Share
Your PEO used to be an Alabama company with a founder you could call. Now it’s a unit of a national insurance brokerage, your login page says Resourcing Edge, and your invoice still climbs every time you add a crew member. That’s usually when owners start searching for Lyons HR alternatives.
Lyons HR started in Florence, Alabama, in 1995 and grew into a regional PEO with offices across Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida. OneDigital acquired it in 2024, and it now operates as part of OneDigital | Resourcing Edge. The service model is classic co-employment: the PEO shares employer status, runs your payroll and benefits, and bills you per head.
Here are five options. The first gets you out of co-employment completely. The other four are PEOs, and we’ll say plainly where they fall short.
Best Lyons HR Alternatives at a Glance
- Netchex: Best for Southeast employers who want their people, their payroll, and their benefits back under their own name.
- TriNet: Best if you want a national PEO, or its HR Plus option without co-employment.
- Insperity: Best for mid-sized companies set on staying in a full PEO.
- CoAdvantage: Best for smaller employers who want a lighter, non-PEO entry tier.
- Justworks: Best for very small, tech-comfortable teams that don’t mind co-employment.
How We Picked These Lyons HR Alternatives
We judged each option on the three things Lyons clients tend to raise once the business grows. Does it require co-employment? Who actually controls payroll and HR day to day? And what happens to cost as headcount rises?
Reviewer data comes from G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, and independent PEO scoring where available. Lyons HR details come from OneDigital’s 2024 announcement, Resourcing Edge’s site, and IRS public listings, all checked in September 2026.
1. Netchex: Get Out of Co-Employment for Good
Netchex is payroll and HR software, not a PEO. Your employees work for you and no one else, wages report under your own EIN, and the benefits plans are ones you chose with your own broker. If your company is ever sold, it’ll be because you decided to sell it, not because your co-employer did.
Your admins get their controls back. Payroll, time and attendance, benefits administration, recruiting, onboarding, and performance share one system your team sets up the way it works. OneScreen Payroll gets most teams through a run in about 15 minutes. A US-based, FPC-certified support team picks up 90% of calls in under a minute, and each customer has a dedicated Account Manager. Moving off a PEO is handled as a free, project-managed implementation of about six weeks, data import included.
I love the integrated platform. With our old payroll company you would have to make the same change in several different areas of the software. With Netchex, it only takes once. This system is so user-friendly, it makes training a breeze. And the customer service is second to none!
Source: Chris Hayes, Payroll Specialist, Netchex customer
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ No co-employment: you’re the only employer | ✗ No PEO master workers’ comp policy, so you carry your own |
| ✓ Your own benefits plans and your own broker | ✗ Leaving a PEO takes a planned move, about six weeks |
| ✓ Your team configures its own payroll and HR workflows | |
| ✓ 4.8/5 customer satisfaction, 8.9/10 G2 Quality of Support | |
| ✓ Free implementation with 96% implementation satisfaction |
2. TriNet: National Scale, Plus a Non-PEO Option
TriNet ranks among the country’s biggest PEOs. Its core product is co-employment, just like Lyons. What sets it apart is HR Plus, an ASO-style service without co-employment, which took in the former Zenefits customer base after TriNet bought Zenefits in 2022.
On Capterra, reviewers cite limited customization inside industry bundles, account reps who change too often, and “rising per-employee costs at scale.” If cost growth is why you’re leaving Lyons, that last point deserves a close look.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Large national PEO with broad benefits | ✗ Core PEO is still co-employment |
| ✓ HR Plus drops co-employment | ✗ Reviewers cite per-employee costs rising at scale |
Compare: Netchex vs. TriNet
3. Insperity: A Full PEO With Softer Service Scores
Insperity is one of the most recognized PEO brands, aimed at companies that have outgrown ad hoc HR but don’t want to build a department. Switching from Lyons to Insperity swaps one co-employer for another. Your employees would still be shared.
Reviews are mixed. Insperity sits around 3.9/5 on G2 with an 8.0/10 Quality of Support score. Aggregators list rising cost, rigid administrative processes, and service that tapers off after onboarding among the most frequent complaints.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Well-known PEO with wide benefits access | ✗ Co-employment, same as Lyons |
| ✓ Dedicated implementation specialist during onboarding | ✗ Reviewers cite rising cost and rigid processes |
Compare: Netchex vs. Insperity
4. CoAdvantage: Two Tiers, One Merger
CoAdvantage combined with PrimePay in 2025, with both owned by the private-equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners. The merged company offers a lighter, non-PEO tier next to its full co-employment PEO, so smaller employers can start without sharing employer status.
