The 10 Best Small Business Payroll Services It's on you to pay your employees in full and on time. With small business payroll software, you can do exactly that — and so much more.

It's in the name: Papaya Global is designed for businesses that operate in multiple countries. We liked that Papaya Global offers its services in more than 160 countries, which covers most of the world. I was also pleased that Papaya Global so deftly consolidated employee data, including headcounts and time off, across all locations via clear dashboards. Whether your business already crosses borders or is looking to do so soon, Papaya Global gives you the infrastructure you need.

Of course, global expansion can get expensive, and Papaya Global helps a tiny bit on that front with its payroll pricing. You'll pay $12 per employee per month for Papaya Global's payroll service, but there's no flat fee on top of that. However, international expansion may require you to use Papaya as your employer of record, which is highly expensive at $650 per employee per month. Nevertheless, via additional services such as international contractor management, Papaya Global is well equipped to keep your money flowing properly throughout the world.

Paycor: Best for employee portal.

Score: 3.9/5

Pros

• When your employees log in to Paycor, they can review their pay stubs, submit time-off requests, update their information, and plenty more.
• All information that employees can access via the desktop browser employee portal is also available via mobile app.
• Paycor offers a comparatively large number of reports, all of which are clearly organized with highly useful data.

Cons

• Paycor's payroll suite doesn't include state new-hire reporting, PTO management, or employee benefits.
• Paycor offers custom pricing only, so you must await a personalized quote to effectively compare its costs to those of other platforms you're considering.
• On both Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau's websites, most Paycor reviews are negative.

While testing payroll software, we found Paycor's employee self-service portal to be the most comprehensive. We acted as an employee while testing Paycor and liked how much we could do and how easily we could do it. We found it simple to go over our pay stubs, ask for time off, review benefits, and obtain annual tax forms. We had an equally easy time doing this via desktop and mobile.

Switching back to our employer role, we found Paycor useful for payroll reporting, too. We were impressed with how many payroll reports come with Paycor, and we found the reports to be well organized and data-rich. Between the streamlined data access for employers and the administrative ease for employees, we enjoyed using Paycor.

Gusto: Best for HR services.

Score: 4.2/5

Pros

• Gusto's least expensive package includes an impressive breadth of HR features for its price, especially when it comes to employee benefits.
• You can approve or deny employee time-off requests with just one click in Gusto while seeing the type of time off requested.
• Gusto covers all your compliance needs, including filing taxes and reporting new hires.

Cons

• Gusto lacks a mobile app.
• Gusto's more advanced pricing packages are somewhat more costly than other payroll services' higher-end plans.
• Not only does Gusto lack Better Business Bureau (BBB) accreditation, but its BBB rating is an F.

At its starting price of $40 per month, plus $6 per user per month, Gusto impressed us with its introductory features. We liked getting full access to customer support right off the bat, not to mention payroll, time-off reports, and high-quality employee benefits. Upgrading our plan would have allowed us to take advantage of PTO management and multistate payroll features as well. We liked that Gusto both equipped us with ample payroll resources from the get-go and made it easy to upgrade when we needed more features.

What stood out to us with Gusto is that HR is part and parcel of its payroll offering every step of the way. Gusto went beyond just giving us access to benefits; it acted as our insurance broker and provided us with great employee plans. We were impressed with how many benefits we could get with even Gusto's introductory Simple plan, such as medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance. With 401(k)s, HSAs, FSAs, commuter benefits, and 529 college savings plans, Gusto was our obvious choice for best payroll HR services.

Paychex: Best for large businesses.

Score: 4.4/5

Pros

• Paychex is staffed with compliance experts who keep up with relevant regulations and make corresponding changes within the software.
• Paychex offers a variety of pay schedules, so any business can theoretically use it.
• With Paychex, you can fully automate the filing of your taxes at the local, state, and federal levels.

Cons

• Paychex offers employee benefits as an entirely separate service from payroll.
• Paychex lacks a free trial, so you can't test whether the system works well for you before implementing it.
• Flex Essentials, Paychex's lowest-priced package, is thin on features compared to other platforms' entry-level tiers.

The more your business grows, the more chances it has to make compliance mistakes that could land it in trouble with regulatory authorities. Paychex stood out to us as ideal for large businesses because it maintains a team of compliance experts who keep your operations in proper shape. Another reason we named it our top pick for large businesses: You can use it to run weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly payroll. With this diversity of choices, shifting schedules if your hiring priorities change — such as if you hire more hourly workers — is a breeze.

We also liked that Paychex is easy to use. Large business operations are known to quickly get disorganized, and Paychex counters that with two-click payroll. It also offers automatic local, state, and federal tax filing, which means no more incomplete or late tax forms. If you choose to sign up for Paychex's separate HR features, you'll find that they integrate neatly with your payroll system too. From HR to payroll, Paychex is equipped to handle all employer concerns.

Rippling: Best for usability.

