OnPay review

OnPay is the payroll service we’d point most solo S-corp owners toward first. It runs one full-service plan — $49 a month plus $6 per worker — and treats the one-person S-corp as a first-class customer: a dedicated “S Corp Payroll Built for Solopreneurs” product, adjustable withholding, and blank quarterly filings handled automatically when you don’t pay yourself. It also ranked #1 in G2’s Summer 2026 Payroll Results Index, ahead of Gusto and Rippling, with 97.7% of reviewers coming from small businesses. Bottom line: if you want payroll that’s reasonably priced, hands-off on taxes, and answered by a competent human when you call, OnPay is the pick — as long as you can live with slow direct deposit and no employer mobile app.

Pricing in practice

OnPay repackaged its pricing around May 2025. The old $40 + $6 single plan became $49 + $6 (“Payroll Essentials”) with paid add-ons — many comparison sites still quote the stale $40 figure, so double-check anything you read elsewhere.

Good news for irregular payers: the $6 per-worker fee is only billed in months that worker is actually paid, and OnPay files zero-wage quarterly returns in quarters with no payroll. The catch: the $49 base bills every month regardless — you can’t suspend the account during idle stretches, a recurring Capterra complaint. Setup and migration are free, and multi-state filing costs nothing extra (Gusto puts it behind an $80-base tier; Patriot charges $12 per state).

What’s genuinely good

The S-corp handling is the real differentiator. The 2% shareholder health insurance W-2 workflow — the fiddly year-end item that trips up generalist payroll tools — is documented and supported first-class. Federal, state, and local taxes are calculated, filed, and paid automatically in all 50 states plus DC (941, 940, W-2, 1099), and OnPay’s guarantee says it pays penalties and interest caused by its own errors and deals with the agency for you.

Onboarding is done for you: a dedicated specialist imports your employees and year-to-date wages and distributions, and most migrations take a few days. Contractors run in the same pay run for the same $6, only in months they’re paid, with 1099s included.

Support is the single most-praised thing about the company: US-based (Atlanta), reachable by phone, chat, and email weekdays 9am–8pm ET. Capterra reviewers score customer service 4.8 and value for money 4.9.

What to watch out for

Direct deposit is the biggest functional gap: four business days by default, with two-day speed only for accounts that get approved. For a solo owner running planned payroll that’s a scheduling nuisance, not a dealbreaker — but if you have employees who expect Friday pay, you’ll need to run payroll earlier in the week than you would with Gusto.

There’s no employer mobile app; you run payroll through mobile web instead. Integrations are thin — QuickBooks Online, Xero, QB Time, When I Work, and Deputy, and not much else. Users also flag clunky report navigation, slow page loads, and limited check-date flexibility. PTO tracking, once included, now sits behind the paid HR add-on. Note the guarantee’s carve-out: tax problems traced to data you provided incorrectly stay your responsibility. And there’s no weekend support.

What Reddit says

“big onpay fan… biggest difference to me is service: consistently get a helpful support rep in about 5 min when call”

— r/Accounting, from a poster who added: “I have had it with ADP, Paychex, Gusto and QBO PR.”

“Tax filings: OnPay handles and haven’t had an issue… they don’t charge extra fees for additional [states]”

— r/Payroll

“by default it is a 4 day direct deposit cycle, unless you are approved for 2.”

— r/waveapps

“Gusto just raised their prices (again), this time it’s a 20% hike for the Simple plan. I’ve never been impressed with their support… I’m also looking at OnPay.”

— r/Bookkeeping, from a firm managing 86 Gusto clients

Who should pick OnPay

• Solo S-corp owners who pay themselves quarterly or annually — per-worker fees hit only in months you’re paid, and zero-wage quarters are filed automatically.
• Anyone with employees in more than one state — multi-state filing is included, where Gusto and Patriot charge extra.
• Owners who value phone support — a US-based human in minutes rather than a chatbot.
• Businesses switching providers mid-year — free migration includes year-to-date wages, so W-2s come out right.
• Skip it if you need fast direct deposit without an approval process, want an employer mobile app, or run payroll so sporadically that $49 in every idle month stings.

FAQ

How much does OnPay cost for a single-owner S-corp?

$55 per month — the $49 base plus one $6 worker fee — or about $660 a year, with the first month free. The $6 is only charged in months you actually pay yourself, though the $49 base bills every month.

Does OnPay handle 2% shareholder health insurance on the W-2?

Yes. OnPay documents a first-class workflow for reporting 2% shareholder health insurance on the W-2, along with adjustable withholding — the two S-corp-specific items most generalist payroll tools handle poorly.

What happens if OnPay makes a tax filing mistake?

OnPay’s guarantee covers penalties and interest caused by its own errors, and it works with the tax agency on your behalf. Errors stemming from inaccurate information you provided are excluded, per its terms.