The top ADP competitors and alternatives in 2024

1. Gusto – Best all-in-one ADP alternative

Overview

Gusto takes the top spot in our list of best alternatives to ADP with a more user-friendly solution at a much better price point. While both platforms provide powerful payroll functionality including automated tax filings, unlimited payroll runs, and multi-state payroll, Gusto’s interface is far more intuitive, and all but their entry-level plans include advanced hiring, onboarding, time tracking, and custom reporting options. With ADP’s small business solution, time & attendance, health insurance, workers’ comp, and retirement don’t come loaded on even their highest-tier package—you’ll need to pay extra. And for businesses with fewer than 50 employees, talent management tools like employee pulse surveys and performance reviews aren’t available.

Unlike ADP’s often clunky software, all of Gusto’s tools feel designed with humans in mind. Gusto makes it easy to handle the full employee lifecycle from recruiting and onboarding, to engagement and growth, to an employee’s last day. Gusto’s pricing is fully transparent, and the vast majority of their powerful HR tools are available on their mid-range Plus plan. Overall, they offer more functionality at a better price, winning them the top spot. 

Gusto was also rated the top ADP alternative in independent analysis by TechRepublic, NerdWallet, and Business.com, to name a few.   

AUTOMATIC TAX FILING & COMPLIANCE

Every time you run payroll, all federal, state, and local taxes are automatically calculated, filed, and paid along with benefits deductions, workers’ comp, and PTO. Gusto handles all your 1099s and W-2s, and they’ll keep you compliant with meal times, breaks, and minimum wage. This can be a lifesaver for small businesses that struggle with complex payroll tax requirements. ADP will also file and pay your taxes, but you’ll have to pay extra if you want 1099s and W-2s filed for you.

FULLY INTEGRATED

Having a single system to manage payroll, taxes, time tracking, and compliance—as well as hiring, onboarding, performance, and benefits—reduces your admin burden and streamlines your tech stack. While ADP does offer a large suite of payroll and HR tools, these all cost extra, and your monthly bill can quickly add up.  

BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 

Managing benefits can be cost-prohibitive for many small businesses. But Gusto offers custom no-cost, low-cost, and premium benefits options to help build a package that fits your budget. Benefits administration is included at no extra cost, while ADP charges a fee on top of your premiums. The only downside to Gusto is that benefits administration is only available in 38 states and Washington, DC, so if you’re looking to offer benefits in one of those states, you’ll need to find another provider. 

EMPLOYEE SELF-SERVICE

Self-onboarding makes it easy for employees to upload documents, e-sign contracts, and gives employees lifetime access to paystubs, W-2s, and more — without any work required on your behalf. Employees can manage benefits, access trainings from anywhere, clock in and out, and request time off, and managers can easily review and approve timesheets and time off requests. ADP also offers an employee portal for tax forms and time tracking, but the app is outdated, and they don’t offer lifetime access once an employee leaves the company.   

DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL HIRING

Gusto offers new-hire filing and compliance in all 50 states, and both FUTA and SUI payments are calculated and paid automatically. They also expanded international contractor support to 120+ countries, and their Employer of Record (EOR) service, powered by Remote, is now live in both Canada and India with more countries to follow. ADP does have a global payroll solution, but it’s not included in any of their packages, and they don’t offer global solutions for businesses under 50 employees. 

Key Features

• Seamlessly integrated payroll, HR, time tracking, and benefits
• Payroll, taxes, and compliance in all 50 states
• Next-day / 2-day direct deposit
• Multiple pay rates and schedules
• Unlimited payroll runs 
• Pay by direct deposit, check, or prepaid debit card
• Integrated time tracking tools
• Payroll on AutoPilot fully automates payroll for salaried employees
• Support for international contractors in 120+ countries; global payroll currently being expanded
• Employee-self service with lifetime access
• Benefits administration included in all plans at no additional cost
• AI-powered payroll and workforce reporting
• Hundreds of software integrations at no extra cost  

