Best Payroll Software for Medium-Sized Businesses: Simplify and Automate Your Processes

Finding the right payroll service is crucial for midsize companies to manage their workforce efficiently. It can be the difference between explosive growth or employee disengagement and attrition. You want a solution that goes beyond basic payroll to include multi-currency payments, advance pay, robust reporting, and global compliance for your business and employees.

This guide features some of the best payroll software for medium-sized businesses available, with a breakdown of their benefits, features, and limitations, so you can choose the solution that will bring the most value to your company’s operations.

Deel

Deel is an all-in-one payroll and HR platform for global teams. It simplifies hiring, paying, and managing employees and independent contractors in the US and worldwide, so your operations aren’t held back by geographical constraints.

With Deel Global Payroll, you can manage international payroll effortlessly for your own entities. Deel handles everything—from tax payments to compliance—streamlining global payroll administration.

With Deel US Payroll, you can run payroll across the states with precision using instant tax calculations and seamless integrations, or, use Deel PEO​​ to simplify HR, payroll, and benefits for US-based employees with a single platform.

For contractor payments, use Deel Contractor to offland compliance, payments, and more in 150 countries.

Deel key features

• In-house payroll and legal experts
• Reliably fast, 24/7 support
• One point of contact for each country
• Payslip creation and delivery
• Salary and tax payments
• Employee benefits and deductions
• Local filing with authorities
• Customizable reporting
• Registration support in all 50 states
• Automate W-2, W-4, 1099, and new hire filings
• 110+ integrations
• 24/7 support and a dedicated CSM manager
• Fortune-500 benefits at an affordable price
• Pay contractors in one bulk payment with 15 payments methods in 120 currencies
• Automate invoicing, expenses, time off, and more for contractors
• Deel card and {{CONTRACTOR_WITHDRAWAL_OPTIONS}} withdrawal methods for contractors
• Free HRIS, equipment provisioning, background checks, immigration support, employer of record (EOR) services, and more

Deel pros and cons

Pros

• All-in-one solution for global payroll, HR, and talent management
• Centralized document management
• User-friendly interface for easy navigation and greater efficiency
• Flexible payroll cut-off dates with the freedom to make last-minute adjustments

Cons

• Per employee pricing can add up as the size of your team increases
• Although the platform is user-friendly, it might take new users a bit of time to make their way through its wealth of features and functionalities

Deel customer reviews

4.8 rating (G2)/4.8 rating (Capterra)

• The implementation process is seamless and the interfaces and functionalities are easy to get used to right away, even without guidance
• It offers lots of perks like employee discounts, prepaid cards, advance salaries, multiple payment and withdrawal options, same/next day direct deposits, and more
• Customer support stands out with 24/7 availability, highly knowledgeable agents, and speedy response and resolution times

Pricing

• Deel Global Payroll - starts at $29 per employee per/month
• US Payroll - starts at $19 per employee/month
• Deel US PEO - starts at $89 per employee/month
• Deel Contractor - starts at $49 per month
• Deel EOR - starts at $599 per month
• Deel HR - included for free

Best for

Deel is suitable for startups, SMBs, and large enterprises needing a highly customizable and scalable payroll solution with a full-featured HR suite to help them seamlessly manage payroll and compliance obligations for their distributed workforce.

ADP RUN

ADP is a long-standing provider of payroll and HR tools. RUN is its lightweight payroll solution specifically designed to help small and medium-sized businesses process payroll, file taxes, and manage their teams no matter where they are in the world.

Depending on your needs, you can start with a basic payroll system or integrate it with HR tools and services like attendance tracking, performance reviews, and benefits administration for increased accuracy and efficiency.

ADP RUN key features

• Automates recurring payroll, tax payments, and document filings
• Direct deposit, debit card, and check payment options
• Wide range of functionalities including payroll, HR management, time and labor tracking, and benefits management
• Automatic compliance updates covering all 50 US states
• Industry-specific solutions for businesses operating in specialized niches

ADP RUN pros and cons

Pros

• The payroll system can be customized with add-ons and integrations to extend capabilities
• Federal, state, and local tax compliance
• Mobile app for employees and admins

Cons

• Onboarding and implementation processes can be drawn out and complicated
• Access to payroll and HR features like time and attendance tracking, benefits administration, and expense management are an additional cost
• Per-employee pricing is charged per pay run rather than monthly, so the more pay runs you complete, the more expensive your payroll costs

ADP RUN customer reviews

4.5/5 rating (G2), 4.5/5 rating (Capterra)

• It may be difficult to get hold of support
• Users report experiencing log-in issues
• It’s easy to run payroll and find all the data and features you need within your portal

Pricing

Custom quote.

