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As an employer, payday is expensive enough, as is tax season. The last thing you want is to pay a huge additional fee to a payroll service to handle processing and make sure you’re compliant (or, worse, pay a penalty fee because your taxes were misfiled).

The best cheap payroll services provide efficient processing and offer a number of other features to make your life and running your business easier. There’s direct deposit, reporting, tax services and other features that won’t put an excessive burden on your finances. Here, we’ve reviewed 10 of the best cheap payroll services to help you make an informed decision on which is best for your business.

Cheapest payroll services

Why trust our small business experts

Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of business products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.

  • 25 companies reviewed.
  • 1,025 data points analyzed.
  • 100+ hours of research.

Best cheap payroll software comparison

STARTING MONTHLY FEE DIRECT DEPOSITGARNISHMENTBENEFITS ADMINISTRATION TIME OFF TRACKINGAUTOMATIC PAYROLL
Homebase
$39 plus $6 per user
Yes
Yes; child support garnishment
No
Yes
Yes
Workful
$35 plus $6 per user
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Patriot Software
$17 plus $4 per user
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
QuickBooks Payroll
$75 plus $6 per user
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Rippling
$8 per user
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Justworks
$50 plus $8 per user
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Square
$35 plus $6 per user
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Wave Payroll
$20 plus $6 per employee or contractor (self-service states); $40 plus $6 per employee or contractor (tax-service states)
Yes
No
No
No; integration only
No
TriNet
$6 per user per month
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
OnPay
$40 plus $6 per user
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

Methodology

We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.

We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the cheapest payroll services of 2024.

Expert score (10%): We carefully evaluate the value a payroll processing platform offers to small businesses, its reputation online, support responsiveness and the overall set of features it offers to assign an expert score to each company.

Value (34%): The value a company provides is a balance between the features and services on offer, how valuable those features are to a small business and what its pricing is like. We also consider price transparency as well as additional factors like free trials or third-party integration support when determining value.

Features (46%): Beyond just looking at the broad palette of options a company offers, we also consider whether those features are genuinely useful to SMBs or if a company is just bloating its feature set so it can justify higher pricing.

Service and support (10%): Small business owners often work hours outside of the standard 9 to 5, particularly when launching their business, so support that’s readily available and responsive is key, even during off hours. We highly value knowledgeable support, especially if it’s available on a 24/7 basis.

What is payroll software, and how does it work?

Cheap payroll software often features the essentials of payroll, HR and tax compliance. The features and capabilities vary by company and tier. Some inexpensive payroll companies offer a la carte payroll, which means just the basics to run your payroll, such as the ability to manually set up payroll runs and pay employees and contractors. Others expand this offering to include automatic payroll runs and tax filings on the local, state and federal level.

Because features, capabilities and functions can vary by company and by plan, it’s important to do your homework and see which payroll software platform offers what you need.

Benefits of cheap payroll software

The clear benefit of purchasing cheap payroll software is saving money. However, there are other benefits that you might not think about.

  • Cost. If you own a small business, saving money might be a top priority. With cheap payroll software, you can still get the features you need while saving a bit of money every month. 
  • Saves time. Purchasing payroll software will help you save time, which can help your business thrive. 
  • Can still get full-service payroll. Even if you choose cheap payroll software, you can still receive full-service payroll. If you aren’t worried about having too many add-ons, cheap payroll software might be the way to go.

How to choose the best cheap payroll software

Choosing the best cheap payroll software can be overwhelming, but if you know what features your company needs, you can narrow down your choices. For example, do you need 24/7 customer support? How many software integrations do you need? Is scalability important to your business? 

Key features to look for

What features are most critical and useful to your payroll needs? For instance, do you need time-tracking, HR tools and features, compliance, tax filings and payments, access and assistance to setting up employment benefits and reports creation? 

  • Time tracking. Time tracking services might be important to your business. This can help you keep better track of your employees’ hours, which can help payroll run a bit smoother.
  • HR Tools. Are HR tools something your company needs? If you already have separate HR tools, then it might not make sense to choose a company that offers these features in its plans.
  • Scalability. While you might start with the basic plan, working with a payroll software provider that offers different plans and expanded features to be in lockstep with your business’s ever-changing needs is important.
  • Reports. Reports of payroll summaries, retirement contributions, paid time off, tax liability reports and employee summaries can help you get a bird’s-eye view of your business and make well-informed decisions.

