SurePayroll Review 2023

The bottom line: SurePayroll is the best payroll software for businesses that want affordable payroll without sacrificing features or user-friendliness.

SurePayroll has standard payroll features like direct deposit, automatic payroll processing, and payroll tax calculation—but at $19.99, SurePayroll's pricing is ideal for businesses on a budget. It isn't necessarily right for everyone—if you care less about cost and more about comprehensive HR support, for instance, you might be better off with Paychex (SurePayroll's parent company), ADP, or another one of the best payroll software providers.

But for streamlined payroll with plenty of customer support, thorough benefits, and automated payroll runs. Keep reading: our SurePayroll review can help you decide if SurePayroll is the right payroll solution for you.

SurePayroll's plans have all the features you'd expect from any stellar online payroll program: 

• Automatic paycheck and payroll tax calculation
• Automatic two-day direct deposit
• Online employee portal with paystub access
• New-hire reporting

SurePayroll also charges you per month, not per payroll run. With unlimited payroll runs, you can run payroll as often as you need to without worrying about extra fees. (This includes off-cycle payroll runs for employee bonuses.) 

If you choose SurePayroll's full-service plan, you get the above features and a little extra: 

• Automatic state, federal, and local tax filing
• End-of-year tax form filing

Both plans include access to live customer support and basic HR tools, such as how-to HR guides and labor law posters.

Frankly, that's a staggering amount of features for SurePayroll's pricing.

At just under $20 a month, SurePayroll's self-service plan is stunningly cheap. And at slightly below $30 a month, SurePayroll's full-service plan is at the lower end of the pricing spectrum as well.

By comparison, Gusto, our favorite payroll provider, has a base fee of $40 a month with $6 per payee fee. QuickBooks Payroll's monthly starting base price is $45 a month, while ADP's is a whopping $79. 

SurePayroll also outperforms its fellow self-service payroll providers, most notably Patriot Payroll. At $17, Patriot still has a lower starting base price per month than SurePayroll, and the two payroll companies have the same $4 per-payee price. However, SurePayroll gives you workers comp, 401(k), and healthcare benefits options—Patriot only offers workers comp integration. 

And SurePayroll's other HR offerings outperform Patriot's as well. Both the self-service and full-service SurePayroll plans come with built-in support from an HR expert. With Patriot, you have to pay an additional per-payee fee for HR integration.

Honestly, the meager services you get with Patriot HR aren't worth the extra cost.

One of SurePayroll’s biggest perks is its US-based customer service, which runs six days a week with extended evening hours. You can reach SurePayroll customer service Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. central time, or Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. central time.

SurePayroll also has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and fewer than 150 BBB-registered customer complaints—which is pretty good for a business as big as SurePayroll.¹

Customer service is an area where a lot of payroll companies struggle—perhaps most famously QuickBooks and ADP. So if fast, helpful, US-based customer service is important to you, you might want to give SurePayroll’s small-business payroll team some extra consideration.

SurePayroll doesn't offer as many employee benefits as Gusto or OnPay. And while its full-service plan includes help from an HR expert, SurePayroll doesn't have the in-depth HR resource libraries of ADP or Paychex.

But the smallest of small businesses—SurePayroll’s target audience—don’t usually need the sheer amount of perks other providers offer. Instead, they need the straightforward basics at an affordable price, which is exactly what SurePayroll offers:

• Workers compensation coverage
• 401(k) retirement plans
• Health insurance coverage

Employers can also take advantage of HR-adjacent features like pre-employment screening and automatic new hire reporting.

Apart from Patriot Payroll, SurePayroll's self-service plan is the cheapest payroll option of almost any provider. (You can find some free payroll options, but they don't have as many features as paid providers like SurePayroll.)

In our SurePayroll review, we also found it offers the best value for its price. With more HR features than Patriot, the extra $2 you'll pay a month if you choose SurePayroll over Patriot are absolutely worth it.

However, if you're looking for more scalable plans with wider HR support, a payroll competitor like Gusto, ADP, or Paychex might be a better fit for you than SurePayroll. Unlike those three providers, SurePayroll has just one full-service plan. It doesn't offer plans with additional payroll processing features that support your business as it grows.

And while SurePayroll's basic HR offerings are just right for the smallest of small businesses, companies with more employees will likely want more expansive HR support and benefit options.

SurePayroll integrates with all the most popular accounting software options, including QuickBooks Online. Unfortunately, that integration costs an additional monthly fee, as does integrating SurePayroll with time-tracking software. 

