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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Empower

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/AN/AN/A

    Guideline

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AGuideline headquartered in San Mateo offers a cloud-based 401k management software for businesses priced on a per employee basis.N/A
    Pricing
    EmpowerGuideline
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    EmpowerGuideline
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    EmpowerGuideline
    Considered Both Products
    Empower ERP
    No answer on this topic
    Guideline
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    73%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    73%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    78%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    Features
    EmpowerGuideline
    Sales Force Automation
    Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    7.6
    1 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Customer data management / contact management9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Territory management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Opportunity management7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contract management7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Quote & order management7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Interaction tracking8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Channel / partner relationship management7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer Service & Support
    Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Case management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Call center management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help desk management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Marketing Automation
    Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Lead management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email marketing8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    CRM Project Management
    Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    7.3
    1 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Task management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Billing and invoicing management6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    CRM Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Forecasting8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pipeline visualization8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable reports8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Custom fields8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom objects8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scripting environment8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    API for custom integration8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    9.0
    1 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Single sign-on capability9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social CRM
    Comparison of Social CRM features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    7.5
    1 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Social data8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social engagement7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-party Software
    Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    6.0
    1 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Guideline
    -
    Ratings
    Marketing automation6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compensation management6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    401(k)
    Comparison of 401(k) features of Empower and Guideline
    Feature
    Empower
    -
    Ratings
    Guideline
    6.3
    3 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Payroll Integration00 Ratings5.62 Ratings
    Compliance Maintenance00 Ratings6.02 Ratings
    Plan Flexibility00 Ratings7.52 Ratings
    Filings and Disclosures00 Ratings5.12 Ratings
    Ease of Enrollment00 Ratings7.53 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    EmpowerGuideline
    Small Businesses
    Salesflare
    Score6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Sell
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Daylite
    Score7.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    EmpowerGuideline
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.5
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    EmpowerGuideline
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Empower ERP
    Does all the work for correct deductions from employee's pay. When there is an issue with any employee's account, Empower works hard researching the issue and getting to the problem to correct it in a timely manner. My submitting payroll deductions is fast and easy. There are no issues there.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    I believe that the only thing more broken than Guideline's product is their customer support. From initial contribution dates to the disastrous account closure that cost us personally thousands of dollars, this has been by far the worst SaaS and customer experience I've ever had in my career. If only 1) Guideline's product or 2) customer support had individually been broken, we would not have ended up in this state. I sent dozens and dozens of emails inquiring about oddities I was seeing in the product, but Guideline's reps only gave more conflicting and what ended up being grossly inaccurate feedback and status updates. I hope this review reaches anyone who is thinking of closing their Guideline account. Be extremely wary of what Guideline says and does in the account closure process and exact for detailed and exact timelines (you'll have to follow up many times...). For those of you who haven't yet selected a 401k provider, I'd recommend staying as far away from Guideline as possible.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Empower ERP
    • Managing the helpdesk tickets.
    • Automatic financial tracking and information.
    • Maintaining management requirements, along with providing a clean interface to end users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    • Administrate individual 401(k)
    • Understand the contributions accumulated in total and per year
    • Understand the percentage of salary being contributed per pay period.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Empower ERP
    • The transfer of payroll information from our payroll software to Empower, without getting charged on both ends.
    • The fees can be a lot
    • Notifying us when a notice or letter is returned to sender, so we can try to find out the new address.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    • I feel that the customer support was abysmal - In my experience, we were consistently given conflicting advice and statuses as we closed our account with Guideline. Despite many, many follow-ups attempting to clarify our current status and remaining steps to close the account, Guideline's reps continued to provide, I believe, misleading and inaccurate steps. This cost us thousands and thousands of dollars given Guideline was not able to appropriately pull the funds before closing the account.
    • Guideline's integrations - I believe there is clearly a broken pipeline between Guideline and Rippling. In my experience, contributions were not funded as expected when we first opened the account, and when we closed our account, there was no communication between Guideline and Rippling. Guideline continued to expect contributions into perpetuity despite closure of the account
    • I feel that Guideline's product itself is just broken in critical places - most importantly, statuses of contributions were reflected incorrectly in the software (Guideline thought funds were transferred, but they were not and Guideline never attempted to pull the funds from our bank). This, combined with the terrible customer support, cost us thousands and thousands of dollars after we closed our account. There are many absolutely critical features that are broken -> to give just one of many examples, it was not possible to update the bank account information and no error message was thrown. I was told that our account ended up in an exceptional state given our last payroll contribution date and account closure, but these seem like very basic things a 401k provider has to get right if there are going to manage people's money.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Empower ERP
    We have had no problems and will stay with Empower for our 401k needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Empower ERP
    It is very useful. From managing leaves to working hours, it keeps track of everything. Also, it currently has all the features required for managing employees seamlessly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    Well thought out and intuitive user experience for employees and administrators. Educational documentation has been a plus
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Empower ERP
    Had a past participant from 20 years ago, receive a letter from the government saying they might have a retirement account. Empower helped this employee and I didn't have to play detective concerning this person. They back tracked to Merrill Lynch to find this former participant and help her. I was impressed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    The few questions that we've had have been answered quickly and helpfully. The implementation was a breeze and the onboarding contacts were really helpful. There was some stuff I had to learn about 401(k)s in making the decision to implement Guideline, but the Guideline team was helpful in pointing me in the right direction.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Empower ERP
    It stood out when compared for features, legacy, customer support, and on-premises deployment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    We selected Guideline due to their relationship with Gusto, our payroll service. However, we did review alternative options for our 401k program and found them very competitive as to price and quality. We were thinking about going with one of the bigger companies like Schwab, E*TRADE, Ally, etc., but found Guideline to be the best choice for us based on price and ease of use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Empower ERP
    • It has improved employee experience and is a good tool for management to track things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Guideline
    • Allow small employees to enhance benefit package
    • Great recruitment tool for new employees
    • Connection with payroll vendor allowed for less manual work
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots