10 Best Payroll Companies for Your Booming Business in 2022

Overview — Despite being a relative newcomer to the industry, Gusto is one of the country’s most popular payroll services. It owes most of that popularity to an effective combination of easy-to-use features and advanced options. 

Gusto appeals to both small business owners just starting payroll and experienced HR managers alike. It’s the best payroll software for most SMEs. It comes in four price tiers, each appealing to a slightly different type of business. 

Four-tier pricing — Gusto’s price tiers are well-designed to appeal to different business segments. However, you’ll notice every price tier retains the critical aspects of payroll processing, such as employee self-service, worker’s comp admin, and PTO management. 

HR education — With Gusto’s Concierge plan, you can get personalized support from HR professionals. Gusto’s specialists will guide you through OSHA regulations, HR best practices, and labor laws. Even the best payroll service can’t help you without accurate reporting.

Gusto Wallet — If you use Gusto, your employees get access to a mobile app that helps them manage their finances. Your employees can use a Gusto Wallet account to track spending, paychecks, and savings.  

Payroll on AutoPilot — You can set up Gusto to run payroll automatically. It only takes seconds to enable, and it will run payroll a day before the deadline every period. You’ll have 24 hours to make any changes or cancel the payroll altogether.

Overview — ADP is not only one of the largest payroll companies, but it’s also among the most prominent business process outsourcing companies bar none. By most accounts, ADP is the most used payroll services company in the US.  

HR features — You’ll probably find the breadth of HR features to be the ADP’s most attractive point it brings to the table. ADP partners with ZipRecruiter to help you find new hires and even has integrations to streamline background checks for employees.

RUN by ADP —  RUN is ADP’s cloud-based payroll solution, providing small business payroll services for organizations with under 50 employees. This will provide you with mobile access to the ADP’s full range of services, including HR support, benefits management, and more. 

Scales with your business — ADP works with over 900,000 businesses. As your company grows, ADP’s services can grow with it, no matter how big you get. And you can even add full-service HR support if you need it. However, it’s likely not a great choice if you just need a cheap service for one employee. In that case, you’d better go with Patriot software.

Custom pricing —Unfortunately,  ADP doesn’t disclose pricing directly. Instead, you’ll get a custom quote based on your needs. But you can expect a price along the lines of $10 per employee per month and additional fees per payment period.

Overview — If you want the best payroll services for your small business at the most straightforward pricing, OnPay is a superb choice! It has all the tools that most businesses need and a simple price point that doesn’t change based on services. 

Moreover, OnPay will only bill you for workers who get paid during a month. If you have people on the payroll who don’t receive a paycheck that month, you won’t pay for them. 

Unlimited pay runs — Whether you need to run payroll once, twice, or more times, OnPay’s price stays the same. The only way your price goes up is if you add more people to your payroll. 

Full tax filing support — OnPay payroll can handle tax filing for W-2 and 1099 employees and taxes for any organization type. OnPay even covers churches, nonprofits, farms, and other nontraditional organizations. 

Additionally, OnPay offers you a tax-filing guarantee. If the company makes a mistake on your tax filing, it will make it right. Even if that means covering any penalties or interest resulting from the error. 

Full HR support — Along with some of the online payroll services, you’ll get access to OnPay’s HR features. Those features include offer letters for new employees, PTO processing, organizational charts, HR audits, and more.

Overview — Founded in 1971, Paychex is one of the oldest companies on this list and has developed a solid reputation in the payroll processing space. 

The element that most makes it stand out among the top payroll companies is how well it integrates your HR solutions with payroll software. 

Paychex has a relatively straightforward solution for small businesses in the form of Paychex Go. But it also has highly versatile options if yours is a larger organization. It also has several quality-of-life features built-in for your employees. 

HR tools suite — Paychex offers a host of HR solutions and services. So, you can get consulting on various issues, such as hiring processes, employee assistance, and even building a company culture. 

