The verdict
Rounds split 3–3; OnPay edges it on total score.
OnPay and Paylocity are built for different company sizes — matching the platform to your actual headcount matters more than any single feature comparison here.
Choose OnPay if…
- • You're a small business wanting published pricing and same-week setup
- • You don't need recruiting, learning management, or ERP integrations
Choose Paylocity if…
- • You're a mid-market company needing payroll, HR, and talent under one login
- • You're prepared for a sales process, implementation fee, and multi-year contract
Round by round
- Round 1Pricing & TransparencyOnPay winsOnPay9/10
$49 + $6/employee
One published plan, no sales call
- Published pricing, no sales call required
- Dramatically cheaper per employee at small-team scale
Source: OnPay pricing page
Paylocity3/10$22-33/employee/mo (est.)
Fully custom quote, plus 10-20% implementation fee
- Pricing scales with negotiated contract length
- No public rate card, hard to comparison-shop
- Implementation fee and multi-year contract pressure add real cost
Source: Analyst pricing estimates
OnPay tells you the price on the website; Paylocity makes you ask for it, and it costs multiples more per employee.
- Round 2Core Payroll & Tax FilingPaylocity winsOnPay7/10
50 states, included
Automatic filing included, simple and reliable
- Automatic filing included, no multi-state upcharge
- Not built for high-volume, complex payroll runs
Source: OnPay tax filing data
Paylocity9/109.4/10 & 9.1/10 (G2)
Deep payroll-accuracy feature ratings
- High G2 scores for payroll accuracy at scale
- Automatic filing across all 50 states
Source: G2 category scores
Both file automatically in all 50 states; Paylocity's feature depth is built for payroll complexity OnPay doesn't need to solve.
- Round 3HR Features & BenefitsPaylocity winsOnPay6/10
+$15 + $2/employee
PTO, onboarding, org charts covers small-team needs
- Affordable HR add-on covers real small-team needs
- Purpose-built support for clergy and agricultural payroll
- No talent management, learning, or recruiting suite
Source: OnPay HR add-on data
Paylocity9/10Full HCM suite
Recruiting (via Grayscale), learning, engagement, workforce analytics
- Full HCM suite: recruiting, learning, engagement, analytics
- AI-powered recruiting added via 2026 Grayscale acquisition
- Overkill depth for a small business
Source: Paylocity HCM feature data
OnPay covers small-team HR needs well; Paylocity is an entirely different category of platform — a unified HCM suite.
- Round 4Ease of Use & SetupOnPay winsOnPay9/10
"Onboarding was seamless"
- Free white-glove setup, no implementation fee
- Running payroll within days of signup
Paylocity6/108.7/10 (G2)
Strong ease-of-use once live; requires sales quote and implementation
- Strong 8.7/10 ease-of-use score once implemented
- Requires a sales quote to get started
- Implementation fee and annual/multi-year contracts
Source: G2 ease-of-use score
OnPay is self-serve from day one; Paylocity is easy to use once implemented, but implementation itself is a process.
- Round 5IntegrationsPaylocity winsOnPay7/10
QBO/QBD, Xero + portal
Covers typical small-business accounting stack
- Covers the accounting tools most small businesses already use
- No ERP or custom API/EDI integrations
Source: OnPay integrations data
Paylocity8/10ERP + custom API/EDI/SFTP
Enterprise-grade finance/ERP connectivity
- Native ERP integrations (NetSuite, Sage Intacct)
- Custom API, webhooks, EDI, and SFTP support
Source: Paylocity integrations data
OnPay covers small-business accounting tools well; Paylocity reaches into ERP and custom-integration territory OnPay doesn't touch.
- Round 6Customer Support & TrustOnPay winsOnPay9/10
4.8 / 4.8 / 4.2
No sharp rating gap across platforms
- Consistent ratings across all three platforms
- Support included on every plan
Source: OnPay sentiment data
Paylocity4/104.5 G2 vs 1.3 "Bad" on Trustpilot
- Strong 4.5/5 on G2 with 5,172+ reviews
- BBB A+ accredited since 2013
- 1.3/5 "Bad" rating on Trustpilot
- Support quality inconsistent across accounts
Both score well on G2, but Paylocity's Trustpilot collapse points to real inconsistency once you need support.
Which one is for you?
Small business under ~100 employees wanting published pricing
→ OnPay · OnPay's single $49 + $6/employee plan is self-serve, no sales call
Mid-market company (50-5,000+ employees) needing unified HCM
→ Paylocity · Paylocity bundles payroll, HR, recruiting, and learning in one platform
Business wanting fast, same-week signup with no implementation project
→ OnPay · OnPay offers free white-glove setup with no sales process
Company needing native ERP integrations (NetSuite, Sage Intacct)
→ Paylocity · Paylocity natively integrates with major finance/ERP systems
Side by side
- One published plan with no tier ladder
- Multi-state filing included at no extra charge
- First month free plus free setup/data migration
- No extra charge for multi-state payroll or year-end filing
- Pricing scales with negotiated contract length
- High G2 scores for payroll accuracy at scale
- Automatic filing across all 50 states
- Full HCM suite: recruiting, learning, engagement, analytics
- HR features (PTO, onboarding, org charts) require a paid add-on
- PTO, onboarding, and org charts all require a paid HR add-on
- No in-house PEO option
- Mobile app is the weakest part of the platform, missing desktop features
- No public rate card, hard to comparison-shop
- Implementation fee and multi-year contract pressure add real cost
- Overkill depth for a small business
- Requires a sales quote to get started