Score: 4.7/5

Pros

• Rippling is so intuitive to navigate that running payroll can be done in just 90 seconds.
• Rippling blocks you from instituting wages, sick leave policies, and overtime pay rates that don't comply with regulations.
• Rippling's automations ensure that payroll admins pay employees bonuses, such as referral rewards.

Cons

• You must sign up separately for Rippling's benefits management program.
• Rippling offers so many different software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms that it can be unclear what you get with each service and at what cost.
• Rippling lacks a free trial, so you can't easily figure out which functions you do and don't get when you use this platform.

We found Rippling the easiest platform to use among all the payroll services we reviewed. It was no trouble at all to run payroll in just 90 seconds, as Rippling so often advertises. Staying compliant was easy too. If we, for example, set an employee wage lower than our state's minimum, Rippling wouldn't accept it. We had to raise the wage to meet regulatory requirements before proceeding. This is a standout feature, and we loved how easy Rippling made it to adhere to labor laws.

Just as impressive to us were Rippling's payroll automations. We found it incredibly simple to set criteria that automatically triggered the assignment of an important payroll task to a team member. For example, Rippling made sure that our payroll admin implemented a salary raise for all new employees upon their hitting the six-month mark. From running payroll to instantly enacting key pay changes and everything in between, Rippling was a breeze to use.

QuickBooks Payroll: Best for accounting.

Score: 4.8/5

Pros

• All QuickBooks Payroll plans come with the bookkeeping features that power QuickBooks' best-in-class accounting software.
• QuickBooks Payroll includes employee health insurance, retirement benefits, and workers' comp.
• You always get next-day or same-day employee direct deposit with QuickBooks Payroll.

Cons

• QuickBooks Payroll is comparatively quite expensive, but the breadth and depth of accounting features and employee benefits justify the cost.
• Although QuickBooks offers substantial pricing discounts during your early months using it, you must forgo a free trial to claim these discounts.
• Time-tracking features are available only with the most expensive QuickBooks Payroll pricing package.

QuickBooks is best known as the leading name in accounting software, and its payroll platform includes many of the accounting features behind its esteemed reputation. We liked that QuickBooks Payroll included mileage tracking, financial reporting, invoicing, income and expense tracking, and so many other fundamental bookkeeping features. We immediately saw how this could be useful for a small business that wants full payroll processing and basic accounting software within the same platform.

Of course, QuickBooks Payroll excels at key payroll tasks, too, including automatic employee payments and tax calculation, filing, and payment. The contractor tax tools and especially the rapid direct deposit impressed us — we saw these in only some of the payroll services we tested. We also appreciated that, no matter our pricing package, we could access employee retirement benefits and health insurance, as well as workers' comp. With QuickBooks Payroll, we got payroll fundamentals and so much more.

Square Payroll: Best for tax filing.

Score: 4.9/5

Pros

• Square Payroll goes beyond automatically calculating and filing your federal payroll taxes — it does this for state taxes too.
• You can use Square Payroll for your whole team or solely to pay independent contractors, with especially inexpensive pricing for the latter.
• Square Payroll makes it easy to generate and review reports that show how your employees' wages and tips shape your cash outflows.

Cons

• Employee health and retirements are add-ons, rather than inclusions, with Square Payroll.
• Same-day direct deposit is available only for employees who use Cash App, which fewer employees may use than Venmo or PayPal.
• For some companies with scheduling needs, Square's 10-day-in-advance window may feel limiting.

Of all the payroll services we tested, we found that Square Payroll most efficiently and accurately automated our payroll taxes. We were especially happy that Square did this at both the state and federal levels. On the opposite end of the spectrum, for contractors requiring no payroll taxes, Square was easy to use, too. It took just a few clicks to instantly initiate payments, and Square's refreshingly low pricing for contractor-only payroll impressed us as well.

We also appreciated the Square Payroll reporting suite, even though platforms such as QuickBooks and Rippling offered more reports. In particular, Square's reports gave us wage and tip information that restaurants, a major Square user base, would find highly useful. It was easy to see how the wages we were paying and the tips our employees were earning affected our business's payouts. With this information, appropriately scheduling our team was easier. We found Square Payroll helpful for taxes, wage management, and plenty of other needs.

Justworks: Best for PEO services.

Score: 4.6/5

Pros

• Justworks is the rare payroll provider that offers 24/7 customer support.
• Some benefits that come with Justworks' least expensive package, such as commuter benefits, aren't available at all with most other payroll services.
• Unlike many payroll providers that offer PEO services, Justworks is completely transparent about its pricing, which is competitive among PEO payroll platforms.

Cons

• Justworks is more expensive than many of our other best picks, but this is to be expected of a PEO payroll service.
• Only through the more expensive of Justworks' two pricing packages can you offer employee health insurance.
• Unlike with many PEO services, you can't pick and choose the features you need, which might cause you to pay extra for non-essentials alongside your payroll.

