Full-service payroll for a 10-person small business costs between $57 and $200 per month at list price, depending on the provider and plan. Patriot Software's Basic Payroll is the cheapest verified option at $17 per month plus $4 per worker paid ($57 per month at 10 employees). Gusto's Plus plan is the most expensive mainstream option at $80 per month plus $12 per person ($200 per month at the same headcount). That is a 3.5x spread for a category where every provider runs the same federal tax calculations. The decision is not really about price per employee. It is about which tax filings are included, how many states you pay in, and what you get billed for at year end.
SoftwareSift read the list pricing for every provider below directly from the vendor's own public pricing page on August 3, 2026. Prices marked as promotional are shown separately from list rates, because introductory discounts expire and the list rate is what a business pays in month 13.
Verified list pricing, as of August 3, 2026
The table below shows base subscription plus per-worker fees at list price. Promotional rates are excluded from these columns and noted separately underneath. Every figure was read from the provider's primary pricing page on the date shown.
| Provider and plan | Base per month | Per worker per month | SoftwareSift verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot Basic Payroll | $17 | $4 | Best under 10 employees if you file your own taxes |
| Patriot Full Service Payroll | $37 | $5 | Cheapest full tax-filing option verified |
| SurePayroll (Small Business) | $29 | $7 | Watch the annual year-end form billing |
| Square Payroll (full service) | $35 | $6 | Best if you already run Square POS |
| Square Payroll (contractor only) | $0 | $6 | Best for 1099-only businesses |
| Gusto Simple | $49 | $6 | Single-state payroll with the strongest onboarding |
| Gusto Plus | $80 | $12 | Only worth it if you pay in multiple states |
| Gusto Premium | $180 | $22 | Avoid under 50 employees |
| Gusto Contractor Only | $35 | $6 | Square is cheaper for the same job |
| OnPay | $55 | Not disclosed this pass | Flagged -- see verification note below |
Sources, all read August 3, 2026: gusto.com/product/pricing, patriotsoftware.com/payroll/pricing, squareup.com/us/en/payroll/pricing, surepayroll.com/pricing, onpay.com/pricing.
Verification note
Four providers could not be price-verified on this pass and are therefore excluded from the table rather than estimated. OnPay's pricing page served its Partner Program view; the only list figure published on that page was a base rate of $55 per month, and no standard per-worker rate was disclosed. QuickBooks Payroll, ADP RUN, and Paychex Flex pricing pages did not return readable content to an automated request. Their rates are not guessed here. Anyone comparing those three should request a written quote that names the plan, the billing period, and the per-employee fee.
What the headline price does not include
Base-plus-per-worker pricing is the industry convention, and it is also where the real cost variation hides. Three line items move the total more than the headline rate does.
Year-end tax forms. SurePayroll bills W-2 and 1099-NEC forms annually rather than monthly, at a $50 base fee plus $5 per form. At 10 employees that is $100 once a year, which raises SurePayroll's effective 10-employee cost from $1,188 to $1,288 per year. Patriot, Gusto, and Square include year-end filings in the subscription. This single difference reorders the cheapest-provider ranking at most headcounts.
Multi-state payroll. Gusto's Simple plan covers single-state payroll only; paying an employee in a second state requires the Plus plan at $80 per month plus $12 per person. For a 10-person company that is a jump from $109 to $200 per month, or $1,092 per year, triggered by hiring one remote employee across a state line. SurePayroll takes a different approach: the first state is included and additional states cost $9.99 per month. For a distributed team, that gap is the single largest cost driver in this category.
State tax registration. Registering as an employer in a new state is separate from paying in it. Gusto charges a state registration fee that varies by state. This is a one-time cost per state, but it is easy to miss when budgeting a first out-of-state hire.