Best for

ADP Run is ideal for mid-sized businesses with up to 50 employees looking to combine their payroll system with an HRIS so they can manage and pay their teams from anywhere.

Paychex

Paychex is a cloud-based payroll and HR software that enables you to pay workers, handle benefits, track employee hours, and manage your workforce.

For businesses that want to devote more time to executing strategic initiatives, Paychex offers managed payroll services that can handle all your payroll obligations for you. They also offer PEO services overseeing your employee lifecycle from hiring to exit.

Paychex key features

• Payroll tax administration and garnishment payment service, including automatic calculations, payments, filings, and tax credit claims
• HR software for managing hiring, onboarding, training, and development
• Transfers payroll data to your general ledger
• Mobile self-service portal for employees to view their pay information, request time off, and stay engaged with company activities
• Flexible ways to pay employees and contractors including pay cards, paper checks, and direct deposits
• HR library where you can easily access payroll and HR-related documents for your business and employees

Paychex pros and cons

Pros

• 24/7 customer support
• Ample integration options
• PEO for outsourcing HR and payroll tasks

Cons

• Many features including expense management, next-day direct deposits, performance management, centralized document storage, and time tracking are only available as separately priced add-ons
• Additional costs for feature add-ons bloat the price of the software

Paychex customer reviews

4.2/5 rating (G2), 4.2/5 rating (Capterra)

• The platform is easily customizable to fit the needs of different employee groups
• Some customers say ending their relationship with the company was challenging
• Emails can go unanswered, payrolls and taxes have been processed and filed late, and customer have endured long holds with multiple reps to get answers to a question

Pricing

Custom quotes

Best for

Paychex is a good fit for mid-sized businesses with 50-200 employees in the market for a payroll solution they can customize to their needs.

Paycor

Paycor’s payroll management solution provides managers with one location to pay team members for their work, reimburse expenses, calculate deductions, and fulfill tax and compliance requirements.

With Paycor you can schedule payroll to run at specific times without your manual input and pay both employees and independent contractors at the same time via direct deposits and debit cards. Paycor also handles tax calculations, payments, and form processing.

Paycor key features

• Automatic payroll and garnishment deductions
• Employees can review their pay stubs and access their earned wages before payday
• Connects with 300+ business apps
• Mobile app for employees to view their payslips, update personal information, budget their spending, and more
• Integrated modules for HR, talent acquisition, workforce management, benefits administration, and expense management
• Customer sandbox for training new HR team members and testing out new workflows, settings, and security privileges without impacting your payroll or HR data

Paycor pros and cons

Pros

• Intuitive user interface
• Real-time payroll calculations and adjustments
• One platform for all things payroll and HR

Cons

• Pricing isn’t transparent
• Added fees for setup and feature enhancements

Paycor customer reviews

3.9/5 rating (G2), 4.4/5 rating (Capterra)

• It offers lots of functionalities to make payroll, HR, and employee self-service easier and faster
• Sometimes, users find it confusing to figure out how to use a particular product because there are too many choices
• The system has defaulted back to old settings for some users

Pricing

Custom quote.

Best for

Paycor is built for small and medium-sized organizations that want a payroll system with industry-specific solutions to help them manage employees and run their business while meeting their unique requirements.

Dayforce (Formerly Ceridian)

Dayforce is a robust people platform with payroll modules that allow you to automate time-consuming payroll activities, ensuring your processes are efficient and accurate and your people always get paid on time.

Instead of batch processing payroll, Dayforce continuously tracks employee hours and calculates pay in real-time, resulting in fewer reworks and manual to-dos for you. Dayforce’s customizable platform enables users to pay different kinds of workers and process payroll according to unique needs.

Dayforce key features

• Automated payroll and data consolidation
• Built-in engine to calculate pay and taxes
• On-demand pay options
• A team of compliance professionals
• HR functionalities can be added
• Payroll checklists and audit reports

Dayforce pros and cons

Pros

• Full visibility into your payroll data across geographies
• Mobile-first user experience
• Role-based permissions and access

Cons

• Pricing isn’t transparent

Dayforce customer reviews

4.7/5 rating (G2), 4.7/5 rating (Capterra)

• Payroll processing is straightforward and only takes a couple of minutes
• Some data entry and functions can’t be done by yourself and require someone from Dayforce’s support team to set it up and code it properly

Pricing

Custom quote

Best for

Dayforce is ideal for mid-sized companies that are interested in expanding their teams globally and are in need of a single solution to unify payroll for domestic and international staff members.

UKG Ready

UKG is a leading provider of enterprise human capital management solutions. UKG Ready is its payroll and HR software that’s specifically designed to help small to mid-sized businesses simplify payroll processes and standardize their employee experience strategy.

