7 Best Payroll Software for Small Businesses: Comparisons and Reviews

Small business payroll processing typically involves spending dozens of hours every month tracking employees’ hours, copying their personal information, calculating relevant deductions, making tax payments, preparing and filing tax documents, and verifying data.

As your business expands, the process can overwhelm your team without the help of technology to take over the bulk of the tasks. This is where the need for payroll software arises. It helps you automate and manage payroll processes from deduction calculations to salary disbursements and tax remittances.

As a result, you can:

• Avoid costly payroll errors and penalties for poor/non-compliance with regulatory standards
• Save time with simplified workflows and properly secure your people and payroll data
• Reduce overhead costs
• Store all payroll records in one place rather than multiple files and spreadsheets

So how do you decide which payroll solution to use? This guide will explore some of the best payroll software for small businesses, their winning features, pros and cons, pricing details, and highlights from customer reviews. We'll also walk you through the factors to prioritize when weighing your options, to ensure you find the right fit for your team's payroll requirements.

1. Deel

Deel is a global payroll solution that provides an easy way to hire compliantly, manage worker compensation, and file tax payments regardless of where your business or your workers are based.

Deel is equipped to accommodate payroll requirements for all types of workers including full or part-time direct employees, independent contractors, and EOR employees. Deel eases the burden of keeping up with tax regulations by calculating and filing applicable federal, state, and local taxes on behalf of your business and its employees. With Deel US Payroll, you can easily pay your employees across all 50 states while ensuring local compliance.

By marrying your payroll with HR data, IT, talent management, and expense management functions, Deel streamlines your workflow, creating a unified source of truth that automatically syncs across all tools. No more entering incorrect worker information, paying out the wrong amount, miscalculating bonuses, and other common payroll mistakes.

With Deel’s employer of record (EOR) and professional employer organization (PEO) offerings, your small business can break into new markets, attract top talent, handle risk management, and administer payroll, benefits, and more faster than ever. This saves you hundreds of hours running administrative tasks and thousands of dollars that would have been spent hiring a full HR team or establishing your own entities from scratch.

Deel key features

• Coverage in 100+ countries and support for 15 payment
• 8 contractor withdrawal methods including direct deposit, debit and credit card, bank account transfers, and third-party payment solutions like Wise, Payoneer, and Coinbase
• Unlimited payroll runs with the freedom to pay different types of workers in one go
• Extended cut-off date, any-minute payroll adjustments, and off-cycle pay runs so you can pay your workers at any time without delays
• Handles payroll tax calculations, remittances, and document filing for you
• Continuous compliance monitoring and instant alerts on changes in regulatory requirements and potential violations in 100+ countries
• Accurate and easy-to-use time tracking for seamless payroll calculations and deductions
• Payroll and expenses can be synced to your general ledger, reducing time spent on manual reconciliations
• Compatibility with 68+ business apps and tools
• Role-based permissions and approvals, plus advanced admin and field privileges
• Employee self-service portal for accessing payslips, managing documents, viewing benefits information, requesting time off, and more

Deel pros and cons

Pros

• Quick implementation to help you get your payroll system up and running faster than competitors
• Other functionalities beyond payroll are baked into the system including HR, IT, accounting, performance management, and employee enablement
• Reliable multi-channel customer support with 24/7 coverage and industry-leading resolution times
• No hidden costs or fees
• AI-powered assistant to provide useful payroll tips, generate instant reports, and deliver global HR and workforce insights

Cons

• Although Deel is easy to navigate and understand right out of the gate, it may take some time for new users to get acquainted with its complete feature set
• Per-employee pricing model requires careful budget management, as costs can increase with workforce expansion.

Customer reviews

4.8 rating (G2)/4.8 rating (Capterra)

• Account verification and onboarding are fast and straightforward, and the platform is intuitive and easy to navigate even for users new to international payments and compliance
• Great customer support with friendly human representatives addressing concerns in real time
• Comprehensive payroll product with multi-currency support and lots of account and transfer options for sending and receiving payments
• It’s a bit more expensive than some local payroll and EOR services, but the product, convenience, and global reach justify the price.

