Managed Payroll · Compared
Paychex sells payroll and HR service tiers behind a sales quote. QuickBooks Payroll publishes its pricing and anchors to the accounting software you may already run. Honest referee breakdown.
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Contender One
Paychex is one of the largest payroll and HR service providers in the country, with plans that scale from small-business payroll up through more complex HR and benefits administration for larger employers. Its published positioning leans on breadth: payroll, tax filing, HR support, benefits, and time and attendance are all available inside the Paychex ecosystem, with heavier service tiers adding dedicated support.
Paychex does not publish plan pricing on its site. Cost depends on headcount, pay frequency, state footprint, and which HR or benefits modules you add, so getting a real number means a sales conversation. For companies that want a single vendor covering payroll through benefits, with a rep to call, Paychex is built for exactly that; for companies that want to see a price before they talk to anyone, it is not.
Contender Two
QuickBooks Payroll is Intuit's payroll product, sold standalone or bundled with QuickBooks Online accounting. Its pricing page lists tiered plans, each a published base fee plus a per-employee monthly charge, scaling up through tiers that add features like same-day direct deposit, expert setup review, and HR support resources. Full-service tax filing and forms are included across its tiers per that same page.
The obvious strength is transparency: you can price it out before signing up. The obvious limit is that QuickBooks Payroll is most natural for companies already living inside the QuickBooks accounting ecosystem; the value proposition softens if your books are somewhere else. Like any self-service platform, your team still runs the payroll and monitors the account.
Side by Side
| Factor | Paychex | QuickBooks Payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll model | Self-service software with optional service tiers | Self-service software, bundled with accounting |
| Pricing visibility | Quote-gated, sales call required | Published base-plus-per-employee tiers, linked |
| Who runs payroll | Your team, inside the Paychex platform | Your team, inside QuickBooks |
| Tax filing responsibility | Paychex files per its published model | Intuit files per its published model |
| Ideal company size | Small through larger employers across tiers | Small businesses, especially existing QuickBooks users |
| Ecosystem anchor | Payroll, HR, benefits under one vendor | Tied to QuickBooks accounting for full value |
| Support model | Tiered service levels, quote-dependent | Standard support, higher tiers add expert review |
Based on Paychex's published positioning and QuickBooks's published pricing page.
How to Actually Decide
Lean QuickBooks Payroll. Bundling payroll with the accounting software you already use keeps everything in sync and the pricing is on the page before you commit.
Lean Paychex. Its broader service tiers are built for companies that want a single relationship to call for payroll, HR questions, and benefits, and are comfortable getting a quote to see the number.
Start with QuickBooks Payroll's published tiers to anchor your budget expectations, then decide if Paychex's broader service is worth a quote for your headcount.
Weighing a published-pricing alternative instead? See Gusto vs OnPay.
The Referee's Close
Pick QuickBooks Payroll if you want a published number and live in the QuickBooks ecosystem already. Pick Paychex if you want a broader service relationship and are fine getting a quote. Either way, someone on your team is still clicking run payroll, reviewing the report, and fielding the employee question when a paycheck looks wrong.
If you would rather have payroll actually run for you, inside your existing system, that is BEG managed payroll: a flat $25 to $45 per employee per month, all-inclusive, with a $500 monthly minimum, a $10 PEPM benefits add-on if you need it, and a $300 one-time fee for multi-state setup. No sales call and no quote gate: your estimate is on screen in about 90 seconds.
See your exact monthly & annual price - no call required
Questions
It works best bundled with QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks sells combined payroll-and-accounting plans on its pricing page, but standalone payroll-only options exist too. If your books already live in QuickBooks, the bundle is the more natural fit.
No. Paychex markets tiers across small, midsize, and larger employers, with its published entry-level plans aimed at small business alongside heavier-service tiers for bigger, more complex payrolls. Exact plan cost and inclusions are quote-gated.
QuickBooks publishes tiered base-plus-per-employee pricing on its site, so you can estimate cost before talking to anyone. Paychex requires a quote for its plans, so the honest comparison is QuickBooks's published number against a Paychex quote for the same headcount, not a guess at what Paychex costs.
Both providers publish that they handle federal, state, and local payroll tax filings as part of their core service. The difference is less about who files and more about how much support surrounds that filing when something goes wrong.
Both are software: your team still owns running payroll and monitoring the account, even with taxes filed automatically. If you want payroll actually run for you at a flat $25 to $45 PEPM all-inclusive, that is BEG managed payroll, with an instant on-screen estimate instead of a sales quote.
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