20 Best Payroll Services for Small Businesses Reviewed For 2025

Deel is a robust workforce management tool that can help you manage your global payroll. The payroll platform is available in over 150 countries, helping you hire globally and stay compliant. You can hire and pay both employees and contract workers using Deel.

Why I picked Deel: I chose to include this platform because it makes it easy for remote and global teams to manage their payroll. It's also helpful if you're interested in scaling your workforce globally, but worried about staying compliant with complicated tax systems, local laws, or confusing international payroll.

Deel Standout Features and Integrations:

Standout features include the fact that local country experts work in-house at Deel running their clients’ global payroll. You can feel secure knowing that local taxes and laws for international hires are being handled by a specialist in their region.

Integrations include Quickbooks, Xero, Netsuite, Workday, Workable, Expensify, Greenhouse, Hibob, BambooHR, Ashby, OneLogin, and Okta.

With its cloud-based system, OnPay helps businesses with up to 100 employees manage their payroll and basic HR needs.

Why I picked OnPay: OnPay works well if you have multiple pay schedules, as it allows unlimited pay schedules.

OnPay can automatically calculate and file payroll taxes and manage employee benefits. It also has specially designed functionality for certain businesses, including restaurants, farms, and religious institutions.

OnPay Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include customized reporting and built-in HR tools. OnPay also offers free account migrations, unlimited payroll, multiple payment methods, garnishments, unemployment insurance, and multi-state payroll.

I really like how employees can enter their own information into OnPay and lighten your management team’s workload. Employees can also track their own PTO and manage their pay stubs and tax records.

Integrations include QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, QuickBooks Time, Deputy, When I Work, Mineral, and PosterElite.

Paylocity is a cloud-based payroll and human capital management (HCM) software solution designed to simplify payroll processing and HR tasks for businesses of all sizes. It offers tools to automate payroll, manage employee data, and ensure compliance with tax regulations. 

Why I picked Paylocity: When you're managing payroll for a small business, Paylocity's automated payroll processing eases the burden of calculating wages, deductions, and taxes. It offers integrated time tracking, which eliminates manual data entry by automatically syncing employee hours with payroll. Another valuable feature is Paylocity's on-demand payment option. This allows employees to access earned wages before the traditional payday, providing financial flexibility. 

Paylocity Standout Features and Integrations:

Standout features include expense management that streamlines the reimbursement process and automated approval workflows to ensure timely payments. It also offers garnishment services to manage deductions and payments that comply with legal requirements.

Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Azure Active Directory, Slack, BambooHR, Greenhouse, and NetSuite.

Remofirst provides advanced payroll services including payments for global employer of record (EOR) hires, international payroll, and compliance support.

Why I picked Remofirst: I chose Remofirst for payroll services because it addresses the intricacies of global employment, including adherence to local labor laws and managing a diverse workforce. They cater to the complexities of hiring and managing remote teams across over 180 countries, positioning themselves as a leading solution for global team management due to their same-day onboarding capability and competitive pricing.

Remofirst Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include tools to hire internationally without establishing a local entity, and tools to manage global payroll, ensure compliance with local tax laws and regulations, and generate contracts and invoices, alongside tools for workforce management. Other services offered include support with the visa application process, obtaining work permits for employees, and background checks. Remofirst also offers RemoHealth, which provides health insurance options for remote teams.

Integrations include Google Workspace, Microsoft Office 365, Slack, and Zoom. An API is also available to support custom integrations, as well.

Patriot Payroll is an online payroll service tailored for small businesses in the United States. It offers a streamlined, user-friendly platform that simplifies payroll management, allowing business owners to handle payroll processes efficiently and accurately. 

Why I picked Patriot Payroll: Patriot is an excellent payroll service for small businesses because it includes essential features such as automatic tax calculations, direct deposit, and an employee portal for accessing pay stubs and W-2 forms. Additionally, the full-service option takes care of all federal, state, and local tax filings, relieving business owners of the burden of compliance and paperwork. 

Patriot Payroll Standout Features and Integrations:

Standout features include W-2 and 1099 e-filing, payroll reports, time-off accruals, payroll history, customizable pay rates, multiple pay schedules, printable checks, employee self-onboarding, electronic tax filing, year-end reporting, and garnishment payments.

