# Best Payroll Software for Small Business in 2026, Priced Out Thirteen payroll platforms scored for a 1-50 employee US business. Real all-in monthly cost at 5, 15, and 40 employees, multi-state fees, 1099 handling. Comparing the best Payroll Software for Small Business of 2026 includes 1. Gusto 2. OnPay 3. Patriot Software 4. QuickBooks Payroll 5. Roll by ADP 6. SurePayroll 7. Square Payroll 8. ADP Run 9. Wave Payroll 10. Paychex Flex 11. Justworks 12. Rippling 13. BambooHR Payroll. Thirteen payroll platforms re-scored for an owner or office manager running payroll themselves at a 1-50 person US business. Real all-in cost at 5, 15, and 40 employees, what a second state costs, contractor 1099 filing, and who covers the penalty when a return goes in late. ## Quick summary - Best overall for a 5-50 person US business: Gusto, $79/mo at five employees and the cleanest self-service portal in the category. - Best value and best multi-state price: OnPay, one flat $49 tier with multi-state payroll, 1099s, and W-2s already included. - Lowest total cost: Patriot Software Full Service, $62/mo at five employees with federal, state, and local filing done for you. - Best if your books live in QuickBooks: QuickBooks Payroll, payroll posts to the ledger with no journal entry. - Cheapest starting point for a solo founder: Wave Payroll, $50/mo at five employees on top of free accounting. ## How we chose This is our main 20-tool payroll research re-scored for one buyer, the owner or office manager at a 1-50 employee US business who runs payroll without an HR department. We cut the enterprise and mid-market HCM platforms that only make sense above 50 people, then ranked what was left on the things that actually decide an SMB purchase: all-in monthly cost at 5, 15, and 40 employees calculated from each vendor's published base and per-employee rates, what multi-state payroll costs when you hire your first out-of-state employee, contractor payments and year-end 1099-NEC and W-2 filing, whether the tax filing guarantee covers penalties, whether benefits and workers comp are bundled or brokered, whether time tracking is included, how mid-year migration works, and support quality for someone with no payroll background. Pricing was verified directly on each vendor's pricing page in May 2026. All G2 and Capterra ratings and review counts shown here were pulled on May 28, 2026 and are reproduced unchanged from that check. ## Tools compared ### Gusto: The default first payroll system for a US small business **Best overall** Score: 9.2/10 Rating: 4.6/5 (G2 · 11,246 reviews) **Starting price:** $49/mo + $6/employee Gusto is where most US small businesses land for their first real payroll system, and plenty stay past 50 people. [11,246 G2 reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/gusto/reviews) average 4.6/5, with the praise concentrated on setup speed, the employee portal, and benefits enrollment. A five-person business pays $79/mo on Simple, a fifteen-person business $139/mo. The thing to plan for is the second state. Crossing into one moves you to Plus at $80 base plus $12 per employee, a 96% jump on the base fee per [Payroll Detective's 2026 pricing analysis](https://www.payrolldetective.com/payroll-providers/gusto-pricing). If you already know a remote hire is coming, price Plus from day one instead of budgeting Simple and getting moved. **Pros:** - At the published $49 base plus $6 per employee a five-person business pays $79/mo and a fifteen-person business pays $139/mo - Unlimited payroll runs on every plan, so an off-cycle bonus or a correction run costs nothing extra - Employee self-service covers paystubs, W-2 access, PTO requests, and benefits enrollment, which is most of the job when nobody on staff does HR **Cons:** - Hiring in a second state pushes you to Plus at $80 base plus $12 per employee, taking a 15-person payroll from $139 to $260/mo - The Simple plan went from $40 to $49/mo base in March 2026, a 23% increase with no notice to existing accounts - Trustpilot sits at 2.5/5 from 2,364 reviews, and support is the weak spot exactly when a tax filing goes wrong Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Simple | $49/mo + $6/employee | Single-state payroll under 25 employees | | Plus | $80/mo + $12/employee | Multi-state or teams needing time tracking | | Premium | $180/mo + $22/employee | HR advisory access and compliance alerts | | Contractor Only | $35/mo + $6/contractor | Businesses paying contractors without W-2 employees | ### OnPay: One flat tier with multi-state payroll already in the price **Best value** Score: 9.1/10 Rating: 4.8/5 (G2 · 650 reviews) **Starting price:** $49/mo + $6/employee OnPay is the pick the moment you have employees in more than one state, because multi-state is not an upgrade here, it is just included. One tier at $49/mo plus $6 per employee covers unlimited runs, contractor payments, and year-end filing. Same $79/mo at five people as Gusto Simple, without the tier trap waiting at hire number six. The [OnPay error-free guarantee](https://onpay.com) covers penalties caused by their system, which is worth reading closely if you have never filed a 941 in your life. [G2 reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/onpay/reviews) sit at 4.8/5 with support as the standout theme. The gap is HR depth. Benefits admin is thin and onboarding workflows barely exist. **Pros:** - Multi-state payroll, unlimited runs, contractor payments, and W-2 and 1099 filing all sit in the single $49 base tier with no upgrade to climb - The error-free tax filing guarantee covers IRS and state penalties caused by OnPay's system, which is