From payroll to HR, finance and IT, professional employer organization services and technologies have become fundamental for modern businesses.
Professional employer organizations, or PEOs, are HR companies that handle other business’s complex HR needs. If your business partners with a PEO company, the PEO will take everything employee-related off your hands, from hiring and onboarding to payroll, benefits and taxes.
PEOs are typically more expensive than in-house HR and payroll software solutions. Additionally, PEOs must become legal co-employers with your business so they can file payroll taxes on your behalf. As long as you have the budget for it and are fine sharing ownership of your company with a third party, working with a PEO can give you time to focus on running your business instead of dealing with HR.
The best PEO solution for most small and midsize businesses is ADP TotalSource. But if ADP TotalSource isn’t a good fit for you, there are plenty of other PEO companies that can take HR and payroll off your hands entirely.
| Full-service payroll | Benefit administration | Hiring and onboarding tools | Global payroll and benefits | Starting monthly price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADP TotalSource | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (140+ countries) | Custom |
| Rippling PEO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $8/employee |
| Paychex PEO | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (through third-party integration) | Custom |
| Justworks | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | $79/employee/month |
| Papaya Global | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (160+ countries) | Custom |
| TriNet | Yes | Yes | No | No | Custom |
Competing PEO companies offer outsourced HR solutions that include rapid onboarding, automated tax and payroll, and remote equipment management. Each PEO solution reviewed below aims to be a one-stop shop for the entire employee lifecycle, but each competitor offers different human resource services at different price points.
These are the top PEO companies for 2024.
Our star rating: 4.4 out of 5
ADP is a payroll and HR company that offers multiple employee management solutions for all types and sizes of businesses. While ADP offers well-reviewed payroll software scalable for small, midsize and large businesses, the company is probably best known for its PEO service, ADP TotalSource.
ADP TotalSource focuses on small and midsize businesses with between five and 250 employees. Once you choose ADP as your co-employer, the company will manage your workers’ compensation payments, payroll processing, payroll tax filing and employee benefits. While ADP doesn’t perform every single HR task, it does provide thorough HR support as an HRBP, or HR business partner.
To learn more about whether ADP TotalSource will work for you, check out our ADP review.
Like most PEOs, ADP requires you to call its sales team directly to get a quote.
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Our star rating: 4.3 out of 5
Rippling PEO differentiates itself from the market by offering a combination of HR, IT and finance solutions in one dashboard. The cloud-based solution also leverages automation in most of its processes.
Rippling’s PEO solution guides users through complex tax, onboarding and payroll executions with guided step-by-step instructions, providing high levels of accessibility to teams. It also offers reports, training and skilling, competitive pricing and global payroll capacities.
To learn more about whether Rippling PEO will work for you, check out our Rippling review.
Rippling PEO’s base price isn’t listed online. However, the starting price for its standalone payroll solution is $8 per month for every user.
Additionally, every customer can add HR and IT components like Payroll, Benefits, Device Management and others. These can be purchased separately. Whether you choose Rippling PEO or one of its standalone HR, tech or payroll modules, you’ll also pay an unlisted monthly base fee.
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Our star rating: 4 out of 5
Paychex PEO is a solid PEO solution that helps companies of any size, from small businesses to midsized or enterprise level. However, its level of customer support and thorough features make it a particularly good fit for growing and midsize businesses. The company also offers a product called Paychex Flex, a cloud-based payroll software tool that helps companies hire, pay, manage and retain employees. Paychex is one of ADP’s biggest competitors in both the payroll software and PEO spheres, and the two companies share many of the same features, pros and cons.
To learn more about whether Paychex PEO will work for you, check out our Paychex review.
Paychex doesn’t list the pricing for its PEO service online. Instead, potential customers must directly request a free customized quote.
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Our star rating: 4.2 out of 5
Operating since 2012, Justworks is a straightforward, streamlined PEO solution for managing payroll, employee benefits, HR and compliance. Its robust cloud-based system receives healthy scores across various review sites.
While the platform is excellent for small and medium businesses for organization-wide payroll, medical, dental, vision, 401(k), life insurance, AD&D and more, it can be costly. The company does offer 24/7 support, but some features are not available in the Basic plan.
To learn more about whether Justworks’s PEO will work for you, check out our Justworks review.
The PEO Basic plan starts at $79 per employee per month. This includes full-service payroll, access to HR consultants, expense management, and employee training. To access Justworks’ top-notch employee beneftis, you’ll need the PEO Plus plan, which costs $109 per employee per month.
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Our star rating: 4.2 out of 5
Papaya Global is the ideal global PEO for companies with international workforces. While Papaya offers all the payroll, HR and hiring and onboarding features that most platforms provide, it sets itself apart with a strong focus on managing global talents.
Papaya adapts to the age of hybrid work, where talent can come from anywhere. It operates in over 160 countries with all types of employment. The user-friendly platform comes in an all-in-one system with great data visibility, automation tools and reporting. Its customer support, however, is not 24/7, and it can be expensive for small companies.
To learn more about whether Papaya Global’s PEO service will work for you, check out our Papaya Global review.
Papaya offers multiple global payroll solutions starting at the following price points:
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Unlike the other best PEO companies on our list, TriNet’s PEO solutions are industry specific. While all of its PEO plans include standard PEO features, like automated payroll and comprehensive employee benefits, each individual plan is specifically tailored to your industry’s needs — especially your industry’s specific labor compliance regulations.
To learn more about whether TriNet’s PEO service will work for you, check out our TriNet review.
TriNet doesn’t transparently list its prices online. However, when you request a quote, you’ll get a customized line-item list that clearly explains exactly which features you’ll be charged for and exactly how much each costs.
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To choose the top PEO service providers for small businesses, we evaluated 12 of the most popular PEO companies for domestic and international companies. We then ranked them according to the following criteria:
Learn more about how we rate and review our top payroll providers on our payroll review methodology page.
There is no one-size fits all solution when choosing a PEO company. While some PEO technology may sound attractive for small companies, big enterprises with large workforces may require other features.
Several factors need to be considered before purchasing a PEO: Before contracting with a PEO company, consider factors like budget, number of employees, benefits that your organization offers, where you operate, what type of automation you require, what work culture you are building and how complex your compliance situation is. It’s also important to discuss HR, IT, payroll, accounting and finance tools with your respective teams to know which HR and payroll software platform they are more comfortable with and gain better insight into what your talent needs.
A PEO, or professional employer organization, is a payroll and HR solution for small businesses that want to outsource those services instead of handling them in house. A PEO will become your business’s legal co-owner in order to legally hire employers on your behalf, process payroll, pay your employees and sign them up for benefits.
Small businesses that don’t have time to spend on payroll, HR and legal compliance may benefit from turning those tasks over to a PEO company that specializes in human resources. With the help of a PEO service provider, business owners can focus on expanding operations and making sure their business is running smoothly. Meanwhile, HR professionals can handle every element of the employee life cycle to ensure employees have a positive experience working for your company.
A payroll software service is a typically cloud-based payroll solution that enables employers to run payroll, pay employees and administer employee benefits in house. In contrast, a PEO is an outsourced solution where a PEO company takes HR and payroll tasks off a business’s plate so the business owners can focus on daily business tasks rather than focusing on the ins and outs of complicated payroll tax laws.
Ray is a Content and Communication Specialist with more than 15 years of experience. He currently works at Publicize and as a writer for TechRepublic and eSecurity Planet. His work has been published in Microsoft, VentureBeat, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Sunday Mail, FinTech Times, Spiceworks, Dice Insights, Horasis, and the Nature Conservancy, among others
