SlimPayroll
You have three employees. Payroll for a small business your size should not cost what Gusto charges.
For $25/month, SlimPayroll runs your W-2 payroll and handles every federal and state filing. The HR platform your employees don't need is not part of the deal.
Run Your First Payroll
Run your first payroll free. Cancel any time, month to month.
Payroll for small businesses with a few employees has been quietly overpriced for years. The platforms that dominate the market — Gusto, Paychex, Rippling — are built for companies with HR managers, benefits coordinators, and 20-plus staff. When a founder with three employees signs up, they get the same platform, the same price structure, and the same dashboard full of modules they will never open. The payroll function itself — the one thing these businesses actually need — is buried under performance reviews, PTO policies, and benefits enrollment prompts.
The average small business owner with 1–5 W-2 employees pays $60–$80/month for payroll software. They use roughly 10 percent of it. The rest is product the vendor built for a different customer, sold as part of a bundle you cannot unbundle.
What Payroll for 1–5 Employees Actually Requires
Running payroll for three people requires six things. Gusto sells you forty.
You need to pay your people on a regular schedule. You need federal and state taxes withheld from each paycheck and deposited on time. You need a 941 filed every quarter. You need W-2s out by January 31. If your company has three employees, you already know who all three of them are — you do not need an org chart builder to find out.
The monthly cost of the features you never use is roughly $40. Across a year, that is $480 paid for software sitting idle.
Introducing SlimPayroll
SlimPayroll does one thing: it runs your W-2 payroll and files every federal and state tax return tied to it, for $25/month flat. There is no HRIS and no benefits module. You add your employees once, set their pay schedule, and run payroll. Federal and state filings happen in the background. W-2s go out in January. The 941 gets filed on time each quarter.
What You Get — $25/Month
Payroll runs on the date you set — Direct deposit payroll for up to 5 W-2 employees on any schedule: weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly.
Quarterly 941 filings — Federal employer tax returns filed each quarter, with tax deposits made on schedule to keep your IRS account current.
State payroll tax filings — State income tax withholding and SUTA returns filed in every state where your employees work, each quarter.
Year-end W-2 and W-3 preparation — Employee W-2s and the employer W-3 transmittal prepared, filed with the SSA, and emailed to your employees by January 31.
New hire state reporting — Required new hire reports submitted to the appropriate state agency each time you bring on an employee.
Digital pay stubs for every run — Pay stubs generated automatically for each payroll and accessible to you and your employees.
Employee setup in under five minutes — Add a W-2 employee with name, address, SSN, withholding elections, and pay rate. Done.
Why $25/Month
Gusto charges $40/month as a base fee, plus $6 per employee. For four employees, that is $64/month, or $768 a year. SlimPayroll charges $25/month flat for up to five employees. The difference is $39/month. Over a year, that is $468 you keep. The lower price is possible because there is no HR platform to build, maintain, or support. You are paying for payroll processing and tax filings, and those are the only costs built into the price.
Who This Is For
You pay 1–5 people on W-2 and spend the last week of each month hoping the withholding math is right.
You are currently paying Gusto or a competing platform and spending most of that fee on features you have never clicked.
You had a bookkeeper handling payroll and are looking for a lower-cost option now that your process is stable.
You run a seasonal business with a small core staff year-round and do not want to pay for a full HR platform during your slow months.
You are a solo founder who recently hired your first employee and need payroll set up without committing to a $60/month platform.
The Correct Payroll Guarantee
If SlimPayroll files a return late or deposits a payroll tax incorrectly, we cover the IRS penalty in full. File a support request, share the penalty notice, and we handle it.
In 30 Days, You'll Have:
- Direct deposits in your employees' accounts on the exact dates you scheduled, no follow-up required
- Federal and state taxes withheld correctly from every paycheck
- Quarterly 941 deposits made on your behalf, keeping your IRS account current
- A payroll records archive with digital pay stubs for every run
- New hire reports filed the same week you bring someone on
- Confidence that W-2s will go out in January without a scramble
Frequently Asked Questions
Does SlimPayroll work for a small LLC with only 2 employees?
Yes. SlimPayroll starts at one employee and the $25/month price holds through five. If you hire a second or third employee next year, your price stays the same.
SlimPayroll vs Gusto for a small business: what is the difference?
Gusto is a full HR platform that includes payroll. SlimPayroll handles payroll and tax filings only. If you need benefits administration, HR document storage, or time tracking, Gusto covers those. If you need payroll processed and taxes filed correctly each month, SlimPayroll covers that at roughly a third of the cost.
How much does SlimPayroll cost if I have more than 5 employees?
The base price covers up to 5 W-2 employees. Each additional employee above 5 is $5/month, up to 10 employees total. If you have more than 10 W-2 employees, a platform like Gusto or Paychex is a better fit for your size.
Can I use SlimPayroll for a seasonal business that only has employees part of the year?
Yes. SlimPayroll is month-to-month. If your seasonal employees are off from November through March, you can pause or cancel during those months and restart in the spring. You only pay for months when you are actively running payroll.
What it is: Payroll and tax filings for small businesses that have 1–5 W-2 employees and nothing more to manage.
What you get: W-2 payroll, direct deposit, quarterly 941 filings, state tax filings, year-end W-2s, pay stubs, and new hire reporting.
Price: $25/month for up to 5 employees.
Catch: There is no HR platform, no benefits administration, and no contractor payroll. This is payroll only.
Guarantee: We cover any IRS penalty caused by a filing error on our part.
Run Your First Payroll