Run your own payroll.Absolutely free.
Calculations, pay stubs, W-2s and every federal and state filing form your business needs — at no cost, with no per-employee fee and no employee cap. Pay a small fee only if you later want the advanced automation.
No credit card. No contract. Accounts granted in application order.
Payroll, without the subscription
You already know your people and your hours. The only hard part is the arithmetic and the paperwork — so that is the part we do.
Add your people
Enter employees once — pay rate, W-4 details, department. Employees can keep their own profile current from their own login.
Run the payroll
Enter hours and we calculate federal withholding, FICA, unemployment and state-specific items, then produce a pay stub for everyone.
File on time
We fill the official 941, 940, W-2 and state forms with your real numbers, and remind you before each deadline.
Forms generated for you, free
Federal Form 941 and 940 on the official IRS PDFs. W-2 and W-3 plus an EFW2 file for SSA e-filing. Washington L&I, unemployment insurance and Paid Family & Medical Leave. Georgia DOL-4, G-7 and G-1003. New-hire reports. Quarterly and annual payroll summaries as PDF or CSV.
Pricing
The payroll itself is free — permanently, not as a trial. You only pay if you want us to do the filing and the paying for you.
Free
Everything below$0/month
No per-employee fee. No cap.
- ✓Unlimited payroll runs and employees
- ✓Federal, FICA and state tax calculation
- ✓Pay stubs as PDF
- ✓941, 940, W-2, W-3 and EFW2
- ✓All WA and GA state filing forms
- ✓Employee self-service logins
- ✓Filing deadline reminders
- ✓Payroll reports (PDF and CSV)
Advanced
In developmentSmall feepriced at launch
Optional. Free stays free.
- ✓Everything in Free
- ●Automatic tax filing and payment
- ●Direct deposit to employees
- ●Multi-state payroll
- ●Priority support
Waiting-list members hear about Advanced first
How we compare
Against the two options small businesses usually weigh up: Payroll4Free and Gusto.
| Feature | PayrollZero | Payroll4Free | Gusto |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base price per month | $0 | Free tier, paid add-ons | About $49 |
| Cost per employee per month | $0 | $0 on the free tier | About $6 |
| Employee limit before paying | No limit | Around 25 | Paid from employee 1 |
| Unlimited pay runs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Federal + state tax calculation | ✓WA, GA | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pay stubs (PDF) | ✓Free | ✓ | ✓ |
| Form 941 and 940 prepared | ✓Free, official IRS PDFs | ●Paid add-on | ✓ |
| W-2, W-3 and EFW2 e-file export | ✓Free | ●Paid add-on | ✓ |
| State filings (WA L&I, UI, Paid Leave; GA DOL-4, G-7, G-1003) | ✓Free | ●Varies by state | ✓ |
| New-hire reporting | ✓Free | — | ✓ |
| Employee self-service portal | ✓Free | ●Limited | ✓ |
| Filing deadline reminders | ✓Free | — | ✓ |
| Ads in the product | —Never | Ad-supported | — |
| Automatic tax filing and payment | ●Planned — Advanced | ●Paid add-on | ✓Included |
| Direct deposit | ●Planned — Advanced | ●Paid add-on | ✓Included |
| States supported | WA, GA — more coming | All 50 | All 50 |
| Long-term contract | None | None | None |
✓ included ● partial, planned or paid add-on — not offered
Competitor pricing and features as published by each vendor, checked September 2026. Plans change — confirm current terms with Payroll4Free and Gusto before deciding. Gusto figures refer to its entry-level plan; higher tiers cost more. PayrollZero currently supports Washington and Georgia only, and automatic filing and direct deposit are in development rather than available today. Payroll4Free and Gusto are trademarks of their respective owners and are not affiliated with PayrollZero.
For a 10-person business, the subscription difference adds up
At roughly $49 a month plus about $6 per employee, a ten-employee company pays on the order of $109 a month — about $1,308 a year — for a mainstream full-service plan. PayrollZero's free tier is $0, and you keep doing the filing yourself. The trade is your time against their fee; we make that trade as cheap as we can.
Questions
- Is the free tier really free?
- Yes. Unlimited employees, unlimited pay runs, and every form listed above at no charge — not a trial and not ad-supported. Advanced automation will cost a small fee when it ships, and the free tier stays free.
- Which states can I run payroll in?
- Washington and Georgia today, with full state filing forms for both. Other states are on the way — the state you choose when applying tells us which to build next.
- Do you file and pay my taxes for me?
- Not yet. Today PayrollZero calculates what is owed and fills in the official federal and state forms so you can file them. Automatic filing and payment is the headline feature of the paid Advanced tier, which is in development.
- Why is there a waiting list?
- Payroll is unforgiving — a mistake costs someone their paycheque or triggers a penalty. We onboard new businesses in the order they apply so each one gets checked properly.
- How is my data protected?
- Social Security numbers and bank details are encrypted in the database rather than stored as plain text, every account is individually password-protected, and employees only ever see their own records.
Stop paying a subscription to do your own payroll
Join the waiting list. Accounts are granted in the order applications arrive.
Join the waiting list