Labor is one of the biggest expenses for many businesses. In addition to your employees' wages, there are taxes, benefits and other costs, so it can be a lot to manage. However, using a payroll service that balances affordability and functionality can help you be a savvier business owner.
Below, CNBC Select rounded up the four best cheap payroll services. We considered factors like pricing, features, benefits administration and HR tools. (Seeour methodologyfor more information on how we choose the best payroll services.)
Best cheap payroll services
- Best for simplicity: Wave Payroll
- Best for free trial: SurePayroll
- Best for unlimited monthly pay runs: OnPay
- Best for international payments: Rippling
- Best for mobile payroll: Roll by ADP
Best for simplicity
Wave Payroll
Cost
Starts at $20/month + $6/month per employee + $6/month per contractor
Benefits Administration
None
HR tools
No
Pros
- Offers a 30-day free trial
- Generates W-2 and 1099 forms for tax season
- Offers two pricing tiers for US-based businesses
Cons
- Complete payroll tax service, which automatically pays and files state and federal payroll taxes for businesses, only available in AZ, CA, FL, GA, IL, IN, MN, NY, NC, TN, TX, VA, WA, and WI at this time
- Doesn't offer employee benefits administration
Who's this for? Wave is ideal if your business wants a no-frills payroll service without many complex features. It offers some of the lowest pricing on the market but doesn't provide benefits administration or a robust slew of HR tools like many competitors.
Standout benefits: Business owners in self-service tax states can benefit from the lowest pricing tier at $20 per month plus $6 per employee plus $6 per contractor. You won't be charged for contractors or seasonal employees who are not actively working for you.
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Best for free trial
SurePayroll
Pros
- Lengthy 6-month free trial period
- Offers unlimited payroll runs
- Live assistance available
- Offers access to an HR advisor
Cons
- Benefits administration isn't as comprehensive as what's offered by some competitors
- The lowest pricing tier doesn't include tax services
Who's this for? SurePayrollis great if you want to test your payroll service before committing. It offers new users a generous six-month free trial to try the full-service or no-tax filing service. That's one of the longest free trial offers of any service provider on this list.
Standout benefits: To make payroll services more affordable, SurePayroll allows users to omit tax filing as part of their service. SurePayroll also offers an intuitive mobile app allowing you to manage payroll from any device and offers free direct deposit.
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Best for unlimited monthly pay runs
OnPay
Cost
$40/month + $6/month per person (one month free)
Benefits Administration
Health insurance, retirement, vacation and PTO, life and disability insurance, liability insurance, commuter benefits, HSA and FSA
HR tools
Yes
Pros
- One month free trial
- Offers the capability to provide employees with a wide array of benefits
- Health insurance available in all 50 states
- Offers automated tax payments and filings
- Free W-2 and 1099 processing available
Cons
- Other platforms offer longer free trial periods
Who's this for? OnPayoffers a robust set of payroll features as a simple platform at an affordable price. A big draw is its ability to account for multiple pay schedules across states and provide unlimited pay runs. This means it won't cost you more to disburse payments to employees multiple times per month, so you aren't limited to only making biweekly pay runs.
Standout benefits: OnPay allows business owners to integrate with accounting services like Quickbooks and Xero. It also has built-in HR and employee benefit features, like the ability to request time off and onboard new employees.
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Best for international payments
Rippling
Cost
Starts at $8 per month per user; Rippling provides custom quotes based on the services your business needs
Benefits Administration
FSA, HSA, commuter benefits, medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k)
HR tools
Yes
Pros
- Starts at $8 per user per month
- Offers HR, payroll, benefits, IT and business finance tools all in one platform
- Features for tax compliance
- Free off-cycle pay runs
- Onboard and pay international employees in their currency while also staying compliant with local laws in other countries
Cons
- Must get a custom quote to figure out exactly how much your business will pay
Who's this for? Ripplingis geared toward businesses with employees and contractors in the U.S. and abroad. The platform allows business owners to onboard and automatically pay international employees and contractors in their local currency, which takes a lot of hassle out of figuring it out for yourself.
Standout benefits: Rippling helps your business remain compliant with local and international tax laws if you have a global workforce. It also offers a long list of HR tools, IT and finance features and benefits administration.
