Quote-only payroll vendors (ADP RUN, Paychex, Paylocity, Rippling, TriNet): the seven line items to ask for, with published prices at 25 employees ($117 to $250.50) as the yardstick
Last updated: 2026-10-03
Short version
- ADP RUN, Paychex, Paylocity, Rippling and TriNet put no dollar figure on their pricing pages. On this site's count, each publishes 0 of 6 items.
- The vendors that do publish have printed, between them, every line a quote needs: base fee, per-employee fee, setup fee, contract minimum, multi-state, year-end forms, implementation. Seven items.
- The yardstick is the monthly total at 25 employees. On the publishing vendors' lowest tiers it runs from Patriot Basic at $117 (you file the taxes yourself) to QuickBooks at $250.50, or $4.68 to $10.02 per employee.
- A quote that arrives broken into the seven items can be added as a row. One that does not cannot.
What the five pages carry instead of a number
| Vendor | Page read | What it says in place of a price | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADP RUN | adp.com, payroll-packages | Four packages: Essential Payroll, Enhanced Payroll (Most Popular), Complete Payroll & HR Plus, HR Pro Payroll & HR. "Get pricing" on each. Promotion "Get 3 months FREE payroll" | 2026-08-20; no figure re-confirmed 2026-10-03 |
| Paychex | paychex.com/payroll | Paychex Flex Select, Pro, Enterprise. "Get Your Free Quote," "Request Pricing," "Contact Sales" | 2026-08-20; re-confirmed 2026-10-03 |
| Paylocity | paylocity.com/pricing | "Get the solution that matches your needs and is priced for your budget." Modular HR, finance and IT. A "Get Pricing" form and "Request a Demo"; on 2026-10-03, "Request Pricing" | 2026-08-20; re-confirmed 2026-10-03 |
| Rippling | rippling.com/pricing | "Tell us what services you need, and we'll send you a custom quote." Carried "starts at $8 a month, per user" until 2026-09-06, withdrawn that day | 2026-09-06; re-confirmed 2026-10-03 |
| TriNet | trinet.com/solutions/peo (a PEO) | "Pricing depends on factors including your company size... request your tailored quote." A PEPM administrative fee, with benefits, workers' comp, payroll taxes and add-ons billed separately. The FAQ's worked example: 20 employees at a $150 PEPM rate is a $3,000 monthly administrative fee. A minimum worksite employee count applies | 2026-08-20; re-confirmed 2026-10-03 |
Paycor was recorded as quote-only in this site's dataset on 2026-08-20, when no figure appeared on paycor.com/pricing. On 2026-10-03, a separate page, paycor.com/plans-pricing/small-business/, showed four published plans for businesses with fewer than 50 employees: Basic $99 + $5, Essential $149 + $6, Complete $199 + $7, HCM $199 + $12, with a "50% OFF for 6 months" promotion. The dataset now includes those plans. Paycor's larger-company tiers remain quote-only, and the seven items below apply to those.
The five zeros sit on the bottom row of the transparency count. That not publishing does not mean expensive is already covered in article-03 and is not repeated here. What this page does is list the items that let a quote be received in a form that fits the published table.
