Why is CRM software important for a small business?

Incorporating CRM software into your business is vital to your company's consumer relationships. It allows you to personalize the way you market to your clients, it tracks communications with your clients, and it provides tools to organize the data efficiently. Building customer connections is key to the growth of your business, so it's important to have a system in place to develop and manage those relationships.

The Best Professional Employer Organizations (PEO) in 2023

A professional employer organization (PEO) provides human resources outsourcing, benefits administration, payroll support and more to small and midsize businesses. PEOs differ from HR outsourcing companies because of the co-employment model: The PEO absorbs your employees legally so that it can leverage large numbers in benefits markets to obtain competitive pricing. The best PEOs provide all of the HR-related services you need, including guidance that a small business without a full-time HR team needs while ensuring employees can get their HR-related questions answered.

Compare Our Best Picks

PEO service provider	Overall score	Best for	ESAC or IRS certified	Contract length	Minimum no. of employees supported	Customer support
Paychex	9.6/10	Remote Teams	Both	Annual	5	A relationship manager/client advocate, HR Business Partner (HRBP), payroll specialist, and employee benefits specialist
TriNet	9.6/10	Industry-Specific Needs	Both	Varies based on customer’s needs	5	Varies based on customer’s needs
Insperity	9.5/10	SMBs	Both	Annual or multiple years	5	Phone and email (A business performance advisor, benefits specialist, safety specialist, HR representative, client liason, payroll specialist, HR services manager, performance specialist)
Justworks	9.4/10	Ease of Use	Both	Monthly or annual	2	Account manager, live chat, phone and email
ADP TotalSource	9.3/10	Benefits Administration	Both	None	5	A dedicated team of experts and a payroll specialist
Rippling	9.3/10	Scalability	None	Monthly	5	Phone, email, chat
Papaya Global	9.0/10	International PEO	None	Monthly or annual	1	Phone, email, chat

How PEOs Price Their Services

PEOs offer two main pricing structures for small and midsize businesses: They charge either a per-employee fee (roughly $40 to $160 per month) or a percentage of your total monthly payroll (roughly 3% to 12%). There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of pricing. The best pricing model for your business depends on factors such as your business type, the number of employees you have and the PEO services you want.

PEOs typically do not offer free trials of their HR services, and contract lengths and structures vary by company. Some PEOs only offer long-term contracts, while others don’t require a contract at all. Cancellation policies also vary, but business owners typically need to provide at least 30 to 60 days’ notice before terminating their PEO service. Some companies allow you to leave at any time for any reason; others charge you a fee for leaving.

Below are other crucial items to address with the PEO service you’re considering. You should go over this information – even though it may be available on the company’s website – with a member of the PEO’s sales team to gain a complete understanding of the PEO’s services.

Plan Structure

One thing to pay attention to is how a PEO packages its services, like employee onboarding and development, insurance policies, workers’ compensation claims, payroll processing, risk and compliance management, and HR tasks. Some PEOs offer a one-size-fits-all solution, whereas others offer customizable services that you can add or remove to fit your small business’s needs. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. A bundled solution means you can grow into all the features without changing the pay structure, while an a la carte option is more tailored to your business and can save you money if you need only a few services, such as payroll and health insurance.

Additional Fees

Inquire upfront about additional fees. For example, some companies charge a fee if you cancel service. Thoroughly review the materials the sales team gives you to spot any costs associated with service. If you’re not sure, ask the sales representative. Also, remember that the pricing model, whether it charges per employee or as a percentage of income, does not include additional costs for healthcare and other employee benefits.

Employee Minimums

Many of the PEOs we evaluated have an employee minimum – that is, they require small businesses to have over a certain number of employees, usually five, to qualify for their service. (Another type of minimum you may see is a minimum monthly salary if your business is below a certain employee threshold.)

If you don’t qualify, many companies offer administrative services organization (ASO) or HR outsourcing services. While these services may be similar to the PEO model, they do not have co-employment agreements.

Make sure you understand what your PEO expects from you. You don’t want to have to cancel your service or pay an additional fee for falling below the PEO’s employee minimum.

Buying Guide

What Is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO)?

A PEO is a company that can take care of HR responsibilities, primarily for small and midsize companies. PEOs have drawbacks, but can manage HR functions, like employee training and development, risk and compliance, workers’ compensation, payroll, and benefits, with some offering these services bundled in a preset package and others offering customizable plans with a la carte features.

