The Real Cost of Payroll at 10 Employees: All 8 Providers Compared

Gusto and OnPay both open at the identical $49/mo base plus $6/worker per month, and at 10 employees that means $109/mo for either one. Patriot Payroll's list price for Full Service is $37/mo plus $5/worker, which works out to $87/mo at the same headcount, the cheapest full-service option in the field. SurePayroll lands at $99/mo. Homebase's payroll add-on prices out at $99/mo too, but Homebase requires a separate platform plan underneath it, so the real total is $123 to $129/mo, not $99. QuickBooks Payroll's bundle runs $153 to $158/mo because the per-employee fee has moved on Intuit's own pricing page while this table was being built. Paychex Flex and ADP RUN cannot be added to this table at all, because neither one publishes a price anywhere on its own domain.

This page fixes the headcount at 10 employees and prices every provider's full-service plan against that same number, using each vendor's own published pricing page read this pass. It is the one table on SoftwareSift that puts all eight names side by side at a single, apples-to-apples headcount rather than reporting each vendor's own numbers in isolation.

How the Numbers Below Were Built

Every price on this page was pulled from the provider's own pricing page, not a third-party estimate or a sales quote screenshot. Each provider prices in two parts, a flat monthly base plus a per-worker fee, so a 10-employee total is the base plus 10 times the per-worker rate. List prices are used throughout, not time-boxed promotional rates. Patriot's live promo cuts its price roughly in half for six months, but a promo that expires is not a total cost figure a buyer can plan a budget around. Where a provider's own page showed an unstable number across repeated loads, that instability is disclosed as a range rather than picked as a single settled figure. Where a provider publishes no price at all, the table says so instead of estimating one.

What "Total Cost" Actually Has to Include

A payroll quote that only lists the headline per-worker rate misses two real costs. The first is the platform requirement: Homebase does not sell payroll as a standalone product, it sells payroll as an add-on to a scheduling platform, so the add-on price alone understates what a buyer without an existing Homebase subscription actually pays. The second is fee instability: QuickBooks Payroll's base bundle price has stayed identical across repeated same-day checks, but its per-employee fee has not, which means a single QuickBooks number quoted today may not hold tomorrow.

Neither of these facts is disqualifying on its own. Homebase's platform buys real scheduling and time-tracking functionality that a restaurant or retail operator with hourly staff needs anyway, so paying for it alongside payroll is not waste if scheduling was already on the shopping list. QuickBooks' bundle buys real accounting software alongside payroll, which is the whole reason a QuickBooks Online shop would consider QuickBooks Payroll over a standalone competitor in the first place. But a buyer who does not already need scheduling software or accounting software, and only wants payroll, is paying for capability outside the payroll line item, and the table below prices that in rather than hiding it in a footnote.

Payroll Cost at 10 Employees: The Full Comparison

Prices verified against each provider's own pricing page as of Q3 2026 (captured 2026-07-15/16). Ranked by real 10-employee monthly total, including required add-ons or platform plans where they apply.

Reading the Table: Why the Ranking Isn't the Obvious One

Patriot Payroll wins on price at this headcount by a real margin, $87/mo against SurePayroll's $99/mo and $22/mo cheaper than Gusto or OnPay. That comes with a genuine tradeoff the table doesn't show: Patriot's cheaper Basic Payroll tier, at $17/mo list plus $4/worker, does not file payroll taxes for the buyer. The Full Service plan priced above is the one that does, and it's the one that belongs in an apples-to-apples comparison against the other seven providers, all of which include tax filing by default.

Homebase's payroll add-on prices identically to SurePayroll on paper, $99/mo, but that number only holds for a business that already has a Homebase platform subscription for another reason. A restaurant or retail operator who needs shift scheduling anyway gets payroll at a genuinely competitive marginal cost. A business that only wants payroll pays $123 to $129/mo for it, worse than Gusto or OnPay, because the scheduling platform isn't optional.

QuickBooks Payroll's range reflects a real finding, not a hedge: Intuit's own pricing page returned two different per-employee figures, $7 and $6.50, across separate loads of the identical URL minutes apart, while the $88 base held steady across all three checks. A buyer comparing QuickBooks against the rest of this table should expect the number to move and budget for the higher end of the range rather than the lower one.

