Our top Paychex competitors include:
- Best Paychex alternative overall: Gusto
- Best for QuickBooks users: QuickBooks Payroll
- Best PEO option: Justworks
- Best for growth: Rippling
- Best for HR + payroll bundles: ADP Workforce Now
- Best easy-to-use HR tool: BambooHR
- Best for customizability: Paycor
Featured partners
Top Paychex competitors and alternatives software comparison
| Paychex | |||||
| Gusto | |||||
| QuickBooks Payroll | |||||
| Justworks | |||||
| Rippling | |||||
| ADP Workforce Now | |||||
| BambooHR | |||||
| Paycor |
Gusto: Best Paychex alternative overall
Gusto is popular small business payroll software for its ease of use, affordability and widely applicable feature set.
Gusto isn’t a perfect solution. For example, its global capabilities are limited to only a few countries, so organizations with a highly dispersed workforce might find it lacking. And the mobile app serves the employees rather than the administrators. But for US-based companies, it’s among the fastest to implement and learn how to use.
Why we chose Gusto
We picked Gusto because of its simplicity, approachable UI design and relative affordability. The solution offers plenty of impressive features, though many of them are common to other competitors on this list. But with its increasing ubiquity and how often other business solutions integrate with Gusto for interoperability, it’s a solid option for growing teams.
For more information, read the full Gusto review.
Pricing
- Simple: $40/month, plus $6/person/month.
- Plus: $80/month, plus $12/person/month.
- Premium: By quote.
Features
- Payroll, employee benefits and time/attendance management.
- Critical HR functions like hiring/onboarding, talent management and workers’ compensation.
- Capable analytics, workforce costing, extensive integrations and more.
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QuickBooks Payroll: Best for QuickBooks users
QuickBooks is a great solution if you have fewer than 50 employees and need an accounting and payroll solution to manage your small business’s financial and administrative processes. Although it’s more expensive than Gusto to start, you might want to spend extra to bundle with QuickBooks accounting and simplify general ledger reconciliation.
Why we chose QuickBooks Payroll
QuickBooks Payroll is expansive, feature-rich and well-documented. If you’re a business where QuickBooks is deeply entrenched in processes and infrastructure, QuickBooks Payroll is likely your best bet.
While QuickBooks Payroll is more expensive to start than other payroll solutions like Gusto, OnPay or Patriot, it does simplify business finance management. You also get access to features like its $25,000 tax penalty protection in its highest subscription tier, which no other provider in this roundup offers.
For more information, read the full QuickBooks Payroll review.
Pricing
Payroll can be used as a standalone module without QuickBooks’s other products. But it’s most valuable when you bundle it with other Intuit products, such as QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Time.
QuickBooks Payroll
- Payroll Core: $50/month, plus $6/employee/month.
- Payroll Premium: $85/month, plus $9/employee/month.
- Payroll Elite: $130/month, plus $11/employee/month.
Quickbooks Online + QuickBooks Payroll Bundle
- Payroll Core + Simple Start: $85/month, plus $6/employee/month.
- Payroll Core + Essentials: $115/month, plus $6/employee/month.
- Payroll Premium + Plus: $184/month, plus $9/employee/month.
Features
- “Full-service” payroll, including automated taxes and forms.
- Same-day direct deposit.
- Tax penalty protection.
- Expert support from accountants, tax pros and HR advisors.
Pros and cons
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Justworks: Best PEO option
Justworks is a professional employer organization that serves as the legal employer for your staff. You hire your team and then train and manage them. Meanwhile, Justworks manages the administrative work for HR, like payroll and benefits, on your behalf.
With Justworks, you get the advantages afforded to large businesses, like better insurance packages, but you don’t have to wait until your employee roster is in the thousands.
Why we chose Justworks
Justworks is the most affordable PEO solution compared to the other PEO providers in our roundup. For many smaller teams, there isn’t much need for extensive, niche-specific features and tools; all they need is some help running HR for an organization that’s not quite ready to develop an internal HR department.
If that’s where you find yourself, then Justworks is the best fit on this list.
For more information, read the full Justworks review.
Pricing
- Payroll: $50/month, plus $8/employee/month.
- PEO Basic: $59/employee/month.
- PEO Plus: $109/employee/month.
Features
- Payroll and HR features, as well as tools for talent acquisition, team training initiatives and workers’ compensation.
- Access to extensive employee benefits usually reserved for larger organizations, such as better insurance plans, commuter benefits and fitness memberships.
- Employer of record services and international payments for contractors.
Pros and cons
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Rippling: Best for growth
Rippling offers software and services across HR, finance and IT. Like other all-in-one HR solutions, you get more value out of Rippling by using more or all of its suite of services. That said, you can pick and choose which modules you need, so you only spend money on the features meaningful to you.