Paychex also helps you simplify your employee onboarding process with online forms, new hire checklists, and a secure online portal for new hires. This is as good as it gets.

Paychex Flex plans — With the basic Paychex Go plan, you’ll get everything you need to run payroll effectively for a small business, so we were more than satisfied with this. 

What is more, Paychex Flex and Flex Enterprise have many additional features besides payroll service organization. Paychex can help you with things like:

• Managing unemployment insurance
• Creating custom analytics to visualize your business needs
• A dedicated payroll specialist who acts as a single point of contact
• Employee screening and background checks
• Designing online courses for employee education

Overview — Intuit’s payroll service is as polished and user-friendly as all its other products. Of course, it has a significant edge over other options if you’re already using QuickBooks. But if that’s not the case, it’s still a strong contender for the best payroll software for a small business.

The basic price tier is accessible and has everything you’re likely to need. But if you’re willing to pay a little more, we can say the added benefits are entirely worth it. 

Same-day deposit — If you complete and submit your payroll by 7 am on a payday, QuickBooks can direct-deposit wages on the same day at no extra charge. How cool is that?

Payroll automation — For salaried employees, you can run payroll automatically. All you have to do is approve the payroll during the pay run and let QuickBooks do the rest if nothing has changed since last time. 

Mobile time tracking — Employees can track hours anywhere and on any device with GPS tracking to record where they are working. 

ProAdvisor program — QuickBooks is easily the best payroll software for accountants in terms of perks for professionals. Accountants who use QuickBooks are eligible for a partner program too. Perks include listing on the QuickBooks directory, expert training, and discounted products for professionals. 

QuickBooks Payroll also allows professional users to adjust client access and real-time collaboration options. The service even provides ready-made marketing material and support to help accountants grow their businesses. Basically, if your small business belongs to an accounting niche, QuickBooks has the software for you.

Overview — Sage Payroll is a component of the Sage HRMS, which is itself part of the Sage accounting ecosystem. Sage specializes in small business solutions, and this payroll service reflects that in several ways. 

Sage Payroll Essentials —  Sage has two Accounting plans — the entry-level accounting software intended for freelancers and self-employees ($10.00 per month) and the payroll for small business owners in the form of cloud accounting software ($25.00 per month).  

So, if you need to run payroll for exactly 10 people, Sage has definitely the best deal around. 

Simple user interface — One of the things that stands out immediately about Sage Payroll is the bare-bones interface. This is a welcome departure from some more unintuitive designs, such as OnPay. 

However, it’s also the main thing keeping Sage payroll from being the best software for payroll on our list. We find it looking and feeling outdated, with some key features missing and other present features being obsolete.  

Sage HRMS — The broader Sage human resource management system is excellent for companies with a lean HR department. It has the potential to streamline most HR processes, from recruiting to the exit process. 

In addition to that, by utilizing Sage HRMS, organizations will avoid the costly mistakes caused by missed enrollments and duplicate data entry. 

On the negative side, basic users might need help from IT support in order to set up Crystal Reports in Sage HRMS. 

Ultimately, Sage Payroll will appeal to self-starters who know their way around payroll.

Overview — First and foremost, Zenefits is an HR management software. But all Zenefits plans also include its excellent payroll services.

In terms of benefits administration, Zenefits is one of the top choices overall. That’s great if you have trouble managing and assigning benefits.  

Moreover, with plans starting at only $8 per employee per month, Zenefits is one of the cheapest payroll service providers. 

Effortless new hires — Zenefits makes hiring and onboarding a breeze. For starters, it will automatically report new hires to state and federal agencies. It also syncs new hires instantly, so they’ll start receiving wages from their first day. 

Additionally, Zenefits prorates employees’ first payments based on their start date automatically.

Reporting — Zenefits makes it easy to view and track all your payroll and benefits information in one place. Payroll timelines, general ledger reporting, and job costing are all tracked and easily accessible.   

Advisory services — You can add unlimited access to an HR advisory team to any Zenefits plan. Zenefits advisors can help you with things like crafting new hiring policies or managing time off for employees. 