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Intuitive, easy to use interface	Multi-state payroll only available on Plus and Premium plans
Taxes and compliance are fully automated and don’t cost extra	Mobile app lacks full payroll functionality
All-in-one solution for payroll, time, benefits, and HR	Time-tracking and advanced HR tools only included in Plus and Premium plans
Unlimited pay rates, schedules, and payroll runs at no extra cost	Benefits only available in 38 states + Washington, DC.
Transparent pricing, no hidden fees
Fully integrated time tracking
Excellent customer support
Hundreds of software integrations included with all plans

Pricing

Gusto offers three pricing plans, with the Simple plan starting at $40 per month plus $6 per person per month. The Simple plan includes Payroll on AutoPilot along with multiple pay rates and schedules and unlimited payroll runs. It also comes loaded with basic support for hiring and onboarding, PTO, and benefits administration, but it lacks support for multi-state payroll as well as time tracking and more complex PTO options.

Plus plans start at $80 per month plus $12 per person per month and include time-tracking, PTO, multi-state payroll, and next-day direct deposit along with the full suite of advanced hiring, onboarding, and team management tools. 

Gusto’s Premium plans are priced exclusively, and include everything Gusto has to offer with no hidden monthly fees. For more info on Premium pricing, contact their sales team today. 

ADP no longer posts pricing for any of their packages, so you’ll need to contact sales in order to get a quote. According to Forbes, users reported pricing starts from $79 per month plus $4 per employee per month, but it’s unclear if that’s still accurate, or how much any of the add-ons like time tracking and benefits cost. No doubt the price per month can start adding up quickly.

Free Trial? Yes, Gusto is free until you run your first payroll.

Free Version: No. 
See how Gusto stacks up to ADP to find the perfect fit for your payroll needs. Explore now.

Transform your payroll processes with Gusto, a platform that’s already the choice of over 300,000 businesses

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2. OnPay – Best value ADP alternative for small business

Overview

OnPay is consistently rated as one of the best value payroll platforms on the market. They offer a user-friendly platform with a simple, straightforward set of tools at one low price. There are no tiers or extras to figure out. Their single package comes with payroll, taxes, compliance, basic HR tools, and benefits administration in all 50 states. They support multi-state payroll as well as multiple pay rates and schedules. With OnPay, what you see is what you get.  

OnPay is a great alternative to ADP for companies that need payroll with a few HR extras and aren’t planning on growing in the near future. But if you’re looking for more advanced features like time tracking or workforce costing reports, Onpay probably isn’t robust enough for your needs. 

Key Features

• Automated federal, state, and local taxes
• New hire compliance and payroll in all 50 states
• Multiple pay rates and schedules
• Pay by direct deposit, paper check, or prepaid debit card
• 2-day or 4-day direct deposit
• Unlimited payroll runs
• Employee self-service with lifetime access
• Basic HR functionality including onboarding workflows and document storage

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
A single price includes (almost) everything they offer	No room to grow as your business grows
Great for basic payroll needs	Only 11 software integrations supported
Includes PTO management	Charge extra to print and mail W-2s and 1099s
No benefits administration fees	No international support
	No email or chat support

Pricing

OnPay has a single pricing structure with (almost) no hidden fees: $40 per month plus $6 per employee per month. All of their payroll, HR, and benefits functionality is included, and you only pay each month for the employees you paid. OnPay will create 1099s and W-2s that you can download and send out, but if you want them to physically print and mail them, that will cost extra. 

Free Trial? Yes. One month free. 

Free Plan: No.

Learn more about OnPay

3. Remote – Best ADP alternative for global payroll

Overview

If your business is going global, it’s no surprise why you’re looking for an alternative to ADP. ADP’s global payroll isn’t native to their small business software, and it’s mostly targeted to multi-national companies with hundreds of heads on the payroll. Luckily, Remote makes it easy to hire and pay your team in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe. Their impressive suite of international support includes global payroll, contractors, hiring, self-service onboarding, compliance, and benefits all in a wonderfully user-friendly platform. The best part is you can pay all of your team members around the world—whether contractor, full-time, or EOR—with a single payment.  

