What Payroll Costs for a Business With One Employee (2026)

For a business paying one employee, Patriot Software publishes the lowest price of the providers covered here: $21 a month on Basic Payroll or $42 a month on Full Service, as of October 6, 2026. If the business does not yet have an employer identification number, payroll cannot start, so begin with ZenBusiness: it obtains the EIN ($99 on its own, included from its Pro plan) and refers customers to RUN Powered by ADP, which ADP prices, bills and supports separately.

What does payroll cost for one employee in 2026?

Most payroll providers charge a monthly base fee plus a charge for each person paid, so with one employee the bill is the two added together. At this size the base fee is most of the cost, and a low per-person rate matters far less than it will at ten employees.

The table below lists the options alphabetically, which is not a ranking. Prices come from each provider's own pricing page as of October 6, 2026. Annual figures are the one-employee monthly cost multiplied by twelve and leave out any promotion.

The spread is wide. One employee on Patriot's Basic Payroll costs $252 a year, while the cheapest QuickBooks bundle costs $1,134, a gap of $882. That is not a direct comparison, though, because the QuickBooks figure includes accounting software.

The options, in alphabetical order

ADP

ADP does not publish payroll pricing and quotes each business individually, so the cost of one employee is only knowable after a conversation with ADP. For a business that wants a number first, that is a real drawback. Its small-business product, RUN Powered by ADP, is built for businesses with 1 to 49 employees and is the service ZenBusiness refers its customers to.

Best for: a business comfortable getting a custom quote, particularly one arriving through ZenBusiness, where promotional pricing may be available.

Gusto

Gusto publishes three plans as of October 6, 2026: Simple at $49 a month plus $6 per person, Plus at $80 plus $12, and Premium at $180 plus $22. For one employee that works out to $55, $92 or $202 a month. On Simple, $49 of the $55 is the base fee.

Best for: a business that expects to add people and wants published tiers to move up through.

OnPay

OnPay publishes a single price: $49 a month plus $6 per worker, as of October 6, 2026. Its pricing page quotes a starting price of $55 a month, which is exactly the one-worker figure and the same as Gusto's Simple plan.

Best for: a business that wants one published price rather than a choice of tiers.

Patriot Software

As of October 6, 2026, Basic Payroll form Patriot Software costs $17 a month plus $4 per employee, which is $21 for one person, and Full Service costs $37 plus $5, which is $42. The two tiers include different services, so compare what each covers on Patriot's pricing page before choosing on price alone.

Best for: an already formed business with an EIN that wants a basic tier and a full-service tier from the same provider.

QuickBooks Payroll

QuickBooks Payroll is sold in bundles with QuickBooks Online accounting plans, as the plan names show. As of October 6, 2026, Workforce Payroll with Simple Start costs $88 a month plus $6.50 per employee, or $94.50 for one person. With Essentials it is $131.50, and Workforce Premium with Plus is $213. A promotional rate of 50% off the base fee brings the Simple Start bundle to $50.50 a month for the first three months only.

Best for: a business that wants its books and payroll on one QuickBooks bill and accepts paying more for that.

SurePayroll

SurePayroll starts at $29 a month plus $7 per worker as of October 6, 2026, which is $36 for one person. A multi-state add-on costs $9.99 a month, and household payroll is priced separately from $39 a month. "From" is an entry price, so check what the entry tier covers before comparing it with Patriot's Full Service.

Best for: a low-priced service, and households paying one employee.

ZenBusiness

ZenBusiness does not run payroll. It sells the setup payroll depends on, and its prices as of October 6, 2026 are Starter at $0 plus state fees, Pro at $199 a year and Premium at $299 a year. The EIN and an operating agreement are included from Pro up and cost $99 each on Starter. It also offers a registered agent at $199 a year, Money Pro bookkeeping at $30 a month and a website at $129 a year.

Payroll comes through its partnership with ADP, quoted and billed by ADP and not included in any ZenBusiness plan price. State formation fees are set by the state, vary, and are separate from ZenBusiness's own price.

Best for: a business that is not yet formed, or has no EIN, and wants formation, compliance and bookkeeping in one place, with payroll handled by a partner.

What has to be in place before the first paycheck?

A payroll provider can only run payroll for a business set up as an employer, and the EIN is the hard dependency. The IRS issues EINs directly at no charge, as its "Get an Employer Identification Number" page makes clear, so paying for one is paying for someone to handle the application, usually as part of forming the business.

