Best PEO Companies: The Top 9 Service Providers Reviewed and Compared (2024)

Choosing the best professional employer organization (PEO) to support the growth of your small business is critical.

The right PEO will free up time and precious brain space by managing human resources and other tasks for you, allowing you to focus on any one of the hundreds of duties on your list that needed to be done yesterday.

The wrong PEO will suck even more precious hours and cash flow out of your already limited account and leave you without the mental or financial resources necessary to move your company in the right direction.

After assessing 900+ PEOs, investigating the top 15, and reviewing the top 9, I've identified the best PEO company in the US.

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

The Best PEO Isn't Always the Right PEO

I've spent more hours analyzing the 900+ PEOs than I care to admit and identified the PEO with the highest average score across a series of metrics. But just because it had the highest average score doesn't mean it's necessarily the right PEO for your company.

• Some PEOs are highly experienced in specific industries and can provide unique benefits and support.
• Some PEOs have very strong working relationships with insurance companies and can provide a wider range of health insurance options.
• Some PEOs have deep roots in the compliance industry and can ensure you meet all state and federal guidelines.

The only way to get the right PEO for your company is to compare your specific needs with the key advantages of each individual PEO. That will ensure you don't just get the best-scoring PEO, you get the best-scoring PEO on the metrics that matter most to you.

If you'd like a completely free analysis of your company and situation and a personalized recommendation of the right PEO, enter your details below. I'll contact you within 24 hours to provide a personalized analysis and recommendation.

If you'd just like to know which PEO scored the highest, here are my recommendations for the best PEO.

1. Flexible PEO – 9.5/10 (Best Overall PEO)

Flexible pushes PEO Companies down into second place for one key reason – customer service. They're both solid choices for your PEO but Flexible's customer support and commitment to customer care is what makes them my first choice.

Pros

Flexible PEO, like PEO Companies, provides a complete array of services. Health insurance, benefits packages, benefits administration, payroll processing, compliance assistance, risk mitigation, workers’ compensation, and more are all available. 

They provide cheap prices and a user-friendly interface for getting started with their system. 

The one area they really excelled in was customer service. 

In the three different customer service tests I conducted, the average response time to customer service emails was 46 minutes, and the average wait time to talk with a customer service representative on the phone was less than 2 minutes. 

Their assistance was not only prompt but also extremely efficient. They were able to address my problems without transferring me to another agent (and making me repeat my problem again) or involving a manager. 

While they haven’t yet sent me a birthday card, it’s the only thing their customer service could have done to enhance their service and my customer satisfaction. 

Cons

Flexible's system is simple to use and their cost is reasonable.

There were however times when their system was a little confusing, and I had to call their excellent customer service to figure out how to navigate it. Flexible's costs are excellent for their services, however, the three bids I got for three fake companies were all roughly 10% more than PEO Companies.

Most people wouldn’t consider these deal breakers, especially if you’re looking for good customer service. Flexible's pricing is still highly competitive.

Overall

Flexible is a fantastic professional employer organization that checks a lot of boxes. They provide a complete range of goods and services at affordable prices, as well as spectacular customer service. Their system isn’t the most user friendly, and they’re somewhat more costly than PEO Companies, but they’re still my top choice.

As with any professional employer organization, their cost is dependent on your requirements and size, so fill in your information here to receive a detailed quote: Flexible PEO.

2. PEO Companies — 9/10 (Best Range of Options)

My #2 recommendation is PEO Companies. They’re a solid and reliable option with great pricing, but some areas didn't so much let me down but they didn't wow me either.

Pros

They provide all the products and services you’d expect from a PEO:

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

They also have solid customer support to back it up. You can get an email response within 24 hours if you have a general question, or if you have an urgent issue you can simply pick up the phone and call them. 

One of the best features is that while it has the technological capabilities to meet the needs of large organizations, their specific focus is on small-to-medium enterprises. 

This means they can meet you where you are and scale up to where you want to be.

Cons

The only real negative (if you can call it that) is that they don’t do anything exceptionally well. 

• Their product offerings cover everything you need, but don't include any high-end, exotic options.
• Their customer support will answer every question as soon as you ask, but they won’t do anything crazy like send you a birthday card on your birthday.
• Their pricing isn't as low as some others, but it's solid and they’re more than competitive in the PEO landscape. But they’re not priced so low that they’re going to put themselves out of business just to help you.

The company is great across the board, but don’t have any one standout feature that will blow your mind. 

