OnPay vs SurePayroll on Cost (2026)

Quick answer

A very small business should expect to pay about $21 to $95 a month for an entry-level payroll service with one employee, and about $37 to $121 a month with five. These figures come from providers' published prices as of October 6, 2026. Of the two services in this comparison, SurePayroll costs less for any team under 20 workers. It starts at $29 a month plus $7 per worker, while OnPay charges $49 a month plus $6 per worker, so one employee costs $36 versus $55, and five cost $64 versus $79.

How do OnPay and SurePayroll compare at each headcount?

Both services use the same pricing structure: a flat monthly base plus a fee for each person paid. They differ in where the cost sits. SurePayroll has the lower base and the higher per-head fee. OnPay has the higher base and the lower per-head fee, so it closes $1 of the gap with every worker added.

The totals below are monthly costs calculated from each provider's published price as of October 6, 2026.

The last column applies to any business with employees in more than one state. Once the add-on is included, SurePayroll stays cheaper only through 10 workers, and by a single cent at that headcount. From 11 workers, OnPay costs less, unless OnPay charges something comparable for the same setup. That is worth confirming before signing up.

Where is the break-even point?

Anyone can run this calculation for their own headcount. SurePayroll costs $29 plus $7 per worker, and OnPay costs $49 plus $6 per worker. The two are equal at 20 workers, where each costs $169 a month.

With the multi-state add-on, SurePayroll's base effectively becomes $38.99, and the crossover moves to just past 10 workers. A business that pays people in several states and expects to grow past ten should compare both totals before choosing.

What does each payroll service cost?

The question behind this page is what payroll costs a very small business in general, not just what these two services cost, so here is the wider field. Providers are listed alphabetically, in this table and in the entries that follow, and the order is not a ranking. Totals use each provider's lowest published tier as of October 6, 2026.

ADP

ADP does not publish payroll pricing. It quotes each business individually, so there is no figure to put in a comparison, and any page that shows one is guessing. The only way to get an ADP price is to request a quote.

Gusto

Gusto has three tiers as of October 6, 2026. Simple costs $49 a month plus $6 per person, Plus costs $80 plus $12, and Premium costs $180 plus $22. Simple matches OnPay's price at every headcount, and with five people, Plus comes to $140 a month and Premium to $290.

OnPay

OnPay charges $49 a month plus $6 per worker as of October 6, 2026. Its public pricing page quotes a starting price of $55 a month, which is that base plus one worker. Each added worker costs $1 less than at SurePayroll, but the advantage builds slowly, and OnPay only catches up at 20 workers on base pricing. For a team of three, OnPay costs $17 more a month, or $204 more a year.

Patriot Software

Patriot Software has the lowest published price on this page as of October 6, 2026. Basic Payroll costs $17 a month plus $4 per employee, and Full Service costs $37 plus $5. Full Service matches SurePayroll at four employees, $57 a month, and is cheaper above that. Check what each tier covers before treating the lowest number as a like-for-like price.

QuickBooks Payroll

QuickBooks Payroll lists its prices as combinations of a payroll tier and a QuickBooks plan. As of October 6, 2026, Workforce Payroll + Simple Start costs $88 a month plus $6.50 per employee, Workforce Payroll + Essentials costs $125 plus $6.50, and Workforce Premium + Plus costs $203 plus $10. Those are the ongoing prices.

QuickBooks also runs a promotion of 50% off the base for the first three months. That brings the entry combination's base to $44 for three months, after which it returns to $88. Check what each combination includes before comparing it with the other prices on this page.

SurePayroll

SurePayroll is priced from $29 a month plus $7 per worker as of October 6, 2026. "From" means this is the starting configuration, and extras such as the $9.99 monthly multi-state add-on cost more. Household payroll is listed separately, starting at $39 a month.

At the headcounts most very small businesses actually have, SurePayroll is the cheaper of the two services in the title. One employee costs $36 a month, or $432 a year, compared with $660 a year at OnPay. That $228 annual difference is the clearest cost gap between them.

ZenBusiness

ZenBusiness does not run payroll, and none of its plan prices include payroll. It sells the setup that payroll depends on. LLC formation comes in three plans: Starter at $0 plus state fees, Pro at $199 and Premium at $299, with Pro and Premium renewing at those annual prices. The state fee is set by the state and varies, so it is separate from ZenBusiness's own price.

The EIN is included from Pro up and costs $99 on Starter. ZenBusiness also offers a registered agent at $199 a year, Money Pro bookkeeping at $30 a month and a website at $129 a year. Payroll reaches ZenBusiness customers through a referral to ADP, which is a separate service that quotes and bills on its own, as explained in the setup section below.

