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You run a roofing company, an electrical contractor, or three franchise locations in Tampa. You went with a PEO because it handled workers’ comp and payroll in one call. Now your office manager waits on a coordinator to change her own payroll, and every new hire makes the invoice bigger. That’s usually when owners start looking at FrankCrum alternatives.
FrankCrum is a family-owned PEO in Clearwater, Florida, founded in 1981. It serves a lot of construction, skilled trades, and franchise businesses, and it owns its own workers’ comp insurance carrier. That’s a real advantage. It’s still a co-employment arrangement, though, with fees that climb alongside your headcount.
Here are five options. The first gets you out of the PEO model completely. The other four are PEOs as well, and we’ll be honest about what each one does and doesn’t change.
Best FrankCrum Alternatives at a Glance
- Netchex: Best for contractors and franchise operators who want to run payroll and HR in-house, with no co-employment.
- TriNet: Best if you want a national PEO, or its HR Plus option without co-employment.
- Insperity: Best for mid-sized companies that still want a full-service PEO.
- BBSI: Best for blue-collar employers who want a PEO with local branch teams and on-site safety help.
- CoAdvantage: Best for smaller businesses that want a lighter, non-PEO starting tier.
How We Picked These FrankCrum Alternatives
We asked the questions a FrankCrum client tends to ask once the business starts growing. Does the option still require co-employment? Who controls payroll and HR from week to week? How does the cost behave when you add crews or open another location?
Reviewer data comes from G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, StaffMarket, and third-party PEO scoring sites where available. Provider details were checked in September 2026.
1. Netchex: Run It Yourself, Keep Your Crew
Netchex is payroll and HR software, not a PEO. Your employees stay your employees, your wages report under your own EIN, and your benefits plans are yours, set up with the broker you already use. No one else holds a piece of your employer relationship.
Your office runs the show again. Payroll, time and attendance, benefits administration, recruiting, onboarding, and performance all sit in one system your team configures. Most teams finish payroll in about 15 minutes with OneScreen Payroll. When you need help, a US-based, FPC-certified team answers 90% of calls in under a minute, and every customer has a dedicated Account Manager. Implementation is free, project-managed, includes your data import, and takes about six weeks.
The entire staff, from sales to implementation to service, has been stellar in their delivery. The culture of Netchex is one of a company that demonstrates the importance of relationships with clients.
Source: David Faunce, Partner, KM Consulting
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ No co-employment: you stay the sole employer | ✗ Doesn’t sell workers’ comp, so you’ll place a policy through your broker |
| ✓ Your own benefits plans and your own broker | ✗ Leaving a PEO takes a planned implementation, about six weeks |
| ✓ Time tracking, recruiting, and payroll in one system | |
| ✓ 4.8/5 customer satisfaction, 8.9/10 G2 Quality of Support | |
| ✓ Free, project-managed implementation with 96% implementation satisfaction |
2. TriNet: National Scale, Plus a Non-PEO Option
TriNet is one of the largest PEOs in the US. Its core PEO is co-employment, just like FrankCrum’s. What sets it apart is HR Plus, an ASO product that skips co-employment entirely, which took in the former Zenefits customer base after TriNet acquired Zenefits in 2022.
Capterra reviewers point to limited customization inside industry bundles, rising per-employee costs as companies scale, and inconsistent account rep continuity. If cost growth is what’s pushing you away from FrankCrum, that second complaint deserves a close look.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Large national PEO with broad benefits | ✗ Core PEO is still co-employment |
| ✓ HR Plus avoids co-employment | ✗ Reviewers report per-employee costs rising at scale |
Compare: Netchex vs. TriNet
3. Insperity: A Bigger PEO, Same Model
Insperity is a household name among PEOs, aimed at companies that have outgrown informal HR but don’t want to build a department. Moving from FrankCrum to Insperity is a sideways step. Your employees would still be co-employed, and your benefits would still run through the PEO.
Reviews are mixed. Insperity sits around 3.9/5 on G2 with an 8.0/10 Quality of Support score. Review aggregators flag premium, rising cost, rigid administrative processes, and service that can fade after onboarding as its most common complaints.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Established PEO with wide benefits access | ✗ Co-employment, same as FrankCrum |
| ✓ Dedicated implementation specialist at onboarding | ✗ Reviewers cite rising cost and rigid processes |
Compare: Netchex vs. Insperity
4. BBSI: Local Branches, Percentage-of-Payroll Fees
Barrett Business Services, or BBSI, is a publicly traded PEO based in Vancouver, Washington, with local branch teams and a heavy focus on construction, manufacturing, and transportation. Each client gets a payroll specialist, an HR consultant, a risk consultant for on-site safety work, and a business strategy partner. For a trades business, that on-site safety help is appealing.
