Contractor payroll is harder than office payroll for three reasons: your labor cost belongs on jobs, not just on a P&L line; your crew mix usually includes both W-2 employees and 1099 subs; and if you touch public work, certified payroll reporting is non-negotiable. The two products small contractors actually shortlist – QuickBooks Payroll (now sold as QuickBooks Workforce) and Gusto – both publish pricing, which makes this one of the few software decisions in the trades you can price out before talking to anyone. Here is the current math and the fit logic.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Published price (list, monthly)* | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Workforce Payroll | $88/mo + $7 per employee (Premium $203/mo + $13) | Shops already on QuickBooks Online |
| Gusto Simple | $49/mo + $6 per person | Simple crews, best-in-class onboarding |
| Gusto Plus | $80/mo + $12 per person | Multi-state crews, time tracking built in |
| Gusto Contractor-Only | $35/mo + $6 per contractor | All-1099 operations |
| ADP RUN | Quote-only | Shops that want a payroll provider with HR support behind it |
QuickBooks Workforce Payroll: the default if your books are QBO
QuickBooks Payroll – Intuit now brands it QuickBooks Workforce – lists at $88/month plus $7 per employee for the base plan, with a Premium tier at $203/month plus $13 per employee. The argument for it is not the price; it is that payroll posts straight into the same QuickBooks Online file that runs your job costing, so labor hits jobs without re-keying. If you followed our QBO setup guide, this is the path of least resistance, and tax filing is handled across plans. Price the bundle carefully: Intuit sells payroll both standalone and bundled with QBO plans, and the bundle math changes with each promo cycle.
Gusto: cleaner product, better contractor-only deal
Gusto publishes three W-2 plans – Simple at $49/month plus $6 per person, Plus at $80/month plus $12, Premium at $180/month plus $22 – all with unlimited payroll runs, which matters when you run off-cycle checks after a big job closes. Two things make it interesting for the trades. First, the Contractor-Only plan: $35/month plus $6 per contractor for operations with no W-2 employees yet – the cheapest legitimate way to pay subs with 1099s handled. Second, multi-state payroll on Plus, for crews that work across a state line. The trade-off against QuickBooks is the accounting handoff: Gusto syncs to QBO, but it is one more integration to maintain rather than one system.
ADP and the quote-only tier
ADP RUN and its peers do not publish pricing – you get a quote, and the first-year number is usually negotiable. The reason to take that meeting anyway: if you are growing past a couple dozen employees, want a dedicated rep, or need HR compliance support behind the payroll, the payroll-service model earns its premium. Below that size, the published-price products above do the job.
The three contractor-specific questions to ask before you pick
1) Job-costed labor: can payroll allocate hours (with labor burden) to jobs, and does that flow to your accounting file automatically? This is where the QBO-native option has the structural edge. 2) Certified payroll: if you bid public work, ask specifically how WH-347 reports get produced – do not assume any plan includes it; make the rep show you. 3) Time capture: payroll is only as accurate as the hours going in – we compared the options in our contractor time-tracking guide, and the accounting side lives in the contractor accounting guide.
FAQ
What does payroll software cost for a small contractor in 2026?
At published list prices: a 5-employee crew runs about $79/month on Gusto Simple ($49 + 5 x $6) or about $123/month on QuickBooks Workforce Payroll ($88 + 5 x $7). An all-1099 operation paying 5 subs runs about $65/month on Gusto Contractor-Only. Promotional pricing is frequently lower for the first months.
Can I pay both employees and 1099 subs in one system?
Yes – both QuickBooks Payroll and Gusto handle W-2 employees and 1099 contractors in the same account, including year-end forms for both. The contractor-only plans are just cheaper entry points if you have no W-2 staff yet.
Does payroll software handle certified payroll for prevailing-wage jobs?
Treat this as a per-vendor, per-plan question and get the answer in writing – certified payroll reporting is often an add-on, a higher tier, or a third-party integration rather than a standard feature. If public work is a meaningful share of your revenue, make the WH-347 demo a condition of purchase.
Augmented Trades participates in affiliate programs and may earn commissions from some links in this article at no cost to you. Our recommendations are based on fit, not commissions. Read our full affiliate disclosure.
Answer a few quick questions and our free Tool Finder builds you a custom software shortlist — with the reasoning and pricing behind each pick.
Find your tools (free) →
Michael is the founder of Augmented Trades, an independent site that compares AI and software tools for trade contractors on published pricing, contracts, and real feature limits. Tools are recommended on fit for your shop — affiliate partnerships never decide coverage.