Most small business owners shopping for payroll can’t get a straight answer about cost. They fill out a form, get routed to a sales rep at ADP or Paychex, sit through a discovery call, and then hear some version of “it depends on your needs.” We get it — pricing does depend on a few things. But you deserve to walk in already knowing the ballpark. So here’s what Payroll Freedom cost actually looks like across our three small business packages, what’s included at each level, and how to figure out which one fits your business.
This is the post we wish more payroll companies would write. We work with small businesses across Illinois and Wisconsin — contractors in Lake County, restaurants in Mundelein, family businesses in Grafton, insurance agencies, medical practices — and almost every prospect we talk to has the same first question. So let’s just answer it.
What does Payroll Freedom cost? The short answer
Our three small business payroll packages are priced per employee, per payroll, plus a base fee per pay run:
- Core — $3.35 per employee, per payroll
- Core+ — $5.30 per employee, per payroll
- Core Pro — $9.70 per employee, per payroll
On top of the per-employee rate, every package includes a base fee that depends on how often you run payroll: $45 weekly, $64 bi-weekly or semi-monthly, $95 monthly. There’s also a one-time $300 setup fee when you onboard, and year-end W-2 processing runs $135 base plus $9.55 per employee.
Those are the published rates, not flat package prices. Your actual monthly payroll cost depends on employee count, pay frequency, which tier you pick, and whether you add services like HR, time tracking, or retirement plan integration. We’ll get into the specifics of each package below — and we’ll show you what real all-in monthly totals look like at common employee counts.
A note on what those numbers don’t include: certain add-ons (HR Management, Time & Attendance, Talent Acquisition, Retirement Plans) are priced separately based on what you actually use. If we’re migrating you mid-year from another provider, there may be additional data transfer work depending on what your current provider gives us — we’ll tell you up front, in writing, before you commit.
Why payroll pricing varies (and why ours does too)
Three things drive the price you’ll pay any small business payroll provider, including us:
- Employee count. Payroll for 3 employees and payroll for 35 employees can’t cost the same. Per-employee pricing scales with your team size, which is the fairest way to charge — you only pay for who you actually have on payroll this week.
- Pay frequency. Running payroll weekly costs more per month than running it monthly because each payroll run carries a base fee. A 10-employee shop running weekly will see roughly twice the monthly cost of the same shop running bi-weekly.
- Service tier. Compliance-only payroll is cheaper than full-service payroll with HR support, employee self-service, and integrated time tracking. The tier you pick determines what’s included versus what you’d pay extra for.
Most national payroll companies structure their pricing the same way — per-employee plus a base fee — but they bury the per-employee rate behind a sales call and bundle add-ons in ways that make comparison hard. ADP and Paychex publish starting rates that look low until you add HR, garnishments, multi-state filing, and W-2s. Our pricing is published, and what you see is what you pay. We’d rather lose a sale than start a relationship with a pricing surprise.
Core: compliance payroll done right, starting at $3.35/employee
The Core package fits small businesses with 1 to 10 employees who need payroll run accurately and on time, with taxes filed correctly. If you’re currently running payroll yourself in QuickBooks or a free tool and dreading every quarter-end filing, this is usually the level you’re outgrowing into.
What you get at $3.35/employee per payroll:
- Unlimited payroll runs per pay period
- Direct deposit and printed checks
- Federal, state, and local payroll tax filing and deposits
- Quarterly 941s and annual 940 filing
- Year-end W-2 and 1099 prep
- New hire reporting
- Standard payroll reports (gross-to-net, tax liability, payroll register)
Example monthly cost on Core: A 5-employee business running bi-weekly payroll = (5 × $3.35) × 2 + $64 base × 2 = roughly $161/month. A 10-employee shop running weekly = (10 × $3.35) × 4.33 + $45 × 4.33 = roughly $340/month.
Core does not include employee self-service portals, HR support, time tracking integration, or onboarding workflows. If you want those, you’ll want Core+ or Core Pro.
Core+: payroll plus employee self-service and HR basics, starting at $5.30/employee
The Core+ package fits small businesses with 10 to 40 employees who need professional payroll plus the self-service and HR tools that modern employees expect. This is where most of our growing contractor, restaurant, and medical practice clients land.
Everything in Core, plus:
- Employee self-service portal (pay stubs, W-2s, direct deposit changes, address updates)
- Manager dashboards and reporting
- Digital onboarding workflows (I-9, W-4, direct deposit setup)
- HR document storage and acknowledgment tracking
- Basic HR support library (templates, handbooks, compliance posters)
- Garnishment administration
- PTO tracking and accruals
Example monthly cost on Core+: A 15-employee restaurant running bi-weekly = (15 × $5.30) × 2 + $64 × 2 = roughly $287/month. A 25-employee contractor running weekly = (25 × $5.30) × 4.33 + $45 × 4.33 = roughly $769/month.
