Netchex vs. Auris: Which HR and Payroll Platform Is Right for Your Business in 2026?

If you’ve been researching Heartland Payroll and keep running into a different name, that’s not a mistake. Acrisure completed its acquisition of Heartland Payroll Solutions from Global Payments in October 2025, and the payroll and HCM business has since rebranded as Auris. The technology traces back further than that. Heartland’s payroll business originally grew up alongside its card-payment-processing and point-of-sale business, cross-sold to small and midsize merchants who were already using Heartland to run credit cards.

That origin story matters for how the platform feels today. A payroll system built to bundle onto a payments business isn’t necessarily built the same way as one designed from the ground up to be a standalone HR and payroll platform. Here’s how Auris and Netchex actually compare.

Last updated: September 2026. Netchex data sourced from G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and the Better Business Bureau. Auris (formerly Heartland Payroll) information sourced from G2, Capterra, the Better Business Bureau, and ComplaintsBoard. Claims verified as of September 2026.

The Short Version

Auris, the newly rebranded identity for Heartland Payroll, is a payroll and HCM platform with roots in card-payment processing rather than standalone HR technology. Reviewers describe a genuinely mixed experience: some praise quick, helpful support, while others report an outdated interface and support routed through off-shore centers with slow response times.

Netchex is a single-vendor HCM platform built for businesses with 50 to 5,000 employees, particularly hourly, multi-location operations with lean HR teams. The US-based, FPC-certified support team answers 90% of calls in under one minute with a 98% satisfaction score. Netchex holds a 4.5/5 rating on G2 from more than 7,500 businesses, ahead of Auris’s own G2 and Capterra ratings.

Company Overview

Payroll and Tax

Auris covers core payroll processing and tax filing, which makes sense given the platform’s long operating history since its days as Heartland Payment Systems. Where reviewers consistently raise concerns is configurability. Changing a pay category name reportedly requires calling support directly rather than doing it yourself, and changing an employee’s access level reportedly requires submitting a paper form.

Think about what that means on a normal Tuesday. A manager needs to adjust something small in the system and instead has to wait on hold or mail in a form. Netchex handles that differently. Tip management, shift differentials, and overtime calculations connect directly from time and attendance to payroll, configurable by your own team without a support ticket. OneScreen payroll runs in about 15 minutes, and multi-entity operators get a single login across locations and EINs.

HR, Benefits, and Compliance

Auris covers standard HR and benefits functions, consistent with a platform that’s been operating for more than two decades. Reviewers describe the interface itself as extremely basic and, in some cases, incredibly outdated compared to newer HCM platforms.

Netchex includes the same foundational HR and benefits coverage, health, dental, FSA, 401(k), EWA, and COBRA, with benefits data flowing directly into payroll on a modern, mobile-first platform. ACA compliance tracking runs automatically, watching hours, flagging the 30-hour threshold, and generating 1095-C reports without HR chasing it down manually every quarter.

Service and Support

Support is where Auris reviews genuinely split. Some customers describe strong support quality and quick response times. Others describe poor customer support, reliance on off-shore support centers, and communication they call terrible, including unreturned calls and emails. Auris’s own marketing describes a model built around a dedicated payroll expert with no ticket queues, which is worth knowing is the company’s own claim rather than an independently verified metric.

Netchex doesn’t have that split. The US-based, FPC-certified support team answers 90% of calls in under one minute with a dedicated Account Manager for every customer, backed by a 98% satisfaction score that’s independently reported, not self-published.

Anytime I call with a question, I get a real person who knows our account. That alone is worth more than any feature on a comparison chart. Netchex support is in a completely different class from what I experienced with our previous provider.

– Verified Reviewer, G2

Implementation and Switching

A rebrand doesn’t necessarily change what happens on the ground during onboarding. If Auris’s platform is still built on the same underlying system that carried the Heartland Payroll name, the same configuration friction reviewers described (calling support for a pay-category name change, submitting a paper form for an access-level change) is a reasonable thing to ask about directly before you sign anything.

Netchex’s implementation is white-glove and project-managed, typically completed in about six weeks, with a 96% implementation satisfaction score and free data imports included. That number comes from an independent survey of actual customers, not a company’s own marketing copy.

Switching providers mid-rebrand carries its own kind of uncertainty. A newly independent brand under Acrisure’s fintech umbrella is still building its own track record separate from Heartland’s. That’s a real consideration if you’re weighing stability alongside features.

Scale and Multi-Location Considerations

Auris’s roots as a bundled add-on to card-payment processing shaped it around single-location retail and restaurant merchants more than complex, multi-entity operators. Businesses that have grown past that profile, adding locations, adding EINs, adding hourly headcount, often find the platform hasn’t kept pace with their operational complexity.

Netchex was built from the start for multi-location operators. A restaurant group running locations across several states gets one login, consistent payroll accuracy, and a support team that already understands multi-entity operations, not a system originally designed to ride along with a card reader.

Who Each Platform Is Actually Built For

Choose Auris if: You’re a small, single-location merchant already using the platform for card processing, and adding payroll on top is a convenience worth more to you than a purpose-built HR platform.

Choose Netchex if: You have 50 to 5,000 employees, manage hourly or multi-location workforces, and want a platform and a support team both built specifically for HR and payroll, not one that started as a bundle on top of something else.

Frequently Asked Questions

See the full comparison: Netchex vs. Auris, including service, features, and switcher reviews.

This guide reflects publicly available product information and independent reviewer data (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Reddit, Software Advice, GetApp) as of 2026. Feature availability may vary by plan. Contact each provider for current details.

Disclaimer: Any product roadmap or future plans provided herein are for informational purposes only. They do not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, feature, or functionality. Plans may change without notification. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described remain at the sole discretion of Netchex, its affiliates, and partners. Netchex does not give legal, tax, or accounting advice. You are responsible for ensuring your use of Netchex product meets your individual business and compliance requirements.

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