Best Payroll Software for Salons
If your salon already books through GlossGenius, Vagaro or Mangomint, the payroll add-on inside that account is the easy answer, since clocked hours reach the pay run with no exporting. GlossGenius Payroll ($40 a month plus $6 a person) and Mangomint Payroll ($50 plus $8) go further and pull tips and commission straight from bookings and sales. Without one of those platforms, Square Payroll does the same from the Square register at $35 plus $6, and Homebase Payroll does it at $39 plus $6 with tip pooling built in.
Past that group, you do more of the salon math yourself. Gusto, OnPay and Vagaro have you set tips and commission up inside payroll, and Patriot Software and SurePayroll by Paychex don't say how they handle them. SurePayroll has the lowest base fee in the table at $29, and Patriot sits at $37.
Our picks
- Best for paying the greater of hourly or commission: Mangomint Payroll. The only product here that advertises that calculation, with reports that split hours, service and product sales, commission and tips per worker.
- Best for tiered commissions and booth rentals in one app: GlossGenius Payroll. Payroll sits in the same account as the appointment book and card terminal, at $40 a month plus $6 a person on a subscription from $24.
- Best for a shop that is all booth renters: Square Payroll. A contractor-only plan billed purely per person, with no monthly base fee.
- Best when assistants share a tip pool: Homebase Payroll. Tips come in from the point of sale, the pool is calculated and added back to timesheets, and scheduling is free on the entry plan.
- Lowest monthly base fee: SurePayroll by Paychex. $29 a month, though each person paid adds $7, time tracking is a paid integration and local taxes cost extra.
At a glance
| Option | Price | Per-Person Fee | Time Tracking | Contractor Payments | Tips and Commission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40source | $6source | Includedsource | Includedsource | Synced from bookings and salessource | |
| $34source | $5source | Includedsource | Includedsource | Set up inside payrollsource | |
| $50source | $8source | Includedsource | Includedsource | Synced from bookings and salessource | |
| $35source | $6source | Includedsource | Contractor-only plan availablesource | Synced from bookings and salessource | |
| $49source | $6source | Higher plan onlysource | Contractor-only plan availablesource | Set up inside payrollsource | |
| $49source | $6source | Via integrationsource | Includedsource | Set up inside payrollsource | |
| $37source | $5source | Paid add-onsource | Includedsource | ||
| $39source | $6source | Includedsource | Includedsource | Synced from bookings and salessource | |
| $29source | $7source | Paid add-onsource | Includedsource |
Payroll add-on fee versus the full monthly bill
For the four add-on products, the Price column is only the payroll layer. Mangomint's $50 sits on a base plan that starts at $120 a month plus $10 per user, GlossGenius's $40 sits on a subscription that starts at $24, and Vagaro's $34 is charged on top of the Vagaro plan itself. Homebase is the exception: scheduling and basic time tracking are free on its entry plan, so its $39 is close to the whole bill.
The standalone services have no subscription underneath: Gusto and OnPay at $49 plus $6, Patriot at $37 plus $5, SurePayroll at $29 plus $7. Booth renters change the math. Seven products pay 1099 workers inside the normal plan, while Square and Gusto also sell contractor-only plans with no base fee, which is the cheapest setup here for a salon where every chair is rented.
How tips and commission reach each paycheck
Square imports direct tips from its POS and tracks commission rates across the team, and Homebase is the only product outside the salon platforms that documents tip pooling. Among the set-it-up-yourself group, OnPay is the most specific about tipped wages, covering minimum wage tip setup and preparing Form 8846. Gusto's entry Simple plan includes tip credits and multiple pay rates. Vagaro lets you configure commission by role or by service, though its payroll page never says tips sync from the appointment book. Patriot allows up to 25 pay rates on one employee, which covers a stylist paid differently by service, but neither it nor SurePayroll states how tips are handled.
Time clocks: built in, add-on, or on a higher plan
A time clock that feeds payroll is included with GlossGenius, Vagaro, Mangomint, Square and Homebase. Gusto keeps it for the Plus plan at roughly double the base price, OnPay takes hours by integration or by hand, and Patriot and SurePayroll sell it as a paid add-on. For an hourly salon, that add-on eats into what SurePayroll's $29 and Patriot's $37 save.
The options in detail
GlossGenius Payroll
GlossGenius is an all-in-one booking, payments and marketing platform for salons, spas and medspas, and payroll is an add-on inside the same account rather than a separate service. Because the appointment book, the card terminal and the time clock all live in one place, tips, commissions and hours logged reach a pay run without any exporting. Its own pages pitch payroll squarely at the pay structures generic providers struggle with, naming tiered commissions and booth rentals. The catch is that the payroll fee sits on top of a GlossGenius subscription that starts at $24 a month, so the real monthly cost is both numbers together.
