ADP RUN Alternatives: 10 Platforms Compared
ADP RUN alternatives compared on published pricing, real cost at 10, 25, and 50 employees, and which platform fits your reason for leaving.
ADP RUN Alternatives
Ten payroll platforms compared on what they publish, what they actually cost at 10, 25, and 50 employees, and which one matches the reason you started looking
Almost nobody shops for a payroll provider because payroll broke. RUN Powered by ADP files taxes in every US jurisdiction, produces W-2 and 1099 forms, and has been doing both for longer than most of the companies on this page have existed. The reason a 20-person business starts looking is smaller and more specific: the invoice grew without an explanation, the one feature they need sits in a package they are not on, the person who set them up stopped answering, or a renewal arrived with terms nobody remembered agreeing to.
That matters for how you shop. If you replace a payroll platform without naming the reason you are leaving, you tend to buy the same shape of product again and repeat the problem 18 months later. A team leaving over cost needs a different answer than a team leaving because scheduling and the time clock live somewhere else.
So this comparison is organized around the reason. Ten platforms, each matched to a situation, with every price taken from the vendor pricing page in August 2026 and a plain note wherever a vendor publishes nothing at all.
Why small businesses leave ADP RUN
Four reasons cover most departures: a price nobody can look up, a feature that sits one package higher, a support relationship that changes after implementation, and contract terms that only become visible at renewal. None of them is a failure of the payroll engine, which is why the switch is usually a fit decision rather than a rescue.
The price is quoted, not published
ADP lists four RUN packages on its own product page: Essential Payroll, Enhanced Payroll, Complete Payroll and HR Plus, and HR Pro Payroll and HR. It lists no price for any of them. Every package routes to a Get Pricing form or a phone number, which means two businesses of identical size can pay materially different amounts and neither can check the other.
The same page advertises three months free for new small business payroll customers. Promotions are normal, but they change what your early invoices tell you. The number worth planning around is the one that applies in month four, and that number does not appear anywhere public. Compare that with the published rate cards on most of the alternatives below, where a 25-person bill can be calculated in ten seconds.
The module you need sits one package up
RUN is tiered, and time tracking and HR tools vary by package. That is a reasonable way to sell software, but it produces a specific frustration for small employers: needing one capability moves the entire account up a tier, and the tier price is quoted rather than posted. You cannot tell in advance whether adding a time clock costs $20 a month or $200.
The support relationship changes after implementation
ADP includes 24/7 support across the RUN packages, which is more than several platforms here offer at any price. The recurring theme in customer reviews is not the availability of support but the difference between the attentive implementation period and the steady state that follows it. If your reason for leaving is that nobody knows your account anymore, note that the vendors who compete on that ground, Paychex Flex and the PEO options, sell service relationships and quote accordingly.
The terms only matter at renewal
Contract length, automatic renewal, and notice periods are not published next to the packages, so the service agreement is the only reliable source. Before signing anything, with ADP or a replacement, get four things in writing: the initial term, whether it renews automatically, how much notice cancellation requires, and the full fee schedule including year-end forms and off-cycle runs.
| If you are leaving because | Look at | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| The bill keeps climbing | Patriot Software | $37 plus $5 per worker paid, published |
| You cannot get a straight price | Gusto or OnPay | Both publish $49 plus $6 per person |
| Features are gated by tier | OnPay | One payroll plan with multi-state and year-end forms in it |
| Scheduling and the clock are missing | Homebase | Payroll attached to scheduling and a time clock |
| You already run a Square register | Square Payroll | $35 plus $6 per person, timecards in one system |
| You mostly pay contractors | Square Payroll | $6 per contractor per month, no base fee |
| Benefits are the real problem | Justworks | PEO pooling with published per-employee rates |
| HR and IT are separate systems | Rippling | One employee record across payroll, HR, and IT |
10 ADP RUN alternatives at a glance
Every platform below can run full-service US payroll with federal, state, and local tax filing, though for Homebase, Rippling, and the TriNet HR Platform payroll is a module or add-on rather than the core product. The columns that separate them are whether the rate card is public, how the price is structured, and what a 25-person payroll actually costs.
