2023 TriNet Review: Pricing, Features & Alternatives
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
Robie has more than five years of content writing experience and specializes in writing about payroll and human resources software for small businesses.
This article is part of a larger series on Payroll Services.
TriNet is a professional employment organization (PEO) that offers full-service human resources (HR) solutions to small and medium-sized businesses. Its services, which include payroll processing, benefits administration, applicant tracking, risk mitigation, and access to a cloud-based platform with self-service and mobile tools, enable employers to focus on growing their business by outsourcing day-to-day HR tasks. Monthly fees start at $150 per employee, based on the quote we received.
TriNet
What We Like
- A robust offering of HR services and tools
- Tailors PEO services to your industry
- Fees decrease when Social Security or unemployment rate maximums are reached
- Expense management solution streamlines employee reimbursements and expense reporting
What's Missing
- Nontransparent pricing (requires you to request a quote)
- Can be pricey for small businesses (similar providers charge slightly lower rates)
- Limited prebuilt integration options
- Inconsistent customer support quality
Deciding Factors
- Ease of use: Its platform is relatively simple to learn and use and comes with self-service tools that allow employees to access their basic information, payslips, and tax forms online easily.
- Pricing*: $150 to $165 per employee monthly for a company with 25 workers
- System setup: While its PEO service helps manage your day-to-day HR processes, TriNet also grants you access to an easy-to-setup online HR payroll solution for managing paid time off (PTO), viewing pay and benefits information, and more.
- Customer support: Email support and 24/7 live chat; phone assistance available from Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to midnight Eastern time
*Pricing is based on a quote we received.
What We Recommend TriNet For
TriNet’s feature-rich solution suite provides you with all the HR tools and support you need, so you get more time back in managing and growing your business. As a PEO, it handles administrative HR and payroll processes for you while you maintain complete control over making workforce and business decisions.
TriNet is also one of our top recommended PEO companies for small businesses because it can customize its services to fit the HR needs of companies in a wide range of industries. With its team of specialists who are always up-to-date with the regulations unique to your industry, you’re assured that your business will stay compliant with the latest labor and tax rulings.
In short, TriNet is best for:
- Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with industry-specific compliance needs that want to outsource day-to-day HR tasks: TriNet’s wide range of strategic services and cloud-based HR solutions, which can be tailored depending on the business’ industry, help minimize your HR administrative tasks and reduce employer-related risks. For example, if you have a financial firm, TriNet will assign a dedicated account specialist and a service team that knows the ins and outs of financial services to help you handle regulatory changes.
- Employers looking for PEO services with a reasonable pricing scheme: While TriNet requires you to contact its sales team and request a quote, it offers a pricing matrix that provides you with lower rates if you hit certain milestones and thresholds. For example, TriNet’s charges will go down if Social Security and unemployment tax maximums are reached. With other PEO companies, the fees remain the same even if you hit these thresholds.
- Small businesses with limited HR experience: What’s great about TriNet’s PEO services is that it takes on your HR and payroll administrative tasks and responsibilities, which is perfect for small businesses that don’t have an in-house HR team.
When TriNet Would Not Be a Good Fit
- Startups and mom-and-pop businesses that want low-cost PEO services: Although TriNet has a pricing matrix in which fees go down as you meet specific thresholds, its services aren’t cheap. We were quoted monthly fees of $150 to $165 per employee for a company with 25 workers. For a more affordable option, we recommend Justworks. Its monthly fees start at $59 per employee for the first 49 workers ($49 per employee monthly for 50 workers or more).
- Companies that want PEO services with HR, payroll, and information technology (IT) tools: TriNet may have a robust HR solution suite, but it lacks the IT tools that Rippling offers to help manage business apps and computers. What’s more, Rippling has a flexible PEO that you can directly turn off from your account settings, enabling you to easily switch to using its HR platform again. TriNet doesn’t have this option.