That is where ZenBusiness fits: it forms the entity and obtains the EIN. Through its ADP partnership, ZenBusiness also lets a customer request a payroll connection from its dashboard. An ADP representative follows up to discuss employee count and pay schedule, then ADP quotes, and ZenBusiness customers may be eligible for promotional pricing confirmed in that consultation. In ZenBusiness's own words, ADP is a separate service with its own platform, billing and support, so payroll runs in ADP's system, not in the ZenBusiness dashboard.

Once the EIN exists, the paperwork for the one hire is short. The IRS "Hiring Employees" page says all U.S. employers must complete Form I-9 for every person they hire for employment in the United States. It also says to ask each new employee for a signed Form W-4 when they start, and to make it effective with the first wage payment.

That W-4 stays in effect until the employee gives the employer a new one. When a replacement arrives, the IRS says withholding under it should begin no later than the start of the first payroll period ending on or after the 30th day from receiving it. The employer also needs the employee's name and Social Security number for Form W-2.

Is the one worker an employee or a contractor?

This question changes the cost more than any provider choice does. A contractor is generally paid outside payroll, so calling the one worker a contractor can look like it removes the payroll bill entirely. The IRS is clear that the label and the contract do not decide it.

On its "Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee?" page, the IRS groups the evidence into three categories: behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship. It adds that there is no "magic" or set number of factors that settles the question, and that no single factor decides it on its own.

Getting this wrong has a price. The IRS says an employer that classifies an employee as an independent contractor without a reasonable basis may be held liable for employment taxes for that worker. A business that is unsure can file Form SS-8 to ask the IRS to determine status, but the IRS says a determination may take at least six months.

What if the one employee is the owner?

If the business is an S corporation, the IRS says it must pay reasonable compensation to a shareholder-employee for their services before non-wage distributions can be made. That compensation is wages, so it runs through payroll. The IRS can also reclassify payments made to shareholders from non-wage distributions to wages, as it sets out on its "S Corporation Compensation and Medical Insurance Issues" page.

For an S corporation owner, then, the payroll subscription is part of the cost of the structure, and the per-person fee in the table above applies to the owner like any other employee.

How often does one employee have to be paid?

Where a state sets a pay frequency, the rule comes from state law, not from the provider, and it varies widely. The U.S. Department of Labor’s “State Payday Requirements” page shows the range: in California, wages must generally be paid at least twice per calendar month on days designated in advance, with some exceptions by occupation, and Connecticut requires weekly pay unless the labor commissioner approves a longer interval. The same page lists Alabama and Florida as having no requirement or none specified.

In Colorado, state law requires pay at least monthly, so paying more often is allowed. Because the federal table is a summary, the Labor Department itself says individuals should consult the relevant state labor office for official information.

The published prices in the table above are monthly subscriptions, and none is quoted per pay run. A business getting a quote, from ADP in particular, should still state its required pay schedule up front.

What does the subscription price leave out?

The provider's fee is the cost of processing payroll, not the payroll taxes themselves, which are owed whichever provider files them. This page does not state tax rates because they change and depend on the business.

Workers' compensation and state unemployment are set state by state. The Small Business Administration's "Hire and Manage Employees" guide lists workers' compensation among the steps alongside the federal ones. Requirements differ sharply between states, so the state labor and insurance agencies are the place to check, and these costs sit outside any payroll subscription.

Recordkeeping carries on after the paycheck goes out. The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #21 says payroll records under the Fair Labor Standards Act must be kept for three years, and the records wage computations are based on, including time cards and wage rate tables, for two. A provider that stores pay history makes this easier, but responsibility stays with the employer.

Which payroll service makes sense for one employee?

For a business that is already formed and has an EIN, the published one-employee prices as of October 6, 2026 are $55 at Gusto or OnPay, $21 or $42 at Patriot Software depending on the tier, $94.50 at QuickBooks Payroll once its promotion ends, and $36 at SurePayroll. Outside QuickBooks, the gaps are small enough that what each tier includes should decide between them.

The QuickBooks premium makes sense mainly for a business that wants accounting on the same bill. ADP cannot be costed without a quote.

For a business that has not yet formed, or has no EIN, the order of operations matters more than the choice of tool: form the entity, get the EIN, open a separate business account, then pick payroll. ZenBusiness handles the entity and the EIN and refers payroll to ADP, which runs it as a separate service with its own platform and billing. Any provider above can take over once an EIN exists.

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