The best payroll services don’t grow on trees, but that didn’t stop us from picking our top three! Deel, Remote and OnPay represent the best of the best of payroll services. Our selection criteria includes research results on ease of use, ROI, integrations, and much more.
While our top three are great picks for most companies, read on to be sure you get what’s right for your company. Learn how to isolate your company needs from “nice-to-haves”, then confidently pick the best payroll provider to match. Read on to make the right choice!
Hand picked by our HR Technology experts after product testing, user research, and much debate - enjoy!
Are you looking to upgrade your payroll vendor to a more automated and modern solution? We've done hours of research to put together the below list of the best payroll vendors so that you can zero in on the solutions that make sense for your business. Please note, this list is really for companies that are less than 1,000 employees!
In addition to the best payroll software, we're also going to tell you a bit of advice around what to look for in these vendors, pitfalls that we've seen HR teams fall into, the key benefits, and some pricing guidelines.
We hope this is a useful resource as you look to pick the payroll company that is best for your business.
We take research seriously. To make sure we’re offering our readers the very best solutions in a given software category, we are methodical, rigorous, and expansive in our research. We consult with HR professionals, vendors, and industry experts. We cut through the noise to bring you a carefully curated list of vendors, along with other essential information, to help you find the right software platform for your business.
Here’s how we chose who makes the cut:
Product: We believe in gaining a comprehensive understanding of a product before we recommend it, so we start by getting to know the software. Whenever possible, we meet with a senior executive (CEO or Head of Product) for a demo and Q&A. We also test the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best-in-class offering.
User feedback: We go straight to the source and compile feedback on user experience. Real-world input supports our commitment to diligence in our software evaluation methods and the products we recommend. Keeping up with the everyday experience of HR pros also puts new vendors on our radar, and it keeps us close to our community so we can better connect the right products to the right people.
Financial metrics: We are certified finance nerds, so we use all the data we can get our hands on to make selections for our guides. We comb through data for concrete statistics like retention rates, growth, profitability, and scalability. We evaluate the bottom line of each product because we know making a software purchase can put your reputation on the line.
Best for a use case: Software is never a one-size-fits-all product. Sometimes the best solution is free or cheap. Other times it’s the one that is best for global companies or the one that’s sized right for early-stage startups. Keeping this in mind, we include solutions across the spectrum so our readers can find the best fit for their unique needs.
Here's more detail if you want to read more about how we research vendors. Our dedicated staff writers rely on hard data, impartial experts, and user feedback to ensure our reviews are helpful, truthful, and hopefully a pleasure to read!
We track thousands of HRTech solutions, these are the best payroll software for HR per our research and expert council as of 2023.
Why we love it
:
Deel is making waves in the payroll space, being one of the first companies to specialize in international payroll for remote teams.
Deel
Review:
With Deel, companies can hire employees in a multitude of countries without it getting messy. From the same dashboard, you can manage international payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance in 150 countries.
Deel
Customers:
Deel
Pricing:
A cool thing about Deel is that you can sign up for free and play around with the tool, not being charged until you pay your first team member. Once you do, pricing for Deel will vary as follows:
A cool thing about Deel is that you can sign up for free and play around with the tool, not being charged until you pay your first team member. Once you do, pricing for Deel will vary as follows:
Best For
Companies, big or small, who wish to stay compliant when hiring people in multiple countries.
Why we love it
:
Remote is a robust and modern platform specialized in HR, payroll, and benefits for, as their name suggests, remote-first teams.
Remote
Review:
Remote fully owns local legal entities in all the countries they cover. Since they have no intermediaries to deal with, they’re able to offer more flexibility and speed at very interesting costs.
Their platform is a globally-distributed HR hub where you can process payroll, perform salary simulations, onboard new team members, manage benefits, and take care of most of the administrative tasks that come with having a distributed team.
Remote
Customers:
Remote
Pricing:
Remote has four plans. “Contractors” lets you manage and pay global contract workers for free; you only pay for payment processing fees. Then, they have their “Global Employment” plan, which starts at $299 per employee per month. For the other two plans, “Payroll & Benefits” and “Global Employment Plus”, they offer customized pricing.
Remote has four plans. "Contractors" lets you manage and pay global contract workers for free; you only pay for payment processing fees. Then, they have their "Global Employment" plan, which starts at $299 per employee per month. For the other two plans, "Payroll & Benefits" and "Global Employment Plus", they offer customized pricing.
Best For
Remote-first teams
Why we love it
:
We love OnPay because it takes less than one hour to setup and is the lowest cost option on the market.
OnPay
Review:
OnPay is perfect for smaller companies (500 employees or less) who want a simple and straight-forward payroll process, plus help with HR. Onpay customers love the customer service and the transparent pricing - it’s one monthly fee for everything. They offer benefits management in all 50 states including medical, dental, vision, and 401k retirement plans.