Pricing

How much you pay for Deel comes down to the specific needs of your business and the services you choose. Here’s a pricing breakdown to guide you:

• Deel Global Payroll - starts at $29 per employee per/month
• Deel US Payroll - starts at $19 per employee/month
• Deel US PEO - starts at $79 per employee/month
• Deel Contractor - starts at $49 per month
• Deel EOR - starts at $499 per month
• Deel HR - included for free
• Deel IT - starts at $99 per month

Best for

Companies of all sizes looking for an all-in-one payroll and HR solution, with flexible payment options, global coverage, and robust HR and compliance management features.

2. Gusto

Gusto is a payroll software with an intuitive interface and features tailored to help small businesses simplify payment processes for their local and distributed teams.

Gusto provides employers with flexible payroll management. You can decide when and how to pay your workers and run payments off-cycle when necessary. Gusto also takes care of new hiring reporting and relevant tax calculations and filings at federal and state levels for you.

For employees in countries where your company doesn’t have an established entity, Gusto enables you to pay them using its EOR service. However, coverage only extends to a handful of countries at present. It's also worth noting that Gusto isn’t a very scalable solution. As your business expands, you may find its features too limiting and require more advanced tools to seamlessly facilitate your payroll operations.

Gusto key features

• Payroll processing can be done manually or set to run on auto-pilot
• Payments can be made via direct deposit, checks, and prepaid debit cards
• Over 20 software integrations including Quickbooks, Xero, Clover, and Trainual
• Pay-as-you-go worker’s comp for employee and business protection
• Electronically generate, sign, send, store, and organize forms online including I-9s, W-2s, and 1099s
• Broad benefits administration including health insurance, 401(k) plans, 529 plans, commuter benefits, and federal student aids and health savings accounts

Gusto pros and cons

Pros

• Flexible and transparent pricing
• No software learning curve
• Unlimited payroll for salaried and hourly employees—no extra charge

Cons

• Lack of 24/7 customer support
• Few advanced functionalities to meet the needs of larger and growing businesses
• Limited withdrawal options for contractors
• No localized contracts and compliance documents collection for contractors outside the US

Gusto customer reviews

4.5/5 rating (G2), 4./5 rating (Capterra)

• Transitioning to Gusto is quick and painless, and the process of onboarding new employees only takes a few clicks
• There are instances when paycheck deposits get delayed, forcing teams to rely on alternative payment methods
• State taxes and reports are not always paid on time or filed consistently, leading to penalties against the business

Pricing

• Simple - $40 per month + $6 per employee/month
• Plus - $60 per month + $9 per employee/month
• Premium - $135 per month + $16.50 per employee/month
• Contractor only - $0 per month (for the first 6 months and $35/month thereafter) + $6 per employee/month

Best for

Small businesses seeking a basic, user-friendly solution to pay workers across borders and handle compliance for all 50 US states.

3. Paychex

Paychex provides small businesses with the key features they need to manage their workforce and run payroll for employees smoothly and quickly.

Paychex gives you the ability to pay various types of workers from employees to contractors using pay cards, direct deposits, and paper checks. It allows your employees to access their earned wages before payday and automatically disburses tips for tipped employees.

Since calculating liabilities and remitting tax payments and records can be time-consuming, Paychex assumes the responsibility for you. It can even help you claim any tax credits for which you qualify.

Paychex has a built-in HR tool that can be integrated with your payroll system to access up-to-date employee information such as performance evaluation records, hours worked, selected benefits, and more.

Paychex key features

• Payroll can be processed on desktop and mobile or submitted by phone to a payroll specialist
• Need-based payroll options from basic to PEO and a full-service HR suite
• Employees can complete their new-hire onboarding, fill out tax forms, view and edit personal information, and more via a mobile self-service app
• Comprehensive analytics and reporting on payroll and HR data
• Garnishment payments and new hire reporting to authorities
• Integrates with top accounting software to automatically sync your bookkeeping and payroll data

Paychex pros and cons

Pros

• Customizable payroll platform that scales with you
• Detailed payroll dashboard with configurable views

Cons

• Services like general ledger, document management, time tracking, expense management, and fast payment options are billed separately as add-ons
• The pricing model isn’t transparent

Paychex customer reviews

4.2/5 rating (G2), 4.2/5 rating (Capterra)

• Paychex often takes a long time to log in, so the time tracker records employees as late even when they clock in early, and that time ends up being deducted from their paychecks
• Training and customer support are sorely lacking. It’s difficult to get hold of someone to attend to your issues and you might end up getting bounced back and forth between channels and account reps
• The best thing about Paychex is that you can access it, process payments, and generate reports from anywhere

Pricing

Custom quote.