Integrations — Zenefits is an excellent choice among online payroll companies when it comes to integrations. It works smoothly with most major business process software, such as QuickBooks, Xero, Asana, etc. Therefore, you’re bound to enjoy the straightforwardness of this payroll service and use it to the fullest.

Overview — You probably already know Square from the wildly successful point-of-sale systems the company offers. Now, Square executed a superb expansion from payment processing into payroll services. 

Square’s small business payroll software isn’t the cheapest, but it’s relatively affordable. And if you already use Square products, it’s a perfect way to keep everything integrated. 

Full-service payroll — Square offers you a relatively standard payroll service with tax filing, a comprehensive employee app, and time tracking. We believe the fact that unlimited pay runs at no extra charge is a standout feature as well. 

Cash App payments — Square supports employee payments through the Cash App, which is unique to this list. It’s also an uncommon feature, even among the biggest payroll companies. 

Contractors-only payroll — Square can run payroll for contractors without a subscription for only $5 a month. That’s an outstanding solution if you’re getting a startup off the ground and don’t have regular employees yet. 

Live support — You can get phone and email support during business hours and live chat support during signup. Square has the most accessible support of all the companies listed in our payroll company reviews. It even offers support from onboarding specialists to help you set up Square Payroll.

Overview — We found Patriot Software’s payroll service to be not the most comprehensive, but it’s easily the cheapest payroll service with what it offers. If you choose the basic payroll plan, that is. Despite being very affordable and cheap, it has a solid feature set. 

Patriot’s payroll has a unique à la carte approach to features. Some things you’d expect to be standard with a payroll system are add-ons here. So, it may be a better value to pay for the full-service plan from the start. 

Nevertheless, Patriot is the best payroll service for one employee since payroll tasks are minimal to begin with. 

Easy setup — Patriot has a simple setup wizard that guides you through the process. For business owners just starting out, this wizard is a godsend. 

By the time you’re done, you’ll have a much better understanding of what it takes to manage your payroll and use Patriot. Even some of the top payroll companies don’t offer this approach or a suitable alternative to it.  

Time tracking — Patriot’s timekeeping system is effective and easy to use. However, it’s only available to you as an add-on service for $6 a month plus $2 per employee. 

HR software — Patriot also makes human resource management software that’s on par with some of the best in the business. You can use it to manage employee records, create employee reports, and most other HR features. But you’ll have to pay for this add-on too. 

It’s nice to have the flexibility offered by Patriot to add or remove features. Yet, we have to say some elements feel like they should come with the base service rather than be add-ons.

Overview — SurePayroll recently became a part of the Paychex family, but it maintains a completely separate set of services. It specializes in payroll processing but has a decent set of HR management features as well. 

You’ll notice that in most of these payroll companies reviews, the companies try to have a diverse range of price and service tiers. That’s not the case here.

SurePayroll is divided into only two plans — self-service and full service. 

Self-service payroll — The best value you’re likely to find for payroll services — just $19.99. This plan allows unlimited payroll runs and includes everything you need to run payroll efficiently. It supports multiple pay rates, automatic payroll, and it also includes live customer support. 

However, this version of an online payroll service doesn’t file taxes for you. Under the self-service plan, you file taxes, and it has a four-day processing period. Therefore, you’d have to hire a good tax relief company, or find a way around it (avoid taxes legally). 

Full-service payroll —  Everything you’d get under the self-service plan, plus tax filing and a two-day payroll processing period will set you back $29.99 plus $5 per worker. The full-service plan also includes HR advisory support that will help you stay compliant with workplace posters and other regulations. 

Nanny payroll — SurePayroll also has a separate price plan for nanny payroll. It’s designed for a single employee and handles all the taxes and deductions for a nanny’s wage. While it’s ideal for nannies, it provides low value if you have over one employee on the payroll. 

Nevertheless, SurePayroll is one of the very few payroll companies that offer this popular choice.