The 9 Best South Carolina PEO Companies Reviewed and Compared (2024)

The success of your small business depends on finding the best South Carolina professional employer organization (PEO) to help your company grow.

The right PEO will manage human resources and other responsibilities for you, freeing up your time and valuable brain space so you can concentrate on any of the hundreds of business tasks on your list which had to be completed yesterday. 

The wrong PEO will drain even more of your already scarce time and financial resources, leaving you without the mental ability or financial means to steer your business in the right direction. 

I’ve discovered the top PEO provider in South Carolina after analyzing more than 900 South Carolina PEOs, researching the top 15, and then rating the top 9. 

But there’s something you need to know before I give you that recommendation. 

The Best PEO Isn't Always the Right PEO

I have spent more time than I want to admit evaluating over 900 different South Carolina PEOs and have determined the PEO with the highest average score across a range of parameters. However, the fact that it received the highest average score does not necessarily mean that it is the best PEO for your South Carolina business. 

• Some PEOs have extensive industry expertise and may provide specialized benefits and services. 
• Some PEOs have very good working ties with insurance carriers, allowing them to offer a greater variety of health insurance alternatives and lower health insurance costs. 
• Some PEOs have extensive roots in the sector of compliance and can guarantee that you adhere to all the state and federal regulations. 

The only way to determine which South Carolina PEO is best for your business is to compare your unique business needs to the main benefits of each PEO. This will guarantee you not only choose the PEO with the highest score, but also the PEO with the highest score on the parameters that are most important to you. 

Enter your business information here to get a free analysis of your business and needs, as well as a customized recommendation for the ideal PEO for your South Carolina business. I’ll respond to you within 24 hours with your tailored business analysis and PEO recommendation.

If you just want to know which PEO scored the highest, here are my top picks for the best South Carolina PEO. 

1. Flexible PEO — 9.4/10 (Best Overall PEO)

I rank Flexible PEO as #1 mainly because it has one significant benefit over PEO Companies – truly outstanding customer support. That's not to say PEO Companies doesn't have a solid offering in that area, but Flexible PEO excels.

Pros

Flexible provides customers with a whole catalog of PEO services. You’ll get health insurance, risk management, payroll services, employee management tools, workers’ compensation, compliance notifications, HR paperwork, and other solutions to help you manage your employees and their benefits, as well as keep insurance costs low. 

Flexible provides pricing that is both reasonable and competitive, in addition to a user interface that is both simple and intuitive to use. 

This professional employer organization (PEO) really excelled when it came to one area: customer support. 

The average response time to customer support emails was 46 minutes, and the average wait time for speaking to a customer support representative on the phone was less than two minutes, according to the results of the three tests I performed on Flexible’s customer support team. 

Not only was assistance delivered in a timely fashion, but it was also really beneficial. The staff responded to my questions without the need to either transfer me to a different agent (which would have required me to explain my issue all over again) or involve management. 

Despite the fact that they’ve yet to send me a birthday card, that’s about the only thing Flexible’s customer support team could have done to better both its service and my level of satisfaction with it. 

Cons

Flexible's technology offering is simple to use and the cost is affordable, but there were times when its system was confusing, and I had to phone its excellent customer support team in order to figure out how to maneuver my way around. The pricing offered by Flexible is quite competitive, but the quotes I got for my three fictitious South Carolina businesses were all around 10% more expensive than those offered by PEO Companies. 

These flaws likely aren’t deal breakers for most South Carolina business owners, but I needed to mention them.

Overall

Flexible is a great PEO that does a lot of things right. It offers a full range of products and services and it offers them at prices that are more than competitive. On top of that, Flexible has great customer service. Its system isn’t the easiest to use, and it’s a little more expensive than PEO Companies, but it’s still the best overall choice, especially if customer support is important to you. 

As with all professional employer organizations, Flexible’s prices depend on your needs and the size of your business, as well as the number of employees you have. To get a full quote for your business, go to the Flexible PEO website here: Flexible PEO.

2. PEO Companies — 9.2/10 (Best Choices and Options)

PEO Companies doesn’t stand out for anything in particular, it does everything you need very well. The fact that you’ll never run into any issues is perhaps the biggest distinction between PEO Companies and other South Carolina PEOs. 

