Best Payroll Software for Small Business

OnPay Pricing and Plans

OnPay makes it easy for you to get started. They take care of your account migration for free. Once you’re set-up, there is one affordable plan with no added fees. Everything is clearly spelled out for you. Plus, you only get billed for the employees you pay that month, making it truly affordable.

Features include full-service payroll and tax services, free account migration, an intuitive app, exceptional customer service — with emergency weekend customer service— and HR services. You can also easily opt for additional OnPay add-ons like higher-level HR and benefits administration.

It provides easy integration with popular business tech like QuickBooks, while an employee portal helps employees get set up efficiently.

Who Should Use It

We recommend OnPay for small to mid-size businesses. It’s especially helpful for small businesses that plan to scale up to the mid-size range. The pricing structure makes it affordable for these businesses, and the ease of employee onboarding supports growth and flexibility.

OnPay Features

Rippling Pricing and Plans

The HR cloud is the core of Rippling services, and payroll is at the forefront. Specific payroll features include automation, payroll runs within 90 seconds, global payroll, automatic tax filing, a dedicated mobile app, syncing with your expenses and general ledger, numerous integrations, and more.

Beyond payroll, Rippling features extend to benefits administration, time tracking, employee training, internal feedback mechanisms, and other HR functionalities.

Additionally, Rippling offers the option to leverage hiring and recruiting functionalities through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or to explore the IT and finance clouds.

With its versatility, Rippling allows you to tailor and integrate a payroll program seamlessly with other features, optimizing your business operations according to your specific needs.

Who Should Use It

Rippling is an ideal solution for companies seeking to streamline and enhance their workforce management processes. From initial employee paperwork collection to ongoing lifecycle tracking, Rippling seamlessly incorporates payroll as an integral component of its comprehensive package.

Rippling Features

Payroll is found in the HR Cloud.

Paycor Pricing and Plans

Paycor is designed to make payroll and HR tasks convenient for small businesses.

It has a mobile app for payroll, which means you can do automatic payroll runs anytime, anywhere, even on the go. If there are any mistakes, Paycor lets you know promptly so you can fix them quickly.

But Paycor doesn’t stop at payroll. It can help you with other important HR tasks, like managing documents, automating workflows, and keeping track of employee performance.

You can even add more features like recruitment, tracking work hours, workers’ comp, and benefits management. Payroll and all HR add-ons are easily scalable as your small business grows.

Paycor is your all-in-one solution for simplifying HR and growing your small business.

Who Should Use It

In the small business sector, Paycor supports rapid growth by simplifying HR and payroll processes, maintaining compliance, and providing the scalability and insights necessary to manage a growing workforce.

Paycor Features

Paycor offers employee record management in addition to payroll services.

ADP Pricing and Plans

ADP offers three payroll options: ADP Run is a payroll and HR software for small businesses. ADP Workforce Now is a full-service HR service that encompasses payroll. Finally, the original ADP payroll service is a stand-alone service.

This last one can be combined with any other ADP HR service. For this guide, we are focusing on the original ADP payroll service.

Pricing is highly based on what other services you combine the original payroll service with, making it rather customizable. Choices include global payroll, global direct deposit, global tax deductions, employee and admin mobile apps, standardized reporting, automation, and access to a marketplace of other ADP services to integrate with.

Who Should Use It

ADP payroll offers many features but is especially good for businesses looking to automate recurring payroll globally. With numerous add-ons and the ability to grow and scale with your business, you can automate what you need when you need to as you expand and set new routines.

ADP Features

ADP provides a snapshot of your costs for every payroll you run.

Paychex Flex Pricing and Plans

Paychex Flex focuses mainly on payroll and how to make it easy for you to pay your team. Features include scalable growth solutions, dedicated phone and chat support, compliance resources, tax calculations with payment, critical reporting, an employee self-service portal, a mobile app, and integrations with popular software.

Three plans are available and designed to grow and scale along with your business while saving time and increasing your efficiency. You can also choose to add on HR and benefits administration solutions.

Who Should Use It

Paychex provides in-depth, flexible reporting at all levels. Even the basic level allows you to pick your data fields – something competitors charge extra for. This is especially useful for companies looking to scale and make data-driven business decisions.

Paychex Flex Features

Paychex Flex payroll dashboard and help center.

Deel Pricing and Plans

Deel provides small business owners with an accessible and efficient global payroll solution tailored to the complexities of managing international talent on a budget.

If you’re a small business expanding into countries where you haven’t yet established an entity, Deel offers the unique service of serving as the Employer of Record (EOR), saving you valuable time and resources.

How? Deel operates in 150 countries, has over 200 dedicated local compliance experts, and supports over 90 currencies, allowing it to streamline payroll processes while ensuring compliance with local state tax payments and laws.

Beyond core payroll functions, Deel provides additional HR tools such as contract management, customizable health insurance packages, automated invoicing, and more.

It’s an all-in-one, user-friendly solution for managing your distributed workforce.

Who Should Use It

Deel offers a seamless solution for small businesses building a diverse and international team. You can access 150 countries and 90 currencies to process payroll by choosing Deel. Deel provides global payroll and HR solutions while maintaining compliance and cost-effectiveness, making it the trusted choice for small businesses seeking to grow internationally.

Deel Features

Setting up the different contract types for different types of employees to get paid.