In 100+ countries where your business already has an established entity, they offer global payroll services. If you don’t have an entity, you can take advantage of their Employer of Record (EOR) service. They don’t contract with outside entities, which means better, faster support. For hiring international contractors, they provide compliant local contracts to make sure you’re staying within local labor laws as well as support for local taxes. But best of all, their platform has a ‘contractor misclassification risk tool’ to make sure you’re not hiring contractors that should be considered employees. This can save your business from facing devastating penalties down the line.   

Their website also includes a guide to local laws, compliance, holiday and mandatory leave policies in every country they cover, which can be helpful as you’re thinking about expanding your talent pool to new countries. 

One downside is that Remote’s pricing can start to add up, especially for EOR services, and at some point it makes more financial sense to open your own entity. But for small businesses and startups especially, using Remote for global payroll and contractors is a no brainer. 

Key Features

• Contractor payments in 200+ countries and territories
• Global payroll and EOR in 80+ countries
• Payment supported via wire transfer, ACH, SEPA, and card
• 100+ currencies supported with no conversion fees
• Localized compliance, contracts, and benefits administration including stock options
• Contractor misclassification risk assessment included
• One-click or autopay contractor invoices
• Seamless onboarding and employee self-service portal

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Integration for domestic and international employees, contractors, full-time and part-time	Customer support via email only
Easy onboarding process	No transparent pricing for global payroll
Owned entities are not outsourced to third-party vendors	No support for common international payment methods like Payoneer and PayPal
Great, user-friendly interface
Country-specific compliance and benefits

Pricing

Remote prices their services based on which kind of global hiring you need. For their EOR service, it costs $599 per employee per month (on an annual plan), which is in line with industry standards. To go month-to-month it increases to $699. Their international contractor payments are reasonable at $29 per month, but if you only have international contractors and not full-time employees (or if you are operating 100% within the US), there are much more affordable solutions out there. 

For global payroll in countries where you operate your own entity, you have to contact sales for pricing.

Free Trial? You can set up an account and explore features including hiring and onboarding at no cost for 30 days. You’ll only be charged when you pay global workers.

Free Plan: No.

Learn more about Remote

4. Paychex Flex – Best ADP competitor for quickly scaling businesses

Overview

Like ADP, Paychex is one of the most widely-used payroll platforms in the world that offers an integrated approach to HR, benefits, and team management. Also like ADP, Paychex structures their payroll and HR solutions based on the size of your business, from Paychex Flex Essentials for businesses with 1–19 employees, all the way up to Paychex Flex Enterprise for companies with 50–1000+.

Both providers offer essential payroll features like tax filing, direct deposit, and employee self-service, and both platforms tend to charge extra for almost anything but the basics. Benefits administration and time tracking are sold as add-ons to their core products, and almost all of their most powerful hiring, onboarding, workforce management tools are either reserved for the top-tier plan or will add even more to your monthly bill. While which options are available on their mid-range and highest-tier plans vary between the two behemoths, it’s best to check for the specific tools you need before deciding which is better for your business. 

Though Paychex isn’t the most affordable platform, or the best option on this list, for larger businesses looking to scale, they can provide a solid one-stop solution that’s ready to grow as your business grows. But if you’re a smaller business looking to switch, there are better, more affordable, more agile alternatives to ADP.

