Cheapest Payroll Services For Businesses

Gusto payroll pricing starts at $40/month + $6 per person paid on the Simple plan for paying both contractors and employees. For businesses with more complex needs, Gusto also offers a Plus plan starting at $80/month + 12/person paid and a Premium plan with custom pricing.

Gusto also offers a plan for businesses that only pay contractors, which costs $35/month + $6/contractor paid. Gusto frequently runs promotions for new customers, such as its current promotion, which waives the base price on its Contractor Only plan for six months.

Additional services such as benefits administration, international contractor payments, and spending accounts come with an additional fee.

Gusto’s “Run Payroll” Dashboard

Gusto has a wealth of features for small to mid-sized businesses looking for payroll and HR combined into a single solution. Gusto offers the following payroll features and add-ons:

• Full-Service Payroll: Run payroll across all 50 states, unlimited payroll runs, international contractor payments support, garnishments, use multiple pay rates and schedules, automated payroll runs, and more.
• Payroll Tax Support: Gusto will perform payroll tax calculations and filing at the federal, state, and local levels on behalf of your business; Gusto also fill out and sends out digital copies of Forms 1099 and W-2.
• HR Support & Tools: Gusto is one of the best HR software solutions on the market and offers state new hire reporting, an employee self-service portal, new hire onboarding support, document storage, background checks, applicant tracking, and much more.
• Benefits Administration: Offer employees health insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, FSAs, HSAs, life insurance, disability insurance, spending accounts, savings accounts, retirement accounts, and much more.
• Over 180+ Integrations: Gusto integrates with QuickBooks Time, Xero, Quickbooks, and tons of other software from accounting and expense tracking to POS and project management.
• Ease Of Use: Gusto’s dashboard, guided setup, free demo, help center, and easy-to-reach customer service line make it one of the more user-friendly options on the market.

• Gusto’s Simple plan doesn’t include its built-in time tracking. You’ll need to subscribe to Gusto’s Plus plan to take advantage of its built-in time tracking system, which costs $80/month + $12/person paid — double the price of the Simple plan. Otherwise, you can integrate Gusto with third-party time and attendance software, such as QuickBooks Time.
• Gusto’s Simple plan also doesn’t include next-day direct deposit. Again, if you need next-day direct deposit, you’ll need to upgrade your plan at nearly double the price of the cheapest plan.
• Gusto’s benefits administration service is limited and doesn’t include Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Patriot Payroll starts at $17/month + $4/per person monthly for its “Basic” plan without full tax support. Patriot Payroll’s “Full Service” plan starts at $37/month + $4 per employee per month to include options for tax filing and depositing at the federal, state, and local levels.

Users may also choose to add time tracking and HR software for an additional cost.

Patriot Payroll’s “Run Payroll” Dashboard

Patriot Payroll’s solid range of features aims to streamline payroll for small and growing businesses. Here’s a breakdown of Patriot Payroll’s features for small businesses:

• Payroll Processing: Patriot Payroll users can make unlimited payroll runs for both contractors and employees, offer multiple payment methods, make deductions, run multistate payroll, and more.
• Employee Management: Manage your business PTO policy, give employees access to an online self-service portal, let new hires onboard themselves, customize employee lists, and more.
• Payroll Tax Support: Patriot Payroll offers the option to handle payroll taxes manually, but the software can handle federal, state, and local payroll tax filing and deposits for you, including Form 940, 941, W-2, and W-3 submission; optional 1099 filing is available.
• HR Support: Secured document storage, HR reports, role designation, new hire reporting, and much more.

• Patriot Payroll’s benefits administration is limited. Patriot Payroll offers support for retirement plan contributions and workers’ compensation insurance but does not offer benefits administration for health, vision, or dental insurance.
• Patriot Payroll’s accounting integrations are limited to QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop.
• Patriot Payroll doesn’t have built-in time tracking but does offer an integration with QuickBooks Time.

Paychex’s Flex Essentials plan costs $39/month + $5/employee/month. Paychex does not publish prices for its Flex Select and Pro plans.

Pricing for add on services is also unpublished, so if you’re looking to add services, such as time tracking or integrations, you’ll need to get in touch with Paychex to customize your payroll package.