Pay frequency. Every provider verified here includes unlimited payroll runs in the base subscription, which is now the category standard rather than a differentiator. That matters for two situations: businesses paying weekly rather than semi-monthly, and businesses that run frequent off-cycle corrections. Neither costs extra on Patriot, Gusto, Square, or SurePayroll. The exception is expedited timing rather than frequency. Gusto charges $100 per instant-pay run and $90 per same-day run regardless of plan, so a business that regularly misses its standard deadline pays a premium that never appears in a per-employee comparison.
Total annual cost at three headcounts
The figures below multiply each provider's verified list rate across a full year at three common small-business headcounts. They assume list pricing, no promotional discount, single-state payroll, and no optional add-ons. SurePayroll is shown with its annual year-end form billing included, since that charge is not optional.
| Provider and plan | 5 employees | 10 employees | 25 employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot Basic Payroll | $444 | $684 | $1,404 |
| Patriot Full Service Payroll | $744 | $1,044 | $1,944 |
| Square Payroll (full service) | $780 | $1,140 | $2,220 |
| SurePayroll (incl. year-end forms) | $843 | $1,288 | $2,623 |
| Gusto Simple | $948 | $1,308 | $2,388 |
| Gusto Plus | $1,680 | $2,400 | $4,560 |
Two patterns are worth naming. First, Patriot Full Service stays the cheapest full tax-filing option at every headcount tested, and its lead widens as headcount grows because its $5 per-worker rate is the lowest among full-service plans. Second, Gusto Simple overtakes SurePayroll between 10 and 25 employees -- at 25 employees Gusto Simple costs $2,388 against SurePayroll's $2,623 -- because SurePayroll's $7 per-worker rate is the highest verified here and its year-end form fee scales with headcount.
Provider detail and use-case fit
Patriot Software
Patriot sells two payroll tiers. Basic Payroll at $17 per month plus $4 per worker paid calculates payroll and lets you run unlimited pay runs, but you file and deposit federal, state, and local taxes yourself. Full Service Payroll at $37 per month plus $5 per worker paid adds federal tax filings and deposits. Both include free direct deposit, an employee portal, and contractor payments inside payroll. Time and attendance is $6 per month plus $2 per employee; HR software is priced identically.
The Basic tier costs $360 less per year at 10 employees, and it moves the filing work onto you. Filing your own payroll taxes means tracking federal deposit schedules and state deadlines, and a missed federal deposit carries penalties that scale with how late it is. The $360 per year that Basic saves a 10-person business over Full Service is a reasonable trade only if a bookkeeper is already handling those filings.
Patriot currently runs a promotion of 30 days free plus 50 percent off for six months, which prices Basic at $8.50 per month plus $2 per worker and Full Service at $18.50 per month plus $2.50 per worker during the discount window. Budget against the list rate, not the promotional rate.
Best for: businesses under 25 employees in a single state that want the lowest full-service cost and do not need integrated benefits administration.
Square Payroll
Square Payroll charges $35 per month plus $6 per person paid per month for full-service payroll, and $6 per person paid per month with no base fee for contractor-only payroll. The contractor-only structure is the most cost-efficient verified option for businesses that pay 1099 workers exclusively: a business paying four contractors pays $24 per month and nothing when it pays nobody, because the fee is per person actually paid rather than per person on file.
The integration case is the real argument. If a business already processes payments through Square point of sale, timecards flow from the POS into payroll without a separate time-tracking subscription. For a restaurant or retail operation already on Square hardware, that removes a tool from the stack. For a business not on Square, the payroll product alone is competent but unremarkable at $35 plus $6.
Best for: existing Square POS merchants, and any business paying only contractors.
Gusto
Gusto's Simple plan runs $49 per month plus $6 per person and covers single-state payroll, unlimited payroll runs, tax filings and payments, and basic PTO policies. Plus at $80 per month plus $12 per person adds multi-state payroll, next-day pay, and time tracking. Premium at $180 per month plus $22 per person adds a dedicated service advisor and certified HR expert access.
