Gusto, OnPay, and Homebase lead cheap payroll picks for 2026. Compare starter plan features and hidden add-on costs before you commit.
Alpha Score of 54 reflects moderate overall profile with weak momentum, strong value, strong quality. Based on 3 of 4 signals – score is capped at 90 until remaining data ingests.
A cheap payroll service only pays off if it cuts the work and risk that make payroll expensive. A low monthly fee loses its shine fast when extra charges appear for time tracking, multi-state pay runs, HR support, or tax help.
Gusto ranks as the top pick for small businesses wanting payroll and basic HR tools in one platform. It supports employee and contractor payments, onboarding, benefits, and payroll tax filings at a reasonable starting price. The service provides unlimited pay runs, handles all tax filings, and offers automated pay runs. It also lets you onboard new hires, offer different types of benefits, and track employee hours, making attendance data retrieval for pay processing easy. Gusto can even help hire and pay international workers with its employer of record (EOR) service, Gusto Global. If you need to process global contractor payments, Gusto can handle payouts in over 120 countries.
These features contributed to its overall score of 4.32 out of 5. Its starter tier has all the essential tools for managing simple pay runs. However, Gusto's contractor-only payroll plan isn't as affordable as Square Payroll and QuickBooks Workforce's. Also, you must upgrade to at least its Plus plan or pay extra to access time-tracking functionalities. This is unlike Homebase and Square Payroll, which offer basic time tracking in their starter tiers.
A business with 10 employees would pay $109 per month for Gusto Simple before add-ons. Adding Time & Attendance Plus would increase the estimated monthly cost to $169.
User reviews of Gusto are strongest around ease of use. Reviewers often praise its clean interface, simple payroll setup, employee self-service tools, and built-in payroll tax filing. Negative reviews frequently mention slow or inconsistent support, payroll or billing errors, direct deposit problems, account change delays, and difficulty resolving tax-related corrections.
OnPay is ideal for small businesses that want one predictable monthly payroll price and don't need native time tracking or a large marketplace of third-party integrations. It onboards new employees, processes payments, and provides access to health plans from major insurers for a monthly fee of $49 plus $6 per employee.
It may cost the same as Gusto's starter plan, but you save more with OnPay. Unlike providers with multiple payroll tiers, OnPay includes its core payroll features in one plan. Basic HR tools are included, while expanded onboarding workflows, PTO management, org charts, and HR insights require the HR add-on.
In evaluation, OnPay earned an overall score of 4.09 out of 5 because its efficient payroll tools can handle payments for many types of businesses, including farms and non-profit organizations. It received top marks for its new client services, which include free account migration and support for setting up integrations. However, unlike Gusto, it only offers benefits via partner brokers. It also connects with only a handful of third-party software and lacks time tracking and performance review tools.
A business with 10 employees would pay $109 per month before optional services ($49 base fee + $6 per employee).
OnPay users say it is strongest around ease of use, pricing, and support. Many reviewers praise its simple payroll process, transparent fees, easy setup, and responsive customer service, especially for small teams that do not have a dedicated payroll or HR department. Users also like that OnPay can handle core payroll tax filings without adding a lot of extra complexity.
The biggest recurring complaints are more about room to grow. Some users say OnPay can feel limited if they need built-in time tracking, deeper HR tools, more advanced reporting, or more flexible payroll scheduling. A smaller number of reviews also mention support delays or account access issues.
OnPay expanded its HR capabilities with onboarding workflows, PTO management, employee directories, org charts, equipment provisioning, and HR insights. These tools are available through an optional add-on priced at $15 per month plus $2 per employee. The core payroll plan still includes basic HR tools.
If you mostly hire hourly employees, Homebase's core platform primarily has time tracking and scheduling features to help you manage staff attendance. With its Homebase Payroll add-on, you can easily use the core platform's time data to pay employees compliantly.
Homebase Payroll may be a paid add-on, but it can be an inexpensive payroll service if partnered with the core platform's free plan for one-location businesses with up to 10 workers. It's even slightly cheaper than Gusto because you get time tracking, a feature that's included in Gusto's higher tiers or costs extra with the starter plan.
Homebase earned a 3.93 out of 5 score. It received top marks in pay processing because of its automatic pay runs, next-day payroll, and tax filing services. Unlike Gusto, OnPay, and QuickBooks Workforce, you complete payroll with just a few taps via Homebase's mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. However, it doesn't provide access to benefits plans and performance reviews. It can also become a pricey option if you get the payroll add-on and upgrade to the core platform's paid plans to access other features, such as labor cost management, hiring, and more advanced reporting tools.
A business with 10 active employees would pay $99 per month for payroll before add-ons ($39 base fee + $6 per active employee).
