Shannon is a writer and editor focusing on the tech space. She has previously worked as an editor for Healthline and MedicalNewsToday. She also covers…
Mac users need specific software that’s compatible with the operating system of their device and complies with Apple security measures. The best payroll software for Mac devices will offer you the standard features required to run payroll effectively.
However, choosing the best one may be overwhelming as there are many options in the market. It’s also important to note that each option is geared towards slightly different audiences.
To guide you in choosing the best payroll platform that aligns with your budget and specific requirements, I’ve reviewed many options and chosen the best ones, considering ease of use, compatibility, integration capabilities, and features.
Paycor: Best for industry-specific payroll and HR features
The Best Payroll Software for Mac Reviewed
To come up with our list of the best payroll software for Mac, we tested each provider for a month-long period using a MacBook Pro and iPhone. We looked at a range of criteria to rank each provider, looking at factors like scalability, native features, integrations, price, and more.
For more information on how we test payroll software, review our testing criteria below.
Gusto is an excellent payroll provider offering all the features a growing business could need to automate payroll and improve the employee experience. We love how intuitive and modern the interface is, making it easy to run payroll in just a few clicks–or completely put it on auto-pilot with the auto-pay feature.
While competitors like ADP also offer auto-pay, we found Gusto’s interface to be more user-friendly. In terms of integrations, Gusto also offers plenty more than the likes of Rippling and OnPay.
On top of that, the employee portal was the best we used, making it easy for your workforce to check their pay stubs, log their time, and even save money through the Gusto wallet app.
Gusto’s lower-tier plans are competitively priced, rivaling cost-effective competitors like OnPay. However, these plans are limited in the capabilities you get. With no time tracking or multi-state payroll, many organizations will find the limited plan doesn’t fit their needs.
It’s with the advanced plan that Gusto comes into its own. While this plan is more expensive, the quality and quantity of features you get are excellent, including geo-based time tracking, talent management features, and L&D modules for employees.
Saying this, some small businesses might not need all these features, in which case, we’d recommend OnPay. OnPay’s flat-monthly plan is the same price as Gusto’s basic plan, but with more features.
• Flat-monthly fee
• Industry-specific features
• Native contractor support
US only
✅
We’ve chosen OnPay as our top choice for small businesses that operate solely in the US. For an affordable flat-monthly fee, OnPay enables you to run multi-state payroll and automates the tax filing process on your behalf.
One thing to note is that, unlike Gusto and Rippling, OnPay doesn’t completely automate the payroll process for you, meaning you’ll need to manually approve payroll each month–but this takes all of a minute.
On top of that, we really liked OnPay’s industry-specific features, including automated overtime hours and minimum wage calculations for hourly employees. However, although the features are great, OnPay’s capabilities aren’t as robust as the likes of ADP or Rippling–and it doesn’t let you run payroll internationally. All of this means OnPay is better suited to small organizations than large or fast-growing ones.
OnPay has a refreshing pricing structure. There’s one flat monthly fee, and all of OnPay’s features are included. This makes OnPay the most cost-effective option in our top 10 bar Patriot software.
Pros
Affordable
Multi-state payroll
Intuitive interface
Cons
US only
Features won’t be robust enough for larger organizations
Paychex – Best for large companies with hourly workers
Starting Price
Free Plan
Top Features
Countries Covered
Reporting
$39 per month. + $5 per Employee
❌
• Modular functionality
• Easy to use
• Tax credit services
140 countries
✅
Paychex’s payroll solution, like Gusto and ADP, is fully automated and includes automated tax filings too. The interface is very simple to use, and we liked the customization options, which allow HR professionals to choose what widgets appear on their home screens. Gusto doesn’t offer this.
What makes Paychex really stand out as the best payroll software for Mac, though, is its time and attendance feature, which providers like OnPay don’t offer. The time-tracking solution is geofenced to ensure the utmost accuracy and uses powerful analytics to provide HR professionals with detailed insights relating to overtime laws, compliance, and job costing.
