Paylocity sponsored the video this article is based on, and the Paylocity links on this page are affiliate links: if you book a demo or sign up through them I may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. The other tools are here because they’re the better choice at some company sizes, and the recommendations are my own.
If you’re looking for HR and payroll software, you’re probably in one of two situations. Either payroll lives in one place, PTO in a spreadsheet, benefits in your broker’s portal and the time clock doesn’t talk to any of it, so someone on your team stitches it all together by hand every month. Or you already have an all-in-one platform, and you’ve outgrown it or picked the wrong one.
Either way, the best HR and payroll software for you comes down to one number: how many people you employ. Most of these tools are only good at one size, and the one that’s perfect at 20 people is the wrong call at 200 (and the other way around). So instead of sitting through five sales demos, here’s which platform fits each company size, and why.
Quick answer
Pick by headcount. For a company with 50 to 500 employees, my top pick is Paylocity, mainly because of its support and because the all-in-one part is actually true. Smaller teams are better off with something simpler and cheaper.
- Under 25 employees, one state: Gusto Simple
- Under 25 employees, more than one state: OnPay
- 25 to 50 employees: Gusto Plus if payroll is the pain, BambooHR if HR is the pain
- 50 to 500 employees, or growing past 50 within a year: Paylocity
- 500 employees and up: UKG Pro, Dayforce or Workday
Rather watch than read?
I walk through every company size in the video below.
Why company size decides which HR and payroll software you need
What you need from HR and payroll software changes a lot as you grow. A 12-person company needs payroll that runs correctly and files taxes. A 200-person company with an HR manager, salaried and hourly staff and people in several states needs a service relationship, not just software. That’s why I split this guide into four buckets:
- Under 25 employees: the cheapest thing that runs payroll correctly.
- 25 to 50 employees: payroll-first or HR-first, depending on where your pain is.
- 50 to 500 employees: a full platform with real implementation help and support.
- 500 and up: an enterprise system that finance, legal and IT all have a say in.
Skip to the one your business falls into, or read the whole thing to see why each size needs something different.
Under 25 employees: Gusto Simple or OnPay
At this size you want the cheapest option that runs payroll correctly and files your taxes. Everything else is a distraction. There are two real options, and they cost exactly the same: $49 per month plus $6 per person. One thing decides it: whether you have people in more than one state.
Best under 25, one state
Gusto Simple
If everyone works in the same state, I personally prefer Gusto. It’s the nicer product of the two to use.
The catch is that Simple only covers single-state payroll. The moment you hire one person across a state line, you’re pushed onto Gusto Plus at $80 per month plus $12 per person, so your cost per employee doubles with one hire. If that hire is on the horizon, look at OnPay instead.
Price: $49 per month plus $6 per person, single-state payroll. Plus is $80 per month plus $12 per person and adds multi-state payroll.
Best under 25, multiple states
OnPay
OnPay costs the same as Gusto Simple, but it doesn’t charge anything extra for multi-state payroll. If you already have people in more than one state, or plan to hire in another state soon, OnPay is the better deal.
Price: $49 per month plus $6 per person, with payroll in as many states as you need at no extra cost. Your first month is free.
25 to 50 employees: payroll-first or HR-first
This is where it gets more interesting, because you now have two different approaches to pick from: a payroll platform with HR attached, or an HR platform with payroll attached. To choose, ask yourself where the pain is.
If payroll is the pain
Gusto Plus
Gusto Plus is payroll-first. Payroll is the core, and hiring, onboarding and time tracking are built around it. If your biggest headache is running payroll and staying compliant, go with Gusto.
Price: $80 per month plus $12 per person, including multi-state payroll and time tracking.
If HR is the pain
BambooHR
BambooHR is HR-first. If your pain is hiring, onboarding, performance reviews and chasing signed documents, it’s a much stronger HR product than Gusto, and you can add payroll on top.
Keep two things in mind: payroll isn’t included in the plan price, it’s a separate paid add-on, and BambooHR’s payroll only covers US employees.
Price: $10 to $25 per employee per month for the HR plans (Core, Pro and Elite). Payroll is a separate add-on, quoted on request.
Growing fast? If you’re in this range but expect to pass 50 employees within a year, it can be worth starting on a bigger platform like Paylocity now. Switching payroll later means moving all your data again, and it’s cleanest to switch at the start of a new year so your year-end tax forms come from one system. If the growth is coming, starting there is easier than moving later.
