiBob, Zapier, etc.  

What Is Rippling?

Rippling HR is a comprehensive workforce management platform that offers a centralized system catering to all of your HR, IT, and finance needs. Designed to streamline and automate various aspects of employee management, Rippling offers solutions for payroll, benefits administration, compliance, employee engagement , and more. Its integrated approach ensures that all employee data is centralized, facilitating efficient processes and informed decision-making across organizations.

From small businesses to large enterprises, Rippling works well for businesses of all sizes as its scalable solutions adapt to the unique needs of each organization. Its platform is particularly attractive for customers who prioritize automation and are looking to maintain compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

Unique Rippling Features

  • Custom Workflow Automation: Rippling’s platform includes a custom workflow builder with pre-built templates, allowing businesses to automate complex HR and payroll processes.
  • Built-In Inventory Management: Rippling allows businesses to manage inventory by assigning, shipping, and tracking employee devices such as laptops and phones.

Rippling Pros And Cons

Pros:

  • Payroll processing is fast and highly accurate
  • Comprehensive reporting features enhance data-driven decisions
  • Automated workflows reduce manual work by a significant margin

Cons:

  • Frequent updates can disrupt ongoing processes occasionally
  • According to users, tax filing services encounters delays from time to time

What Is Remote?

Remote is a global HR platform designed to facilitate international hiring, payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance for businesses of all sizes. It enables companies to onboard and manage employees and contractors worldwide through a unified platform, ensuring compliance with local labor laws and regulations. Some key features include guided onboarding and offboarding, time and attendance tracking, expense management and reimbursement, etc.

This system helps organizations seeking to expand their global workforce without setting up physical offices or legal entities locally. Its services are suitable for various industries, including technology, finance, and e-commerce, providing a scalable solution for managing international teams.

Unique Remote Features

  • Global Employment Solutions: Remote provides extensive global employment services, enabling companies to hire full-time employees in over 180 countries and manage contractors in more than 200 countries, facilitating seamless international expansion.
  • ISO 27001 Certification: In addition to GDPR and SOC 2 compliance, Remote is ISO 27001 certified, demonstrating a commitment to stringent data security standards and ensuring the protection of sensitive information.

Remote Pros And Cons

Pros:

  • Efficiently manages payroll across multiple countries seamlessly
  • Responsive customer support
  • Ensures adherence to local labor laws globally

Cons:

  • Limited integration options
  • Users report occasional slowdowns during peak times

Rippling Vs Remote – Features Comparison

Payroll Management

Rippling provides an extensive payroll solution that’s designed to handle payroll management for both domestic and international employees and contractors. As such, it supports paperless W-2, W-4, 1099, and new hire filings. Features like automated calculations help minimize errors, while multiple pay rates and retroactive ensure streamlined processes.

Furthermore, Rippling's global payroll capabilities allow companies to run payroll across various countries in minutes, ensuring compliance with local tax laws and regulations.

On the other hand, Remote specializes in global payroll services, simplifying the process of paying employees and contractors worldwide. Its platform includes features such as payroll calculation, local tax reporting and returns, tax deductions, social security reporting, and time-off management. Additional capabilities include pay slip generation, benefit deductions, expense management, bonuses and incentives, compliance reporting, and secure document storage.

Remote also ensures compliance with local labor laws in every country, providing personalized assistance with a dedicated team and specialists.

Winner: It’s a tie since both software offer comparable features with different goals—Rippling integrates payroll with HR and IT functions, whereas Remote focuses on simplifying international payroll.

Time Tracking

When it comes to time and attendance tracking, Rippling caters to multiple clock-in scenarios. For example, employees can mark themselves present using the web, mobile apps, or office kiosks. To help companies accurately track attendance, Rippling also offers additional features like geolocation limits, QR code entries, and selfie clock-ins.

Additionally, the platform supports unlimited job codes which allow employees to allocate hours to specific jobs or projects, facilitating detailed job costing. It ensures compliance with federal, state, and local labor laws by automatically applying overtime, meal breaks, and other employment policies based on each employee’s work location.