Pros

PEO Companies provides all the PEO solutions that South Carolina businesses need: 

• Human resources paperwork
• Employee training
• Compliance notifications
• Tax withholding
• Compliance assistance
• Tax rates
• Payroll administration
• 401k
• Employee management
• Dental insurance
• Risk management
• Health insurance
• Workers’ compensation insurance
• Administrative services
• Employee benefits administration
• HR support

PEO Companies backs all of its PEO services up with reliable customer service. If you have a general inquiry, you can expect an answer to emails within 24 hours. And if you have an emergency or a more pressing issue, you can call the customer support line for a more immediate response. 

One of the best aspects of this South Carolina PEO company is that even though it can meet the technological requirements of huge companies, the provider’s primary target is small businesses and medium-sized businesses. 

This means that PEO Companies can support you at your current level, and also grow with your company as it grows. 

Cons

If there is a single knock against PEO Companies, it’s that it’s just mediocre and doesn't provide any one service extraordinarily well. 

• Its professional employer organization (PEO) service selection has everything a South Carolina business owner could possibly want, but no fancy extras or premium options. 
• When you contact PEO Companies' customer service team, they will respond quickly to any inquiries you may have, but they won’t go out of their way to recognize special occasions or add personal touches to their service, like sending out a birthday card. 
• Although PEO Companies doesn’t have the absolute lowest prices in the PEO industry, it is still quite competitive in the South Carolina professional employer organization market. Its prices are more than reasonable, but they aren’t so low that the company will go bankrupt just to give you a good rate. 

Overall, the PEO company is excellent, but there isn’t anything particularly remarkable about its services or their quality. 

Overall

I recommend PEO Companies because it provides excellent PEO services across the board. PEO Companies supplies a broad array of service offerings at costs that are far lower than the competition, and it backs those services up with first-rate customer service. 

PEO Companies' costs vary depending on the specifics of your South Carolina business (like how many employees you have and the size of your company). To obtain a quote tailored to your business, go to its website.

3. CoAdvantage— 7.41/10 (Best Value PEO)

CoAdvantage PEO comes in at number three on my best PEO list. It’s a solid option with good prices, but some aspects of the services let me down. 

Pros

CoAdvantage PEO offers a full range of products and services, just like the other two PEO companies on my list of the best PEO services in North Carolina. You’ll get health insurance and employee benefits packages, risk management, payroll services, workers’ compensation, compliance notifications, HR paperwork, and other solutions to help you manage your employees. 

CoAdvantage’s system is easy to get started with, but once I was set up I had a few issues learning how to navigate and use it. Its customer service team was knowledgeable and able to answer all my questions in a reasonable amount of time, as well. 

But pricing is where this professional employer organization (PEO) really stood out. All three quotes I received from CoAdvantage were within the top three cheapest, and the quote for my small business was the cheapest of all three. This included every service and option available from the other North Carolina PEOs, which really highlighted the value of its pricing. 

Cons

As I’ve already said, CoAdvantage PEO’s pricing makes it a great deal, but it does have some downsides. 

It was very easy to get set up with the system, but once I was set up and trying to perform some fairly routine tasks, I encountered a few navigational problems. 

I asked the company’s customer service team for help with these problems. They responded in a reasonable amount of time, but their service wasn’t even close to what I got from Flexible. 

CoAdvanatge is good, but nothing it does is really great. 

Overall

CoAdvantage is a PEO that is dependable and well supported, with great pricing. Even though its system is sometimes clunky and may be hard to use for those who aren’t tech savvy and its customer service isn’t the most helpful or patient, it was still the cheapest PEO I got quotes from overall. 

Pricing is based on the needs and size of your business and also how many employees your business has.

4. Justworks

Justworks, a rising contender in the South Carolina PEO industry, was founded in 2012 and is now in the process of growing to provide services to not just South Carolina employers, but businesses across the United States. 

Justworks, like the other South Carolina PEO companies on the list, provides all the services you need for your business. Some of the services Justworks offers include health insurance, employee benefits, workers’ compensation insurance, risk management, payroll services, and other solutions to help you with things like compliance, tax filings, and helping you manage your employees. You’ll be left with less paperwork and it’ll reduce costs like the other professional employer organizations on the list. 

But transparency is a benefit offered by Justworks that is not available from any of the other South Carolina PEO companies on my list. 

Anyone can check out Justworks’ price structure because it’s listed publicly on the website. This was a major bonus in an industry that goes to great lengths to conceal its prices and requires prospective clients to first divulge their needs before receiving price estimates. 

But the age of Justworks, which is a crucial factor in the field of professional employer organizations, is the reason I put it in fourth place. 

