Patriot Payroll Review

The base fee is the whole story with Patriot, because the Full Service per-worker rate is within a dollar of Gusto, OnPay and Square, and the lower base fee is what makes a small team cheaper. A five-person shop saves $204 a year against Gusto Simple, and the gap shrinks as headcount grows, since Gusto's per-person fee is only a dollar more. A 50-person company pays Patriot $287/mo and Gusto Simple $349/mo, still cheaper but no longer by a margin that decides the purchase.

Toolradar data: the payroll software ranking on Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracked 76 payroll tools as of 25 October 2026, and the median cheapest paid plan is $22/mo across the 22 that publish a price. Patriot's Basic plan sits under that median, and its directory page lists it among the ten top picks.

This review covers the payroll product. Patriot also sells accounting software at $20/mo and $30/mo, which competes with the tools in our cheapest accounting software comparison, and a bookkeeping service from $100/mo plus an onboarding fee.

Patriot Payroll is online payroll software for US companies with 1 to 500 employees, sold as two plans. Basic Payroll calculates pay and taxes, runs unlimited payrolls, pays by free direct deposit or printed check, and gives employees a portal, but you deposit and file the taxes yourself. Full Service Payroll adds federal, state and local tax deposits and filings, with year-end forms 940, 941, W-2 and W-3 at no extra fee. Its tax filing reliability guarantee means Patriot covers penalties and interest for its own errors.

Both plans bill a flat monthly fee plus a per-worker fee, in arrears, and a worker counts only in a month you pay them. Contractors are paid inside payroll at the same per-worker rate, and a month with no payroll run bills the base fee alone, which matters for a seasonal business. Direct deposit is free on a 4-day schedule, or 2-day for qualifying customers, and the software requires a business bank account for direct deposit and for Full Service.

The limits are explicit on Patriot's own pages. The software serves companies with employees working in the USA only. Patriot does not handle garnishments, child support payments or retirement plan integrations other than its free 401(k) integration with Vestwell. Workers' compensation is a payroll tax only in Washington and Wyoming, where Patriot files it; elsewhere it is a pay-as-you-go policy through its partner NEXT Insurance. Support is free, US-based, by phone, chat or email, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET on weekdays.

You start a 30-day free trial on any product, and Patriot's team will enter employee data and year-to-date payroll history for you at no charge if you ask, or you follow the setup wizard. After the trial the pricing page applies 50% off for three months: Full Service runs $18.50/mo plus $2.50 per worker in that window, then returns to list. A company switching mid-year should bring its EIN, state tax IDs, employee SSNs and pay rates, and the taxes already filed, because Full Service begins collecting and filing from the start date you select.

Running payroll is a schedule and an hours entry. Patriot supports weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly and monthly frequencies plus quarterly, semi-annual and annual schedules, with unlimited pay schedules. Hourly staff who work several roles can carry up to 25 pay rates, and PTO accrual rules post to each payroll. Hours come from manual entry or from the Time and Attendance add-on, which imports them. Pay rate changes can be made inside a payroll run without cancelling it, and a net-to-gross tool grosses up a bonus so the employee receives a chosen take-home amount.

Accounting flows to Patriot Accounting automatically or to QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. Employees get a self-service portal and a mobile app for pay stubs and direct deposit details, contractors get their own portal, and 1099 e-filing is included for Full Service customers and carries nominal fees on Basic. There is no separate app for the employer side: the software is mobile-friendly in a browser.

Budget the list price, because the struck-through numbers on the pricing page are a 50% promo that lasts three months after the 30-day trial. At list, five employees on Full Service cost $62/mo, the base fee plus five workers by our arithmetic, or $744 a year. The same five on Basic cost $25/mo less, and that gap buys the tax deposits and filings. During the promo window the Full Service bill is $31/mo for five people, by our arithmetic on the $18.50 base and $2.50 per-worker promo rates.

Add-ons move the bill faster than headcount. HR and Time and Attendance each cost a flat fee plus a per-employee charge, so five employees with both add-ons pay $94/mo on Full Service by our arithmetic, and a second filing state adds its own monthly fee. Basic customers pay nominal fees for 1099 e-filing, which Full Service includes. Patriot takes Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover for the software fees, and there is no setup fee, no direct deposit fee and no charge for extra payroll runs.

Against the field at five employees, Square Payroll is $35/mo plus a per-person fee, or $65/mo. Gusto Simple and OnPay are both $49/mo plus a per-person fee, or $79/mo. QuickBooks Workforce Payroll is $50/mo plus $7 per employee on its own, or $85/mo, and $88/mo plus $6.50 per employee bundled with QuickBooks Online Simple Start, or $120.50/mo; both show a 50% off for three months promo. Prices were read on 26 October 2026 on Patriot pricing, Gusto pricing, OnPay pricing, Square Payroll pricing and QuickBooks' payroll-only and bundle pricing pages (QuickBooks re-read on 27 October 2026). The QuickBooks bundles are broken down in our QuickBooks Payroll pricing guide.

Patriot fits a US small business with a bookkeeper or owner who runs payroll and wants the taxes filed for the lowest flat fee. Think of a restaurant, a trade contractor, a clinic or an agency with 2 to 50 people in one or two states. The per-worker rate and the base fee are printed, nothing is quoted, and a seasonal operation pays only the base in quiet months. Accountants running several clients get partner pricing through Patriot's program.

Skip Patriot when the company needs HR workflows, benefits administration, garnishment handling or employees outside the US. Gusto Plus bundles multi-state filing, time tracking and contractor invoice management on its $80/mo plan, and OnPay's single plan includes benefits administration, with HR tools sold as an add-on at $15/mo plus $2 per worker, per OnPay's pricing page on 5 November 2026. A company that already runs QuickBooks Online should price the Workforce Payroll bundle in our QuickBooks Payroll pricing guide before adding a second vendor, and a business on Square's point of sale will find Square Payroll's $35/mo base the closer comparison. For the ledger side, our free accounting software ranking and the Wave review cover the cheaper books that Patriot Payroll can sit beside.