QuickBooks Payroll alternatives: cheaper payroll, with or without QuickBooks

QuickBooks Payroll today: what the bundle costs

Workforce Payroll + Simple Start

$88 + $6.50 per employeePromo: base 50% off for 3 months

Workforce Payroll + Essentials

$125 + $6.50 per employeeSame per-employee fee

Workforce Premium + Plus

$203 + $10 per employeeElite plan named, no price

Our score

52/100Rank 7 of 15 payroll providers

QuickBooks Payroll is now sold as QuickBooks Workforce, and every plan on the pricing page pairs payroll with a QuickBooks Online accounting tier (checked October 16, 2026). That matters when you compare: the $88 base buys Simple Start accounting as well as payroll. If you keep QuickBooks for your books and move only payroll, you still pay for an accounting subscription, at a price outside our research.

Other charges to count: each extra state is $12 a month on Payroll and Premium; contractors are paid through a separate Contractor Payments plan at $25 a month for up to 20 contractors plus $2 each after that; and Intuit charges $150 to prepare your year-end forms if you cancel first. The full price sheet is on our QuickBooks Payroll pricing page.

Why people leave QuickBooks Payroll

Intuit's US Trustpilot page, which covers every Intuit product, rates it 1.1 from 1,550 reviews (seen October 16, 2026); G2 shows 4.4 from 511 reviews of QuickBooks Workforce. The specific payroll complaints come from Intuit's own community forum:

The weak point for a growing team is the guarantee. On every plan except Elite, our research found no published promise to pay penalties caused by Intuit's errors.

Two ways out: swap payroll only, or swap the books too

Most searches for a QuickBooks Payroll alternative come from one of two owners. Pick your route before you compare prices.

Accountants who run payroll for several clients have different needs; see payroll software for accountants. If your team is tiny and cost is everything, also look at free and near-free payroll options.

QuickBooks Payroll alternatives ranked by score

QuickBooks scores 52 in our payroll ranking: it publishes prices, but the 10-person cost ($153) is high, the guarantee sits on an unpriced plan, and support hours are not published. Every other scored provider, in order:

Scores use the same six criteria for every provider; read how we score payroll for the point rules.

Price check for 5, 10 and 25 employees

QuickBooks rows include its accounting tier; the alternatives are payroll only, except Wave, whose accounting is free. One state, no add-ons, list prices.

Wave is the only like-for-like swap here, because it replaces the accounting as well: $100 a month against $153 for 10 employees. If you keep QuickBooks Online, add your accounting subscription to any payroll-only row before you compare. A second state adds $12 a month on QuickBooks and on Patriot, and nothing on OnPay. For the full budget, see payroll costs for small businesses, and price a hire in the employee cost calculator.

Top QuickBooks Payroll alternatives

When QuickBooks Payroll is still the right call

• Your bookkeeper lives in QuickBooks Online and payroll entries post straight to the ledger. The time saved can outweigh a $44 to $66 monthly price gap at 10 employees.
• You want penalty and interest cover in writing. Workforce Elite's Tax Penalty Protection pays both, up to $25,000 a year, if you send the notice within 15 days. Only ADP's terms come close, and ADP covers interest only when it held your tax money late.
• You keep a year of history online. Intuit keeps payroll data available for one year after you cancel; Wave cuts access at month end.

Weighing QuickBooks against a larger provider instead? See ADP vs QuickBooks Payroll.

Leaving QuickBooks Payroll mid-year without losing W-2s

One commenter described about two years of cleanup after leaving QuickBooks Payroll (Hacker News). Most of that is avoidable with the order below.

1. Run reports before you submit the cancel form. The form cannot be changed once sent, and W-2s need an active subscription. Save payroll summaries, tax liability reports, filed 941s and state wage reports for each quarter of 2026.
2. Leave the bank account open. Intuit pays your outstanding full-service tax liabilities at cancellation, so the funding account must stay open until those debits clear.
3. Cancel just before the billing date. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the monthly billing period with no prorated refund.
4. Decide who files the 2026 W-2s. Intuit charges $150 to prepare year-end filings or W-2s after you cancel. The other way is to load every 2026 paycheck into the new provider and have it file one full-year W-2 per employee by February 1, 2027. Do one or the other, not both, or employees get duplicate forms.
5. Match the quarter. The Q4 2026 Form 941 is due February 1, 2027. If you switch partway through a quarter, the new provider needs the QuickBooks payrolls from that quarter so its 941 is complete.
6. Re-enter year-to-date totals. Social Security stops at $184,500 of 2026 wages and FUTA at $7,000 per employee, counted across both providers because your EIN is the same.
7. Hand over your state account numbers. You registered your own state accounts under QuickBooks, so you already hold them. Give them to the new provider and confirm it files each state's quarterly wage report; missed reports can raise your rate (see 2026 SUTA rates).

The tax background for each of these filings is in our payroll taxes guide.