If Patriot Payroll isn’t the right solution for your small businesses, one of these Patriot competitors could have the pricing, features and strengths you’re looking for.
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Patriot Payroll is an affordable payroll software solution for many small and midsize businesses, especially those that need fast, efficient payroll services more than they need human resource tools and support. But Patriot’s payroll processing system won’t work for every business. Could it work for yours, or should you look elsewhere?
SEE: Choosing a payroll service can be simple with this guide for business leaders.
Whether you’re looking to switch from Patriot or you’re thoroughly investigating its alternatives before committing to a Patriot plan, keep reading. We review the best Patriot alternatives, from SurePayroll to Square, so you can decide if Patriot or a Patriot competitor is better suited to your team’s payroll needs.
Both Patriot Payroll and its main competitors target small and midsize businesses that want to process payroll in house. Every payroll program on our list calculates paychecks and payroll taxes, pays employees through direct deposit, includes or integrates with time-tracking systems and syncs with at least one accounting software program.
| Vendor | International payroll | Benefits administration | Time tracking | Free trial | Starting monthly price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SurePayroll | No | Yes | Third-party integrations | Up to six months | $19.99 + $4 per payee |
| Gusto | Contractors only | Yes | Built-in app | No | $40 + $6 per payee |
| OnPay | No | Yes | Third-party integrations | 30 days | $40 + $6 per payee |
| ADP | Yes | Yes | Built-in app | Up to three months | Custom quote only |
| Paychex | Yes | Yes | Third-party integrations | No | $39 + $5 per payee |
| Square Payroll | No | No | Yes.Built-in Square integration | No | $39 + $5 per payee |
| Patriot | No | No | Built-in app | 30 days | $17 + $4 per payee |
Plan details up to date as of 5/31/2023.
The best Patriot Payroll alternative for you will depend on factors like the number of employees you want to pay, which benefits you intend to offer, and whether you manage contractors, employees or a combination of both. Apart from SurePayroll, none of the options on our list are as cheap as Patriot. However, most of them (including SurePayroll) have more payroll- and HR-specific features than Patriot.
Starting price: $19.99 + $4 per employee per month
Of all the Patriot competitors on our list, SurePayroll has the most in common with Patriot. Both providers have a full-service and self-service plan, unlimited monthly payroll runs and workers’ compensation insurance policies and integration.
Plus, both payroll systems are small-business-specific, and unlike many larger payroll companies, Patriot and SurePayroll both include local payroll tax filing at no additional cost. Customers score both companies highly for the above-average quality of their customer support.
However, SurePayroll has several HR tools — and a few payroll features — that Patriot lacks. While Patriot users must pay an extra fee for Patriot’s basic HR plan, which doesn’t offer much more than document storage, SurePayroll builds crucial HR support into both of its plans:
SurePayroll also has an employer-facing app for both Android and iOS users, though at 4.7 stars out of 5, its payroll app for iOS users is much more widely used and better scored than its Android app (which rates just 2.5 stars out of 5).
Like Patriot, SurePayroll has both a self-service and full-service payroll plan:
Since Patriot and SurePayroll have the same $4 per-employee fee for their self-service plan, you’ll pay more or less the same to process payroll with either provider. (SurePayroll’s plan costs around $36 more per year than Patriot Payroll’s.)
Although SurePayroll’s full-service starting price is lower than Patriot’s, the plan’s higher per-employee fee makes it more expensive than Patriot’s full-service plan for businesses with 10 or more employees.
| Monthly cost | One employee | Five employees | 10 employees | 50 employees | 100 employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SurePayroll Full-Service | $34.99 | $54.99 | $79.99 | $279.99 | $529.99 |
| Patriot Full-Service | $41.00 | $57.00 | $77.00 | $237.00 | $437.00 |
Starting price: $40 + $6 per employee per month
Like Patriot, Gusto offers unlimited monthly payrolls, free two-day direct deposit and optional W-2 and 1099 distribution. But while Patriot only syncs with QuickBooks Online, Gusto syncs seamlessly with FreshBooks, Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage Accounting and more. In fact, as one of the most popular payroll providers in the U.S., Gusto integrates with nearly all of the most commonly used accounting, time tracking, HR administration, point of sale and expense tracking systems.
Gusto also has an in-house insurance brokerage that businesses can use to find health, vision and dental insurance for their employees. Businesses that find insurance through Gusto can integrate benefits with Gusto’s payroll software at no additional fee (though Gusto’s health insurance programs are only available in 37 states + Washington, D.C.).
Other unique features that differentiate Gusto from Patriot include the following:
Gusto has three plans that businesses can easily scale up to as they grow. While each plan includes more or less the same impressive suite of payroll features, the mid-tier and highest-tier plans include greater customer support and access to more HR tools:
Starting price: $40 + $6 per employee per month
In the field of customer service, Patriot and OnPay stand out starkly from the competition. Both payroll providers include free white-glove setup and account migration as part of their welcome package, and both providers also offer a 30-day free trial for users who want to test-drive their software before committing to a monthly plan.
