Best Nanny Payroll Services 2026: Household Payroll Costs Compared

Paying a nanny on the books turns a family into an employer, and the paperwork is the part most parents underestimate. The IRS says that if you pay one household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages in 2026, you withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, 7.65% from the employee and 7.65% from you, per IRS Publication 926. Add state unemployment, new-hire reporting, a W-2 and Schedule H, and a monthly payroll service starts to look cheap.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 76 payroll tools as of October 20, 2026, and the median cheapest paid plan among the 22 that publish a price is $22 a month, per its payroll ranking. Every full-service household plan on this page costs more than that median, because a household service also registers you with the tax agencies and files on your behalf, work a small-business plan leaves to you.

How we ranked the seven: for a family with one nanny or caregiver paid weekly, on how much of the employer work each service handles, its printed price including setup and year-end fees, and support. Prices were read on each provider's own pricing page on October 21, 2026, and limited-time offers are labelled as such. If you are weighing doing it yourself, read our guide to running payroll yourself first.

A nanny payroll service runs household payroll for a family that employs a nanny, babysitter, caregiver or housekeeper. It registers you for federal and state employer accounts, calculates withholding on each paycheck, pays the employee by direct deposit, files quarterly state returns and deposits, and produces the W-2 for your employee and the Schedule H you attach to your own Form 1040.

The difference from ordinary small-business payroll is who it is built for. A household service assumes you have never been an employer before, so it handles agency registration and talks to state tax offices for you. A DIY tool such as NannyPay calculates the numbers and prints the forms, but you file and pay the taxes yourself.

Mistakes here land on your personal tax return. If you owe household employment taxes and skip them, the IRS says you are generally liable for the tax you should have withheld and paid, plus possible interest and penalties. Federal unemployment tax also applies once you pay $1,000 or more in a quarter, at 6% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, before state credits.

The other reason is your nanny. Wages reported on a W-2 give your employee a work history, Social Security credit and access to unemployment benefits. State rules vary on minimum pay and paid leave, so check the 2026 minimum wage in your state and the 2026 payroll tax rates before you set a rate.

For one nanny paid all year at list price, the first-year subscription cost, our arithmetic from each provider's printed prices, runs from $199.95 to more than $2,000. SurePayroll is the cheapest full-service option at $468 a year (12 months at its monthly price), then Poppins at $588, HomePay Essentials at $708, Nanny Lane at $720 and GTM EasyPay from $840. HomePay Plus comes to $900 a year.

HomeWork Solutions costs more once its fees are in: Guided comes to $958 in year one, Complete to $1,390 and Premier to $2,110, each including the $120 enrollment and $130 year-end fees. GTM's year-end service is optional and priced outside the monthly plan, so add it to GTM's figure before you compare. With a second employee, Poppins comes to $708 a year and GTM EasyPay to $1,080, again our arithmetic.

Sources, checked October 21, 2026: HomePay pricing, Poppins pricing, SurePayroll household pricing, GTM pricing, Nanny Lane payroll, HomeWork Solutions pricing and NannyPay pricing. A SurePayroll six-months-free household promotion ran until October 31, 2026, per its promotion terms; check its site for current offers. SurePayroll is part of Paychex, which has a Toolradar profile, and our SurePayroll review covers its business plans.