Lago vs Paychex

Yes, Lago is open-source under the AGPLv3 license and can be self-hosted. The cloud-based Build plan is also free with limits of 10,000 entities and 5M events per month.

Paychex quotes per client rather than publishing rates, and the structure typically includes a base fee plus a per employee per payroll charge with extras for year end and off cycle runs. Get the full fee schedule in writing, including what a mid year change of plan costs.

Lago integrates with Stripe and Adyen for payment processing. It is not a payment processor itself but orchestrates payments through these providers.

Contractually the provider generally accepts responsibility for errors it makes, but the employer remains the party the tax authorities pursue. Read the specific indemnity language rather than relying on the sales description.

Yes, Lago supports multi-currency billing with automatic currency conversion for global businesses.

Technically yes, but you must carry year to date figures across for every employee and jurisdiction, and errors there surface at year end on employee tax forms. Most businesses switch effective 1 January for that reason.

Under the professional employer organisation arrangement Paychex becomes a co-employer for tax and benefits purposes, which changes your benefits access and some of your employment administration. It costs more and it is harder to unwind, so treat it as a different decision from buying payroll.

It exports a general ledger file and connects to the mainstream accounting products. Confirm the mapping to your chart of accounts during onboarding, because a generic export means your bookkeeper recodes every run.

It will serve you, but very small employers often find the per run charges and the service tiering expensive relative to self service payroll products. The case improves once multi state complexity or benefits administration enters the picture.