SurePayroll Pricing Review: Does the $29 Calculator Price Hold Up as You Hire?
By SoftwareSift Team.
SurePayroll's Small Business plan starts at $29/mo, the number its own on-page calculator returns before a buyer enters a single worker (as of Q3 2026, verified directly on SurePayroll's pricing page). Add workers to that calculator and the price moves fast: SurePayroll charges $7 per worker on top of the $29 base, plus a flat $9.99/mo for any state beyond the first. The real evaluation question is not whether $29 is genuine: it is genuine, shown by the page's own calculator at zero workers. The real question is whether it stays representative once a business runs payroll for a real headcount, or whether the per-worker fee outgrows the sticker number fast enough to mislead a buyer comparing it to a competitor at a glance.
The Short Answer
$29/mo is SurePayroll's genuine starting price, not a bait number: it is exactly what the page's own calculator shows before any workers are added. But it stops being representative almost immediately: at 5 employees, the per-worker fee alone ($35) already exceeds the base price ($29). By 25 employees, the per-worker portion is $175 against a $29 base, roughly six times the size of the number most buyers remember from the homepage.
SurePayroll Pricing Structure
SurePayroll runs a single named plan. Its own pricing page uses the heading "Small Business Pricing" rather than the "Full Service" label commonly used to describe it elsewhere, so this review cites the page's own wording. There are no tiers to choose between; every buyer starts from the same base price and calculator.
| Component | Billing | List Price (as of Q3 2026) | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Business Pricing (base) | Monthly | $29/mo | Starting price shown by the on-page calculator at zero workers, USD |
| Per-worker fee | Monthly | $7/worker | Added per paid worker, USD |
| Multi-state add-on | Monthly | $9.99/mo | Flat fee for any state beyond the first; does not scale with headcount |
| W-2 / 1099 form filing | Annual | $50 base + $5/form | Billed annually, not monthly, per SurePayroll's own pricing page |
Prices verified directly on surepayroll.com/pricing, as of Q3 2026.
Feature Reality: What's Included at $29
SurePayroll's base plan includes unlimited payroll runs, live phone and chat support, payroll taxes calculated, W-2 and 1099 form filing availability, federal and state payroll taxes filed and deposited, free onboarding support, free 2-day direct deposit, automatic scheduled payroll, multiple pay rates and bonuses, new hire reporting, online pay stubs, and a mobile app for both employers and employees, all listed as part of the single base plan on SurePayroll's own pricing page, not gated behind a higher tier.
Beyond the base plan, SurePayroll lists four named add-ons: accounting software integration at $4.99/month, timeclock software integration with options starting at $5/month plus $3 per employee, 401(k) plans at a customized quote based on plan selection, and employment law compliance support with plans starting at $30/month.
A cheaper "No Tax Filing" plan is referenced as a text link on the same page for buyers who want to handle tax filing themselves, but its price was not part of this capture and is not cited here. A future pricing update should capture that plan directly before quoting a figure for it.
Use-Case Fit: Where the Per-Worker Fee Changes the Math
The table below shows SurePayroll's list price at several headcounts, computed from the certified base price plus per-worker fee (single-state, no add-ons):
| Employees | Monthly Cost (list) | Per-Worker Share of Bill |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $36/mo | 19% |
| 5 | $64/mo | 55% |
| 10 | $99/mo | 71% |
| 25 | $204/mo | 86% |
| 50 | $379/mo | 92% |
- Under 5 employees: the $7/worker fee stays a minority of the bill (at 4 employees, the per-worker cost is $28 against a $29 base, almost even). SurePayroll's calculator price and reality stay close together at this size.
- 5-15 employees: the per-worker cost overtakes the base price and keeps compounding: at 10 employees the real bill is $99/mo, not the $29 headline most buyers remember.
- Over 25 employees: the per-worker fee dominates the total bill (roughly 86 percent of the $204/mo total at 25 employees is the per-worker charge, not the base). Buyers at this size should run the calculator at their actual headcount before comparing SurePayroll's price to a competitor's structure.
- Multi-state employers: the flat $9.99/mo add-on is comparatively inexpensive at any headcount above roughly 1-2 employees, since it does not scale with worker count, a genuine advantage over a per-worker multi-state fee structure.
SurePayroll has no affiliate placement on SoftwareSift. The link to SurePayroll's pricing page later in this article is a plain, unmonetized link, not an affiliate recommendation, and SoftwareSift earns no commission from it.
