16 Best Payroll For Small Business (2024)

Small businesses have unique company payroll services needs. They lack the resources, expertise, and budget that larger companies have. However, they still require efficient processes of employee payment. Fortunately, there are many payroll management services specifically designed with small business owners in mind.

But between cloud-based systems and desktop software, the world of payroll processing services can get confusing. To help, here are 16 of the best payroll services for small business operations.

Looking to do international payroll at low cost?

Use Wise Business payroll >>

Trustpilot: 4.3/5 average rating¹ 
Over 300k+ businesses customers use Wise globally

Table of Contents
Best Payroll For Small Business 1. Wise Business Payroll 2. QuickBooks Payroll 3. Square Payroll 4. Paychex Flex 5. OnPay 6. Patriot Payroll 7. ADP Comprehensive Services 8. SurePayroll 9. TriNet 10. Rippling 11. Paylocity 12. Papaya Global 13. Personio 14. HRworks 15. Wave Payroll 16. FreshBooks More than Payroll: The Wise Business Account

Best Payroll For Small Business

1. Wise Business Payroll

Reviews from Trustpilot: 194,294 reviews; 4.3 overall star rating¹

“Most Relevant” Review:

“Simply Brilliant Financial Services: Discovered Wise (then Transferwise) some years ago and haven't looked back. Transfers principally to the US, Portugal and Spain are super fast without paying high bank fees for exchange rates. Transfer fees are very low, again scoring over high street banks. Adding the Wise card to the programme, I can preload the card with pounds but when overseas pay in the local currency and take money from ATMs. Brilliant.”

- 5 Star Review From Trustpilot User RobberJay, 8/24/2023¹

Features: Batch payments for up to 1,000 invoices; free application programming interface (API); schedule and automate payments

Price: Free with a Wise Business account ²

Use Wise Business payroll >>

Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

2. QuickBooks Payroll

Reviews from Capterra: 830 reviews; 4.5 overall star rating³

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Easy to deploy payroll system for any sized organization"

Overall: Easy to use, easy to set up and get going

Pros: The ease of importing hours, processing payroll (including through direct deposit), keep track of taxes, and processing annual W2s.

Cons: It was a bit more expensive than we would have liked to pay given that we are a small nonprofit.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Peter S., 7/1/2023³

Features: Reminders; Recruitment Management; Receipt Management; Succession Planning; Time Off Management⁴

Price: starting from $70/month⁴

You can connect QuickBooks and Wise:
After connecting, bills created in QuickBooks Online will sync in real time to your Wise Business account, where you then select which ones to pay QuickBooks will match all bill payments you make with Wise to the original bill in QuickBooks. They will also be categorized into the correct accounts, and if no bill is found, QuicklBooks will simply log each payment as an Expense. Find out more here.

Get Wise Business account >>

3. Square Payroll

Reviews from Capterra: 600 reviews; 4.7 overall star rating⁵

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Square Payroll makes Payroll easy"

Pros: The Direct Deposit feature of Square Payroll makes paying employees a very streamlined and simple procedure. The W-2 Preparation features makes tax season a breeze. Sending employees W2s is all within the app. Vacation/Leave Tracking has truly increased the productivity of payroll and bookkeeping. This is the ultimate feature for this application.

Cons: I feel as though with time Square Payroll will rollout a more aesthetically pleasing interface but I do not find any cons.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Troy B., 7/27/2022⁵

Features: Compliance Management; Multi-State; Employee Portal; Online Benefits Enrollment; Employee Self Service⁵

Price: starting from $40/month⁵

See the Best Banks for Small Businesses >>

4. Paychex Flex

Reviews from Capterra: 1,427 reviews; 4.1 overall star rating⁶

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Calm in a sea of changing regulations"

Overall: We had considered hosting our own payroll, however, with the craziness of COVID and regulations we are very happy we chose a partner provided and supported solution. Saves us time chasing new regulations and forms and the dreaded amendments.