PEOs differ from typical HR outsourcing services by operating under a co-employment model, meaning your employees appear on the PEO’s “books” for legal and tax purposes. This allows PEOs to act as massive corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees. PEOs can negotiate contracts with employee benefits providers for more favorable rates on unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance. It also gives them the power and scope to build and leverage powerful time-tracking and payroll technology for small businesses.

When you sign on with a PEO, you’ll work closely with customer success managers (and other team members) to build the services you need for your small business. As your business grows, your PEO can adjust to meet your needs. Working with a PEO under the co-employment model is essentially partnering with a team of specialists to build out the administrative and back-end processes of your organization. If it makes sense for your business financially, these organizations can take out a lot of the stress (and handle most of the legwork) of running your business so you can focus on more pressing needs.

Roughly 173,000 small and midsize businesses partner with PEOs to get high-quality benefits and proper HR support to help their businesses run smoothly. A PEO must adhere to both state and federal regulations, so some companies are divided up by region or even state.

Did You Know?

There are nearly 500 PEOs serving and operating in all 50 states.

As you search for a PEO, keep your state and region in mind – some PEOs are qualified to serve small businesses in certain states only, whereas others have global partnerships. Most of the companies we reviewed are qualified to offer coverage in all 50 states. If you’re curious about whether a certain PEO operates in your state, you can look it up in the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations’ (NAPEO) directory.

Professional Employer Organization Features

PEOs provide several beneficial resources for small businesses. Since they focus on HR tasks and administration, you are left with more time to focus on your business. On top of that, PEOs can offer better benefits to your employees than you might be able to obtain on your own. This can help you attract and retain top talent. Many employer organizations use mobile applications and online portals for small businesses and employees to easily access important information, like payroll, benefits and training courses.

Although not every business will need every PEO feature available, here are some of the top PEO features that could help your business.

Administrative HR Services

One advantage of partnering with a PEO is having a professional organization take care of all your HR services. PEOs can create your employee handbook and policies, onboard new hires, cover HR administrative tasks, offer unemployment assistance, and help with compliance reporting and employee termination. They often have online HR reporting tools, employee self-service options and advanced HR technology.

Did You Know?

According to the NAPEO, companies that partner with a PEO grow seven to nine percent faster and are 50 percent less likely to go out of business than companies that don’t.

Employee Benefits

Since PEOs co-employ multiple businesses’ employees, they can offer better employee benefits than you might otherwise be able to offer. PEOs typically offer insurance plans such as medical, dental, vision, life, and long- and short-term disability insurance. Some offer additional plans like flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements.

Employees often receive retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans, as well as additional benefits like commuter and parking discounts, home and auto insurance discounts, and access to employee assistance programs. Many employers receive Affordable Care Act guidance and compliance, while their employees get access to consulting services by licensed benefits professionals. The benefits vary by PEO, as does the cost.

Payroll

PEOs offer small businesses an affordable way to package all of their HR responsibilities together, including payroll processing and taxes. PEOs can process your employee payroll, prepare and distribute payroll checks, employ direct deposit, and process employee liens and garnishments. PEOs take care of your employees’ paid time off, track their sick and vacation time, and prepare and distribute their W-2s.

Many PEOs offer quarterly and year-end state and federal tax deposits and filings, along with detailed management reports. The PEO you partner with should be able to take care of all your employee payroll needs. By including this cost into the PEO’s total, you can ultimately save money on your payroll being handled by financial professionals.

Risk and Compliance

Managing risk and legal compliance is an important part of running a small business. However, if you work with a PEO, it can manage much of that for you. Depending on your business’s industry, this could be a great deal of work handled by someone else. The level of compliance and risk that a PEO manages varies, but many PEOs perform tasks like managing ACA coordination and compliance, running on-site safety inspections, performing accident investigations and job hazard analyses, allocating workers’ compensation coverage, and maintaining OSHA compliance for your business.

A PEO ensures your business takes the appropriate measures to maintain workplace safety. Some PEOs provide employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) coverage, safety and loss prevention programs, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance, and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) insurance. There are several other compliance measures that PEOs can take to keep your employees safe and ensure that your business abides by legal employment guidelines. This alone is reason enough for some businesses to partner with a PEO.

Training and Development

A benefit that some PEOs offer is employee training and development. Many offer online and on-site training courses that your employees can take to enhance their skills. They can access courses on communication, sexual harassment and discrimination, hiring and firing, disciplinary actions, leadership, social media, and workplace technology, as well as industry-specific training.

