Payroll software cost calculator

Every figure in the calculator was read on the vendor's own pricing page and carries its check date in the last column. The whole dataset was last refreshed on 2026-08-20 (checked 2026-08-20).

Sharing the answer you got

Copy the link to this result puts your headcount, market and type into the address after a # sign, so whoever you send it to opens the same table rather than the default ten employees. The part after the # is never sent to a server, by anyone's browser: the calculation happens on your machine and nothing you type reaches us.

Saving it for next time

Save this comparison in this browser keeps the headcount, market, type and the vendors you ticked in this browser's own storage, with the date. Nothing goes to us, and it is not an account: clearing your browser data clears it. When you come back, the top of this page lists every change we recorded for those vendors after that date, with the old value, the new one, and whether it was the vendor changing its page or us correcting a figure we held. Mark as seen moves the date forward; Forget it clears the lot. The full price history is the same record for every vendor, and it has an RSS feed if you would rather not come back to check.

What it does not include

Only the base fee and the per-employee fee, both as published. It does not add tax-filing surcharges, state registrations, or anything a vendor quotes on request. Your bill may be higher than the number above, depending on fees that are not in it. This is a floor, not a quote.

The advanced options

Open Advanced above the table and two more things appear, kept apart on purpose. The first is the add-on fees a vendor publishes on its own pricing page for multi-state payroll and for year-end forms. Those are verified figures, so when you tick an option they are added to the year's total and the table is re-ordered on them. A plan whose vendor states that multi-state payroll is not available on it is left out, and one whose page says nothing is marked not stated rather than given a number. The second is a box on every row for a figure a vendor quoted you and does not publish. That column is yours: it is shaded and dashed, it never orders the table, and it is not saved or shared. We do not fill it with anyone's estimate, including our own; the article on what published prices leave out explains why.

The three types are not interchangeable and are never mixed in one ranking. Domestic payroll runs your pay run in one country. A PEO co-employs your US staff and prices per employee for a much larger service. An employer of record employs your staff abroad on your behalf. A cheaper figure in one of them is not a cheaper version of another.

Vendors that publish no prices are not in the calculator at all. That is not a judgment about their cost — several of the biggest names in this market publish nothing. The full list shows which ones.

Why the per-employee figure is not the one you were quoted

Because the quoted figure excludes the base fee. A plan at $40 a month plus $6 a head is not $6 a head — at five employees it is $14. The fewer people you have, the wider that gap. The cost guide works through where the rest of the money goes, and the method page gives the arithmetic.

Across the 21 US domestic payroll plans that publish both fees, the median costs 3.72 times its advertised per-employee rate at three employees — that article lists them all and the effective figure for each.