50 to 500 employees: Paylocity
At 50 to 500 people you almost certainly have someone whose actual job is HR, and a mix of salaried and hourly staff. You don’t just need software anymore: you need someone to help you implement it, and a service relationship after that.
The real options here are Paylocity, Paycom, Paycor and ADP Workforce Now. None of them publish their prices, because at this level you’re building a package out of modules. What you pay depends on your headcount, how many states you’re in and which pieces you need.
Top pick for 50 to 500 employees
Paylocity
When I checked G2 while making the video, Paylocity had 4.4 out of 5 stars across more than 6,000 reviews, and over 70% of those came from mid-market companies. That’s the size it’s built for. In my opinion there are three reasons it’s so popular in this segment.
1. Support. This is the one I’d weigh most. You’re not just buying software, you need it to run smoothly, and that takes good support. G2 scores quality of support out of 10, and of the four mid-market platforms, Paylocity came out on top:
| Platform | G2 quality of support (out of 10) |
|---|---|
| Paylocity | 8.7 |
| Paycom | 8.5 |
| ADP Workforce Now | 7.9 |
| Paycor | 7.7 |
Paylocity also scored at or near the top in most of G2’s other categories, like ease of setup and meeting requirements. There’s a reason for the support gap: at Paylocity you get an account manager, an actual person with a support team behind them, instead of a general queue. ADP’s default, for example, is a service center, so you call in and get whoever picks up.
2. The all-in-one part is actually true. You get payroll and tax filing, benefits enrollment, time tracking and scheduling, onboarding, hiring, performance reviews and training, all running off one employee record, so nothing needs syncing between systems. On top of that, Paylocity has two things most competitors here don’t: a finance module (from its Airbase acquisition in late 2024) with expense management, corporate cards and accounts payable automation, and an IT module for asset tracking and access management with single sign-on. You pick the modules you need, and your price is built around that.
3. The employee side. Paylocity includes a feature called Community for every client at no extra cost: a company feed, discussion groups and peer recognition. I’ve seen people call it a Slack replacement, and that isn’t accurate, nor is it trying to be. If you’re a 70-person software company already on Slack, keep Slack; it integrates with the rest of your tools and Community doesn’t. Where Community helps is the opposite kind of company: gyms, restaurants, warehouses and field teams, people who aren’t behind a desk and were never on an internal tool. It reaches them because they’re already in the Paylocity app during their shift to clock in, check their schedule and request time off.
Integrations. At this size the ones that matter are accounting. Paylocity pushes payroll numbers straight into QuickBooks Online, NetSuite and Sage Intacct, so nobody re-enters wages, taxes and benefits by hand.
Price: not published; you get a quote based on headcount, states and the modules you pick. For reference, third-party research puts a full Paylocity setup at roughly $22 to $32 per employee per month. That’s an outside estimate, not a number Paylocity confirmed.
Paycom, ADP Workforce Now and Paycor
- Paycom takes the opposite approach to integrations: it’s proud of being a closed system built entirely in-house. For accounting it generates a report you import yourself, and a live connection to NetSuite or QuickBooks means paying for a separate tool to build that bridge. Third-party estimates put Paycom at roughly $25 to $36 per employee per month.
- ADP Workforce Now has one thing nobody else here offers at the same scale: you can hand HR off completely, and ADP’s own people run your benefits and payroll admin. That’s a different product at a much higher price, though. Its default support is a service center rather than a named account manager.
- Paycor covers the same ground but had the lowest G2 support score of the four, at 7.7 out of 10.
500 employees and up: UKG Pro, Dayforce or Workday
Above 500 employees the conversation changes again. You’re buying a system that finance, legal and IT all have opinions about. The names here are UKG Pro, Dayforce, ADP Workforce Now at the top of its range, and Workday.
Paylocity serves companies into the thousands too, but this is where the enterprise platforms start winning on things like complex approval chains and workforce planning. If you’re in this bucket you probably already have a procurement process and a shortlist. My one piece of advice: the gap between these platforms is a lot smaller than the gap between a good implementation and a bad one, so focus on the team you’re getting, not the feature list.
What if you have employees in other countries?