the backstop a first-time payroll owner actually needs - First month free with no credit card, and a 4.8/5 G2 score driven by support ratings, which is why accountants route small clients here **Cons:** - Benefits administration is basic and there are no performance or onboarding tools, so an SMB adding real HR later buys a second system - 650 G2 reviews is a thin evidence base next to Gusto's 11,246 if you like a big sample before committing - No dedicated mobile app, only a responsive web interface, which matters if you approve payroll from a job site Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | OnPay (single tier) | $49/mo + $6/employee | All SMBs up to ~100 employees | | Accountant partner pricing | Discounted rates | Accountant firms managing multiple client payrolls | | Agriculture plan | Same base + $6/employee | Farm workers and H-2A visa workers | | Nonprofit plan | Same base, first 3 months waived | 501(c)(3) organizations | ### Patriot Software: Cheapest fully managed payroll for a 1 to 20 person shop **Lowest total cost** Score: 8.9/10 Rating: 4.8/5 (G2 · 563 reviews) **Starting price:** $37/mo + $5/employee Patriot Software is the answer when price is the deciding factor and you still want somebody else filing the returns. Full Service at $37/mo plus $5 per employee means $62/mo for a five-person business and $112/mo at fifteen, with no setup fee and no contract. The [4.8/5 on G2](https://www.g2.com/products/patriot-payroll/reviews) from 563 reviews is one of the highest percentages of positive reviews in the category, and the Excellent Trustpilot score from 3,352 reviews says the US-based support is real rather than sample bias. Where it runs out is HR. There is no benefits admin, and time tracking is a $6 plus $2 per employee add-on. Pricing on [Patriot's published pricing page](https://www.patriotsoftware.com/pricing/) has stayed flat, which is more than Gusto managed this year. **Pros:** - $37 base plus $5 per employee puts a five-person business at $62/mo and a fifteen-person business at $112/mo, the lowest full-service math on this list - Extra state filings cost $12/mo each as a flat line item, which is far more predictable than a tier jump - USA-based phone and chat support rated Excellent on Trustpilot across 3,352 reviews, with response times consistently under two hours **Cons:** - Time and attendance is a paid add-on at $6/mo plus $2 per employee and the integration is less polished than Gusto or Rippling - No benefits administration and no real onboarding workflow, so an owner offering health insurance still works through a broker - The $17 Basic tier leaves you making your own federal and state tax deposits, which is not a job most owners should keep Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Basic Payroll | $17/mo + $4/employee | Teams handling their own tax deposits manually | | Full Service Payroll | $37/mo + $5/employee | Automated tax filing and deposits; best value in class | | Time and Attendance add-on | +$6/mo + $2/employee | Teams tracking hourly workers | | HR Software add-on | +$6/mo + $2/employee | Document management and basic employee records | ### QuickBooks Payroll: Payroll that posts straight into the books you already keep **Best for QuickBooks users** Score: 8.7/10 Rating: 4.4/5 (G2 · 8,800 reviews) **Starting price:** $50/mo + $6/employee QuickBooks Payroll makes sense for one specific small business, the one already keeping its books in QuickBooks. The native sync deletes an entire category of month-end reconciliation work, and for an owner doing their own bookkeeping that is worth more than a few dollars per employee. [G2 reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/quickbooks-payroll/reviews) average 4.4/5 across a large base, with support wait times and the promotional pricing cliff as the recurring complaints. Core runs $80/mo at five employees and $140/mo at fifteen. For a 25-person company, [Intuit's published pricing page](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/pricing/) puts Core at $200/mo, Premium at $310/mo, and Elite at $405/mo. Outside the QuickBooks ecosystem, OnPay does more for the same money. **Pros:** - Real-time sync into QuickBooks accounting removes the manual journal entry, the single biggest time saver for an owner who does their own books - 30-day free trial with no card required, the longest evaluation window of any tool here - Tax penalty protection at Elite ($130 base plus $11 per employee), where Intuit covers the penalty if their system files late or incorrectly **Cons:** - The promotional discount (often 50% off for three months) makes year one look cheap, and the renewal number is the one to actually budget - Core at $50 plus $6 per employee prices like Gusto and OnPay without matching their HR depth if you are not on QuickBooks - HR features are shallow at all three tiers, so benefits, onboarding, and performance need a separate tool Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Core | $50/mo + $6/employee | Basic payroll with next-day direct deposit | | Premium | $85/mo + $9/employee | Same-day deposit and time tracking integration | | Elite | $130/mo + $11/employee | Tax penalty protection and personal HR advisor | | Payroll add-on (existing QBO) | Variable | Teams already on QuickBooks Online | ### Roll by ADP: Run payroll from your phone in under a minute **Best mobile-first** Score: 8.5/10 Rating: 4.3/5 (G2 · 180 reviews) **Starting price:** $39/mo + $5/employee Roll by ADP is the one payroll product on this list built for the phone first. The chat flow genuinely runs a payroll in under a minute once you have configured it, and