The Top 6 Paychex Competitors and Alternatives

Gusto: Best overall Paychex alternative

Our star rating: 4.6 out of 5

Gusto, an all-in-one payroll, benefits and HR platform, is a formidable Paychex competitor, delivering an array of services tailored to small and medium-sized businesses. Even though Gusto is a relatively new player in the payroll and HCM market (especially compared to Paychex, which has been around for 50 years), Gusto has rapidly become the go-to choice for companies seeking a user-friendly and cost-effective payroll solution.

While Gusto and Paychex offer the same thorough payroll automation, Gusto does more for less. For instance, all Gusto plans include accounting software integration, W-2/1099 distribution and benefits integration and administration. Paychex, in contrast, either charges an additional fee for each service or restricts it to higher-tier plans.

However, although Gusto beats out Paychex in terms of affordable payroll, Paychex has more HR features. Gusto restricts HR library access and compliance updates to its most expensive plan, but Paychex includes access to its comprehensive library of HR templates, documents and guides with each plan.

Get more details on how Gusto stands out by reading our Gusto review.

Figure A

Key features of Gusto 

• Full-service payroll migration and account setup.
• Comprehensive multi-state payroll, including W-2s and 1099s.
• Exclusive contractor-only plan.
• Employee portal with lifetime access to pay stubs, W-2s, hours worked, etc.
• Integration with QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, Clover, Shopify and more.
• Benefits administration, including health, wellness, retirement, transportation, housing and custom benefits.

Gusto pricing 

Gusto provides three affordable plans:

• The Simple plan costs $40 per month plus $6 per month per employee.
• The Plus plan costs $60 per month plus $9 per month per employee.
• A Premium pricing plan is available upon request.

QuickBooks Payroll: Best for QuickBooks users

Our star rating: 4.1 out of 5

Do you use QuickBooks Online to track your company’s finances? Intuit’s payroll product, QuickBooks Payroll, could be a good Paychex alternative if you like QuickBooks Online’s functionality, user interface and data flow.

QuickBooks Online Payroll syncs perfectly with its cloud-based accounting counterpart, ensuring that every time you process payroll, your books update automatically. You’ll always have the most up to date financial data at your fingertips, and it’s hard to beat the convenience of managing your finances, payroll and taxes on the same user-friendly platform.

However, compared to Paychex, QuickBooks Payroll’s HR features are quite limited. If you opt for QuickBooks Online Payroll over Paychex, note that you’ll likely need another application entirely to manage HR.

Learn more by reading our QuickBooks Payroll review.

Figure B

Key features of QuickBooks Payroll

• Automatic direct deposit.
• Accounting and payroll integration.
• Tax filing and payments for federal, state and local taxes.
• Employee and contractor payment options.

QuickBooks Payroll pricing 

QuickBooks has three payroll plans:

• QuickBooks Payroll Core costs $45 per month plus $6 per payee.
• QuickBooks Payroll Premium costs $80 per month plus $10 per payee.
• QuickBooks Payroll Elite costs $125 per month plus $12 per payee.

New QuickBooks Online Payroll users can sign up for a one-month free trial or opt for 50% off for three months, which lowers the starting price to $22.50 plus $6 per payee.

Justworks: Best PEO option

Our star rating: 4.2 out of 5

Justworks is a professional employer organization (PEO) designed to help businesses manage payroll, HR, benefits and compliance all in one place. With its focus on simplicity and transparency, Justworks aims to provide growing businesses with a streamlined solution that combines essential tools and features.

As a PEO, Justworks acts as a co-employer with your company to take over employee compensation and benefits. It’s fairly comparable to Paychex PEO, offering similar full-service payroll, compliance alerts and benefits integration. Like Paychex PEO, Justworks is a pricier solution than most base-level payroll/HR software solutions. But since the company will tackle employee payroll, HR and benefits enrollment on your behalf, it frees up valuable time for business owners to spend on other projects.

Learn more by reading our Justworks review.

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Key features of Justworks 

• Full-service payroll processing.
• Direct deposit and check payment options.
• Benefits administration, including health insurance, retirement and commuter benefits.
• HR tools for managing policies, time off and employee documentation.
• Compliance support, including tax filings and reporting.
• Onboarding and employee self-service portal.
• Integration with popular accounting software.