For all of these reasons, we think Paychex is the best payroll solution for medium-sized organizations with a mixture of salaried and hourly workers.
Paychex Pricing Plans
Essentials: $39/Mo. + $5 per Employee
Select: Bespoke based on module choices
Pro: Bespoke based on module choices
Paychex’s Essentials plan is very competitively priced, but it’s also not as robust as OnPay’s similarly priced plan. It’s only with the higher-tier plans that you’ll get access to Paychex’s powerful HR features, and these are essential to making the most of the platform.
While Paychex doesn’t publish its pricing plans publicly, this is because of the platform’s modular nature. As with ADP, Organizations can pick and choose the features they include, meaning the price is bespoke.
• Global payroll
• Localized tax and benefits options
• Powerful HR features
160 countries
✅
Rippling’s payroll platform is extremely powerful. The intuitive interface makes it quick and simple to run payroll, both domestically and globally. Plus, Rippling’s approach to global payroll is very thoughtful, with localized benefits, paid holidays via country, and fast international payment processing.
Alongside payroll, you can also add HR and IT features to your plan, including talent management capabilities, expense management, and IT device management. While Gusto and OnPay offer HR features, Rippling’s offering is more expansive, making it perfect for fast-growing or established international organizations that want to manage their backend functions from one platform.
Saying that, Rippling’s depth and breadth of features also make it unsuitable for small businesses, who will likely find the platform too expensive and too complex for their needs.
Like ADP and Paychex, Rippling’s pricing structure is opaque due to the platform’s modular nature. However, we do know that the platform starts at $8 per month per user, meaning that, if you have a large, international HR department, using the platform could quickly become expensive, especially as you add on more features. Still, for the fantastic capabilities you get, the pricing could be well worth it.
QuickBooks – Best for payroll and accounting in one
Starting Price
Free Plan
Top Features
Countries Covered
Reporting
$45 per month + $6 per employee
❌
• Accounting features
• Intuitive to use
• Same day payroll
US only
✅
QuickBooks payroll software for Mac makes our list because of QuickBooks Payroll’s excellent accounting and bookkeeping features. This platform is one of the go-to accounting services for SMBs, so it’s fantastic that it’s now added payroll to its capability range.
QuickBooks for payroll features are excellent, and the intuitive interface is simple to use. One of its standout features is its same-day payroll option, which allows your employees to get paid on the day you process payroll. Providers like OnPay and Gusto don’t offer this.
For all its benefits, though, QuickBooks for payroll doesn’t offer the depth of HR and talent management features that ADP and Gusto do. Even though QuickBooks for payroll comes with timesheets, rotas, and leave management capabilities, these are pretty basic. For this reason, we think QuickBooks for payroll is a good option for small businesses that already use the QuickBooks accounting platform.
QuickBooks Payroll isn’t the cheapest provider on the market to run payroll, but that’s because its plans come packed with accounting and project management features on top of payroll.
While with other payroll providers, you’ll need to pay for the payroll solution and your accounting platform and then integrate the two, QuickBooks Payroll does it all in one platform. In that sense, then, the price is actually a lot more affordable than it first looks for payroll processes.
• Managed global payroll
• Compliance with local payroll regulations
• Managed on and offboarding
100 countries
✅
Deel payroll software for Mac is an excellent choice for large, international organizations looking for a fully managed payroll and onboarding service. While platforms like Gusto and Rippling require you to run payroll yourself, with Deel, you’ll be given a team of in-house payroll experts who’ll do all your payroll admin for you, including taxes, deductions, benefits, and payslips.
On top of that, Deel’s payroll processing solution is globally focused. Like OnPay, the Deel team will take care of all local tax filings for you, so you don’t have to worry about compliance in different countries.
One downside to note for payroll processes is that while competitors like Paychex and ADP offer HR features, Deel is solely a payroll and compliance platform. Moreover, the intense support that Deel offers comes at a higher fee, meaning the platform is really only suitable for larger companies.
