This Paychex pricing guide contains everything you need to know regarding this human resources, payroll, business insurance, and employee benefit platform. We’ve pored over the vendor’s pricing resources and investigated customer stories to gain insight into the potential cost of a Paychex subscription. Comparing the platform with alternative solutions also provides a clearer picture of how Paychex stacks up against the competition. Whichever vendor you choose, Vertice can help to close cheaper SaaS procurement deals with direct negotiations.

What Paychex can do for you 

Paychex is one of the longest-standing HR and payroll platforms, providing industry-leading solutions since 1971. The vendor has since added worker benefit and business insurance management capabilities, creating an all-in-one human capital management (HCM) suite for organizations to optimize the employee experience. 

All company sizes can find a Paychex pricing and feature plan suited to their requirements, with customer stories particularly celebrating the platform’s scalability. As an example, Bank of America uses Paychex, but the vendor also offers bespoke options for businesses with as little as one employee. 

Paychex pricing structures and tiers

Paychex pricing is partially obscured, with organizations invited to receive a quote depending on their specific needs. While this creates welcome flexibility during contract negotiations, it can also lead to overspending if you’re not careful. 

Before talking to the sales team, we highly recommend researching Paychex’s individual products and tiers. Vertice can also help secure optimized Paychex pricing and subscriptions via direct negotiations handled by our experienced customer purchasing teams. 

This is especially true in cases where SaaS providers don’t disclose exact price points. Our comprehensive pricing benchmark database has the inside scoop on over 16,000 vendors – information we use as leverage to drive down prices wherever possible. 

More on that later. For now, we’ve examined the Paychex pricing pages to illuminate the different products and packages available. Check below for the round-up.

Paychex pricing – Payroll Services 

Paychex pricing for the payroll solution centers on the Paychex Flex product. This is the vendor’s flagship offering, with over half a century’s experience to perfect payroll processing. 

Paychex Flex goes far beyond the payroll basics, even for the simplest package. For example, organizations benefit from integrations with business applications like Xero, Intuit Quickbooks and Indeed, alongside comprehensive analytics covering everything from employee productivity to tax liabilities.  

Moving up the tiers, Paychex offers a fully-fledged HCM solution, with HR, workforce and talent management, employee experience, and risk management capabilities. The unified Paychex Flex platform streamlines operations, enabling organizations to take a holistic approach to the employee experience to boost company morale. 

Paychex Flex has three tiers: 

• Paychex Flex Select – A popular package for small businesses, Flex Select offers fundamental payroll processing and tax administration alongside flexible employee pay options. The plan also includes basic workforce management capabilities like new hire reporting and labor posters. Employees also receive financial wellness and cashflow assistance alongside a self-service mobile experience. 
• Paychex Flex Pro – This tier improves functionality with more integrated HR tools, additional payroll features, and some basic talent management capabilities. Mid-market organizations can leverage a garnishment payment service, general ledger service, pre-employment screening, employee handbook builder, and more. Workers’ compensation reports and state unemployment services are two further additions.  
• Paychex Flex Enterprise – Large organizations and enterprises requiring full service payroll and HR solutions can leverage Paychex Flex Enterprise, a comprehensive solution covering payroll, HR, and HCM. Paycheck preview and approval can significantly boost compliance, while performance management can optimize workflows and increase overall output. This tier also includes document management, job costing, and labor distribution. 

Paychex pricing – HR Packages 

The platform’s other main area of concern is HR. These packages can have slight feature overlap with Paychex Flex, especially in the higher tiers. While Paychex Flex Enterprise is advertised as a full-scale integrated payroll and HR solution, there are some features seemingly only available under Paychex HR. 

Ultimately, the vendor seems more than happy to allow organizations to blend both packages if required. There are also numerous employee benefits and business insurance add-ons that can further supplement a unified subscription.  