behind that sits ADP's 75-year-old tax filing infrastructure at roughly half of what ADP Run costs. Five employees comes to $64/mo, fifteen comes to $114/mo. The [three-month free trial](https://www.rollbyadp.com) makes it cheap to test against your real employee list rather than sample data. Two gaps to price in. There is no benefits admin and no time tracking, so a restaurant with hourly staff bolts on a second tool. And 180 G2 reviews is not much of a sample if you like reading a hundred of them first. **Pros:** - Chat-based interface runs a payroll in under 60 seconds from a phone, which suits an owner approving payroll between job sites - $39 base plus $5 per employee puts ADP's tax filing infrastructure at $64/mo for five people and $114/mo for fifteen - Three months free is the most generous trial of any tool in this comparison **Cons:** - No benefits administration and no time tracking module, so hourly businesses still need a separate time clock - Capped at 100 employees, so treat it as a starter system rather than a growth path - 180 G2 reviews is the thinnest evidence base here, and the product is young enough that the sample is still building Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Roll by ADP | $39/mo + $5/employee | Under 100 employees; all features in one flat tier | | Free trial | Free for 3 months | New businesses testing ADP's infrastructure before committing | | 1099 contractors | Included in base plan | Teams mixing W-2 and contractor payments | | Smart HR add-on | Included (GenAI) | HR policy answers and employee record management | ### SurePayroll: Flat multi-state fee for a tiny team spread across states **Best multi-state pricing** Score: 8.3/10 Rating: 4.0/5 (G2 · 3,042 reviews) **Starting price:** $29/mo + $7/employee SurePayroll is Paychex's small-business brand and it exists for one reason worth caring about, the flat multi-state fee. Most tools charge per state or push you to a higher tier. SurePayroll charges $9.99/mo total no matter how many states you run in, which is real money for a five-person company with people in four states. Full Service comes to $64/mo at five employees. The [4.0/5 across 3,042 reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/surepayroll/reviews) is the lowest score among the SMB tools here, and the complaints cluster hard on phone support wait times. The household employer plan is genuinely unique, per [Comparisun's 2026 SurePayroll review](https://www.comparisun.com/payroll/reviews/surepayroll/). Watch the $7 per employee rate, it gets expensive as you grow. **Pros:** - Multi-state costs a flat $9.99/mo no matter how many states, which beats every per-state and per-tier model here for a scattered remote team - A purpose-built household employer plan for nanny and caregiver payroll, the only one in this comparison - AutoPayroll runs on schedule without a weekly click once it is configured **Cons:** - 4.0/5 on G2 from 3,042 reviews, with phone waits of 45+ minutes as the dominant complaint - No digital onboarding tools, so every new hire is manual data entry done by the owner - The $7 per employee rate crosses above Gusto and OnPay at 40 people, $309/mo against $289/mo Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Self-Service | $20/mo + $4/employee | Teams who handle their own state tax deposits | | Full Service | $29/mo + $7/employee | Automated tax filing and deposits for small teams | | Multi-state add-on | +$9.99/mo flat | Any number of additional states; fixed cost regardless | | Household Employer | Custom quote | Nanny, caregiver, and domestic employee payroll | ### Square Payroll: Tips, time clock, and payroll for a shop already on Square **Best for retail and restaurants** Score: 8.2/10 Rating: 4.7/5 (Capterra · 577 reviews) **Starting price:** $35/mo + $6/employee Square Payroll is for one small business in particular, the cafe, salon, or retail shop already running Square at the register. Tips and clocked hours flow into the paycheck without anybody exporting a CSV, and for a food-service owner that is the whole pitch. Five employees comes to $65/mo. The contractor-only plan at $6 per person with no base fee is the cheapest 1099 payroll available anywhere, which makes Square worth a look even for a business that has no W-2 staff at all. Outside that context, [OnPay or Gusto](https://onpay.com) give you more for the same money. The 93% satisfaction across 577 verified reviews reflects happy Square users more than general payroll buyers. **Pros:** - Native Square POS sync ties hourly time clock data and tip tracking to the paycheck with no export step and no connector to maintain - Contractor-only payroll at $6 per person with no base fee, the cheapest 1099 payroll in the US market - 30-day free trial with no credit card required, which is easy to run against a real pay period **Cons:** - Off the Square ecosystem the case falls apart; OnPay and Gusto sit at a similar base price and do considerably more - No benefits administration, no performance tools, and PTO tracking stops at basic accruals - Support response times of 2-4 hours were cited across 2025-2026 reviews, slower than Gusto and OnPay Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Employees + Contractors | $35/mo + $6/employee | Square POS retailers and food service teams | | Contractors only | $6/contractor/mo, no base | 1099 contractor-only businesses with no W-2 employees | | Free trial | Free for 30 days | Testing before committing to Square's payroll ecosystem | | Square for Restaurants integration | Bundled pricing available | Full-service restaurant operators on Square ecosystem | ### ADP Run: Tax and compliance depth once the state notices start arriving Score: 8.1/10 Rating: 4.5/5 (G2 · 2,693 reviews) **Starting price:** $79/mo + $4/employee ADP Run reads expensive at five employees and cheap at forty, which is the opposite of most tools here. The $79 base plus only $4 per employee means $99/mo for a five-person business but $239/mo at forty, below Gusto and OnPay at that headcount. Ranked [#1 in G2's 2026 Best Small Business Software report](https://mediacenter.adp.com/run-named-best-small-business-software-by-g2-2026) for the second year, which says something even with the dated interface. [2,693 G2 reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/run-powered-by-adp/reviews) average 4.5/5 and the complaints are consistent, price opacity and the UI. Ask about the setup fee in the first sales call, because it ranges from $500 to $2,000 and rarely comes up unprompted. **Pros:** - The $4 per-employee rate is the lowest here, which makes ADP Run the cheapest option in this comparison at 40 employees, $239/mo against $289/mo for Gusto and OnPay - Background check tooling is included on every plan, the only payroll provider in this list that ships it natively - 40+ years of automated federal, state, and local tax filing with a penalty guarantee behind it **Cons:** - Setup fees run $500 to $2,000 depending on complexity and are not disclosed upfront in most sales conversations - Everything above Essential is a custom quote, so the published $79 base is a floor rather than a real price - Go-live takes 2-4 weeks against under a week for Gusto and OnPay, and the interface feels a decade behind them Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Essential | $79/mo + $4/employee | 1-49 employees, basic payroll and tax filing | | Enhanced | Custom quote | Background checks and onboarding tools included | | Complete | Custom quote | HR toolkit and employee handbook builder | | HR Pro | Custom quote | Full HR advisory and compliance support | ### Wave Payroll: The cheapest way for a solo founder to start running real payroll Score: 7.9/10 Rating: 4.1/5 (G2 · 34 reviews) **Starting price:** $20/mo + $6/employee Wave Payroll is the honest starting point for a founder paying themselves and one or two other people. The accounting side is free, payroll adds $20/mo plus $6 per employee, and a five-person business lands at $50/mo, the lowest number on this page. The catch is geographic. If you are in California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, or Washington, the base doubles to $40 and the state tax deposits become your job again, which defeats most of the point. [Wave's payroll page](https://www.waveapps.com/payroll) lists the state breakdown. Move to OnPay or Gusto once you cross five employees or add a second state. **Pros:** - $20 base plus $6 per employee is the lowest entry point on this list, $50/mo for a five-person team, and the accounting software alongside it is genuinely free - Direct deposit, automatic tax payments, and the employee self-service portal are all in the $20 tier across 44 states - Invoicing, receipt scanning, and payroll share one dashboard, which replaces two subscriptions for a 1-5 person company **Cons:** - In California, Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, and Washington the base doubles to $40 and you make the state deposits yourself - 34 G2 reviews is the thinnest count in this comparison by a wide margin - No HR features of any kind, so onboarding, benefits, and reviews live somewhere else Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Tax Service (44 states) | $20/mo + $6/employee | Small teams in most US states; automated state tax filing | | Self-Service (6 states) | $40/mo + $6/employee | Teams in CA, FL, NY, TX, IL, WA who handle state deposits | | Contractors | Included at any tier | 1099 contractors included in employee count | | Wave accounting (standalone) | Free | Invoicing and bookkeeping without payroll | ### Paychex Flex: A named payroll specialist instead of a chat queue Score: 7.8/10 Rating: 4.2/5 (G2 · 1,500 reviews) **Starting price:** $39/mo + $5/employee Paychex Flex is worth a look for the small business owner who wants a human being with a name and a direct line rather than a support queue. Flex Essentials at $39 plus $5 per employee comes to $64/mo at five people and $114/mo at fifteen, competitive with Roll by ADP, and the dedicated specialist is included rather than sold as an upgrade. [G2 reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/paychex/reviews) land at 4.2/5, with the admin interface and mobile app taking the criticism. Per [Paychex's own pricing page](https://www.paychex.com/payroll/compare-payroll-solutions), Essentials is aimed at under-20-person teams. Above that everything goes to quote, and the implementation timeline stops looking like a small business purchase. **Pros:** - Flex Essentials at $39 plus $5 per employee is priced for under-20-person teams and still assigns a dedicated payroll specialist from day one - Workers comp, retirement plans, and benefits administration have depth that the pure payroll tools here do not attempt - Coverage across 44,000+ US tax jurisdictions with 50+ years of multi-state filing history behind it **Cons:** - 4.2/5 on G2 from about 1,500 reviews, with the mobile app and admin experience driving most of the negative reviews - Anything above Flex Essentials is a custom quote, and a full deployment runs 8-16 weeks - Contract lock-in is common and early termination fees surprise buyers, so read the cancellation terms before signing Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Flex Essentials | $39/mo + $5/employee | Under 20 employees, basic payroll and tax | | Flex Pro | Custom quote | 20-100 employees with HR tools and onboarding | | Flex Enterprise | Custom quote | 100-500 employees, custom reporting and dedicated support | | Flex Select | Custom quote | Mid-market with workers comp and retirement integration | ### Justworks: PEO benefits access once health insurance is the real problem Score: 7.7/10 Rating: 4.6/5 (G2 · 1,126 reviews) **Starting price:** $8/employee/mo Justworks is not really a payroll purchase, it is a benefits purchase with payroll attached. If your problem is that a 15-person business cannot get decent health insurance rates, co-employment is the lever, and Justworks is the cleanest version of it. PEO Basic runs $79/employee/mo, so $1,185/mo at fifteen people, and the math only works when the premium savings exceed the fee. Get a group health quote both ways before deciding, it takes about twenty minutes. [1,126 G2 reviews](https://www.g2.com/products/justworks/reviews) sit at 4.6/5, with the 24/7 support team drawing repeated praise. The payroll-only plan on [Justworks' pricing page](https://www.justworks.com/pricing) is not competitive on its own. **Pros:** - Group health insurance at large-employer rates through co-employment, which a 15-person company cannot negotiate on its own - IRS-Certified PEO and ESAC accredited, the two credentials a co-employment attorney checks before anything else - Month-to-month billing with no long-term contract and no setup fee, which is rare in the PEO market **Cons:** - PEO Basic at $79/employee/mo works out to $1,185/mo for a 15-person business, so the whole case rests on premium savings - The payroll-only plan at $50 base plus $8 per employee costs more than Gusto or OnPay for the same job - Reporting is shallow, and high-risk industries and companies above 500 employees are not served at all Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Payroll | $8/employee/mo + $50 base | Payroll-only for teams not needing PEO benefits | | PEO Basic | $79/employee/mo | Full co-employment with HR tools and 401k access | | PEO Plus | $109/employee/mo | Health insurance administration and wellness benefits included | | EOR | $599/employee/mo | International hiring in countries where you lack an entity | ### Rippling: Only worth it when payroll, laptops, and app access are all one problem Score: 7.6/10 Rating: 4.8/5 (G2 · 14,195 reviews) **Starting price:** $8/employee/mo + platform fee Rippling belongs on a small business shortlist only in one scenario, when onboarding a new hire means payroll plus a laptop plus eight app logins and you are doing all of it by hand. The [14,195 G2 reviews at 4.8/5](https://www.g2.com/products/rippling/reviews) are the highest here, and the praise is consistently about the unified employee record. The cost is the problem at this size. [CloudAppCritic's 2026 pricing breakdown](https://cloudappcritic.com/human-resources/rippling-pricing/) puts HR plus payroll in the $25-$50 per employee per month range, which is roughly four times what OnPay charges a 15-person business. Right answer at 50+ employees with a fragmented stack, wrong answer at 10. **Pros:** - One employee record ties payroll, benefits, PTO, device management, and app provisioning together, which removes the cross-system sync work entirely - 650+ native integrations, the deepest set in the HR and payroll segment by a wide margin - Highest rated tool in this comparison at 4.8/5 across 14,195 G2 reviews **Cons:** - No published pricing, and HR plus payroll commonly lands at $25-$50 per employee per month, roughly $375-$750/mo for a 15-person business - Implementation is a real project with a steep learning curve, which is the opposite of what a 10-person business wants from payroll - Genuine overkill for a team that needs payroll run twice a month and nothing else Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Core (HRIS + payroll) | ~$25-$35/employee/mo | HR and payroll on one platform | | Plus IT management | ~$50-$65/employee/mo | Teams needing device and app management | | EOR add-on | $499-$599/employee/mo estimated | Hiring internationally without a local entity | | Custom enterprise | Custom quote | 500+ employees with complex workflows | ### BambooHR Payroll: For a small business already keeping employee records in BambooHR Score: 7.5/10 Rating: 4.4/5 (G2 · 4,100 reviews) **Starting price:** $10/employee/mo BambooHR Payroll only makes sense for a small business that already runs BambooHR as its HRIS and wants to stop exporting a spreadsheet every pay period. The [4,100+ G2 reviews at 4.4/5](https://www.g2.com/products/bamboohr/reviews) are driven by HR generalists and office managers who stay for the ease of use. The blocker at this size is the $250/mo minimum on the Core HRIS, which makes the real entry cost far higher than the $10 per employee headline suggests for a team of eight. Adding payroll runs $6-$8 per employee on top, per [tinyteam's BambooHR pricing analysis](https://www.tinyteam.io/blog/bamboohr-pricing). Evaluating from scratch, Gusto or OnPay give more payroll depth for less. **Pros:** - Payroll, PTO, onboarding, performance reviews, and applicant tracking share one employee record, so there is no export and re-import at payroll time - 4.5/5 G2 usability score and 92% support satisfaction, consistently the easiest HRIS for a non-technical owner to get running - BambooHR tax specialists handle federal and state filings on the client's behalf rather than leaving it to pure automation **Cons:** - The Core HRIS carries a $250/mo minimum, which prices out most businesses under 25 