Netchex vs. Lyons HR: Which HR and Payroll Platform Is Right for Your Business in 2026?

You picked a hometown PEO. Then, in 2024, the company holding your employer relationship was sold to a national insurance brokerage. Nobody asked your employees how they felt about it. If you’re a Lyons HR client, or you’re weighing one, that’s the real starting point for Netchex vs. Lyons HR.

Lyons HR is a Professional Employer Organization founded in Florence, Alabama, in 1995. It used to run a commercial staffing business too, then sold it in 2018 to focus on the PEO. Today it’s part of OneDigital | Resourcing Edge. Netchex is payroll and HR software your own team runs, with you as the only employer on record.

Last updated: September 2026. Netchex data sourced from G2. Lyons HR details come from OneDigital and Resourcing Edge announcements, IRS public listings, and third-party profiles, checked September 2026.

The Short Version

Lyons HR, now run under OneDigital’s PEO brand, bundles payroll, benefits, HR help, and workers’ comp into a co-employment deal. You get a master workers’ comp policy and pooled benefits. You also get a co-employer, a quote-only fee that tracks your headcount, and an admin team that files requests instead of making changes.

Netchex covers payroll, time and attendance, benefits administration, recruiting, onboarding, and performance in one system, and you stay the sole employer under your own EIN. Support comes from a US-based, FPC-certified team that answers 90% of calls in under a minute. Customers rate it 4.8/5, and G2 reviewers give it 8.9/10 for Quality of Support.

Company Overview

	Netchex	Lyons HR
Business model	Payroll and HR software, you remain the sole employer	Professional Employer Organization (co-employment)
Headquarters	Louisiana	Florence, Alabama
Founded	2003	1995
Ownership	Privately held	Acquired by OneDigital in 2024, now part of OneDigital | Resourcing Edge
Benefits	Your own plans, your own broker, administered in Netchex	Large-group plans through the PEO’s national carriers
Workers’ comp	Your own policy, with your own agent	The PEO’s master policy, pay-as-you-go

Netchex vs. Lyons HR: Whose Employees Are They Now?

Co-employment sounds like paperwork. It’s more than that. When you join a PEO, it becomes an employer of record for your people. Wages report under the PEO’s tax ID, and the benefits your team enrolls in belong to the PEO’s plan, not yours.

With Lyons HR, the 2024 sale made that concrete. Lyons clients signed with an Alabama company. Their co-employer is now part of a national brokerage’s PEO business, which OneDigital announced as its fourth PEO acquisition of 2024. The Lyons website now redirects to Resourcing Edge. Your people’s employer of record changed hands, and you didn’t get a vote.

There’s a certification wrinkle, too. OneDigital’s Resourcing Edge entities hold active IRS Certified PEO status, which carries federal employment tax protections. After the acquisition, it’s worth asking which entity your contract actually sits with.

Netchex skips all of that. No co-employer, no shared tax ID, no chance your employees’ employer gets acquired out from under you. Your benefits are plans you picked with a broker you trust.

Structure	Netchex	Lyons HR
Who employs your people	You, as the sole employer	You and the PEO, as co-employers
Tax ID your wages report under	Your own EIN	The PEO’s
Whose benefits plan it is	Yours, with your broker	The PEO’s pooled plans
Who holds the IRS PEO certification	No PEO relationship, so your own EIN and filings stay with you	OneDigital’s Resourcing Edge entities

Who Runs Your Payroll Workflow

In a PEO, payroll isn’t something your team does. It’s something the PEO does for you, inside its own service model and its own software. Processing, tax filing, benefits enrollment, and compliance all happen on the PEO’s side. Resourcing Edge’s client portal is called PrismONE, and its login page still lists an “Old Login” next to the new one.

That arrangement works until your admin needs something the service model doesn’t anticipate. A new pay rule for a second shift. A report cut the way your operations manager thinks. A benefits change mid-year. You ask, you wait, and someone else decides how it’s done.