Overall

PEO Companies is my #2 choice because they do everything you need and they do it well. They offer a full suite of products and services at more-than-competitive prices with excellent support to back it up. 

3. CoAdvantage — 7.90/10 (Best Value PEO)

CoAdvantage is my #3 recommendation, but that doesn’t mean they’re not a good option. They offer excellent value so they're a good choice if you're particularly cost-conscious.

Pros

Just like Flexible and PEO Companies, CoAdvantage offers a full range of products and services. You can get insurance and onboarding and payroll and tax management and everything in between.

They have competitive pricing and while their technology offering doesn't wow, it's adequate and appropriate for the price point.

Cons

There were some instances where their system was unclear and I needed to call customer support to work out how to navigate my way around. CoAdvantage’s support is pretty average. Wait times are variable and while you will get there in the end, it's not a selling point.

Overall

CoAdvantage is a good PEO that ticks many boxes. They offer a full range of products and services and do so at more than competitive pricing. If you need value for money, they are definitely worth a look.

As with every PEO, their pricing is based on your needs and size so to get a full quote, fill in your details here: CoAdvantage.

4. Justworks

Justworks is an up-and-comer in the PEO world, was established in 2012, and is currently expanding to service the entire US.

Just like everyone else, they provide everything you need—payroll, compliance, etc. Justworks offers one feature that no other PEO on my list provides: transparency. 

Their pricing structure is on their website for anyone to see. In an industry that works as hard as possible to obscure their pricing and forces every potential customer to disclose their needs and obtain a quote, this was a massive positive. 

But the reason I’ve ranked Justworks #4 is their age, which, in the world of PEOs, is very important. 

The process of joining a PEO and establishing yourself in their system is a time-consuming one. It’s not something you can afford to go through again and again because the startup PEO you chose stops operating. 

I’d give Justworks a few more years to establish themselves and prove that it's here for the long haul before trusting them with your business.

If you'd like to know about Justworks, you can check out their site here: Justworks.

5. Infiniti HR

Infiniti HR has managed to set themselves apart in a crowded field of PEOs.

On top of offering the full range of HR support and services, they go above and beyond by assisting with recruiting. If your experience is anything like the entire rest of the country, you’ll know just how much value a great employee can bring and so getting help finding the right staff is a massive plus. 

The drawback with Infiniti is the same as with Justwork—their age. At only 10 years old, they’re babies in the PEO world and lack the proven track records of some of the more established players, so give them a few more years before you sign up.

6. TriNet

Trinet is the oldest and most established PEO on the market. They launched in 1988 and have 16,000+ companies and 330,000+ employees under their umbrella. 

While they provide every service you need and do enough to tick the boxes, they seem to rely on their established reputation in the PEO market to draw customers. 

They don’t go above and beyond in their customer support, they don’t innovate and create new solutions for existing problems, they aren’t hungry to impress, and don’t work to gain your business. 

This means that while TriNet will be a reliable, consistent, and functional PEO, they will never exceed industry standards or your expectations.

7. Oasis

Oasis is another of the old guard of the PEO industry. They’ve been serving small businesses for more than 20 years and were recently acquired by PayChex (although they still operate under their own name).

While Oasis does provide a number of industry-specific solutions targeting hospitality, banking, retail, and education (amongst others), and provides every solution you need, they ultimately scored poorly due to their policy of only allowing for 12 month contracts. 

In an industry where month-to-month contracts are the standard, it seems both bizarre and unnecessary to lock potential customers in for 12 months, so Oasis lost points for that.

8. ADP Totalsource

ADP Totalsource is a “big boy” of the PEO world, offering services in 140+ countries. They provide the full range of services and, just like Oasis Outsourcing, they offer industry-specific solutions.

The big positive with ADP Totalsource is that their customer support team is available not just to you, the business owner, but also to your staff. If any of your employees have questions about their pay, entitlements, tax rates, or any other HR issue, instead of calling you, they can call ADP to get the answer. Removing these time-draining phone calls from your plate is a massive plus.

The downside with ADP Totalsource is the same issue as with TriNet. If you’re a small company joining ADP, you’re essentially insignificant to their overall operations and you don’t get the attention you need to thrive.

9. Insperity

Insperity is a PEO service that had so much promise, yet they let me down in so many ways.

The promise started with their 30-year track record of winning awards for their products and support. Seeing this filled me with hope for a seamless and empowering experience. When I saw they also allow you to cancel your service any time (with 30 days notice), I thought that maybe this is a company that thrives on delivering a superior product. 

One detail convinced me otherwise: health care. 