The whole process of joining a PEO company and getting your business established in its system is one that takes a significant amount of time. It’s not something that your business can afford to go through once again just because the start-up PEO that you selected goes out of business. 

Before entrusting Justworks with your company, you should allow them a few more years to solidify their position in the professional employer organization industry and demonstrate that it is here to stay for the foreseeable future. 

You can learn more about Justworks by going to the website, which can be found here: Justworks. 

5. Infiniti HR

Within the competitive landscape of professional employer organizations, Infiniti HR has distinguished itself as a standout contender. 

It provides the whole scope of HR support and services that you’d expect from a PEO in South Carolina, such as insurance and employee benefits, workers’ compensation insurance, risk mitigation, payroll services, and other business solutions to help you manage your employees, as well as reducing HR costs and providing less paperwork. In addition to more traditional PEO services, Infiniti goes above and beyond by also providing assistance with employee recruitment. If your experiences are anything like other South Carolina employers, you’ll be aware of the incredible value of one fantastic employee. As a result, assistance in choosing stellar employees is a huge advantage to any business owner. 

The disadvantage of Infiniti is the same as that of Justworks; namely, its young age. Infiniti is an infant in the professional employer organization industry, only 10 years old. It lacks the proven track record of some of the more established PEO companies. So you should wait a few more years before signing your South Carolina business up for its services. 

6. TriNet

Trinet is the professional employer organization that has been around the longest and has the greatest credibility. It started out in 1988 and has grown to include more than 16,000 companies and over 330,000 employees under its banner. 

It provides every PEO service you could possibly want from a PEO in South Carolina and checks all the boxes. Some of its services include various types of insurance and employee benefits, benefit management, workers’ compensation, risk mitigation, payroll management, and other services that will help reduce costs, manage your employees, and result in less paperwork. But it seems to depend on its well-established name in the professional employer organization industry to draw in clients, rather than actually providing quality services. 

Trinet’s customer service staff doesn’t go above and beyond: they don’t innovate and provide new solutions for already existing issues; they aren’t not eager to impress; and they don't strive to acquire your business because they know they’ll get plenty of new clients anyway. 

This means that even though TriNet will be a dependable, consistent, and functioning South Carolina PEO company, it will never surpass the standards set by other PEO companies, or the expectations you have of them. 

7. Oasis Outsourcing

Oasis is another company that belongs to the PEO industry’s “old guard.” It has been providing services to small businesses for almost 20 years, and PayChex recently bought it (although it still operates under its own name). 

Oasis provides all the services you need from a South Carolina PEO company, including insurance and employee benefits, benefit management, payroll services, workers’ compensation, risk mitigation, assistance with tax filings, and other tools to help manage your employees while minimizing HR costs. It also provides a variety of industry-specific services targeting banking, retail, hospitality, and education (among others). However, in the end, it scored poorly due to its policy of only allowing for 12-month contracts. 

The professional employer organization industry norm is month-to-month contracts, and it appears both odd and pointless to tie prospective customers down for a whole year. So, Oasis lost points for this. 

8. ADP Totalsource

ADP Totalsource is considered a “big boy” of the professional employer organization industry since it provides PEO services in more than 140 different countries. It provides a whole spectrum of PEO services, such as insurance and employee benefits, benefit management, workers’ compensation, payroll services, and other features to aid with employee management and provide reduced HR costs. In addition to its usual PEO services, it also provides industry-specific services, much as Oasis Outsourcing does. 

The fact that ADP Totalsource’s customer support team is accessible not only to you, the owner of the company, but also to your employees is one of the most notable advantages of this South Carolina PEO company. If any of your employees have issues regarding payroll services, benefits, tax rates, or any other HR or management-related problem, rather than contacting you for the answer, they can call ADP to get it. It will be a huge relief to you not to have to deal with these time-consuming phone calls anymore. 

The disadvantage of using ADP Totalsource is the same as with TriNet. When you join ADP as a small business, you are virtually irrelevant to its overall operations, and as a result, you do not get the attention that is necessary for your business to succeed. 

9. Insperity

In spite of all the ways in which it might have fulfilled my expectations, Insperity is a professional employer organization company whose services did not live up to its potential. 

The promise was inspired by Insperity’s 30-year track record of winning awards for its PEO services. Seeing this gave me reason to believe that working with Insperity would be an uncomplicated and liberating experience. When I noticed that it lets you terminate your subscription whenever you want (as long as you give 30 days notice), I had the impression that this may be a business that prides itself on providing excellent services. 

