The 5 Best Payroll Apps for Small Business 2023

Only a handful of payroll software companies have employer-focused apps for small-business owners who need to pay employees anywhere, anytime. Luckily, the few brands that do offer employer-facing payroll apps have put in the time, energy, and labor to make absolutely stellar products.

Our favorite payroll app for employers is SurePayroll's app, which is fully featured and highly functional for on-the-go employers. SurePayroll is also one of the simplest sites for running payroll, which makes it perfect for small-business owners doing payroll for the first time.

But if SurePayroll isn't right for you, there are definitely other app and mobile-friendly payroll options you can choose from instead. Here are our picks for the best small-business payroll apps of 2023.

App Store rating: 4.7 stars
Google Play rating: 3.1 stars

SurePayroll is owned by Paychex, one of our other top picks—which goes to show that Paychex’s team is absolutely committed to making simple, user-friendly, accessible apps.

With the SurePayroll app, you can record your employees’ hours worked as well as their vacation days, sick leave, and other PTO accruals. Access customer service right from your phone or tablet, pull up payroll reports on individual employee earnings and tax deductions, and pay both W-2 employees and 1099 contractors.

SurePayroll also proactively addresses some of the key concerns users have with payroll apps—namely accuracy and security. Most importantly, it protects your data with industry-leading encryption and never sends account information via the app.

Want a little extra help staying on top of payroll? SurePayroll sends mobile alerts that let you know when your payroll has been submitted and approved. You can also see compliance changes and payroll deadlines with the app.

App Store rating: 4.7 stars
Google Play rating: 4.4 stars

ADP's payroll software is one of our absolute favorites. Like Paychex, ADP offers a slew of HR features, which makes it a great fit for midsize and large businesses. With multiple plans and price points, it's also a scalable choice for businesses planning on growth.

But the app? Well, the app leaves a little to be desired. Customers report problems with forced logouts, and many are frustrated with the app's lack of features—for the most part, it works for payroll runs only and doesn't offer the support of ADP's software.

Still, the app does offer some payroll features alongside its HR assistance:

• Access to employees’ contact information and pay rates
• HR tips and alerts
• HR document access
• Report sharing

We know that's vague, but bear in mind that ADP is still one of the few payroll providers to even have an employer-facing app. That's something to be valued.

Gusto is hands-down one of the best payroll solutions for small businesses. Gusto offers three plans: Core, Complete, and Concierge. Each full-service payroll plan includes health benefit add-ons, workers compensation administration, and PTO policy creation. At $40 a month with a $6 additional fee per employee, it’s reasonably priced (though the heftier plans are substantially more expensive than the basic plan). 

For better or worse, Gusto Payroll doesn't have a payroll app. However, it does have a mobile-friendly website that ensures you can still run payroll for your employees wherever you are. and like we said above, you can. Gusto also has an autopay feature. If you know you're going to be out of the office (or if you want to save some time each pay period), schedule automatic payroll runs to make sure everyone gets paid on time with little to no effort on your part.

QuickBooks Payroll recently got rid of its payroll app in favor of a mobile-friendly website, but we're pleased to report that QuickBooks' site works just as well as its app did. From QuickBooks' site, you can schedule payroll runs, set reminders, and take care of direct deposit, all with bank-grade security.

Like QuickBooks Online's accounting app, its payroll software has a low learning curve. With a sleek dashboard and few glitches, we'd say after SurePayroll, it's the most user friendly of all our payroll software options listed here.

It's particularly user-friendly if you're already familiar with QuickBooks Online's interface—so if you're already using QuickBooks Online to track accounting, using QuickBooks Payroll is the logical next step once you've hired your first employee.

App Store rating: 4.8 stars
Google Play rating: 3.8 stars

Paychex Flex’s app does basically everything Paychex's cloud-based payroll software can do—and the software does quite a lot. Paychex's plans include standout HR support, including dedicated HR specialists with pricier plans. Accessing all that info on the go on a fantastic app that nixes bugs and app crashes is a bargain.

Speaking of bug- and crash-free apps, Paychex's software and app also sync effortlessly with each other. If you start entering payroll data on your office laptop but have to take off early to make a meeting, you can pick up right where you left off on your phone after you're through. Employees can use the employee-facing version of the app to access their payroll data, check out their W-2 forms and paystubs, and even tweak their 401(k) contributions.

If you don't feel great about these five payroll apps for small businesses, give us some basic info about your payroll needs and we'll send you up to five personalized payroll quotes to choose from.

App Store rating: 4.8 stars
Google Play rating: 4.2 stars

The Square Payroll app is super versatile—it’s just as easy to pay your W-2 hourly and salaried employees as it is to pay your contractors.

Plus, Square’s payroll app syncs easily with its point-of-sale app; you can import employee and contractor hours and then pay them in just a few clicks.

Want to take payroll off your plate entirely? Square Payroll’s app includes an autopay option (though this option is for the employee plan only, not the contractor plan). If your salaried workers get paid on a consistent pay schedule and make a consistent rate, automatic payroll keeps things simple and ensures employees are paid—even if you forget about payday completely.

Finally, along with running payroll, you can use Square’s app to track employees’ paid time off (PTO), sick leave, and overtime. That's not bad for a straightforward, completely affordable app.

Patriot’s full-service plans are cheaper than Gusto’s at $37 a month for full-service payroll with a $4 add-on cost per employee. It also offers a self-service plan, meaning a plan without automatic payroll tax filing at $17 a month with the same per employee cost. (That's even cheaper than SurePayroll's full-service plan, which costs nearly ten dollars more per month.) If you have only a handful of employees and aren’t too stressed about taxes, Patriot’s reliable self-service software could be a good choice.

Both the self- and full-service plans include free direct deposit, employee self-service payroll portals, workers compensation integration, and unlimited payroll runs.