OnPay
Customers:
OnPay
Pricing:
OnPay charges a base fee of $36, plus $4 per employee per month. They also offer a one month free trial.
OnPay charges a base fee of $36, plus $4 per employee per month. They also offer a one month free trial.
Best For
OnPay is a great solution for smaller, budget conscious companies that also want a basic HRIS in addition to payroll.
Why we love it
:
Rippling is a great choice for SMBs who want payroll to be a seamless and highly accurate process they don’t have to worry about.
Rippling
Review:
Rippling was started by Zenefits alumni. They focus on helping small and medium organizations extinguish HR and IT busywork with one solution. The tool is built to be used, with ease, across every department.
Their product aligns with what you’d expect from a Silicon Valley-based startup: a great UI, eye-catching design, and fast performance. Notably, they have over 500 integrations (and counting) so they are likely to be able to meet any team where they are at, technically speaking.
Rippling
Customers:
Proxy, Dwell, Superhuman, Expensify, Checkr
Proxy, Dwell, Superhuman, Expensify, Checkr
Rippling
Pricing:
Rippling’s pricing starts at $8 per month per user and will vary depending on which modules you’d like to use (or if you want the whole platform) and for how many people.
Rippling's Core HR platform starts at $8 per employee per month. Contact Rippling regarding a custom Spend Management quote.
Best For
SMBs with a strong need for automation in HR processes.
Why we love it
:
Paycor is a robust and data-centric HCM for leaders at US-based companies that want their teams to save time with HR transactional tasks.
Paycor
Review:
Aside from having payroll, employee experience, recruiting, benefits, and performance management, Paycor stands out from most HCM and payroll vendors for having some of the most potent HR analytics out there. They provide a custom company dashboard that leaders can build out as they please, choosing from literally hundreds of reports such as headcount trends by employment time, projected headcount, and voluntary turnover by tenure, just to mention a few.
Paycor
Customers:
Among the companies that use Paycor, you’ll find names such as Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Detroit Zoo, and, remarkably, several sports teams such as the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Fire.
Among the companies that use Paycor, you’ll find names such as Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Detroit Zoo, and, remarkably, several sports teams such as the Cincinnati Bengals and the Chicago Fire.
Paycor
Pricing:
Fees will vary depending on your number of employees and the modules you add.
Paycor's ACA Connect service is an add-on to their greater HR software. Therefore, you're paying for an entire HCM. The ACA is relevant only to companies with over 50 employees. This means you'll have to pay for their Mid-Market plan, which doesn't have listed prices online. You'll have to meet with their sales team to negotiate pricing. However, you do get the bonus of a free first three months.
Best For
Companies in the US with up to 1,000 employees, mainly in manufacturing, healthcare, food and beverage, non profits, and professional sport organizations.
Why we love it
:
ADP is a widely-trusted payroll solution that also offers many other HR tools if you need them. Their expertise is a good fit at SMBs but also enterprises.
ADP
Review:
ADP is perhaps the best known company in the payroll space. Given their scale, they can offer just about everything your business needs when it comes to payroll and benefits.
ADP
Customers:
The Boston Globe, Whole Foods, The Bancorp, BP, Douglas Ellman Real Estate, Margaritaville, LongHorn Steakhouse
The Boston Globe, The Bancorp, Douglas Ellman Real Estate, Margaritaville
ADP
Pricing:
Sometimes ADP has special offers, like getting 3 months free when you sign up for their small business payroll processing plan. However, they don't share the prices for their payroll packages, so you'd have to request a quote to move forward.
Custom pricing is available upon request of a demo for each specific product.
Best For
ADP can work for companies with less than 50 employees, less than 1,000, or those with well over a thousand team members.
Why we love it
:
PayChex is a top player in HR software for SMBs, with an offering that includes PEO, 401(k) management, benefits, and of course, easy payroll.
PayChex
Review:
Nearly 700,000 clients us PayChex to run their payroll, nearly all of them are less than 1,000 employees. Simply put, this is one of the largest providers in the space.
PayChex
Customers:
ESET, Funnelbox Inc., Smile Cafe, H.Y.P.E. Counseling Services, ASG, Pet Partners
ESET, Funnelbox Inc., Smile Cafe, H.Y.P.E. Counseling Services, ASG, Pet Partners
PayChex
Pricing:
PayChex's pricing is not provided on their website, but the process to get a quote is pretty quick and simple.
PayChex's pricing is not provided on their website, but the process to get a quote is pretty quick and simple.
Best For
Mainly, PayChex can handle payroll for SMBs.
Why we love it
:
Quickbooks is a trusted name in financial tracking, payroll, expense reports, and even time and attendance software for small businesses.