Gusto Pricing and Plans

As a small business, you need payroll software that you can trust. Gusto makes payroll management hassle-free, allowing you to redirect your focus toward the growth and success of your small business.

Gusto has an unwavering dedication to simplicity and efficiency.

Whether you’re handling traditional employees or independent contractors, Gusto simplifies and streamlines the entire payroll process, sparing you the complexities of payroll deductions, tax calculations, tax compliance, and other payroll tasks.

In line with its simplicity, Gusto notably has a flexible pricing structure, offering three comprehensive plans, each with a monthly base fee and a fixed monthly rate per employee.

Gusto’s unique pricing structure includes a six-month waived monthly fee for businesses exclusively paying independent contractors. Additionally, Gusto ensures you’re not charged for contractors during months when you don’t need their services.

Gusto simplifies the complexities of HR and payroll administration, making it the ideal partner for small businesses looking to streamline their operations and thrive in a competitive landscape.

Who Should Use It

Gusto has a cost-effective approach for startups that are paying contractors only. It delivers substantial savings compared to platforms that treat independent contractors as traditional employees, all the while providing high-quality payroll features.

Gusto Features

Gusto offers many payroll run options.

Oyster Pricing and Plans

Oyster provides a streamlined approach to global payroll for contractors and employees hired through Oyster.

You can pay employees in over 140 currencies, meet local compliance laws, pay reimbursements, make tax withholdings, manage invoices, and access reporting all in one place without the admin headaches that typically come with these global services.

In addition, Oyster seamlessly integrates with your accounting software and other popular tools in your tech deck. It also offers free global payroll resources to educate you on news and trends.

Who Should Use It

Oyster HR is an excellent fit for teams looking to grow and hire globally with international contractors and employees. We especially find the contractor plan robust and affordable for small businesses that would not otherwise be able to hire internationally.

Oyster Features

Oyster payroll dashboard.

Justworks Pricing and Plans

Justworks’s relatively new service means you don’t need to sign up for the whole PEO to get payroll tools. Justworks payroll offers all the features you need to pay your employees, including flexible pay schedules, multiple pay rates, deductions, generated tax forms, reporting, and customer support within one business day. HR tools include employee onboarding and offboarding, PTO management, integrations, and employee job histories.

Justworks offers several discounts. Non-profit organizations get 10 percent off the plan price, while minority and women-owned businesses receive credits to give them equal footing in a highly competitive business environment. Additionally, payroll customers get add-ons at a discount. For example, if you have a payroll plan, you can get time tracking at a 50 percent discount per employee.

Benefits administration is also an add-on that you can integrate with the payroll software. Since this is a newer program that Justworks offers, you can look forward to them adding new features and perks. But be assured there will be no mishaps with your payroll.

Justworks is IRS-certified and holds an ESAC accreditation (something that less than five percent of PEOs have). This means that you will never find yourself in a situation where your payroll taxes aren’t paid. Justworks takes full liability, not the business owner.

Who Should Use It

Justworks payroll was designed with small teams in mind. You can use Justworks payroll to streamline your payroll, HR processes, and benefits if you have as little as one person to pay or a team of 30 contractors.

Justworks Features

Justworks payroll is a new offering and not yet available to pay employees in all states.

SurePayroll Pricing and Plans

SurePayroll has over 20 years of experience and is a recognized name like QuickBooks and ADP.

It’s the ideal payroll solution for small businesses. It is hassle-free, offering two pricing plans: one with full-service payroll, including tax forms and filing, and a more affordable plan without tax filing.

Both plans come with no setup fees or contracts that allow you the flexibility to cancel at any time.

SurePayroll offers a range of features, including extended customer service hours, free direct deposit into a bank account, unlimited payroll runs, and a user-friendly mobile app, ensuring accessible and cost-effective payroll management.

You can also expand your HR capabilities with options like workers’ compensation, 401(k) plans, health insurance, and pre-employment screening.

Seamless integration with various bookkeeping platforms and a strong industry presence, backed by parent company Paychex, make SurePayroll a well-known, reliable payroll solution for your small business.

Who Should Use It

SurePayroll is particularly well-suited for small businesses with as few as ten employees due to its cost-effective pricing, simplified plans, and no contracts required – meaning if the budget gets tight, you can cancel anytime. Effortless integration with accounting software tailored for small businesses and HR add-ons further appeals to small businesses like yours that need crucial payroll and HR services without the burden of unnecessary expenses.

SurePayroll Features

Ability to set and alter payroll runs with SurePayroll.

Patriot Pricing and Plans

Patriot offers two plans: Basic Payroll and Full Service Payroll.

With the Basic plan, you manage your local taxes and filings, while its Full Service plan takes care of this for you, including year-end payroll tax filings.

Moreover, running your payroll through Patriot is incredibly quick, typically taking just three minutes and three clicks to process.

If you need HR or time and attendance tools, these are available, too, and you can easily add them to your Patriot payroll system.

And if you get stuck at any point, Patriot is committed to top-notch customer service and an easy setup process.

Who Should Use It

Patriot Payroll is the perfect solution for you if you have a small team, particularly 500 employees or less, and are on a tight budget. Its user-friendly interface, comprehensive setup wizard, and exceptional HR support make the two budget-conscious plans ideal for small businesses, non-profit organizations, and accounting professionals handling payroll on behalf of their clients.

Patriot Features

Patriot offers many channels for knowledgeable customer support.