Justworksvs
TriNet
TriNet: If you want a PEO with deeper industry-specific benefit packages and are willing to negotiate rather than read a price page
Justworks
Professional employer organisation with published per-employee pricing and a separate payroll-only tier
As of 31 August 2026, Justworks starts at $8/month. Justworks is a PEO: it becomes co-employer of your staff so a small company can access large-group health insurance and offload payroll tax filings. Softwr lists it under Payroll. Justworks is available on Web, iOS, Android.
Overview
What Justworks does
Under the PEO model, Justworks enters a co-employment relationship with your team, files payroll taxes under its own employer identification number, and pools your employees with those of thousands of other clients to buy health insurance and workers' compensation at rates a twenty-person company could not obtain alone. Alongside the PEO it now sells a standalone payroll product for companies that want payroll and benefits administration without co-employment. The commercially distinguishing fact is price transparency. Most PEOs quote a percentage of payroll or refuse to discuss numbers before a discovery call; Justworks lists PEO Basic at $79 per employee per month and PEO Plus at $109, with the standalone Payroll plan at $8 per employee per month plus a $50 monthly base fee, and dedicated HR consulting available on PEO plans at $30 per employee per month. The difference between Basic and Plus is access to Justworks' own health, dental and vision plans, which is the entire reason most customers are there. Buyers are US startups and small businesses under a few hundred employees, especially ones with staff spread across several states. The trade offs are that health insurance premiums sit on top of the platform fee and are the larger number, coverage is US-only, and leaving a PEO means finding replacement insurance and re-registering as an employer in every state you operate in, which is a genuinely painful exit.
What people use it for
- A twenty-person US startup that wants health insurance comparable to a large employer without an insurance broker relationship
- A company hiring across several US states that does not want to register as an employer and file taxes in each of them
- A founder replacing a bookkeeper-run payroll with something that will not produce a state tax penalty notice
- A team that wants payroll and benefits administration only, without co-employment, at the $8 per employee tier
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Justworks.
- The published per-employee fee is the platform charge, not your cost; health insurance premiums and workers' compensation are billed on top and are usually several times larger, so the transparent price is transparent about the smaller number.
- Leaving a PEO is a project, not a cancellation: you must source your own health plan, obtain your own state employer registrations and unemployment accounts, and time the switch to a plan year, which typically takes months.
- Coverage is United States only, so the moment you hire your first employee in another country you are running a second system and Justworks handles them only as a contractor.
- PEO Basic looks like a cheaper way in but excludes the Justworks health plans, which is the main reason companies choose a PEO at all, so most buyers end up on Plus.
- Benefit plan choice is constrained to what Justworks has negotiated, and a company with strong preferences about carriers or network coverage in a specific region may find the options do not fit.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Justworks
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- JustworksvsGusto
Gusto: If you want payroll and benefits under your own EIN and do not need pooled large-group insurance
- JustworksvsRippling
Rippling: If you want payroll bundled with device management and app provisioning, with a PEO option available
Pricing
What Justworks costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Payroll
$8 /mo
- Plus a $50 monthly base fee
- Payroll, tax filing and benefits administration
- No co-employment, so no access to Justworks health plans at PEO rates
- Health insurance available at an additional $8 per benefits-eligible employee per month
PEO Basic
$79 /mo
- Full co-employment PEO
- Payroll, tax filing and compliance
- Does not include access to Justworks-sponsored health plans
PEO Plus
$109 /mo
- Everything in Basic
- Access to Justworks health, dental and vision plans
- Premiums are billed separately and are the larger cost
Dedicated HR consulting
$30 /mo
- Add-on to PEO plans
- Named HR adviser support
Capabilities
Features
Co-employment PEO
Payroll taxes filed under Justworks' EIN, with multi-state registration handled
Large-group benefits
Access to national health, dental and vision plans priced on a pooled risk basis
Payroll and filings
Automated payroll runs with federal, state and local tax remittance
Workers' compensation
Coverage arranged through the PEO relationship
Compliance support
Employment law guidance across US states, including required notices
Standalone payroll
Payroll and benefits administration without co-employment, at a much lower platform fee
International contractors
Payments to contractors abroad, without employment of record
HR consulting
Named HR advisers as a paid add-on to PEO plans
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
What does co-employment actually mean?
Justworks becomes the employer of record for payroll tax and benefits purposes while you retain full control over hiring, management and day-to-day work. It is a legal arrangement, not an outsourcing of your team.
Is the $79 figure my total monthly cost per employee?
No. It is the platform fee. Health insurance premiums, dental, vision and workers' compensation are additional and typically dwarf it.
Can Justworks employ people outside the US?
No. It can pay international contractors, but it is not an employer of record abroad.
What is the difference between the Payroll plan and the PEO?
The Payroll plan handles payroll and benefits administration under your own EIN at $8 per employee per month plus a base fee. The PEO adds co-employment and pooled large-group insurance at $79 or $109.
Keep looking
Where to go from Justworks
- Justworks alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Justworks pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Justworks badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Payroll softwareThe full category
- Best Payroll softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Payroll software for
Compare Justworks with
- Gusto
- TriNet
- OnPay
- Paychex Flex
- ADP Workforce Now
- Zenefits
- Namely
- Oyster
- Extend
- Payhawk
- Mooncard
- SalaryFits
- Ceridian Dayforce
- Immediate
- Jify
- PayFit
- UKG Pro
- Velocity Global
Other Payroll software
Big company benefits and a team deeply involved in running your HR
Pricing on request9 researched notesSingle-plan United States payroll with unlimited pay runs and support for awkward tax situations other providers avoid
Pricing on request12 researched notesAll-in-one HR, payroll, talent, and benefits
From $23/employee per month11 researched notesVirtual card issuing and spend controls layered onto existing business credit cards
Free plan10 researched notesModular spend management combining corporate cards, accounts payable, procurement and travel
10 researched notesFrench corporate card and expense management platform built on the Visa network
Pricing on request10 researched notesBrazilian employee benefits and earned wage access app, owned by Serasa Experian since 2024
Free plan10 researched notesOn-demand pay, off-cycle payments and digital tips for US hourly employers
Pricing on request11 researched notesEarned wage access and financial wellness for Indian employers, backed by Moneyview
Pricing on request11 researched notesNative payroll and HR for small and mid-sized companies in a small number of European countries
Pricing on request12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Justworks, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Justworks
Justworks alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Justworks pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Justworks
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Justworks badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Payroll software alternatives
Virtual card issuing and spend controls layered onto existing business credit cards
Per user per month, free starter tier
Indian corporate card and spend management platform holding an RBI prepaid payment instrument licence
quote
Digital wallet and Mastercard debit card bundled with fee-free earned wage access for US workers
Free for employers, fee-free standard access for workers