The 5 Best Payroll Apps for Small Business 2021

While most payroll service providers offer mobile apps for employees, software lags on the small-business employer side. Only a handful of payroll software companies have employer-focused apps for small-business owners who value paying 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. Here are our picks for the best small-business payroll apps of 2021.

App Store rating: 4.8 stars¹
Google Play rating: 4.5 stars²

Paychex Flex’s app is far and away the most popular payroll app for small businesses. So what makes it so great? For one thing, it does basically everything Paychex's stellar cloud-based payroll software can do—and it 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.

App Store rating: 4.8 stars³
Google Play rating: 4.4 stars⁴

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 automatic payroll option. 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.

App Store rating: 4.8 stars¹¹
Google Play rating: 2.5 stars¹²

SurePayroll is owned by Paychex, our top pick—which goes to show that Paychex’s team is absolutely committed to making 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: 2.2 stars⁷
Google Play rating: 2.6 stars⁸

We know you're looking at those user reviews and thinking, this app? Really? But hear us out: while ADP's app isn't the strongest, its 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. And we've got our fingers crossed that they bring the app up to par with the software sooner than later.

App Store rating: 4.3 stars⁹
Google Play rating: 4.2 stars¹⁰

QuickBooks’ payroll app is a little less robust than the others we’ve reviewed so far. But that doesn’t mean it skimps on features: you can use the app for payroll runs and reminders, direct deposit, bank-grade security, and even e-filing your taxes.

Like QuickBooks Online's accounting app, its payroll app has a low learning curve. With a sleek dashboard and few glitches, we'd say it's the most user friendly of all our app options listed here. In fact, QuickBooks Payroll's app is much better than ADP's—so why'd we give it a lower rating?

Unfortunately, while QuickBooks Payroll's app is great, the software itself isn't. It's pricier than similar providers without adding more features, but most importantly, QuickBooks Payroll only includes an industry standard tax filing guarantee with its most expensive plan. Without that guarantee, you're on the hook for any payroll errors QuickBooks makes when it files your taxes for you—and yes, that's as ridiculous as it sounds. So while we like the app, we can't recommend QuickBooks' payroll solution over ADP's.

Using an app is often the most convenient way to run payroll on the go, but it isn’t the only way. In fact, a company can optimize its software to work just as well on a full-width laptop screen as on a small mobile screen, and that's just what Gusto and Patriot Software—two of our favorite payroll providers—have done.

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 $39 a month with a $6 additional fee per employee, it’s reasonably priced (more so than QuickBooks), and like we said above, you can access all of Gusto’s features online on your mobile device, app-free.

Patriot’s plans are cheaper than Gusto’s at $30 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 just $10 a month with the same per employee cost. 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.