How Much Does Payroll Cost in 2026? Per-Employee Pricing Across 13 Providers

Quick answer: Payroll software for a US small business typically costs a base fee of $29 to $99 a month plus $5 to $8 per employee per month. For 10 employees that is about $89 to $149 a month on the entry-level plans that publish prices. Roll by ADP ($39 + $5) was the lowest we found at that size, and Paycor Basic ($99 + $5) the highest. Payroll taxes cost more than the software: employers pay 7.65% of wages for Social Security and Medicare, plus unemployment taxes. Prices vendor-published; tax rates from IRS.gov. Checked September 2026.

“How much does payroll cost?” has two answers. The first is what you pay a provider to calculate pay, file taxes and send W-2s. The second is what you pay the government on top of each employee’s wages. Most small businesses underestimate the second and overpay on the first. This guide covers both: published per-employee pricing across 14 payroll plans from 13 providers, the providers that only quote, the fees that sit outside the headline price, and the employer taxes every US business owes.

Payroll Software Pricing Across 13 Providers

Every price below is the monthly list price published on the provider’s own site, checked in September 2026. Where a provider was running a promotion, we show the price you pay after the promotion ends.

Provider and plan	Base fee/month	Per employee/month	1 employee	10 employees	25 employees
Roll by ADP	$39	$5	$44	$89	$164
Square Payroll	$35	$6	$41	$95	$185
Xero Payroll (powered by Gusto)	$36	$6	$42	$96	$186
SurePayroll	From $29	$7	$36	$99	$204
FreshBooks Payroll	$40	$6	$46	$100	$190
Wave Payroll	$40	$6	$46	$100	$190
Gusto Simple	$49	$6	$55	$109	$199
OnPay	$49	$6	$55	$109	$199
Homebase Payroll	$49	$6	$55	$109	$199
QuickBooks Workforce Payroll	$50	$7	$57	$120	$225
Justworks Payroll	$50	$8	$58	$130	$250
Paycor Basic	$99	$5	$104	$149	$224
Gusto Plus	$80	$12	$92	$200	$380
Deel US Payroll (self-service)	None listed	$29	$29	$290	$725

Sources, all vendor-published and checked September 2026: rollbyadp.com, squareup.com, xero.com, surepayroll.com, freshbooks.com, waveapps.com, gusto.com, onpay.com, joinhomebase.com, quickbooks.intuit.com, justworks.com, paycor.com and deel.com. Xero and FreshBooks payroll require a subscription to their accounting software; QuickBooks Workforce Payroll is the add-on price for QuickBooks Online customers.

Providers that only quote

ADP RUN, Paychex Flex, Rippling and Paylocity publish no payroll prices; each asks you to request a quote. ADP was advertising three months of free payroll for new RUN customers when we checked. If you are considering one of these, get a written quote and compare it against the table above at your own headcount. Spotsaas pricing pages for Paychex Flex and Rippling summarise what is known, and ADP vs Paychex compares the two largest quote-only providers.

How Is Payroll Software Priced?

Three models cover almost every US provider: a base fee plus a per-person fee, a per-person fee only, or a custom quote. Base-plus-per-person is the most common and favours growing teams. Per-person-only pricing is simple but gets expensive with headcount. Quotes can be competitive, but you only find out after a sales call.

• Base fee plus per person. Used by 12 of the 13 providers with published prices in our table, from Roll by ADP ($39 + $5) to Gusto Plus ($80 + $12). The base fee covers the account; the per-person fee covers each employee or contractor paid that month.
• Per person only. Deel lists US payroll at $29 per employee per month with no separate base fee. That is cheap for one employee and the most expensive option in our table at 10.
• Custom quote. ADP RUN, Paychex Flex, Rippling and Paylocity price by quote, usually after a demo. Quotes typically depend on headcount, states and the modules you add.

Some providers also charge only for people actually paid in a given month. Square and Homebase both describe their fee as per person paid, which helps seasonal businesses whose headcount swings through the year.

How Much Should Payroll Cost for a Small Business?

For a 10-person business, $89 to $149 a month covers full-service payroll on every published plan we checked except Deel’s per-employee model and Gusto’s upper tiers. That is roughly $9 to $15 per employee all-in. If a quote comes in well above that for basic payroll, ask what extra services are bundled in.

Three patterns stand out in the table:

• Base fee matters most at small headcounts. With one employee, the base fee is 80% or more of the bill on most plans. Square Payroll ($41) and SurePayroll ($36) are cheapest at that size.
• Per-employee fee matters most as you grow. Paycor Basic is the most expensive entry plan here at 10 employees but cheaper than several at 25, because its $5 per-employee rate is low.
• Tiers add up fast. Moving from Gusto Simple to Gusto Plus nearly doubles the bill at 10 employees ($109 to $200) in exchange for multi-state payroll, next-day pay and HR tools.

Who Has the Cheapest Payroll Service?

At 10 employees, Roll by ADP is the cheapest published full-service option at $89 a month ($39 + $5 per employee). Square Payroll ($95) and Xero Payroll ($96, for Xero accounting customers) follow. For a one-person payroll, SurePayroll’s starting price of $29 + $7 comes to $36, the lowest in our table.