Key Features

• Fully integrated HR, payroll, and benefits
• Automated federal, state, and local taxes
• Unlimited payroll runs
• Employee self-service portal
• Time tracking and shift scheduling add-on available
• Powerful hiring, onboarding, and team management tools
• Native learning management system
• Workforce cost reporting & analytics
• Expense management
• Financial wellness tools
• Mobile app

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
User-friendly, trusted payroll tool	Expensive compared to other all-in-one providers
Customizable, a la carte pricing	Many “core” features only included in the highest-tier plan
Handles businesses from start-up to large enterprise	Live chat support is a bot
	Transparent pricing only for basic plan
	Time tracking and benefits administration are add-on modules

Pricing

Paychex Flex no longer offers fully transparent pricing on their site, but they have three pricing tiers: Essentials, Select, and Pro. The Essentials package costs $39 per month plus $5 per employee per month and includes basic payroll tools as well as new hire reporting, standard analytics, workers’ comp, a financial wellness program, and an Employee Assistance Program.

Both the Select and Pro plans are pricing upon request. It’s impossible to know what they include, and you can build a plan that meets your needs, but you may end up paying more than many out-of-the-box payroll and benefits providers. 

Free Trial: Six months free for a limited time.

Free Plan: No.

Learn more about Paychex Flex

5. Justworks – Best PEO alternative to ADP

Overview

For some small business owners, using a full-service PEO makes more sense than handling payroll, hiring, and HR in-house. While the PEO may seem expensive, depending on the size of your business, it can often be cheaper than the cost of hiring an HR professional.

Justworks is one of the most affordable PEO options out there, and comes with support for payroll, tax filings, onboarding, PTO management, and compliance along with low-cost benefit options. They also offer traditional benefits like medical, dental, and vision, but these are only included with their higher-tier plan. 

The PEO co-employment relationship means Justworks takes on some legal liability as an employer that you don’t have to bear, which isn’t the case for software similar to ADP. In exchange, you hand over control of some things like the employee handbook and workplace policies.

Justworks’ PEO software is highly rated as easy to use, but unlike ADP, their customer service responds quickly and is available 24/7. They also recently released a mobile app to allow your employees to easily access the data they need. 

For smaller businesses looking to take complex HR and compliance tasks off their plate, Justworks is an affordable alternative to ADP that can grow as you grow your business. They keep their prices low by paring down their HR options, but for many small businesses, they’ll have everything you need. For larger businesses with more complex needs and more money to spend, there are more robust PEOs out there.

Key Features

Key Features

• Full service PEO with dedicated HR rep
• New-hire compliance in all 50 states

• Full service PEO with dedicated HR rep
• New-hire compliance in all 50 states
• International contractor support in 28+ countries included (rolling out EOR services soon)
• Unlimited payroll runs
• 4-day direct deposit  
• Paydays must follow set schedules (bi-weekly or bi-monthly)
• Off-cycle payrolls included
• Unemployment, HR, PTO, and expense management included
• Benefits administration and time tracking 
• Self-service employee onboarding
• Flexible admin permissions
• Mobile app

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Takes all payroll, HR, and compliance off your plate	Benefits administration, time tracking, and international contractor payments cost extra
Affordable for smaller businesses with the option to grow	Offering traditional benefits nearly doubles the monthly base price
Highly rated, user-friendly interface	Fewer HR tools than some other PEOs
24/7 customer service on phone, email, chat, Slack, or SMS	Payroll tool isn’t quite as powerful as some dedicated payroll software
Unique, low-cost benefits available

Pricing

Justworks has two pricing tiers: Basic and Plus. The Basic plan costs $59 per employee per month up to your 50th employee, where it drops down to $49 per employee per month. This includes everything Justworks offers save for traditional benefits and their time tracking app. The Plus plan jumps up to $99 per employee per month ($89 from your 50th employee onwards) and includes traditional benefits like medical, dental, vision, COBRA, and access to HSAs and FSAs.   

While the Basic plan is much more expensive than out-of-the-box payroll solutions, it’s one of the cheaper PEOs on the market, and may be a good option for businesses looking to offload most of their day-to-day HR. 

Free Trial? Yes, 14 days.

Free Plan: Yes.