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The seven line items, and how the publishing vendors print each one
| # | Line item | How the published pages print it (ask for the quote in this shape) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monthly base fee: the amount that does not move with headcount | Patriot Basic $17, SurePayroll $29, Square $35, Patriot Full Service $37, Roll by ADP $39, Zoho Standard $39, Wave $40, Gusto Simple, OnPay and Homebase $49, Justworks Payroll $50, QuickBooks $88, Paycor Basic $99 (2026-10-03) |
| 2 | Per-employee monthly rate, and what counts as one (employees, people paid, active employees) | Patriot Basic $4; Roll and Patriot Full Service $5; Gusto Simple, OnPay, Square, Wave and Zoho Standard $6; QuickBooks $6.50; SurePayroll $7; Justworks Payroll $8. Square counts "per person paid," Wave "per active employee" |
| 3 | Setup fee, written as zero if it is zero | Wave: "No set-up fees or hidden charges." OnPay: "No implementation or integration fees." Gusto, Patriot, QuickBooks, Square and SurePayroll do not state one. Only 16 of the 35 vendors in the dataset publish this item |
| 4 | Contract minimum and cancellation terms | Gusto, all three tiers: "month-to-month, cancel anytime." Roll: "no long-term contracts." Square: "No commitment, no long-term contracts required." Wave: "30 days commitment-free after processing first payroll." Patriot bills in arrears |
| 5 | Multi-state: included, priced per state, or a step up to a higher tier | Patriot Full Service $12 a month per additional state; SurePayroll $9.99 a month flat; Gusto not in Simple, in Plus ($80 + $12); Zoho not in Standard, in Professional ($59 + $8.50). Included at OnPay, Square, Roll and Justworks Payroll. Not stated at QuickBooks, Wave, Homebase |
| 6 | Year-end forms (W-2, 1099): included, or per form | SurePayroll $50 plus $5 per form a year; Square digital delivery included, paper mailing $3 per form; Zoho W-2 postal delivery $3 per employee. Included at Patriot, OnPay, QuickBooks, Wave, Homebase. Not stated at Gusto and Roll |
| 7 | Implementation: setup work, data migration, integrations, training | OnPay: "No implementation or integration fees." Roll: "No Hidden Fees, No Surprises, No Training." The other publishing vendors have no such line on their pricing pages, and neither do the five quote-only vendors |
Items 3 and 7 are kept apart because the publishing vendors keep them apart. Wave's "set-up fees" and OnPay's "implementation or integration fees" are different words, and the question for a quote is whether it has one line or two.
There is an eighth thing that is a date rather than a line item. ADP RUN's "3 months FREE" and Paycor's "50% OFF for 6 months" end, and the price afterwards is the list price; that is the figure to have written into the quote. For the publishing vendors, article-13 does the year-one arithmetic on the same basis.
The 25-employee yardstick: what the publishing vendors charge
The publishing vendors' lowest tiers, at 25 employees, base plus per-employee times 25, list price, no promotion. A quote for 25 employees placed here shows where it falls.
| Vendor and plan | Base + per employee | 25 employees per month | Per employee | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot Software Basic | $17 + $4 | $117 | $4.68 | 2026-10-03 (tax filing not included; you file) |
| Patriot Software Full Service | $37 + $5 | $162 | $6.48 | 2026-10-03 |
| Roll by ADP | $39 + $5 | $164 | $6.56 | 2026-10-03 |
| Square Payroll Full-Service | $35 + $6 | $185 | $7.40 | 2026-10-03 |
| Zoho Payroll Standard | $39 + $6 | $189 | $7.56 | 2026-10-03 ($29 + $5 billed annually) |
| Wave Payroll | $40 + $6 | $190 | $7.60 | 2026-10-03 |
| Gusto Simple | $49 + $6 | $199 | $7.96 | 2026-09-27 (page could not be re-read 2026-10-03) |
| OnPay Payroll Essentials | $49 + $6 | $199 | $7.96 | 2026-10-03 |
| Homebase payroll add-on | $49 + $6 + plan fee | $199 + plan fee (Basic caps at 10 employees; Essentials $30 makes it $229) | $7.96 + plan | 2026-10-03 |
| SurePayroll Small Business | $29 + $7 | $204 | $8.16 | 2026-10-03 |
| Paycor Basic | $99 + $5 | $224 | $8.96 | 2026-10-03 (small-business page) |
| Justworks Payroll | $50 + $8 | $250 | $10.00 | 2026-09-06 (page could not be re-read 2026-10-03) |
| QuickBooks Workforce Payroll + Simple Start | $88 + $6.50 | $250.50 | $10.02 | 2026-10-03 (includes QuickBooks Online accounting) |
Deel US Payroll at $29 per employee ($725 at 25) was read on 2026-09-27 on the Pay / US tab and was not visible on the pricing page on 2026-10-03, so it is left out. The higher tiers stack on top of this table: at 25 employees, Zoho Professional $271.50, QuickBooks + Essentials $287.50, Gusto Plus $380, QuickBooks Premium + Plus $453, Gusto Premium $730. For another headcount, the calculator page applies the same formula.
