The best payroll outsourcing companies in 2024

Running payroll yourself can be both time-consuming and error-prone. Choosing a payroll outsourcing service can not only save time and money, it can provide invaluable peace of mind that your payroll, taxes, and compliance are done right. But with so many payroll outsourcing companies on the market, how can you choose the best one?

Luckily, we’ve put together a handy guide comparing all the best payroll outsourcing solutions to help you make the right choice for your growing business.
Create account
Learn more

Create accountLearn more

FAQs

In its purest form, payroll outsourcing refers to paying an external provider to handle all of your company’s payroll-related tasks, including salary calculations, tax deductions, benefits administration, and compliance with labor laws. But in practice, payroll outsourcing can also refer to using advanced software that allows you to run your own payroll without having to make complex calculations on your own or worry about staying compliant.

PEOs, or Professional Employer Organizations, act as “co-employers'' for your team members. They become the employer of record, allowing you to outsource payroll, HR, benefits, and compliance completely, as opposed to standalone HR and payroll platforms that help your team manage these functions themselves. But it’s important to note that PEOs do not take over any HR decision-making in your company, such as who to hire, when, or how much to pay them.

The benefits of outsourcing payroll services include increased efficiency, reduced risk of errors, ensured compliance with legal and tax requirements, and freeing up time to focus more on your business. While many payroll services companies claim they can also save you money, it’s highly dependent on the scope of the services they offer and how complex your business’s payroll needs are.

Outsourcing payroll can be a good solution for businesses of any size, but it often makes the most sense for smaller businesses. Having a dedicated payroll expert on staff can be expensive, and doing it yourself can lead to costly errors. Outsourcing payroll and HR can give you the benefits of enterprise-level expertise without having an in-house HR department. But for many small businesses, simply using a powerful payroll platform like Gusto can take the complexity out of payroll without paying the higher costs to fully outsource payroll.

Choosing the right company for outsourced payroll depends on the specific needs of your business. If you have basic payroll for a handful of employees in a single state, you probably don’t need to outsource anything at all. Instead, use payroll software like Gusto or OnPay. If you want to take payroll and HR off your plate completely, you may consider using a PEO like Justworks or Rippling. Just keep in mind that fully outsourced payroll services are far more expensive, and PEOs will also include HR and compliance that come at a cost.

Prices start at just $46/month

Join more than 300,000
businesses and their teams.