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The best free payroll software overall is Payroll4Free because of it has plenty of features and impressive live support options, including phone and email.
Payroll4Free's combination of functionality and ease of use makes it the winner, but other standout free software for managing payroll is Square Payroll, which is best for paying contractors rather than employees.
Many payroll services include integrations that streamline additional business operations such as tax filing, employee management, or a human resources department.
In this article, we'll break down the best free payroll software, letting you know which features and integrations each one has to offer. But, if you're interested in paid payroll software — which offer stronger features and are easier to scale — you can take our free online payroll quiz to get match your business to a suitable solution in minutes.
| Price From | Key Features | Support hours | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
| Payroll4Free | Square Payroll | ExcelPayroll | HR.My | TimeTrex |
| Free for 25 or fewer employees | $35/month + $5/employee | Free for 50 or fewer employees | Free | Free |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| No support | No support | No support |
Payroll4Free, Square Payroll, and ExcelPayroll are the best complimentary payroll services we've reviewed. Read our full list of contenders, and their individual best fors, in the list below.
- Payroll4Free – Best free payroll software overall
- Square Payroll – Best for contractors
- ExcelPayroll – Best for spreadsheet lovers
- HR.my – Best for international use
- TimeTrex – Best for employee management
1. Payroll4Free – Best Free Payroll Software Overall
Payroll4Free offers one of the most competitive free payroll software systems on the market. It's easy to use, has customer support to guide users through difficult issues, and comes with more features than any other payroll software on this list — making it the best free payroll software overall, especially for small businesses.
Its free package offers more comprehensive features than providers like TimeTrex — making the payroll process even easier. While it's only suited to businesses with less than 25 employees, it does include direct deposit and a self-service portal, which is essential if you business needs to prioritise spend in other areas.
Pros:
- Lots of features
- Unlimited customer support
- Free to use
Cons:
- 25 Employee Maximum
- No HR features
- No support for macOS
Pros
Payroll4Free lets managers compile reports to better understand their data, tracks taxes across the state and local level including federal. It also gives employees access to a portal that lets them view personal information, track vacation days, and reprint paystubs or W-2s if needed.
The service offers a simple interface, 24/7 customer support, and a great range of the features you'll need to manage your payroll, all for free. Live customer support for a free software isn't a guarantee, particularly if it is unlimited support via both phone and email.
Cons
Like most free software, Payroll4Free isn't perfect. One big restriction is the employee cap, which limits the number of individuals on the payroll to 25 — a number that's fine for many small businesses, but could be too limiting as a company grows. ExcelPayroll, on the other hand, offers a much higher employee limit — with a cap of up to 50 employees, however it doesn't provide the same level of features and functionality that Payroll4Free offers for US businesses, making it less desirable. Still, with Payroll4Free, users will have to put up with advertisements in the interface and MacOS isn't supported at all, so you'll have to have rely on Windows to run the software.
Time tracking is not included, either, although integrations can be added to import that data into the platform.
Features
Payroll4Free is at the top of our list in large part due to the wide range of features it offers. Here's a quick list of the key abilities that it can handle for your business:
- Pays employees and contractors
- Determines federal, state, and local taxes
- Supports paper checks and direct deposit
- Employee portal
- Vacation time calculation
- Generate reports
- Data export for accounting integrations
- Data import for time tracking integrations
- Customer support: Phone and email
The reporting ability tracks data that can be turned in a variety of reports — earnings, tax, benefit, accrued time, and payroll journal reports.
Any hidden fees?
Payroll4Free offers an impressive amount for free, but not everything. You'll have to pay a $15 per month subscription to get Payroll4Free to handle all your end-of-year tax calculations, including deposits, filings, and sending the W-2 forms every employee must receive. With the free version, you'll still have the tools to manually calculate your taxes, but you'll need to personally file taxes and send forms.
In addition, if you surpass the 25-employee cap, you will be charged $35 per payroll cycle. So, if you anticipate company growth down the road, Square might be the best free offering for you.
2. Square Payroll – Best for Contractors
Square Payroll is the biggest name on this list, and is best known for its paid plans. In comparison to Payroll4Free, Square Payroll's free plan leaves a lot to be desired. It doesn't offer the functionality and level of features that you'll find with Payroll4Free, however it does include custom reports and good software integrations that make accounting relatively easy.
Pros:
- Very affordable
- Expanded HR functionality
- iOS and Android app
Cons:
- Not many integrations
- No data migration
- Not many training resources
- Stars at $29 per month
- Plus $5 for each employee
- Free plan available for contractors
Pros
Perks include the ability to create detailed custom reports and tax support for sending 1099-NEC forms, although you'll still need to file the taxes themselves. Cash App payments are supported, in a feature that no other service in this guide offers.
Square Payroll offers a QuickBooks Online integration, for accounting help, but has no data migration support.
Cons
What are the downsides? First, you'll only be able to pay contractors, not full-time employees.
Second, Square Payroll charges $5 per person per month — it's free to have everyone in the system and data collection is free, but the core reason you'd want the service will cost money. But that payment process makes Square great for a business that contracts seasonal or irregular independant work, since there's no monthly price charged when it's not being used.