people before payroll is even added - Payroll is a US-only add-on at $6-$8 per employee on top of whichever HRIS plan you are on - Annual renewal increases of 15-30% appear repeatedly in 2025-2026 G2 reviews, so lock pricing at contract time Pricing breakdown: | Plan | Price | Best for | |---|---|---| | Core HRIS | ~$10/employee/mo | HR-only without payroll, minimum $250/mo | | Pro HRIS | ~$17/employee/mo | Adding advanced reporting and custom workflows | | Payroll add-on | +$6-$8/employee/mo | US employees only, on top of any HRIS plan | | Elite | ~$25/employee/mo | Full suite including payroll, performance, and onboarding | ## More Small business payroll is priced as a base fee plus a per-employee fee, and almost every buying mistake here comes from comparing base fees. {{< infographic-stat number="$237-$370" label="All-in monthly range for full-service payroll at 40 employees across the SMB tools in this guide" sub="Calculated from published 2026 base and per-employee rates" >}} ## The all-in monthly cost at 5, 15, and 40 employees Vendors publish a base fee and a per-employee fee, then leave the multiplication to you. Here it is done, using each vendor's own published rates. | Tool and plan | Published rate | 5 employees | 15 employees | 40 employees | |---|---|---|---|---| | Wave Payroll (44 states) | $20 + $6/emp | $50 | $110 | $260 | | Patriot Full Service | $37 + $5/emp | $62 | $112 | $237 | | Roll by ADP | $39 + $5/emp | $64 | $114 | $239 | | Paychex Flex Essentials | $39 + $5/emp | $64 | $114 | $239 | | SurePayroll Full Service | $29 + $7/emp | $64 | $134 | $309 | | Square Payroll | $35 + $6/emp | $65 | $125 | $275 | | Gusto Simple | $49 + $6/emp | $79 | $139 | $289 | | OnPay (single tier) | $49 + $6/emp | $79 | $139 | $289 | | QuickBooks Payroll Core | $50 + $6/emp | $80 | $140 | $290 | | Justworks Payroll plan | $50 + $8/emp | $90 | $170 | $370 | | ADP Run Essential | $79 + $4/emp | $99 | $139 | $239 | | Gusto Plus (multi-state) | $80 + $12/emp | $140 | $260 | $560 | The ranking flips as you grow. At five employees the base fee is almost the entire bill, so Wave and Patriot win and ADP Run looks overpriced at $99/mo. At forty employees the per-employee fee is the entire bill, and ADP Run's $4 rate makes it the cheapest option in the table at $239/mo, $50/mo below Gusto and OnPay. SurePayroll shows the same effect in reverse. The $29 base is one of the lowest here, but $7 per employee makes it the second most expensive option at forty people. If you plan to be at forty employees inside two years, price the tool at forty, not at five. Migrating payroll to save $50/mo is not worth the year-end risk. ## Multi-state payroll, the line item nobody budgets for One remote hire in another state changes your bill, and the four vendors below handle it four completely different ways. | Tool | What a second state costs | Structure | |---|---|---| | OnPay | $0 | Multi-state is in the single $49 tier | | SurePayroll | +$9.99/mo | Flat, regardless of how many states | | Patriot Software | +$12/mo per state | Flat per additional state | | Gusto | +$31 base and +$6/employee | Forces the Simple to Plus upgrade | | QuickBooks Payroll | Included | Automatic multi-state tax filing | | ADP Run | Included | Automatic multi-state tax filing | | Paychex Flex | Included | Automatic multi-state tax filing | | Rippling | Included | Automatic multi-state tax filing | | Wave Payroll | Base doubles to $40 | Only in CA, FL, NY, TX, IL, and WA, where you also make the deposits | Square Payroll and Roll by ADP do not publish a multi-state fee structure the way the others do. Ask directly before signing if you have people in more than one state. The Gusto number is the one that catches people. A 15-person business on Simple pays $139/mo. The same business after one out-of-state hire pays $260/mo, an 87% increase driven by a single employee. State tax registration is a separate question from the software fee. Most of these tools file in a state once you are registered, they do not register you. Registering is on you, it takes two to six weeks in most states, and starting late is the most common reason a first multi-state payroll goes out wrong. {{< infographic-compare left-tag="Flat, everything included" left-title="OnPay" left-num="$139" left-label="per month at 15 employees, multi-state included" right-tag="Tiered, upgrade on trigger" right-title="Gusto Plus" right-num="$260" right-label="per month at 15 employees once a second state is added" winner="left" winner-text="OnPay wins for any small business with employees in more than one state" >}} ## Contractors, 1099-NEC, and year-end filing Most small businesses run a mix. Two W-2 employees, three contractors, and a bookkeeper who invoices monthly. Gusto, ADP Run, OnPay, and QuickBooks all file 1099s automatically alongside W-2s. Wave includes contractors at any tier, and Roll by ADP includes them in the base plan. Square Payroll has the cheapest contractor-only option available anywhere, $6 per contractor per month with no base fee at all. For a business with zero W-2 staff, that is roughly $18/mo to pay three contractors and file their 1099-NECs. Gusto's Contractor Only plan runs $35/mo plus $6 per contractor, which is worth it only if you expect to convert contractors to employees on the same platform later. The thing to verify in your first year is the $600 reporting threshold. Confirm the tool is tracking cumulative payments per contractor rather than per payment, because a contractor paid $200 four times still needs a 1099-NEC. ## Tax filing guarantees and who covers the penalty Every vendor here says they file your taxes. Fewer