OnPay Review 2026: Payroll Pricing, Pros, Cons and Alternatives

OnPay is worth opening when a second US state should not push payroll onto a higher plan. The base product files taxes wherever you pay people, so the published rate is already the multi-state rate.

An HR suite and a time clock start on the add-on menu, and that menu is the part most buyers leave out of the first quote.

People ops leads, office managers, and founders who still run payday should use this comparison to decide whether the base plan is the product they need.

The set is Gusto, Patriot Software, Square Payroll, Zoho Payroll, and QuickBooks Workforce, each with a published US rate, and the wider shortlist is on payroll software.

Toolradar data: OnPay's entry plan ranks 23rd of 29, tied, among Payroll tools with a verified entry price and no unit on that price, and the median in that group is $25 a month, as of October 2026. The comparison uses the base fee only, not the worker fee.

Toolradar tracks 74 payroll tools as of October 17, 2026, and the OnPay profile is in that directory.

How we compared: OnPay's payroll pricing page, paychecks page, and about page, plus the pricing pages for Gusto, Patriot, Square, Zoho Payroll, and QuickBooks Workforce, read on October 17, 2026. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, checked the totals.

Ten-person totals are our multiplication of printed rates, except Patriot's 10-worker examples, which that page prints itself. The method is on how we rate, and this page has no sponsored placement.

OnPay is a US payroll service that calculates pay, files payroll taxes, and pays employees and contractors, with HR and time tracking sold as add-ons. The base fee covers payday and filings, and an HR desk is a second invoice.

The buyer is a small US employer, not a global workforce platform, and the pricing page is built around the 50 states, with company background on the about page.

Payroll Essentials is the only base plan, so there is no cheaper published tier and no richer tier that includes a clock. Full-service payroll, unlimited pay runs, and year-end forms are in the fee, and W-2 and 1099 workers can share a run.

You can pay people in as many states as you need at no additional cost, including automatic state tax registration and local withholding, so a remote hire stays on this card.

Hiring paperwork is on the same plan, so offer letters, I-9s, and W-4s can be e-signed and state new-hire reporting does not require the HR add-on.

An accountant can be granted access so the ledger syncs after each run, and there is no implementation fee or integration fee, which means a switch does not open with a setup bill.

Benefits administration is on the base plan, which matters if you had a separate admin fee in the budget. Health, dental, vision, life, disability, HSA, FSA, and commuter benefits can be administered there, and workers' compensation and 401(k) are pay-the-premium products.

The pricing footer names OnPay Insurance Agency, LLC, California license 0L29422, the broker rather than the carrier, and you pay the premiums.

PTO accrual policies are on Essentials, while requests, the org chart, equipment tracking, onboarding lists, and the clock sit on add-ons. Licensed HR support and the compliance library are separate again, so a base-plan quote does not include approvals.

The pricing page says setup and the migration of prior wages and employee data are free, with expert-led configuration before the first run, so a mid-year switch is part of the offer rather than a January project.

You are billed for the people you actually pay that month, which means a seasonal worker who sits out a cycle should leave that cycle's fee.

OnPay calculates gross pay, overtime, bonuses, deductions, and garnishments, and you can preview, edit, or cancel before money moves. An extra bonus run does not add a per-run charge, so a spot bonus is not a second subscription.

Direct deposit, a check, or a prepaid card are the pay methods, and tax payments plus year-end forms are the full-service half of the same fee.

Support on Essentials is phone, email, and live chat for every client, from 9am to 8pm on weekdays, so a payroll question does not wait on a higher tier. Questions for a licensed HR expert belong on the Live HR Support add-on, not on that payroll line.

If OnPay makes a filing mistake, it says it will deal with the tax agency, and no dollar cap is printed on that promise, so ask before you treat it as insurance.

Time tracking brings clocks, geofencing, overtime rules, breaks, and an approval step that syncs hours into payroll, which is what an hourly team is actually buying. The HR add-on brings onboarding workflows, a directory, org charts, equipment records, and PTO requests.

Both add-ons list PTO approvals, so do not buy both for that single job.

Compliance Resources is the alert library, and Live HR Support is the licensed desk, so skip it if your questions are only about payroll. The pricing page states no minimum term, while Gusto lets you cancel any month and Square requires no long-term contract.

OnPay leaves that term on the order form, and the first month free is a signup offer rather than a plan you stay on.

The rates below were read on October 17, 2026, on OnPay's pricing page.

The other cards are Gusto, Patriot, Square, Zoho Payroll, and QuickBooks Workforce on the products page.

Ten-person figures are our multiplication unless the sentence says the vendor printed them.