Onboarding and Support
SurePayroll's pricing page lists free onboarding support from a live person as part of the base plan, along with live phone and chat support and Monday-through-Friday customer service. The page also states "Industry leading NPS scores" as a claim about its own service quality. That is SurePayroll's self-reported marketing statement, not a figure independently verified by SoftwareSift, and it is repeated here only as a disclosed claim, not as an established fact about SurePayroll's support relative to competitors.
A first-year onboarding mechanic on the same page runs alongside the standard $29/mo pricing: during the first 12 months, SurePayroll states that "every alternating month will be free." That is a distinct offer from the "6 months free" sign-up promotion referenced above, and both are time-boxed account mechanics rather than permanent features of the $29/mo list price.
The Hidden Costs
SurePayroll's own pricing page runs a live banner reading "GET SIX MONTHS FREE WHEN YOU SIGN UP BY JULY 31ST" and separately describes a first-year mechanic where "every alternating month will be free" during the first 12 months. Both are real, time-boxed sign-up offers tied to specific dates and terms, not the ongoing monthly price. The $29/mo plus $7/worker list pricing is what applies once those offers lapse.
The annual W-2 and 1099 filing fee is easy to miss when budgeting a monthly number: SurePayroll bills it once a year, at $50 base plus $5 per form, separately from the monthly payroll charge. A 10-employee business filing 10 W-2s pays $100 in a single annual charge on top of its $99/mo payroll bill, a cost that does not show up if a buyer only tracks the monthly line item.
Add-ons compound the same way Patriot's do. A business that adds timeclock integration (starting at $5/month plus $3 per employee) to a 10-employee account pays an extra $35/month on top of the $99/mo base payroll bill, bringing the real monthly total to $134/mo, before accounting software integration, 401(k) administration, or employment law support are added on top of that.
Verdict: Who Should Actually Choose SurePayroll
SurePayroll's transparent calculator is a genuine strength. Unlike Paychex Flex or ADP RUN elsewhere in SoftwareSift's payroll ranking, a buyer gets an exact number without a sales call. But the calculator only prevents that mismatch if a buyer actually runs it at their real headcount before comparing prices: quoting the $29 headline for a 15-employee business misrepresents the real bill by more than 3x. SurePayroll fits very small teams well, where the per-worker fee stays a minor share of the bill, and fits less well as headcount grows past that point, where Patriot Payroll's lower per-worker fee overtakes it (see the Patriot vs. SurePayroll comparison for the exact crossover headcount).
See SurePayroll's current calculator and pricing directly on SurePayroll's pricing page, compare it against Patriot Payroll's flat per-worker structure in the Patriot vs. SurePayroll head-to-head, or see the full field in SoftwareSift's payroll software ranking.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does SurePayroll actually cost per employee?
- $7 per worker per month, on top of a $29/mo base (as of Q3 2026, both verified on SurePayroll's own pricing calculator). At 10 employees that is $99/mo total; at 25 employees it is $204/mo.
- Does SurePayroll charge extra for multiple states?
- Yes, a flat $9.99/mo for any state beyond the first. The fee does not increase with employee count, unlike the per-worker payroll fee.
- Is SurePayroll's "6 months free" offer the real price?
- No. It is a time-boxed sign-up promotion tied to a sign-up-by date shown on SurePayroll's own pricing page. The $29/mo plus $7/worker list pricing applies once the promotional period ends.
- Does SoftwareSift earn a commission on SurePayroll signups?
- No. SurePayroll has no affiliate placement on SoftwareSift. The link in this article is a plain, unmonetized link to SurePayroll's own pricing page.
- What add-ons does SurePayroll offer beyond the base plan?
- Accounting software integration at $4.99/month, timeclock software integration with options starting at $5/month plus $3 per employee, 401(k) plans priced by customized quote, and employment law compliance support with plans starting at $30/month, all listed as optional add-ons on SurePayroll's own pricing page, separate from the $29 plus $7/worker base payroll price.
- Is there a cheaper SurePayroll plan without tax filing?
- SurePayroll's pricing page references a "No Tax Filing" plan as a link for businesses that want to handle tax filing themselves, but its price was not part of this capture. Buyers considering that option should confirm current pricing directly on SurePayroll's site before comparing it to the $29 plus $7/worker Small Business plan cited throughout this review.