Paychex offers a generous feature set, even on its most basic plan. While you won’t get goodies like an employee handbook builder tool, you’ll get everything you need to handle payroll without breaking the bank. Here’s a look at Paychex’s features:

• Full-Service Payroll Processing: Pay your employees using multiple payment methods from your phone or the Paychex mobile app.
• Payroll Tax Support: Automatic payroll tax calculation, filing, and payment directly from your account; new hire reporting.
• Customer Support: 24/7 customer support with an option to work with a dedicated payroll specialist.
• Employee Management: Self-service digital onboarding for new employees, an employee self-service portal, and employee mobile app.
• HR Tools: Access to Paychex’s HR library which contains essential HR documents for your business; digital or printed labor law posters for your business.
• Reports: Paychex offers 160 built-in reports and report customization options.

• Paychex’s add-ons can be expensive. Although add-on services can be a good thing for small businesses that don’t need anything more than the basics, businesses with more complex needs may find that building the perfect payroll service package with Paychex can break the bank.
• Paychex charges per payroll run, rather than offering unlimited payroll like the vast majority of its competitors, such as Gusto, QuickBooks, Onpay, and nearly every other option on this list.
• Paychex is difficult to trial. Paychex’s self-guided demo is very limited compared to other options on the list, such as Patriot Payroll. Further, getting a full look at the software can only be done after scheduling a full demo with a salesperson.

Square Payroll’s pricing starts at only $35/month + $6/person paid on its Employee’s and Contractors plan. The software’s Contractors Only plan costs $6/contractor paid with no monthly base rate.

Square Payroll’s “Run Payroll” Dashboard

Square Payroll is both affordable and fully functional. Though Square Payroll doesn’t have many bells and whistles, the software includes all the essential payroll features a small business could need, including:

• Full-Service Payroll: Square Payroll supports unlimited payroll runs, contractor and employee payments, support for multiple payment methods, tip importing and tracking, garnishments, reimbursements, payroll reports, time-tracking, and more.
• Employee Management: PTO accrual and policy management, paystub printing, scheduling, and more.
• Payroll Tax Support: Automatic federal and state level payroll calculation and filing: Square Payroll will also create, file, and mail out Form W-2 and Form 1099 for your employees and contractors.
• Benefits Administration: Square Payroll partners with SimplyInsured and Guideline to provide health insurance and retirement accounts, Health savings accounts, on-demand pay, and employee benefits management options are also available.
• HR Tools: Square Payroll has only a few built-in HR tools, including employee self-onboarding tools and an employee self-service portal.

• Square’s customer service leaves room for improvement. Many customer reviews of Square Payroll suggest that it can be challenging to get issues resolved in a timely manner.
• Square Payroll can’t be used to pay household employees or for businesses within the agricultural industry. Unfortunately, you can’t use Square to pay household employees, such as cleaners or nannies. Fortunately, the nanny payroll services enable payments for household employees.
• Square Payroll’s features are basic without add-on services. Although Square Payroll is offered as a standalone product, it’s a bit barebones without subscribing to the other solutions within the Square ecosystem.

OnPay costs $40/month + $6/person paid — that’s it. OnPay utilizes a single payment plan tier. The only additional fees from OnPay are those incurred for insufficient balances and tax form printing and mailing services.

OnPay’s Employee Management

OnPay offers a ton of payroll and HR features for small businesses at an affordable price. Here’s a breakdown of OnPay’s payroll and HR features:

• Small Business Payroll: Payroll across all 50 states, unlimited payroll runs, multiple payment methods, pay contractors and employees, garnishments, multistate payroll, support for multiple pay rates and schedules, and much more.
• Payroll Tax Support: Automatic tax withholding, Form 941 quarterly filing, Form 940 annual filing, I-9 and W-4 signing, tax document storage, and more.
• HR Features: OnPay handles document storage, assigning, task tracking, onboarding, support, hiring tools, HR resources library, custom org charts, PTO management.
• Benefits Administration: Health and dental insurance administration 401(k) plans, insurance broker support, workers’ compensation insurance, disability, and vision insurance options.
• Integrations: QuickBooks Online, Quickbooks Desktop, Xero, Quickbooks Time, Deputy, When I Work, Mineral, and PosterElite.