Not all PEOs offer continuing education courses, and the courses that are offered vary by company. However, at the very least, most PEOs can train your staff on necessary workplace concepts like avoiding workplace discrimination and sexual harassment.

Customer Service

Make sure the PEO you partner with assigns you a designated team of experts who can handle your HR, risk management, benefits and payroll needs. You want to partner with a company that provides specialists in each area, as well as a relationship manager who can help you take advantage of all the services the PEO offers. Sometimes, the HR consultant doubles as a relationship manager, which is also a good option. The best companies have HR consultants who are certified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). SHRM certification ensures that your account coordinator is more than just a company relationship manager.

Bottom Line

A PEO provides many services (e.g., administrative HR functions, employee benefits administration, payroll processing, talent management, risk and compliance, etc.) that can help you manage your workforce, save time and money, and maintain legal compliance.

How to Choose a PEO

looking for the right company. As a general rule, it’s a good idea to get as much information gathered about the company before you contact it. That way, you can have a good understanding of the services it offers, as well as the pricing and contract structures, before heading into the sales process.

Working with accredited agencies is always a good option, but accreditations are not the be-all and end-all of the PEO world. A few companies on our list that aren’t accredited are reputable. Below is a three-step guide on choosing a PEO that can seamlessly integrate with your company.

1. Define your business’s needs.

The first step to any buying decision is understanding exactly what it is your company needs from a PEO. Are you looking for health benefits? COBRA administration? A seamless cloud-based platform to keep HR information organized? It’s also important to partner with an organization that can support your growth. That is one of the major advantages of working with a PEO: It can help your organization grow from an administrative perspective.

Tip

When choosing a PEO, consider your current and future needs. As your company changes and more people are brought on board, your PEO should be able to scale with you.

2. Make a shortlist of potential companies.

Our reviews are a great resource. Learn about the services the PEOs that we selected offer, their customer service and the implementation process. Any of our best picks would be a good option for your business. It’s your job to match your needs to the right company out there. This is especially true when it comes to pricing and contract structure. Focus on the size of your organization, your growth plans and whether a specific type of PEO structure would be better for your business.

Once you’ve narrowed your options to two or three, you can start the next step in the process.

3. Contact PEOs and make your decision.

Contact the sales teams of PEOs you’re interested in so you can get a specific picture of what your business partnership will look like. Ask about additional fees, estimated costs and other features that the PEO offers. The sales process should be smooth and simple. If you have trouble, it could be an early indication of a partnership you don’t want to pursue. Decide on the PEO that fits your business’s needs most closely, and work with a company that you can grow with as your business reaches the next level.

Professional Employer Organization FAQs

How can PEO services help you attract great employees to your business?

When small businesses offer competitive benefits to potential employees, they are in a better position to attract and retain top talent; this is where PEOs come in. A PEO allows you to offer your employees affordable health benefits with reputable health insurance companies, as well as additional benefits such as supplemental insurance plans (e.g., FSA, HSA and HRA), employee perks (e.g., home and auto insurance discounts, parking and commuting benefits), and retirement savings accounts like 401(k) plans.

Additionally, a PEO can help you maintain risk and legal compliance. This can reduce legal problems for your business, helping you earn a positive reputation in your community and reduce employee turnover. Since many employees seek an employer that can offer continued education, partnering with a PEO that offers training and development courses can entice top talent as well.

What is the difference between a PEO and a staffing company?

Although they seem similar, PEOs and staffing companies serve different HR needs. The primary benefit of a PEO is that it handles tedious and time-consuming HR tasks, such as administrative work, payroll, employee benefits, risk and compliance, and employee training and development.

A staffing company, on the other hand, primarily serves short-term or temporary employment needs. Staffing companies handle other HR-related tasks, such as payroll and unemployment taxes, but often with much higher fees for these services. Small businesses should consider partnering with a staffing company only if they need temporary staffing.

What is the difference between a PEO and an HR outsourcing (HRO) company?

A PEO is an affordable HR option for many small businesses, as it can handle all your HR functions under a co-employment model. A PEO removes the burden of many HR tasks and gives small businesses peace of knowing that critical functions like risk and compliance are being managed by HR experts.

HRO services can handle many of the same HR functions as a PEO, but they operate as a separate entity instead of through an employer partnership. Businesses that use an HRO can choose the HR functions they need to outsource, whether just payroll and employee benefits or a full-service HR suite. HR outsourcing is better for larger companies that need assistance with specific HR tasks only.

What is the difference between a PEO and an ASO?