Customer service

Customer service availability can be an important factor for many businesses. Does the payroll software offer live chat? Does it offer 24/7 support? Can you get a hold of someone by chat, email and phone

Companies like QuickBooks Payroll and Justworks offer live chat services where you can speak directly with an agent. Workful, for example, does offer email and phone services but doesn’t offer live chat services. Its customer support hours are also 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, not 24/7.

Software integrations

Software integrations can be extremely important when it comes to streamlining your payroll processes. A company like QuickBooks Payroll is great for this because it offers over 750 integrations. 

Integration with third-party accounting, time tracking, hiring and onboarding and tax preparation platforms and apps can help you save money and time as well.

How much does payroll software cost?

STARTING MONTHLY FEEFREE TRIAL?
Homebase
$39 plus $6 per user
Yes
Workful
$35 plus $6 per user
Yes
Patriot Software
$17 plus $4 per user
Yes
QuickBooks Payroll
$75 plus $6 per user
Yes
Rippling
$8 per user
No
Justworks
$50 plus $8 per user
No
Square
$35 plus $6 per user
No
Wave Payroll
$20 plus $6 per employee or contractor (self-service states); $40 plus $6 per employee or contractor (tax-service states)
No
TriNet
$6 per user per month
Not mentioned
OnPay
$40 plus $6 per user
Yes

Cheap payroll software varies in price, but it is typically offered with a base monthly rate, plus an additional rate per employee. Depending on the size and needs of your company, it might be better to work with a payroll software platform that offers custom pricing.

What we don’t recommend

One big red flag when considering which payroll software to choose is transparency in pricing and features. This can not only lead to sticker shock when you do receive a quote from a company, but can also mean you may be surprised down the line by hidden fees, additional charges or unexpected changes to your plan, including price hikes. This includes companies with overly complex pricing structures that make it difficult to make one-to-one plans and feature comparisons with other companies.

Another red flag is a multitude of negative customer reviews. Customer reviews are a great source of direct experience with a company, and an overwhelming number of negative reviews are a key indicator that a company isn’t being forthright about its offerings or isn’t delivering a product as expected.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

There are some free payroll software solutions for very small teams. However, these free tools lack many capabilities that paid solutions include as a standard, such as automatic filing of payroll taxes, direct deposit capabilities and the ability to add a substantial number of employees. 

So, you may be better off going with a no-frills cheap payroll solution such as Patriot to fulfill all your payroll needs and stay in compliance with state and federal requirements.

However, if you truly have no budget for payroll software, read our best free payroll software list.

The cheapest way to do payroll for a small business is to look for software that offers flat monthly pricing, no contracts and no cancellation penalties. If you’re a smaller business that’s just starting out, you might want to work with a payroll software platform that has a plan with barebones features.

Payroll software can help you streamline your small business finances, stay in compliance with state and federal requirements and avoid costly mishaps. Implementing payroll software as part of your operations can ensure your employees are paid on time and accurately. Plus, it can assist with:

  • Calculating and withholding federal and state taxes.
  • Keeping you informed of changing requirements and employee laws.

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Alan Bradley

BLUEPRINT

Alan is an experienced culture and tech writer with a background in newspaper reporting. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, The Escapist, PC Mag, PC Gamer, and a multitude of other outlets. He has over twenty years of experience as a journalist and editor and is the author of the urban fantasy novel The Sixth Borough.

Sierra Campbell is a small business editor for USA Today Blueprint. She specializes in writing, editing and fact-checking content centered around helping businesses. She has worked as a digital content and show producer for several local TV stations, an editor for U.S. News & World Report and a freelance writer and editor for many companies. Sierra prides herself in delivering accurate and up-to-date information to readers. Her expertise includes credit card processing companies, e-commerce platforms, payroll software, accounting software and virtual private networks (VPNs). She also owns Editing by Sierra, where she offers editing services to writers of all backgrounds, including self-published and traditionally published authors.