For most small businesses, a payroll service runs a base of about $20 to $150 a month plus $4 to $15 per employee per pay run. A ten-person company on a mid-tier, full-service plan usually lands around $80 to $200 a month all in. The number moves with employee count, pay frequency, whether payroll-tax filing is included, and how many states you run payroll in.
We run our own service companies and meet payroll ourselves, so this is the working-owner's view. Here's what the tiers buy, what drives the price, and the cases where you genuinely don't need to pay for a service.
Self-service tools or a spreadsheet where you calculate, file, and deposit yourself. Cheapest in cash, but you carry the penalty risk if a tax deposit is late or wrong.
The common choice for businesses with W-2 staff. The provider runs payroll, files and deposits payroll taxes, and handles W-2s and 1099s at year end. The per-employee fee scales with headcount.
Adds benefits administration, time tracking, onboarding, and HR support. Worth it once you have benefits and a real team; overkill for a handful of employees.
We're a web and SEO company, so we have no stake in selling you payroll. The honest cases to skip it:
The moment you have W-2 employees, though, a full-service plan usually pays for itself: a single late-deposit penalty can exceed a year of fees.
We don't sell payroll — we build the website and lead engine that brings a service business the customers that fund payroll in the first place. If your bottleneck is getting found and booking work, that's us, from $249/mo for the site plus AI lead capture. If your bottleneck is paying people correctly, pick a payroll provider from the tiers above.
Related reading: payroll service software, how to choose a payroll service, how much an accountant costs, and our other cost guides.
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A base of about $20–$150 plus $4–$15 per employee. A 10-person company on a mid-tier plan often lands around $80–$200 a month all in.
In cash, yes. But one late or wrong tax deposit penalty often exceeds a year of service fees, so for W-2 employees a service usually pays for itself.
Full-service (which files and pays your payroll taxes) is usually worth it with W-2 staff. A few 1099 contractors may only need basic software.
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