Why Paychex and ADP Aren't in the Ranking

Paychex Flex and ADP RUN are not missing from this table by oversight. Both were checked across multiple own-domain pages: Paychex's plan-comparison page and its general payroll page, ADP's dedicated payroll-packages comparison and its 1-49-employee overview, and neither displays a single plan price anywhere. Every tier on both sites routes to a quote request rather than a listed price. Paychex's payroll page does contain one dollar figure, but it's a customer testimonial describing tax-penalty savings, not a price for any plan; ADP's own pages contain no dollar figures at all.

That absence is itself the finding this page carries for both providers: a pricing model built entirely around a sales call resists a cost table by design, and reporting a third-party-sourced estimate in its place would misrepresent what a buyer will actually be quoted. The real verdict on Paychex and ADP at 10 employees is that no price verdict is possible without calling sales. That is a complete answer, not a gap in the research.

Does the Ranking Hold at a Different Headcount?

Every provider in this table prices on a base-plus-per-worker model, which means the ranking above is not fixed: it's a snapshot at exactly 10 employees. Recomputing the same formulas at 25 employees changes more than the totals.

The single most useful finding in that second table is SurePayroll's crossover. SurePayroll's formula is $29 plus $7 per worker; Gusto and OnPay's formula is $49 plus $6 per worker. Set the two formulas equal and solve for headcount: $49 + $6N = $29 + $7N gives N = 20. Below 20 employees, SurePayroll's lower base outweighs its higher per-worker rate and it beats Gusto and OnPay on price. Above 20 employees, the higher per-worker rate takes over and SurePayroll becomes the more expensive of the three. At 10 employees SurePayroll is $10/mo cheaper; at 25 employees it is $5/mo more expensive. A buyer choosing between these three on price alone needs to know which side of 20 employees their headcount sits on, and whether it's likely to grow past that line within the plan's first year.

Patriot's advantage over Gusto and OnPay works the opposite way: its per-worker rate ($5) is lower than theirs ($6), so its price lead widens as headcount grows rather than narrowing. At 10 employees Patriot beats them by $22/mo; at 25 employees the gap is $37/mo. Cost-per-employee comparisons that only check one headcount can miss both of these dynamics entirely.

Which Provider Fits Which Buyer at 10 Employees

• Price-sensitive, single-state, tax filing required: Patriot Payroll's Full Service plan at $87/mo is the cheapest option that still files federal, state, and local payroll taxes. Confirm the promo period end date before budgeting on the discounted rate.
• Multi-state payroll with no tier penalty: OnPay's single flat plan means a 10-employee, 3-state business pays the same $109/mo as a 10-employee, 1-state business. Gusto's equivalent multi-state coverage requires jumping to the Plus tier at $200/mo for the same headcount.
• Already running Homebase for scheduling: the $99/mo payroll add-on is a genuinely low marginal cost. A business evaluating Homebase and payroll together for the first time should budget the full $123-$129/mo, not the add-on price alone.
• Already on QuickBooks Online for accounting: the bundle's frictionless integration is real, but it's the most expensive option in this table at 10 employees, $153-$158/mo against Patriot's $87/mo. That premium buys accounting software a buyer may already be paying for elsewhere, which is worth checking before assuming the bundle saves money overall.
• Wants a name-brand enterprise-grade vendor and can tolerate a sales call: Paychex Flex and ADP RUN offer compliance depth and support infrastructure the transparent-pricing names don't match, but neither will give a 10-employee number without a quote conversation.

Notable Add-Ons the Base Comparison Doesn't Price In

None of the eight totals above include optional add-ons, because add-ons are optional by definition and stacking every possible extra onto a base comparison would stop being apples-to-apples. But several of these add-ons are common enough, and expensive enough, that a buyer building a real budget should at least know they exist before signing.

The pattern across every provider that offers HR functionality as a separate line item, Gusto, OnPay, and Patriot, is that HR add-ons run roughly $15 to $50 in base fees plus $2 to $5 per employee. That's real money at 10 employees, another $35 to $100/mo depending on which provider and which tier of HR support is selected. A buyer evaluating "payroll cost" in isolation from HR needs should confirm which of the eight base plans above already includes basic HR functionality (OnPay's base plan includes hiring and onboarding tools at no extra charge; Gusto's Simple tier does not include HR resources without the add-on) rather than assuming HR is bundled everywhere the same way.