One particular aspect, namely health care, persuaded me otherwise. 

As any business owner is aware, providing health insurance and benefits to employees is a HUGE challenge that calls for an enormous amount of flexibility in order to meet the various requirements of each employee. Because every employee is unique and has specific needs when it comes to health insurance and benefits coverage, you need to provide a wide variety of alternatives to choose from so that you can fulfill all of your employees’ requirements. 

Insperity only provides health insurance and benefits plans from one provider, for whatever reason. Just one. Why? I really have no idea.

This means that if you pick Insperity as your South Carolina professional employer organization, your employees will have severely restricted choices for health insurance and employee benefits, and there’s a strong probability that they won’t get the coverage they need. 

The Best PEO for Your Business

It might be challenging to locate the best professional employer organization for your company with more than 900 PEO companies now available for businesses of any size. 

I’ve studied the PEO market for more than 230 hours over the past six years and have identified Flexible, PEO Companies, and CoAdvantage as my top three recommendations.

Even though these PEO companies are trustworthy providers for every business, you need a unique and specialized PEO recommendation based on: 

• The number of employees on your payroll
• What you want the South Carolina PEO to help with (payroll, HR compliance, workers’ compensation insurance, etc.)
• Employee benefits you want to offer to your team (such as health insurance and workers’ compensation insurance)
• How much you can afford to spend on employee benefits
• The location of your small business
• The location where you conduct your business (if outside the office or South Carolina)
• How much customer support you will need
• Your technological capabilities
• How large you plan to scale 
• Your industry

If you would like to find the right South Carolina PEO for your company, simply enter your details below and I will provide a free assessment of your company needs.

The Best PEO Selection Process

I went through a lengthy vetting process to find the best South Carolina PEO. But before I tell you about my process, there are a few things you should know about me. 

Why You Should Trust Me

You can rely on my recommendations because I’ve got more experience and knowledge of the PEO industry than nearly anyone else in the world, having built two small businesses and assisting others to find the right PEO services for their businesses. 

I first dealt with PEO companies with my health company. I was so busy trying to learn the fundamentals of starting a small business (like trying to develop websites, write articles, and manage my employees) that I just didn’t have time to take care of all the human resources foolishness and employee benefits stuff that was taking up so much of my time. 

I tried using a staffing company to handle my employees, but it was just not enough, so I decided to join a fantastic professional employer organization. 

I took a break after dealing with all of that before starting my second small business: a cafe! It would be an understatement to say that it was different from running a small online business.

However, despite the stark contrasts, one thing remained the same in both small businesses: HR misery. In order to fulfill my HR obligations and stay on top of employee benefits management, I once again plunged into the world of South Carolina PEO companies. I read websites, perused reviews, and listened to sales teams attempt to sell their services when I truly only needed simple clarifications. It was a LOT of information to take in. Eventually I was able to build and expand my small business in South Carolina thanks to the perfect PEO partner. 

I quickly came to the conclusion that I lacked the personality required for the hospitality industry, so I sold my cafe and took some time to consider what I should do with my life. When old acquaintances from the website and cafe days contacted me for assistance with their back-end company operations, the solution was abruptly thrust upon me. 

As more people sought me out as a result of my PEO recommendations, I ultimately began documenting them. Since then, I’ve assisted more than 1,200 people in finding the right help for developing their small businesses, which has given me more expertise than almost anybody else in the professional employer organization industry. 

How I Selected the Best PEO

My method, which consists of four stages, systematically eliminates candidates from the list of more than 900 South Carolina PEO providers. 

Stage 1: Reviews

I started my analysis by reading online reviews. 

The majority of South Carolina PEO providers that have been in operation for more than a year have amassed a plethora of online client reviews. With the help of this feedback, I can quickly and effectively determine which PEO services need further investigation and which ones I can exclude from consideration without wasting too much time on them. 

I looked at the most popular review websites to find South Carolina PEO providers who didn’t fulfill the minimum requirements for PEO service, support, or cost so I could eliminate them from more thorough research. 

Stage 2: Offering Analysis

The PEO industry in South Carolina is not uniform. Different PEO providers supply various goods and PEO services, and they do so at various costs. 

The assessment of which goods and services are provided by which PEO companies and at which costs became the second stage of my investigation. This enables me to rule out any professional employer organization that doesn’t provide a comprehensive range of PEO services, or who do so at exorbitant prices. 