| Platform | Best For | Published Price | Pricing Model | Full Rate Published | Cost at 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto | The straightforward replacement | $49 + $6/person | Base + PEPM | $199 | |
| OnPay | One payroll plan, no tiers | $49 + $6/worker | Base + PEPM | $199 | |
| Patriot Software | The lowest published bill | $37 + $5/worker | Base + PEPM | $162 | |
| SurePayroll | Very small and household payrolls | $29 + $7/worker | Base + PEPM | $204 | |
| Square Payroll | Teams already on a Square register | $35 + $6/person | Base + PEPM | $185 | |
| Homebase | Hourly teams needing scheduling | $39 + $6/employee | Add-on + PEPM | $189 | |
| Rippling | Payroll wired to HR and IT | Quote | Quote | Quote | |
| Paychex Flex | A like-for-like service vendor | Quote | Quote | Quote | |
| Justworks | Benefits through a PEO | $50 + $8/employee | Base + PEPM | $250 | |
| TriNet HR Platform | HR first with payroll attached | Quote | Quote | Quote |
How we evaluated these alternatives
Every platform here had to be something a US small business can buy and operate without a dedicated payroll administrator, and had to be a genuine replacement for RUN rather than an adjacent tool. Mid-market and enterprise systems that require an implementation project were left out.
The 10 alternatives reviewed
Gusto is where most small employers land when they leave RUN, and the reason is structural rather than emotional: the price is on the website. Simple is $49 per month plus $6 per person, Plus is $80 plus $12, and Premium is $180 plus $22, all published on the Gusto pricing page. Federal, state, and local tax filing is automatic, unlimited payroll runs are included, and billing is month to month.
The variable to model before you sign is state count. Simple covers a single state, so one hire across a line moves you to Plus and roughly doubles the per-person rate, taking a 25-person payroll from $199 to $380 a month. Plus is also where multi-state payroll and built-in time tracking live, so a team that used the RUN time module should price Plus from the start rather than Simple.
OnPay answers the tier complaint by selling payroll as one plan instead of three. Payroll Essentials is $49 per month plus $6 per worker, and the payroll side is all in it: federal, state, and local tax filing, W-2 and 1099 workers, payroll in multiple states, unlimited pay runs and schedules, benefits administration, and year-end filings. OnPay states plainly that it does not charge extra to pay workers in as many states as you need and adds no implementation or integration fees, which removes most of the line items that make a payroll invoice creep.
Read the add-on line before you assume everything is included, though. HR sits outside the base plan at $15 per month plus $2 per worker, and that is where PTO management, onboarding workflows, org charts, and document storage live, with Compliance Resources at $10 and Live HR Support at $75 on top of that. For a business leaving RUN over surprise charges rather than the headline rate, the payroll side is still the cleanest structure here. The trade-off is depth: a team that wants applicant tracking or learning modules will be buying that elsewhere.
Patriot has the lowest published full-service price in the category. Full Service Payroll is $37 per month plus $5 per worker paid, with federal, state, and local tax filing included. Basic Payroll is $17 plus $4 and leaves the deposits and returns to you, which is a real option for a single-state employer with a simple deposit schedule and a bad month, and a bad idea for everyone else.
Two add-ons are worth pricing up front, because both are things RUN customers often have bundled already: time and attendance is $6 per month plus $2 per employee, and HR software is the same. Additional state filings are $12 per month per state, so a company with people in three states pays $24 a month on top. Even loaded up, it usually lands under the alternatives, and there is a 30-day free trial plus 50 percent off for six months.
SurePayroll has the lowest base fee of any full-service option here at $29 per month, with a $7 per-worker charge that makes it a value play below roughly 15 people and an expensive one above 30. Federal and state tax filing, new hire reporting, unlimited runs, and free two-day direct deposit are included. Multi-state is a flat $9.99 per month rather than a charge per state, which beats per-state pricing for a scattered team, though the page notes a separate fee applies in areas that require local taxes.