QuickBooks
Review:
Many small businesses use Quickbooks for their accounting and financial reporting. They know that small business owners may not have enough time to be doing payroll, so their solution focuses a lot on running things automatically and freeing up your time. The same goes for taxes, as they'll calculate, file, and pay your payroll taxes for you, in some cases.
QuickBooks
Customers:
QuickBooks
Pricing:
For payroll, Quickbooks has three plans:
QuickBooks often offers discounts for its plans. They currently have a 50% discount on all plans for the first three months of subscription.
For payroll, Quickbooks has three plans:
QuickBooks often offers discounts for its plans. They currently have a 50% discount on all plans for the first three months of subscription.
Best For
SMBs with a fairly simple payroll structure but little time to handle it all themselves.
Why we love it
:
Paycom offers online payroll services and HR software solutions for both big and small businesses to manage the entire employment life cycle.
Paycom
Review:
Paycom ensures your payroll is processed quickly and efficiently, so your efforts to attract, hire, engage and retain great employees aren’t blemished by errors. Besides payroll processing, the platform also offers features for expense management, tax management, garnishment administration and reporting.
Paycom
Customers:
Paycom
Pricing:
The pricing of Paycom’s plans isn’t disclosed upfront. Contact their sales team to get a custom quote.
The pricing of Paycom's plans isn't disclosed upfront. Contact their sales team to get a custom quote.
Best For
Paycom serves companies of all sizes across different verticals.
Why we love it
:
Gusto recently an ATS to its features. It can handle job posting, syndication to job boards, interview notes, and basic scheduling – all within the Gusto platform. It is currently optimized for employers with “moderate” hiring needs, but they can help you determine whether their new native ATS or another within their ecosystem is right for you. The tool is promising and it operates well within the environment it, and, like the platform itself, has the uncanny feel of a product that is sound in its inception and sturdy in its architecture.
Gusto
Review:
Gusto has done a great job avoiding a common software pitfall. Many good tech teams have fallen under the spell of the Shiny New Thing, and, in allowing themselves to be distracted and diluted, their core products and loyal customs suffer from neglect. Gusto has kept a steady pace through the years and their primary focus on payroll and benefits has not been clouded by impulsive building more features into their stack. Instead, they work with numerous integrated partners who take the wheel on new initiatives, letting Gusto stay in its lane.
Gusto
Customers:
Gusto’s site has some customer stories for the curious
Gusto’s site has some customer stories for the curious
Gusto
Pricing:
Best For
Even budget-strapped startups can afford Gusto’s basic plan, and for companies who have some bank capital to invest in human capital, the top-tier Premium plan is a great choice, especially if they have an HR department of one person.
Why we love it
:
Zenefits is known for effortless payroll and a self-service experience that's intuitive and simple. They're also known for a full HRIS, benefits management, onboarding, and more.
Zenefits
Review:
Zenefits is best known for their product experience with an effortless payroll and a self-service benefits experience. They work with companies that are as small as 1-employee to companies with up to 1,000 employees.
Zenefits
Customers:
Quora, Goals for Autism, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana
Since they focus on the small business sector, you likely won’t see huge brands among Zenefits’ customer list. You might see one of the local brands you interact with, however! Their “Customer Success Stories” page is frequently updated with profiles of their customers and how they’re making good use of the product. Rather than name drop several companies this time, we’d suggest checking that out.
Zenefits
Pricing:
Zenefits' Payroll tool starts at $6 per month per employee.
Zenefits starts with the following plans:
In addition to the above, Zenefits offers the following add‑ons that can go on top of any of its base plans:
The Essentials plan features ACA compliance. If you have 50 employees, the ACA minimum, it will cost $400 per month at its least expensive. However, if you use your own insurance broker, it's an extra $5 per employee per month. They offer a free two week trial before you have to buy.
Lastly, for larger businesses looking into Zenefits, Enterprise pricing is available upon request.
Best For
SMBs and companies with less than 1,000 team members.
Why we love it
:
Namely provides a quick and easy payroll solution with modern design and UX. Their all-in-one HR platform is designed to be used by everyone and made specifically with mid-sized companies in mind.
Namely
Review:
Namely’s HR software includes payroll and benefits functionality that also integrates into the rest of their HRIS. If you’re looking for a full HR software suite, check out Namely’s solution.
Namely
Customers:
CSD, Wunderkind, The Motley Fool, The James Irvine Foundation
Over 1200 companies use Namely, including Greenhouse, MacStadium, Life is Good, and OneLogin.
Namely
Pricing:
Namely's pricing is not provided on their website.
Custom pricing is available upon request of a demo. It will vary depending on which package you choose. They start with a basic HR package and then sell extensions or enhanced services for things like payroll solutions and employee benefits.
Best For
Namely is suitable for many company sizes, but it's best for those that would like more HR functions to be administered through the same tool.
Why we love it
:
Paylocity is one of the top names in payroll for the US market. They're fit for many company sizes and industries. People love them for their great support and friendly approach.