Deel’s payroll processing pricing is quote-based, depending on factors like the number of employees and contractors you pay and the number of countries you operate in. However, because Deel is a human-centered service with dedicated support, we speculate that Deel will be one of the higher-priced payroll providers on the market.
Like Deel, ADP is another great payroll processing choice for Apple computers used by large, international organizations. However, ADP has the added bonus of being a full-suite HR platform equipped with features to help with everything from recruitment to talent management to time and attendance.
Moreover, ADP also offers excellent employee benefits packages and benefits administration. While Gusto and OnPay also offer benefits, the amount of choice you get with ADP is excellent. For all of its good points, though, we think ADP would be overwhelming–and too expensive–for small organizations, who would be better off using Gusto or OnPay.
ADP’s payroll processing pricing structure is quote-based based on the features you choose. We do know from previously testing the platform that the essential payroll starts at $59 per month, plus $4 per employee we added to the plan.
While this makes ADP one of the more expensive plans (especially as the essential payroll doesn’t include HR features), the powerful automations and customer support you get make the price relative.
We also like that ADP is a highly scalable cloud-based payroll. If you’re a growing business with large-scale ambitions, it’s the perfect platform to support you on your journey, as you can customize your plan as you expand. Saying this, both Rippling and Gusto offer scalability too. We’d say that choosing between these providers comes down to, firstly, personal preference when it comes to the interface design and, secondly, the overall cost depending on the modules you’d like.
Homebase – Best for small businesses with hourly workers
Starting Price
Free Plan
Top Features
Countries Covered
Reporting
$39 per month. + $6 per Employee
14-day free trial
• Team communication features
• Advanced time tracking
• Compliance features
Domestic only
✅
Paychex is our payroll pick for large businesses with hourly workers that need payroll processing help, but homebase is our pick for small businesses that fall within this category. With Homebase, you’ll get access to a clean, simple interface and mobile app, both for HR and employees.
On the HR side, Homebase uses data analytics and automation for payroll processing to make it straightforward to onboard employees, track their time, and run payrolls–the platform takes care of the heavy lifting for you! Plus, Homebase offers native scheduling tools, which you can only access via an integration with apps like Gusto and OnPay.
All of these features for payroll processing mean Homebase is an ideal choice for small businesses in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality sectors. However, because Homebase only runs domestic payroll and is quite simple, it won’t have the features larger organizations need.
Homebase Pricing Plans
Payroll: $39/month + $6 per employee paid / month
Homebase’s payroll offering is competitively priced, matching that of OnPay and Gusto. As an added bonus, Homebase also offers free basic scheduling, time tracking, and employee management features with this plan. Still, to access the power of Homebase’s automations, you’ll want to pay for payroll and one of the higher tier scheduling plans, which start at $20/month with unlimited employees.
Combined, this makes Homebase at least $59 per month, which is still cheaper than Gusto’s mid-tier offering. However, Gusto has more overarching capabilities than Homebase, which is why it takes the win overall.
Pros
Excellent for managing hourly workers
Simple to use
Team communication features
Cons
US only
Not a full HRIS system
Must buy payroll and time tracking features separately
• Different pay frequencies
• Pay contractors in same payroll run
• PTO support
Domestic only
✅
With a starting price of just $17 per month, Patriot is a software for Mac users that takes the win as the most affordable payroll software provider, coming in much cheaper than OnPay and Gusto. However, even though Paychex is cheaper, it’s still an incredibly effective payroll platform with plenty of features to streamline the payroll process.
What it’s lacking is two things, which could be deal breakers depending on the complexity of your business. For one, like OnPay, there’s no auto-pay feature, so you’ll need to approve payroll every week or month. Secondly, automated tax support is only offered with the higher-tier plan, meaning that–although Patriot’s basic plan is a lot cheaper–you’ll have to spend a lot more time filing and depositing taxes, which every other provider does for you.