Remote's ‘Time and Attendance Tracking’ system enables businesses to effortlessly monitor time and attendance for employees and contractors across various time zones. Employees can log their working hours, submit weekly timesheets, and request time off through a unified platform accessible via web and mobile app. Additionally, the platform allows for the creation of custom leave policies, providing employees with clear visibility into their available time off, including types awarded, booked, or already taken.

This system also features automated approval flows for time-off requests and compliance monitoring to ensure adherence to local labor laws. This centralized approach simplifies HR management and enhances transparency for globally distributed teams.

Winner: Remote’s focus on simplifying time tracking for global teams, along with its compliance-focused features, may make it a more attractive option for many companies. Therefore, it wins this round.

Benefits Administration

Rippling’s benefits administration platform centralizes employee benefits, including health insurance, 401(k) plans, and commuter perks, all into a single system. The platform also automates certain tasks, such as adjusting deductions, to reduce manual effort and improve accuracy. On top of that, employees can integrate their existing plans or choose from over 4,000 options offered by leading carriers such as Humana and Blue Cross Shield.

The platform also supports third-party broker integration, allowing companies to maintain relationships with their preferred brokers. Employees benefit from a user-friendly interface where they can manage their benefits, view plan details, and make changes as needed.

Remote's global benefits solution is designed to help companies offer competitive and compliant benefits packages to their international teams. The platform manages the entire benefits administration process, including researching local norms and laws, establishing relationships with top vendors, negotiating deals, administering benefits, handling employee enrollment, and providing continuous support.

This comprehensive approach ensures that employees receive benefits tailored to their local context, enhancing employee satisfaction and retention. Remote's offerings include health insurance, life insurance, and other supplementary benefits, all integrated into a single platform that aligns with payroll and compliance functions.

Winner: Both Rippling and Remote provide comparable benefits administration solutions tailored to the needs of modern businesses. Therefore, this category is another tie.

Onboarding

Rippling simplifies the onboarding process by integrating automation of repetitive tasks and data management into a seamless workflow. Central to this efficiency is the ‘Employee Graph’, which acts as the unified source of information for all employee data across Rippling's platform. Leveraging tools like HRIS, device management, and app provisioning, Rippling enables HR and IT to collaborate seamlessly throughout the employee lifecycle.

This approach also reduces manual errors, saves time, and enhances the new hire experience by ensuring access to all necessary tools and information from day one.

Remote's onboarding process is designed to integrate global team members through a structured five-step approach. It begins with setting up the new hire details, followed by self-enrollment, where employees input their administrative information and upload necessary documents.

Throughout this process, hiring managers and administrators maintain visibility into the employee's onboarding progress. Hence, this streamlined approach facilitates a smooth transition for new employees, enabling them to become productive members of the team promptly.

Winner: Rippling wins here since it focuses on automating various onboarding tasks, which in turn enhances efficiency.

Mobile App

Rippling's mobile app enhances workforce management by enabling employees to clock in and out seamlessly, including during meal or rest breaks, directly from their smartphones. The app also supports mobile timesheets, allowing users to enter working hours conveniently. To ensure accurate attendance tracking, Rippling utilizes geolocation features, verifying that employees are at designated locations when clocking in.

On the other hand, administrators gain real-time visibility into employee attendance, facilitating efficient time management and compliance with labor regulations.

Remote's employee mobile app empowers global teams by providing self-service access to essential HR functions. Employees and contractors can view and download payslips, request time off, submit expenses with receipt uploads, and log working hours through an intuitive interface.

The app also supports time and attendance tracking, enabling users to log hours worked and submit weekly timesheets, which is beneficial for project management and payroll compliance. This mobile accessibility ensures that team members can manage their employment details efficiently, regardless of location.

Winner: The versatility of Remote’s mobile app makes it the winner in this category.

Which One To Choose – Rippling Or Remote?

In the end, both Rippling and Remote provide comprehensive HR solutions, but each caters to different business needs.

Rippling stands out with its integrated platform that combines HR, IT, and finance functions, making it a strong choice for businesses seeking seamless automation and detailed customization, particularly those operating across diverse industries.

Remote, on the other hand, excels in supporting globally distributed teams with its focus on compliance, global payroll, and localized benefits, making it ideal for companies expanding internationally or managing a remote workforce.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on your organization’s size, global reach, and specific HR priorities.