Patriot Software review 2024: Cost, plans, features and more

Best for brands on a budget

Patriot

Blueprint Rating

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Get estimates from participating partners

Monthly fee

Staring at $17 per month plus $4 per person

Direct deposit

Yes

24/7 customer support

No

Pros

• Affordable, with a full service plan at only $37 a month.
• Unlimited payroll runs and users.
• Excellent customer service.

Cons

• Limited features for HR, reporting and benefits.
• Time tracking add-on costs extra.
• Limited integration capabilities.

Featured payroll software offers

OnPay

Learn More

Via OnPay’s website

Monthly fee

$40 per month plus $6 per employee

Direct deposit

Yes

SurePayroll

Learn More

Via SurePayroll’s website

Monthly fee

$29.99 per month plus $5 per employee

Direct deposit

Yes

Gusto

Learn More

Via Gusto’s website

Monthly fee

Starting at $40 plus $6 per month per employee

Direct deposit

Yes

Rippling

Learn More

Via Rippling’s website

Monthly fee

$35 per month + $8 per user

Direct deposit

Yes

Patriot payroll software review

Pricing and plans

If you’re a small business looking for the perfect payroll software, the overall price will be a major factor in your decision. We’ve analyzed the plans offered by Patriot to see how much value they offer — here’s what we found out.

Patriot offers two pricing plans: Basic and Full Service Payroll. The main distinguishing feature between the two plans is that the Full Service Payroll plan also handles payroll taxes. Both plans include free setup, free direct deposit for qualified customers, a free employee portal, unlimited payrolls, all pay frequencies, multiple locations and customizations. 

	BASIC PAYROLL	FULL SERVICE PAYROLL
Monthly cost	$17	$37
Cost per employee	$4	$4
e-Filing of 1099s	1-5 forms: $20 6-35 forms: Extra $2 per form 36 or more forms: No additional charge	Free for 2020 and later years
HR add-on	Starting at $6 a month plus $2 per employee	Starting at $6 a month plus $2 per employee
Time and Attendance add-on	Starting at $6 a month plus $2 per employee	Starting at $6 a month plus $2 per employee
State payroll taxes	$12 a month per state for each additional state filing	$12 a month per state for each additional state filing

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Patriot wins our award for best provider for brands on a budget as these pricing plans are more affordable than many other major providers on our best payroll software list. However, it’s important to consider the features you’ll be getting for the relatively low cost, as Patriot does not offer the same capabilities as other providers who charge more.

• Workful offers one single price plan of $35 a month plus $6 per team member, but with this you get a much more advanced HR set up, ideal for those looking to combine services. 
• Gusto offers a much more well-rounded product, with HR, benefits and full service single-state payroll in its cheapest plan. But this costs $40 a month plus $6 per team member. 

If you’re on a tight budget and payroll is your main consideration, then Patriot is certainly an affordable and strong solution. However, you may also want to consider Payroll4Free — it offers all of its basic services for free if your company has 25 or fewer employees. Though Payroll4Free scores lower on our list of the best payroll software, scoring 4.1 stars as opposed to Patriot’s 4.7-star score.

Features and add-ons

While Patriot might be one of the more affordable payroll software options, it’s important to consider how this will impact the features available. Here’s a view as to what Patriot offers with its payroll software:

This is an impressive array of payroll features, but it’s worth noting what’s missing. Patriot does not offer advanced reporting and analytics tools that you can find with other providers. It also doesn’t allow you to pay employees outside of the USA in other currencies. Additionally, you won’t be able to administer any benefits to your employees.

Patriot’s HR software is a separate add-on that requires extra payment regardless of your chosen plan. It comes with the following features:

• Reports: You can generate reports for employee contact information, demographics (EEO-1 or VETS-4212), service anniversaries, birthdays, emergency contacts, new hires and retirement plan contributions.
• Reporting lines: Assign managers and direct reports all on one page.
• Permissions: Set manager permissions to help with admin tasks and workflows.
• Storage: Organize and store all employee data online, with employee access to all relevant documents. 

Patriot also offers a Time & Attendance add-on for $6 a month plus $2 per employee. With it, you can:

• See time cards that are waiting for approval before being sent to payroll.
• Manage employee hours alongside payroll, with custom overtime rules and time summary reports.
• Allow employees to clock in and out via an easy-to-use employee portal.

Once again, these prices aren’t too high compared to other providers, and you can strip back features to save expenses if you need. But you might be left wanting if you’re hungry for more capabilities. To help you decide if Patriot offers enough features for your business, we’ve compared them to some other major payroll providers below.

	PATRIOT	RIPPLING	GUSTO	WORKFUL	PAYROLL4FREE
Third party integration	Yes, but limited	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multi-currency support	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Tax compliance	Full Service only	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Direct deposit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Contractor payments	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time tracking	$6 a month plus $2 per user	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Benefits	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Cheapest price	$17 a month plus $4 per user	Not provided	$40 a month plus $6 per person	$35 a month plus $6 per team member	Free if paying 25 or fewer people
Our overall rating	4.7	5	4.4	4.3	4.1

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If you run a relatively small business with fewer than 100 employees, you might not need an advanced suite of HR tools — so Patriot’s streamlined and affordable software is a good pick. Its low price plans compared to other providers mean it’s a good choice if you’re on a budget.

