Best payroll software in 2024

Rippling goes the extra mile as a payroll platform. With an abundance of proprietary integrations and software, plus the ability to integrate with over 500 additional apps, Rippling has the potential to be a great option for nearly every type of business owner. That’s because its customization options are nearly endless, so small businesses have the ability to craft it to fit all of their needs.

Whether you want a robust, full-service workflow solution or one that simply pays your employees accurately on time (and guaranteed, according to its 100% payroll accuracy guarantee), Rippling can meet your needs.

That said, some business owners may feel intimidated by the vastness of the product (and the lack of transparency around pricing) and may prefer to seek a more straightforward solution.

If you want payroll software that does more than just pay your employees on time, Rippling is an excellent choice. Its vast array of products and integrations makes it a highly flexible and customizable solution for nearly any business.

However, it doesn’t share much about pricing, so it’s hard to determine whether that value may be worth it without consulting with its team for a more customized quote.

Value

Starting at $8 per month per employee, Rippling’s payroll is on the higher side of cost (not to mention that some user reviews state that the price continues to rise year over year without any sort of locked-in rate) — but the potential value it can provide a business is nearly endless with its vast array of customization features.

Rippling also allows you to run off-cycle pay at no extra cost, which is a big benefit if you have 1099 contractors who request different pay structures than your internal team (or if you have a habit of forgetting to run payroll).

But without the ability to compare pricing per plan and add-on features, it’s hard to gauge whether that value is actually realistic for a small business owner’s budget.

Functionality

It seems as if the functionalities are nearly endless with Rippling. With its core features like customized payrolls for multiple employee types and quick comparison of past payrolls as part of each month’s approval process, plus the ability to integrate with over 500 other apps and tech, Rippling has the ability to check every box for any type of business owner.

We also really like that it offers a mobile app for both owner and employee use, although reviews are mixed on usability and reliability. But, the ability to run payroll on the go or give your employees another way to access their information are two big selling points, despite some of the hiccups.

Support

You must be signed into your account to troubleshoot issues with a team member, which means it’s likely a chat or email service (not phone support). And it’s unclear if that support is available 24/7 to help you out in real time. However, many reviews find its email service to be pretty responsive, with some calling it “second to none,” although that’s not the case for every customer.

We can’t explain why some people have great experiences with support while others deem it unreliable and unhelpful. So tread cautiously if you expect to need a lot of help during implementation and beyond.

Learn more: Read our full Rippling review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Patriot offers most features a small business owner needs from payroll software at the lowest possible cost. If you don’t need any bells and whistles with your software and simply want a solution that’s easy to implement and use month over month, Patriot is a great choice.

You can run as many payrolls as you need per month, utilize different pay rates for employees and give team members and contractors access to their own employee portal. For the price, these benefits cover nearly everything a business owner needs to make sure their team is paid accurately on time.

If necessary, you can sign up for additional paid features like time tracking or benefit management for an additional cost. Ultimately, the main customer who will prefer Patriot and find it to be the best value is one who doesn’t need much more than the ability to pay employees on time, efficiently and effectively.

Patriot strips payroll processing down to the bare roots for a low price. If you don’t need all the attractive features that some other providers like Gusto or Rippling offer, we recommend Patriot.

If you’re unsure whether or not you need those added features, take advantage of its free 30-day trial. You could find that its product works for you without having to sign up for a more complex and expensive plan from a competitor.

Value

Patriot’s Basic plan is the cheapest payroll software on our list by quite a bit. But unless you have a tax expert on staff or plan on handling all that yourself, its full-service plan may offer you a better value in the long run for an additional $240 per year. Considering you’d likely pay a tax expert at least double that – if not more – to run your taxes, the value still seems pretty good.

However, neither of its plans offers many of the HR features that are standard with some other companies and plans, like time tracking or retirement plan contributions.

Functionality

If you’re new to running payroll or want the simplest possible solution for the lowest possible price, Patriot is it. There’s not much to the platform outside of timely and accurate payroll processing, but that may be exactly what you’re looking for.

It does offer a few free integrations, like for worker’s comp or 401(k)s, but they’re limited to its singular partners rather than a handful of companies.

