Justworks Alternatives in 2026: PEOs and Payroll for Small Teams

A Justworks alternative is either another professional employer organization (PEO), which co-employs your staff to pool benefits, workers' comp and compliance, or a payroll service that leaves you as the sole employer. Justworks sells both: a Payroll plan with a monthly base fee, and two PEO plans above it.

HRpresso data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, lists 8 alternatives to Justworks as of October 2026, and none of the 8 has a free plan (Toolradar's Justworks alternatives). Switching from Justworks is therefore a choice between paid models, and the useful comparison is per-employee cost for the services you actually use.

How we ranked: we read Justworks' pricing page and each alternative's US pricing or product page in October 2026. Order weighs price transparency for a small team, how much of the Justworks PEO bundle each option replaces, and fit for companies under 50 employees.

In a PEO, the provider becomes the co-employer of record for payroll taxes and benefits, which is how a 10-person company gets access to large-group health plans. Justworks PEO Basic covers payroll, compliance, HR tools and 401(k), and PEO Plus adds medical, dental and vision administration, HSA and FSA accounts and fertility benefits, per its pricing page. Our Justworks review covers the service side.

A payroll service such as Gusto or OnPay runs pay, tax filings and new-hire reporting, but you stay the only employer and buy benefits through a broker. That costs far less per head, and it suits teams whose benefits are simple or not yet offered. Our guide to what a PEO costs explains when the PEO premium pays for itself.

The PEO fee is only part of the bill. Health premiums sit on top of every plan here, and some PEOs build workers' comp and payroll taxes into one invoice, which makes like-for-like comparison hard. TriNet's pricing page, for example, says its per-employee fee generally covers payroll, HR expertise, benefits administration and workers' comp administration, while medical, dental and vision premiums are separate.

Leaving a PEO also has a timing cost. Benefits move with the co-employer, so a mid-year switch can restart deductibles for employees. Plan the move for your benefits renewal date, and read our Justworks pricing breakdown and Gusto vs Justworks before you give notice.

Prices read in October 2026. Justworks charges $8 per employee plus a $50 base fee on Payroll, $79 per employee on PEO Basic and $124 per employee on PEO Plus, with no base fee on either PEO plan. Its Global EOR plan is $599 per employee, and add-ons include dedicated HR consulting at $30 per employee. Source: Justworks pricing.

For 10 employees, by our arithmetic: Justworks Payroll is $130 a month, PEO Basic $790 and PEO Plus $1,240. Deel PEO starts at $1,250. Gusto Plus comes to $200 and OnPay Payroll Essentials to $109. Over a year that is $9,480 on Justworks PEO Basic against $2,400 on Gusto Plus. That gap is the price of co-employment, so it only makes sense if your team uses the pooled benefits. Health premiums are extra in every case. Sources: Deel pricing, Gusto pricing and OnPay pricing.

TriNet, ADP TotalSource and Insperity publish no list price. TriNet's pricing page says it does not publish standard list pricing, ADP says TotalSource is quoted rather than listed, and Rippling's pricing page gives only a per-employee starting point for its platform, not a PEO rate. Compare quotes with our PEO services ranking.