Integrations include QuickBooks, TSheets, Gusto, Square, FreshBooks, and Xero.

Square offers payroll services for small and growing teams that includes automated tax filing and managing employee benefits. Square Payroll is easy to integrate if you’re already using Square for payment processing.

Why I picked Square: Square Payroll has flat-rate pricing that gives you full-service payroll features for both contractors and employees, tax filing and payments, unlimited payroll runs, and live customer support.

Square Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include employee time tracking, instant payments via Cash App if you have a balance with Square, automated tax filing, team management, and payroll specialists on call when needed.

I really like that Square payroll only charges $6 per month for each independent contractor for businesses that don’t have full-time employees.

Integrations are limited to other Square products.

Gusto is a full-service payroll service with reasonable prices and many integrations. Gusto caters to companies in the hospitality industry and companies working with freelancers. It can track wage levels and get new hires onboarded quickly.

Why I picked Gusto: Many of Gusto’s payroll features are automated, including payroll taxes, compliance, and finding tax credits. Current users say they save an average of 5 hours per month on payroll using Gusto.

Gusto Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include an autopilot option that will automatically run payroll for you based on the schedule you set. Gusto also offers advanced reporting, new hire forms, contractor payment capabilities, time tracking, automated payroll taxes, multi-state payroll tools, compliance check-ups, and unlimited payroll runs.

I like how other HR information, such as health insurance, worker’s comp, 401K, and PTO, automatically sync with the app.

I also like the automatic tax filing feature. Gusto can calculate your taxes, fill out payroll tax forms, and file them with the appropriate government agency.

Integrations include Xero, Clover, Trainual, TSheets, and QuickBooks.

TriNet offers full-service payroll and HR management services that include up-to-date compliance expertise, risk mitigation, and talent acquisition.

Why I picked TriNet: As a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), TriNet helps business owners manage employees, payroll, and benefits.

TriNet Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include TriNet's Performance Management function to help with the performance review process, so you and your employees can align goals and communicate more effectively.

The Risk Management solutions provided by TriNet help you make sure you’re in compliance with ADA rules, and employee benefit, wage, and labor laws. It can help you understand any new legislation and make sure you’re within the guidelines.

Integrations include Carta, Lattice, Xero, QuickBooks, Oracle, Sage, Okta, Google Workspace, Greenhouse, and Bamboo HR.

Justworks helps business owners spend less time on back-end tasks by offering payroll, contractor payments, employee benefits, and PTO management options. In addition, Justworks is a PEO offering enterprise-level access to benefits and professional HR specialists available to answer your questions.

Why I picked Justworks: As a PEO taking care of over 70,000 of its clients’ employees, , Justworks provides payroll services and tools to help manage employee benefits. I think it works best for new business owners or those without vast HR experience who prefer to hand the tasks over to professionals at an affordable price.

Justworks Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include automated payroll, employee benefits deductions, and tax withholdings. It also offers time tracking and access to high-quality employee benefits and pre-built reports. In addition, Justworks handles all tax filing and ensures your HR-related data is compliant.

Integrations include QuickBooks, Xero, and Greenhouse Recruiting, among other third-party software systems.

With the largest list of integrations on my list, ADP Run is a scalable payroll service that can manage everything from basic payroll tasks to employee onboarding and recruitment services.

Why I picked ADP Run: ADP Run offers full-service payroll with automatic tax filings to keep your company compliant. You can run payroll online or via the mobile app and offer many payment options, including direct deposit, check, or pay card.

Certain packages also include access to HR professionals for a more convenient way to manage your company’s human resources.

ADP Run Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include recurring payroll for automated payment options, automated taxes, 24/7 support from certified payroll experts, AI-powered error detection, and automatic tax legislation updates.

ADP also offers employee assistance services, discount programs, and employee handbook creation. You can keep all employee information in one place and integrate employee benefits, such as health insurance, 401K, and business insurance.

Integrations include QuickBooks, Wave, Xero, Sage, WorkDay, Oracle, Deputy, When I Work, Clear Company, and ZipRecruiter, among many others. See the complete list here.