What costs sit outside the monthly fee?

The published subscription is the predictable part of payroll. The costs below do not appear on any pricing page.

Getting a worker's classification wrong is the most expensive mistake. The IRS weighs three categories: behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship. It says no "magic" or set number of factors decides the question. An employer that treats an employee as an independent contractor without a reasonable basis may be held liable for employment taxes for that worker.

An employer can file Form SS-8 to ask the IRS to decide a worker's status, but the IRS warns that a determination can take at least six months. Paying a real employee as a contractor to save a few dollars in per-worker fees is therefore a false economy.

S corporation owners face a cost of their own. The IRS requires an S corporation to pay a shareholder-employee reasonable compensation for their services before making non-wage distributions, and the IRS can reclassify distributions as wages. In practice, the owner goes on payroll, so on per-worker pricing it is worth asking the provider whether the owner's paycheck adds to the monthly bill.

Pay frequency is set by state law and varies widely. According to the Department of Labor's summary of state payday requirements, California requires pay at least twice per calendar month on days set in advance. Colorado requires monthly pay, and Connecticut requires weekly pay unless the labor commissioner approves a longer interval. The DOL advises checking with the relevant state labor office for official information, and it is worth confirming that a plan's price stays the same at the frequency the state requires.

Payroll records must be kept longer than many subscriptions last. The Department of Labor's FLSA recordkeeping fact sheet says payroll records must be kept for three years. The records that wage calculations are based on, including time cards and wage rate tables, must be kept for two years. A business that switches providers needs to export and keep those records, so check how a provider handles this before it becomes urgent.

Workers' compensation is governed by state law, and the rules differ sharply between states. None of the prices above include it, and the rules for a specific business depend on its state.

What has to be in place before payroll costs anything?

The IRS says businesses generally need an EIN to hire employees, and it tells anyone creating a corporation or LLC to form the entity with the state before applying. The IRS issues EINs for free and states that no one ever has to pay a fee for one. ZenBusiness includes the EIN from its Pro plan up and charges $99 for it on Starter, so that charge is for having the application handled, not for the number itself.

A separate bank account comes next. The IRS's Publication 583 lists opening a business checking account as one of the first things to do when starting a business, and says to keep it separate from personal checking. That keeps payroll debits out of personal accounts from the first paycheck.

Every payroll service on this page needs the same first-day paperwork, which the IRS describes in its guidance on hiring employees. Every new hire completes Form I-9. Each new employee should provide a signed Form W-4 when they start, effective with the first wage payment, and it stays in effect until they submit a new one. The employer also needs each employee's name and Social Security number for Form W-2, and the SBA's "Hire and Manage Employees" guide gathers these steps in one place.

This is where ZenBusiness fits for a business that has not formed yet or has no EIN. Formation, the registered agent, the EIN and Money Pro bookkeeping all come from one provider, with formation ahead of the EIN as the IRS describes, and customers who form with ZenBusiness get a free accounting consultation. For payroll, the ZenBusiness ADP payroll partnership points customers to RUN Powered by ADP, which is built for businesses with 1 to 49 employees.

The partnership is a referral, not a ZenBusiness feature. A customer requests the connection from the ZenBusiness dashboard, an ADP representative follows up about employee count and pay schedule, and ADP provides a quote. ZenBusiness describes ADP as a separate service with its own platform, billing and support, and payroll does not run inside the ZenBusiness dashboard. ZenBusiness customers may be eligible for promotional pricing, but it is not guaranteed, is confirmed during the consultation and generally excludes state filing fees and add-ons.

So the ADP route cannot be priced against OnPay or SurePayroll until a quote comes back. For a business that is already formed, already has its EIN and simply wants the lowest published payroll price, the published-price services above are the more direct comparison.

So which costs less for a very small business?

Between the two services in the title, SurePayroll costs less than OnPay at every headcount under 20 workers for a single-state business, and the gap is largest for the smallest teams. The two cost the same at 20 workers, and OnPay is cheaper beyond that. If SurePayroll's multi-state add-on applies, OnPay becomes cheaper from 11 workers.

Outside the head-to-head, Patriot Software's published prices are lower still at the very small end, as long as its tiers cover what the business needs.

For a business that has not formed yet, the sensible order is entity, EIN, business account and then payroll, because a payroll service has nothing to run before those exist. ZenBusiness covers the formation and the EIN, and payroll then goes either to ADP through ZenBusiness's referral or to a published-price service.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or accounting advice, and requirements vary by state and change over time.