- Employers who need payroll services only: TriNet’s PEO service may be too much for those who only need to pay employees. For full-service payroll at reasonable rates, consider Gusto. It offers solid pay processing tools, efficient payroll tax filing services, and a wide range of employee benefits options.
Are you looking for something different? Read our guide to the best HR software if you’re looking for an all-in-one HR system and don’t need to outsource day-to-day HR tasks.
Top TriNet Alternatives
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
Best for: Midsize businesses looking for PEO services focused on training | Best for: Growing businesses that need a highly experienced PEO | Best for: Companies that want a PEO service with diverse benefits options |
Base monthly fee from: Custom priced | Base monthly fee from: $85 per employee (pricing is based on a quote we received) | Base monthly fee from: Custom priced |
While PEOs can handle a wide range of HR tasks, its services may be more than what your business requires. If you only require payroll and basic HR tools, check out our best online payroll services guide. If you want help selecting a service or software for your business, read our guide to finding the right payroll solution.
TriNet Pricing
TriNet’s pricing scheme is based on your business location, industry type, company size, and scope of services that you need. While its pricing page shows that it charges a flat monthly fee for each employee, you have to contact its sales team to discuss your business requirements and request a quote. For a company with 25 employees, we were quoted $150 to $165 per employee monthly.
If you meet specific requirements, such as employees reaching the maximum rates for unemployment taxes and Social Security deductions, TriNet will charge you lower rates. Furthermore, its administrative fees remain the same even if your employees’ salaries go up.
TriNet also doesn’t require its clients to sign long-term contracts with them. However, it offers a bundled solution that includes access to all of its full-service offerings, such as payroll processing, tax filings, benefits administration, risk mitigation, HR consulting, and online solutions for managing performance reviews and training programs.
TriNet Features
TriNet’s PEO and full-service HR solutions help businesses manage HR and payroll processes efficiently. Let’s take a look at some of its essential features.
Payroll and Tax Filing Services
TriNet’s online payroll services include paperless payslips, employee pay processing with direct deposits and debiting, payroll tax computations and filings, and electronic W-2 preparation and delivery. It also offers a self-service portal where employees can view pay details, update their information, print W-2 forms, and more.
Aside from its online portal, TriNet’s mobile apps (for iOS and Android) allow you to access payslips, view benefits, request PTO, and more. (Source: TriNet)
Benefits Administration With Comprehensive Plan Offerings
Its benefits administration service helps you manage healthcare and insurance enrollments, including employee claims and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) filings. Through its network of partner companies, you are granted access to a wide range of employee benefit options—from health and retirement plans to commuter benefits and critical illness policies. Here are some of its partner companies:
- Aflac
- Aetna
- Blue Shield of California
- Kaiser Permanente
- MetLife
- Transamerica
- UnitedHealth Group
Employees can enroll in benefits plans via TriNet’s online portal and mobile apps. (Source: TriNet)
TriNet also offers nontraditional employee benefits, such as auto, pet, and home insurance plans and employee discounts with various business establishments. The discount offerings are made possible through TriNet’s Marketplace perks, where your employees can enjoy special pricing on office supplies, books and training materials, computers, web and professional services, movie tickets, fitness classes, and more.
TriNet’s Marketplace offers access to special pricing and deals on various products and services—from computers, training, and medical devices. (Source: TriNet)
HR Tools
Its comprehensive cloud-based HR platform includes features that enable you to manage employees efficiently—from hiring to retiring. Its online solutions can help onboard new hires, monitor employee attendance and time-off requests, manage expense reimbursements, collect workforce analytics, and download reports. It can also help you track performance reviews as well as provide employees access to more than 500 learning courses.
A screenshot of TriNet’s performance management dashboard (Source: TriNet)
Compensation Consulting
If you need help to assess the competitiveness of your company’s compensation package, TriNet can provide compensation benchmark reports (via Salary.com), including an analysis of whether your salary offerings are ahead, below, or at par with the market.