A PEO and an administrative services organization (ASO) both provide HR services, with one major difference: the employment relationship. PEOs use a co-employment model (meaning the PEO is the “employer of record” for employees); under an ASO partnership, the ASO offers assistance with HR services while the employees remain under the ownership of your organization.

Another difference between PEOs and ASOs is the specific services they offer. Both PEOs and ASOs offer HR services, but ASOs do not provide workers’ compensation insurance or employee benefits programs like a PEO does. ASOs are also more flexible in terms of the HR services you can outsource, whereas PEOs typically bundle services.

What do the best PEO services have in common?

The best PEO service providers satisfy your HR needs, whether those needs are HR administration, employee benefits, payroll, workers’ comp, risk and compliance management, or training and development. They use the latest technology and mobile applications so that businesses and employees can easily access their information. Great providers offer HR expertise and customized, one-on-one assistance to help you navigate your PEO services, regardless of how long you’ve worked with them. The best PEO services are transparent, easy to communicate with, and accredited by ESAC and the IRS.

What are the disadvantages of using a PEO?

When you partner with a PEO, that company is technically a co-employer of your staff. This can cost you some internal control over your team and processes, possibly having an outside influence on your company culture. Having an outside company manage your payroll and taxes might make you feel a lack of security as well. For these reasons, it is important to partner with a PEO that you trust and believe in. The right PEO can be a great asset to your company.

How long does it take to get started once I choose a PEO?

Transitioning your HR processes over to a PEO is a big undertaking, but it can ultimately simplify your HR responsibilities. The average PEO transition takes roughly four weeks, starting at the beginning of a payroll cycle, but it could take anywhere from three to six weeks. During this time, the PEO will work closely with your team to ensure all the proper paperwork is complete and successfully transitioned.

What is the advantage of using a PEO for recruiting?

One advantage of using a PEO is the ability to recruit top candidates. PEOs typically offer small businesses access to comprehensive employee benefits that they otherwise might not be able to afford, and these benefits can greatly impact the quality of employees they can hire and retain.

Additionally, PEOs employ experienced HR professionals who can help small businesses implement recruiting and hiring best practices. They understand the current employment laws and regulations that apply to recruiting, so they can help small businesses stay compliant.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2023

The needs of employees have changed drastically over the past few years, which means employers must seek to partner with PEOs that are evolving to meet those needs. Because the PEO market is projected to grow exponentially over the next five years, employers can feel confident that top PEOs on the market are doing just that. Employers should expect to see advanced tools, such as employee self-service capabilities, mobile applications, enhanced employee benefits (and administration) and legal compliance assistance, become staples in PEO offerings.

As many employees settle into remote and hybrid work arrangements for the long haul, they need software to be accessible both in and outside the office. PEOs offer extensive cloud-based technology platforms that make it simple and easy for everyone to use from any location and device. This is essential for companies with varying types of workers, especially when it comes to ensuring that sensitive HR-related information is properly secured.

The types of benefits employees prioritize have also shifted in recent years, which means PEOs must modify their benefit offerings and administration to stay competitive. Past employee benefits, like company lunches or other employee perk programs, may no longer be possible or practical for many organizations. Instead, employees are prioritizing benefits like flextime, sick leave, affordable health insurance, and professional learning and development opportunities. PEOs are continually evolving so that employees can easily get and manage the benefits they want.

By working with a PEO that’s up to date with technology, you can better track flexible work hours and provide remote workers with a standardized, simple HR, payroll, and benefits solution. This can go a long way for smaller companies looking to combat burnout among managers and employees alike, as many prior processes can be automated, especially from an HR perspective.

Although legal compliance has always been important, the shift to hybrid and remote work has created an even more significant need for this. As PEOs navigate employment and labor laws, they must work closely with small businesses to ensure the owners are maintaining a safe and compliant workplace, regardless of where their employees are located.

Our Reviews

TriNet PEO Services: Best PEO for Industry-Specific Needs

TriNet PEO Services

TriNet is ideal for companies looking for industry-specific services and support.

It offers several valuable online resources, including its Connect 360 services, which put you in touch with HR professionals who can answer your specific questions.

To use TriNet's services, you must have at least five employees on staff.

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TriNet offers industry-specific service plans, so your business can receive specialized attention based on the business environment you’re competing in. TriNet’s PEO offering provides HR services, risk management, document management, payroll processing, compensation benchmarking and benefits administration. TriNet offers custom dashboards with prebuilt key performance indicators (KPIs) and visualizations so that you can gain insight into the HR trends that matter to your business and industry. What’s more, it offers multi-company reporting access if you want to generate consolidated reports from multiple related entities at once. The technology is intuitive, user-friendly and platform responsive, making it easy to access across various devices. TriNet also offers mobile admin capabilities.