The cost model is the catch. BBSI’s annual report says its PEO services are billed as a percentage of client payroll, so every raise and every new hire lifts the fee. Its footprint also leans West: California made up about 72% of its 2025 revenue, which matters if you’re a Southeast contractor looking for a local branch.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Local branch teams with on-site safety consulting | ✗ Co-employment, same as FrankCrum |
| ✓ Public company with audited filings | ✗ Billed as a percentage of payroll |
Compare: Netchex vs. BBSI
5. CoAdvantage: A Lighter Tier, a Harder Exit
CoAdvantage merged with PrimePay in 2025 under the same private-equity owner, Aquiline Capital Partners. The combined company now offers a lighter, non-PEO tier next to its full co-employment PEO, which gives smaller businesses a lower-commitment way to start.
Getting out is the weak point. An independent PEO scoring review on rfp.wiki gives CoAdvantage a 2.6/5 for exit and data portability, citing reports of trouble regaining access after leaving and prior-year forms that may take a paid request to retrieve. Cost transparency scores 2.7/5.
| Strengths | Considerations |
| ✓ Non-PEO starting tier alongside the full PEO | ✗ Full PEO tier is still co-employment |
| ✓ Dedicated HR team model for PEO clients | ✗ Low third-party scores for exit and cost transparency |
Compare: Netchex vs. CoAdvantage
Why Contractors and Franchise Owners Outgrow FrankCrum
It’s rarely one bad payroll. It’s a slow pile-up of three things.
Your office loses the controls. In a PEO, processing, filing, enrollment, and compliance run inside the PEO’s service model. At FrankCrum, a payroll coordinator processes your run. Your admin goes from configuring to requesting, and every change waits in someone else’s queue.
Your crew becomes their crew. Co-employment makes the PEO an employer of record, with wages reported under its tax ID. FrankCrum’s benefits run through its master health plans. Leave, and all of it has to come back to you, including workers’ comp, which you’ll need to place on your own.
The fees grow with every hire. FrankCrum builds each quote around payroll size and employee count, with per-employee administrative fees, and it charges extra for add-ons like time and attendance and applicant tracking. That lands on top of wages, taxes, premiums, and comp. Staff up for a big job and the bill follows you up.
Direct payroll and HR software handles all three. You keep the employer relationship, your team keeps the workflow, and your costs aren’t tied to a co-employment fee. The IRS explains how Certified PEOs work if you want to understand the protections some PEOs offer and FrankCrum’s non-certified status.
Want the full head-to-head? Read Netchex vs. FrankCrum: Which HR and Payroll Platform Is Right for Your Business in 2026? Or widen the lens with 5 Best PEO Alternatives for Growing Businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
For businesses ready to leave co-employment, Netchex is the strongest FrankCrum alternative. You stay the sole employer, keep your own benefits plans and broker, and run payroll, time tracking, and HR in one system. You’ll place workers’ comp through your broker, and implementation takes about six weeks at no cost.
Yes. Netchex is payroll and HR software, not a PEO, so there’s no co-employment at all. TriNet’s HR Plus and CoAdvantage’s lighter tier are non-PEO products sold by PEO companies. TriNet, Insperity, BBSI, and CoAdvantage all still sell standard co-employment PEOs as their main offering.
FrankCrum PEO clients typically get coverage through Frank Winston Crum Insurance, and that carrier also sells through independent agents outside the PEO. Ask your broker whether a standalone policy from that carrier or another one fits your trade. Either way, plan the comp transition before you leave the PEO.
Most PEOs charge administrative fees per employee or as a percentage of payroll. FrankCrum builds its quotes around payroll size and employee count. So every seasonal hire, new location, or raise can add to the bill, which sits on top of wages, employer taxes, benefit premiums, and workers’ comp costs.
Ready to Take Payroll Back From Your PEO?
See how Netchex runs payroll, HR, benefits, and time tracking with you as the only employer, backed by a US-based support team.
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.
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