We also don’t like that payroll has to be submitted four days before direct deposit. Once you’re an “established, well-qualified customer,” your timeline reduces to just two days — a more standard timeline compared to other companies — although we’re not sure what qualifies you for that status.

Support

Support is limited to Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST for all formats: chat, phone and email. You can explore its help center at any time, although we found it to be a bit clunky and limited in depth. That means your best bet to get useful help is to call or chat during business hours.

In our experience (and according to many customer reviews), its team is easy to reach and is very helpful — but again, as long as you only need help from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST during the work week.

Learn more: Read our full Patriot review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

If you juggle multiple hourly workers, you know how complicated payroll can be. Between overtime and calculating taxes, it can be a full-time job making sure everything is accurate.

Homebase’s payroll processing is designed to handle the specific complexities of managing hourly workers. It tracks everything from hours to multiple locations to overtime, organizing everything in one place to produce accurate and timely payouts.

Payroll is an add-on integration to its broader product, which is a cloud-based time tracking and scheduling solution. To sign up for payroll, you’ll have to first choose from one of its four plans (one of which is free for up to 20 employees) and add payroll as an additional monthly flat fee, plus a fee per employee. If your business staffs less than 20 hourly employees, Homebase is a great option at an affordable cost.

Homebase’s specificity makes it an excellent option for companies that manage multiple hourly workers, like restaurants or trades. While it may be a bit more expensive than some of its competitors, especially if you sign up for one of its higher tiers, the value it adds for employee management can outweigh the increased cost.

Value

As mentioned, payroll can be added on to the free Basic plan, which tracks clock in and out times, manages basic scheduling and stores your timesheets. If you’re willing to pay a bit more per month ($24.95, to be exact) you can access additional bonus features that could really help organize your operations in a way that benefits both your employees and your bottom line.

If you go that route, you’ll easily end up paying the most of any company on this list. That being said, if you’re an hourly business, it’s hard to beat the specificity that this payroll software can offer.

Functionality

We love that Homebase not only handles the payroll aspect of paying workers, but also the other complexities that come with this employment type like scheduling, time tracking, employee management and POS integrations.

It even has a self-onboarding platform and mobile app for your employees, which can take even more work off your plate. Here, they can do things like submit time off requests, trade shifts and view schedules.

But if you have a bit extra in your budget, you can sign up for its Essentials plan to access additional features like a team chat board, which can be a huge blessing for managing and tracking communication or handling time off requests.

Support

Homebase offers chat support 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday. You can also email them anytime and they say they’ll reply within 24 hours, but “usually much sooner.”

We couldn’t test whether its team responded within a certain time frame, as the chat feature wasn’t working nor did it provide us with an email address. But, this could be because you need to be logged into your account to access these features, so we don’t want to write it off just yet.

It does have a pretty robust knowledge center, with more than 330 payroll articles. However, we found it hard to search for topics, and the articles were somewhat lackluster.

Learn more: Read our full Homebase review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Gusto offers a handful of automation features, from onboarding to running payroll, plus ingrained benefits administration that gives it an edge amongst the competition. If you’re a business owner who wants a payroll solution that does a lot of the heavy lifting for you — automatically — Gusto is a solid option.

It also pays employees across the world in more than 120 countries, whereas many other companies only offer services in the United States, meaning global companies or those with international contractors can especially benefit from Gusto’s payroll software.

Plus, it has some other more robust self-service features that make it an employee favorite as well, according to reviews. If employee experience is part of your decision-making process, we definitely recommend considering Gusto.

Gusto offers a hands-off approach to running payroll that can help your team maximize operations as long as you have the budget for it. While it’s a bit more expensive than some on this list, the automation features paired with employee satisfaction may provide a value that’s well worth the increase in cost.

Value

The ability to automate payroll and implement benefits administration all within the base plan is a pretty good selling point, considering many other companies only offer these as part of a higher tier or as an add-on feature.

That being said, its base plan is a bit on the higher end of costs for those on this list. At $40 plus $6 per user per month, it certainly isn’t the most cost-effective of any company, although the real value it brings is the technology and services included in that cost.

You’ll likely find the value well worth it if your ultimate goal is to do more with less.