Editor’s Score: 9.6/10

A valuable aspect of TriNet is its helpful resource offering, Connect 360. With this service, businesses can have their HR questions answered by specialized HR support professionals. TriNet clients can contact an HR rep at Connect 360 by phone, email and live chat. Having the ability to connect with tailored support can be very helpful for businesses that want to maintain compliance based on their specific industry and location.

TriNet is certified by the IRS and accredited by the ESAC, which is an independent nonprofit that is the official accreditation and financial assurance organization for the PEO industry.

Read TriNet PEO Services Review

Paychex PEO: Best PEO for Remote Teams

Paychex PEO

Paychex has a cloud-based platform and a mobile app, both of which are easy to use.

Customers can access free demos for applicant tracking, time and attendance, performance management, and employee onboarding solutions.

Paychex requires new users to have at least five employees and sign a one-year contract.

Paychex is an ideal PEO solution for remote teams with five or more employees. It is a national company that offers customizable plans and flexible pricing. We like that it supports a wide range of business types and sizes, regardless of whether your employees are in office, at home or a mix of the two. Businesses that partner with Paychex can receive essential HR functions like HR administration, payroll processing, employee benefits information and risk-management support. And as your business changes or expands to multiple states, you can add or remove services accordingly.

Additionally, Paychex can help you attract top employees and remotely onboard them once they join your company. These are both critical tasks for businesses with remote or dispersed teams.

Contributing to Paychex’s appeal is that it features an easy-to-use cloud-hosted platform so you can tap into your services from wherever you are located. If you want to reduce the number of HR functions you need to perform manually, you can utilize AI and voice recognition through Paychex Voice Assist. In addition, the Paychex mobile app ensures employees have access to their payroll and benefits information both at and outside the office.

Paychex provides exemplary customer service, with dedicated support agents to help you implement your new services. It’s one of the few companies we reviewed that’s accredited by both of the major PEO accreditation agencies: the Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Paychex is also an accredited Better Business Bureau (BBB) member.

Read Paychex PEO Review

Justworks PEO: Best PEO for Ease of Use

Justworks PEO

Justworks' cloud-hosted platform is simple to access and navigate.

It is one of the few PEOs that list pricing on its website, which makes it easy to know whether its services fit within your budget.

Justworks does not offer industry-specific plans.

With Justworks, entrepreneurs and their teams can access comprehensive benefit offerings, automated payroll, compliance support and valuable HR tools – all in one place. As a PEO, Justworks gives small and midsize businesses access to corporate-level benefits at affordable rates, including medical, dental and vision insurance, as well as employee retirement plans. Its automated payroll services handle all benefits and tax withholdings for you.

Editor’s Score: 9.4/10

Justworks is one of the few companies we reviewed that’s upfront about its pricing and contract information. This can allow you to compare PEOs easily without getting involved in the company’s sales process.

What separates Justworks from other PEOs we reviewed is its intuitive cloud-based platform. The platform, which can also be used on mobile devices, is straightforward, so there isn’t a steep learning curve. However, if you do need assistance, this company provides designated support agents to help your team learn and use the new system. Justworks, which offers 24/7 expert customer support by phone, email, chat, Slack and SMS, can help you streamline your back-office functions in one easy-to-use platform.

Read Justworks PEO Review

ADP TotalSource: Best PEO for Benefits Administration

ADP TotalSource

ADP is a national company that has significant bargaining power with healthcare providers.

It has intuitive and simple dashboards, where you can view and modify your benefits.

ADP does not list its pricing online, so you must contact a representative for a quote.

ADP TotalSource, which represents more than half a million employees across the U.S., offers extensive services that are ideal for businesses of all sizes. What sets TotalSource apart from other PEOs we reviewed is its employee benefits administration. Employers can access Fortune 500-level benefits, a variety of flexible service plans and add-ons, an intuitive user platform, and seamless online benefits enrollment.

Editor’s Score: 9.3/10

While the company’s benefits administration is a highlight, make no mistake: ADP TotalSource also provides some of the best PEO services of any company we reviewed. It offers all of the services you are likely looking for in a PEO, including new-hire onboarding, benefits administration, employee retirement plans, work-life assistance programs and full-service payroll.