Pros: The customer service makes the product easy to use. The support makes the product as with many payroll software products it will do what you want you just have to find the right entry and set up.

Cons: At times its so complete it can be overwhelming to find some less used features you had found before. Again they are all like this but the customer support makes this a breeze as you can actually talk to a human being that listens and helps.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Steve R W., 6/8/2021⁶

Features: 360 Degree Feedback; Email Templates; Overtime Calculation; Direct Deposit; Alerts/Notifications⁶

Price: packages starting at $39/month and $5/employee; quote generated for higher level packages⁷

More alternatives to Paychex here

5. OnPay

Reviews from Capterra: 424 reviews; 4.8 overall star rating⁸

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Great Payroll System"

Overall: Great tool that is affordable and easy to use!

Pros: What I like most about OnPay is how easy it is to use the tool. I do not have a payroll background and I was able to figure out how to process payroll with getting frustrated. It's very intuitive and easy to use. I also like that chat functionality. They respond instantly and are incredibly knowledgeable/helpful.

Cons: I wish we could integrate it with our HRIS platform so I wouldn't have to switch between 2 different systems to process payroll (401k contributions and approve non-exempt time cards, etc.)”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Lisa C., 3/31/2020⁸

Features: Electronic Signature; Access Controls/Permissions; HR Management; Policy Management; Payroll Outsourcing⁸

Price: starting at $40/month⁸

6. Patriot Payroll

Reviews from Capterra: 3,289 reviews; 4.8 overall star rating⁹

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Saves so much time, and I always recommend it!"

Overall: I've saved so much money and time with Patriot, thank you for this product!

Pros: I was paying over $300/mo for a full service payroll for myself + 3 employees to a CPA. I now pay under $40/month for full service payroll with Patriot, and their software is a joy to use. Running a quick payroll, and handling bonuses, benefits, and deductions is so straight forward. The setup and support team is easy to access, quick to answer, and in the US!

Cons: Just because I like to have all of the information, as a feature suggestion, it would be nice to have a tax portal to see my balances and standing all of the state/federal tax accounts.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Mike F., 6/3/2020⁹

Features: Sick Leave Tracking; QuickBook Integration; Access Controls/Permissions; Payroll Management; W-2 Preparation⁹

Price: packages starting at $17/month and $4/employee¹⁰

7. ADP Comprehensive Services

Reviews from Capterra: 114 reviews; 4.2 overall star rating¹¹

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Much Improvement from ADP"

Overall: Overall, a vast improvement from what we had before. ADP often gets a bad rap, but I think they are making so great improvements. I am no longer at that company where I used ADP comprehensive services, but I was a key player in the implementation of it and was a super admin.

Pros: The variety of features. We went from a much less robust version of ADP (ResourceNow) to Comprehensive Services and have been surprised by how much we like it. It is definitely comprehensive, providing Payroll, Onboarding (we moved from fully manual to all electronic processes), benefits integration, performance management (again, we moved from manual process to electronic with workflows) and robust reporting capabilities. All of this was for just slightly more cost than what we had before with ResourceNow. The user interface is really good, and as an administrator, it was relatively intuitive to figure out.

Cons: There are some minor areas where I wish there was most custom-ability. I also wish it didn't limit our benefits feed option to only 3 carriers.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Shandus V., 12/3/2019¹¹

Features: Compliance Management; Calendar Management; Benefits Management; Employee Scheduling; Automated Scheduling¹¹

Price: quote generated for packages, which makes it difficult to compare to other competitors.¹¹

8. SurePayroll

Reviews from Capterra: 234 reviews; 4.1 overall star rating¹²

“Most Helpful” Review:

"SurePayroll - accurate, timely, easy to use"

Pros: Love that we are able to provide every employee with their own log in access to view history, print copies of checks and W-2's. Frees up a lot of time by allowing them to perform this critical task.