As you know, health care is a HUGE issue that requires a massive degree of flexibility to serve the individual needs of your employees. Each employee is different and has different health needs, and to make sure they get the coverage they need, you need lots of options available. 

For some reason, Insperity only offers health care plans from one provider. Just one. Why? I don’t know. They just do. 

This means that if you choose Insperity, your employees’ health care options will be severely limited, and there’s a good chance they won’t get the support they need.

The Best PEO for Your Business?

With over 900 PEO companies now available to businesses of any size, it can be tough to find the right PEO for your company.

We’ve spent over 230 hours over the last six years reviewing the industry and have identified my three top performers.

While these PEOs will be reliable providers for any company, to get the right PEO for your company, you need an individual and personalized recommendation based on: 

• The number of employees on your payroll
• What you want the 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)
• 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 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

My selection process for the best PEO is extensive. But before I tell you, you need to know a couple of things about me. 

Why you should trust me

You can trust my recommendation because I know PEO service providers better than just about anyone else on the planet—both from building my small businesses and through helping others. 

My personal experience dealing with PEO service providers started with my health company. I was swamped with learning all the basics of everything related to building a small business—trying to build websites and write articles and manage my team—and simply didn’t have time to look after all the HR nonsense and employee benefits stuff that was sucking up so much of my day. 

I tried a staffing company to manage my employees but that simply wasn’t enough, so I ended up signing up with a great professional employer organization.

After dealing with all that, I took some downtime before opening my second small business—a cafe! To say it was a little different to running an online small business is a bit of an understatement. 

But despite the significant differences, the one constant still remained in both small businesses—HR pain. So, once again, I dove into the world of PEOs to fulfil my HR needs and look after my employee benefits. I read websites, combed through reviews, listened to sales teams try to pitch their solutions when I really just wanted answers to basic questions. It was a LOT. I eventually found the right partner that allowed me to scale and grow my small business.

I soon realized that I didn’t have the personality necessary for hospitality, so I sold my cafe and spent some downtime wondering what I should do with myself. The answer was thrust upon me unexpectedly when old friends from both the website and cafe days reached out for help with their back-end business operations. 

The more recommendations I made, the more people came to me, and eventually I started writing those recommendations down. Since then, I’ve helped more than 1,200 people find the right support for their growing small businesses, which has given me more experience than just about anyone else in the PEO industry.

How I selected the Best PEO

My process is a four-stage process that gradually refines the list of over 900 PEOs down to a shortlist of contenders.

Stage 1: Reviews

The first stage in my analysis is to read online reviews. 

Most PEO companies that have been in business for more than a year have accumulated a wealth of online feedback from customers. This feedback allows mr to quickly and efficiently discover which PEOs are worth investigating further and which ones I can eliminate from contention without wasting too much time. 

I reviewed the major online review portals to identify the PEO companies that do not meet basic standards of product offerings, pricing, or support that I can eliminate from my more in-depth analysis.

Stage 2: Offering Analysis

The PEO industry is not homogenous. Different companies provide different products and services and offer those at different price points. 

The second stage in my analysis is to review which products and services are offered by which PEOs at which price points. This allows me to eliminate PEOs that either don’t offer a full range of services or offer this range at an inflated price.

Stage 3: Speaking with Real Customers

Online reviews are a great way to form a general understanding of a company, but they have two significant limitations. 

The first limitation is that people typically only leave a review when they have had an overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative experience. This means that if you base your opinion on online customer reviews, you get a distorted picture of how the company operates. 

The second limitation relates to space. Most online reviews are 200 characters or less, which is insufficient to form a complete understanding of whether a company is worth using. 

To avoid these limitations, the next stage of my analysis is to speak with real customers. I reached out through my website and existing relationships to real PEO customers and got their feedback. I asked in-depth questions, got well-thought-out answers, and was able to form a comprehensive picture of what it’s like to work with different PEOs.

But most importantly, I looked at how they handle criticism and feedback to assess what it will be like to work with this company over the long run. Are they set in their ways or are they constantly evolving? Do they try and blame the customer or do they take responsibility for their failings? These characteristics and values are what separates the A players from the rest of the field.

Ranking Factors

I used five factors to rank each PEO when determining the Best PEO.

Factor 1: Offerings

The first is their list of product offerings. 

There’s no point in partnering with a PEO to take care of health insurance if the PEO doesn’t offer health insurance, so to make sure you get the best PEO for your situation, I created a comprehensive database of products and services offered. 

Factor 2: Price

The second factor I assessed a PEO on is their price. 

