Of 15 payroll and HR brands people often ask about, eight sell a PEO service in the US and seven sell software only. A PEO, or professional employer organization, is a company that becomes the employer on paper for your staff: wages and payroll taxes go out under its tax ID (the number the IRS uses to identify a business), and you and the PEO split the rest of the employer's jobs. All eight brands that sell a PEO also sell payroll or HR software that is not one, so the useful question is not "is this brand a PEO?" but "is the product on my contract a PEO?"

The short version

  • Eight brands sell a PEO: ADP, Paychex, Gusto, Rippling, Justworks, TriNet, Insperity and Deel. Each also sells a product that is not a PEO.
  • Seven sell software only: Paylocity, Paycom, Paycor, isolved, BambooHR, Workday and QuickBooks. You stay the only employer.
  • The IRS keeps a list of PEOs it has certified for federal payroll taxes. Five of the eight have a company on it. Gusto, Rippling and Deel do not, as of the list we checked. That is not a judgment of them.
  • The brand name is not the test. The quickest test is whose tax ID your employees' pay and W-2 forms (the yearly wage form each employee gets) are issued under.
  • The legal company behind a PEO often has a different name from the brand. Ask for it before you sign.

What makes a company a PEO

A PEO works through co-employment: two companies count as your workers' employer at the same time, you and the PEO. The PEO pays your employees and files federal payroll taxes under its own tax ID, and it usually offers its own health plan. Payroll software does the work for you, under your tax ID, and you remain the employer. TriNet, which sells both, says that unlike a PEO, its non-PEO service "does not involve co-employment, uses the client's tax ID for payroll, and does not sponsor benefits", meaning it does not offer its own health plan. For the longer comparison, see PEO vs payroll company and PEO vs HR software.

The 15 brands, checked

We checked each brand's own website, terms or annual report filed with the SEC (the Securities and Exchange Commission) on October 28, 2026, and searched the IRS's three lists of certified PEOs (active, suspended and revoked) for each brand name the same day. The IRS active list we used is dated August 7, 2026. "On the IRS list" means a company with the brand in its name is on the IRS active list of certified PEOs. It is a fact about federal payroll taxes, not a ranking.

Which of 15 payroll and HR brands sell a PEO, checked October 28, 2026
BrandSells a PEO?Legal company the brand names for its PEOOn the IRS certified list?
ADPYes: ADP TotalSource. RUN payroll is not a PEOIts PEO page gives no legal company nameYes: 18 separate companies with ADP TotalSource in the name
PaychexYes: Paychex PEO. Paychex Flex payroll is not a PEOPaychex Business Solutions, LLC and Oasis Outsourcing, LLC (the PEO page lists these with their Florida licenses)Yes: Paychex PEO VI LLC and Paychex PEO VII, LLC
GustoYes, limited: Gusto PEO (waitlist, 3 states). Gusto payroll is not a PEOIts PEO page gives no legal company nameNo
RipplingYes: Rippling PEO. Its HR software is not a PEORippling PEO 1, Inc. (Florida license)No
JustworksYes: Justworks PEO. Justworks Payroll is a separate productJustworks Employment Group LLCYes: Justworks Employment Group LLC, II LLC, III LLC and IV LLC
TriNetYes: TriNet PEO. HR Plus is not a PEONot named; says a company owned by TriNet is certifiedYes: TriNet HR III-B, Inc.
InsperityYes: HR360, HR360 Select Edition and HRScale. HRCore is not a PEOInsperity PEO Services LPYes: Insperity PEO Services, L.P. and Insperity PEO HR, Inc.
DeelYes: Deel PEO (US). Its US payroll and global services are not a PEODeel PEO, LLCNo
PaylocityNo: payroll and HR softwareNot applicableNo
PaycomNo: payroll and HR softwareNot applicableNo
PaycorNo: payroll and HR software. Paychex has owned it since April 2025, but Paycor itself is software onlyNot applicableNo
isolvedNo: payroll and HR software. PEOs can also buy it to run their own serviceNot applicableNo
BambooHRNo: HR and payroll softwareNot applicableNo
WorkdayNo: HR and finance softwareNot applicableNo
QuickBooksNo: payroll and HR software (QuickBooks Workforce)Not applicableNo

Sources: each brand's own website, terms or SEC annual report, and the IRS active, suspended and revoked lists of certified PEOs (active list dated 8/7/2026), all checked October 28, 2026. "No" in the last column means no company with the brand in its name appeared on any of the three IRS lists. It is not a judgment: a brand may use a different legal name, may be waiting on approval, or may not seek certification.

Where each row comes from:

The eight that sell a PEO, and what they sell that isn't one

ADP. ADP calls ADP TotalSource its "professional employer organization (PEO) solution". RUN Powered by ADP is its payroll and HR platform, where you stay the employer. See the ADP TotalSource profile.