The platform comes with all the essential tools for managing talent and payroll efficiently. This includes automatic payroll tax calculations, time and attendance tracking, and HR functions for workforce scheduling, accessing employee data, evaluating performance, setting up and administering benefits, and more.

UKG Ready key features

• Complete control over payroll administration from pay frequency and tax filings to garnishment deductions and paycheck distribution
• Proactive reporting and analytics to uncover payroll concerns and help you take meaningful actions to improve your operations
• Internal and external benchmarking tools measure how your processes compare across different business areas or against industry standards
• Rich integration to synchronize your data across all your business systems to save time and ensure consistency of information
• Done-by-experts tax filing services to tackle tax payments and compliance for you

UKG Ready pros and cons

Pros

• Mobile accessibility with employee self-service built-in
• Payroll processing can be completely outsourced (US companies only), freeing up time and resources

Cons

• Navigating the system is confusing at times for both old and new users
• Reports aren’t as in-depth as they could be

UKG Ready customer reviews

4.2/5 rating (G2), 4.1/5 rating (Capterra)

• The flow of information and features can be arranged and customized according to each individual’s preferences
• Persistent log-in issues, wherein the app often signs you out for no reason and refuses to let you log back in or clock in to begin work for the day
• Some customers say payroll tax reports have been filed late and customer service is delayed

Pricing

Custom quote.

Best for

UKG Ready is suited for growing businesses with 200 or more employees on the hunt for a cloud-based payroll system with HR, time tracking, and long-term workforce planning features built-in.

Trinet

Trinet is an option worth exploring for companies that want less involvement when it comes to managing their payroll and human resources tasks. With Trinet’s PEO service, you can lighten your administrative burden by relying on an external team of experts to handle HR, payroll, and payroll tax compliance for you.

For businesses interested in managing their payroll and HR operations internally but with greater productivity and fewer errors, Trinet offers a self-managed HR platform to streamline payroll processing and tax filings for different worker types.

Trinet key features

• Automatic new hire reporting, benefit deductions, tax remittances, and tax return filings for federal, state, and local levels
• Unlimited pay runs with multiple pay schedules and pay rates
• Payroll tax compliance manager to help you set up tax accounts, file documents retroactively, and monitor relevant payroll tax jurisdictions
• Dedicated payroll manager who deals with payroll reviews and processes scheduled and off-cycle pay runs for employees and independent contractors (US only)

Trinet pros and cons

Pros

• Supports direct deposits
• Both traditional employees and independent contractors can be paid at the same time
• Can be synced with your accounting software for general ledger reporting

Cons

• Some services like the payroll manager and tax compliance manager are only available for PEO clients or as an add-on for extra fees
• Payroll processing features are only included in the HR platform’s most expensive plan, which means you’ll need to pay for it separately if you purchase other plans

Trinet customer reviews

4.0/5 rating (G2), 3.7/5 rating (Capterra)

• It offers a large selection of employer benefits to choose from with easy enrollment and comparisons for funding strategies
• The user interface is not very accessible and is further complicated when you need to manage multiple entities
• The system doesn’t play well with other work tools—users have encountered bugs, glitches, and inconsistent data

Pricing

Trinet PEO uses a custom pricing model. Here’s the price breakdown for its HR platform:

• Essentials - $10 per employee/month, billed monthly, Or $8 per employee/month, billed annually. Plus $6 per employee/month for payroll add-on
• Growth - $20 per employee/month, billed monthly, Or $16 per employee/month, billed annually. Plus $6 per employee/month for payroll add-on
• Zen -$33 per employee/month, billed monthly Or $27 per employee/month, billed annually (Payroll included for free)

Best for

Trinet may be a good platform for small and medium-sized businesses in the market for a PEO service to handle HR, compliance, and payroll complexities and administration on their behalf.

Justworks

Justworks automates payroll and HR processes and can help you find benefits for your workforce such as 401(k) HSA/FSA accounts, commuter benefits, and health insurance. It also provides a PEO service that caters to payroll, benefits, HR, and compliance tasks on your behalf.