As we’ve noted, Patriot’s basic plan requires some manual data entry, but the full-service plan comes with automated tax filings, taking the burden off your hands. Although there’s quite a jump in price with the full-service plan, it’s still very affordable compared to the likes of QuickBooks and Paychex.
Paycor has the potential to become your full-suite human capital management (HCM) system. Like ADP, it offers advanced payroll functionality, along with plenty of features to automate compliance, boost the employee experience, and recruit talent. Paycor also boasts excellent industry-specific expertise and features to help clients operate in highly regulated sectors.
However, for all of its benefits, Paycor’s features could be intimidating to smaller businesses. For SMBs, we’d recommend Gusto or OnPay instead.
Paycor Pricing Plans
Quote-based
Because Paycor offers modular features, its pricing plan is opaque. Your monthly subscription fee will depend heavily on the number of employees you employ and the modules you choose to include. The good news, though, is that this modularity means Paycor is highly scalable. If you have ambitious growth plans, you can start with basic features and then add on more capabilities as your company evolves.
Pros
Full HMS
Modular features
Detailed reporting
Cons
Opaque pricing
Not suitable for small businesses
Difficult to use for individuals new to payroll software
Conclusion – What is the Best Payroll Software for Mac?
Overall, Gusto is our winner as the best payroll software for Mac. While competitors like ADP and Rippling have more functionality, they’re also much more complex and expensive. Gusto, on the other hand, combines ease of use with powerful features and automations, making it an excellent choice for small and medium-sized businesses.
When evaluating Mac-friendly payroll providers, we considered the following criteria:
Pricing: We assess the pricing structures and plans of each platform to determine the best value for money.
Features: We examine the speed, usability, and functionality of the features offered by each provider. A good software for Mac users should offer the ability to file taxes for tax accuracy, offer employee apps, performance management, same-day direct deposit, management tools, unlimited payroll runs, accounting software, payroll analytics, applicant tracking, employee lifecycle, and more.
Integrations: We evaluate the range of third-party software integrations available with each platform.You’ll want payroll tools that offer plenty of integrations that can act as overall HR software, offer employee self-service portals, offer tax forms, tax compliance support, payroll packages, auto payroll, and more.
Automation: We test the automation capabilities of each provider.
Ease of Use: We assess the user-friendliness of each platform by putting ourselves in the shoes of a first-time user.
Third-Party Reviews: We research third-party reviews to offer a comprehensive perspective on each platform’s performance.
How to Choose the Best Payroll Software
Selecting payroll software is a significant business decision that warrants careful consideration to avoid future complications. Here are the key factors to bear in mind:
Pricing: Seek a payroll software that offers payroll services that align with your current and future pricing requirements. Be wary of hidden expenses and additional features that may affect cost-effectiveness. Find payroll software that fits your budget, whether you need free payroll software or payroll software providers with a variety of plans and packages.
Features: Ensure the platform encompasses all the necessary features for smooth payroll management. Small business owners can benefit from feature-rich payroll software. Look for a payroll provider that offers direct deposit, multiple pay rates, an employee self service portal, solutions for hourly and salaried employees, employee payroll, payroll taxes, employee life cycle, and HR tools.
Scalability: Evaluate whether the platform can accommodate your business’s growth plans.
Ease of Use: Opt for a user-friendly platform that caters to both your and your employees’ ease of operation.
Integrations: Confirm that the provider seamlessly integrates with your essential business applications.
Customer Support: Ensure accessible customer support, preferably with 24/7 availability, for prompt assistance when needed.
Hannah Pisani is a seasoned writer with a keen focus on the intersection between technology and the evolving nature of work. Over the last five years, she has written content for numerous leading technology brands, including Microsoft, AWS and Oracle. She regularly contributes to international technology publications such as Silicon Angle, Cloudwards and Techopedia. Hannah's depth of knowledge encompasses HR software, cybersecurity, SaaS tools and marketing optimization. She thrives on leveraging her expertise to empower business leaders, guiding them towards informed decisions that optimize efficiency and drive productivity.
