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Comparison

Capstan and ADP

ADP is a serious product, and this page is not a scorecard. It sets out how each of the two is built, taking each side from how it is publicly positioned, and then gives you the questions worth putting to any vendor in this market, us included. Where ADP is the better buy, it says so, and it says where Capstan is the wrong choice outright.

What each one is built to be

Start here rather than with a feature list. Most of the difference between two HR products is decided before either one ships a feature, by what business the company is in.

ADP, as publicly positioned, October 2026

ADP presents itself as a payroll and human capital management company for businesses of every size, from a long-established position in United States payroll. The centre of gravity of the public offer is full-service payroll with employment-tax filing, and around it a professional employer organization, ADP TotalSource, that enters a co-employment arrangement so a smaller employer can hand HR administration, benefits and workers' compensation to ADP. Its payroll services reach markets beyond the United States as well.

Capstan, published on this site

Capstan is an HR system of record for companies that employ their own people. It holds the roster, the employment, leave, attendance, documents and the workflows around them, with the module suite included on every plan for the rest. It is not an employer of record, it computes no payroll, and it runs as a self-contained stack in one EU region live today, data in Frankfurt and compute in Amsterdam.

Set out in full on the product page, with the residency model on security and every figure on pricing.

Three structural differences

One axis at a time, two published models, each stated as what it is. Nothing here says what ADP does not do: their model is theirs to describe, and if it moves, the line about ours still holds.

  1. Who computes and files payroll

    ADP, as publicly positioned, October 2026

    Full-service payroll with employment-tax filing is the published core: pay is calculated and employment taxes are filed, and through the TotalSource professional employer organization those taxes are filed under ADP's own tax identification as a certified PEO.

    Capstan, published on this site

    Capstan compiles the inputs and hands a documented export to your payroll partner, then files their computed results back onto the employee record. It holds no statutory rate, slab or formula, moves no money, and files nothing with any authority.

  2. Who holds the employment

    ADP, as publicly positioned, October 2026

    Through ADP TotalSource, ADP publishes a co-employment arrangement: it becomes the administrative employer alongside you, carrying benefits, workers' compensation and employment-tax filing, while you remain the worksite employer that hires and directs your people.

    Capstan, published on this site

    Capstan employs nobody and co-employs nobody. You are the employer, in your own entity, and Capstan is the system of record where that employment is written down. It never becomes an administrative or legal employer of anyone on your roster.

  3. How the offer is shaped

    ADP, as publicly positioned, October 2026

    A bundled service and a suite of products, sized to each customer and quoted to them, with payroll, benefits administration and compliance support, and, in the PEO, pooled benefits and workers' compensation delivered under a service agreement.

    Capstan, published on this site

    One product, the whole platform on every plan including the free one, all fourteen modules included at one per-seat price, billed month to month with no annual contract and no lock-in, and every figure on one public page, so you can total your own number without a call.

The six questions to ask any vendor, including us

Our answers are here in public with nothing rounded off. The slot beside each one is left open on purpose: ADP’s answers are theirs to give, and a comparison page that fills them in has stopped being a comparison. Ask them the same six, and set what you are told beside ours.

  1. Who employs our people, and who carries the liability?

    It decides who is on the contract of employment, who answers a labour authority, and what you are actually buying: a service that takes the employment on, or a system that records it.

    Capstan’s answer, in public

    You do. Capstan is not an employer of record, never becomes the legal employer of anyone on your roster, and moves no payroll money. If you need a legal employer in a country where you have no entity, that is a different kind of vendor.

    ADP’s answer

    Ask them, and get it in writing.

  2. Who computes payroll, and whose name is on the filing?

    Computation and filing are where liability sits. A vendor that calculates and files is taking that on. A vendor that prepares inputs is not, and you need the second half of the arrangement in place before you rely on either.

    Capstan’s answer, in public

    Not Capstan, by design. It compiles joiners and leavers, pay structures, leave, attendance and adjustments into a documented export for your payroll partner, and files the computed results back onto the employee record. It holds no statutory rate, slab or formula, and files nothing with any authority.

