6 BEST Paychex Competitors & Alternatives (2023)

Paychex is an ideal payroll provider with robust tools to hire, pay, and manage your employees effortlessly. It allows you to effortlessly manage employee benefits, compliances, deductions, attendance, etc. Even after such valuable features, Paychex has significant drawbacks, which include the lack of a free trial and hidden costs for premium consultations and integrations.

We have prepared a list of the six best Paychex alternatives that can be better for your business needs. Our research process involved analyzing competitors based on integrations, compliance, direct deposit speeds, etc. Read more…

Top Paychex Competitors

1) OnPay

Best for its PEO and HR assistance features

OnPay provides flexible, unlimited payrolls with fast payment processing and complete compliance. Its easily configurable timetable allows running flexible complex payroll, tax filings, and more at specified times. Their well-trained professional support representatives come in handy for initial setup and migration, making it one of the best alternatives to Paychex. It has special tools to support the needs of small business payroll, including health insurance and retirement plans for SMEs.

OnPay’s HR technologies assist in automating recruitment, onboarding, and training. Moreover, their compliance management features to ensure you completely comply with the latest land laws. Employee self-service dashboards reduce the burden on you and provide employees with all relevant tools, information, and forms in a modern dashboard.

Features:

• Lifetime accounts that provide access to pay stubs and personal tax records for former employees
• Special tools for small and new businesses like restaurants, bars, gyms, franchises, etc.
• Provides 6 levels of admin controls to provide employees access to payroll, HR information, administrative tools, etc.
• Direct Deposit Speed: 2 to 4 Days
• Self Service Portal: Yes
• Time/Attendance Tracking: No
• Benefits Administration: Insurance For Health, FSA and HAS Plans, Retirement Plans, Plans For Education, etc.
• Tax Filing Support W-2s and 1099s

Key specs:

Integrations: Guideline, When I Work, Deputy, etc.
Customer Support: Emails, Phone, Live Chat, FAQs, and Forums
Devices Supported: Cloud
Pricing: $40 + $6 per month
Free Trial: Yes, 30 Days

How does OnPay compare to Paychex?

• OnPay offers services to companies in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, construction, healthcare, and more
• All of your previous pay and employee data will be migrated to OnPay for free when you set up your account

Visit OnPay >>

30-Day Free Trial

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2) Paycor

Best HR management platform

Paycor is one of the best alternatives to Paychex, with many features built specifically for medium and large-scale businesses. It has robust HR software tools to meet all your management, recruitment, onboarding, and training needs. Predefined workflows and templates help streamline all business operations.

Their knowledge base has in-depth data, information, and guidance to help you learn about various aspects of payroll and taxation. They provide data-rich HR analytics that helps you better understand various business aspects. Paycor’s Predictive Resignation tool helps predict staff resignations and prepare them in advance.

Features:

• Supports payments via Direct Deposits, paper checks, pay cards, and a variety of other payment methods
• Provides time clocks for employees that enable proximity badges, biometric fingerprints, and PIN clock-ins/clock-outs to prevent time theft
• Analyze your history and provide predictive data for tackling future trends
• Enables employees to recognize peers and track their professional development against skills
• Direct Deposit Speed: 2 days
• Self Service Portal: Yes
• Time/Attendance Tracking: Yes
• Benefits Administration: Insurance for Health and 401(k)s
• Tax Filing Support W-2s and 1099s

Key specs:

Integrations: DailyPay, Employee Navigator, Zapier, etc.
Customer Support: Emails, Phone, Live Chat, FAQs, and Forums
Devices Supported: Cloud, Android, iOS, and Mac
Pricing: $99 + $5 per month
Free Trial: Yes, 14 Days

How does Paycor compare to Paychex?

• Unlike Paychex, Paycor is suitable for small to large businesses
• Paycor offers HR analytical feature compensation plan modeling, which Paychex does not offer

Visit Paycor >>

14-Day Free Trial

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3) Gusto

Best for payroll management, tax filings, and human resources

Gusto provides tools and checklists to assist more than 200,000 businesses in various activities. It offers advanced APIs and integrations that can be used to integrate into your existing workflow. New recruits may independently perform onboarding and configure employee benefits administration, taxation, etc., through the app.

Gusto provides professionally designed templates and checklists to assist you in streamlining employee recruitments, paperwork, tax filings, etc. You can access data-rich customizable reports with filters to effortlessly analyze business performance. They have one of the most simplified initial setups with easy migrations.

Features:

• Supports multi-currency payments in more than 80 countries
• Automatically reports information about your new recruitment to the state in a free-of-charge manner
• Assists in ensuring complete compliance, including recommendations to meet the FLSA’s minimum wage requirement
• Uses e-file, e-sign, and e-fax technologies to file all federal, state, and local taxes effortlessly
• Direct Deposit Speed: 2 to 4 Days
• Self Service Portal: Yes
• Time/Attendance Tracking: Yes
• Benefits Administration: Insurance for Health, 401(k)s, Retirement, College Savings Plans, etc.
• Tax Filing Support W-2s, W-4s, and 1099s

Key specs:

Integrations: 15Five, 7 Shifts, Accelo, etc.
Customer Support: Emails, 24/7 Help Desk, Online Question Answers, Forum, Calls, Live Chat
Devices Supported: Cloud, Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac.
Pricing: $40 + $6 per user per month
Free Trial: No

How does Gusto compare to Paychex?