Why we chose Rippling
Rippling is very customizable, allowing you to add and remove features as your organization scales up. You can even leverage Rippling’s PEO and EOR services as your team expands and your needs grow and then switch them back off as you cross the line and start handling functions in-house. As a result, Rippling is great for the needs of up-and-coming brands and global organizations alike.
For more information, read the full Rippling review.
Pricing
Pricing starts at $8/employee/month.
Features
- A broad-scoped business solution platform covering finance, HR and IT needs.
- Enable automation for both local and global payroll, as well as many other HR responsibilities.
- Complete payroll for contractors and employees at the same time.
- Financial regulation compliance support.
Pros and cons
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ADP Workforce Now: Best for HR + payroll bundles
ADP Workforce Now is another brand where value is rooted in flexibility. ADP can be used as cloud-based software. It can function as HR outsourcing and can be leveraged as a full-service PEO. It’s a leading global payroll solution, and it can enable your team to utilize AI to gain priceless insights from your analytics data.
There’s no listed pricing on the site, meaning you’ll have to do some first-hand investigation to find out if it’s worth the asking price for your organization. But based on the reviews and customer feedback, it’s a very effective solution for those in the target market.
Why we chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now stands out for its flexible and convenient offerings. There’s plenty of overlap between the markets looking for HR tools and support and the markets looking for payroll tools and support. ADP Workforce Now is one of the few that can satisfy both audiences with a single solution.
For more information, read the full ADP Workforce Now review.
Pricing
Call ADP for a quote.
Features
- Payroll solutions for businesses of nearly every size and use case, including those with international staff.
- Voice of the Employee surveying features on every subscription tier to monitor and take action on employee sentiment.
- Boasts first-rate compliance support, including standalone compliance services.
Pros and cons
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BambooHR: Best easy-to-use HR tool
BambooHR shines for its simplicity and ease of use. The interface is sleek, and the platform is a breeze to learn. There are plenty of bells and whistles to cover various HR needs, including leave management, recruiting, onboarding and employee communication.
That said, BambooHR only supports U.S.-based businesses and employees. Despite this and its lack of pricing transparency, users report comparatively lower costs and a more rapid implementation timeframe.
Why we chose BambooHR
If you need both administrative HR features and employee engagement functions to support your company culture, BambooHR is a hard one to beat. The software is easy to use and provides ample avenues for things like team surveys and performance reviews.
For more information, read the full BambooHR review.
Pricing
Call BambooHR for a quote.
Features
- Integrates with popular software like Greenhouse, Slack and Checkr.
- Automation functionality for onboarding/offboarding, training, feedback and applicant tracking.
- Goal-tracking tools help team members set objectives and pursue them.
- Native functionality for PTO, ATS and performance management.
Pros and cons
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Paycor: Best for customizability
Paycor is a human capital management platform with modules that support employees from hiring to retirement. It empowers talent acquisition teams to attract, vet and onboard better candidates. It assists HR teams in managing and coordinating current team members. The tool also helps senior staff sleep a little more soundly at night with compliance solutions to mitigate risks.
Why we chose Paycor
Paycor is capable of quite a bit, and it’s set up to allow teams to customize it as they see fit. The platform is incredibly flexible, and plans are built to suit business needs on a case-by-case basis. And while the feature set doesn’t extend very far outside of HCM, the depth of functionality more than makes up for it.
For more information, read the full Paycor review.
Pricing
Call Paycor for a quote.
Features
- Payroll, HR and expense management software are all in the same package.
- Advanced, predictive analytics to help management make more effective decisions at the strategic level.
- Covers everything from automated talent sourcing to compensation planning and regulatory compliance support.
Pros and cons
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Do you need an alternative to Paychex?
The simplest rule of thumb is: “Does Paychex make it more efficient than doing it manually?” If it costs as much or just slightly less to use Paychex as it does to write checks by hand, then your solution is probably weighing you down.
Much of it boils down to daily frustrations and challenges. If you’re fighting against the software as much as using it, that’s a sign it might be time to switch things out.
More specifically, if you have some of the key use cases that are touched on above (low budget, PEO needs, QuickBooks integration, etc.), then one of the options here may be a better fit.
And if none of these seem like the perfect match you’re looking for, there’s plenty more to choose from, and we can help you continue that search.
Check out the 8 Best HR Software for other options to fit your needs.
Methodology
We looked at a wide range of data quality solutions to compile this list of the best software. We assessed different parameters for each software, including its usability, scalability and customer support. We also considered customer testimonials and ratings as vital components of our overall assessment of each software.
