| Payroll software | Best for | Pricing | Best features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto (4.9)  | Best payroll solution | Plans starting at $6 per employee per month |
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| OnPay (4.7)  | Best integrated payroll, HR, and benefits platform | Plans starting at $6 per employee per month |
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| Patriot Payroll (4.6)  | Best for small businesses new to payroll | Plans starting at $4 per employee/contractor per month |
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| ADP Run (4.5)  | Best for startups | Quote-based pricing |
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| QuickBooks Payroll (4.4)  | Best for businesses with around 20 employees | Plans starting at $5 per employee per month |
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| Justworks (4.3)  | Best PEO solution | Plans starting at $59 per employee per month |
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| Workful (4.2)  | Best for paying hourly employees | Plans starting at $5 per team member per month |
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| Rippling (4.2)  | Best for companies with a global workforce | Plans starting at $8 per user per month |
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Payroll software helps youmanage payroll processes, pay your employees correctly and on time, maintain compliance, optimizeHR best practices, and stay on top of emerging payroll trends. That’s why I spent more than 50 hours researching dozens of online payroll platforms to identify the best on the market.
I sat through demos, made the most of free trials, and evaluated customer reviews. I also assessed each product’s pricing options and feature set to create the definitive list of the top payroll platforms.
About Digital.com’s expert reviewer, Rhiân Davies:
I’m a content writer and digital marketing specialist specializing in HR, recruitment, and e-commerce. A seasoned tech writer and reviewer, my work has appeared on MarTechSeries, HR Technologist, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
My review relies on the expertise of our seasoned editorial team along with surveys of the past and current power users of each platform to get real-world feedback on these options and take them into account.
I took an in-depth look at each payroll software solution as a whole and evaluated them based on the following key features, integrations, trial options, costs, and ease of cancellation.
Payroll software’s main purpose is to help you streamline and optimize the process of paying your employees, avoid payroll errors, file and pay taxes correctly, and manage employee benefits. When evaluating each payroll software platform, we noted the presence of the following key features and evaluated how well each performs:
Robust third-party integrations
If you’re already using other software solutions to manage your employees — for example,HR softwareoraccounting software— make sure that these can integrate with your chosen payroll system.
Plus, as your business grows and payroll processes become more complex, you need to make sure that the platform can integrate with other applications, such as reporting tools and expense management systems.
Payroll processes are complex, and so I evaluated each platform’s ease of use — taking into account its interface, navigation, and customer support — to make sure that even novice users can get the most out of the platform’s features.
The availability of demos and/or free trials is a key factor I took into consideration when evaluating each payroll solution.
By testing the solution before you invest, you can assess whether or not it’s suitable for your needs and company size, how well it can scale as you grow, and how it can help you maintain compliance. You can also identify the features the platform doesn’t have that would make it incompatible with your requirements.
I considered how well each provider catered to its target market, how progressive the pricing tiers are, and how its pricing held up against the solution’s offerings compared with its competitors.
When selecting payroll software, keep your growth objectives in mind and consider whether your chosen platform can scale with you at a price you can afford.
