Last updated on
Reviewed by Steph Leung
Stackfix Product & Operations Lead
Deel and GoCo serve distinctly different market segments within the HRIS space. Deel excels as a global-first platform with strong customization and integration capabilities, making it ideal for international companies or those planning global expansion. Its free tier (up to 200 employees) and comprehensive IT management features are particularly attractive for growing tech companies.
Conversely, GoCo shines as a US-focused solution with integrated ATS and robust HR support.
Advantages of Deel
Advantages of GoCo
GoCo offers an integrated ATS, so you can manage and hire employees in the same place. This also facilitates a smoother candidate to employee onboarding experience. In contrast, Deel requires you to have a separate platform for recruiting.
Deel
GoCo
 Deel Starting at $0Billed monthly |  GoCo Starting at $8employee / month Billed monthly |
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| Stackfix Verdict | ||
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| Functionality | 8 <p>While Deel's free HRIS only offers standard but high-quality HRIS functionality (e.g. store employee info, manage time-off, workflow automation), you can layer on very rich functionality via native add-ons.</p><p>Deel's ecosystem also includes global HR functionality that allows you to hire, manage and pay global employees, as well as an engagement module for performance management, learning & development etc.</p><p>The only functionality missing is software management and a native applicant tracking system.</p> | 9 <p>GoCo offers all of the functionality that most small to medium companies will need, though it lacks some more advanced functionality that more sophisticated companies might expect. Sophisticated payroll functionality, an integrated applicant tracking system, and managing benefits are a few examples of functions that users can expect from GoCo. For larger companies, however, users may expect more, such as managing hardware and software access (which is on GoCo's roadmap).</p> |
| Ease of Use | 7 <p>While key workflows on Deel are generally user-friendly, we did find some UX imperfections. For example, Deel's time-off module doesn't have an out-of-office calendar nor an easy way to check everyone's leave balance. Compared to other HRIS, figuring out how to set up the system was also a more involved process.</p> | 5 <p>GoCo is reasonably easy to understand and use, though it does require some getting used to - we think that an average startup employee might require up to half a day and some guidance to proficiently use all key functionalities of the product. While the layout makes it easy to navigate to a desired page, we found that there were times where specific settings were not always where we expected them. For example, if you wanted to adjust permissions for who could view a specific performance review, this cannot be done when creating the performance review - instead, this needs to be set in the permissions app.</p> |
| Look and feel | 7 <p>Deel has a simple and visually acceptable layout with quick page loads.</p> | 8 <p>GoCo is visually appealing - the collapsing/expanding sidebar enables users to view more information on their screen, without compromising functionality. Pages are fast to load.</p> |
| Customisability | 8 <p>Deel's free HRIS highly customisable. You can create custom data fields, leave policies and reports. You can also create highly customisable automation workflows (e.g. for onboarding) with conditional and branching logic.</p> | 7 <p>GoCo provides users with a high degree of customisability. users are able to customise most aspects of their workflow, from specific workflow automations, to which reports they would like to generate.</p><p>While the ability to customise is far-reaching, however, we found that the ease with which users can select specific groups for a policy to apply to lets it down. Users are unable to select 'groups' for a workflow to apply,your to, instead having to select either all employees or specific employees. This not only means that selecting employees takes longer (even though you can filter employees by groups when selecting them), but it also means that selected employees becomes a static list, rather than dynamically following changes in your business.</p> |
| Ease of Setup | 8 <p>Despite Deel not having a free trial, the core HR functionality is free. However, to gain access to Deel's core HR you have to talk to sales first. It takes <10min to complete the basic setup (entering company information, adding employees). Fully customizing and setting up the platform can be done in 1-2 business days. Customization and setup is simple enough that you don't need an expert to assist and more complicated processes can be done with help from the help center.</p> | 4 <p>GoCO does not offer a self-serve free trial and purchasing requires talking to sales. It takes 10-30mins to complete basic setup (entering company information and adding employees). Fully customizing and setting up the platform can be done within the week. Customization and setting up is simple enough to complete without help from an expert and more complicated processes can be done with help from the help center.</p> |
| Customer Support | 6 <p>Deel offers 24/7 in-app live chat support with agents. However, when tested, we found Deel's AI chatbot unhelpful and frustrating. <span style="color: rgb(9, 9, 11);">Perhaps because their HRIS is rather new, we were unable to find relevant articles on their knowledge base on some of our enquiries. </span>Agents we were eventually able to connect with were also not the most helpful, providing contradictory answers.</p> | 7 <p>GoCo provides all users with a dedicated client success manager, client success specialists, and a dedicated support team who are able to offer HR support to clients. The combination of these provisions mean that users should feel incredibly well supported when using GoCo. GoCo also provide client success analysts who are on hand to support employees, meaning that your employees will also feel well supported.</p><p>We found that customer support was generally quickly to respond to questions (<1 hour), although the lack of a live chat is disappointing for a product with this level of customer support. Users instead either need to call or email customer support. For customers outside the US, calling support requires contacting an American phone number during American hours of operation.</p> |
| Integratability | 5 <p>Deel only offers a few integrations with third-party tools in Applicant Tracking, Accounting and HR categories. It is lacking integrations with HR-relevant product categories e.g. performance management and engagement. However, it does offer an API for custom integrations.</p> | 7 <p>GoCo offers pre-built integrations with most relevant third party products (such as google and outlook calendars), however it lacks integrations with some popular third party products such as Lattice and Ravio, which some users might look for.</p> |
| Ease of Migration | 8 <p><span style="color: rgb(9, 9, 11);">Deel allows users to export key data data via self-serve. Export of most other data are also available via API or on request.</span></p> | 6 <p><span style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 248); color: rgb(29, 28, 29);">GoCo allows for the exporting of key data via reports (which can either be from templates, or be custom made). Its selection of pre-built integrations also allows users to export data to these third party apps, such as payroll data to Xero. Its inability to export data via an API holds it back, however.</span></p> |
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