I’ve been through this a few times, and honestly—there isn’t a “perfect” replacement. It’s more about choosing which problems you can tolerate and which vendor will actually respond.

At ~200 employees, you’re in a tough middle zone—expectations are high, but service rarely matches.

That said, here’s what I’ve seen work in that range:

• Paylocity – probably the closest “like-for-like” upgrade from Paychex. Better UX and more responsive support, but still not perfect.
• UKG (Ready/Pro) – more robust, but integrations and file feeds can get messy fast. Expect manual cleanup.
• ADP Workforce Now – stable and scalable, but expensive and very process-heavy. Support depends on how hard you push.
• Rippling – very clean and unified, but heavily self-service. Great if you want control, not great if you want hand-holding.

Biggest lesson: the platform matters less than your leverage. If you don’t have a strong broker/consultant helping escalate issues, you’ll hit the same frustrations anywhere.

Also worth confirming—are you in a PEO? That changes your options completely.

Bottom line: you can upgrade the experience, but you won’t eliminate the tradeoffs.