Payroll for one employee: $21 to $94.50 a month at list price across 12 US vendors, and the cheapest row does not file your taxes
Last updated: 2026-10-03
Short version
- With one employee, the list price runs from $21 a month (Patriot Software Basic) to $94.50 (QuickBooks), across 12 US vendors and 13 plans.
- At one employee the "per employee" rate is the whole bill. The base fee decides the order, not the rate.
- The $21 row does not file or deposit your payroll taxes. The lowest price that does is SurePayroll at $36, then Square at $41 and Patriot Full Service at $42.
- A year costs $252 (Patriot Basic) to $1,134 (QuickBooks), list price times 12, no promotions.
- Two kinds of company land here: an S corporation paying its one owner-employee, and a business making its first hire.
The monthly and yearly bill at one employee
List price (base plus the per-employee rate once), lowest first. The tax-filing column copies what each pricing page says and nothing more. The check date is on the right.
| Vendor | Plan | Base + rate | 1 employee, monthly | Yearly (x 12) | Tax filing | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot Software | Basic Payroll | $17 + $4 | $21 | $252 | Not included (you file) | 2026-10-03 |
| Deel | US Payroll | $0 + $29 | $29 | $348 | Not stated | Read 2026-09-27; not shown on the pricing page 2026-10-03 |
| SurePayroll | Small Business Payroll | $29 + $7 | $36 | $432 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
| Square Payroll | Full-Service Payroll | $35 + $6 | $41 | $492 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
| Patriot Software | Full Service Payroll | $37 + $5 | $42 | $504 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
| Roll by ADP | Roll by ADP | $39 + $5 | $44 | $528 | Not stated | 2026-10-03 |
| Zoho Payroll | Standard (monthly billing) | $39 + $6 | $45 | $540 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
| Wave Payroll | Wave Payroll (US) | $40 + $6 | $46 | $552 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
| Gusto | Simple | $49 + $6 | $55 | $660 | Included | 2026-09-27 (page could not be re-read 2026-10-03) |
| Homebase | Payroll add-on (on the $0 Basic plan) | $49 + $6 | $55 | $660 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
| OnPay | Payroll Essentials | $49 + $6 | $55 | $660 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
| Justworks | Payroll | $50 + $8 | $58 | $696 | Included | 2026-09-06 (page could not be re-read 2026-10-03) |
| QuickBooks Payroll | Workforce Payroll + Simple Start | $88 + $6.50 | $94.50 | $1,134 | Included | 2026-10-03 |
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Xero is left out because its plans are UK plans priced in pounds. The Homebase row is the payroll add-on plus the Homebase plan fee: with one employee at one location the Basic plan is $0, so the bill stays at $55, but Essentials, Plus or All-in-One ($30, $70 or $120 a month per location) would be added on top.
Why the $21 row does not file your taxes
Patriot's Basic Payroll is sold on its pricing page as the plan without tax filing. It covers the pay calculation, direct deposit, year-end forms and off-cycle runs; the federal and state filings and deposits are yours to do. Patriot's Full Service Payroll ($37 + $5) takes those on, at $42 a month or $504 a year for one employee. The gap is $21 a month, $252 a year, and for a one-person company that gap is the price of doing the filings yourself.
The three plans that include filing and sit under $43 (SurePayroll $36, Square $41, Patriot Full Service $42) are within $6 of each other. SurePayroll is the lowest of the three, and its year-end forms are a separate annual charge: a $50 base fee plus $5 a form, so $55 for a single W-2. Multi-state is a $9.99 monthly add-on there. Square includes digital delivery of year-end forms and charges $3 a form only if you want paper copies mailed. Patriot Full Service includes year-end forms and charges $12 a month for each state beyond the first. What a full-service plan actually takes off your hands is the subject of article-12.
At one employee the base fee is the whole story
Six plans charge $6 per employee (Square, Zoho, Wave, Gusto, Homebase, OnPay). With one person that $6 is identical everywhere, so the spread from $41 to $55 is entirely the base fee: $35, $39, $40 or $49. There is no point working out an effective per-employee figure; $41 is $41 and $55 is $55.