Stage 3: Speaking With Real Customers

Online reviews are a fantastic method to get an overall sense of a PEO business, but they have two significant drawbacks. 

The first drawback is that, in general, most people only post reviews when they’ve had either an extraordinarily fantastic or a horrendously awful experience. This means that basing your judgment of a PEO company on online customer reviews will give you a skewed impression of how the PEO business functions. 

The second drawback involves space. The majority of online reviews are only 200 characters or fewer, which is not enough to fully determine whether a South Carolina PEO service is worthwhile to use. 

The next stage of my investigation included speaking with actual consumers to get around these drawbacks. Through my website and other connections, I got in touch with actual South Carolina PEO clients and solicited their opinions. I posed detailed inquiries, received thoughtful responses, and was able to get a thorough picture of what it’s like to deal with different PEO companies. 

Stage 4: Speaking With Their Sales Teams

In order to gauge what it would be like to deal with a South Carolina PEO company in the long term, I looked at how they respond to criticism and negative feedback. Are they rigid in their beliefs and practices, or do they change all the time? Do they attempt to place the blame on their clients, or do they accept responsibility for their mistakes? These qualities and ideals allow the real A players to stand out from the rest of the South Carolina PEO companies on the field. 

Ranking Factors

I used five different rating factors in order to rate each South Carolina PEO and choose the best PEO. 

Factor 1: Offerings

The first factor is a list of the products and services each South Carolina PEO offers. 

If your business needs workers’ compensation insurance and a PEO company doesn’t offer workers’ compensation, there’s no use in working with them to handle your needs. To ensure that you choose the best South Carolina PEO to meet your needs, I compiled a detailed database of all the services and products each South Carolina PEO company provides. 

Factor 2: Price

My second criterion for evaluating each South Carolina PEO was their cost. 

Since the costs of various PEO services can vary greatly amongst different PEO companies, I assessed each South Carolina PEO company based on how much value they offered for the money. 

Factor 3: Ease of Sign-up

The simplicity of signing up to their system was the third factor I looked at when evaluating each South Carolina PEO company. 

While some PEO companies may get a significant portion of your information through government agencies, other PEO companies require you to spend weeks digging through drawers in search of obscure bits of information you don’t actually need. 

I evaluated the onboarding procedure of each South Carolina PEO company to ensure that you choose a PEO company that won’t waste your time. 

Factor 4: Ease of Use

How simple a PEO system is to use is the fourth factor I considered. 

Some PEO companies have spent millions to simplify and automate their back-end systems because the user experience is their top concern. In contrast, some PEO companies have merely added features to old systems and then produced extensive manuals to describe their intricate navigation methods. 

Partnering with a South Carolina PEO company with a user-friendly, customer-focused system is unquestionably preferable to being forced to use an antiquated legacy system. So that you can make an informed decision, I evaluated the system of each South Carolina PEO service for usability and navigational ease. 

Factor 5: Customer Service

No matter how much effort or money a South Carolina PEO service puts into developing an intuitive system, there will always be questions. Good customer service is crucial in these instances.

Some South Carolina PEO services will keep you on the phone for hours until you finally speak to a bored college student who can only offer to escalate your issue to management (which they never do). Then there are other South Carolina PEO services that will respond to your call in a matter of minutes and resolve your issue in even less time, allowing you to get on with the rest of your day. 

The Best PEO for Your Business

While Flexible is a fantastic South Carolina PEO option for the majority of small businesses, it’s hard to recommend the right South Carolina PEO for your business without a thorough understanding of your business and current circumstances. 

I can’t suggest the right South Carolina PEO for your circumstance until I know your industry, size, the number of employees you have, and the benefits you want to provide (as well as other things). 

If you’d like a personalized South Carolina PEO recommendation tailored specifically for your business, as well as a free business analysis, then enter your information and business details below. 

After you submit the form, I’ll assist you for no charge by locating the best South Carolina PEO for your business requirements and circumstances. 

Enter your business information here to take the hard work out of finding the best South Carolina PEO for your small business. 

If you’ve yet to form your business and you’d like to know more about forming an LLC, check out my “How to Start a South Carolina LLC” article. 

If you’ve never formed an LLC before or want help taking the work out of the process, read more about the best South Carolina LLC services. 

While you’re here learning about PEO services, it’s a good time to choose a registered agent. A registered agent is a person or business who accepts mail and legal documents on behalf of your company during business hours. For more information about what a registered agent can do for you, check out my article on the best South Carolina registered agents. 

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