Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026
Best HR & Payroll Software (2026)
The cheapest hr & payroll software is Deel at $5/mo. This page compares 9 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.
9 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest: Deel at $5/mo (Deel HR (Core HR)).
- Typical paid price: from $5/mo, median $13.50/mo, up to $50/mo — across 8 with published pricing.
- Tracked: 9 vendors, data current through 2026-06-15.
Comparison
| # | HR & Payroll Software | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | SOC 2 | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deel | $5/mo Deel HR (Core HR) | No | — | Yes | Companies hiring internationally across 110+ countries | deel.com |
| 2 | Square Payroll | $6/mo Contractor-Only Payroll | No | — | — | Square POS merchants (restaurants, retail, services) wanting payroll in one ecosystem | squareup.com |
| 3 | Rippling | $8/mo Platform (per-user starting price) | No | — | Yes | Mid-market companies wanting HR + IT unified | rippling.com |
| 4 | BambooHR | $10/mo Core | No | — | — | SMBs (25–500 employees) standardizing their HRIS | bamboohr.com |
| 5 | Patriot Software | $17/mo Basic Payroll | No | — | Yes | Very small businesses (under 20 employees) on a tight budget | patriotsoftware.com |
| 6 | Gusto | $35/mo Contractor Only | No | — | — | US-based SMBs running their first payroll | gusto.com |
| 7 | OnPay | $49/mo Payroll Essentials | No | — | Yes | Small businesses wanting simple, transparent payroll pricing | onpay.com |
| 8 | Justworks | $50/mo Payroll | No | — | — | US startups and SMBs that want big-company benefits at PEO rates | justworks.com |
| 9 | ADP RUN | — | No | — | Yes | Small businesses (1–49 employees) wanting a household-name payroll brand | quote-only |
Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest hr & payroll software?
Deel has the lowest published entry price at $5/mo (Deel HR (Core HR)), as of 2026-06-15.
How much does hr & payroll software cost per month?
Across the 8 hr & payroll software with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $13.50/mo, ranging from $5/mo to $50/mo, as of 2026-06-15. 1 are quote-only.
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How we compiled this
Published self-serve pricing was collected from each provider's pricing page (or, where the official page blocked automated fetching, from a reputable corroborating source that quoted the published figures) and independently re-verified against live sources on 2026-06-13. Most HR/payroll vendors price as a flat monthly base plus a per-employee/per-person fee, or purely per-seat; per-seat prices are noted with billingModel per_seat and the per-user figure placed in monthlyUsd with a note. Tiers that are sales-quote-only (no published price) have monthlyUsd set to null. Every figure shown was confirmed on a live source; nothing is invented. QuickBooks Payroll was dropped during re-verification because its plan figures could not be confirmed on any single reliable live page (the official page was unreachable and third-party sources disagreed with each other and with the prior figures, compounded by a pending July 2026 price change).
Last verified 2026-06-15. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.
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