Three things to know before you switch. Year-end forms are not in the subscription: SurePayroll bills W-2 and 1099-NEC filing annually at a $50 base fee plus $5 per form, so a 25-person payroll adds roughly $175 every January that the monthly figure does not show. SurePayroll is also a Paychex company, so a business leaving one national provider is moving to a product owned by another, which matters if the reason for leaving was the vendor rather than the price. And the household plan at $45 per month including one employee is the strongest option here for anyone paying a nanny or caregiver, a case most business payroll platforms handle badly. Other add-ons are priced separately too: accounting integration is $4.99 per month and time clock integration starts at $5 per month plus $3 per employee.
Square Payroll is $35 per month plus $6 per person paid, and it is the obvious move for a restaurant, salon, or retail shop that already takes payments through Square. Timecards, tips, and hours come from the same system that rings up the sale, which removes the integration that usually sits between a point of sale and a pay run. It is a better structural fit for that business than a general payroll platform is, at a price below most of them.
The contractor-only tier is the sharper deal: $6 per person per month with no base fee at all. A business that pays six contractors and no employees spends $36 a month, which is less than the base fee alone on several alternatives. If that describes you, compare it against the dedicated contractor payroll options before defaulting to a full platform.
Homebase inverts the usual arrangement. It is a scheduling and time clock product first, with payroll available as an add-on at $39 per month plus $6 per employee paid. For a business whose real problem is that shifts, breaks, and hours live in one system and pay lives in another, that is the correct shape, and it removes the integration RUN customers usually maintain between a time module and the pay run.
Price the plan underneath before you compare. Homebase plans run from a free Basic tier through Essentials at $30, Plus at $70, and All-in-One at $120 per location per month, with 20 percent off for annual billing. Basic is the one to check: it is free, but only up to 10 employees at a single location, so anyone modeling 25 or 50 people is on a paid plan by definition. Multi-location businesses should read that per location carefully too, because two sites double the plan fee even though the payroll add-on does not change.
Rippling sells a single employee record shared by payroll, HR, and IT provisioning. Hire someone once and the same action can open payroll, order a laptop, and create their accounts, which is genuine automation rather than a feature list. It is also modular, so what you pay depends entirely on which products you switch on.
The catch is that Rippling publishes no rate for any of it. Its pricing page is a form that asks which services you need and promises a custom quote in return, so there is no base fee, no per-employee figure, and no way to model a bill before you talk to sales. If you are leaving RUN because you are tired of quotes, this is the wrong destination. If you are leaving because your HR and payroll systems do not talk to each other and you have IT overhead to consolidate, it is the strongest platform in that direction.
Paychex is the closest structural match to ADP, which cuts both ways. Its packages are Paychex Flex Select, Flex Pro, Flex Enterprise, HR Pro, and HR PEO, and its comparison page shows a Request Pricing button next to every one of them rather than a rate. If the reason you are leaving RUN is that you cannot look up your own price, this changes nothing.
What it does change is the relationship. Paychex competes on service depth, compliance coverage, and the ability to buy payroll, benefits, retirement, and HR support from one vendor, which is what a company that outgrew self-serve software usually wants. It is also worth knowing that SurePayroll, further up this list, is a Paychex company, so the two are alternatives to ADP but not to each other in any structural sense.
Justworks runs two products under one name, and unusually for this end of the market it publishes rates for both. The standalone Payroll plan is $50 per month plus $8 per employee and comes with HR tools and expert support, with time tracking sold alongside it as an $8 per employee add-on. That puts it above the budget platforms and below the quote-only vendors. That is ordinary software, priced ordinarily.
The PEO plans are the actual reason companies move here. A professional employer organization co-employs your staff, which lets a 20-person business buy health coverage priced off a much larger risk pool. Justworks lists PEO Basic at $79 per employee per month and PEO Plus at $124, both before health premiums and workers compensation, which are pass-through costs on top. Co-employment is a structural change rather than a software swap.