Small business Homebase users say the platform works best for scheduling, time tracking, and ease of use. Many reviewers like that employees can clock in, view schedules, request time off, swap shifts, and communicate from one app. Small business owners also praise how Homebase reduces manual timesheet work and can make payroll faster when hours flow directly from the time clock.
However, users also note the downsides related to app limitations, occasional glitches, and support. Some users say certain schedule changes or approvals are easier on desktop than mobile, while others want more reporting customization or stronger shift-management controls. On the payroll side, reviews mention tax filing problems and delays in getting issues resolved.
Homebase recently introduced an AI Scheduling Assistant that builds schedules using employee availability, work history, and time-off data. For businesses paying hourly workers, this adds value by reducing scheduling work and keeping shift information in the same platform that tracks hours and prepares payroll. The tool may help small teams save on administrative time without adding separate scheduling software, although availability varies by plan.
QuickBooks Workforce, formerly QuickBooks Payroll, now better reflects QuickBooks' broader employee-facing tools, including payroll, time tracking, pay stubs, W-2s, PTO, and schedules. It can handle both contractor and employee payroll, but if you only pay contract workers, its contractor payments package is the cheapest payroll service on the list.
The easy integration between Intuit products and QuickBooks' fast payment options is just some of the appeal. You get next-day direct deposits even with its starter tier, a feature Gusto offers in its higher plans. And you can easily import pay-related data into your general ledger for easy bookkeeping if you use both its accounting and payroll modules.
It also offers full-service payroll with tax filing assistance, employee benefits plans, and time tracking tools, functionalities that contributed to QuickBooks Workforce's overall score of 3.82 out of 5. While its contractor payments package is more affordable than Square Payroll, it has limited HR features. Unlike Gusto and Homebase, you can't use its platform to hire employees or post jobs. It also doesn't offer online org charts or an employee directory that you can search through.
A business with 10 employees would pay $115 per month for its lowest-priced payroll plan before add-ons ($75 base fee + $4 per employee).
QuickBooks Workforce users say it works best when used with QuickBooks Time. They like that employees can access pay stubs, W-2s, PTO balances, schedules, and time tracking in one app, which can reduce manual timesheet work before payroll. For small businesses already using QuickBooks, the biggest advantage is the payroll and accounting connection.
The recurring complaints are mostly around reliability, support, and cost. Some users report app glitches with time entries or job/client tracking, while broader QuickBooks reviews mention slow or inconsistent support, extra fees, and a steep learning curve.
In May 2026, Intuit renamed QuickBooks Payroll as QuickBooks Workforce and expanded it with employee records, profiles, self-service tools, and other workforce management features. Existing payroll subscribers receive the corresponding Workforce features automatically. For companies that only pay contractors, the $25 monthly package remains the better value because it covers up to 20 workers before per-contractor fees apply.
If your restaurant or retail shop uses Square POS, getting Square Payroll to process employee payments is better than using third-party payroll software. You can track tips or commissions via Square POS and then automatically transfer the data into Square Payroll for payment processing.
The easy data imports between Square products help save time and minimize errors from manual data entries. Square Payroll also has a mobile app that supports pay runs, which is great if you're always on the go and need to submit payroll.
It earned an overall score of 3.71 out of 5 because of its efficient payroll features, but lost several points because of its limited HR features and integration options. Its contractor plan isn't as affordable as QuickBooks Workforce's, and it also lacks the local tax support that most of the providers on the list offer.
A business with 10 employees would pay $95 per month for employee payroll before add-ons ($35 base fee + $6 per employee).
Square Payroll appeals most to users who are already using Square POS, Square Team, or other Square tools. Users often point to its simple setup, transparent pricing, automatic payroll tax filings, contractor payments, and ability to sync employee hours, tips, and timecards into payroll. That makes it especially useful for restaurants, retail shops, salons, and other hourly businesses already running on Square.
The biggest drawbacks are around depth and flexibility. Square Payroll is built more for straightforward payroll than complex HR needs, so it may feel limited for businesses that need advanced reporting, robust HR tools, or more customizable workflows.
In July 2026, Square added more flexible auto-gratuity settings, including multiple rates and rules based on party size or location. Although this is a Square POS update rather than a payroll feature, it strengthens Square Payroll's value for restaurants by reducing manual gratuity work within the same ecosystem used to capture hours, tips, and commissions for payroll.
The lowest monthly fee does not always tell the full story. Before choosing a provider, check for these common cost traps: extra fees for time tracking, multi-state pay runs, priority support, HR advisory services, and faster direct deposits can all change the real monthly cost. For most small businesses, the right question is whether the provider can run payroll accurately, handle tax filings, support the way you pay workers, and reduce the number of separate tools you need.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.