Square Payroll has two pricing plans — Full-Service Payroll ($35 per month, plus $6 per month, per person paid) and Contractor-only Payroll ($6 per month, per person paid).
With its pricing flexibility, Square Payroll is a great option for agile businesses that can scale up or down without the need for monthly fee lock-ins.
In this guide, I’ll look at how much Square Payroll costs, including any hidden fees, and evaluate whether the provider is the right platform for you.
Why Should You Trust Us? Our Research Methodology
Honed over years of market and user research, our research methodology scores each product (eight in total) across 56 areas of investigation.
Once the research team has gathered all of this information, it is handed over to our talented team of (human) writers, who turn it into the reviews and guides that you’ll find across our site. This is one of them.
For a full breakdown of how we research the best payroll products on the market, head to our methodology section.
On this page:
- How Much Does Square Payroll Cost?
- Does Square Payroll Have Any Hidden Costs or Fees?
- Square Payroll Pros and Cons
- Square Payroll Key Features
- What Are the Best Alternatives to Square Payroll?
- How Did We Research Square Payroll?
- Verdict: Is Square Payroll a Good Payroll Platform?
- Frequently Asked Questions
| Monthly cost | Cost per payee | Highlights | Support | 1099 E-file | Time tracking | Expense management | ||
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| Full-Service Payroll | Contractor-only Payroll | |||||||
| $35 per month | No monthly cost | |||||||
| $6 per month, per person paid | $6 per month, per person paid | |||||||
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Does Square Payroll Have Any Hidden Costs or Fees?
Yes, Square Payroll has a few hidden costs, which I’ll break down below.
Full-Service Payroll
- Mail paper copies of W2s/1099s — annual fee of $3 per mailed form
- Workers’ compensation — custom pricing
- Paid amendment services — custom pricing
- Health insurance — custom pricing (via SimplyInsured)
- 401k retirement benefits — custom pricing (via Vestwell)
Contractor-only Payroll
- Mail paper copies of W2s/1099s — annual fee of $3 per mailed form
- Federal and state compliance alerts — no public pricing
- Workers’ compensation — custom pricing
- Paid amendment services — custom pricing
Does Square Payroll have a free plan?
No, Square Payroll does not have a totally free plan. If you want to pay employees, you will be charged a minimum of $6 per month, per person paid.
Check out our guide to the best free payroll software to discover our top free payroll picks.
Pros of Square Payroll
- Automated tax filing and withholding
- Third-party integrations, including QuickBooks Online, available on both plans
- Self-service employee app for onboarding, booking time off, and more
- Cancel any time with no monthly contract lock-in
- Easy-to-use platform and good support options
Cons of Square Payroll
- Some key features are only available as paid add-ons, such as mail paper copies of W2s/1099s
- Limited reporting and analytics features
- Lack of scalable corporate HR tools
- No support for global payroll
Square Payroll Key Features
Now that I’ve looked at how much Square Payroll costs, let’s focus on its key features.
Payroll processing
Square Payroll is a very competent payroll platform, with multi-state processing across all 50 states, automated tax compliance, and detailed employee tracking.
While it is quite limited compared to Rippling, integrations with QuickBooks and Bambee make up for its shortcomings as an accounting and HR platform.
Team management
The Square Team app makes it simple to manage your business payroll. Employees can view pay stubs, request time off, clock in and out, and update direct deposit information if required.
Reports
Users can also create tax reports, as well as custom and pre-made analytics reports. HR features are limited, but users can still store employee and onboarding documents.
Ease of use
Square Payroll is very easy to use. As a streamlined platform, it’s easy to navigate, and key processes like tax filing and time-tracking are simple and intuitive.
Help and support
Square Payroll offers good help and support options. Users get free live account setup support on both plans, as well as dedicated specialist support via phone from Monday to Friday, 6AM PT to 6PM PT.
Users who prefer self-service can also access an online support center.
What Are the Best Alternatives to Square Payroll?
There are plenty of Square Payroll alternatives to consider. For example, Rippling is our pick of payroll software for small businesses.
In addition to its robust core payroll features, Rippling also offers comprehensive HR and IT tools, making it a better fit for scaling and large businesses.
Due to its suite of benefits management tools, Gusto is a great option for startups, which often include attractive benefits to entice potential employees.
You can find some more alternatives in the table below.
| Starting price | Rating | Key features | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPONSORED  | BEST OVERALL  |  |  |  |  |
| Paychex | |||||
| No public pricing | |||||
| Not yet rated | 4.6 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.3 | Not yet rated |
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| Compare Quotes | Try Rippling | Compare Quotes | Try Paychex | Compare Quotes | Compare Quotes |
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 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 research methodology that scores each product in five main categories of investigation and 10 subcategories; this covers everything from levels of data security and user control, to the customer support each provider offers, and much more.
Our main research 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, including 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 research 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 research process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Verdict: Is Square Payroll a Good Payroll Platform?
Yes, Square Payroll is a great payroll platform. With a very low entry price, it’s a great option for smaller businesses that employ a lot of contractors, as you won’t have to pay a costly, fixed monthly fee.
Square Payroll has a good selection of core payroll features, including unlimited payroll runs, time tracking, automated compliance, and integrations for accounting and HR.
However, larger companies looking for an all-in-one payroll and HR platform should consider Rippling, which offers advanced functionality, customizable packages, and standout reporting features.
This information would obviously be kept confidential, inaccessible to anyone but your HR representatives.
If you click on, sign up to a service through, or make a purchase through the links on our site, or use our quotes tool to receive custom pricing for your business needs, we may earn a referral fee from the supplier(s) of the technology you’re interested in. This helps Tech.co to provide free information and reviews, and carries no additional cost to you. Most importantly, it doesn’t affect our editorial impartiality. Ratings and rankings on Tech.co cannot be bought. Our reviews are based on objective research analysis. Rare exceptions to this will be marked clearly as a ‘sponsored’ table column, or explained by a full advertising disclosure on the page, in place of this one. Click to return to top of page