How we compare paystub generators

We include 10 tools. A tool qualifies if it is a web-based product that produces a formatted pay stub from figures the user enters, is available to US users, and publishes enough about itself for a reader to make a decision. We exclude full payroll platforms where stub generation is incidental, and we exclude anything marketed around producing documents for income the user did not earn.

For each tool we record price per stub, pricing structure, free tier, watermark behaviour, automatic tax calculation, states covered, documents produced, template count, delivery format, refund policy, support hours and any third-party rating the vendor displays.

Each of those values carries four things: the value itself, the source, a link to that source, and the date we read it. That is why figures on this site appear with a small badge next to them. Where a vendor does not publish something, the value reads “Not stated” — a visible gap, not a guess. An estimate dressed up as a fact is the failure mode this site exists to avoid.

A value marked vendor-stated is what the vendor says about itself. We read it on their page; we did not confirm it. A value marked verified is one we checked ourselves and documented.

NOTHING here is independently tested. Do not render any of this as a test result, score, or hands-on verdict. See CLAUDE.md section 2.1. The exception is watermark behaviour on the pre-purchase preview, which we checked by hand across all 10 tools, plus a small number of prices and state-coverage claims confirmed at checkout where the vendor does not publish them. Those are marked verified. Nothing else is.

The order of the directory is editorial and set by us. It is not a computed score, and we do not publish numeric ratings, star ratings, or “Editor’s Choice” badges — presenting a judgment as if it were a measurement would be dishonest.

Three positions are fixed by the site owner. The remainder are ordered by the breadth and specificity of the vendor’s own published information: tools that publish a current tax year, clear state coverage and clear pricing rank above tools that publish less. A vendor that hides its price is harder to recommend than one that does not.

You can sort the comparison table by price or feature to see the same data in a different order. That reorders the table; it does not change our recommendation.

Where a vendor displays a rating from Trustpilot, Google Play, Shopper Approved or its own review widget, we show it with the platform named and the review count attached. We did not collect those reviews and we do not treat them as verified. We deliberately do not put any rating into structured data, because none of it is ours.

Pricing is re-checked quarterly and the date on each value is updated whether or not the figure changed. The current data was checked September 2026, and every individual value on the site shows the exact date we read it. Where we describe the dataset as a whole we quote the oldest check rather than the newest, because re-checking one vendor does not make the others fresher. Prices in this category move, so treat any figure here as a starting point and confirm it with the vendor before you buy.

We are not a paystub vendor and we do not generate pay stubs. Readers pay us nothing. Any revenue comes from referral links to the tools listed. Where a link carries referral tracking it is marked rel="sponsored" and a disclosure appears at the top of the page carrying it. Referral arrangements do not affect which tools we include, what we record about them, or the order they appear in.

If a figure here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will check it against the vendor’s page and correct it. Our editorial policy sets out what we will and will not publish, and contact has the address to send it to.