Best for

Small business owners looking for a straightforward solution for managing payroll, HR, and tax compliance that they can grow into.

4. Quickbooks

Although it’s better known for its accounting software, Quickbooks offers an intuitive, no-frills solution for small business payroll planning.

The platform caters to both employees and independent contractors, so you can pay your workers through direct deposits regardless of your team structure. However, payments to employees outside of the US can only be made manually via third-party integrations like Wise and Remitly.

Quickbooks helps you stay compliant by supplying labor law posters and easy access to tax forms and other relevant documents. It calculates your federal and state payroll taxes and handles the deductions, payments, and filings so you don’t have to.

With automated payroll reports for everything from employee hours and taxes withheld to cash flow statements and balance sheets, you can uncover expense insights to inform your next move.

Quickbooks key features

• Automated payroll with mobile time/receipt tracking and same-day direct deposit (on certain plans)
• Online workforce portal for employees to clock in and out, view their tax forms, pay stubs, PTO balances, banking info, and more
• Done-for-you payroll tax remittance and document filing
• Payroll system can be set up for you or reviewed by an expert after you’ve completed implementation if you’re on the higher-priced plans

Quickbooks pros and cons

Pros

• Detailed, customizable reports
• Mobile app for on-the-go payroll management

Cons

• Independent contractors can’t be paid hourly, so you’ll need a different program if you want to pay by the hour
• No native or direct payment options for international payroll
• Base cost is higher than alternatives
• Access to time-tracking, same-day deposit, HR support center, and 24/7 product support is not included in the base plan

Quickbooks customer reviews

4.0/5rating (G2), 4.3/5 rating (Capterra)

• Accounts can be easily accessed and transactions tracked from anywhere, on any device as long as there’s an internet connection
• Customer service is hit and miss—quick and effective sometimes, difficult at other times
• The payroll module can stop working for weeks or months at a time before the bug is fixed

Pricing

• Payroll Core - $50 per month + $6 per employee/month
• Payroll Premium - $85 per month + $9 per employee/month
• Payroll Elite - $130 per month + $11 per employee/month

Best for

Small organizations that are already using Quickbooks to manage their bookkeeping are in the market for a lightweight payroll tool to pair it with.

5. ADP RUN

ADP RUN’s feature-rich software makes managing and paying your people fast and easy. It provides multiple payment options that you can take advantage of such as direct deposit, checks, and prepaid ADP debit cards.

ADP RUN can help automatically calculate tax, benefits, and retirement deductions and pay your taxes to satisfy federal and state regulations. It can create and send W-2s and 1099s for you, then file them on your behalf.

ADP RUN lets you extend the capabilities of your payroll system by adding functionalities like compliance error alerts, time tracking, garnishment payment service, and a full stack of HR tools.

Bear in mind that ADP RUN doesn’t cater to contractor-only employers so if your small business is strictly powered by contractors, you may have to look elsewhere for a payments solution.

ADP RUN key features

• Access employee HR and payroll records including personal information, performance evaluations, and pay history in one place
• Full-service payroll and compliance in all 50 US states and across 140 countries
• Broad range of services beyond payroll such as talent acquisition, benefits administration, legal compliance, and talent management
• Proactive notifications on changes to US federal and state tax and labor regulations

ADP RUN pros and cons

Pros

• User-friendly mobile app with employee self-service built in
• Customizable product features that can be tacked on or removed at will

Cons

• Costs more to integrate HR functionalities like expense management, benefits administration, and time and attendance tracking with payroll
• Requires an additional, separately priced product to track time and attendance
• Base fee pricing is calculated based on how often you run payroll and per-employee costs are charged per pay run rather than a monthly fee basis. Depending on your payroll frequency, pricing costs can be high

ADP RUN customer reviews

4.5/5 rating (G2), 4.5/5 rating (Capterra)

• It’s easy to navigate the dashboard to find what you need, and if you encounter issues, customer support is always responsive and eager to help
• Payroll can’t be automated to run at specific intervals for specific amounts, and automated notifications regularly arrive late, often after they’ve ceased to be relevant
• ADP reps allegedly constantly chase you to get you to buy additional services even after you've made it clear on numerous occasions that you're not interested

Pricing

Custom quotes

Best for

Startups and smaller organizations with less than 50 employees that need an effective basic payroll provider with customizable plans.