Vagaro Payroll
Vagaro is one of the most widely used booking platforms in beauty and fitness, and its payroll runs on the account a salon already uses for appointments, so hours from the built-in time clock post straight to a pay run. The payroll engine underneath is Gusto's, which is why tax filing and year-end forms behave like a mainstream payroll service rather than a bolt-on. Commission structures and pay rates can be set by role or by service, and W-2 staff and 1099 booth renters are paid from the same system. As with the other all-in-one platforms, the payroll fee is charged on top of the Vagaro subscription itself.
Mangomint Payroll
Mangomint is a higher-end salon and spa platform, and payroll is one of three paid add-ons to its single plan. It is the only product here that advertises paying workers the greater of their hourly or commission earnings, which is the calculation most commission salons actually run every pay period, and its payroll reports break out hours worked, service and product sales, commission and tips for each worker. Filing covers local, state and federal taxes, and each pay run can sync to QuickBooks Online. The reason to look elsewhere is cost: Mangomint's base plan starts at $120 a month plus $10 per user before payroll is added.
Square Payroll
Square Payroll is the cheapest way to get tips and timecards out of a point-of-sale system and into a pay run, as long as the salon already rings sales through Square. Direct tips import from the Square POS, commission rates are tracked automatically across the team, and staff can be paid on multiple pay rates. Square also sells a contractor-only version billed purely per person with no monthly base fee, which makes it the cheapest option in this table for a shop that is entirely booth renters. Its weak spot is the front desk: Square Appointments is general-purpose scheduling rather than salon-specific software.
Gusto
Gusto is the default recommendation for a small business that wants payroll and nothing else, and it is also the engine running underneath Vagaro's payroll. The entry Simple plan covers full-service payroll in all 50 states, multiple pay rates and schedules, and tip credits, which is most of what a commission-and-tips salon needs. The notable gap is time tracking, which only appears on the Plus plan at roughly double the base price, so an hourly salon either pays up or brings its own time clock. Gusto also sells a contractor-only plan, worth knowing about for a shop that is all booth renters.
OnPay
OnPay is a flat, no-tier payroll service: one price, every feature, unlimited pay runs, and federal, state and local tax filings included rather than sold as upgrades. It handles tipped wages properly, including minimum wage tip setup and preparing Form 8846, which most generic payroll tools leave to the owner to work out. W-2 employees and 1099 contractors are paid from the same dashboard at no extra cost. There is no built-in time clock, so hours arrive by integration or by hand, and OnPay's own site currently shows two different starting prices, so confirm the current rate before signing up.
Patriot Software Full Service Payroll
Patriot is the budget full-service choice: a low flat fee that still covers federal, state and local tax filings and deposits, with a 30-day free trial before any money changes hands. Contractors are paid in the same run as employees, 1099s and W-2s carry no extra fee, and up to 25 pay rates can be assigned to a single employee, which covers a stylist paid differently by service. Time and attendance is a separate paid add-on rather than part of the plan. There is no booking or point-of-sale side at all, so tips and commissions have to be brought over from whatever runs the front desk.
Homebase Payroll
Homebase began as a scheduling and time clock app for hourly teams, and payroll is an add-on that turns approved timesheets into paychecks. It is the only product here outside the salon platforms that documents tip pooling: it pulls tips from the point of sale, calculates the pool and adds it back to timesheets, which matters in a shop where assistants share tips. Bonus and commission payments, multiple wage rates, and 1099 and W-2 filing all come with the payroll add-on. Scheduling and basic time tracking are free on Homebase's entry plan, so for many salons the payroll fee is close to the whole bill.
SurePayroll by Paychex
SurePayroll is Paychex's self-serve product for very small employers, and it carries the lowest monthly base price in this table. Unlimited pay runs, multiple pay rates and bonuses, and federal and state payroll tax filing and deposits are all in the flat price, and W-2 and 1099-NEC forms are prepared and filed, though those are billed once a year rather than monthly. Time tracking is a paid integration and areas that require local taxes carry a separate fee, so the advertised price is not always the final one. Nothing about it is salon-specific: tips and commissions have to be entered rather than pulled from an appointment book.
How we researched this
Payroll alone is what the Price column measures: each vendor's list fee before per-person charges and before any salon software underneath it. Introductory discounts, which Patriot and SurePayroll were running in September 2026, were left out on purpose. Gusto's plan prices are quoted from Merchant Maverick's Gusto review because Gusto's own pricing page could not be read, and OnPay's site shows two starting prices ($49 with $6 per worker in one sentence, $55 in its footer), so the table uses the sentence that states both numbers together.
QuickBooks Payroll no longer has a payroll-only price (its cheapest plan with payroll is $88 plus $6.50 per employee, bundled with Simple Start), and ADP RUN, Paychex Flex and Zenoti publish no prices at all. Boulevard's pricing shows no payroll product, and Wave has no time tracking and leaves tax filing to you in most states. The two empty tip cells belong to Patriot and SurePayroll, whose pages say nothing on tips or commission. Local tax fees, promo pricing and how tips post are the three things worth raising with a vendor, with your own team size in hand.