Leaving is where it scores poorly. An independent PEO scoring writeup on rfp.wiki gives CoAdvantage 2.6/5 for exit and data portability, citing reports that former clients struggled to regain access and that prior-year forms may require a paid request. Cost transparency scored 2.7/5.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Non-PEO tier alongside the full PEO | ✗ Full PEO tier is co-employment |
| ✓ Dedicated HR team model for PEO clients | ✗ Low independent scores for exit and cost transparency |
Compare: Netchex vs. CoAdvantage
5. Justworks: Clean Software, Same Co-Employment
Justworks launched in New York in 2012 for small, tech-forward companies. Setup is quick and the interface is easy to learn. It’s still a PEO, though, so it doesn’t solve the co-employment problem that sends many Lyons clients shopping.
Reviews on Trustpilot are harsh: 1.9/5 across 34 reviews, with repeated complaints about slow or missing support. One reviewer said the platform starts to feel thin past 100 employees.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Modern, easy interface | ✗ Still co-employment |
| ✓ Fast setup for small teams | ✗ 1.9/5 on Trustpilot, with support complaints |
Compare: Netchex vs. Justworks
Why Southeast Employers Leave Lyons HR and Other PEOs
It’s rarely one bad payroll. It’s a pattern that shows up over a couple of years.
Your admins stop running things. In a PEO, processing, filing, enrollment, and compliance happen inside the PEO’s service model and software. Your payroll lead becomes a ticket-submitter. Every change waits on someone else.
Your employees become the PEO’s employees too. Co-employment makes the PEO an employer of record, and wages report under its tax ID. With Lyons, that employer of record is now part of OneDigital. Leaving means bringing benefits, workers’ comp, and tax accounts back under your own name.
The bill grows with you. PEO fees are usually per employee or a percentage of payroll, and Lyons quotes them privately. They land on top of wages, taxes, premiums, and workers’ comp. Every hire and every raise pushes the number higher.
Direct payroll and HR software answers all three. You stay the employer, your team runs the workflow, and there’s no co-employment fee riding on your headcount. If you want to know what certification does and doesn’t protect, the IRS explains how Certified PEOs work.
Want the full head-to-head? Read Netchex vs. Lyons HR: Which HR and Payroll Platform Is Right for Your Business in 2026? Or compare the wider field in 5 Best PEO Alternatives for Growing Businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you want out of co-employment, Netchex is the strongest Lyons HR alternative. You stay the sole employer, keep your own benefits plans and broker, and your team runs payroll and HR directly. Implementation is free, project-managed, includes data import, and takes about six weeks.
Yes. Netchex is payroll and HR software, so there’s no co-employment at all. Some PEO companies also sell lighter services, such as TriNet’s HR Plus and CoAdvantage’s non-PEO tier. TriNet, Insperity, CoAdvantage, and Justworks still sell standard co-employment PEOs as their main product.
OneDigital acquired Lyons HR in 2024, and Lyons now operates as part of OneDigital | Resourcing Edge. The Lyons website redirects to Resourcing Edge, and client logins run through its portal. For co-employed workers, that means their employer of record now sits inside a national brokerage.
PEO clients usually get benefits through pooled plans and workers’ comp through the PEO’s master policy, so leaving means setting both up in your own company’s name. Netchex works directly with your benefits broker during implementation and administers plans you own, not a PEO’s.
Done Renting Your Employer Relationship?
See how Netchex runs payroll, HR, benefits, and time tracking while your company stays the only employer your people have.
This guide reflects publicly available product information and independent reviewer data as of September 2026. Feature availability may vary by plan. Contact each provider for current details.
Disclaimer: Any product roadmap or future plans provided herein are for informational purposes only. They do not represent a commitment to deliver any material, code, feature, or functionality. Plans may change without notification. The development, release and timing of any features or functionality described remain at the sole discretion of Netchex, its affiliates, and partners. Netchex does not give legal, tax, or accounting advice. You are responsible for ensuring your use of Netchex product meets your individual business and compliance requirements.
Related events
Netchex vs. Lyons HR: Which HR and Payroll Platform Is Right for Your Business in 2026?
5 Best Peoplease Alternatives for Trucking, Construction, and Blue-Collar Businesses
Netchex vs. Peoplease: Which HR and Payroll Platform Is Right for Your Business in 2026?
