Payroll Check Printing Software: 12 Tools Compared

Before you compare anything, here is the one question I would ask any founder, because it settles most of this category: do you already pay for payroll software? If you do, it almost certainly prints paychecks, and a separate check printing product means paying twice for the same function. The comparison below shows when a second one still earns its place.

The reason a standalone market exists anyway is narrower than the listicles suggest, and it turns on the MICR line (magnetic ink character recognition): the bank details printed along the bottom of every check. Some payroll platforms print only onto stock where a check supplier has already applied that line; others can print it onto blank check stock themselves.

Standalone check printing software encodes that line onto blank security paper for any check you write, which lets one supply of paper serve several bank accounts and removes the reorder cycle. That capability, and not check printing generally, is what you are actually buying.

You will also see what magnetic ink printing genuinely requires from your hardware, how to print a payroll check without having it rejected, and the legal reason many US employers still need a way to pay by check even though most people are paid electronically.

Two kinds of product wearing one label

Check printing products come in two kinds that often get lumped together: standalone software that prints checks but does not run payroll, and payroll platforms that print checks as one part of running it. Different people buy them for different reasons.

The practical test is what happens to your paper. If you order pre-printed checks from a supplier with your routing and account numbers already applied, your payroll platform prints the variable data, such as payee, amount, and date, onto them and you are done.

Blank stock is where the platforms differ. If you would rather buy blank security paper and have software print everything, bank line included, Gusto, Patriot, and OnPay can do it, while Square Payroll and QuickBooks Online need pre-printed stock or a standalone tool.

12 check printing products compared

The products below are sorted by category rather than price, because the category determines whether a product is a substitute for your payroll software or a supplement to it.

ezCheckPrinting

The cheapest realistic entry into blank stock check printing, at a one-time $59 license with no monthly fee, unlimited checks, and unlimited bank accounts. Its QuickBooks and Quicken integration edition adds a virtual printer, so checks written in either program print straight onto blank stock.

Checkeeper

The cloud alternative, at $14.99 per month for unlimited checks with a 14-day free trial. Because it runs in the browser, you can create checks from anywhere, and its mailing service prints and mails them on your behalf, which is the practical answer for paying someone who is not in your office.

VersaCheck

A long-established desktop product sold as a one-time license, in several 2026 editions from $129.99, with printer and toner bundles available. A separate cloud subscription, VersaCheck ONLINE, starts at $89.88 a year. It targets both small business and home use, and its main draw is printing complete checks onto blank stock with template control over layout and security features.

OnlineCheckWriter

A cloud platform that treats the printed check as one payment method among several, alongside ACH (Automated Clearing House) bank transfers, wire, and electronic checks. For a business that pays a mix of employees and vendors by different methods, consolidating them in one place is a legitimate argument that pure check printers cannot make.

PrintBoss

The control-focused option, aimed at businesses printing from desktop accounting systems across multiple bank accounts. Its distinguishing feature is security and audit control, including positive pay file generation, which matters more than convenience once check volume is meaningful. A positive pay file lists the checks you have issued so your bank can compare each presented check against it.

ezPaycheck

Desktop payroll with check printing built in, sold as a $189 license per calendar year. It calculates withholding, prints onto blank or pre-printed stock, and handles year-end forms, which makes it a genuine alternative to a payroll subscription for a small business that would rather pay once a year for desktop software than monthly per employee.

CheckMark Payroll

Desktop payroll aimed at small businesses and accountants handling multiple clients, with magnetic check printing onto blank stock and year-end form support. It is priced as an annual license, $599 the first year and $419 a year after that: materially more than the consumer-grade desktop products, but with a deeper feature set.

Gusto

A full-service payroll platform that lets you print checks yourself, or will print and mail employee paychecks for a per-check print fee plus a delivery fee that varies with speed. If one or two employees want paper while everyone else is on direct deposit, paying those fees is often cheaper than owning a printer, toner, and stock.

Square Payroll

Prints paychecks onto DLT104 check stock already customized with your business and bank details, and partners with Checkeeper to print checks and ship them to your business overnight. At $35 per month plus $6 per person, it has the cheapest full-service payroll base fee here, and the argument strengthens considerably if you already run Square point of sale.

Patriot Software

Full-service payroll at $37 per month plus $5 per employee, printing paychecks and stubs without an additional product, including onto blank stock with a MICR toner cartridge. For a small business that wants payroll handled and occasionally needs a paper check, it is the lowest-cost route here to both, once you pay three or more people.