Essentials is a monthly base plus a worker fee, so the bill moves when you pay more people and stays put when you add a state. The page's own calculator shows $55 a month for one worker, the pre-add-on total for a single employee. At 10 workers the same rate comes to $109 a month, in one state or several.

Gusto Simple, Square full-service, and Zoho Standard's monthly worker fee all use that same $6, so the per-person charge is not where these cards separate.

The paychecks page says you pay only for the employees you run payroll for that month, on top of the monthly base, so a thinner run should cost less than a full roster.

The HR add-on and time tracking each open with a $15 base, which makes either one a second subscription.

Compliance Resources is a flat monthly fee for a team that wants the library without a per-worker climb.

Live HR Support is the expensive desk, a flat monthly fee with no per-worker charge, so hiring does not raise that flat fee. The hourly bundle, payroll plus time plus HR, is the discount for that trio.

At 10 workers it comes to $170 a month, the hourly-team bill rather than payroll alone. The undiscounted trio is a $79 base plus $12 per worker, so skipping the bundle costs more.

The salaried bundle swaps the clock for compliance resources and live HR support and comes to $190 a month at the same headcount, and that increase is the licensed desk. The growing bundle keeps all five products and comes to $230, the top of the published menu.

Annual billing at Zoho drops each organization fee by $10 a month. Annual per-employee fees are $5 on Standard and $7 on Professional, the discount for a team that can pay yearly.

For a single state and 10 employees, Patriot's own table lists $57 a month on Basic, where you file the taxes, and $87 on Full Service, before 30 days free and half off for three months. Basic is cheaper only if someone on staff will file.

That Full Service figure is the single-state bill to beat, and the promotion is not the rate for the rest of the year.

Square full-service comes to $95, Zoho Standard billed monthly comes to $99, and the Zoho annual card comes to $79. Gusto Simple matches the Essentials total and stays single-state, the same money with a one-state ceiling.

QuickBooks Workforce Payroll comes to $120 before any state tax filing fee. The products page prints the intro base at $25 for three months, and that discount skips the per-employee fee and state filing fees. The page never prints the state-fee amount, so the printed total is not the full filing cost.

A second state is where Essentials earns the sticker. Patriot Full Service adds the extra-state fee to that printed $87, which lands on the same $99 as Zoho Standard's monthly bill, and one remote state erases Patriot's edge there.

Gusto cannot stay on Simple: Plus, the first multi-state tier, comes to $200 a month at 10 people and also includes time tracking and next-day pay, a wider product rather than a small step.

Zoho Professional, the multi-state plan, is $59 plus $8.50 per employee, or $144 a month at 10 employees on monthly billing, which undercuts that Plus bill and does not include a clock. Essentials stays on the same rate, the reason to keep it when a second state is the only change.

QuickBooks Workforce Premium, with time tracking, comes to $218 for those 10 employees, still before a state filing fee.

The hourly OnPay bundle is not the same product as Gusto Plus. Plus includes next-day pay and leaves heavier HR workflows off that tier, while the OnPay bundle includes the HR add-on and the clock and does not list faster deposit.

Square's full-service column marks next-day direct deposit as included, with no separate price, so speed is not an add-on there.

Elite at QuickBooks is the plan with expert setup, and its tax-penalty protection is capped at $25,000 a year. OnPay's guarantee names the tax agency and does not name a cap, so ask whether the promise is broader than that ceiling or less defined.

OnPay's partner page discounts the employer rate by how many payroll clients a firm brings, so do not budget a company from that calculator.

Profiles for Gusto, Patriot, Square, and QuickBooks sit on Toolradar if you want the directory view beside this bill.

Essentials fits a US employer that already pays people in more than one state, or expects to, and wants that filing on the published plan. A 10-person company in two states is the clearest yes, because the total does not change when the second state is real.

The same company in one state will usually find a lower full-service card at Patriot or Square, unless a second state is already on the hiring plan.

Hourly teams should price the bundle, not the base, because the clock is an add-on. PTO requests are not the accrual policy already on Essentials, so buying the HR add-on only to store that policy means paying twice.

A salaried team that wants a licensed HR expert on call is buying Live HR Support, the line that lifts the salaried and growing bundles.

Skip OnPay when the books already live in QuickBooks and finance wants one vendor, when the team is outside the US, or when the job is a co-employer. This is not a PEO, so it will not share employer duties with you.

For a quoted specialist, start with the Rippling review, the ADP review, and the Paychex Flex review.

A team that needs a free tier should read free payroll software first, because the free month ends.

Founders hiring their first employees can move to HR software for startups once payroll is chosen.

Other headcounts are in how much payroll costs, Simple versus Plus is on Gusto pricing, and staffing context is on HR statistics.