ADP also offers dedicated specialists to help navigate tricky HR issues, including benefits enrollment. Because of ADP’s size and level of personalized attention, it’s one of the few PEOs on our list that can grow with your company. TotalSource’s friendly and helpful support team, in addition to its comprehensive PEO services and benefits, is why we selected it as the best PEO for benefits administration.

READ ADP TOTALSOURCE REVIEW

Rippling PEO Services: Best for Scalability

Rippling PEO Services

Rippling's cloud-hosted platform can serve businesses that have both in-office and remote employees.

It provides local tax-compliance services, which is beneficial to businesses with employees located in multiple states.

Rippling is not accredited by ESAC or the BBB.

As a growing small business, it can be challenging to pick solutions that can scale to meet your needs. Rippling is one of the most scalable and intuitive platforms of any PEO we reviewed. One of the advantages of Rippling is the support it provides for decentralized companies as they scale. In the age of remote work, small businesses need solutions that can scale to support workers in multiple states and countries. These employees often need varying access to specific SaaS features, and Rippling allows you to customize that. For example, you can configure employee access to the applicable PTO system based on their region. With Rippling’s new native global payroll system, you can automatically run payroll across various locations and seamlessly pay employees in their respective currencies, which can be a game changer for organizations that want to scale abroad.

Another way Rippling excels as a scalable platform for new and growing businesses is by providing local tax registration, remote inventory management tools and workflow automation capabilities. Rippling can also provide scalable services like benefits administration, 401(k) retirement plans, commuter tax benefits, pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation programs and extensive risk-management services.

With several automation features and the ability to easily scale between its stand-alone HR platform and a PEO model, Rippling is our choice as the best scalable PEO for small businesses.

Read Rippling PEO Services Review

Insperity PEO Services: Best PEO for SMBs

Insperity PEO Services

Insperity offers training and development materials, including thousands of online books and courses.

Its platform lets you track attendance, make time-off requests and view compensation details, among other things.

Insperity requires businesses to have at least five employees.

Insperity’s HR services, risk management, payroll administration and employee benefit plans, as well as its easy-to-use platform, make it an excellent option for small and midsize business owners. A standout feature of Insperity is its employee training solutions. Insperity partners have access to thousands of online courses for HR topics and other educational materials. You can also set up on-site or online training sessions tailored to your business’s needs. Overall, Insperity offers more than 5,000 training materials. For these reasons, Insperity is our pick as the PEO that offers small and midsize businesses the best and most widespread access to business resources.

Editor’s Score: 9.5/10

We like that employees can easily log in to Insperity’s cloud-based portal to clock in and out, check how much PTO they have accrued, request time off, and review their pay stubs. However, while Insperity provides extensive services, it doesn’t sacrifice personalized support. Businesses that partner with Insperity receive access to a dedicated support team, including an HR manager, client liaison, HR specialist, payroll specialist, performance specialist, benefits specialist, recruiting specialist and safety consultant.

Insperity is one of the few PEOs we reviewed accredited by all three major accreditation agencies: ESAC, the IRS and the BBB.

Read Insperity PEO Services Review

Papaya Global: Best International PEO

Papaya Global

Papaya Global can support businesses in more than 160 countries

It provides local and global benefits.

Papaya Global is more expensive than some domestic PEOs we reviewed.

Papaya Global provides international businesses in more than 160 countries with PEO support and compliance, and it was the only PEO we reviewed with this wide of a reach. A global presence is essential for small businesses with employees and teams spanning multiple countries. The breadth of its services and reach of its presence worldwide make Papaya Global an ideal partner for international small businesses. Because of Papaya Global’s flexible service offering across multiple countries, it is our best pick as the best PEO for international businesses.

Editor’s Score: 9.0/10

Its ability to service employees across different locales makes Papaya stand out. It’s one thing to support employees who are all located in one specific country, but if your workforce is dispersed across multiple international locations, there are several factors you have to take into account, including making sure they are all appropriately paid and their benefits are administered correctly. Papaya can handle all of this and more. For example, Papaya supports pay exchanges, so workers earn paychecks in their own currency, and it provides talent acquisition and employee onboarding services. Through its new integration with J.P. Morgan’s payment processing products, Papaya Global enables employers to quickly process global payroll and securely deliver payments to employees in any region.

The company supports all employee types, including full-time, part-time and contract-based workers.

The Best PEO Service Providers of 2023

Professional employer organization services can simplify your human resource responsibilities. Learn about the best PEOs available for your small business.

Find the Right PEO Service for Your Business