Justworks key features

• Multiple pay schedules such as weekly, biweekly, monthly, semi-monthly, and one-time payments
• Compliant payroll tax filings including W-2 and 1099 filings
• Centralized document management and payroll reporting
• Support for scheduled or off-cycle payments, multiple rates, tips capturing and processing
• Availability of additional services like time tracking and health insurance that can be combined with payroll (costs extra)
• EOR services to enable you hire, onboard, and pay employees in other regions outside of the US

Justworks pros and cons

Pros

• Mobile-friendly interface
• Transparent pricing
• Integrated HR tools for streamlined people management

Cons

• International contractor payments, time tracking, and benefits administration features are not available in the base software but are priced separately as add-ons
• Poor global coverage—you can only pay international contractors in 30 countries
• Customization options are limited so you might have to settle for default processes that don’t fully address your needs or devise complicated workarounds

Justworks customer reviews

4.6/5 rating (G2), 4.6/5 rating (Capterra)

• The user interface is sleek, modern, and easy to deploy on both the admin and employee end
• Reporting and integration options are sorely lacking
• All deadlines are permanent so there’s no way to make adjustments to payroll, correct mistakes once they’ve been made and submitted for processing

Pricing

• Payroll - $50 per month base fee +$8 per employee/month
• PEO Basic - $59 per employee/month
• PEO Plus - $109 per employee/month
• EOR - $599 per employee/month

Best for

Justworks may be ideal for small and mid-sized companies looking for an effortless way to manage employee compensation, benefits, compliance, and HR in one place.

Key features to look for in payroll software for medium businesses

Payroll solutions come with a diverse range of features to help you solve payroll challenges and boost efficiency. Unfortunately, all features are not created equal—some will benefit your business and payroll processes more than others. Here are the most useful features to keep an eye out for when switching payroll companies or choosing your very first payroll software:

Ease of use

Opting for payroll software with a user-friendly interface and straightforward implementation procedures will enable you to get your payroll operations up and running efficiently in a matter of days or weeks, rather than months. You won’t need to spend the time you’re gunning to save on training your managers and employees to navigate the tool. Nor will you have to force or constantly remind them to use it—adoption will come naturally.

You also won’t have to hire a full-time payroll specialist or constantly reach out for support to make your payroll solution do what you want. There’ll be minimal workflow disruptions and payroll-related fires to put out.

Tax and compliance automation

Even if you’re only hiring from one jurisdiction, it can still be tough to keep up with ever-changing tax regulations and compliance requirements and correctly calculate the income tax amount to deduct from each employee’s earnings.

The best payroll providers employ compliance experts who constantly monitor tax laws and regulations across different locations and immediately notify you about existing requirements and upcoming changes. They also have a built-in engine that automatically does tax computations and deductions and then submits the payment and tax reports to relevant authorities on your behalf.

Together, these capabilities enable you to avoid slip-ups like miscalculations or ignorance of the rules that could result in your business being hit with hefty fines and other penalties.

Integration with existing systems

Choosing a solution that seamlessly integrates with an extensive list of business applications including your favorite HR, accounting, and time-tracking software will further simplify your processes. It will promote accuracy, eliminate inconsistencies and manual data entry, and give you easy access to the information you need, from hours worked to performance records.

Detailed reporting

With comprehensive payroll analytics and reports, you can mine for insights to guide budgeting, financial planning, workforce scheduling, and other business-critical decisions. You will also be equipped to identify and get rid of inefficiencies, pick up on instructive trends, and gain visibility into payroll distribution across different teams and types of workers.

Ideally, the payroll software should also come with broad filters and customization options to help you drill down and find the exact information you need or create tailored reports for different stakeholders.

Scalability

Your payroll management platform must be equipped to function alongside your business as it evolves. It is this flexibility and power to adapt that will ensure you’re still safe and covered and won’t need to overhaul your entire payroll process should your worker type, pay rates, workforce size, or business model change tomorrow.

Consider your organization’s goals and check to see if your future needs will be accommodated by the tool. For example, if you have plans to hire internationally or bring on more contractors in the future, does the payroll software offer cross-border payments and compliance, and multi-currency support?

Cost-effectiveness

The cost of payroll software isn’t always the best indicator of the quality it brings to the table. A solution can be on the high end of pricey and still be lacking in the feature department. Some others may offer a cheaper base plan with the option for add-ons which can end up making the tool a lot more expensive down the line.

Check for hidden costs like implementation and technical support fees. Finding a balance between the features offered and the price ensures the software is within budget but still provides good value and will remain reasonably affordable as your business and needs expand.

Manage payroll globally with Deel

With the right payroll software, you can lower operational costs and reduce the complex, time-devouring workloads involved in fulfilling payroll, tax, and labor obligations.

Deel Global Payroll sets your organization up for success by providing automated payroll processing integrated with HR, time-tracking, benefits management, and compliance capabilities to support your unique workforce needs.

Whether you’re a contractor-only business, a hybrid workplace with employees in different countries, or looking to outsource your payroll operations, Deel offers powerful solutions tailored for every scenario.

See Deel in action and unlock truly borderless payroll and people management experiences today.