Features
Square Payroll's core features include:
- Pays contractors
- Supports paper checks, direct deposit, and Cash App
- 1099-NEC form mailing
- QuickBooks integration
- Generate reports
- Customer support: Phone and email
Support hours are on work days from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT, making Square Payroll's support option not as comprehensive as Payroll4Free's 24/7 service but definitely better than other free services including HR.my and TimeTrex, which don't offer email or phone support at all.
Any hidden fees?
Kinda: Square Payroll charges $5 per person paid per month, meaning that this “free plan” requires payment in order to do its primary function. One person can be paid an unlimited number of times within a month for the same $5 charge. Yes, this does mean that this service functions more like a free trial than a free plan, but the distinction still matters for seasonal contracting work, as a business can retain access to all its reports and data during the off season, entirely for free.
The service has a paid plan that supports fulltime employees as well, making it a good option for a small business with future plans to scale up to employees as well as contractors. Square Payroll's paid plan costs a base $35 per month, plus $5 per person paid per month, and it includes tax filings and payment, timecards with an employee app, and tip tracking. Learn more about Square Payroll pricing plans.
3. ExcelPayroll – Best for Spreadsheet Lovers
The ExcelPayroll software is a great free payroll software for DIY-loving small business owners or managers who enjoy tracking data through spreadsheets. Users may face a tough learning curve if they aren't already familiar with Excel, but those who know how the popular Microsoft spreadsheet software works should find ExcelPayroll far easier. In comparison to Payroll4Free, Excel is a more intuitive platform, with an interface that's far easier to get to grips with, however Payroll4Free does offer more features — including direct deposits and automated taxes, which makes it more suited to new businesses.
Pros:
- Up to 50 employees
- Prints tax forms
- Generates reports
Cons:
- Requires Excel subscription
- Difficult without Excel experience
- Some manual entry required
Pros
Setup and installation with ExcelPayroll is easier than any other software in this guide, as it all runs on Excel, so you'll just have to download and unzip a file.
Up to 50 employees can be paid at one time through the software, which should be more than enough for any small business. The user cap is intentionally designed by the software's creator, who wanted only small businesses to be able to use it, although they have noted that non-profit organizations with a greater number of active employees should get in touch to have the cap removed.
Cons
While the service is free, ExcelPayroll is more limited than Payroll4Free and Square Payroll services. For example, direct deposit is not supported, though paper checks can be printed. Users can also print tax forms (W2 forms, W3, 940, 941, DE9), although they can't file through the software.
Features
ExcelPayroll's most important features to know are:
- Prints tax forms
- Tracks vacation days
- Generates workers' compensation reports
- Calculates deductions
- Generates accounting entries
- Offers custom withholding and timecard options
- Live customer support: None
The deductions that the software is designed to automatically add when desired include 401K, 125P, HSA, and Garnishment.
Any hidden fees?
There are no extra fees whatsoever with ExcelPayroll, including no monthly fee, no payroll fee, and no additional services such as tax filing. It's a stripped-down service with no surprises.
4. HR.my – Best for International Use
Unlike most software on this list, HR.My supports an unlimited number of employees, across any location on the planet. Well, any location that speaks one of the 67 languages that the payroll software supports. That's an impressive number for any free software, and more than any other service in this guide. As a result, HR.My works well as a way to track worker pay across international borders making it perfect for managing multinational teams.
Pros:
- No cap on employees
- No location limits
- Includes time tracking
Cons:
- No US tax compliance
- No live customer support
Pros
HR.my features include basic payroll support and time tracking, but also cover useful employee management tools that will help managers easily field expense claims and employee leave requests. Plus, the software lets a business operate an HR service, a benefit none of the other free offerings in our guide can boast except for TimeTrex.
The HR.my software is crowdfunded, with no paid plans waiting in the wings.
Cons
The downsides of the software are also tied to its focus on international — It doesn't offer any US labor law compliance, so users in the US will likely need to look elsewhere for tax forms and filing. Also, as with ExcelPayroll, there is no live customer support — offering it would have quite a feat, given the global userbase.
One other limitation worth mentioning is that only four specific salary processing periods are supported — Monthly, Semi-Monthly, Weekly and Bi-Weekly — which isn't likely to be a problem, but falls short of the effectively unlimited amount of payroll cycles allowed per month by Square Payroll and ExcelPayroll.
Features
HR.My packs plenty of features into its software. Here are the highlights:
- Time tracking
- Employee portal
- Expense claim support
- HR management
- Leave management
- Supports 67 languages
- Live customer support: None
Users of the free service can suggest additional tools online, and HR.My says its software is regularly updated for even more functionality.
Any hidden fees?
No extra fees or cost here: HR.My doesn't have a fee or offer any tie-in services.
5. TimeTrex – Best for Employee Management
Time Trex is a great business software for managers invested in employee management, since it focuses on tracking hours worked and auto-generating schedules. Unlike other Payroll4Free, its pricing is a little ambiguous, but it does offer a free 30-day trial and demo for users who do want to test out the software.
