Methodology
Every ranking on this site comes from one published scoring model, applied the same way to every provider. This page is the whole method — the weights, what each one measures, how we check prices, and how we handle being wrong.
Each provider is scored out of 5 in five categories, weighted by how much each one affects a small business over a year of actually running payroll:
| Category | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Price | 25% | The real monthly cost at typical team sizes — base price plus per-person price — using published list prices, never temporary promotions. |
| Tax filing & compliance | 25% | Whether payroll taxes are calculated, filed and deposited for you; which forms and situations are covered; how much is left on the owner's desk. |
| Ease of use | 20% | How quickly a non-expert can set the product up and run a payroll correctly, and how clearly the product explains itself along the way. |
| Support | 15% | Availability, location and reputation of the support team, drawn from provider documentation and the pattern of owner reviews. |
| Features | 15% | What is included beyond the basics — benefits, time tracking, hiring tools, integrations — weighted toward what small teams actually use. |
Price and tax filing share the top weight deliberately. A beautiful interface cannot repay a missed filing, and the cheapest plan is not cheap if the owner still has to do the tax work by hand. Features rank last because, beyond a solid core, extra features are the thing providers most often sell and small businesses least often use.
The overall score decides the roundup ranking, but a provider can top a single category without topping the list — and for many readers, the category winner is the right answer. Patriot, for example, is not our #1 overall pick, but it wins on price outright and stays close on support, which is why it carries the Best Budget Pick label rather than a footnote. When a page on this site names a "best for" winner, it means: highest score on the factors that matter most to that kind of business, under the same rubric, with the trade-offs printed next to the verdict.
Every price on this site is a provider's published list price, taken from the provider's own website. We re-check every price, every month, and each page is stamped with the month of its last check. Temporary promotions and first-year teaser rates are excluded — the score reflects what you will pay in month thirteen, not month one. Where a provider does not publish a price (Rippling and ADP RUN are quote-based), we say so rather than estimating one, and the absence of a public price counts against convenience in our assessment.
When a provider raises prices, the page changes and the stamp updates. Price rises are also reported as what they are — you will find Gusto's history of increases listed as a weakness next to its #1 ranking, because a comparison site that hides its top pick's flaws is not a comparison site.
This site earns referral fees when readers sign up with a provider through our links; the plain-language version is on our about page. Referral fees play no part in scoring. The rubric above is applied before any commercial relationship is considered, providers cannot pay for placement or a better score, and several highly-ranked providers on this site have, at times, paid us nothing at all. Every review lists weaknesses, including for the providers at the top of the list.
We get things wrong occasionally — a price changes between checks, a plan is renamed, a feature moves tiers. When we find an error, or a reader reports one, we verify it against the provider's published information, correct the page, and update its "prices checked" stamp. If you spot a price on this site that no longer matches a provider's website, write to us: corrections from readers are the fastest fact-check we have, and we treat them as a favour, not a nuisance.
Our content is general information about payroll software, not tax, legal or accounting advice for your specific business. Payroll rules vary by state and situation; for decisions with penalties attached, your accountant's answer outranks ours.