6. Rippling

Rippling is an automated payroll technology that allows growing businesses to efficiently and compliantly manage payroll for local and international teams.

The platform doesn’t discriminate between worker types and payment structures. It automatically calculates relevant tax deductions, pays them, and files your payroll tax returns for you to reduce your workload and help you stay compliant,

For businesses that want to hire qualified talent internationally without setting up multiple local entities, Rippling has an EOR solution similar to Deel EOR that employs team members and handles their payroll, tax remittances, benefits provision, and other legal and HR obligations on your behalf.

That said, although Rippling is positioned as a full-service payroll platform, it doesn’t have expense management or HRIS features like time and attendance tracking and benefits administration built-in by default. This means you’ll have to spend extra on purchasing these services if you want them.

Rippling key features

• Check and direct deposit payment options for employees
• Recruiting, performance review, time and attendance tracking, benefits administration, device management, and bill and expense payment features can be added on as needed
• Reliable mobile app for employees to request time off, access their pay stubs, and see their tax forms
• PEO services for outsourcing US HR processes
• Tracks overtime, pay rates, hours worked, bonuses, and more and makes the necessary adjustments when calculating payroll

Rippling pros and cons

Pros

• Automated tax filing and compliance
• Customizable user permissions
• Library of ready-to-use workflow automation templates

Cons

• You have to request a custom quote to calculate the cost for your business
• Features for HRIS and expense management are not included in the base payroll platform
• Payments take days to arrive once processed
• Initial set-up can be complicated and difficult to navigate particularly if you have unique or highly specific needs

Rippling customer reviews

4.8/5 rating (G2), 4.9/5 rating (Capterra)

• Onboarding or offboarding employees is easy and uploaded documents are organized beautifully
• Implementation and support teams are non-responsive, and when they do respond seem more interested in selling you something or preventing you from canceling than in fixing issues even after they make promises about looking into it
• Customer agreements include hidden terms like mandatory one-year service contracts, 30-day cancellation fees, additional fees for automations and notifications, and more

Pricing

Custom quote.

Best for

Startups and established businesses with teams looking to build international teams or shift from spreadsheet-based payroll to a comprehensive payroll platform.

7. TriNet

TriNet’s PEO product may be a good option for your business if you’re looking to outsource your US payroll and HR workload, rather than hire a full team of in-house professionals.

TriNet will deliver all the support you need to manage and retain your talent from benefits management to timely payroll processing. It will also tackle tax withholding, payments, and filing, document delivery, and new hire notifications to minimize legal and reputational risks.

TriNet also offers a cloud-based HR platform for companies that prefer a more hands-on people management approach. The platform comes with all the usual trappings of an HR tool, including attendance, time tracking, performance evaluations, document management, benefits administration, and people analytics.

However, the payroll feature isn’t available on the HR platform unless you’ve purchased the most expensive plan. Alternatively, you can unlock feature access by subscribing to the lower-priced plans and getting payroll as an add-on with additional fees.

TriNet key features

• Automated payroll processing and tax calculations for federal, local, and state
• Comprehensive workforce tracking and reporting tools that monitor how employees are using their time and help lower the need for overtime pay
• Handles creation and delivery of W-2 and 1099 forms to employees and contractors
• Wide-raging reporting capabilities for actionable payroll insights

TriNet pros and cons

Pros

• Unlimited payroll runs
• Employees can conveniently track vacation days, review their benefits, and more from the mobile app

Cons

• Not a global hiring and payroll management solution
• Users can only select the most expensive plan for the HR platform features payroll capabilities
• Interface is a bit dated and cluttered

TriNet customer reviews

4.0/5 rating (G2), 3.7/5 rating (Capterra)