With Netchex, your admins hold the controls. They configure pay codes, approvals, and reports themselves, in one system that covers payroll through performance. OneScreen Payroll lets most teams finish a payroll run in about 15 minutes. And when they want help, a dedicated Account Manager is already assigned to them.

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

What It Costs as You Grow

Lyons HR doesn’t publish its fees, and neither does its parent. A third-party review of Resourcing Edge notes it asks prospects to contact sales for a tailored quote. That’s standard for PEOs, which usually charge per employee or as a percentage of payroll.

Either way, the math only moves in one direction. Hire ten people for a busy season and the PEO fee grows with them. Give your crew a raise and a percentage-of-payroll fee rises too. All of it lands on top of what you already pay: wages, employer taxes, benefit premiums, and workers’ comp.

Buyers of other big PEOs say the same thing out loud. Capterra reviewers of TriNet point to “rising per-employee costs at scale,” and review aggregators rank rising cost among the top complaints about Insperity. When you compare, price out the company you plan to be in three years, not the one you are today.

Netchex doesn’t take a co-employment fee on top of your benefits, because your benefits were never routed through us. You’re paying for software and service. That’s it.

Service and Support

Lyons HR has a genuine service record. It won ClearlyRated’s Best of HR Services client award every year from 2021 through 2024, and OneDigital’s release cites a Net Promoter Score twice the industry average, which is self-reported. Local HR managers in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida are a real plus for small employers.

The open question is what happens as Lyons settles into a national PEO. OneDigital said the 76-person Lyons team would keep serving clients. That’s a promise about today. Netchex makes its service numbers public: 90% of calls answered in under a minute with first-call resolution, 4.8/5 customer satisfaction, 8.9/10 on G2 for Quality of Support, and a dedicated Account Manager for every customer.

Netchex has the best support of any service provider I’ve ever worked with. There aren’t any hoops to jump through with Netchex support.

Source: Mary Lang, Accounting and Financial Control Director, Atlanta Air Charter, Inc.

Service factor	Netchex	Lyons HR
Recognition	4.5/5 on G2, 8.9/10 G2 Quality of Support	ClearlyRated Best of HR Services client award, 2021 to 2024
Satisfaction measure	4.8/5 customer satisfaction	Self-reported NPS in OneDigital’s 2024 release
Who you work with	Dedicated Account Manager for every customer	Lyons team and local HR managers, now under Resourcing Edge

Ownership and Stability

Lyons HR was founder-led for almost three decades. In 2018 it sold its commercial staffing division to Elwood Staffing to concentrate on the PEO. In 2024 OneDigital bought the PEO itself. Today lyonshr.com forwards visitors to Resourcing Edge, and client logins run through Resourcing Edge’s portal.

None of that makes Lyons a bad partner. It does mean you’re signing with a business unit inside a much larger acquirer that’s still buying PEOs. Your employees’ employer of record is part of that portfolio.

Switching Considerations

Moving off a PEO is a real project. Your workforce comes back under your own EIN. Benefits get set up in your company’s name. Workers’ comp moves from the master policy to your own. Payroll history has to come with you.

Netchex treats it that way. Implementation is free, project-managed, includes your data import, and takes about six weeks. Customers rate the experience at 96% satisfaction. Netchex also works directly with your benefits broker and CPA, so your team isn’t rebuilding everything alone.

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

Who Each One Is Actually Built For

Choose Lyons HR if: you’re a small Southeast employer that wants to hand payroll, benefits, and workers’ comp to an outside co-employer, you like having a local HR manager, and you’re comfortable with your PEO now being part of OneDigital.

Choose Netchex if: you want your admins configuring payroll instead of requesting it, your employees working for you alone, and a cost that doesn’t swell with every hire. Netchex is built for hourly, multi-location businesses with lean HR teams.

Still comparing? See the 5 best Lyons HR alternatives for a side-by-side of PEOs and direct software, or read 5 Best PEO Alternatives for Growing Businesses.

Frequently Asked Questions

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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