Gusto's add-on menu is extensive and priced separately: next-day pay is $15 per month plus $3 per person on the Simple plan, priority support is $30 per month plus $3 per person, HR resources are $50 per month plus $5 per person, performance management is $3 per person, and time and attendance is $6 per person. Instant pay costs $100 per payroll run and same-day pay costs $90 per payroll run. A Simple-plan customer who adds time tracking and priority support is paying $79 plus $9 per person, which at 10 employees is $169 per month -- close to Plus pricing without multi-state coverage.
Premium at $180 per month plus $22 per person is difficult to justify below roughly 50 employees. At 25 employees Premium costs $8,760 per year against Plus at $4,560, and the incremental value is advisory service rather than payroll capability.
Best for: multi-state teams that need Plus, and single-state businesses that value onboarding and benefits administration enough to pay a premium over Patriot.
SurePayroll
SurePayroll's small business plan starts at $29 per month plus $7 per worker, with the first state included and additional states at $9.99 per month. Unlimited payroll runs, live phone and chat support, payroll tax calculation, and W-2 and 1099 form filing are included in the subscription. The company also sells a separate nanny and household payroll product at $45 per month including one employee, and an employment law compliance add-on starting at $30 per month.
The year-end form billing deserves specific attention because it is structured differently from competitors. W-2 and 1099-NEC forms are billed annually rather than monthly at a $50 base fee plus $5 per form. A 25-person business pays $175 in year-end form fees on top of its $2,448 subscription. That is not a hidden fee, since SurePayroll publishes it, but it does not appear in the monthly headline rate, and it is the reason SurePayroll's effective cost ranks above Gusto Simple at 25 employees despite a lower base rate.
Best for: multi-state small teams, where the $9.99 per additional state pricing beats Gusto's jump to the Plus plan.
OnPay
OnPay's public pricing page served its accountant Partner Program view on this pass rather than a standard small-business pricing table. The only list figure published on that page was a base rate of $55 per month. A per-worker rate for standard small-business plans was not disclosed in a form that could be verified, and it is not estimated here. Buyers evaluating OnPay should request the standard plan rate in writing, specifying the base monthly fee and the per-worker fee separately.
How to choose
The decision reduces to four questions, in order of how much money they move.
Do you pay employees in more than one state? If yes, this dominates everything else. SurePayroll at $9.99 per additional state and Gusto Plus at $80 plus $12 per person are the two structural answers, and the gap between them at 10 employees is roughly $1,000 per year. If no, single-state plans from Patriot, Square, or Gusto Simple all apply.
Do you pay W-2 employees or only contractors? Contractor-only businesses should not buy a full-service plan. Square Payroll at $6 per person paid with no base fee is the cheapest verified structure, and it charges nothing in months with no payments.
Will you file payroll taxes yourself? Only Patriot sells a self-file tier at a lower price. If a bookkeeper already handles filings, Basic Payroll at $17 plus $4 saves $360 per year at 10 employees over Full Service. If nobody is handling filings, do not buy the self-file tier to save money.
What is already in your stack? Square POS merchants get timecard integration free. Businesses running accounting software should confirm the payroll product exports to it before committing, since re-keying payroll journal entries every period is a recurring cost that no pricing table shows.
What to ask before you sign
Payroll contracts are rarely negotiated, but the answers below change the total cost enough to be worth an email to sales before committing. Every question is written so the answer is a number or a yes/no, not a description.
| Question to ask | Why it moves the total |
|---|---|
| Are W-2 and 1099-NEC filings included, or billed separately at year end? | SurePayroll bills $50 plus $5 per form annually. At 25 employees that is $175 not shown in the monthly rate. |
| What is the exact fee to add a second state, and is registration separate? | SurePayroll charges $9.99 per month per state. Gusto requires a plan upgrade from $49 to $80 base plus a per-state registration fee. |
| Is the per-worker fee charged per employee on file or per employee actually paid? | Square charges per person paid, so seasonal and inactive staff cost nothing in months with no payment. |
| What is the list rate after the promotional period ends, and when does it end? | Patriot's 50 percent discount runs six months. Budgeting against $8.50 instead of $17 understates year-one cost. |
| Is time tracking included or an add-on, and at what rate? | Gusto charges $6 per person for time and attendance on Simple. At 10 employees that is $720 per year. |
| What does an off-cycle or same-day payroll run cost? | Gusto charges $100 per instant-pay run and $90 per same-day run. Correcting one missed paycheck can cost more than a month of service. |
| Does the product export journal entries to our accounting software? | Manual re-keying every pay period is recurring labor cost that no pricing page lists. |
Switching costs nobody quotes
Provider comparisons treat migration as free. It is not, and the cost is concentrated in a few predictable places.
