Ease vs Plenty

About

Ease is a San Diego-based benefits administration platform purpose-built for the small and medium-sized business market, sold primarily through insurance brokers and employee benefits agencies. Founded in 2012, Ease recognized that SMBs were underserved by the enterprise-focused benefits administration platforms that dominated the market, and built a streamlined, broker-centric product that allows agencies to efficiently manage benefits for dozens or hundreds of small employer clients from a single dashboard. The platform covers online enrollment, employee onboarding, qualifying life event processing, ACA compliance, and carrier data connections for groups as small as two employees.\n\nEase's broker-first distribution model is central to its product design. Brokers use a master agency portal to manage all their client groups, configure plans, and track enrollment progress without requiring deep HR or IT resources from their small business clients. This model reduces broker administrative burden significantly—a key competitive advantage given that most SMBs rely entirely on their broker for HR technology guidance and often lack dedicated HR staff to manage complex enrollment systems. Ease has built integrations with hundreds of insurance carriers and supports real-time eligibility feeds to streamline the back-office exchange of enrollment data.\n\nEase was acquired by Employee Navigator in 2022, combining two of the leading broker-distribution benefits administration platforms in the SMB market. The combined entity serves tens of thousands of employer groups and hundreds of broker partners, creating one of the largest independent SMB benefits administration networks in the country. Post-acquisition, Ease has continued to operate under its own brand while benefiting from shared carrier integrations, product development resources, and distribution partnerships through the Employee Navigator ecosystem.