• Unlike Paychex, Employees can check pay stubs, get W-2 forms, and update personal information in their accounts at any time with Gusto
• Gusto has far better customizable unlimited payroll processing per month

Visit Gusto >>

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4) ADP Payroll

Best for effortless and time-saving payroll services

ADP provides HR and automated payroll services in more than 140 countries and is one of the best Paychex alternatives. You can enjoy their robust tools and features built to handle the needs of small businesses and MNCs. It offers a feature for mobile direct deposits that helps small businesses to manage payroll at any time with minimum resources.

It can effortlessly manage time-off requests, keep track of hours worked, and integrate with other tools effortlessly. You can use it to provide customized employee benefits to specific employees. Robust data-driven reports allow you to analyze various business aspects and take actions to improve performance.

Features:

• Automates payroll tasks, including computing a worker’s paycheck with considerations for work hours, vacation time, etc.
• Manages multiple business functions such as hiring and onboarding on a single platform
• Automatically computes retirement contributions, health allowances, and tax deductions
• Handles the process of notifying the appropriate state and federal agencies of any new recruitments
• Direct Deposit Speed: 2 to 4 Days
• Self Service Portal: Yes
• Time/Attendance Tracking: Yes
• Benefits Administration: Insurance For Health, 401(k)s, Retirement, College Savings Plans, etc.
• Tax Filing Support W-2s, W-4s, and 1099s

Key specs:

Integrations: Xero, Wave, ClockShark, When I Work, etc.
Customer Support: Emails, Phone, Live Chat, FAQs, and Forums
Devices Supported: Cloud
Pricing: Contact Customer Service For Pricing
Free Trial: Yes, 3 months

How does ADP Payroll compare to Paychex?

• Customers can search, compare, activate, and pay for software on the ADP One-Stop Partner Marketplace, which Paychex does not offer
• Depending on the billing cycle, ADP offers a choice to fund your payroll system with a business credit card and prolong payments by up to 30 days

Visit ADP Payroll >>

3 Months Free Trial

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5) Rippling

Best overall payroll management tool

Rippling provides tools for managing all business operations, including global payroll, new hires, documentation, etc. You can streamline new recruitment processes, onboarding, and training. It is one of the best payroll services in terms of IT solutions for benefits administration, HR management, and recruitment.

Employee attendance and time tracking tools help you remain aware of all employee activities. It also provides tools like online document management solutions that allow you to store and manage critical documents effortlessly. You can access a modern self-service dashboard with plenty of tools and data. It also offers a customizable PTO policy to manage employees’ leaves, allowances, etc. You can use their automation solutions to perform tasks automatically and ease your workload.

Features:

• Assists in developing a strategy to discover and rectify potential wage disparities among your new and existing staff
• Onboarding solutions help you send offer letters to recruits and report them to the state
• Provides training courses and relevant guidance to your employees
• IT solutions simplify office equipment administration and manage access to business software tools.
• Direct Deposit Speed: 2 days
• Self Service Portal: Yes
• Time/Attendance Tracking: Yes
• Benefits Administration: Insurance for health, 401(k) plans, FSAs and HSAs, etc.
• Tax Filing Support W-2s, W-4s, 1099s, & new hire filing

Key specs:

Integrations: Slack, Dropbox, etc.
Customer Support: Email, Community, Knowledge base, Phone, Chat, and 24/7 Help Desk
Devices Supported: Cloud, Android, iOS, Windows, macOS
Pricing: $8 per user per month
Free Trial: No

How does Rippling compare to Paychex?

• Rippling has far better recruitment features like applicant and document monitoring, onboarding and training, etc. that make simply HR processes
• Unlike Paychex, In Rippling has the majority of HR services included in their cheapest plans.

Visit Rippling >>

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6) Patriot Payroll

Best solution for managing payroll, compensation, and benefits

Patriot Payroll is one of the best alternatives to Paychex, focusing on simplicity and ease of use for small business payroll management. It can be integrated with Patriot’s accounting solutions to simplify accounting and bookkeeping. Their basic plan is built to satisfy all the basic needs of local businesses and solopreneurs without being too confusing.

Its payroll experts are of the best in terms of assistance in initial setup and migration. You can create variations of payment schedules with support for repeated payment types, employee deductions, and configurable working hours.

Features:

• Automatically deduct worker’s compensation insurance premiums from each pay cycle
• Manages and automatically calculates the relevant taxes based on the employee’s locations
• Allows you to decide whether or not PTO hours accrued by employees should be carried over to the next year
• HR solutions can access a variety of reports to verify payroll tax calculations, employee information, and more
• Direct Deposit Speed: 2 to 4 days
• Self Service Portal: Yes
• Time/Attendance Tracking: Yes
• Benefits Administration: Insurance For Health, 401(k)s, FSA & HSA, etc.
• Tax Filing Support W-2s, W-3s, 940s, and 941s

Key specs:

Integrations: QuickBooks, GoCo, WorkForce Hub, etc.
Customer Support: US-based 24/7 Customer Support, Emails, Phone, Live Chat, FAQs, and Forums
Devices Supported: Cloud, Windows, and Mac
Pricing: $10 + $4 per month
Free Trial: Yes, 30 Days

How does Patriot Payroll compare to Paychex?

• Unlike Paychex, Patriot’s simple UI makes it easy to use for its users
• Patriot Payroll has better functionality and services than Paychex

Visit Patriot >>

30-Day Free Trial

FAQs

Top Paychex Competitors