Functionality

Gusto offers a pretty simple and straightforward UX for your employees, with a clean design and happy images and colors. Some of the features, like signed team cards for anniversaries or birthdays, can help boost employee morale and bring your team together in ways that other payroll software options can’t.

But while your employees may love the platform, it may not be the same for you. Some user reviews mention a complicated setup process and tax compliance issues that take a while to get resolved.

But, the automation features could be enough to sway you toward the platform despite some of its functionality flaws.

Support

According to reviews, Gusto’s support is pretty lackluster. It’s only available Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. MST. You can only access the support by logging into your account, although reviews say the team is often hard to reach or unhelpful in its advice, which just prolongs the process of resolving issues and is a frustrating experience all around.

But in the past year, Gusto “supercharged” its help center with an influx of topics and tools, plus a useful search bar that makes it easier to find many answers you may need. Of all the knowledge centers we reviewed, we find Gusto’s to be one of the most thorough and easy to navigate.

Learn more: Read our full Gusto review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

If you run a logistics or sales business that requires time tracking, employee reimbursement and mileage, Workful offers a great all-in-one solution. While it does run payroll for salaried, hourly and 1099 employees, its native features are best reserved for fairly specific businesses that have hourly employees.

By combining so many features into one platform, sales or logistics companies will appreciate the value its more unique features bring despite the higher price tag. However, if you don’t have hourly employees or plan on taking advantage of the HR features, you may be better served with a different platform, like Gusto, which offers automation at around the same price, or Patriot, which is much cheaper.

Workful combines traditional payroll with HR tools to make it easier to keep track of your employees’ time, money and operations. Although it doesn’t offer any uncommon or particular automation or payroll features, the time tracking and employee resources make it a unique payroll software for certain businesses, like sales teams.

Value

At $35 plus $6 per employee per month, Workful falls somewhere in the mid-range for pricing. This price includes a handful of specific features that some competitors only offer at an additional cost, like remote time tracking or employee expenses, which can make the slightly higher price worth it.

However, it does have a few gaps that could make the value less appealing, like a lack of third-party integrations (it only integrates with QuickBooks), no benefits administration add-on and no international payroll.

Functionality

Workful takes payroll further than just direct deposits to include additional employee features like tracking expenses and mileage, remote clock-ins and calendar notifications that help everyone on your team maximize their time (and aptly keep track of it, too).

But, for a company that promotes its flexibility with remote tracking and flexibility, its mobile app doesn’t offer great UX. It’s clunky, complicated and looks a little outdated. While it still gets the job done, it leaves a lot to be desired compared to other offerings like Homebase.

Support

To contact customer support, you can either call the company directly or email its team. Support is only available during normal business hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday). Compared to some other companies, these hours are pretty limited — but when we tried calling them during those hours, we reached someone almost immediately.

While there’s no live chat option, the fact that you can get a real person on the phone quickly could be a big selling point, especially when your team relies on its remote capabilities.

Learn more: Read our full Workful review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

OnPay combines HR, payroll and benefits administration in a single plan option. Other companies offer either a tiered approach to payroll plans or a mismatch of add-ons and integrations to reach the feature set that OnPay offers in its singular payroll plan.

If you want a simple and straightforward option that combines an abundance of features for the price, OnPay is worth considering. For small businesses, this nimbleness and flexibility could be the difference between hiring an additional employee (or more) to cover all the tasks.

But, it doesn’t offer some of the automation features that others do, so you’ll still need someone who can take on the role of owning OnPay management. Luckily, reviews say it’s easy to use and it offers free setup and migration when you switch.

However, those features come at a higher price tag. So, before considering it for your business, ensure all those features are necessary to your operations before they impact your bottom line.

OnPay combines a variety of business operations into one streamlined platform. It works with leading benefits administrators, implements helpful HR tasks, integrates with third-party software and tracks an employee’s time, all while still tackling everything you need to run efficient payroll. Plus, its customer service comes highly reviewed.

Value

OnPay isn’t the cheapest, and its singular plan means you have no flexibility in pricing when you choose this company. But, it offers a turnkey HR, payroll and benefits solution at a relatively affordable price considering everything that’s included. In some reviews, customers go so far as to use terms like “silent partner” and “game changer” to describe the value its products bring to their team.