Cons: Nothing negative too report. We have not experienced any problems with accuracy of data, and their security is excellent.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Pete P., 11/7/2018¹²

Features: Compensation Management; Reminders; Employee Portal; Payroll Reporting; Direct Deposit¹²

Price: starting at $29.99/month¹²

9. TriNet

Reviews from Capterra: 37 reviews; 3.8 overall star rating¹³

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"One stop shop for most things HR"

Overall: Highly positive. There is some variability when it comes to customer service, some reps are either new or not as good as others, and some TriNet(see TriNet Alternatives) people are outstanding beyond belief.

Pros: The sheer variety of options and capabilities is excellent. Very good insurance options offered throughout the country.

Cons: Trinet tends to offer large company benefits, which is great, however, some of the competing providers are offering more tailored benefits typically seen in startup companies. It's only a minor issue.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Calvin C., 12/20/2019¹³

Features: Employee Database; Benefits Management; Recruitment Management; Payroll Management; Time Off Management¹³

Price: quote generated for packages¹³

10. Rippling

Reviews from Capterra: 2,824 reviews; 4.9 overall star rating¹⁴

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Rippling is fantastic! Best software product I've used in years"

Overall: Fantastic. Everything from the implementation to our daily use, this has been one of the best product purchases I've ever made. Plus, my boss ([SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] ) absolutely loves Rippling and has even talked about it at our board meeting! Good stuff all around and I have recommended it to at least a dozen colleagues in my local market.

Pros: The automations, integrations, and ease of use are second to none. Important tasks (i.e. onboarding a new employee) used to take me an hour and a half to complete with our prior vendor (due to disconnected workflows, confusing product layout, etc) and it now takes me less than 10 min with Rippling. Transformational.

Cons: The only con i can point to is not being able to just call into a customer support number for important issues (to speak to a live person), but the support email is monitored regularly, so it definitely makes up for any negatives. They also recently instituted a Pod system to support issues and it has been a great experience. It also appears they have recently hired account managers, which tells me they continue to scale the organization and add the appropriate team members for additional support. Good stuff all around.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Derrick M., 5/21/2020¹⁴

Features: Salaried Employee Tracking; Security Management; Trend Analysis; Customizable Templates; HR Metrics Library¹⁴

Price: starting from $8/month¹⁴

11. Paylocity

Reviews from Capterra: 787 reviews; 4.3 overall star rating¹⁵

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Slow but thorough"

Overall: Personablity and productivity were high on their good side and the overall flow and application of the app or desktop site were both high positives, and even though you had to wait 48 hours usually for a response, when you needed help you at least know they're reliable and responsible...even if they're not hasty.

Pros: This company had excellent rollout of the product into the work environment with the most amazing customer support I've ever received. Training and utilization were easy to understand and execute, with very little hiccups at all. Their app is colorful and keeps you very updated on your progress and profile management issues!

Cons: There wasn't an easy way to find answers to questions "fast", you would always get a personable and functional response to your questions from a real human who knew your name, but sometimes an immediate assist is more important than an overly communicative/thorough one.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Sarah C., 4/30/2021¹⁵

Features: HR Metrics Library; Benchmarking; Real Time Reporting; Activity Dashboard; Billable Items Tracking¹⁵

Price: quote generated for packages¹⁵

12. Papaya Global

Reviews from Capterra: 27 reviews; 4.6 overall star rating¹⁶

“Most Helpful” Review:

"Recommended"

Overall: I have a very good experience with the platform and specially the implementation and customer success teams. They are very pleasant, professional and great to work with.

Pros: Easy to use, centralize everything into one location, very helpful customer success team

Cons: The platform itself is not very well displayed”

- 5 Star Review From A Capterra Verified Reviewer, 3/23/2023¹⁶

Features: Compliance Management; Applicant Tracking; Compensation Management; Private Equity; Onboarding¹⁶

Price: starting at $150/month¹⁶

13. Personio

Reviews from Capterra: 158 reviews; 4.3 overall star rating¹⁷

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"Excellent, powerful product, great customer service and support"

Overall: If I had to name a benchmark for what the smoothest, most flexible and flawless software implementation process I ever have been part of was, it would be this. From the product itself (simple, clean, powerful) to the implementation management (competent, friendly, flexible, knowledgable) to the support and service (fast, helpful, invested) and finally the passive resources (helcenter, tutorials, technical documentation, customer information, release notes) this just rocks. I am very happy with it and can only recommend Personio further.

