Justworks Review

Justworks is the PEO a US people lead opens when finance wants the benefits tier on a page, not after a demo. Plus is worth that page when medical administration is the purchase, and it is a weak buy when you only needed payroll and will not move workers' comp.

This review is for HR, people ops, and founders who still run hiring. It sets Payroll, PEO Basic, and PEO Plus next to Gusto, Deel, Remote, Rippling, and TriNet.

Twelve employees is the headcount used below, and those totals are our multiplication of published rates, not a quote any vendor issued.

Toolradar data: the September 2026 payroll ranking evaluated 71 tools.

The profiles beside this decision are Justworks, Gusto, Deel, Remote, and Rippling.

How we compared: Justworks pricing, PEO, payroll, and help-center billing pages, plus Gusto, Deel, Remote, Rippling, and TriNet, read on 24 September 2026. No vendor paid for a place in this review.

Justworks, founded in 2012, sells payroll and a PEO from the same brand, so confirm which contract you are signing.

The PEO is co-employment: you still direct the work, and Justworks shares payroll, tax, and benefits duties, which means some employer liability moves with the fee. The PEO page says the service is an IRS-certified CPEO and ESAC-accredited, with the IRS disclaimer that certification is not an endorsement.

Payroll is not that contract: the April 2026 explainer says you stay the sole employer, and the January 2026 payroll help article says there is no co-employment. The help article points the product at fewer than 30 people, with room up to 100, often in one or two states.

The marketing page still lists multi-state payroll, so confirm the state note if you already operate widely.

Basic is co-employment without medical administration on the public card: payroll, compliance, HR tools, 24/7 support, and a 401(k), which fits a team that already runs medical elsewhere. Plus adds medical, dental, and vision administration, HSA and FSA accounts, mental health, and fertility.

The public feature list also puts life, disability, commuter benefits, COBRA, and fitness on Plus, so the higher card is benefits work rather than another pay run.

The PEO help article lists life, disability, commuter benefits, and fitness under Basic access, so those two pages disagree. The order form has to name which one controls before you choose Basic.

Co-employment as a category is the PEO services guide, and staying the employer is the payroll software guide.

The pricing page does not produce a checkout total, because the cards are admin fees. Premiums, workers' comp, and add-ons show up after the plan name is chosen, so the card is an admin budget rather than the amount you will send.

Payroll day to day is multi-state pay, multiple rates, off-cycle runs, tips, tax filings, W-2 and 1099 forms, onboarding, basic timecards, and PTO, with accounting integrations so the run can post to the ledger. That is the work included when you stay the employer.

PEO admin fees are monthly, and new customers may prepay the first year before the account returns to monthly billing, which pulls that cash forward. Justworks says you can switch plans and does not print a penalty, so ask before you treat a midyear move as free.

Workers' comp is the clause that changes the insurance file. PEO employees must sit on Justworks' master policy where the state allows a private carrier, and you cannot opt out except in limited carve-outs. Each payment calculates the charge, the policy renews in June, and North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, and Wyoming use a state fund.

An existing policy will likely mean two bills until you cancel the old one, while payroll customers can buy coverage through Justworks or outside.

Leaving later is a filing change: Justworks' move-off guide says the PEO files taxes under its EIN, and a payroll provider files under yours, with workers' comp back on a policy you buy. Do not sign Plus for one open enrollment you could have run elsewhere.

A full-time hire abroad is not a Payroll setting, because EOR is a Basic and Plus add-on and international contractors are a separate fee on all three plans. Fee changes are flagged in the HRpresso brief.

Twelve full-time employees are $1,488 a month on Plus, $948 on Basic, and $146 on Payroll, and a year of Plus admin is $17,856. Plus over Basic is $540 a month, or $6,480 a year, which is medical administration rather than a second payroll screen.

Those totals count full-time W-2 seats only, so anyone else on the account moves the bill.

An unpaid owner is another full-time seat with no wages and no benefits enrollment. A part-timer under 30 hours who is not benefits-eligible pays the Basic rate even on Plus, paid interns follow that rate, and temps are off this admin fee. Leaving temps off the fee does not make an international hire free.

Workers' comp sits outside the admin math, because the PEO calculates it on each payment and will not let a typical customer decline the master policy, so cancel the old policy before both run.

Time tracking matches the payroll per-employee rate on top of the plan, so hourly teams pay a second line. ICHRA is $25 per enrolled employee per month, so twelve enrolled people are $300.

International contractors are $39 per paid contractor, and one EOR employee is $599 a month. That add-on is not sold on Payroll, so a full-time hire abroad forces Basic or Plus first. Dedicated HR consulting is $30 per employee on Basic or Plus, and the US contractor add-on is billed per paid contractor, as the table shows.

Payroll health insurance publishes no list price, so that line cannot be approved from the site. There is no implementation fee, and the first year of admin fees can be prepaid.

Gusto is month to month with free setup, and you stay the employer, which is the comparison when you want to avoid co-employment. Twelve people are $121 on Simple and $224 on Plus.

Simple is single-state, and Plus is where multi-state payroll and time tracking start, so Justworks Payroll can beat that Plus bill when a second state is the only gap.

Gusto Premium for the same twelve is $444 and still does not co-employ anyone.

Deel lists US PEO at $125 per employee per month, so twelve people are $1,500. It says benefits are included and that benefits administration sits in the quoted price, so confirm carrier premiums before you treat that as the whole health bill.

A PEO order from 15 July 2026 through 31 December 2026 on a two-year term can take three months of platform fees as a credit. An early exit means repaying the full list price for the term.

Remote's US PEO starts at $99 per employee per month in USD and needs a US bank account, so the floor is closed without that account. Twelve people at that floor are $1,188, and the floor can move.

Its EOR card is $699 per employee per month, and the setup-fee waiver names HR, EOR, and contractors, not the US PEO, so ask about implementation before you assume it is waived.

Rippling publishes no list price, the platform is required, and some products add a monthly base fee, so payroll alone is still a wider purchase.

TriNet publishes no list price either, and it cites 22,000+ businesses, $70 billion of payroll in 2025 across PEO and HR Plus, ESAC accreditation since 1995, and companies from five people to more than 1,000.

Global work is a separate Multiplier contract, and ADP is the quote when the need is a midsized suite. If you will not co-employ, use the benefits administration guide.

Plus fits a US company that wants medical administration inside co-employment, can move workers' comp onto Justworks, and wants the admin fee before a call. Basic fits when the purchase is co-employment, a 401(k), and 24/7 support, with medical already handled elsewhere.

Do not assume life, disability, or fitness ride on Basic until the order form picks a page.

Payroll fits a company that will stay the employer, including one that needs multi-state pay without Gusto's higher plan. The January 2026 help article aims that product at smaller teams, often in one or two states, so a wide hourly operation should not treat the marketing bullet as a promise.

It is a weak fit when unpaid founders, a large part-time bench, or an owned workers' comp policy will distort the invoice, and when the next hire is abroad. EOR is a different product, on Basic or Plus, and it is not a setting inside Payroll.

Skip Justworks when the project is laptops and app access, which is Rippling on a quote, and skip it when you will wait for a named PEO proposal, which is TriNet. A small team that only needs a published payroll invoice should start with HR software for startups and Gusto.

If the gap is a hiring pipeline, use the HR software guide beside this contract.