The Top Cheapest Payroll Services For Businesses

We love Gusto as an affordable payroll software for small businesses that offers plenty of bang for you buck. Starting at $40/month +$6/employee, small businesses using Gusto get access to full-service payroll, benefits administration, and HR tools. Although Gusto isn’t the cheapest option on our list, its robust feature set make it a great option for small businesses.

Gusto also stands out for its ease of use. Even payroll novices shouldn’t have a hard time getting the hang of payroll, as Gusto offers plenty of tools to streamline the process of running payroll, including autoscheduled payroll runs, built-in payroll guidance, solid customer support, and complete tax support.

Gusto’s pricing starts at $40/month +$6 per person paid on its Simple plan for paying both contractors and employees, while Gusto’s Plus plan starts at $40/month +$6 per person paid. Gusto also offers a plan for businesses that only pay contractors which costs $35/month + $6/contractor paid. For businesses with more complex needs, Gusto also offers a Premium plan with custom pricing.

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 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 120+ Integrations: Gusto integrates with QuickBoooks Time, Xero, Quickbooks, and tons of other software spanning everything 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

We love Square Payroll. as one of the few payroll solutions that exist within an ecosystem that includes a dedicated POS solution. For foodservice and retail businesses using Square’s POS system, Square payroll will seamlessly integrate ties their existing system and unlock a new set of automations that are only possible when using products from Square’s business suite.

Although Square Payroll’s major strength is in its place within the Square ecosystem, it’s a solid payroll software option in its own right. With tip management, payroll reports, and unlimited payroll runs, Square Payroll is a great addition to any foodservice or retail business looking for cheap payroll software. As Square Payroll starts at just $35/month + $5/person paid, its price point is another major bonus.

Square Payroll costs only $35/month + $5/person paid on its Employee’s and Contractors plan. The software’s Contractors Only plan costs $5/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 calculation, 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

We love OnPay’s combination of simple, affordable pricing and wealth of payroll features. Small businesses that don’t want to deal with the hassle of figuring out which payment plan offers the most bang for their buck can keep things simple with OnPay, as the software’s single parent plan boasts a wealth of payroll, HR, and employee management features.

Although ONPay has a mobile app on iOS, it’s rated very poorly. However, if your small business is sticking to desktop payroll runs, you can’t beat the price and feature set that OnPay offers.

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, For 940 annual filing, For 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

We love Patriot Payroll as one of the most affordable payroll software options on our list. Patriot Payroll gives business owners the choice to handle their own payroll taxes at a steep discount while also offering full-service payroll at an affordable price.

Although Patriot Payroll boasts an impressive price point, it’s still complete with a wealth of payroll and HR features for small businesses. A free trial demo of the software, fully stacked help center, and integrated accounting software solution make Patriot Payroll a potential one-stop-shop for small business owners prioritizing ease of use and affordability.

Patriot Payroll starts at $17/month with a per-person fee of $4 through its “Basic” plan. Patriot Payroll’s “Full Service” plan starts at $37/month to include options for tax filing and depositing while maintaining the same per-employee rate. 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; Users may also opt to have Patriot payroll handle federal, state, and local payroll tax filing and deposits, 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

We believe that QuickBooks Online Payroll’s starting $45/month + $5/employee price point is balanced out by its wealth of features to support a wide range of payroll needs. QuickBooks Online Payroll is best suited to businesses already using QuickBooks or wanting to buy into a comprehensive accounting, payroll, and HR software suite.

However, new users may be drawn to the service’s easy-to-use interface, long-standing positive reputation, and range of payroll features, including benefits administration, PTO management, federal and state tax support, employee self-service portal, payroll reports, unlimited payroll runs, integrations, and much more.

QuickBooks Online Payroll pricing starts at $45/month + $5/person and increases to $125/month + $10/person at its highest tier. QuickBooks Online Payroll has several additional costs for its services, including add-ons for multistate payroll processing, ext-day direct deposit for contractors, 1099 efiling, and benefits.

QuickBooks Online Payroll AutoPayroll

If you’re a current Quickbooks user interested in adding payroll service to your software suite, QuickBooks Online payroll offers a lot of bang for your buck. Here’s a look at the top features offered by QuickBooks Online Payroll:

• Payroll Processing: Make unlimited payroll runs across all 50 states, multistate payroll run support, offer multiple payment methods, make deductions, create payroll reports, and more
• Time Tracking: With QuickBooks Online Payroll’s Premium tier’s access to QuickBooks Time or simply as an add-on, users can perform mobile time tracking, set time clock reminders, manage employee schedules and more
• Payroll Tax Support: Quickbooks Online Payroll offers TurboTax integration for employees, automated payroll tax filing and payment at the federal and state levels, and digital or printed W-2 and W-3 forms
• Benefits Administration: Through a partnership with SimplyInsured, QuickBooks Online payroll offers health, vision, and dental benefits everywhere in the US except Hawaii, Vermont, and DC
• Employee Management: QuickBooks Payroll offers an employee and contractor portal, time off request management, PTO management, paystub printing, custom PTO policies, and more

We love Roll by ADP for its ease of use and simplicity for payroll beginners. With Roll by ADP, you can give raises, add new employees, provide employees with access to their paystubs, record employee hours, integrate with your QuickBooks account, and much more. Roll also calculates, files, and pays your business’s payroll taxes on your behalf. You can get all this for the low price of $29/month + $5/employee.

Roll by ADP’s AI chatbot is designed to learn as you use it and is smart enough to help you walk through the onboarding and payroll process through its chat messages. Once you’re all set up in Roll by ADP, you can run payroll by texting different variations of “run payroll.” The app will get it done for you. If you’re having trouble with the service, you can live chat with customer service representatives from directly within the app.

Roll by ADP costs $29/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, 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

We love Payroll4Free’s completely free pricing for small businesses paying fewer than 25 employees. Although Payroll4Free’s features are extremely limited compared to the other options on this list, the software can easily handle a small business’s simple payroll needs. Payroll4Free is consistently ranked as one of the best free payroll software options on the market.

Payroll4Free is free for businesses paying under 25 employees. For businesses that want full-service tax support or want to use Payroll4Free’s direct deposit services, there is an additional fee that won’t exceed $300/year.

Although Payroll4Free’s 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