Find payroll that fits your next payday.

Payroll costs for a small team

Illustrative Gusto subscription costs for 2, 10 and 25 employees, at standard list prices checked 2026-09-26: Simple, $49/month plus $6 per person (single-state payroll); Plus, $80/month plus $12 per person (multistate payroll and time tracking included).

Gusto includes time tracking in Plus. On Simple, the Time & Attendance Plus add-on is listed at $6 per person per month after the trial. Compare both routes for your headcount and states, and confirm which time features each one covers.

This is one vendor example, not a market ranking. It excludes wages, taxes, benefit premiums and other services or options, and it does not model trial promotions. Check which plan and features fit your team.

• Which plan tier actually covers the states you pay in today?
• What sits outside the headline rate as an add on or a fee?
• Does pay frequency or headcount change the quoted number?

What goes into payroll service fees?

Compare provider service fees separately from the money needed to fund wages, employer taxes and benefits. This gives you a clearer view of the subscription and service costs in each proposal.

For a first-year figure, take twelve months of quoted recurring fees at your agreed headcount, then add quoted one-time and usage-based service fees. Mark each line included or not applicable once confirmed. Leave it blank when nobody has confirmed it: blank means unknown, not zero.

• Twelve months of recurring fees at a constant agreed headcount, plus one-time and usage-based service fees.
• Wages, employer taxes and benefit funding stay outside the provider fee comparison.
• Date every quote and note who confirmed each line.

Questions that surface in the first real payroll run

Hourly teams live on time approval. Ask how hours reach payroll, who approves them, and what your team does with an export that fails the evening before a run.

Teams paying in more than one state should confirm plan coverage and who handles state registrations. When payroll is bundled with HR or IT tools, name the implementation owner in writing before signing.

• Who approves hours, and what is the cut off before each run?
• Which side owns state registrations and filing setup?
• Who runs implementation when payroll, HR and IT are bundled?

How these four got onto the shortlist

This shortlist covers four products for which we have published source-led reviews. We looked for documented payroll scope, a published pricing approach and clear questions to validate in a demo. It is a selected starting point, not a review of every provider.

Ask each provider to demonstrate the same task: import approved hours, review a pay adjustment and explain what happens when a filing or payment needs attention. This is a suggested demo exercise, not a test we performed.

• Does the documented service fit match how your team actually pays people?
• Is the cost transparent, or is the quote scope at least spelled out?
• Do the implementation and support answers hold up in writing?

Prepare the first run before you switch

Agree a transition plan with your current and proposed providers. Record which payroll history, employee records and opening balances need to transfer, who checks them and who owns each filing during the change.

If the problem is an unclear approval process rather than missing software, work through our HR and payroll diagnostic first. Outsourcing payroll also needs ongoing oversight: the IRS explains that employers generally retain responsibility for federal employment taxes.

• Who approves the first run and verifies transferred balances?
• Which provider owns each filing and correction during the handover?
• What information can you export if you later leave?

Try the keep, connect or replace diagnostic