And if you’re in one of these industries — restaurants, farms and agriculture, nonprofits and churches and clergy — it offers specialty payroll services, like processing H-2A visas for farm workers, that could increase the value as well.

Functionality

OnPay packs a punch in terms of features, especially for those outside of simply just running payroll and submitting taxes (although it does that, too). With built-in HR and benefit tools like time tracking, health insurance, workers comp and team organization charts, OnPay sort of takes on the role of becoming a centralized hub for your employees and your operations.

You can run payroll as many times as you need per month — including different pay schedules for different employees — without any additional fees. You can also create custom reports, automate employee onboarding, direct message employees and store important documents.

Support

OnPay’s help center is well-organized, thoughtful and in-depth. We like that it’s easy to find answers you’re looking for without having to use the search function, although that’s pretty handy as well.

If you want immediate help, you can call the company directly Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, although in our experience, it took a while to get someone on the line to help. If you log into your account, you can also chat with the company as well (likely during those same hours of availability) or send an email for non-urgent messages.

Overall, reviews of its customer support are positive, and many users especially like its free onboarding and transfer services.

Learn more: Read our full OnPay review.

OnPay combines a variety of business operations into one streamlined platform. It works with leading benefits administrators, implements helpful HR tasks, integrates with third-party software and tracks an employee’s time, all while still tackling everything you need to run efficient payroll. Plus, its customer service comes highly reviewed.

Value

OnPay isn’t the cheapest, and its singular plan means you have no flexibility in pricing when you choose this company. But, it offers a turnkey HR, payroll and benefits solution at a relatively affordable price considering everything that’s included. In some reviews, customers go so far as to use terms like “silent partner” and “game changer” to describe the value its products bring to their team.

And if you’re in one of these industries — restaurants, farms and agriculture, nonprofits and churches and clergy — it offers specialty payroll services, like processing H-2A visas for farm workers, that could increase the value as well.

Functionality

OnPay packs a punch in terms of features, especially for those outside of simply just running payroll and submitting taxes (although it does that, too). With built-in HR and benefit tools like time tracking, health insurance, workers comp and team organization charts, OnPay sort of takes on the role of becoming a centralized hub for your employees and your operations.

You can run payroll as many times as you need per month — including different pay schedules for different employees — without any additional fees. You can also create custom reports, automate employee onboarding, direct message employees and store important documents.

Support

OnPay’s help center is well-organized, thoughtful and in-depth. We like that it’s easy to find answers you’re looking for without having to use the search function, although that’s pretty handy as well.

If you want immediate help, you can call the company directly Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST, although in our experience, it took a while to get someone on the line to help. If you log into your account, you can also chat with the company as well (likely during those same hours of availability) or send an email for non-urgent messages.

Overall, reviews of its customer support are positive, and many users especially like its free onboarding and transfer services.

Learn more: Read our full OnPay review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

As the only software with a free payroll solution, Payroll4Free is worth checking out if budget is your number one concern. If your small business has less than ten employees and doesn’t really need any other bells and whistles like tax filing, automation, HR or benefits administration, Payroll4Free could very well fit the bill. And if it doesn’t, well, you won’t be out any money if you want to test it.

Just don’t expect it to be the most comprehensive or easy-to-use solution. In general, it’s somewhat clunky and only works on Windows (meaning no cloud version), so it’s very outdated compared to every other competitor on the list. Plus, it only stays free because of the ads that pepper the software, so prepare yourself for that visual overload.

Besides the fact that it’s free, Payroll4Free is a simple solution that mostly gets the job done for smaller businesses. Its Windows-based platform manages many of the necessary payroll tasks required of a small business, even if its methods aren’t the most convenient or efficient.

If you’re looking for the lowest possible cost payroll solution, no other software compares to Payroll4Free.

Value

In terms of value, it’s hard to beat the word “free.” If you have fewer than 10 employees who are either salaried or contractors, it offers direct deposits to your specific bank account or printing paper checks. So, if all you need is software to pay your employees, Payroll4Free is worth a shot. Especially considering you won’t be out any money as you test it out.