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Best for mobile payroll
Roll by ADP
Cost
$39 per month plus $5 per employee; 3-month free trial
Benefits Administration
Retirement plan deductions
HR tools
Yes
Pros
- Mobile-friendly payroll service
- Pays W-2 and 1099 employees
- Available in all 50 states
- Offers live chat support
- Same-day and next-day direct deposits available
- Integrates with Quickbooks
- Offers new hire reporting
- 3-month free trial
Cons
- Less information available on full suite of benefits administration offers
Who's this for? Roll by ADP is ideal if you want to manage payroll on the go. It's a first-of-its-kind AI-driven, chat-based mobile payroll app. According to its website, business owners can onboard themselves in approximately 15 minutes and run payroll in under one minute, simply by chatting "run payroll" through the app.
Standout benefits: Roll by ADP uses generative AI to offer your business chat support, HR assistance and payroll advice. Employees can get paid as quickly as the same day payroll is run.
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More on our top cheap payroll services
Wave Payroll
Wave is most affordable for businesses in self-service states. There are only 14 tax service states where businesses have the option to automatically file taxes: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. All other states are considered self-service states.
All customers enjoy features like direct deposit, the ability to process W-2s and 1099s and an online portal for employees. There is also a 30-day free trial available.
Cost
Self-service states: $20 per month + $6 per employee + $6 per contractor
Tax service states: $40 per month + $6 per employee + $6 per contractor
Benefits administration
None
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SurePayroll
SurePayroll has two pricing tiers. The full-service tier offers free 2-day direct deposit, unlimited payroll runs, the ability to set multiple pay rates and payout bonuses, live help, access to online pay stubs, filing federal, state and local taxes and submitting year-end tax filings. The slightly cheaper version will not file or deposit any local, state, or federal taxes and will not submit year-end filings.
It also offers add-on services like HR management, health insurance, 401(k) options, pre-employment screening and more.
Cost
Full service: $29.99 per month + $5 per employee
No tax filing: $19.99 per month + $4 per employee
Benefits Administration
401(k), health insurance and workers' compensation
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OnPay
OnPay helps small business owners offer many corporate benefits to their employees at a reasonable price. For instance, HR and benefits tools and features include W-2 and 1099 processing, PTO, health insurance, 401(k) plans, life and disability insurance, liability insurance, commuter benefits and HSA and FSA access.
Cost
$40 per month plus $6 per employee per month
Benefits Administration
Health insurance, retirement, vacation and PTO, life and disability insurance, liability insurance, commuter benefits, HSA and FSA
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Rippling
Rippling offers over 500 integrations with platforms like Brex, Carta, Slack, AWS, Zoom, PayPal, Salesforce, Google Workspace, Checkr, Jira, Github, Microsoft365 and so much more. The platform provides a robust experience for business owners and their employees. One unique feature it offers is the ability to create a custom holiday time-off calendar. This way, you can suit the time-off needs of employees working globally. Another feature Rippling offers is the ability to offer equity as an employee benefit.
Cost
Starts at $8 per user per month but you must get a customizable quote
Benefits Administration
FSA, HSA, commuter benefits, medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k)
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Roll by ADP
Roll is a service by ADP, one of the biggest names in the payroll industry, geared toward small businesses. Its mobile-first service allows small business owners to run payroll in under a minute. The app, also accessible via desktop, allows you to get notified when it's payday, view pay statements and more. The platform also calculates your payroll taxes and deducts the correct amount. Roll offers integration with QuickBooks Online to help track your payroll expenses.
Cost
$39 per month plus $5 per employee
Benefits Administration
Deductions for retirement planning
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FAQs
Can I do my own payroll?
While it's possible to do your own payroll, the process can be time-consuming and puts you at a higher risk for miscalculations.
What is a payroll service?
A payroll service helps business owners facilitate employee payments and, in some cases, benefits administration and HR. These services help ensure employees get paid the appropriate amount on time and that the business is complying with local tax laws.
How do payroll services work?
Payroll services take into account data like hours worked, pay rate, taxes, benefits and time off to help businesses pay employees the correct amount for the work they've done.
Why trust CNBC Select?
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every payroll service review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of small businessproducts.While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. Seeour methodologyfor more information on how we choose the best cheap payroll services.
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Our methodology
To determine the best cheap payroll services for small businesses,CNBC Selectanalyzed over a dozen software companies and looked at their pricing, features, user reviews and ratings.
The software we've chosen received high marks for:
- Affordability
- Having an easy-to-navigate user interface
- Having helpful integrations with other business software
- Having automation features that make payroll easier
- Easy to customize based on your company's needs and policies
We sifted through online reviews for each platform to better understand the functionality when it comes to user experience, customer service, features for full-time and contract employees and the implementation of HR resources.
The payroll services we selected for this ranking offer payment processing for contractors and tiered packages based on the needs of the business.
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Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.