Pros: The functionalities are powerful and well implemented. All features are thoroughly thought through and integrate tight and seamlessly into each other. Whenever I came across something i wondered about there was a good reason for it to be this way and it came in handy when we needed it. So, the product itself is simply top notch. The Customer Service also is fantastic. We had an implementation manager who was understanding, helpful, progressively thinking and extremely well versed in the product. On top of it she was flexible and friendly. I can not imagine how it could have been better.

Cons: I can not imagine much. Some of the Features (for example handling of training tracking or the recruitment part) could have some more features but than again, it is always a matter of keeping the balance between to much and lacking. This balance was always there and I appreciate that it is clear, that some areas of the product still are growing. For our use case everything we needed (and more) was there.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Janosch F., 11/16/2018¹⁷

Features: Compliance Management; Turnover Tracking; Email Templates; Electronic Forms; Careers Page¹⁷

Price: starting at €2.88/user/month¹⁷

14. HRworks

Reviews from Capterra: 17 reviews; 4.4 overall star rating¹⁸

“Most Helpful” Review:

"Best Time and Resource Management Tool !!"

Overall: Great App, Great Integration with many useful tools, Good for Time, Leave and Resource Management.

Pros: HR works is really great software to have all HR relateds items at one place. This tool is a single pont entry towards time management, absense managament and resource management. This is also great tool for the official tour management regarding the reimbursement and work costs tracking. I personally prefer to use this for having all the data at one place. This tools allow us to fill all the items which are ready and the save it for the future use. Even if some wrong information is entered, it is very easy to correct with correct administation rights. Has the best email integration and management. Overall a top rated software and highly recommended in any organization. Make HR's work look easy and organized.

Cons: There are too many features in the tool. Hopefully at some point we will be able to make use of all of them. Sometimes the web portal becomes suiggish and for reason auto generation of reports is not work for me most of the time.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Sudhir S., 12/1/2021¹⁸

Features: Real Time Notifications; Job Posting; Timesheet Management; Project Time Tracking; Onboarding¹⁸

Price: starting at €7.90/user/month¹⁸

15. Wave Payroll

Reviews from Capterra: 61 reviews; 4.0 overall star rating¹⁹

“Most Helpful” Review:

"If was any simpler it'd be illegal"

Overall: Super simple. We were actually able to get everything set-up in 4 hours, not missing a beat, employees were paid on time and reporting cash in - cash out doesn't require a degree from MIT.

Pros: I can't even begin to say how SIMPLE it is! I was looking for something that my Daughter and Wife could use to do AR/AP as well as payroll. It took me literally 4 hours to get 237 employees added with their payroll information. Didn't miss a payday :-)

Cons: The invoicing was/is clunky. You only have 3 designs to choose from. I haven't found a way to import designs from another invoicing software that I was using. I'd kind of like to just have one......but it's not too important right now.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Shaun D S., 7/18/2018¹⁹

Features: Benefits Management; Direct Deposit; Self Service Portal; Vacation/Leave Tracking; Time Tracking¹⁹

Price: free version; $20-$35/month plus $4/employee/month¹⁹

Sync Wise Transactions with Wave:
View all your Wise activity synced up to your accounting software. Just select the Wise account balances you want to connect and they’ll appear in Wave. Find out more here.

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16. FreshBooks

Reviews from Capterra: 4,246 reviews; 4.5 overall star rating²⁰

Quote from “Most Helpful” Review:

"FreshBooks made my day at work so much easier"

Overall: Integration with customers' books, as well as the option to include team members in the layout, are all included. On the subject of Application Programming Interfaces. It appeals to me since it brings everything together in one convenient location. The entire software is so simple to use that anyone can learn how to use it.

