How much does HR outsourcing cost
The honest answer to how much HR outsourcing costs is that most providers will not say, and the ones that do are publishing a starting price rather than a bill. This page gives the figures that are actually published, explains what they exclude, and sets out the fastest route to a real number for your business rather than a range copied from somewhere else.
- median advertised base subscription, per month
- $39
- providers with a price they will print
- 2
- states with measured demand and evidenced cover
- 5
Figures on this page come from the price record on this site: 2 providers checked against their own published pages, median advertised base subscription $39 a month among those that publish one.
- 2 provider pages checkedevery figure matched verbatim to the provider's own page
- Quoted and dated, never estimatedlast verification pass 2026-09-09
- 5 states with evidenced coverevidenced by the provider's own live state page
Advertised prices, checked
| Provider | Base price | Per worker | What it covers | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ExtensisHR | |||||
| FrankCrum | |||||
| Gusto | |||||
| Insperity | |||||
| Justworks | |||||
| OnPay | |||||
| Patriot Software | |||||
| Paychex | |||||
| Rippling | |||||
| SurePayroll | |||||
| TriNet | |||||
| VensureHR |
Getting a real number in a week rather than a month
- Price the published providers first. Take the advertised base and per-worker figures from providers that publish them and compute your own cost at your real headcount and state count. That takes an afternoon and gives you a floor.
- Decide what more you actually want. Documents, an advice line, benefits access. Each is a different product tier, and asking for all of them because they are offered is how a quote doubles.
- Ask several providers at once. Sequential discovery calls are what turn this into a month. Describe the job once and put it in front of several providers together.
- Compare in one shape. Convert every response to a cost per employee per month at your headcount, with pass-throughs named, before you form a view.
Why published ranges elsewhere are usually wrong for you
Ranges quoted in articles about this market are almost always derived from a handful of anecdotes, and they average across employers whose headcount, wage base, state count and benefits take-up bear no relation to yours. A percentage-of-payroll fee produces wildly different numbers for two businesses with identical headcounts and different salaries.
The record on this site avoids that by publishing only figures quoted verbatim from providers' own pages with the date read. It is a smaller set of numbers and every one of them is checkable, which is the trade this site makes deliberately.
What moves the number most
Headcount and state count, in that order, for a payroll or HR outsourcing arrangement. Wage base and benefits take-up for a co-employment arrangement, because those fees are usually calculated against payroll or against enrolled employees rather than against the administrative work.
Workers' compensation classification is the wildcard: for an employer in a trade, the classification codes applied to your roles can move the total more than every other line combined, which is why they belong in writing before you sign anything.
Common questions
- How much does HR outsourcing cost per month?
- Where a provider publishes a rate at all it is usually a base monthly subscription plus a per-worker charge; the figures published by the providers checked here are quoted with the date they were read. Most providers publish nothing.
- Why will providers not tell me a price?
- For a payroll subscription it is usually a sales choice. For a co-employment arrangement it is genuine: the fee depends on your wage base, headcount, benefits take-up and workers' compensation risk, none of which the provider knows before asking.
- What is the fastest way to a real number?
- Price the published providers yourself to get a floor, then put the same description in front of several quote-only providers at once instead of taking their calls one at a time.
Get quotes for your payroll
Coverage by state
Cite or embed this figure
The advertised base monthly subscription for a US payroll service in the US payroll and PEO market was $39 in September 2026, across 2 checked provider pricing pages recorded in Payroll Services Quotes Price Record.
Cite as: "Payroll Services Quotes Price Record", updated 2026-09-09, https://payrollservicesquotes.com/how-much-does-hr-outsourcing-cost/.