But if you want direct deposit to go into your employees’ bank accounts rather than your own (which is highly likely), you’ll have to pay for that service, although it’s unclear what that cost may be exactly. Depending on that price, the value could decrease quite drastically compared to others on this list.

Functionality

Payroll4Free is a very traditional software that operates off a Windows platform and operating system. Unsurprisingly, it also doesn’t have a mobile app.

The free plan offers all payroll processing, direct deposits to employees if using your own bank (or paper check printing), tax calculations and forms, vacation tracking and some outside software integrations.

While it promotes its integrations, like with QuickBooks, it really only offers manual importing and exporting of data — no automations or quick actions. And unless you pay extra for depositing and filing payroll taxes, that manual work will be left on your to-do list as well.

Support

We don’t recommend relying on its help center as it’s very limited, confusing and ultimately unhelpful. So that leaves you with its customer support, which is only available by phone or email during business hours. We were connected pretty quickly to a live agent when we called, but they didn’t seem very friendly or willing to help us navigate our issues.

This is to be expected with a free service platform, though, so don’t hold it against the company. Instead, plan accordingly and make sure you have someone on staff who is able to handle any of the shortcomings.

Learn more: Read our full Payroll4Free review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Probably every small business owner has heard of QuickBooks due to its strong reputation and vast array of service offerings. Its payroll software is no different, covering all the usual needs plus a few extra benefits that make it stand out — like its more than 750 integrations.

Besides Rippling, most companies on this list only offer a handful of integrations (if any at all), so this is easily the winner when it comes to flexibility and customization. Because of this, many different types of businesses can benefit from QuickBooks Payroll. For example, a retail company would love its ability to integrate with software like Square, Shopify or SOS Inventory to accurately and automatically keep track of factors like income and expenses.

And, if you’re already a QuickBooks user, adding its base payroll plan is a great way to get more out of your software (although you won’t receive any discount as an existing customer).

If you have the budget for it, QuickBooks Payroll offers a few premium features and a massive list of integrations that can help take your operations to the next level. We especially like the value it adds to your bottom line if you’re already a QuickBooks user.

Value

QuickBooks has the most expensive starting price of any company on our list, although it’s not by much. Its feature-rich platform is packed with features that provide the flexibility to create a truly custom payroll solution.

With over 750 integrations on top of its native premium features like next-day direct deposit, auto payroll and benefits administration, QuickBooks offers a lot of value for the price. There are a few gaps in its base plan, though, like the lack of local tax processing, time tracking and 24/7 support. For those benefits, you’ll need to sign up for its Premium plan, which is nearly double the cost at $80 plus $8 per employee per month.

But many small businesses likely don’t need that many integrations (which could be why many competitors offer just a handful instead), so don’t get wowed without truly considering whether all the bells and whistles are worth it to your operations and bottom line.

Functionality

In general, QuickBooks Payroll’s features on its base plan are somewhat standard, although we do like that it offers auto payroll and next-day direct deposit. It also bundles HR and benefits services into the cost, but there are competitors who do that as well and for a cheaper price.

Where it really stands out in features is its lengthy list of integrations, which give business owners the ability to customize their solution outside of the native options. It can also seamlessly integrate with products you may already use, like QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Time, to maximize your operations across the board.

Support

All QuickBooks Payroll customers can chat with support 24/7 or call from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT Monday through Friday and 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT Saturday.

If you sign up for its Premium plan, you get 24/7 expert support, although it’s unclear whether that covers phone support or not, as the fine print reads the same as that on the base plan. What is clear is that you also receive call-back support (rather than waiting on hold), plus a free review of your payroll setup to make sure everything is accurate.

On top of this, it also offers an in-depth knowledge center and discussion forum that, when logged into your account, provides tailored articles specific to your product.

Learn more: Read our full QuickBooks Payroll review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Roll by ADP offers a unique approach to payroll that may appeal to small business owners who are always on the go and have limited time to run payroll.

Rather than operating from a desktop system, Roll by ADP is a mobile app that works through an AI-powered chat function to run payroll. You simply chat “run payroll,” and the system walks you through the process. This chat feature extends to every facet of the business, like giving raises or adding tips.