If you employ people in countries where you don’t have a legal entity, no US HR platform handles that on its own, including every option in this guide.
- You have an entity abroad: Paylocity does global payroll through Blue Marble, a company it owns. It assumes you already have a business entity in that country.
- A handful of people abroad, no entity: keep your US platform and add an employer of record (EOR) like Deel, from around $599 per employee per month. Those people aren’t on your payroll at all: Deel is legally their employer and sends you one invoice. You can combine both, for example Paylocity for your US team and Deel for five people abroad.
- A third or more of your company is international: if you don’t want to set up entities abroad, it can make sense to move everything onto Deel or Rippling instead, at around $600 per international employee per month.
HR and payroll software compared
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto Simple | Under 25 employees, all in one state | $49/mo + $6/person | Single-state only; one out-of-state hire moves you to Plus |
| OnPay | Under 25 employees in more than one state | $49/mo + $6/person | Multi-state included at no extra cost |
| Gusto Plus | 25 to 50 employees where payroll is the pain | $80/mo + $12/person | Payroll-first; lighter on HR than BambooHR |
| BambooHR | 25 to 50 employees where HR is the pain | $10 to $25 per employee/mo | Payroll is a paid add-on, US employees only |
| Paylocity | 50 to 500 employees | Custom quote (about $22 to $32 per employee/mo, third-party estimate) | More than a small team needs |
| Paycom | 50 to 500 employees who want one closed system | Custom quote (about $25 to $36 per employee/mo, third-party estimate) | No live accounting integrations without an extra tool |
| ADP Workforce Now | Mid-market to enterprise, or handing off HR admin | Custom quote | Default support is a service center |
| Deel | Employees abroad without a local entity | From about $599 per employee/mo (EOR) | Adds to your US platform rather than replacing it |
Prices checked on September 29, 2026. Plans and prices change, so check before you buy.
Which HR and payroll software should you pick?
- Under 25 people: OnPay if you have staff in more than one state, Gusto Simple if you don’t.
- 25 to 50 people: Gusto Plus if your pain is payroll, BambooHR if your pain is HR, and Paylocity if you’ll be above 50 employees within a year.
- 50 to 500 people: Paylocity, ahead of Paycom, ADP and Paycor, for the support, the single employee record and the accounting integrations.
- 500 and up: look at UKG Pro, Dayforce or Workday, and spend your energy on the implementation team rather than the feature comparison.
- Hiring abroad without an entity: add an EOR like Deel or Rippling on top, whichever platform you land on.
If you’re in the 50 to 500 range, or heading there, book a Paylocity demo and ask specifically who your account manager would be and how implementation works. That tells you more than any feature list.
FAQ
What is the best HR and payroll software?
It depends on how many people you employ. For 50 to 500 employees, my top pick is Paylocity. Under 25 employees, Gusto Simple (one state) or OnPay (multiple states) is enough. From 25 to 50, pick Gusto Plus if payroll is the pain or BambooHR if HR is. Above 500, look at UKG Pro, Dayforce or Workday.
What is the best payroll software for a small business?
For under 25 employees, Gusto Simple and OnPay both cost $49 per month plus $6 per person. Gusto Simple is single-state only, while OnPay includes multi-state payroll at no extra cost, so OnPay is the better deal if you have people in more than one state.
How much does Paylocity cost?
Paylocity doesn’t publish its prices. You get a quote based on your headcount, the states you’re in and the modules you choose. Third-party research puts a full setup at roughly $22 to $32 per employee per month, but that isn’t a figure Paylocity has confirmed.
Paylocity vs Paycom: which is better?
For most companies with 50 to 500 employees, I’d pick Paylocity. It scored higher on G2 for quality of support (8.7 versus 8.5 out of 10), gives you a dedicated account manager, and connects directly to QuickBooks Online, NetSuite and Sage Intacct. Paycom is a closed system, so a live accounting connection needs an extra tool.
Does BambooHR include payroll?
Not in the plan price. BambooHR’s HR plans cost $10 to $25 per employee per month, and payroll is a separate paid add-on that only covers US employees.
How do I pay employees in another country?
If you have a legal entity in that country, Paylocity can run global payroll through Blue Marble. If you don’t, add an employer of record like Deel (from about $599 per employee per month), which legally employs those people for you and sends you one invoice.