Paychex. Paychex Flex is its payroll service. Its PEO page names Paychex HR Pro and Paychex Oasis as PEO options. The PEO page names two Florida-licensed companies; the IRS list names two others, Paychex PEO VI and VII. Some PEOs work through several companies (ADP TotalSource has 18 on the IRS list), which is why you ask which company signs your contract. See the Paychex profile.

Gusto. Gusto payroll is software: Gusto files your payroll taxes for you, under your tax ID. Gusto PEO is a separate product. Its page says it is offered "to businesses that already run payroll with Gusto", operates in Texas, California and Florida, and is open by waitlist. See is Gusto a PEO? for detail.

Rippling. Rippling sells HR software that works on its own. If you enroll in its PEO, Rippling says it "becomes your co-employer for payroll, benefits and compliance". See the Rippling PEO profile.

Justworks. Justworks sells a PEO, run through Justworks Employment Group LLC, which its terms of use call "a professional employer organization and subsidiary of Justworks, Inc." It also sells Justworks Payroll, a separate product. See the Justworks profile.

TriNet. TriNet sells a PEO. It also sells HR Plus, which it calls an "Administrative Services Organization": an outside company that handles HR tasks for you while you stay the only employer. See the TriNet profile.

Insperity. Insperity's annual report lists three PEO offerings: HR360, HR360 Select Edition and HRScale. It also sells HRCore, which it calls a "traditional payroll and human capital management solution", meaning software and service without co-employment. See the Insperity profile.

Deel. Deel also sells a US PEO. Its PEO page says "Deel is your co-employment partner for US employees in all 50 states". It sells US payroll without co-employment too. See the Deel profile.

The seven that sell software only

With these, your business stays the only employer, files under its own tax ID, and picks its own health plan.

HCM, or human capital management, is the industry's term for payroll and HR software. Paylocity says: "Paylocity is not a PEO but an HCM and spend management service provider."

Paycom describes itself in its annual report as a provider of "a comprehensive, cloud-based HCM solution". The report does not mention PEO services.

Paycor says "Paycor is an HCM platform, not a PEO." Paychex, which does sell a PEO, completed its purchase of Paycor on April 14, 2025. Paycor itself still sells software.

isolved sells HR and payroll software, including to PEOs that run their own services on it. Its customer terms say isolved is "not an employee, partner or agent of Employer". In other words, isolved does not become your co-employer. We found no PEO product under the isolved name.

BambooHR answers the question on its own FAQ page: "BambooHR is an HR software solution, not an outsourcing provider." It connects to PEOs for customers who use one.

Workday sells "cloud-based, AI-powered applications for HCM, financial management, spend management, and planning". Workday alone is not a PEO. Insperity's HRScale is Insperity's PEO running on Workday's software, according to Workday.

QuickBooks payroll is now sold as part of QuickBooks Workforce, which Intuit calls "an all-in-one human resources and payroll platform". Intuit's terms say that even when QuickBooks files your payroll taxes, the legal duty to file stays with you.

What the table can't tell you

Which product you are on. Every one of the eight PEO brands also sells a product without co-employment, and Gusto's PEO is open to Gusto payroll customers. A sales call about "ADP" or "Paychex" could be about either product.

The legal name on your contract. Brands often run their PEO through several companies. The name in a state license, the name on the IRS list and the name on your contract can all differ.

Whether certification matters for you. IRS certification covers federal payroll taxes only: the law treats a certified PEO as the employer for those taxes on the wages it pays to workers covered by your contract. It says nothing about service, price or benefits, and not being on the list is not a mark against a PEO. For what it does cover, see what a certified PEO is.

What changes next. Product names change, and the IRS list is updated each quarter. Check again before you sign.

How to tell whether your provider is acting as a PEO

  1. Look at a W-2 form or pay stub. If the employer name and tax ID are your company's, you are on payroll software. If they belong to the provider, you are almost certainly in a PEO.
  2. Read the contract title and wording. A PEO contract talks about co-employment or a co-employer. Software contracts do not.
  3. Check the health plan. If your employees are on a health plan the provider offers in its own name, rather than one your business buys, that is usually a PEO.
  4. Ask for the legal name. If the provider says it is a PEO, ask which company signs your contract, and check that name on the IRS list.

For more to ask before you sign, see our questions to ask a PEO.

The bottom line

Eight of the 15 brands sell a PEO, and every one of those eight also sells something that isn't a PEO. Seven are software only. Knowing the brand is a start; knowing the product and the legal company on your contract is the answer.

If you are weighing payroll software against a PEO, we can connect you with our independent broker, a separate business that gathers quotes from several PEOs. Request a Consultation through our PEO quotes page. It takes several business days, because quotes are built from your payroll and current health plan details. The consultation is free to you. If you sign through the broker, he shares part of his fee with us.

Sources