If it sounds unbelievably easy, that’s because it is. User reviews (although limited) back that up, saying payroll can be done in just a few minutes through the app. However, some more traditional business owners may prefer to see all the information in one place and in a more standardized setting. If that’s you, check out a different software.

Roll by ADP is an AI-powered payroll app that simplifies the payroll running process to just a few minutes. It simply requires sending a text to trigger a payroll run, which includes next-day deposits at no charge.

However, outside of speed, it doesn’t include other features that may enhance business operations like time tracking or benefits management.

Value

For business owners who barely have time to do their own jobs, Roll by ADP’s chat app could be a massive time saver. With the ability to run payroll in minutes on the go without needing computer access, small business owners can make sure their employees are paid wherever they go.

We really like that Roll by ADP offers a three-month trial, far longer than any other on this list. That many months means you really have the opportunity to test it out on multiple payroll runs to figure out if it’s a good fit for you. This trial is especially valuable, considering the app format is so different from what most business owners are used to.

Functionality

Roll by ADP doesn’t have any dashboards or work through a traditional desktop site, although you can “see the app on your big screen” (desktop), which is really just a bigger version of the mobile app.

Instead, you’ll simply chat with the GenAI robot within the Roll app to tackle all your tasks. This includes everything from running next-day payroll to paying bonuses to creating reports (which will be emailed).

But, we wonder how hard it is to make sure all the prompts are correct, especially for more complicated tasks like generating specific reports or updating pay structures.

Support

Not surprisingly, its customer service is available via chat. All customers can chat with the customer support team 24/7 while logged into the app. This could be a big value add, especially considering that the software is likely new (and potentially uncomfortable) to most small business owners. Having the ability to chat at any time means troubleshooting any inaccurate prompts or buggy features to make sure everything works as smoothly as possible.

This feature is only available within the customer portal, so we can’t test it ourselves, but reviews say they’re pretty responsive and helpful.

Learn more: Read our full Roll by ADP review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Businesses that have changing payrolls each month will like Wave Payroll, as it only charges you per contractor paid each month — meaning if you don’t receive an invoice from them in a given month, you aren’t expected to pay their Wave fee. This is a big benefit to companies with seasonal or occasional employees, as some other companies charge for anyone on the books, regardless of whether they’re paid that month or not.

But there’s a pretty big caveat to this: Where your contractors live will play a decent role in your monthly budget and manual processing.

Wave Payroll only currently files taxes automatically in 14 states — and if you or your employees live in one of those states, your prices increase dramatically. If you want to take advantage of its low-cost plan and live in one of the other 36 states, you’ll have to do a lot of manual lifting independently.

In short, Wave Payroll is a bit complicated. But it’s a solid offering at a decent price, earning it a spot on our list.

Wave Payroll presents a standard payroll solution that offers flexibility when paying seasonal contractors. But its features are pretty limited and not all businesses will have access to features they may want, depending on their location.

Value

Wave Payroll offers two plans based solely on where you live and work. Its tax service plan is for businesses in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin and includes automatic tax filings. Those in the other 36 states will have to file taxes independently but will see a $20 difference in their monthly bill.

For businesses on a budget, those savings could be worth it; for businesses trying to maximize operations, those discrepancies could be enough to steer them toward other software.

Functionality

Outside of the complicated nature of its plans, the payroll software offers a standard selection of features at an average price. Businesses that already use some of its free software, like Wave Accounting or Wave Invoicing, will appreciate the seamless integration and familiarity of its products.

Its features include payroll expense tracking, automatic tax filings (where available), leave time tracking and direct deposits. That’s about where its feature list ends, though, so don’t expect any unique automation or advanced services like benefits administration or time tracking.

Support

Wave Payroll support is only available via chat within a user’s account. The chat function connects payroll customers to a support team during normal business hours. Outside of those hours, it utilizes an AI function called Mave to navigate users to an answer.

Despite this, some reviews mention difficulty getting in touch with an actual person at Wave for support. That being said, its help center is available at all times, though it’s not as robust as some others on this list.

Learn more: Read our full Wave Payroll review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.