Learn more about Justworks PEO

6. Square Payroll – Best ADP alternative for POS integration

Overview

Square Payroll is an obvious choice for restaurants and retail shops that are already using Square’s POS software. Employee hours and sales data seamlessly flow into the payroll system, eliminating the need for manual data entry. They also offer better functionality specific to tip-based businesses, making it easy to import, pool, and split tips if you need to. 

Like most payroll providers, Square Payroll does a lot of the heavy lifting for you—from processing and paying taxes to keeping you compliant with minimum wage and overtime law. They also provide basic reporting tools, providing insight into labor costs, employee performance, and other critical metrics. These insights empower decision-making, enabling your business to optimize staffing levels and control expenses effectively, however they don’t offer any custom reporting. Another small downside to Square is their 4-day direct deposit time, compared with ADP’s two-day deposits.   

Square offers time tracking and scheduling capabilities, which make it a great option to streamline your tech stack. Time tracking tools cost extra, but they’re free for teams up to 5 people. If you’re a POS-based business, using Square for both POS and payroll is an easy choice.

Key Features

• Full-service multi-state payroll
• Built-in time tracking and scheduling tools
• Shift swapping and time-off requests
• Unlimited payroll runs
• Contractor-only option
• Off-cycle payroll
• Automated tax filings
• Pool and split tips feature
• Pay by check, direct deposit, or Square Cash App
• Instant payments available 
• Employee self-service

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Intuitive, easy-to-use interface	Fewer HR offerings than other competitors
Seamless integration with Square POS	Limited customer support
Free basic time tracking	Four-day direct deposit processing time
Affordable, flat-rate pricing	No custom reporting options
Powerful time & scheduling tools available

Pricing

Square’s payroll pricing is simple and straightforward. You’ll pay $35 a month plus $6 per employee per month. This includes all of the payroll features they offer along with time cards and automated tax filings. If you want to access their more robust time tracking and scheduling tools, you’ll need to sign up for “Square Shifts.” It’s free for up to 5 team members, and after that you’ll pay a per-person-per-month rate that starts at $4 and gets lower the more team members you have. 

Free trial? No. 

Free plan? No.

Learn more about Square Payroll

7. Payroll4free – Best free alternative to ADP payroll

Overview

Payroll4free is far from the best payroll provider on the block. Its features are bare bones, and they keep the service free by showing you ads inside the software. But for nonprofits, startups, and very small businesses where every dollar counts, having a completely free payroll option while you get up and running can be a lifesaver until you’re ready to upgrade.  

Payroll4free offers the basic payroll services you’d expect including paying employees and 1099 contractors as well as calculating taxes and generating tax forms at the end of the year. However, while their free plan will calculate taxes and generate forms for you, you’ll need to file and pay them yourself (or pay for their payroll tax service). 

In addition to basic payroll, you can set up a variety of options to track and monitor employees’ PTO, sick leave, and vacation time. They also provide standard reporting including earnings, taxes, benefits, accrued time, and payroll journal reports. They offer an employee self-serve portal as well as payment by direct deposit or paper checks. For a free platform, this isn’t too shabby.

Unsurprisingly, Payroll4free doesn’t support hiring, onboarding, or benefits administration. But if you’ve got fewer than 10 employees with basic payroll needs, Payroll4free will get the job done while you work on growing your business.

Key Features

• Free for businesses with fewer than 10 employees
• Direct deposit and paper checks 
• Support for 1099 and W-2 employees
• PTO and vacation tracking included
• Employee self-service
• No support for multiple pay rates and schedules

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Completely free for up to 10 employees	Bare bones functionality
Vacation and PTO tracking included	Only for Windows OS; no mobile site or app
Basic reporting included	Limited integrations
	Filing and paying taxes costs extra

Pricing

Payroll4free is totally free for up to 10 employees. This includes all of their services except for tax filing and payments. They no longer list pricing on their site, but their Payroll Tax Service previously cost $25/month or $250 a year. While this is still much cheaper than most payroll services, the adage “you get what you pay for” rings true here. 

Free Plan: Yes.

Learn more about Payroll4free