OnPay
Full-service payroll, HR, benefits and time tracking for small businesses, backed by decades of payroll expertise and human support.
By OnPay, LLC · 4.5/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Small businesses that want payroll, tax filings and HR bundled at a flat, published price
- Owners switching providers who want free data migration and white-glove setup
- Teams that value US-based human support by phone, chat and email with no support paywall
- Growing businesses needing multi-state payroll, 1099s and year-end filings included
- Accounting firms and bookkeepers running client payroll through a partner program
Ideal size: 1–200 employees people · Small to mid-size US business, payroll-first, often a first-time payroll software buyer
Not for
- Large enterprises needing global payroll across many countries
- Companies wanting a purely self-serve tool with no human onboarding touch
- Buyers requiring ISO 27001, HIPAA or FedRAMP attestations today
- Organizations needing a full HCM suite with applicant tracking and advanced analytics
- Businesses that depend on a very large third-party app marketplace
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
1–2 weeks (white-glove setup)
~14 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$2,388/yr
Starts at $588 · $49/month base plus $6/month per paid worker for payroll; HR, time tracking and benefits are optional add-on modules billed monthly.
Implementation Friction
1/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
No seat minimum and no per-seat charge; pricing scales per paid worker, with unlimited pay runs included.
Add-on costs
- HR: $15/month base plus $2/month per worker
- Time Tracking: $15/month base plus $4/month per worker
- Bundled HR: $71/month base plus $1/month per worker
- Compliance Resources and Live HR Support available as add-ons
- Health insurance, workers' comp and 401(k): pay plan premiums only, integration and admin free
Company & support
Who is behind OnPay, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- Not recorded
- Headquarters
- Not recorded
How you get support
- PhoneAll plans
- EmailAll plans
- Live chatAll plans
- Support portal / ticketsAll plans
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerNot listed
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Business hours
- Response time
- Not stated
Vendor states all clients get the same support with no support paywalls; chat and tickets are raised from inside the account. Phone line is 9AM–8PM ET, Monday–Friday.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where OnPay sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- OnPay
- Homebase
- Planday
- When I Work
- OptimoRoute
- Ottimate
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including OnPay. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What OnPay ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
OnPay is a full-service payroll, HR, benefits and time-tracking platform for US small businesses, priced at $49/month base plus $6 per paid worker with no implementation fees. Automated federal, state and local tax filing, W-2/1099 and year-end filings, unlimited pay runs and multi-state payroll are included on every plan. Data migration and setup are free, support runs by phone, chat and email with no paywall, and OnPay is SOC 2 Type II compliant. Best for payroll-first SMBs and accounting firms; weaker fit for enterprises needing global payroll or deep ERP integration.
Frequently asked questions
How much does OnPay cost per year?
Published pricing is $49 per month base plus $6 per month per paid worker for the payroll plan. A business with 25 paid workers therefore pays about $199 per month, or roughly $2,388 per year. HR, time tracking and benefits are optional add-ons, and OnPay states there are no implementation or integration fees and no hidden fees.
How long does it take to get live?
OnPay runs a white-glove setup: its team configures the account and imports prior wage and employee data free of charge, and there is no implementation fee. Payroll can typically be run within one to two weeks depending on how quickly historical data and bank details are supplied; reviewers repeatedly highlight fast account setup.
What payroll and tax compliance work is included?
Every plan includes automated federal, state and local tax filings, W-2s, 1099s and year-end filings, unlimited pay runs and schedules, and the ability to pay workers in as many states as needed. OnPay also publishes state compliance guides and a compliance checker for requirements such as workers' comp and harassment training.
Is OnPay secure and certified?
OnPay states it is SOC 2 Type II compliant following third-party AICPA SOC program audit, and describes end-to-end encryption, secure data storage on AWS, mandatory internal multi-factor authentication, role-based access control and ongoing employee security training. No ISO 27001, HIPAA or FedRAMP claim is published, so buyers with those requirements must verify separately.
What support is included, and at what tier?
Support is the same for all plans, with no support paywall: phone, chat and email from a US-based in-house team, plus a self-serve help center and in-account ticket submission. The phone line is staffed 9AM to 8PM ET, Monday to Friday. New clients also get a dedicated onboarding specialist.
Can accountants and bookkeepers use OnPay for client payroll?
Yes. OnPay runs an accountant partner program with free payroll for the firm, free client setup, co-branding and marketing resources, and discounts or revenue share that scale from 10% at one to two clients up to 20% at 50 or more clients. Partners also get a custom firm dashboard to manage client payrolls.