Mid-year migration duplicates year-to-date data entry. Moving providers in July means loading year-to-date wage and tax totals for every employee into the new system so W-2s reconcile at year end. Providers will import this, but the totals must be correct going in, and reconciling a mismatch after the fact is the single most common source of amended W-2s. Switching at a quarter boundary reduces the surface area; switching effective January 1 eliminates it.
State tax account credentials are the long pole. A new provider needs the employer's state withholding and unemployment account numbers, plus third-party authorization to file on the employer's behalf. That authorization is a state-by-state process measured in days to weeks, not hours. Businesses that plan a two-week migration and discover a four-week state authorization queue end up running parallel payrolls, which means paying both providers for a month.
Benefits and retirement integrations do not transfer. If health insurance or a 401(k) plan is administered through the current payroll provider, moving payroll means either moving the benefit or maintaining a separate integration. Gusto's health broker integration at $6 per eligible employee per month is an example of a cost that appears only after the migration decision is made.
The practical consequence: the roughly $260 per year that separates Gusto Simple from Patriot Full Service at 10 employees is smaller than the cost of a botched mid-year migration. Choosing correctly the first time matters more than optimizing the monthly rate, which is why the multi-state question above should be answered against a two-year hiring plan rather than the current headcount.
Frequently asked questions
How much does payroll software cost for a small business? At verified list pricing in August 2026, a 10-employee business pays between $684 and $2,400 per year depending on provider and plan. Patriot Basic Payroll is the low end at $684; Gusto Plus is the high end at $2,400. Most single-state businesses land between $1,000 and $1,300 per year.
Is full-service payroll worth the extra cost? Full service means the provider files and deposits payroll taxes rather than calculating them for you to file. At Patriot the difference is $360 per year at 10 employees. Late federal payroll tax deposits carry penalties, so the upgrade pays for itself unless a bookkeeper is already managing the filing calendar.
Which payroll provider is cheapest for multi-state teams? SurePayroll charges $9.99 per month per additional state on top of its $29 base plus $7 per worker. Gusto requires the Plus plan at $80 plus $12 per person for any multi-state payroll. At 10 employees that is roughly a $1,000 annual difference in SurePayroll's favor.
Do payroll providers charge for W-2s? It varies, and this is the most commonly missed line item. Patriot, Gusto, and Square include year-end filings in the subscription. SurePayroll bills them annually at $50 plus $5 per form.
Why do ADP and Paychex not appear in the pricing table? Their pricing pages did not return readable content to an automated request on this pass, so their rates were not verified and are not estimated here. Request a written quote naming the plan, billing period, and per-employee fee before comparing them against the providers above.
Which one should you buy?
For a single-state business under 25 employees that wants the lowest full-service cost, Patriot Full Service Payroll at $37 per month plus $5 per worker is the cheapest verified option at every headcount tested, and it includes year-end filings. For a multi-state team, SurePayroll's $9.99 per additional state is structurally cheaper than Gusto's jump to the Plus plan. For contractor-only businesses, Square Payroll at $6 per person paid with no base fee is the clear answer. Gusto Simple earns its premium only if benefits administration and onboarding quality matter more than the roughly $260 per year it costs above Patriot Full Service at 10 employees.
Prices verified August 3, 2026 against each vendor's primary pricing page. Payroll pricing changes frequently and promotional rates expire. Confirm the current rate and billing period with the provider before purchase.
Read the detailed review for each option on SoftwareSift before making your decision.