Deel's US Payroll is the only $0-base row and at one employee it is second lowest at $29. One caution: the "$29 per employee per month (self-service)" figure is what this site read on the Pay / US tab of Deel's pricing page on 2026-09-27. When the page was read again on 2026-10-03, that figure was not on it. Treat the Deel row as a dated reading.
What the second employee adds
Hiring a second person adds exactly one per-employee rate. In the table's order: Patriot Basic $25, SurePayroll $43, Square $47, Patriot Full Service $47, Roll by ADP $49, Zoho Standard $51, Wave $52, Deel $58, Gusto, Homebase and OnPay $61, Justworks $66, QuickBooks $101.
Deel's $0 base means the second employee adds a full $29, and at two people it costs more than the six plans from SurePayroll down to Wave. The $4 and $5 rates (Patriot Basic, Patriot Full Service, Roll by ADP) pull further ahead of the $6 plans with every hire. The 1 to 4 employee table carries the order at each of those sizes, and the calculator rebuilds it for any headcount you type in.
Promotions are not in the table
Everything above is list price. These are the promotions each pricing page showed on 2026-10-03 (Gusto and Justworks from the earlier readings):
- Patriot Software: 30 days free, then 50% off for 3 months (Basic $8.50 + $2, Full Service $18.50 + $2.50). Billed in arrears.
- SurePayroll: "every alternating month will be free" (terms apply).
- Roll by ADP: three months free (terms apply), no long-term contract.
- Zoho Payroll: 14-day free trial. Annual billing is $29 + $5 on Standard, which is $34 a month at one employee.
- OnPay: first month free, no implementation or integration fees.
- Homebase: six months free on payroll and the Plus plan (limited time).
- QuickBooks Payroll: 50% off the base for 3 months ($44 + $6.50).
- Gusto: month-to-month, cancel anytime (2026-09-27). Justworks Payroll: 3 months free (2026-09-06).
What the bill looks like once a promotion ends is worked through for five employees in article-13.
The two one-employee companies this page has in mind
A search for one-employee payroll usually comes from one of two places:
- An S corporation paying its owner a salary. The one employee is the owner, and the amount is more or less fixed month to month.
- A business about to make its first hire. The things that have to exist before the first pay run (employer ID, state registrations and so on) are listed in article-10.
In both cases the whole bill is one person's worth, so the base fee ($17 to $88) matters far more than the $4 to $8 rate. Two costs sit outside the table and are worth checking first: if that one person lives in another state, Gusto Simple does not include multi-state payroll (Plus at $80 + $12 does), and SurePayroll bills its year-end forms separately.
Who this is not for
This is a price page. It says nothing about how easy any of these products are to use, and this site has not used them. The figures are published list prices, not quotes. The scope is US plans; Xero's UK pound pricing is excluded. Paying one household employee, a nanny for example, is a different product line (SurePayroll Household at $39, among others) and is covered in article-22.
Sources
- https://www.patriotsoftware.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.surepayroll.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://squareup.com/us/en/payroll/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.rollbyadp.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.zoho.com/us/payroll/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.waveapps.com/payroll (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.joinhomebase.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://onpay.com/payroll/software/costs-pricing/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://gusto.com/pricing (checked 2026-09-27; the page could not be re-read 2026-10-03)
- https://www.justworks.com/pricing (checked 2026-09-06; the page could not be re-read 2026-10-03)
- https://www.deel.com/pricing (US Payroll $29 read 2026-09-27 on the Pay / US tab; not shown on the page 2026-10-03)
- https://seatbill.com/payroll-pricing/best/us-payroll-1-4 (this site's 1 to 4 employee table)
Related on this site
- Cheapest payroll for 1 to 4 employees in the US
- What a small business needs before its first payroll
- Does a full-service plan take every tax task off your hands?
- Free and discounted payroll: what year two costs
- Patriot Software plans and prices
- Paying a nanny: do you need a payroll service?
- The calculator at one employee
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from vendors' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products.
Written by Kaz, independent publisher. No commercial relationship with the companies named unless it is listed on the disclosure page.
Published September 27, 2026. The figures above come from the government and vendor pages listed under Sources.
I have not used these products. Nothing here is a personal test result.
Corrections: contact form.