of them say what happens when the filing is late or wrong, and that is the clause that matters. OnPay's error-free guarantee covers IRS and state penalties caused by their system, and it applies on the single tier rather than an upgrade. That is the strongest position on this list for a business paying $49/mo. Gusto puts penalty protection on Plus and Premium, not Simple. QuickBooks puts it on Elite at $130 base plus $11 per employee, which is $405/mo for a 25-person company. ADP Run carries a penalty guarantee behind 40+ years of filing infrastructure. Patriot Software files federal, state, and local taxes on Full Service but does not market a penalty guarantee the way OnPay does. Ask for the language in writing before you sign. Read the wording carefully in all cases. Nearly every guarantee covers errors caused by the vendor's system, not errors caused by wrong data you entered. If you type the wrong state tax ID, that penalty is yours. ## Benefits, workers comp, and when a PEO starts making sense Two different models sit on this page and they are easy to confuse. Gusto handles benefits administration on every tier and puts enrollment in the employee portal, but the underlying insurance is brokered. You still get quoted at your own headcount, which for a 15-person business is not a great rate. Justworks is co-employment. The PEO becomes the employer of record for benefits purposes, which is how a 15-person business accesses group health rates it could never negotiate alone. PEO Basic costs $79/employee/mo, so $1,185/mo at fifteen people. That fee is only justified by premium savings. Get a group health quote both ways, standalone and through the PEO, before you decide. It takes about twenty minutes and the math is usually obvious once you see it. Paychex Flex is the middle path, with real workers comp and retirement plan depth without co-employment. OnPay, Patriot, Square, Roll by ADP, and Wave have little to no benefits administration, which is fine if you do not offer benefits yet. ## Time tracking, bundled or billed separately Hourly businesses get caught here more than salaried ones. Gusto puts time tracking on Plus, not Simple. Patriot charges $6/mo plus $2 per employee as an add-on. QuickBooks includes time tracking integration at Premium. Roll by ADP has no time tracking module at all. Square Payroll is the exception worth knowing about. The time clock lives in the Square POS you already run, and clocked hours plus tips flow into the paycheck with no connector in between. For a restaurant or a salon that is the single strongest reason to pick it. If you run hourly staff, add the time tracking cost to every quote before comparing. A $37 Patriot plan with time tracking for ten employees is $63/mo, not $37. ## Mid-year migration without breaking your W-2s Switching payroll providers mid-year is where small businesses lose money, and it is almost always the same mistake. Start mid-quarter, never in December. Year-end is when the prior provider is busiest and when a data error turns into a wrong W-2 instead of a fixable correction. Export every year-to-date figure before you cut over. Gross earnings, each withholding type, employer taxes paid, and benefit deductions, per employee. Incorrect year-to-date data is the direct cause of incorrect W-2s in January, and it is invisible until then. Run one full parallel cycle in both systems and compare gross-to-net for a handful of employees by hand. Paying to process payroll twice for one period is cheap next to an IRS notice. Keep the old account open until the final W-2 run is confirmed. Cancel it and you lose access to the records you need in January. Gusto and OnPay go live in under a week, ADP Run takes two to four weeks, so plan the window accordingly. ## Support when you are the entire payroll department Support quality is a real feature when nobody at the company has ever filed a payroll return. Patriot has USA-based phone and chat with response times consistently under two hours, and an Excellent Trustpilot rating from 3,352 reviews. OnPay's 4.8/5 on G2 is driven largely by support scores. Both are punching well above their price. Paychex Flex assigns a named payroll specialist from day one, even on the $39 Essentials plan. For an owner who wants one human to call, that is the differentiator. The other end is worth knowing too. SurePayroll reviewers report phone waits of 45+ minutes. Square averages 2 to 4 hours on response. Gusto has 11,246 G2 reviews at 4.6/5 but a 2.5/5 Trustpilot score from 2,364 reviews, and the negative reviews concentrate on support during tax problems. Test it before you commit. Send a real question through the support channel during the trial and time the reply. Four hours is fine, two days is a warning. ## What changes above 50 employees The tools on this page are scored for a 1-50 person business. Past that, the decision changes shape. Above 50 employees, payroll usually stops being a standalone purchase and becomes part of an HR platform question covering onboarding, performance, benefits administration, and time and attendance on one employee record. That is where Rippling, Paylocity, Paycom, and ADP Workforce Now start earning their cost. Multi-state complexity compounds too. At five states and 80 employees, the dedicated specialist model at Paychex or ADP is worth paying for in a way it is not at fifteen people in one state. Our full 20-tool research, including the mid-market and enterprise platforms cut from this page, is in the main [payroll software guide](/list/best-payroll-software/). ## The pick by business type | Business profile | Pick | Why | |---|---|---| | Solo