What falls outside the table at 25 employees
Items 5 and 6 come to the following at 25 employees. These are the figures to lay against the same lines of a quote.
- Multi-state: Patriot Full Service, $12 a month for a second state ($144 a year), $24 a month for three states. SurePayroll, $9.99 a month whatever the number of states ($119.88 a year). Gusto, the move from Simple at $199 to Plus at $380 is $181 a month. Zoho, Standard at $189 to Professional at $271.50 is $82.50 a month.
- Year-end forms, 25 of them: SurePayroll $175 a year ($50 + $5 x 25). Square's paper mailing $75 a year, Zoho's W-2 postal delivery $75 a year. $0 where included. Gusto and Roll do not state it, so for them it is a question too, the same as for the quotes.
What to do when the quote arrives
Copy the seven items into the same columns as the two tables above. From the base and per-employee figures, work out the monthly total at 25 (or your headcount) and place it between the nearest rows of the yardstick. Convert multi-state and year-end forms to annual amounts and set them beside the figures in the previous section. Setup and implementation are one-time, so they go on a separate line rather than into the monthly total. Getting the total in writing and asking what the price is after the promotion are already covered in article-03.
The Gusto-side comparisons with ADP RUN, Paychex and Rippling are article-49, article-50 and article-51; Paychex and ADP RUN directly against each other is article-57. What a company with hundreds of employees compares before price is article-21.
What this page leaves out
The seven items fill a price table; they do not choose a product. Features, supported pay types, support hours and integrations are not among them. This site does not know what any of the five would quote and holds no past quotes. Every figure is a US-dollar list price, and we have used none of these products.
Sources
- https://www.adp.com/what-we-offer/payroll/payroll-for-1-49-employees/payroll-packages.aspx (checked 2026-08-20; no figure re-confirmed 2026-10-03)
- https://www.paychex.com/payroll (checked 2026-08-20; no figure re-confirmed 2026-10-03)
- https://www.paylocity.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-08-20; no figure re-confirmed 2026-10-03)
- https://www.rippling.com/pricing (checked 2026-09-06; no figure re-confirmed 2026-10-03)
- https://www.trinet.com/solutions/peo (checked 2026-08-20; no list price re-confirmed 2026-10-03)
- https://www.paycor.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-08-20, no figure) and https://www.paycor.com/plans-pricing/small-business/ (checked 2026-10-03, four published plans)
- https://www.patriotsoftware.com/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.rollbyadp.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://squareup.com/us/en/payroll/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://gusto.com/pricing (as read 2026-09-27; the page could not be re-read 2026-10-03)
- https://onpay.com/payroll/software/costs-pricing/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.joinhomebase.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.surepayroll.com/pricing (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://www.justworks.com/pricing (as read 2026-09-06; the page could not be re-read 2026-10-03)
- https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-03)
- https://seatbill.com/payroll-pricing/research/transparency-index (this site's count of what each vendor publishes)
- https://seatbill.com/payroll-pricing/article-03 (this site's page on published prices versus quotes)
Related on this site
- How much of its price each vendor publishes
- Published price or quote required: the five states
- Every vendor held here, and what is public
- Gusto vs ADP RUN
- Gusto vs Paychex, with SurePayroll as the Paychex-group figure
- Gusto vs Rippling after the $8 starting price went
- Paychex vs ADP RUN: what the two pages say
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.