Hidden Costs to Ask About Before Signing

Every list price above assumes standard setup with no complications. Ask each provider directly about the following before treating any number in this table as a final budget figure:

• Year-end filing fees billed separately from the monthly rate. SurePayroll bills W-2 and 1099-NEC forms annually at a $50 base fee plus $5 per form, on top of the monthly total shown above.
• Multi-state surcharges. SurePayroll charges $9.99/mo for multi-state payroll; Gusto requires an entire tier upgrade for the same coverage.
• What happens when the promo period ends. Patriot's current promo is time-boxed to 6 months; the list price in this table, not the promotional rate, is what a buyer should plan around for year two.
• Whether the quoted price includes tax filing at every level. Patriot's cheaper Basic tier does not file taxes; confirm which tier a quote actually covers.
• Whether the per-employee rate is locked or variable. QuickBooks' bundle showed two different per-employee figures on the same page within minutes; ask directly whether the quoted rate is guaranteed for a contract term.

See Current Pricing Directly From Each Provider

Every figure in this comparison traces back to the page linked below. Prices change; check the source before finalizing a budget.

• Gusto pricing
• OnPay pricing
• Patriot Payroll pricing
• SurePayroll pricing
• Homebase pricing
• QuickBooks Payroll pricing
• Paychex Flex plan comparison
• ADP RUN payroll packages

Gusto and OnPay links are SoftwareSift partner links and may earn a commission. Patriot Payroll, SurePayroll, Homebase, QuickBooks Payroll, Paychex Flex, and ADP RUN links go directly to the provider's own site at no commission to SoftwareSift.

Compare all payroll software options on SoftwareSift: pricing tiers, feature matrices, and use-case fit for SMB and mid-market buyers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cheapest payroll software at 10 employees?

Patriot Payroll's Full Service plan is the cheapest full-service, tax-filing option in this comparison at $87/mo list price for 10 employees ($37 base plus $5 per worker). SurePayroll is the next cheapest at $99/mo.

Is Homebase's $99/mo payroll price the real cost?

Only for a business that already pays for a Homebase platform plan. Payroll is an add-on, not a standalone product, so a buyer starting from zero needs to add the Essentials platform plan ($24/mo billed annually or $30/mo billed monthly) on top of the $99/mo add-on, for a real total of $123 to $129/mo.

Why won't Paychex or ADP give a price online?

Neither publishes plan pricing anywhere on its own domain. Both route every plan tier to a "Get pricing" or "Request Pricing" call. This was confirmed by checking multiple pages on each provider's own site and finding zero plan-price figures on any of them.

Does QuickBooks Payroll make sense for a business that already uses QuickBooks Online?

The integration advantage is real, but the price is not competitive on payroll alone: $153 to $158/mo at 10 employees, the highest of any priced option in this comparison. It only makes financial sense if the accounting software bundled into the plan replaces a separate tool the business would otherwise be paying for.

Does the cheapest provider at 10 employees stay cheapest as a company grows?

Not automatically. SurePayroll is $10/mo cheaper than Gusto and OnPay at 10 employees but $5/mo more expensive at 25 employees, because its per-worker rate is higher even though its base price is lower. The crossover happens at exactly 20 employees.

Should a buyer budget on Patriot's promotional price of $43.50/mo?

No. The promotion is time-boxed to the first 6 months. The list price of $87/mo at 10 employees is what applies afterward and is the figure used throughout this comparison.

Related Reading on SoftwareSift

• The full SoftwareSift payroll software ranking, scored on pricing transparency, features, support, and small-business fit.
• Gusto payroll pricing review: full tier breakdown for Simple, Plus, and Premium.
• OnPay payroll pricing review: the single-flat-plan model in detail.
• QuickBooks Payroll pricing review: the bundle structure and the unstable per-employee fee.
• Patriot Payroll pricing review: Basic versus Full Service, and what the cheaper tier leaves out.
• SurePayroll pricing review: the calculator price and the multi-state add-on.
• Homebase payroll pricing review: when the scheduling platform pays for itself.
• Paychex Flex pricing review: what to expect from the quote process.
• ADP RUN pricing review: the least price-transparent name in the category.

By SoftwareSift Team.

Deciding between tools in this category? See our data-ranked comparison: Best Payroll Software for Small Business (2026).