Cheapest on paper is not always cheapest in practice. Check these before you commit:

• Year-end forms. SurePayroll bills W-2 and 1099-NEC forms annually at $50 plus $5 per form. Square charges $3 per form per year to mail paper W-2s and 1099s.
• Multi-state. SurePayroll adds $9.99 a month for multi-state payroll. OnPay states multi-state is included at no additional cost. Gusto includes multi-state from Plus.
• 1099 filing. Wave’s tax service files state and IRS returns but excludes 1099 filings.
• Fast pay. Gusto lists same-day pay at $90 per payroll and next-day pay on Simple at $15 a month plus $3 per person.
• Setup fees. Paycor lists setup fees of $59 to $199 depending on plan, which it was waiving under a promotion when we checked.

For provider-by-provider detail, see the Spotsaas pages for Roll by ADP, Square Payroll, SurePayroll, OnPay pricing and Wave Payroll.

How Much Does It Cost to Have Someone on Payroll?

On top of wages, a US employer pays 7.65% in Social Security and Medicare tax, plus federal and state unemployment tax. For an employee earning $50,000, the federal share alone is about $3,867 a year: $3,100 Social Security, $725 Medicare and $42 FUTA. State unemployment, workers’ compensation and benefits come on top.

The federal employer taxes, from IRS.gov, checked September 2026:

Tax	Employer rate	Applies to
Social Security	6.2% (employee also pays 6.2%)	Wages up to $184,500 in 2026
Medicare	1.45% (employee also pays 1.45%)	All wages, no cap
Federal unemployment (FUTA)	6.0%, reduced to 0.6% with the full state credit of up to 5.4%	First $7,000 of each employee’s wages

Sources: IRS Topic 751 (Social Security and Medicare, including the 2026 wage base of $184,500) and IRS Topic 759 (FUTA). At the 0.6% net FUTA rate, the maximum federal unemployment tax is $42 per employee per year.

What this means in practice for a 10-person business with an average salary of $50,000: the payroll software in our table costs roughly $1,070 to $1,790 a year. Federal employer taxes on the same team cost about $38,670 a year. Choosing the cheapest provider saves hundreds of dollars; getting the tax filings right avoids penalties that can cost far more. That is why full-service tax filing, not the monthly fee, should be the first thing you check.

State taxes vary. Most states charge employers state unemployment insurance (SUI) at a rate set for each business, and some states and cities add their own payroll taxes. Your payroll provider should calculate and file these; confirm your states are covered on the plan you choose.

Is It Cheaper to Do Your Own Payroll?

In direct cost, yes: doing payroll by hand saves the $40 to $150 a month a provider charges a small team. In total cost, usually not. You take on tax calculations, deposit deadlines, quarterly and annual filings, and new-hire reporting, and you carry the risk of penalties if a deposit or form is late or wrong.

Doing it yourself makes most sense when you have one or two employees in one state, time to learn the deposit schedule, and bookkeeping software that already tracks wages. It becomes hard to justify once you add a second state, hourly staff with overtime, or benefits deductions.

Middle-ground options exist. Several providers include tax filing in their entry plans, and contractor-only plans are much cheaper if you pay 1099 workers only: Square charges $0 base plus $6 per contractor paid, Gusto’s Contractor Only plan is $35 plus $6 per person (with the base fee discounted to $0 for the first six months when we checked), and QuickBooks Contractor Payments is $25 a month including 20 contractors. For a fuller comparison of in-house and outsourced payroll, see our guide to payroll outsourcing.

Can I Do Payroll for Free?

You can calculate payroll for free with IRS tables and a spreadsheet, but no provider in our check offered free full-service payroll for employees. The closest option is Homebase, which lets you add its $49-plus-$6 payroll to its free Basic scheduling plan, and was offering the first six months of payroll free when we checked.

If you run payroll in a spreadsheet, you are responsible for withholding, depositing and filing federal forms (including quarterly Form 941 and annual Form 940 and W-2s) and your state’s equivalents. Free trials are another way to test providers: Wave offers a 30-day trial, and OnPay was offering one month free.

What Drives Your Payroll Software Bill Up?

Headcount, tier and add-ons. The per-employee fee scales with every hire. Upper tiers add HR tools, multi-state and faster pay, often at twice the price. Add-ons such as time tracking, benefits administration, same-day pay and year-end form fees are billed separately on many plans.

• Contractors: most providers charge the same per-person fee for contractors as for employees. Wave charges $6 per contractor paid; Justworks charges $8 per paid contractor.
• Payroll frequency: none of the plans in our table lists a per-run fee for standard payroll, but fast-pay options can carry per-run fees.
• Accounting bundle: Xero and FreshBooks payroll look cheap but require their accounting subscription. Count both.
• HR features: if you need onboarding, PTO tracking and compliance alerts, compare the tier that includes them, not the entry tier.

How to Choose on Price Without Getting Caught Out

1. Price your real headcount, including contractors, using base fee + (people × per-person fee).
2. Confirm full-service tax filing for every state and locality where you have employees.
3. Ask for year-end form fees in writing (W-2, 1099-NEC, paper mailing).
4. Check the post-promotion price. Many providers advertise months free or a discounted base; budget on list price.
5. Get two quotes from quote-only providers if you want ADP RUN, Paychex Flex, Rippling or Paylocity, and compare them against the published prices above.

For the full picture on individual providers: Gusto pricing, Paycor pricing, QuickBooks Payroll pricing, Justworks pricing and Deel pricing. Head-to-head: Gusto vs QuickBooks Payroll and ADP vs Gusto. New to the category? Start with what payroll software does, then browse the payroll software category or our payroll software guide.

Related reading: Best PEO for Small Business in 2026: 8 Providers, Prices and Certification

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