OnPay

One flat plan at $49 per month plus $6 per employee with every state included, printing checks without requiring additional software. The flat structure suits a business that occasionally issues paper and does not want a tier upgrade to do it.

QuickBooks Workforce Payroll

Prints paychecks on QuickBooks-compatible voucher check paper, or pay stubs alone on plain paper, with the setup under payroll settings. Printing on blank check stock needs a third-party add-on. The main argument for it is the ledger: if your books are in QuickBooks Online, checks and payroll entries land in the general ledger without an export.

MICR: what it is and what it demands from your printer

The row of stylized digits along the bottom of a check is the MICR line. The Federal Reserve's Regulation CC defines it as the routing number, account number, check number, and other data printed near the bottom of a check in magnetic ink. Banks read it on automated sorting equipment, which is why the ink has to be magnetic.

You do not necessarily need a dedicated MICR printer. A standard laser printer with a magnetic toner cartridge is the usual small business setup, provided the model is compatible. What you do need is verification: alignment tolerances on the magnetic line are tight, and a cartridge running low on toner can produce a line too weak to read even though it looks fine.

How to print payroll checks in five steps

The sequence is short: five steps, from approving the payroll run to reconciling the checks. The step people skip is the fourth, the test print, and it is the one that catches a misprinted bank line before the bank does.

One addition worth building into the routine: record the check numbers issued in the same place you keep the payroll register. If you later adopt positive pay at your bank, that list is exactly what the service needs, and reconstructing it after the fact is tedious.

Ordering payroll checks and choosing the paper

Two decisions settle what to order: pre-printed or blank stock, and where the check sits on the sheet. The second one trips people up, because check stock is sold in three common layouts and the software has to know which one you bought.

Whichever layout you pick, set it in the software before the first live run rather than after. Both standalone tools and payroll platforms expose the layout in a print setting. A mismatch prints the amount line across the stub that carries the pay statement detail, and the sheet is then wasted.

Three channels sell payroll check paper: your bank, specialist check suppliers, and office supply retailers. Banks and suppliers print pre-printed stock to order against one specific bank account, so allow lead time rather than ordering the week payroll is due. Blank stock is generic, and one supply serves every account you print from.

What check printing actually costs

Software is usually the smallest line. The comparison below prices the routes rather than the products, because the recurring consumables matter more than the license.

Two things follow. First, a one-time license is not a one-time cost: magnetic toner cartridges are a recurring purchase at about $90 to $670 apiece depending on the printer, blank stock is an ongoing supply, and desktop payroll products tied to a tax year need paying again each January.

Second, the per-check economics cut both ways. Paying a platform a per-check fee to print and mail looks expensive next to owning a printer, until you count how few checks you actually issue.

A business paying two people by check every two weeks issues about 52 checks a year. At a few dollars each, that is comfortably less than a printer, toner, and stock, plus the time spent handling paper.

Do small businesses still need to print checks?

Many still do. The prevailing narrative is that paper payroll is finished, and survey data supports the direction: in PayrollOrg's 2025 Getting Paid in America survey, direct deposit adoption reached 92.7 percent of respondents, with 3.3 percent paid by paper check.

The narrative misses a legal detail that decides the question for many employers.

The practical consequence is that check printing survives as a compliance capability rather than a primary payment method. Most of your team will be on direct deposit. A minority may decline it or lack a bank account, and you need a lawful route to pay them.

Paying that minority is a very different requirement from printing a full payroll run on paper, and it argues for the cheapest adequate solution rather than the most capable one.

What the federal shift does and does not mean

Executive Order 14247, signed March 25, 2025, directed the Treasury to stop issuing paper checks for most federal disbursements from September 30, 2025, covering tax refunds, benefit payments, and vendor payments. It is frequently cited as evidence that payroll checks are being phased out.

It is not. The order governs payments made by the federal government, not wages paid by private employers, and it imposes no obligation on your payroll.

The reasoning behind the order is still worth carrying across. According to the order, Treasury checks have historically been 16 times more likely than an electronic funds transfer to be reported lost or stolen, returned undeliverable, or altered. That risk profile applies to your checks too, even though the mandate does not.

Fraud controls that matter more than software features

Check fraud exposure sits in the paper and the process rather than in which product printed it.

Verdict by situation

Most readers of this page should buy less than they arrived intending to.

Before you choose

FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider. Payroll runs, check printing, and payments come from the products above, so if putting a paycheck in someone's hand is the problem in front of you, one of them is the answer.

A printed check is the last step of a chain, and the errors visible on the paper usually started at the beginning of it.