• OnPay’s accounting integrations are limited to QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, or Xero. While these software options are very popular, it’s a significant limitation for businesses that use other accounting software.
• OnPay requires third-party integrations to track time. You’ll need to use Quickbooks Time, Deputy, or When I Work to track time and attendance and sync the data with OnPay.
• OnPay’s customers aren’t happy with its mobile app. OnPay’s mobile app is home to a collection of very poor reviews from disgruntled customers calling the app completely unusable.

Roll by ADP costs $39/month + $5/employee.

Roll by ADP Employee Management

Roll by ADP simplifies payroll to a chat-based platform on your mobile device, but it still packs a lot of features into its AI-powered app. Here are some of Roll By ADP’s best features:

• Payroll Processing: Roll by ADP offers unlimited payroll runs in all 50 states, support for multiple pay rates and schedules, running payroll via text, paying employees and contractors, deductions, garnishments, and one payroll report
• Employee Management: Employee portal through the mobile app, manage employee information, walkthrough on how to hire an employee, new employee self-onboarding, payday reminders, and downloadable paystubs and tax statements.
• Payroll Tax Support: Federal, state, and local payroll tax calculation, filing, and payment for W-2 employees.
• QuickBooks Online Integration: Export payroll data to QuickBooks.

• Roll By ADP only integrates with QuickBooks Online. While it’s great to have an accounting integration, more options would be a solid addition.
• Roll by ADP is a robust, but bare-bones payroll service. Benefits administration, time tracking and attendance, and other payroll-adjacent features are completely lacking within Roll.

Payroll4Free is free for businesses paying under 10 employees. For businesses that want full-service tax support or want to use Payroll4Free’s direct deposit services, there are additional fees of $35/month or $350/year. Businesses may bundle these services for a discounted $400/year.

Although the Payroll4Free software doesn’t have many bells and whistles, it boasts essential payroll features that should be sufficient for businesses with basic payroll needs, including:

• Payroll Processing: Direct deposit and paper checks, payroll reports, contractor and employee payments.
• Employee Management: Employee self-service portal, vacation time tracking.

• Payroll4Free only supports up to 10 employees or contractors per business. If your business outgrows Payroll4Free, you’ll be stuck with fees that rival traditional payroll software or the hassle of transferring your payroll data to a payroll service provider that can accommodate your team.
• You may pay for direct deposit and tax services. Fortunately, Payroll4Free’s tax and direct deposit services are still exceptionally cheap, but they will cost a business that’s looking for completely free payroll services with tax support.
• Payroll4Free can only be run on Windows. Macs can run Payroll4Free —if they’re running Windows OS.

SurePayroll’s pricing starts at $19.99/month + $4/employee per month and offers two service plans: Self-Service and Full-Service.

SurePayroll’s Self-Service plan is best for businesses that want to manage their payroll tax filing and remittance in-house or with an accountant, while the Full-Service plan is best for businesses that want their payroll tax filing and remittance handled for them.

• Payroll Processing: Businesses using SurePayroll can pay employees whenever, including off-cycle payroll runs and multistate payroll runs. SurePayroll also supports automated payroll processing, multiple payment options, and support for multiple pay rates and schedules.
• Time Tracking Integrations: SurePayroll doesn’t natively support time tracking but offers integrations with time clock software, including Homebase, Buddy Punch, and OnTheClock.
• Employee Management: Employees can use SurePayroll’s online employee portal to access paystubs and pay information. Employers can manage time off policies and monitor balances.
• Payroll Tax Filing: SurePayroll enables businesses to choose between self-managed payroll tax filing or the software’s payroll tax filing and remittance plan. The software will also handle the filing and distribution of W-2s and 1099 forms for your employees.
• Benefits Administration: Businesses using SurePayroll can manage deductions within the software and can be matched with health insurance, retirement accounts, and workers’ compensation insurance providers.
• Reporting: SurePayroll comes with nine built-in reports and options to customize reports

• SurePayroll doesn’t offer built-in time tracking. However, the software does offer some time tracking integrations with popular time and attendance software, such as StratusTime, Homebase, and When I Work.
• SurePayroll’s integration options are limited. The software integrates with fewer than 30 software options, but competitors typically offer hundreds of options.
• SurePayroll’s reporting feature is limited. Other payroll software tends to have a larger selection of built-in reports and stronger customization options.