Pros: I appreciate how user-friendly it is, as well as the appearance of the program, and that it has the essentials when it comes to monitoring money and sending invoices and proposals. It's a really amazing piece of software that provides quick alerts. Excels in the area of financial reporting. When it comes to bank reconciliation, the general ledger is really helpful. Excellent in regard to project accounting.

Cons: The absence of features like as email automation and scheduling, which are provided by applications such as Dubsado and Honeybook, would be an example. One thing I'd want the developers to improve on is making sure that updates are made at the very least within one hour and not much longer.”

- 5 Star Review From Capterra User Maddie T., 5/5/2022²⁰

Features: Reporting & Statistics; Customizable Branding; Timer; Multi-Language; Mileage Tracking²⁰

Price: starting at $17/month²⁰

More than Payroll: The Wise Business Account

Wise Business is especially known for its ability to manage international business. In fact, payroll is just one part of the Wise Business account.

If you have a global team spread across different countries, there's a lot of reasons that Wise Business account can help you. Take a look at the table below for more details.

Other Great Wise Business Account Features:

Mid-market rate: Get the rate you deserve with not hidden fees on transfers Global Account: Send money in 70+ currencies and hold balances in 40+ Batch payments: Send 1000 invoices in one click Wise Business API: Recurring payments and automatic payouts Permissions: Give give different permissions to your team Auto-conversions: Don't like the current currency exchange rate? Set your rate, and Wise sends the transfer at the perfect moment No minimum balance requirements and monthly fees: Learn more about fees here

Looking to do international payroll at low cost?

Get a Wise Business
account >>

Trustpilot: 4.3/5 average rating¹ 
Over 300k+ businesses customers use Wise globally

Learn More:

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Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

Wise is not a bank, but a Money Services Business (MSB) provider and a smart alternative to banks.

Sources:

1. Trustpilot: “Wise” - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/wise.com
2. Wise: “Fees for using Wise Business” - https://wise.com/help/articles/2977969/fees-for-using-wise-business
3. Capterra: “QuickBooks Payroll Reviews” - https://www.capterra.com/p/174981/QuickBooks/reviews/
4. Capterra: “QuickBooks Payroll” - https://www.capterra.com/p/174981/QuickBooks/
5. Capterra: “Square Payroll” - https://www.capterra.com/p/170266/Square-Payroll/
6. Capterra: “Paychex Flex” - https://www.capterra.com/p/119841/Paychex-Flex/
7. BetterBuys: “Paychex Flex Pricing - Costs and Pricing Models” - https://www.betterbuys.com/payroll/paychex-flex-pricing/
8. Capterra: “OnPay” - https://www.capterra.com/p/167109/OnPay/
9. Capterra: “Patriot Payroll” - https://www.capterra.com/p/116050/Patriot-Payroll/
10. Patriot: “Online Payroll for Businesses” - https://www.patriotsoftware.com/payroll/
11. Capterra: “ADP Comprehensive Services” - https://www.capterra.com/p/175840/ADP-Comprehensive-Services/
12. Capterra: “SurePayroll” - https://www.capterra.com/p/225706/SurePayroll/
13. Capterra: “TriNet” - https://www.capterra.com/p/192254/TriNet/
14. Capterra: “Rippling” - https://www.capterra.com/p/172127/Rippling/
15. Capterra: “Paylocity” - https://www.capterra.com/p/86714/WebPay/
16. Capterra: “Papaya Global” - https://www.capterra.com/p/167640/Papaya-Platform/
17. Capterra: “Personio” - https://www.capterra.com/p/158622/Personio/
18. Capterra: “HRworks” - https://www.capterra.com/p/173943/HRworks/
19. Capterra: “Wave Payroll” - https://www.capterra.com/p/124380/Payroll-by-Wave/
20. Capterra: “FreshBooks” - https://www.capterra.com/p/142390/FreshBooks/