Justworks pricing 

Justworks offers pricing based on the number of employees and the selected plan:

• Basic plan starts at $59 per employee per month.
• Plus plan starts at $99 per employee per month.

The price decreases by $10 per employee per month from your 50th employee onward.

Justworks also offers a time-tracking product, Justworks Hours, that costs $8 per user per month.

Rippling: Best for growth

Our star rating: 4.3 out of 5

Rippling is a cloud-based platform designed to help businesses manage payroll, HR, benefits and IT in a single system. Its payroll and HR modules support businesses of all sizes and include full-service payroll with federal, state and local tax management.

Rippling’s excellent automations and built-in workflows make it easy to process payroll without much manual data entry. Rippling also has an optional global payroll product that helps businesses hire and pay contractors and employees in 50 countries. (Paychex also offers international payroll through its third-party partner, Blue Marble.)

While Rippling’s payroll module works well as a standalone product for businesses with one to ten employees, you’ll get more out of Rippling if you bundle its payroll and HR modules with its finance and IT modules. You can build your own total-business management platform from the ground up, using Rippling to manage nearly every aspect of your business.

Learn more by reading our Rippling review.

Figure D

Key features of Rippling

• Payroll processing and tax filing.
• Direct deposit and check payment options.
• Benefits administration, including health insurance, retirement plans and more.
• HR tools for managing time off, employee documentation and compliance.
• IT management features, such as device provisioning and software deployment.
• Onboarding and offboarding automation.
• Integration with various business apps and accounting software.

Rippling’s pricing 

Pricing for Rippling’s payroll plan starts at $8 per user per month plus a custom monthly base fee. Rippling offers customized pricing based on the specific needs and size of the business. For detailed pricing information, businesses are advised to contact Rippling directly for a personalized quote.

ADP RUN: Best for HR + payroll bundles

Our star rating: 4.4 out of 5

ADP is a global provider of payroll and HR solutions, offering a wide range of products, tools and services to help businesses manage their workforce. With a focus on flexibility and scalability, ADP is designed to adapt to the changing needs of organizations of all sizes.

Like Paychex, ADP offers both a payroll/HR software product (RUN Powered by ADP) and a PEO product (ADP TotalSource). It also has a variety of HCM plans for midsize and large businesses, enterprises and multinational corporations. Out of every ADP product, ADP RUN is the most comparable to Paychex Flex, matching it nearly feature for feature in terms of HR.

Both Paychex and ADP RUN include plans with a learning management system, applicant tracking system, job board postings, employee handbook builders and more. Both providers also cost more than smaller-scale payroll software like Gusto, OnPay and Square Payroll.

Learn more by reading our RUN Powered by ADP review.

Figure E

Key features of ADP RUN

• Payroll processing and tax filing.
• Direct deposit and check payment options.
• Time and attendance tracking.
• Benefits administration, including health insurance and retirement plans.
• HR tools for managing policies, time off and employee documentation.
• Compliance support, including tax filings and reporting.
• Onboarding and employee self-service portal.
• Integration with popular accounting software.

ADP RUN pricing

ADP offers customized pricing based on the specific needs and size of the business. Businesses are advised to contact ADP directly for a personalized quote.

BambooHR: Best HR tool for ease of use

Our star rating: 4.4 out of 5

BambooHR is a cloud-based HR software designed to help small and medium-sized businesses manage various HR tasks, such as employee onboarding, time-off tracking and performance management. The vendor also has a Payroll, Time and Benefits feature that includes time tracking, PTO and benefits administration for a comprehensive solution.

BambooHR isn’t a PEO, but it does focus primarily on ensuring your employees have a smooth, user-friendly experience working for your company. Its standout features include employee engagement surveys, employee handbook creation and thorough performance management tools.

Learn more by reading our BambooHR review.

Figure F

Key Features of BambooHR 

• Employee database and records management.
• Time-off tracking and approvals.
• Performance management and goal tracking.
• Onboarding and offboarding automation.
• Applicant tracking system for hiring.
• Employee self-service portal.
• Integration with various payroll providers and business apps.

BambooHR pricing 

BambooHR offers two main pricing plans: Essentials and Advantage. Its payroll, time-tracking, benefits and performance management modules are available as add-ons to the two main HR plans.

For detailed pricing information, businesses are advised to contact BambooHR directly for a personalized quote.