Expense Management
Managing and filing expense reimbursements can be challenging, especially if you have a remote workforce. With TriNet, your employees can file reimbursement claims for business expenses and submit screenshots of receipts and supporting documents online. You can even designate specific managers as expense claim approvers. What’s also good about this tool is that it forwards all approved expense reports automatically to TriNet’s payroll solution for processing, removing the need for manual data collection and transfers.
With TriNet’s mobile apps, you can take pictures of receipts and attach these easily to your online expense reimbursement claims. (Source: TriNet)
Access to HR Experts
Apart from helping businesses manage their day-to-day HR operations, TriNet’s team of expert consultants can provide advice about labor regulations, employee relations concerns, and compliance issues to mitigate employer-related risks.
Third-party Software Integrations
TriNet offers application programming interface (API) tools that provide you and your developers the capability to create integrations with other software. It also has an “Integration Center” that includes prebuilt integrations with popular systems that most businesses use. Here are some of its partner systems.
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- Sage Intacct
- Okta
- BambooHR
- Greenhouse
- OneLogin
- Google Cloud
TriNet’s “Integration Center” provides you the flexibility to control system permissions and manage preferences. (Source: TriNet)
TriNet Ease of Use
- Integrated HR solutions
- Generally user-friendly
- Self-service online portal
- Access to HR experts
- Email and phone support
- 24/7 live chat
TriNet’s PEO service and cloud-based HR platform take HR and payroll tasks off your hands so that you can focus more on managing strategic projects to build your business. While it handles HR processes for you, it also provides access to relatively easy-to-use online tools for onboarding new hires, enrolling in benefits, tracking employee performance reviews, approving transactions, such as PTO and expense reimbursement claims, and more.
Its wide range of HR solutions also integrates well with each other, making data transfers between modules easy and seamless. For example, you don’t have to extract time data from its time and attendance solution manually and then upload it to its payroll tool for processing—TriNet captures the information it needs to run payroll automatically. You simply have to review and approve employee pay details.
New employees can access their onboarding tasks through TriNet’s mobile apps. (Source: TriNet)
And if you need assistance, TriNet has a team of HR professionals who can provide expert advice in handling employees, payroll, and compliance issues. It also offers support through email, 24/7 live chat, and phone from Mondays through Fridays, 6 a.m. to midnight Eastern time.
What Users Think About TriNet
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Interface is relatively easy to use and navigate through | Expensive compared to similar providers |
| Feature-rich HR platform and efficient PEO services | Limited integration capabilities |
| Ease of processing payroll | Customer support quality is less than ideal; some customer reps aren’t responsive and helpful |
| Comprehensive benefits options and reporting tools | Software is “clunky” and some features/online tools take a while to load |
Users who left positive TriNet reviews are generally satisfied with its HR and payroll services, adding that its online tools are generally simple to learn and use. They also praised its feature-rich platform, solid payroll tools, and comprehensive employee benefits options.
However, the quality of its customer service is inconsistent. While some users commended its support team for providing exemplary service, there are several reviewers who said that its customer reps are not helpful. Other users also complained about having been passed around to multiple customer service reps without getting a resolution to their problems.
At the time of publication, TriNet earned the following scores on popular reviews sites:
- Capterra: 3.9 out of 5 based on 30-plus reviews
- G2: 4.0 out of 5 based on about 540 reviews
- TrustRadius: 7.5 out of 10 based on more than 1,000 reviews
Bottom Line
TriNet may not offer the cheapest PEO service, but the wide range of solutions it offers make it a good option for SMBs looking for full-service HR and payroll. It can help manage your day-to-day HR tasks, from onboarding new hires and paying employees to tracking staff attendance and monitoring performance reviews. Plus, as a PEO, you get solid compliance support through its team of specialists and HR experts.
Sign up for a free demo and quote today.