However, if you need extra features that Patriot might not provide, you may be interested in the following alternatives:

• For more integrations: Patriot’s integration capability is somewhat limited, only supporting a handful of third-party apps. QuickBooks Payroll software works with over 750 business apps, winning our award for best provider for integrations. 
• For better HR: While Patriot’s HR capabilities come at an extra cost, Workful offers a payroll and HR combination that performs strongly on both fronts — it wins our award for best payroll with HR services.
• For a more universal product: The best overall payroll provider on our list is Rippling, which offers a complete suite of features for payroll, accounting, IT and HR. It’s customizable too, so you can pick the exact features you want and get a tailored quote.

Customer support and experience

You can reach out to Patriot’s customer service team through the following channels:

There is also an FAQ help center, where you can see information relating to pricing and billing, direct deposits, technical information and details about their full service payroll.

While the support may not be available 24/7 — not ideal for all businesses — their service team has a positive reputation for the help they provide its customers. The variety of available options is also useful; not all providers offer a live chat, nevermind one that connects you to a human. 

To understand other customers’ experience using Patriot’s payroll software, we’ve looked at user reviews on Trustpilot, G2 and Capterra:

	TRUSTPILOT	G2	CAPTERRA
Score	4.9	4.8	4.8
Number of reviews	2,000+	400+	3,000+

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These scores are excellent, but keep in mind that they factor in more than just customer service. Fortunately, Capterra offers a separate review for this category, and Patriot scores 4.8 out of 5 here too.

Many of the positive user reviews across platforms praise Patriot’s customer service. Comments revolve around quick answers, great people and a very easy-to-use software. There is also an appreciation of the provider’s affordable pricing structure.

However, negative feedback revolves around long delays and the time between entering payroll and the direct deposit date. There are also some mentions of errors with filing, payroll and resignations or terminations. Though the total number of negative reviews isn’t huge, and on Trustpilot, it only has five negative reviews and Patriot has replied to each.

We also had the chance to try Patriot ourselves, and in our hands-on experience, we found a brief issue with federal taxes not being withheld. We followed the self-guided tour’s walkthrough steps, and even as we went in to ‘edit’ the federal tax information field, the exemption wasn’t marked. To correct this, we’d need to void this check and start a new one, which wasn’t an ideal experience.

Otherwise, it seemed quite easy to use, and we found the net-to-gross payroll feature particularly helpful in working out a specific take-home pay for an employee.

Patriot vs. the competition

It’s clear that Patriot is an excellent provider for small businesses that need affordable and reliable payroll software. But is it the best option out there for you?

Patriot is among the best choices if your main concern is pricing and sticking to a tight budget. Payroll4Free is also worth considering, as it offers the ability to pay employees and contractors, track time off, calculate tax and create detailed reports for free if you have 25 or fewer employees.

However, we recommend Rippling if you want to scale your business up and need software that offers more flexibility and features. It wins our award for the best overall payroll software, offering the ability to create a bespoke plan with the features you need for your business. It’s a bit pricier than Patriot, and you’ll need to get a tailored quote, but for the capabilities it provides, it’s a worthy choice for managing a fast-growing enterprise.

Our other choices include:

• Homebase: Our pick for businesses with hourly employees, Homebase provides a free basic plan for one location and unlimited employees. It offers timesheets, time clocks, scheduling, and a payroll addition for $39 a month plus $6 per employee.
• Workful: Workful combines a strong payroll suite with well-rounded HR for a single price of $35 a month plus $6 per team member. You’ll get unlimited payroll runs, multiple pay rates, time tracking, tax forms, expenses, employee onboarding and more.

Is Patriot right for your business?

Patriot is an excellent payroll software choice for businesses that need a strong set of basic payroll features at an affordable price. It’s a particularly cost-effective option if you’re ready to strip back tax assistance and manage this on your side, as Patriot offers all of its other features for a monthly price of $17 plus $4 per employee.

“When business owners start shopping around for more affordable payroll, they’re going to see that saving money doesn’t mean sacrificing quality with Patriot,” says Michael Streb, product manager. “We bring our customers the features they want and need while helping them save their hard-earned dollars.”

However, if you need more features to handle a growing business, you might find that Patriot does not offer the complete, well-rounded package that others do for a more premium price.

Featured payroll software offers

OnPay

Learn More

Via OnPay’s website

Monthly fee

$40 per month plus $6 per employee

Direct deposit

Yes

SurePayroll

Learn More

Via SurePayroll’s website

Monthly fee

$29.99 per month plus $5 per employee

Direct deposit

Yes

Gusto

Learn More

Via Gusto’s website

Monthly fee

Starting at $40 plus $6 per month per employee

Direct deposit

Yes

Rippling

Learn More

Via Rippling’s website

Monthly fee

$35 per month + $8 per user

Direct deposit

Yes

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)