For the record, most payroll programs don't include free accounting software integration—Paychex, for instance, only includes accounting software integration with its most expensive plan. But if free accounting software integration is a must for you, Gusto, OnPay, and QuickBooks Payroll (if you use QuickBooks Online) are better choices.

While SurePayroll has a better BBB score and record of complaint resolution than, say, QuickBooks, its customers still have some key complaints.

On the review site TrustRadius, SurePayroll scores 4.3 out of 10 from nearly 40 total reviews.² On Trustpilot, the company rates a much higher 4.4 out of 5 from almost 300 reviews.³

The most common complaint shared by SurePayroll reviews across both sites? Poor customer service. Multiple users complain of not reaching a customer service rep for days after filing a complaint. Some of these SurePayroll complaints come from customers who have used the service with no problems for years—indicating SurePayroll's customer service has declined recently.

Along with poor customer service, SurePayroll reviews mention difficulty canceling  their accounts (yikes) and issues verifying correct payroll tax filing (double yikes).

We do want to point out that these types of reviews and ratings are unfortunately very common in the payroll industry. Intuit, QuickBooks Payroll's parent company, rates 1.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot.⁴ We also want to remind you that usually, only users with extremely good or extremely bad experiences leave online reviews. Just because others had a bad experience with SurePayroll customer service doesn't mean you will. 

SurePayroll has an autopilot feature—which is particularly notable since most self-service plans (and even some full-service plans) require you to run payroll by hand. Missing a payroll deadline can have major consequences for your employees, and we like that SurePayroll's auto payroll option helps minimize chances of a scheduling-based payroll error. 

SurePayroll has other unique perks that also help business owners save time and minimize processing problems. Most importantly, it includes state and local tax filing (many payroll providers leave off the local part). 

You can also use SurePayroll's online payroll service to file taxes in multiple states, though you'll pay an additional fee of $9.99. Crucially, that fee isn't per state but is instead a flat rate—most other providers charge you per state. 

Along with its small-business payroll software, SurePayroll offers another crucial payroll service: nanny payroll for household employers. 

In fact, SurePayroll is our favorite nanny payroll provider. Its household worker payroll has the same benefits that set its small-business payroll apart, most notably its below-average pricing. At just under $50 a month with no additional tax-filing fees, SurePayroll is easily one of the most affordable nanny payroll services on the market (unless you want a DIY payroll solution like NannyPay).

If you're not sold on SurePayroll, don't give up—there's a perfect payroll solution out there for you somewhere! Enter some basic details about your business, and we'll send you up to five free personalized quotes for providers that could meet your needs.

If you have fewer than 100 employees and need simple, streamlined small-business payroll software with a few key benefit add-ons, SurePayroll might just be made for you.

On the other hand, if you want more expansive payroll features (such as wage garnishment) or in-depth benefit options, a more fully featured payroll provider like Gusto or ADP could be better for you.

Not convinced SurePayroll is the right payroll provider for your small business? Our best payroll software article reviews nine additional options that could match your payroll expectations.

Yes, if you sign up for SurePayroll's full-service plan, SurePayroll calculates your payroll taxes and files them with the correct federal, state, or local tax agency. If you use the self-service plan, SurePayroll will calculate payroll tax amounts for you, but you'll be responsible for remitting those taxes to the appropriate government agency.

SurePayroll was built for small businesses—and those include accounting, bookkeeping, and human resources firms that work on payroll for other companies. Additionally, SurePayroll partners with accountants to resell its software.

If you’re an accountant, bookkeeper, or HR expert who provides outsourced payroll services to small businesses, you can reach out to SurePayroll’s accountants to get details on SurePayroll accountant pricing.

Yes. Even if you don’t have a SurePayroll account, you can use SurePayroll’s calculator to calculate net wages for your hourly employees. (And if you want a second calculator option, we’ve got a paycheck calculator too.)

Yes, SurePayroll offers a nanny payroll plan for household employers. In fact, SurePayroll's household employer payroll is our favorite nanny payroll service. At $49.99 a month (below average for full-service nanny payroll), SurePayroll's software files new-hire paperwork with the state and local governments, automatically calculates and withholds your nanny's payroll taxes, and submits year-end tax forms.

No. You can change payroll service providers any time of the year.

To evaluate SurePayroll and assign it a star rating, we looked at several key factors: 

• Payroll and HR features
• Number of plans
• Starting price
• User-friendliness and accessibility, including mobile app access
• Customer service hours
• Customer service reputation

We also considered our accounting and payroll expert's opinion when creating our star rating.

Star ratings are reviewed frequently and subject to change.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.