The TriNet HR Platform is what Zenefits became after the acquisition, and the rename matters when you are searching, because a lot of the comparison content still circulating uses the old brand and the old rate card. TriNet has not buried the lineage either: zenefits.com now redirects to trinet.com, the platform sits under the HR Plus product line, and TriNet still labels the customer login as the HR Platform, also known as TriNet Zenefits. It is an HR-first system with benefits administration at the center and payroll available as part of the configuration, which suits a company whose pain is enrollment and records rather than the pay run itself.
The catch is the same as with Paychex. TriNet publishes no plan names and no per-employee rates; its pricing page says only that the model is per employee per month and that the figure depends on company size and service level, then asks you to fill in a form. Any per-employee figure you find on a review site is either a third-party estimate or a legacy Zenefits price, and neither predicts a current quote. Treat it as a shortlist candidate for benefits depth, not as an escape from opaque pricing.
What each alternative costs at 10, 25, and 50 employees
The seven platforms that publish a full rate card can be modeled exactly. The table below multiplies each published base fee and per-person rate at three headcounts, which is the comparison a RUN quote is hard to place against until you have it in writing.
| Platform | 10 employees | 25 employees | 50 employees | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot Software | $87 | $162 | $287 | $12/mo per extra state |
| Square Payroll | $95 | $185 | $335 | Contractor-only is $6 per person, no base |
| SurePayroll | $99 | $204 | $379 | Multi-state $9.99/mo; year-end forms billed extra |
| Homebase | $99 | $189 | $339 | Plus a paid Homebase plan per location above 10 staff |
| Gusto Simple | $109 | $199 | $349 | Single state only, Plus tier for more |
| OnPay | $109 | $199 | $349 | Multi-state at no extra charge; HR is a $15 + $2 add-on |
| Justworks Payroll | $130 | $250 | $450 | PEO Basic is $79 and PEO Plus $124 per employee |
| Gusto Plus | $200 | $380 | $680 | Multi-state and time tracking included |
Two patterns are worth naming. The first is that the spread widens with headcount: at 10 employees the published options sit between $87 and $130, a range small enough that price should not decide anything. At 50 the same options run from $287 to $450, and adding Gusto Plus for multi-state coverage pushes the top to $680. The pricing model, not the feature list, produces almost all of that gap.
The second is that per-person fees are often charged per worker paid rather than per person on the roster. Patriot, Square, and the Homebase payroll add-on all bill that way, which means a seasonal business genuinely pays less in a quiet month. That structure matters more than a few dollars of base fee for anyone with a variable headcount, and it is worth confirming in writing when you compare payroll pricing across quotes.
What switching payroll providers actually involves
The move takes a few hours of work and one decision about timing. A quarter boundary is much easier than a mid-quarter move, because payroll tax returns run on a quarterly cycle for Form 941 and an annual cycle for W-2s, so each complete filing period stays with one provider. January 1 is easiest of all, since the new system starts with clean year-to-date totals.
Your new provider will need authority to file and deposit on your behalf, which is done with Form 8655, Reporting Agent Authorization. The provider normally prepares it, but the signature and the responsibility are yours. Deposit schedules follow the IRS lookback rules rather than the provider, so monthly or semiweekly status carries across the move unchanged.
| Step | What to do | When |
|---|---|---|
| Pick the date | Target a quarter start, ideally January 1 | Before you sign anything |
| Export everything | Payroll registers, tax deposit history, employee records, prior filings | Before you cancel the old account |
| File the authorization | Sign Form 8655 so the new provider can deposit and file | At implementation |
| Load year-to-date totals | Wages, taxes, and deductions per employee if moving mid-year | Before the first live run |
| Confirm state accounts | State withholding and unemployment account numbers and rates | Before the first live run |
| Run a parallel cycle | Process one pay period in both systems and compare net pay | One cycle before go-live |
| Verify the first deposit | Check the deposit posted through your own EFTPS enrollment | After the first live run |
Do not delete anything on the way out. The FLSA requires employers to keep payroll records for at least three years, and the records that wage computations are based on, including time cards and work schedules, for two (DOL Fact Sheet 21). Access to an old payroll platform usually ends when billing does, so export your payroll records before the final invoice, not after.
