QuickBooks Payroll Review

Intuit renamed its payroll line QuickBooks Workforce in 2026, and the tiers are now Workforce Payroll, Workforce Premium and Workforce Elite. The names changed; the model did not. You still pay a base fee plus a per-employee fee, and the base fee doubles, then nearly triples, as you climb. Toolradar data: QuickBooks is listed as an alternative to 95 tools, more than any other product among the 74 payroll tools in Toolradar's October 2026 ranking, the software directory we run. That is the cross-shopping position of a default, which is what this review tests.

Below we price the three Workforce plans against Gusto, OnPay, Patriot and Square Payroll for a 10-person and a 25-person team, and we flag the two fees the pricing page does not put on the plan card. Every price was read on Intuit's own pricing pages in October 2026.

QuickBooks Workforce is Intuit's full-service payroll for US employers, sold on its own or bundled with QuickBooks Online accounting. Every tier calculates, files and pays federal and state payroll taxes, runs auto payroll for salaried staff on direct deposit, e-files 1099s for contractors and comes with phone and chat support. Employees get a portal and the Workforce app for pay stubs, W-2s and their own tax and bank details.

What separates the tiers is money movement and HR depth. Workforce Payroll pays by next-day direct deposit. Workforce Premium moves to same-day deposit and adds time tracking, scheduling, hiring and onboarding and an expert review of your setup. Workforce Elite has an expert do the setup for you, adds tax penalty protection, unlimited HR workflows, performance management and a personal HR advisor through Mineral. Health benefits come through Allstate, 401(k) through Vestwell and workers' comp through NEXT, each priced separately.

Checkout is a three-step configurator: pick a payroll plan, add accounting or skip it, then pay. There is no trial on the payroll pricing page. Instead the base fee is 50% off for three months, so Workforce Payroll bills $25 a month plus the full per-employee fee until month four, when the base fee doubles back to list. An existing QuickBooks Online subscriber adds Workforce from inside the app without a new checkout.

Day to day, payroll runs on a schedule you set. Hourly time comes from the Workforce app or kiosk on Premium and Elite, or from a connected time tool on the entry plan. Intuit's Payroll AI pulls hours in, flags anomalies and stages the run for approval. Taxes are debited and filed automatically, and the Elite tier's tax penalty protection covers IRS penalties and interest up to $25,000 a year if a filing goes wrong, with Intuit's tax resolution team representing you.

QuickBooks lists three standalone Workforce plans, each a base fee plus a per-employee fee per month: Workforce Payroll at $50 plus $7, Workforce Premium at $88 plus $13 and Workforce Elite at $134 plus $17. Every base fee is 50% off for the first three months, with no annual contract and cancellation at any time. Prices were checked in October 2026 on the QuickBooks Workforce payroll plan page and the QuickBooks Payroll pricing page.

The bundles change the arithmetic. Workforce Payroll plus Simple Start accounting lists at $38 above the standalone entry base fee, plus $6.50 per employee, Workforce Payroll plus Essentials at $125 plus the same head fee, and Workforce Premium plus Plus at $203 plus $10 per employee. The bundle per-employee fee is lower than the standalone one, so a business that was going to buy QuickBooks Online anyway saves on every head.

Scenario one, 10 employees in one state, list prices after the discount ends: Workforce Payroll costs $120 a month and Premium $218. The same team pays $109 on Gusto Simple ($49 plus $6 per person), $109 on OnPay, $95 on Square Payroll ($35 base plus the same head fee) and $87 on Patriot Full Service ($37 plus $5 per worker). Scenario two, 25 employees: Workforce Payroll is $225, Gusto Simple and OnPay $199, Square $185 and Patriot $162. QuickBooks sits at the top of the price band in both cases, by $11 to $33 a month at 10 heads and by $26 to $63 at 25.

Two charges sit off the plan card. Background checks through Checkr start at $29.99 per report, and benefits administration on Elite is listed as limited availability with additional fees. Methodology: list prices read on each vendor's pricing page in October 2026, in USD before tax, with the scenario arithmetic shown. Competitor prices come from the Gusto Simple, OnPay, Patriot and Square Payroll pricing pages.

Buy QuickBooks Payroll if your books already live in QuickBooks Online and you want payroll journal entries, contractor payments and 1099s to land in the ledger without an integration to babysit. The bundles make that case on price too, because the per-employee fee drops below the standalone rate the moment accounting is on the same bill.

Buy Elite only for one of two reasons: you are switching providers mid-year and want an expert to enter the year-to-date figures, or you want the penalty guarantee because your business has been fined before. Otherwise Premium covers the hourly-team needs (time clock, scheduling, same-day deposit) at a base fee that is $46 lower.

Skip it if you keep books elsewhere or have no bookkeeping software at all. At 10 or 25 employees, Gusto and OnPay cost less with full tax filing included, Square Payroll is cheaper again, and Patriot Full Service undercuts all of them. Our payroll software ranking and payroll cost guide cover that choice in more depth, and the free payroll tools page covers the no-budget end.