founder with a first employee | Wave Payroll | $50/mo at five people, with free accounting alongside it | | 5-20 employees, single state | Gusto Simple or OnPay | Both $79/mo at five, both file taxes automatically | | Employees in two or more states | OnPay | Multi-state sits in the single $49 tier, no upgrade trigger | | Remote micro team across four states | SurePayroll | $9.99/mo flat covers every additional state | | Tightest possible budget | Patriot Full Service | $62/mo at five employees with filing included | | Books already in QuickBooks | QuickBooks Payroll | Payroll posts to the ledger with no journal entry | | Restaurant, cafe, or retail on Square | Square Payroll | Time clock and tips flow into the paycheck | | Contractors only, no W-2 staff | Square Payroll | $6 per contractor, no base fee | | Owner who runs everything from a phone | Roll by ADP | Chat-based payroll in under a minute | | Nanny or household employer | SurePayroll | The only purpose-built household plan here | | 30-50 employees, cost-sensitive | ADP Run Essential | $4 per employee makes it cheapest at forty | | Health insurance is the actual problem | Justworks | Group rates through co-employment at fifteen people | | You want one person to call | Paychex Flex | Named payroll specialist included on the $39 plan | | Payroll plus laptops plus app access | Rippling | One employee record, if the cost is defensible | {{< infographic-flow title="The 60-second small business payroll decision" step1="Employees in more than one state?|If yes, OnPay. Multi-state is included, no tier jump." step2="Are your books in QuickBooks?|If yes, QuickBooks Payroll. No journal entry, ever." step3="Is price the only thing that matters?|If yes, Patriot Full Service at $37 plus $5 per employee." step4="Heading past 30 employees soon?|ADP Run. The $4 per-employee rate wins at scale." >}} ## How we scored these for a small business These thirteen tools come out of our 20-platform payroll research, re-scored against one buyer profile rather than the whole market. We cut the enterprise and mid-market HCM platforms that do not fit under 50 employees, then weighted four things: real all-in monthly cost at 5, 15, and 40 employees, what multi-state actually costs, whether tax filing carries a penalty guarantee, and whether a non-specialist can run it alone. Every rating and review count on this page was pulled on May 28, 2026 and is reproduced unchanged. Pricing was verified on each vendor's own pricing page in May 2026. All monthly figures in the tables above are arithmetic on those published base and per-employee rates, not quotes we were given. Our full approach is at [/about/methodology/](/about/methodology/). Quoted rates move. Confirm the base fee, the per-employee fee, the state fee, and the setup fee in writing before you sign anything, and ask specifically what happens if a return goes in late. For corrections, vendor disputes, or feedback, email [hello@topickz.com](mailto:hello@topickz.com). We re-review this shortlist every six months. ## FAQs ### What is the best payroll software for small business? Gusto for most 5-50 person US teams, OnPay if you have employees in more than one state, Patriot Software if price is the deciding factor. All three file federal and state payroll taxes automatically and handle year-end W-2s. ### Is there free payroll software for small business? Not for full-service payroll. Wave's accounting software is free but payroll costs $20/mo plus $6 per employee. Patriot Basic at $17 plus $4 is the cheapest option overall, and you make the tax deposits yourself. ### What should a payroll system for small business actually do? Gross-to-net calculation, direct deposit, automatic federal and state tax filing, year-end W-2s and 1099-NECs, and an employee self-service portal. Gusto, OnPay, Patriot Full Service, and Roll by ADP all cover that list in their base tier. ### How much does payroll software cost for a small business? A base fee plus a per-employee fee. At five employees expect $50 to $99/mo, at fifteen expect $110 to $170/mo, at forty expect $237 to $370/mo. PEO pricing is a different model entirely at $79/employee/mo and up. ### What is the best accounting and payroll software for small business? QuickBooks Payroll if your books are already in QuickBooks, since payroll posts without a journal entry. Wave if you want free accounting with a paid payroll add-on. Gusto syncs natively to both QuickBooks and Xero if you prefer them separate. ### Which payroll software handles employees in more than one state? OnPay includes multi-state in its single $49 tier. SurePayroll charges a flat $9.99/mo regardless of how many states. Patriot charges $12/mo per extra state. Gusto moves you from Simple to Plus, which nearly doubles the bill. ### Who pays the penalty if my payroll taxes are filed late? It depends on the plan. OnPay's error-free guarantee covers penalties caused by their system on its single tier. Gusto covers it on Plus and Premium, QuickBooks only on Elite, and ADP Run carries a penalty guarantee. Get the terms in writing. ### Can I switch payroll providers in the middle of the year? Yes, and mid-quarter is the safest window. Export full year-to-date earnings and withholding data before cutover, run one parallel cycle in both systems, and keep the old account open until W-2s are confirmed. ### Does small business payroll software file 1099-NEC forms for contractors? Gusto, ADP Run, OnPay, and QuickBooks file 1099s automatically. Square charges $6 per contractor with no base fee if you have no W-2 staff. Check that the $600 threshold tracks correctly in your first year.