Five tools make this payroll and HR shortlist, and the real split isn't features, it's how each one prices and locks you in. OnPay and Gusto both publish a flat per-plan price with no sales call, QuickBooks Payroll ties its price to an existing QuickBooks Online subscription, and Rippling trades price transparency for the broadest module set and a 12-month contract with no cancel-for-convenience clause. Trainual isn't a payroll tool at all; it pairs with any of the four as the onboarding and training companion.
How payroll pricing actually works
Most payroll software charges two things: a flat base fee per month, and a per-person fee on top for each employee or contractor on the account. Add-ons, benefits administration, time tracking, HR advisory, state tax registration, usually cost extra beyond those two numbers, and that’s where the real monthly bill tends to drift from the advertised starting price.
| Tool | Base fee/mo | Per-person/mo | Contractor handling | Tax filing included | Contract term |
|---|
| OnPay | $49 | $6 | Same $6 rate as employees | Yes | No contract stated, self-serve signup |
| Gusto | $49 / $80 / $180 | $6 / $12 / $22 | Contractor Only plan closed to new signups since Oct 1, 2026; new users pay Simple ($49+$6) | Yes | No contract stated, self-serve signup |
| Rippling | Undisclosed (platform starts at $8/employee plus an undisclosed base fee) | Undisclosed for Payroll specifically | No separate contractor tier | Yes (module) | 12-month contract, no cancel for convenience |
| QuickBooks Payroll | $44-$101.50 promo / $88-$203 regular, bundled with QBO | $6.50-$10 | Not offered as a distinct tier; 1099 e-filing is a bundled feature | Yes | Requires an active QBO subscription; no separate Payroll contract term stated |
| Trainual (not payroll) | Demo-gated, no public price | N/A, per-seat not per-employee | N/A | N/A | Not publicly stated; $1,000 implementation fee on every tier |
Contractors are priced differently across this group in ways worth knowing before you sign up. OnPay charges the identical $6 per person whether that person is an employee or a 1099 contractor, so a contractor-only business pays the same base as an employee-based one. Gusto used to run a cheaper Contractor Only plan at $35 base plus $6 per contractor, but that plan closed to new signups on October 1, 2026; a new contractor-only business today pays the full Simple-tier rate instead, landing at the same $49-plus-$6 math as OnPay. QuickBooks Payroll folds 1099 e-filing into its regular bundles as a feature rather than a separate cheaper tier. If the only payroll job you actually have is paying 1099 contractors and e-filing their 1099-NEC forms at year-end, with no W-2 employees at all, a dedicated e-filer built for exactly that job may cost less than a monthly plan; see our 1099 filing software guide for per-form pricing instead.
Contracts and cancellation
Three of the five tools here (OnPay, Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll) let you sign up directly from a pricing page and leave on short notice, based on what each one discloses publicly. OnPay and Gusto both run self-serve “get started” flows with no contract term published anywhere. QuickBooks Payroll’s real lock-in is structural rather than contractual: it requires an active QuickBooks Online subscription underneath it, but no separate long-term Payroll contract is stated. Trainual doesn’t publish a contract term either, though that’s mostly because it doesn’t publish a price at all without a demo call first.
Rippling is the outlier, and it’s the one place in this guide where the catch belongs ahead of the feature list rather than buried in a footnote. Its own Contracting FAQ, cited consistently across multiple HR-forum discussions and Capterra reviews, states Rippling does not offer cancellation “simply for convenience,” meaning a customer can’t just decide to leave early for any reason. The contract runs 12 months, renews automatically unless cancelled in writing roughly 30 days ahead, and buyers report costs over $10,000 for exiting early plus renewal price increases of 20 to 40 percent. If a year-long commitment is a dealbreaker, OnPay, Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll are all structured to let you walk away on much shorter notice.
Checkr for background checks
None of the five tools above run background checks. Checkr handles that separately, pricing per report rather than by subscription: $29.99 for a Basic criminal search, $59.99 for its Essential tier, and $94.99 for the most thorough Complete package, with no minimum volume or contract required. It integrates directly with several platforms named in this guide, including Rippling, so adding it for pre-hire screening doesn’t mean standing up a fully disconnected second system. One term worth knowing before you budget: Checkr’s advertised prices exclude pass-through court and database fees, so the final charge can land above the sticker price.
How we picked
Every price, contract term and rating in this guide came from each vendor’s own pricing page or policy document where one exists, checked directly on 2026-10-30, with third-party sourcing used and flagged wherever a vendor’s own page didn’t show a dollar figure (Gusto’s tiered pricing, Rippling’s Payroll-specific cost, Trainual’s entire pricing table). Where two sources disagreed on a number, like QuickBooks Payroll’s bundled-promo view versus its standalone add-on pricing, we reported both rather than picking one as definitively correct. G2, Capterra and Trustpilot scores are reported separately rather than averaged into one figure, since a wide gap between them, especially on Trustpilot, is itself useful information about where a tool’s complaints cluster.
The ranking here is editorial, not a function of which tool pays a commission. ToolsGavel may earn a commission if you sign up through a link on this page; that doesn’t change the order these tools appear in, or the problems we flag.
Deals & price changes
Price changes and deals for payroll & HR software
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Frequently asked questions
How does payroll software pricing typically work?
Most payroll tools charge a flat monthly base fee plus a per-person fee for each employee or contractor on the account. OnPay and Gusto both start at $49 base plus $6 per person; QuickBooks Payroll bundles payroll into a QuickBooks Online subscription at $6.50 to $10 per employee depending on tier; Rippling only publishes an $8-per-employee starting figure for the platform generally, with Payroll's own price undisclosed. Add-ons, benefits administration, time tracking, state tax registration, HR advisory, typically cost extra beyond those two base numbers.
Which of these tools locks you into a long-term contract?
Rippling, and it's the one real outlier in this group. Signing up means a 12-month contract with no cancel-for-convenience clause, and buyers report costs over $10,000 for exiting early plus renewal increases of 20 to 40 percent. OnPay, Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll all run on self-serve signups with no stated long-term contract.
Do I need separate software to run background checks on new hires?
Yes. None of the five payroll and HR tools in this guide include background checks. Checkr handles that separately, pricing per report from $29.99 to $94.99 with no subscription required, and it integrates directly with several platforms in this guide, including Rippling.
What if I only pay 1099 contractors and have no W-2 employees?
OnPay charges the same $6-per-person rate for contractors as for employees, so a contractor-only business still pays the full $49 base. Gusto's old cheaper Contractor Only plan closed to new signups on October 1, 2026, landing new contractor-only users at that same $49-plus-$6 math. If payroll isn't actually your job, just year-end 1099-NEC filing, a dedicated e-filer may cost less than any monthly plan here; see our 1099 filing software guide for per-form pricing.