A professional employer organization (PEO) is a company that all but becomes your business's HR department, thereby handling payroll, benefits administration, and regulatory compliance. We tested several PEOs as part of this payroll software review, and Justworks was by far the best PEO payroll service. Its transparent pricing immediately caught our attention since so many PEO providers require potential users to seek a custom quote. The pricing, though more expensive than dedicated payroll software, was low for a PEO and fully reasonable for the breadth and depth of features.

These features include commuter benefits, expense management tools, and COBRA post-employment health insurance administration, among others. Another standout inclusion: 24/7 customer support for all customers, which we simply never encountered with dedicated payroll services. Speaking of payroll, Justworks made that easy, too, with full payroll tax filing and calculation alongside employee payments and year-end forms. For a powerful payroll service that's a PEO as well, look no further than Justworks.

Payroll software cost.

The most common pricing structure for payroll services is a flat monthly fee plus an additional monthly fee per employee. For example, OnPay costs $40 per month, plus $6 per user per month. For a team of five employees, the total monthly cost would be $70 ($40 + $6 * 5 = $70). This pricing structure benefits small teams but can make certain platforms unaffordable for larger teams, which is why some services charge only per employee per month. Other platforms set custom rates that correspond directly to your team's size and the services you need.

Typically, you won't pay any extra fees to implement your payroll software — with some payroll services, guided setup is included. However, you may need to pay extra for payroll features such as employee benefits management and, less frequently, PTO management. For especially cost-effective payroll processing, look for platforms that always include state new-hire reporting, PTO management, and benefits administration in their pricing.

How to choose a payroll software.

Divide your needs into must-haves and nice-to-haves. If you're looking for payroll software, then your business needs tools to automate and streamline employee payments — that's a must-have. This requirement, though, doesn't mean that you absolutely need employee benefits or HR add-ons. Those might be nice-to-haves, and marking them as such can help you choose a less expensive payroll service that doesn't include HR features.

Determine your payroll schedules. Maybe you're paying all your team members semimonthly. Maybe, though, you're paying some of them semimonthly and others weekly. Look for payroll services that accommodate all your payroll schedules, whether you have only one schedule or several.

Compare your potential vendors' features and prices. Plot out each of your potential vendors' key features, including pricing, in a chart to see how they stack up. This way, for example, you'll see that your initial first choice doesn't offer the next-day direct deposit your employees have demanded.

You'll also see how your pricing options align with the features you do and don't get across all your platforms. In particular, pay attention to whether the pricing is a base fee per month plus per-employee fees or solely the latter.

Pursue free trials and demos. You should always pursue a free trial from any vendor that offers one. A hands-on but no-commitment experience using a potential payroll service is always the best way to know for sure whether that platform meets your needs. If a free trial isn't offered, a free demo might be available instead so that you can closely observe how the platform works. This guided tour of a platform is a decent alternative to getting unrestricted access to play around with it yourself.

Read customer reviews. Free trials show you most, but not all, of how a platform works — namely, you might not get full customer support access. In that case, turn to customer reviews on Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau's websites. This commentary from actual users often centers on a platform's customer support availability and quality, or the lack thereof. Reading them can give you more insight into how the platform does or doesn't serve you.

Make your decision and implement the platform. Choose whichever platform with great reviews offers all the features you need and a user experience that aligns with what you're seeking. From there, set up the platform for your business — many payroll services will assist you with the process. Then, start using the platform and seeing all the ways in which it meets your expectations. If it fails, you can always switch to another service.

Methodology

We conducted our research for this piece via vendor-led demos, free trials of platforms that offered them, and browsing vendors' websites. Along the way, we looked for vendors that make payroll tax and new-hire regulatory compliance as easy as possible. We also sought out payroll services that manage paid time off and employee benefits. Some of the information in our review comes directly from vendor representatives as well. These representatives were present during our guided demos or answered support calls we placed while posing as a customer.

Payroll software FAQ

What is a good software for payroll?

Great payroll options include ADP, OnPay, Rippling, Gusto, Paychex, Paycor, Papaya Global, Justworks, Square Payroll, and QuickBooks Payroll. The ideal user base for these platforms varies.

What is the easiest payroll to set up?

Most of the best payroll services are equally easy to set up. Some, though, such as ADP, are known for lengthy, arduous implementation periods.

Is QuickBooks Payroll easy to use?

Yes, QuickBooks Payroll is easy to use. That said, a small number of payroll services, such as Rippling, acan be even more user-friendly.

Why is some payroll software so expensive?

Higher-priced payroll software is typically richer in features. It may include, for example, employee benefits administration and customer support features unavailable at lower prices. When you encounter more expensive services, be sure the additional features justify the price. If not, seek out a more affordable alternative.

Is Paychex better than ADP?

Both Paychex and ADP are powerful, user-friendly payroll services that offer similar features. Paychex, though, may be less expensive, potentially making it the superior choice for businesses on a budget. ADP is nevertheless a great choice for growing businesses.