However, much like Gusto (and in contrast to Patriot), OnPay is one of the most fully featured payroll services available to small and midsize businesses. Along with industry-standard payroll features like unlimited monthly payroll runs, OnPay’s key HR and payroll features include the following:
OnPay’s full-service payroll plan costs $40 a month plus $6 per employee. It has no service fees for integrating with employee benefits, includes multi-state payroll at no additional cost and bundles free setup and data migration into your 30-day free trial.
Starting price: Custom pricing only
ADP’s payroll products range from professional employer organizations for small businesses to comprehensive human capital management solutions for massive enterprises. Its main payroll software product, Run Powered by ADP, supports small and midsize businesses that want to process payroll in house while offering solid employee benefits.
But ADP’s greatest strength — and its key difference from Patriot Payroll — is the scope of HR and workforce management tools it offers with each plan. Starting with the most basic Run plan, Essential Payroll, ADP users can access the following features:
Users who subscribe to higher-tier Run plans get features like HR tracking, forms, documents, training and toolkits — additions that make ADP a more scalable choice for growing businesses than single-plan providers like Patriot, OnPay and SurePayroll.
ADP doesn’t list the starting price for most of its products online. However, the process for requesting an online quote is relatively painless, and the payroll company does offer up to three months free for qualifying customers.
Starting price: $39 + $5 per employee per month
Unlike OnPay, SurePayroll (which is owned by Paychex) and Patriot, Paychex has multiple payroll plans. As a result, it’s better suited to businesses that might not want substantial HR support now — but could see themselves needing more support later on.
For instance, each Paychex plan includes the following:
Higher-tier plans add in-depth HR and HCM features that business owners can’t get through small-business-centric payroll software like Patriot’s:
Although Paychex has three distinct payroll plans, the company only lists its cheapest plan’s starting price online:
Paychex also has a variety of additional fees for add-on services that most of Paychex’s competitors include for free. With Paychex, for instance, workers’ compensation integration, general ledger integrations, wage garnishment and state unemployment insurance management all cost extra.
Starting price: $6 per contractor paid (Base fee waived for contractor-payment plan only.)
While Patriot Payroll only integrates with 401(k) plans, not health insurance benefits, Square Payroll provides integrated health insurance and 401(k) benefits. The software also supports administration of pre-existing benefits, including HSA and FSA plans.
Square Payroll also integrates seamlessly with Square Point of Sale, which functions as both a payment acceptance system and time clock for hourly employees. If you already use Square Point of Sale and you’ve just hired your first employee, Square Payroll’s interface should have a low learning curve.
Square Payroll has two main payroll plans:
Square Payroll only charges you for employees and contractors you actually pay in a given month. You can also pause your account seasonally at no additional fee.
If your top payroll consideration is affordability, Patriot should be at the top of your list of payroll software to test-drive. Patriot’s interface is also astonishingly user-friendly, so if you’ve never processed payroll before, Patriot Payroll could make for a fantastic starting point.
However, if you want software that integrates with most third-party business apps, works as an all-in-one payroll and HR solution or includes benefits administration, a Patriot competitor will almost certainly work better for your needs than Patriot itself.
Patriot has two main payroll plans:
Along with its payroll services, Patriot offers the following optional add-ons:
Patriot’s lack of third-party integrations means you’re more or less limited to using its HR and accounting plans if you want to eliminate manual data entry. Unfortunately, this can bump up Patriot Payroll’s starting cost quite a bit depending on which tools you want to add to your plan.
| Starting price | Payroll only | Payroll + Time & Attendance | Payroll + Time & Attendance + Accounting Basic | Payroll + Time & Attendance + Accounting Premium | Payroll + Time & Attendance + Accounting Premium + HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Payroll | From $21/mo. | From $29/mo. | From $49/mo. | From $59/mo. | From $67/mo. |
| Full Service Payroll | From $41/mo. | From $49/mo. | From $69/mo. | From $79/mo. | From $87/mo. |
Pricing details up to date as of 6/1/2023.
Most of Patriot’s competitors include Patriot’s basic HR Software tools in their base prices. Additionally, Patriot’s accounting plans have fewer features than competitors’ at a higher price (for instance, Wave Accounting is a free program that includes most of Accounting Premium’s tools for $0).
You might need an alternative to Patriot Payroll if:
On the other hand, you might prefer Patriot to its competitors if:
To rank and assess the top Patriot competitors, we looked at payroll providers with similar payroll and HR features, audiences and prices. We then chose the top-ranked Patriot competitors using the following criteria:
When possible, we either viewed demos or set up free accounts to test-drive each payroll provider for ourselves. We also thoroughly investigated third-party reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Gartner, the BBB and more to ensure our review reflected more experiences with the software than just our own.
To learn more about how we review products, visit our in-depth methodology page.