Paylocity
Review:
Paylocity is one of the largest payroll providers in the United States. Nearly 1/3 of their company is in R&D to continue to build a great product, and their average hold time for customer service is only 19 seconds! If you're looking to work with an established company, Paylocity is a great option.
Paylocity
Customers:
Paylocity
Pricing:
The exact pricing for Paylocity's offering is not publicly-disclosed.
The exact pricing for Paylocity's offering is not publicly-disclosed.
Best For
Paylocity is used by small, medium, and large businesses in widely-varying industries, but mostly in the United States.
There are a few apparent use cases for payroll and benefits software. However, we also wanted to explain some of the benefits that may not be quite as self-evident. Here is the “why” behind buying new payroll and benefits software:
There are pitfalls that we’ve identified to help you avoid during the entire decision making process and implementation:
While there are costs associated with these tools, the rationale for partnering with the right vendor is pretty clear. The average salary for a benefits administrator is ~$50,000 per year and a payroll administrator’s average salary is also about $50,000 per year. The ability to remove one to two FTEs from your headcount at these rates will pay for your solution several times over.
At some point you may want to move more of your payroll and HR in house, but this doesn’t happen for most organizations until they hit 500 employees. When you hit a milestone like this, it’s best to re-evaluate where you are and what makes sense for your human resource function.
Pricing for payroll and benefits providers is typically priced per employee per month. Therefore, larger organizations should expect to pay more. Pricing also depends on the feature set you are looking for. Only running payroll and benefits is far more affordable than adding on employee onboarding, and other feature sets typically found in a more robust HRIS including an employee directory, performance management, etc. So, there is typically a base price that grows with more features.
See below for an example pricing chart that includes a base monthly price for a few company sizes. Most providers have multiple base plans with add-on options. Contracts are typically monthly or annual (annual contracts will include a discount on pricing). Please note that this is an example only and you should consult with each vendor as there are many factors that go into pricing for your specific use (*These examples do not include benefits premiums.) Two last points, you can many times negotiate away the initial setup fee, and some vendors will be beyond these ranges (PEOs, full HCM suite) - but you get what you pay for so don’t be turned off initially by much larger price ranges for a given vendor.
*Note: Some vendors charge a base monthly rate plus a monthly rate per employee. Others charge only a monthly rate per employee. As you grow, the per employee rate may decrease depending on vendor.
Lastly, make sure you ask about any other fees that will come up during the course of the year. Some vendors charge for filing W-9s and 1099s - and these costs can add up!
The majority of the top rated benefits and payroll vendors provide feature-rich offerings that are wrapped into an intuitive user experience. Business owners and HR teams alike need to be aware of these key features. While we’ve focused on payroll and benefits, there are additional add-ons that you may also be interested in, especially if you do not currently have another solution in place. Many of these also map to the demo questions we have suggested below:
Payroll Features:
Employee Benefits Features:
Other Important Features:
Once you have chosen a few vendors to demo, it is imperative to ask pertinent questions. Here is a list of questions we think you should ask on demos.
Support:
Tech & Security:
Regulatory & Compliance:
Integrations and Process:
The great part about moving forward with one of our top picks is that they make it quite simple for you to get up and running (especially for small businesses). If you are switching from one software to another, or if this is your first time, you will have slightly different implementation processes.
Timelines will depend on how readily available your relevant documents may be (such as employee information like names, departments, positions, salary information, etc.) and how many employees you have. The smaller the company, the quicker the implementation.
Sample documentation that will be required can include:
Thus, implementation could take as little as one day for small businesses, or for larger companies, a couple of weeks.
The identified vendors all include implementation services and can assist in guiding you through this process. Once you’re a customer, they have a very strong incentive to make sure you are successful and will do whatever it takes to get you through the process expeditiously.
Payroll software is a solution designed to manage, automate, record and organize payment of a company’s employees.
Benefits software is a solution designed to take over all administrative benefits tasks, including managing and organizing health insurance, retirement programs, time off and leave.
Yes, your company can process payroll and benefits without the assistance of software. However, manually taking care of payroll and benefits requires a lot of time and effort. On average, over 20% of small businesses spend 120+ hours dealing just with federal employee taxes. That’s before even considering benefits management. That time is better spent perfecting your business or product, therefore automating payroll is a worthy investment.
Yes, many payroll vendors offer a benefits solution and vice versa.
For most HR teams, it’s a matter of who to partner with, not if it should be explored in the first place. Partnering with a top payroll and benefits solution can save your team a lot of time and money. Our hope is that this page will arm you with the information you need to make the right decision, and guide you towards the top vendors in the space.
From here, we’d then advise that you jump into demos with 2-3 vendors to get started. Remember to stay organized as you tick through the feature sets that matter to you on demos. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
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