At this tier, the Payroll Freedom cost difference vs. Core is mostly about what your employees can do for themselves. Once your team is updating their own direct deposits and pulling their own pay stubs, your administrative time drops sharply. This is the tier where most owners stop being the bottleneck on every payroll change request.
Core Pro: full HCM platform with HR support, starting at $9.70/employee
The Core Pro package fits small businesses with 40 to 100 employees who need a full Human Capital Management platform — payroll, HR, time tracking, and dedicated support — without paying for an in-house HR person at $80K to $120K a year.
Everything in Core+, plus:
- Integrated time and attendance with geofencing
- Advanced HR support including handbook review and policy guidance
- Custom reporting and analytics dashboards
- Workers’ comp pay-as-you-go integration
- Benefits administration and open enrollment workflows
- ACA tracking and 1095 filing
- Dedicated payroll specialist (you talk to the same person every time you call)
- Compliance alerts and proactive guidance
Example monthly cost on Core Pro: A 50-employee manufacturer running bi-weekly = (50 × $9.70) × 2 + $64 × 2 = roughly $1,098/month. A 75-employee multi-location restaurant group running weekly = (75 × $9.70) × 4.33 + $45 × 4.33 = roughly $3,346/month.
At Core Pro pricing, the Payroll Freedom cost is roughly 60–70% less than hiring an in-house HR generalist. Core Pro is for owners who’ve stopped treating payroll as a back-office task and started treating their workforce data as a strategic asset. If you’re growing fast, acquiring locations, or planning to scale past 100 employees, this is usually the right level.
Which package is right for your business?
Here’s a rough decision framework. It’s not perfect — we’ll always recommend a quick call to confirm — but it gets most owners 80 percent of the way there.
- Pick Core if you have under 10 employees, your team is stable, and you mostly need accurate payroll and tax filing without surprises.
- Pick Core+ if you have 10–40 employees, you want your team self-serving pay stubs and onboarding, and you’re tired of being the help desk for every HR question.
- Pick Core Pro if you have 40+ employees, you need integrated time tracking and HR support, and you’d rather have a dedicated specialist than rotate through a national 800-number queue.
Still not sure? Use our pricing calculator on the /pricing-calculator page to get a more specific estimate based on your employee count and pay frequency. It takes about two minutes and gives you a real number — no email required.
What we don’t do (and where we’re not the right fit)
Honest answer: we’re not the right payroll provider for everyone. Here’s where Payroll Freedom isn’t a fit:
- Solo owners with no employees. If you’re a single-member LLC with no W-2 employees, you don’t need us — a simple payroll tool or your CPA’s quarterly draw calculation will do.
- Businesses with 500+ employees. We serve small businesses, generally 1 to 100 employees. Past that, you’ll outgrow our model and want a mid-market HCM provider.
- Owners who want zero relationship with their payroll provider. Our model is local, personal, and responsive. If you’d rather log into a portal and never talk to a human, ADP or Gusto will frustrate you less than we will.
If any of those describe you, we’re happy to point you toward a better fit. We’d rather lose a sale than start a relationship we can’t serve well.
Honest questions to ask any payroll provider — including us
If you’re comparing payroll packages from us against another provider, here are the questions that actually surface the differences. Most sales calls don’t get this specific. They should.
- What’s the total Payroll Freedom cost — or anyone else’s cost — including setup, year-end W-2s, and any add-ons? The published per-employee rate is usually just the starting point.
- Who actually runs my payroll? Is it the rep you met on the sales call, or a rotating team in a call center I’ll never see twice?
- How fast do you respond when there’s a problem? Get a specific service-level commitment, not a vague “we’re very responsive.”
- What happens if there’s a tax filing error? Late filing, missed deposit, IRS notice — what’s the provider’s process for owning the mistake and making it right?
- Can I see a sample employee experience? If they can’t show you what your employees will see in the self-service portal, that’s a flag.
These questions cut through the sales-call polish and tell you what working with the provider will actually feel like. They work on us, too — and we’d rather you ask them now than find out the answers six months in.
What to do next
Three options, depending on where you are:
- Get a more specific number. Use the pricing calculator on our /pricing-calculator page to get an estimate of what your business would actually cost based on employee count and pay frequency. No email required.
- Schedule a quick call. We do a 20-minute conversation about your business, your current payroll setup, and what’s not working. No prep work needed on your end. You can book directly on our /request-meeting page.
- Read more first. If you want to understand the broader picture before talking to anyone, our small business payroll cost comparison and our ADP-vs-Payroll-Freedom and Paychex-vs-Payroll-Freedom comparisons go deeper into how to evaluate any payroll provider — including ones that aren’t us.
Whatever you decide — even if it’s not us — we’re rooting for you. Running a small business in Lake County or Milwaukee or anywhere else in our footprint is hard. The right payroll provider should make it less hard. That’s the whole job.
Related reading on this site: What Happens When Your Payroll Has a Mistake • How Long Does It Take to Switch Payroll Providers? • Why Your Employees Should Check Their W-4 Withholding