How to choose your replacement
Start from the reason you are leaving rather than from the feature grid. Five questions narrow ten options down to two in about ten minutes.
One last item sits outside the payroll engine. Whichever platform you pick, the new-hire paperwork still has to be collected and kept: the I-9, the W-4, state withholding certificates, and direct deposit authorization. A provider switch is a good moment to check that those files are complete, because that is exactly when gaps in year-end records tend to surface.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best alternative to ADP RUN for a small business?
For most US small employers, Gusto or OnPay, because both publish a full rate card at $49 per month plus $6 per person and both file federal, state, and local payroll taxes. OnPay charges nothing extra for additional states and gates no payroll feature behind a tier. Gusto splits into Simple, Plus, and Premium, so a second state or built-in time tracking moves you up. If cost is the whole reason, Patriot is cheaper at $37 plus $5 per worker paid.
How much does ADP RUN cost per month?
ADP does not publish it. All four RUN packages route to a Get Pricing form or a phone number, so any specific figure you find elsewhere is a third-party estimate or somebody else's negotiated deal. ADP also advertises three months free for new small business customers, which means early invoices understate the steady-state cost. Ask for a written quote covering the package, every add-on, year-end form fees, and the price after the promotion ends.
Is Gusto cheaper than ADP RUN?
Only one of the two publishes rates, so the honest answer is that it depends on your quote. Gusto lists Simple at $49 plus $6 per person, Plus at $80 plus $12, and Premium at $180 plus $22. A 25-person team on Simple pays $199 a month and can verify that before speaking to anyone. Put your ADP quote next to $199, or next to $380 if you need multi-state payroll on Plus.
What is the cheapest alternative to ADP RUN?
Patriot Software, at $37 per month plus $5 per worker paid, which is $87 at 10 employees and $287 at 50. Its Basic plan is $17 plus $4 but does not file your taxes. For a contractor-only payroll, Square is cheaper still at $6 per person with no base fee. Watch the surcharges: Patriot bills $12 per month per additional state, and SurePayroll bills $9.99 for multi-state.
Can I switch payroll providers in the middle of the year?
Yes, though a quarter boundary is far less work. Form 941 runs quarterly and W-2s run annually, so moving at a period start keeps each complete filing with one provider. A mid-quarter move means loading year-to-date wage and tax totals into the new system and agreeing in writing who files the current quarter. Export registers, deposit history, and employee records before you cancel, since access usually ends with billing.
Does ADP RUN require a contract?
ADP does not publish contract terms next to its packages, so the service agreement is the only reliable source. Before signing with any provider, get the initial term, the renewal behavior, the notice period, and the full fee schedule in writing. Several alternatives here bill month to month with no term at all, which is worth real money in flexibility if you are unsure whether the fit will last.
What do I lose by leaving ADP RUN?
Mostly scale and breadth: filing coverage in every US jurisdiction, 24/7 support on RUN packages, and the option to buy benefits, retirement, and workers compensation from the same vendor. You also lose your historical data unless you export it first. What you usually gain is a price you can read and month-to-month billing. If breadth is what you value, Paychex Flex is the closest like-for-like replacement and it quotes the same way ADP does.
Which ADP RUN alternative is best for hourly and shift-based teams?
Homebase or Square Payroll. Homebase is a scheduling and time clock product with payroll attached at $39 per month plus $6 per employee paid, so hours feed the pay run without a second subscription. Square Payroll is $35 plus $6 per person paid and fits a business already taking payments through Square. For food service specifically, compare both against dedicated restaurant payroll services before deciding.