The 10 Best Small Business Payroll Services

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. I liked that QuickBooks Payroll included mileage tracking, financial reporting, invoicing, income and expense tracking, and so many other fundamental bookkeeping features. I 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 me — I saw these in only some of the payroll services I tested. I also appreciated that, no matter my pricing package, I could access employee retirement benefits and health insurance, as well as workers’ comp. With QuickBooks Payroll, I got payroll fundamentals and so much more.

With OnPay, you get an exceptional depth and breadth of features for the platform’s pricing, which is highly competitive. You also get a highly navigable interface that makes running payroll and adding new hires a total cakewalk. These are the primary two reasons why I chose OnPay as the best payroll software platform for small businesses. Companies on the smaller side need both bang for their buck and the easiest possible user experience. OnPay offers both.

Small businesses, especially new ones, might not be that familiar with payroll software yet. I was pleased to discover in my research that OnPay’s customer service is readily available, responsive, and thorough. In fact, when I called OnPay for help, I spoke with an OnPay executive rather than a standard customer service agent. It was clear to me that, from its interactions with people to its pricing and suite of features, OnPay prioritizes great small business experiences.

ADP, a longtime leader in HR services and payroll processing, is great for businesses with expanding teams or locations. I found its payroll automation tool highly effective for taking a “set it and forget it” approach to paying a team. As long as your team works the same hours every week, ADP ensures they get paid on time with no extra work on your end. I was also happy to see that ADP operates in hundreds of international locations, giving expanding businesses peace of mind when entering new markets.

I also liked that ADP is very easy to navigate. This was unexpected, as leading names in a field are sometimes tethered to outdated ways of arranging and presenting their tools and features. ADP, though, was intuitive and simple to use for both payroll and the additional HR services that are core to the ADP experience. Growing businesses need to save time and avoid stress wherever possible, and ADP broadens your horizons without any head-scratchers or frustration.

It’s in the name: Papaya Global is designed for businesses that operate in multiple countries. I 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.

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

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

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

What stood out to me with Gusto is that HR is part and parcel of its payroll offering every step of the way. Gusto went beyond just giving me access to benefits; it acted as my insurance broker and provided me with great employee plans. I was impressed with how many benefits I 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 my obvious choice for best payroll HR services.

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 me as ideal for large businesses because it maintains a team of compliance experts who keep your operations in proper shape. Another reason I named it my 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.

I also liked that Paychex is super 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.

I found Rippling the easiest platform to use among all the payroll services I 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 I, for example, set an employee wage lower than my state’s minimum, Rippling wouldn’t accept it. I had to raise the wage to meet regulatory requirements before proceeding. This is a standout feature, and I loved how easy Rippling made it to adhere to labor laws.

Just as impressive to me were Rippling’s payroll automations. I 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 my 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.

Of all the payroll services I tested, I found that Square Payroll most efficiently and accurately automated my payroll taxes. I was 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 me too.

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

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. I 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 my 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 I 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.