Pros:
- Great time and attendance tracking tools
- Automatic scheduling
- Cloud-based
Cons:
- No tax filing
- No direct deposit
- No live customer support
Pros
Time Trex offers payroll support, time tracking and employee management tools that cover employee scheduling: With this feature, work hours can be set in advance so that even multi-week rotating schedules can be automatically created.
The software is cloud-based, so it can be accessed from any major browser on desktop or mobile, making it easy for a manager to stay up-to-date from any location.
Cons
The software will calculate taxes when determining pay and tracks tax data, but comes with no tax filing service. Users on the free plan won't have access to live customer support, and won't get additional advanced features. One big feature restriction of the free plan stands out above the rest: There's no support for direct deposit, an ability that Payroll4Free and Square Payroll both include.
Features
Time Trex's main features include:
- Time tracking
- Payroll support with deductions
- Supports paper checks
- Calculates federal, state, and local taxes
- Attendance management
- Leave management
- Automatic scheduling
- Cloud-based interface
Live customer support is available for paid plans.
Any hidden fees?
TimeTrex offers three paid plans, but does not make the plan pricing public — instead, interested customers should contact the company for a custom quote. Higher priced plans include features ranging from invoicing to recruitment and applicant tracking.
Why Do Businesses Need Payroll Software?
All businesses need workers, and all workers need to get paid. For that, the manager needs a system for tracking and automating how, when, and how much each employee and contractor is paid — which is what payroll software does.
The key advantages of payroll software include greater efficiency and accuracy for generating paychecks and payslips, as well as the ability to calculate bonuses, expenses, overtime and holiday pay.
Many payroll software options will include integrations with accounting software, so business taxes can be easily calculated as well, and the correct tax forms can be sent to employees. The biggest benefit, though, is increased employee satisfaction: There's no quicker way to shake your employees' confidence that you value their contributions than failing to deliver their paycheck on time.
Is Free Payroll Software Worth It?
According to our research, payroll software costs tend to start at $35 to $45 per month for paid services. There's a reason plenty of businesses pay that fee — the relatively small investment will reap dividends in additional features and integrations with common business management tools from time trackers to HR resources to
Still, starting with a free software makes sense: When a business is getting off the ground, extra features can distract a harried manager from higher priorities. As the company scales up, it can switch to a paid plan to capitalize off of the more detailed functionality.
If you plan to outgrow your free plan, we'd recommend starting with Payroll4Free or Square Payroll, both of which offer paid plans for users who have outgrown employee caps or require more features.
A small business that hopes to keep roughly the same employee base might want to pick ExcelPayroll, as they won't run the risk of hitting the 50-employee cap and needing to unexpectedly migrate to a new software.
How to Choose Payroll Software
You'll want to find the best payroll software for your specific needs: You won't want to overpay for a wealth of features that aren't actually relevant to your industry or that won't save enough money to justify taking the time to use them. In general, a smaller business has basic payroll needs, while a larger operation has the scale to fully benefit from a payroll software with expanded functionality.
That extra functionality might include more ways to accomodate employees' needs, from vacation day accrual to overtime hours, or more ways to analyze data with a greater range of generateable reports.
Payroll software often serves more than one role, or it integrates with other services. The most common of these additional businesses services are accounting, tax filing, time tracking, employee scheduling, and HR support. Your business may need other industry-specific services as well.
Methodology: How We Test Free Payroll Software
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful product recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put eight payroll software platforms to the test across 56 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a payroll software testing methodology that scores each product in five main categories of investigation and ten subcategories; this covers everything from levels of data security and user control, to the customer support each provider offers and much more.
Our main testing categories for payroll software are:
Control: the level of customization and flexibility provided by the payroll software in managing and processing payroll. It includes features such as the ability to define pay periods, customize earnings and deductions, set up tax withholding rules, and manage employee data.
Data Security: the measures and protocols implemented by the payroll software to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive payroll information. This includes encryption of data, secure data storage, access controls, backup and disaster recovery procedures, and compliance with data protection regulations.
Expertise: the level of knowledge and guidance provided by the payroll software vendor or support team. This can include resources such as documentation, tutorials, training materials, and access to payroll experts who can assist users with payroll-related questions.
Scalability: the ability of the payroll software to accommodate the growth and changing needs of a business. It includes factors such as the capacity to handle an increasing number of employees, support multiple locations or entities, and adapt to evolving payroll requirements include HR related functionality and employee benefits.
Customer Support: the various channels and methods available for users to seek assistance and support from the payroll software vendor. This can include email or ticket-based support, phone support, live chat, community forums, and self-help resources
When it comes to calculating a provider's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others. After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Find the Best Payroll Software for Your Business
If you know which software matches your needs, whether it's Payroll4Free, Square Payroll, or another free solution, there's nothing keeping you from getting started today. After all, it won't cost anything.
If you're open to the feature-rich benefits of paid payroll software, we can help you there, too. You can take our free payroll quiz to find the best payroll software for your business in minutes, designed by our in-house team of payroll specialists.
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