The price of different products and services can vary widely between PEOs (with this information only available by participating in a sales call—very sneaky) so I ranked the PEO based on how much value for money they provide. 

Factor 3: Ease of Sign-up

The third factor I assessed a PEO on is how easy it is to sign up to their system. 

With some PEOs, you can spend weeks scrounging through drawers trying to find obscure pieces of information that you really don’t need, while other PEOs can draw significant amounts of your information from government services. 

To make sure you get a PEO that won’t waste your time, I assessed each PEO on how streamlined and automated their onboarding process is.

Factor 4: Ease of Use

The fourth factor I assessed is how easy a system is to use. 

Some PEOs have invested millions into streamlining and automating their back-end systems while making user experience a major priority, while others have simply tacked additional features onto legacy systems and then written massive manuals to explain the complex navigation systems. 

Obviously, partnering with a customer-focused, easy-to-use system is FAR superior to being stuck with an outdated legacy system. So to make sure you choose well, I assessed each PEO on how easy their system is to use and navigate.

Factor 5: Customer Service

Regardless of how much time or money is spent building the most intuitive system, there are always going to be questions. This is where customer service comes in. 

Some PEOs will leave you on the line for hours until you get a bored college kid on the phone who can do nothing to solve your problem other than promise to escalate it to management (which they never do). Other PEOs will answer your call in just a few minutes and solve your problem in less, leaving you free to move forward with your day.

The Best Overall PEO — Flexible (9.5/10)

Flexible is my #1 pick for the best overall PEO because it ticks every box. 

They provide every service you need to take your HR challenges off your plate, including HR Paperwork, 401k management, health and dental insurance, risk management, payroll, state taxes, and everything in between.

On top of that, their system is simple to join and easy to navigate once you’re inside and their customer support is reliable, efficient, and quick to respond when you need them. 

While they aren’t exceptional in any one area, their all-around excellence make them a simple #1 choice. 

If you’re looking for a PEO that can deliver on your needs every time and can grow with your business, check out Flexible.

Is Flexible right for you?

While Flexible is an excellent all-round PEO, the best PEO for your business depends on a number of different factors: 

• The number of employees on your payroll
• What you want the 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)
• How much customer support you will need
• Your technological capabilities
• How large you plan to scale 
• Your industry

All of these factors combined mean it’s impossible to simply give one single recommendation as the definitive best PEO for your small business.

To make sure you get the best PEO for your business, you can speak to one of my qualified team. The free consultation will help you identify which PEO fits your specific needs, size, and industry ensuring that your time is freed up to deal with other, more pressing challenges.

Enter your details in the form below and one of my advisors will contact you within 24 hours (usually within 15 minutes).

Best Range of Options — PEO Companies (9.5/10)

If you’re not sold on Flexible or are looking for a PEO with a little more guidance and support, PEO Companies is a great second option. 

They provide everything you need. They take care of payroll and taxes and compliance and health insurance and everything else you need so you don’t have to worry about your HR responsibilities. 

There is no real downside to PEO Companies other than they don't really wow you in any area. They're a good all-round choice but if something is especially important to you (usually customer support or pricing) then they aren't more than adequate. However they're overall offering is really solid, especially when you factor in their competitive pricing.

Best Value PEO — CoAdvantage (7.90/10)

If your budget is extremely tight and you’re happy to sacrifice ease of use and support for cost, then they're a good option.

CoAdvantage offers the full range of products and services you’d expect from a nationwide PEO, with everything from health insurance, payroll software, and HR services all available for your use.

They also provide these at some of the best rates on the market. Their three quotes were all within the top three cheapest quotes I received for my three fictional small businesses. 

But the reason they’re able to offer these great rates is that they cut corners elsewhere. They obviously haven’t devoted significant resources to making their online system easy to navigate, and their support team must be under a lot of pressure because they take a long time to respond with their short and impersonal responses.

If you don’t mind navigating a clunky system and dealing with a slow and abrupt support team, then CoAdvantage might be for you.

The Best PEO for Your Business

While Vensure is a great option for most small businesses, the best PEO for your business is impossible to recommend without an in-depth knowledge of your business and situation. 

Until I know your industry, size, number of employees, and the benefits you wish to offer (among other things), I can't recommend the right PEO for your situation.

If you would like a personalized recommendation for your small business, you can get a free business analysis and recommendation by entering your business details below. 

Once you complete the form, I will help you find the right PEO to suit your situation and needs, free of charge. 

So enter your details below and take the hard work out of finding the right PEO for your small business.

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