• It takes anywhere from a couple days to several months for support to resolve issues
• The reporting feature is buggy; data doesn’t sync instantly so the same information will show up differently in different areas of the platform
• User experience is great and the platform offers plenty of training and development sessions to help you get familiar with the different features

Pricing

For TriNet PEO, you’ll need to contact the company directly for a custom quote. Pricing for the HR platform is as follows:

• Essentials - $10 per employee/month, billed monthly, Or $8 per employee/month, billed annually. Plus $6 per employee/month for payroll add-on
• Growth - $20 per employee/month, billed monthly, Or $16 per employee/month, billed annually. Plus $6 per employee/month for payroll add-on
• Zen -$33 per employee/month, billed monthly Or $27 per employee/month, billed annually (Payroll included for free)

Best for

Small businesses lacking the time, resources, or manpower to manage HR, payroll, and compliance internally.

Key criteria for selecting payroll software for small businesses

When shopping for a payroll provider for your company, you’ll need to take note of some internal considerations like the size of your business, the number of employees you have, how often you pay your employees, and who you want to be responsible for handling payroll.

While these reflections will bring you closer to choosing the right payroll service for your needs, you shouldn’t make a final decision without first evaluating how each software performs in the following areas:

Ease of use

You want software that saves you time, not one that you have to devote extra hours to figuring out when you could be focused on more value-driven activities.

Look for a tool with a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and delivers continuous updates to improve utility and usability. Ideally, the tool should require little to no training and provide exhaustive training and support materials in case you encounter a hitch while using it.

Check reviews to see what past and present users have to say about the software’s intuitiveness and ease of adoption.

Compliance and tax support

Tax management and regulatory compliance are the aspects of payroll that small businesses struggle with the most. With everything else that’s on your plate, it can be challenging to stay up to date on the latest labor and payroll regulations. Make one minor mistake while calculating and filing your taxes and you could end up facing serious penalties.

You need payroll software that helps with tax calculations, deductions, payments, and filings to the relevant federal, state, and local agencies, so you can have peace of mind and stay compliant.

Cost and affordability

Costs and pricing structures differ from one payroll software to the next. Some services use monthly and annual subscription models and charge base costs, per-employee costs, or both. Others may charge per pay run, rather than monthly. You may also be required to pay upfront costs, one-time fees for setup and implementation, or additional costs for customization, support, integrations, and supplementary features.

So, when evaluating solutions, pay close attention to their costing model and select the one with transparent pricing that fits within your budget and best aligns with your needs. Dig through online reviews for each software to find out if it has hidden costs that may apply so you're not caught by surprise.

Scalability

By prioritizing scalable payroll software that can stick with your business as it expands, you can spare yourself the stress and disruption to workflows that will occur every time you have to switch to a new payroll system because you’ve outgrown the last one. The solution you choose must be able to adapt to changes in your business operations, hiring structure, and workforce size without sacrificing performance.

Some payroll providers offer heaps of features from the get-go that you can grow into, while others may allow you to start with a basic plan and upgrade to more advanced features or purchase add-on functionalities as your company evolves.

Additional features

Payroll management doesn’t end at processing payments, calculating deductions, paying taxes, and creating payroll reports. Look for payroll systems that can do more for your business and offer advanced features in addition to basic payroll functions.

For example, a tool with features like direct deposit, time tracking, employee self-service, AI-powered assistants, HRIS capabilities, and integration with accounting software will bring more value to your organization in terms of efficiency and cost savings.

Manage payroll seamlessly with Deel

Growing your small business into a profit-generating machine requires more than idea generation and marketing. You need to hire the right talent, compensate them fairly, and ensure they get paid on time and accurately, so they stay motivated to do their best work.

Deel Global Payroll and Deel PEO allow you to manage payroll, employee benefits, and tax filings with complete accuracy and confidence for employees in 100+ countries.

Instead of taking days to process payroll, you can now get it done in minutes, make adjustments at any time, and conduct as many pay runs as you need, on or off cycle. Deel automatically connects payroll to your HR data and accounting software, eliminating the need for manual data entry and significantly reducing the amount of admin you need to do.

Discover all the benefits of the Deel platform today and automate your payroll and compliance management.