    ADP’s answer

    Ask them, and get it in writing.

  3. Where does our data live, and who inside the vendor can reach it?

    Residency is a property of where the database is, not of a promise in a policy. Support access is the same question from the other end: not whether staff would look, but whether the system lets them without you switching it on.

    Capstan’s answer, in public

    One isolated region, the EU today: data in Frankfurt, compute in Amsterdam. It is a self-contained stack with no global control plane and no cross-region keys, so there is no runtime path out of the region. Staff hold no tenant of their own, and access exists only while you have granted a time-boxed consent, masked by default and audited on both sides.

    ADP’s answer

    Ask them, and get it in writing.

  4. What do we get on the plan we start on, and what changes as we grow?

    This is what growing costs you. If capability moves between tiers, the upgrade you eventually buy is largely software you were already being shown.

    Capstan’s answer, in public

    The complete core is on every plan, including the free one, which is capped at twenty active employees. Paying lifts the cap and includes all fourteen modules at no extra charge, billed month to month with no annual contract and no lock-in. Every figure is on one public page, so you can total your own number without a call.

    ADP’s answer

    Ask them, and get it in writing.

  5. What happens to our data the day we leave, or the day a payment fails?

    Export is the price of leaving. Either it is written down before you join, or it gets decided at the moment you have the least leverage you will ever have.

    Capstan’s answer, in public

    An owner can take a full export at any time: one archive of JSON and CSV, in open formats, with a documented manifest. Export deliberately sits outside the suspension check, so a workspace held for non-payment can still be exported. Deletion is cryptographic erasure followed by hard deletion, with a residue scan.

    ADP’s answer

    Ask them, and get it in writing.

  6. Does any software judge our people, and can the person see why?

    Whether software scores, ranks or screens people decides who is accountable for the judgement, and whether the person it was made about can be shown the reason.

    Capstan’s answer, in public

    No AI scores, ranks or screens your people, and that is architectural rather than a promise: nothing of the kind is built, and the analytics engine can only ever narrow who sees what, with small groups suppressed. There is one optional assistant a workspace can turn on. When it is on, it answers from aggregate figures a caller could already see, such as headcount by department, which it sends to our one AI sub-processor, OpenAI, listed on the sub-processor register and not used to train on the data. No per-person or sensitive record is ever sent to an outside model or used to train one.

    ADP’s answer

    Ask them, and get it in writing.

If an answer of ours turns out to be wrong, it is a bug and we will fix the page. The same standard applies to anything here about ADP: tell us and we correct it or take it down.

Choose ADP if

This is the part of the page that makes the rest of it worth reading. If one of these describes you, the honest answer is that ADP is the better buy, and we would rather you knew it here than three months into an implementation.

  • You want one company to run your payroll and file your employment taxes, and you are shopping for a long-established United States payroll provider to do it. Capstan hands payroll to a partner, so one vendor for both is the shorter path here.
  • You want a professional employer organization to co-employ your team so you can offer large-group benefits and workers' compensation a smaller company could not assemble alone. ADP TotalSource is built for exactly that, and Capstan is not a PEO at any price.
  • You are a United States business and benefits administration, workers' compensation and payroll-tax filing from one accountable vendor is the purchase. That consolidation is real, and Capstan is deliberately narrower.

The part that costs us the sale

Where Capstan is the wrong choice

Not a softened version of the section above. These are requirements Capstan does not meet and is not going to meet, written down so you can rule us out in a minute rather than in a quarter. If one of them is true of you, nothing else on this page matters.

  1. You want your HR software to calculate pay and file your payroll taxes. Capstan does neither, in any country, by design.

  2. You want a co-employer to carry benefits, workers' compensation and the employment-tax filing. Capstan employs and co-employs nobody, and holds the record for people you employ yourself.

  3. United States benefits administration is a requirement. Capstan administers no benefits and moves no money.

That is the list as we understand it today. If you hit a limit that is not on it, tell us: a disqualifier we did not know about belongs here more than anything else on the page.

If nothing on this page ruled us out, run it yourself.

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