Patriot Payroll
Affordable, easy online payroll for US small businesses.
What is Patriot Payroll?
Patriot Payroll is affordable online payroll software for US small businesses from Patriot Software. It offers basic and full-service payroll with tax filing and direct deposit.
Best known for: Low-cost US small-business payroll
Key features
- Payroll processing
- Optional full-service tax filing
- Direct deposit
- Employee portal
- Contractor payments
- Time-tracking add-on
Who Patriot Payroll is best for
- Cost-sensitive US small businesses (1–100 employees)
- Owners comfortable choosing between DIY and full-service tax filing
- Teams wanting free direct deposit and an employee portal
Ideal team: Budget-minded US small businesses of 1–100 who want low-cost payroll with an option to add full tax filing.
Patriot Payroll pricing
Basic Payroll
$17/base + $4/emp / mo
- Unlimited payrolls
- Free direct deposit
- Run-it-yourself tax handling
Full Service Payroll
$37/base + $5/emp / mo
- Federal/state/local tax filing
- Year-end filings included
- Tax-filing guarantee
Costs to watch before you commit
- Multi-state filing costs an extra $12/mo per additional state on Full Service, so a team across four states adds $36 a month before per-worker fees.
- Basic Payroll does not file or deposit your payroll taxes despite reading like a normal entry tier; you do, and the penalties for late filing land on you. Full Service is the plan that files.
- US-only, no support for paying international workers.
- HR, time & attendance, and accounting are separate paid products.
Patriot Payroll pros and cons
Pros
- 4.8 across 3,700 reviews, among the best-rated payroll products we track
- Full Service at $37 plus $5 a worker undercuts most of the payroll market substantially
- Unlimited payroll runs, so weekly or off-cycle payments cost nothing extra
- Free direct deposit rather than a per-transaction charge
- A tax-filing guarantee on Full Service, which is the reassurance most small employers actually want
- Setup help by phone is included, and reviewers repeatedly single out the support
Cons
- Basic Payroll does not file or deposit your taxes; you do
- Multi-state filing adds $12 a month per additional state on Full Service
- US-only, with no way to pay international workers or contractors abroad
- The 50% introductory rate lasts about six months, then full price applies
- HR, time and attendance, and accounting are separate paid products
- Benefits administration is thinner than at Gusto or Rippling
Patriot Payroll review: a closer look
Basic Payroll does not file your taxes
This is the single most important thing to understand before choosing a plan, and the naming does not make it obvious. Basic Payroll at $17 plus $4 a worker calculates payroll, runs direct deposit and produces the numbers. It does not file federal, state or local payroll taxes, and it does not make the deposits. You do, on time, every period, with the penalties landing on you if you are late. Full Service at $37 plus $5 a worker is the plan that files and deposits on your behalf and carries a tax-filing guarantee. For almost every small employer without a bookkeeper, Full Service is the plan and Basic is a false economy of $20 a month against a compliance obligation you probably do not want.
What it actually costs for a real team
The base-plus-per-worker structure makes this easy to model. Full Service for five employees is $37 plus $25, so $62 a month. For ten it is $37 plus $50, so $87. For twenty, $137. Gusto's comparable full-service tier typically starts around $40 plus $6 a person, so at twenty employees the gap is real but not enormous, and at five it is smaller than the headline difference suggests. Where Patriot wins clearly is that payroll runs are unlimited and direct deposit is free, so a business paying weekly rather than monthly is not penalized for it, which is not true everywhere.
The multi-state charge is the one to check
If you employ people in more than one state, Full Service adds $12 a month for each additional state's filings. That is reasonable in itself but it changes the comparison for a distributed team. A business with employees in four states pays $37 plus $36 in state fees plus the per-worker charges, and at that point the arithmetic against Gusto or Rippling gets closer. Count your states before comparing prices, because the headline figure assumes one.
Where it stops
Patriot is US-only and cannot pay international contractors, so a business with anyone abroad needs Deel or Rippling for that part regardless. Benefits administration is also thinner here than at Gusto, which is built around benefits as much as payroll. And HR, time tracking and accounting are separate Patriot products rather than modules, so a business wanting a single platform for all of it will end up with several Patriot subscriptions rather than one. Priced together they are still competitive, but it is worth adding them up rather than assuming the payroll price covers the ground.
How it compares
Against Gusto, Gusto is more polished, stronger on benefits, and more expensive, and it is the better choice if benefits administration matters as much as payroll. Against Rippling, Rippling is a much larger platform tying payroll to device and app provisioning, priced accordingly. Against QuickBooks Payroll, that makes sense if your books are already in QuickBooks. Against Deel, Deel is the answer for international hiring and overkill for a US-only team. Against running payroll manually or through your accountant, Full Service at $37 plus $5 a head is usually cheaper than the hours it replaces. The honest summary: choose Patriot when your team is US-only, benefits are not the center of the decision, and you want tax filing handled at the lowest credible price.
Who should use Patriot Payroll?
A good fit
Patriot Payroll fits US-only small businesses of roughly 1 to 100 employees that want payroll taxes filed for them without paying premium platform prices. It suits companies paying weekly or off-cycle, since runs are unlimited and direct deposit is free, and businesses that already use or are considering Patriot Accounting and want both from one vendor.
Look elsewhere if…
Any business with employees or contractors outside the US needs Deel or Rippling, because Patriot cannot pay them. Companies where health benefits are central to the hiring proposition will get more from Gusto. Teams that want payroll tied to device provisioning and app access should price Rippling. And nobody without a bookkeeper should choose Basic Payroll to save $20, because it leaves the tax filings with you.
The verdict
Patriot Payroll is among the best-rated payroll products we track at 4.8 across 3,700 reviews, and Full Service at $37 plus $5 a worker is genuinely cheaper than most of the market for the same core job. Unlimited runs and free direct deposit make it better still for anyone paying weekly. Two things to settle before signing up. Basic Payroll does not file your taxes despite the name suggesting a normal entry tier, so for most small employers Full Service is the only sensible plan and the real price. And if you employ across state lines, add $12 a month per extra state before comparing against Gusto, because that is where the gap narrows.
Top Patriot Payroll alternatives
Popular HR & Payroll tools teams evaluate alongside Patriot Payroll.
RipplingOne system to run HR, IT, and Finance on a single employee record.
DeelHire, pay, and manage a global team compliantly from one platform.
OnPaySimple, flat-rate full-service payroll and HR for small businesses.
TimetasticSimple staff leave and absence tracker for small and mid-sized teams.
InsightfulWorkforce analytics and productivity tracking for remote and hybrid teams