Think of a check made out to the wrong legal name, withholding calculated from a Form W-4 that was never returned, a payment issued to someone whose Form I-9 was never completed, or a stub reflecting a pay rate that changed a month ago. None of those is a check printing problem, and better printing software fixes none of them.

That is the layer we handle: onboarding workflows a new hire works through before their first pay period, with the W-4 and I-9 on the task list, e-signature on offer letters and direct deposit authorizations, employee records that stay accurate and retrievable, document management, and training with completion tracking. It runs at a flat $98 a month for up to 10 people or $198 for 11 to 50, rather than a per-employee rate. It sits alongside whichever payroll and check printing route you choose rather than replacing either.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need separate check printing software if I already have payroll?

Usually not, since every mainstream payroll platform prints paychecks. The exception is stock: Gusto, Patriot, and OnPay print the bank line onto blank stock themselves, but Square Payroll and QuickBooks Online need stock that already carries it. If yours is one of those two and you want blank stock, that is the reason to buy a second product.

What is MICR and do I actually need it?

MICR is the magnetic bank line at the bottom of a check, read by high-speed sorters. No statute requires magnetic ink, but a check that fails to read may be refused or processed by hand, sometimes for a fee. Pre-printed stock already carries the line. Blank stock leaves you to print it, so you need magnetic toner or model-specific MICR ink.

Can I print MICR checks on an inkjet printer?

Only with MICR ink sold for that model. Standard inkjet cartridges cannot produce a readable magnetic line, and MICR ink is made for a limited set of inkjet printers, while magnetic toner fits many laser models. A standard laser printer with a magnetic cartridge is the common small business setup.

How do I print payroll checks?

Run and approve payroll, choose pre-printed or blank stock, load the paper and magnetic toner if you are encoding the line yourself, print a test alignment page and verify the magnetic line position, then print, sign, distribute, and reconcile against the payroll register. Skipping the test print lets an alignment error reach the bank.

Can I print payroll checks on blank paper?

On blank check stock, which is security paper with features such as watermarks rather than ordinary paper. Software prints everything including the magnetic line, so magnetic toner matters. Plain copier paper may be refused or flagged by a bank and carries no fraud protection features.

Do small businesses still need to print paper checks?

Many still do. Most pay is electronic: 92.7 percent of respondents to the 2025 PayrollOrg Getting Paid in America survey were paid by direct deposit. But New York requires written employee consent before wages go by direct deposit, and Illinois requires a cash or check option wherever direct deposit is offered. You need a lawful route to pay anyone who declines.

Does the federal move away from paper checks affect employers?

Not directly. Executive Order 14247 directed the Treasury to stop issuing paper checks for most federal disbursements from September 30, 2025, covering federal payments rather than private payroll. The stated reasoning does carry over: according to the order, Treasury checks have historically been 16 times more likely than electronic payments to be reported lost or stolen, returned undeliverable, or altered.

How much does it cost to issue a paper check versus a direct deposit?

The Association for Financial Professionals put the median cost of issuing a paper check at $2.01 to $4.00 in its 2022 survey, against $0.26 to $0.50 per ACH transaction. Across a 40-person biweekly payroll that adds up to roughly $1,600 to $3,900 a year, which is the strongest argument for moving willing employees onto direct deposit.

What is the difference between pre-printed and blank check stock?

Pre-printed stock arrives from a supplier with your routing and account numbers already applied, usually in magnetic ink, so you print only the variable data. Blank stock has no bank information, so your software prints everything including the magnetic line. It is cheaper per unit and serves several accounts, but it requires magnetic toner and careful alignment.

What is the best free payroll check printing software?

No free option prints bank-ready checks, magnetic line included, without limits; some cloud products offer free trials. The genuinely inexpensive end of the market is paid: one-time desktop licenses from $59 or cloud subscriptions from about $90 a year. Toner and stock cost the same whichever you choose.

Are printed checks a fraud risk?

More than electronic payment, and the exposure is physical. Blank stock and magnetic toner should be stored locked, since together they enable a bank-readable check on your account. The strongest control is positive pay, a bank service that refuses checks not matching an uploaded issue file, which several printing products generate.

Which payroll platforms will print and mail checks for me?

Gusto mails employee paychecks for a print fee plus a delivery fee that varies by speed, and Square Payroll works with Checkeeper, which ships printed checks to your business overnight. Mailing usually wins when the employees needing paper are remote or few, since per-check fees are cheap next to owning a printer, toner, and stock.