What contractor payroll has to handle
A trade shop's payroll looks simple until the first busy season. These are the parts that break generic setups:
- Variable hours and overtime. Fifty-five hours in a July heat wave, thirty in a slow January week. If a tech works at two different rates in the same week, say shop rate and a prevailing-wage job, overtime has to be calculated correctly across both. Ask any provider how it handles that before you sign.
- Multiple pay types. Hourly, commission on replacements, spiffs on maintenance agreements, on-call pay, tool allowances. Each needs its own earning type so it's taxed and reported correctly.
- W-2s and 1099s side by side. Most shops have both. Keeping them in one system makes year-end filing one job instead of two.
- Time that comes from the field. Techs clock in on the field app, not in payroll. The cleanest setups export approved timesheets straight into payroll so nobody retypes hours.
- Workers' comp by class code. Your roofer and your estimator have very different rates. Pay-as-you-go workers' comp, calculated from each payroll, avoids a surprise bill at the annual audit.
- Certified payroll if you bid public work. Prevailing-wage jobs often require certified payroll reports. Not every small-business payroll service produces them, so ask specifically.
How the picks compare
Gusto and OnPay are the two straightforward choices, and at the base tier they cost exactly the same: $49/mo plus $6 per person as of October 2026. Gusto has more integrations, built-in contractor payments and workers' comp through its partner. OnPay has fewer add-ons to sell you and no setup fees. For a shop with eight W-2 techs and a handful of subs, either works. Choose Gusto if you want everything in one place, OnPay if you want the simplest bill.
QuickBooks Payroll makes sense when job costing in QuickBooks Online matters more than saving money, because wages land on projects without an export. You pay for that convenience, and Intuit's bundle pricing makes the comparison harder than it should be.
ADP RUN is for the shop that expects to keep growing and wants a provider that can add HR, benefits and compliance help later. Without published pricing, get two quotes and compare them against Gusto's public numbers.
ServiceTitan sits upstream of all of these. If commissions are a big part of tech pay, its payroll features calculate gross pay from jobs and timesheets, and one of the services above runs the actual payroll.
Which setup fits your shop size
Owner-operator, no employees. If you're a sole proprietor with no staff, you don't run payroll on yourself; you take owner draws and pay estimated taxes. If your accountant has set you up as an S corp, you need to pay yourself a reasonable salary through payroll. Gusto has a separate Solo plan for that situation (its price wasn't shown in our October 2026 check), or a base Gusto or OnPay plan with one person runs about $55/mo.
2 to 5 techs. Gusto Simple or OnPay at $79/mo for five people covers almost everything. The decision that matters more than the provider is time tracking: get techs clocking in on the field app, then import approved hours. Retyping hours from paper timesheets is where most small-shop payroll errors start.
6 to 15 techs. This is where commissions, multiple pay rates and multi-state work show up. Gusto Plus ($80/mo plus $12 per person) adds multi-state payroll and time tools, which is often cheaper than Simple with add-ons. If commission pay is a big part of compensation, the bottleneck becomes calculating it, and that's where field software with payroll features, like ServiceTitan, starts to earn its price.
15+ techs or heading there. Get an ADP quote alongside Gusto Premium ($180/mo plus $22 per person), which adds HR guidance and compliance tools. At this size, an HR mistake costs more than the payroll subscription.
Workers' comp and payroll go together
Workers' comp premiums are calculated from payroll, split by job classification. A roofing installer, an HVAC service tech and an office manager all carry different rates, and the classification codes and rules vary by state. Most states require coverage once you have employees, though the thresholds and exceptions differ, so check your state's rules.
With a traditional annual policy, you estimate payroll up front and the carrier audits actual payroll after the policy year. Grow faster than you estimated and you get a bill. Pay-as-you-go workers' comp avoids that by calculating the premium from each payroll run. Gusto offers it through its partner NEXT Insurance starting at $14/mo as of October 2026, and other payroll providers have similar arrangements. It doesn't make coverage cheaper by itself, but it smooths cash flow and removes the audit surprise. Get a quote from your own agent too and compare.
What payroll costs at 1, 5 and 15 employees
Prices are as of October 2026 (QuickBooks as of November 2026). These are monthly subscription costs only; payroll taxes, workers' comp premiums and benefits are separate.
| Employees |
Gusto Simple ($49 + $6/person) |
Gusto Plus ($80 + $12/person) |
OnPay ($49 + $6/worker) |
QuickBooks Workforce Payroll ($50 + $7/employee) |
| 1 |
$55/mo |
$92/mo |
$55/mo |
$57/mo |
| 5 |
$79/mo |
$140/mo |
$79/mo |
$85/mo |
| 15 |
$139/mo |
$260/mo |
$139/mo |
$155/mo |
The QuickBooks column is standalone payroll at regular price (checked November 2026). If you also need the accounting, the bundles run $88/mo base with Simple Start, $135 with Essentials and $228 for Premium with Plus, plus the per-employee fee. ADP RUN is quote only.
Add-ons change the math. On Gusto Simple, next-day pay is $15/mo plus $3 per person, and Time & Attendance Plus is $6 per person. If you'd need both, Plus may be cheaper. A 15-person shop on Simple with both add-ons pays $49 + $90 + $15 + $45 + $90, or $289/mo, which is more than Plus at $260/mo.
Buying checklist
- Run a mock payroll with your real mix: one hourly tech with overtime, one tech with commission, one 1099 sub.
- Confirm the time-tracking import from your field app, or plan to use the payroll service's own time tool.
- Ask about certified payroll if you bid any public work.
- Price workers' comp through the payroll partner and through your own agent. Pay-as-you-go is easier on cash flow, but compare rates.
- Check the accounting sync so wages, taxes and benefits land in the right accounts.
- Read the add-on list. Next-day pay, multi-state and compliance tools are often extra.
- Plan the switch for a quarter start, ideally January 1, so tax filings don't split across two providers mid-quarter.
Switching payroll providers
The cleanest time to switch is the start of a calendar year, and the next best is the start of a quarter. Mid-quarter switches mean both providers file part of the same quarterly returns, and year-end W-2s need prior payroll entered as history. Gusto says it can often transfer payroll data for larger teams. Whoever you move to, run the first payroll in parallel with your old provider's preview and compare net pay line by line before you approve it.