We summarize the three HR Packages below: 

• HR Partner Plus – Suitable for SMBs, this tier provides an introduction into Paychex’s HR features. Small organizations also receive basic employee benefit and risk management capabilities like an employee discount program and safety services. But the HR attributes are the main drawers here, with dedicated HR professional guidance, expert seminars, labor posters, an employee handbook builder, and an HR library. 
• HR Pro – Organizations looking for a full-service HR platform should consider HR Pro. This package adds a learning management system and enhances the HR library, helping companies take their HR efforts to the next level. There are also significantly more employee benefit features, including retirement planning, health savings account, benefits administration, and support for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). HR Pro includes full-scale payroll, talent, and workforce management options. 
• HR PEO – The most comprehensive Paychex package available, HR PEO covers everything from HR and payroll to employee benefits and talent management. This tier includes more precise benefit capabilities, with options for various targeted health insurances for vision, disability, life, and more. The package also includes in-depth risk management options like workers’ compensation, cyber liability, and employment practices liability coverage. 

Additional Paychex costs to consider 

Paychex pricing is flexible, with various add-ons available for organizations – particularly those leveraging the cheaper tiers. The vendor enables you to add modules that aren’t already included, offering a versatile approach to getting exactly what you need. 

There are too many potential add-ons to list them all, but the most pertinent are business insurance and platform integrations.  

Other vendors offering HCM and Payroll as a Service 

Choosing the right HCM and payroll as a service platform depends on your specific circumstances and needs. In the below sections, we explore three Paychex alternatives to help you select the right option.  

Paychex pricing vs ADP 

ADP pricing has two main options: RUN Powered by ADP for SMBs, and ADP Workforce Now for enterprises. The vendor has a similarly established reputation, supplying payroll solutions since 1949. 

ADP is the more powerful solution, with more add-on options and advanced workforce management features. On the other hand, Paychex is generally seen as more user-friendly and more cost-effective, particularly for SMBs. 

Paychex pricing vs Gusto

Gusto pricing is generally more affordable than Paychex going by customer stories. The vendor is also more transparent with its costs, offering three plans:  

• Simple – $40/month (plus $6/month per person);
• Plus – $60/month (plus $9/month per person); 
• Premium – Contact sales.

Paychex offers more HCM features for enterprises, with extensive work and risk management capabilities. The platform also goes deeper regarding employee insurance, but this is reflected by higher price points. 

Despite being slightly less comprehensive than Paychex, Gusto is often touted as the better option for small businesses and startups. It can be slightly easier to use and some features (like employee benefits) are available for all plans.   

Paychex pricing vs Papaya Global 

Papaya Global pricing is split into three packages: 

• Grow Global – Starting from $25/month per employee (101-500 employees); 
• Scale Global – Starting from $20/month per employee (501-1000 employees); 
• Enterprise Global – Starting from $15/month per employee (1000+ employees). 

The platform predominantly targets global payroll for multinational companies, offering compatibility with 100+ countries, multi-currency support, and compliance expertise. 

There aren’t as many HR or HCM features, so Papaya Global is largely for organizations searching for a bespoke payroll solution focusing on global payroll. 

Paychex pricing – the Vertice verdict 

Paychex is a powerful platform, with more than half a century’s experience delivering top-spec payroll solutions generating industry-leading expertise particularly suiting SMBs and mid-market organizations. 

The HR and payroll as a service solution has a broad customer base, with over 740,000 clients across the US and Europe. Alongside its highly scalable infrastructure, customer stories also praise the platform’s user-friendly interface, simplifying everything from tax compliance to employee onboarding. 

Gaining a precise Paychex pricing estimate is difficult with the custom quote approach, but this also allows organizations to negotiate with more freedom. The Vertice platform can help here – we have over 16,000 vendors benchmarked, offering significant leverage during contract negotiations. 

Our white-glove negotiating service helps your business access optimal packages at the best price. The Vertice SaaS Purchasing Platform also provides in-depth reporting on cost allocation, cost avoidance and resource usage to help you optimize your SaaS stack and improve your bottom line. Get in touch to see how.