Helpside is the Intermountain West's local-service PEO: a family-owned Utah firm, in business since 1990, with named service teams in Lindon, Phoenix, Meridian and the Kansas City metro and more than 800 small business clients by its own count. The trade-off is credentials: it is neither IRS CPEO certified nor ESAC accredited, so a finance-led buyer who needs the federal tax-liability shift or bonded financial assurance should compare it against a certified peer before signing.
We've placed clients with Helpside across multiple industries and headcounts. The assessment below reflects what actually happens in real engagements, not what the Helpside sales deck says happens, not what the affiliate review sites report based on commission spreads, and not what aggregated G2 stars suggest.
Helpside was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Lindon, Utah. It is privately held, independent and family-owned, which matters in a segment where many regional PEOs of this age have been sold into private equity platforms; there is no roll-up integration in progress and no pending ownership change to ask about. The company operated for most of its history as A Plus Benefits and rebranded to Helpside in December 2017.
The most recent structural fact is the October 2025 merger with High Road PEO, which deepened Helpside's Idaho presence. Its offices today are in Lindon, Phoenix, Meridian in Idaho, Overland Park in Kansas and St. Louis, so the service footprint is the Intermountain West plus a handful of expansion metros rather than a national network. By its own count Helpside serves more than 800 client companies, which is real scale for a regional PEO even though it publishes no worksite employee figure.
Helpside is a NAPEO member but is on neither the IRS CPEO list nor the ESAC accredited directory. CPEO status is what moves sole liability for federal employment taxes to the PEO and lets your wage base carry over on a mid-year start; ESAC is the industry's financial-assurance program with a surety backstop. Helpside carries neither, which is the single fact that most shapes who it is right for.
Helpside quotes per client and does not publish a rate. Pricing is typically PEPM or a percentage of payroll, built from headcount, states, workers' compensation class codes and the benefits census, the same inputs every PEO uses. Ask which basis the quote is on and have it restated the other way if your payroll is seasonal or your average wage is high, because a percentage of payroll and a flat PEPM diverge quickly on those payrolls.
The benefits side is where a regional PEO earns or loses a comparison, and Helpside's shelf is more complete than its size would suggest: a master medical program with six plan options, four PPO and two HDHP, plus dental, vision, supplemental lines and a 401(k). Ask for the plan-by-plan rate table at your census rather than a blended total, and put it beside a national PEO's master plan; a regional program will not always lose, but it has to be checked.
Contracts are annual in the normal course. Confirm the notice period and exit terms in the client service agreement before signing, and ask how a mid-year departure is handled on the benefits side.
Helpside's pitch is a service team you can name and meet, not a national call center, and the office map backs it: Utah, Arizona, Idaho and the Kansas City metro. For a 25 to 100 person company whose owner is still doing HR between other jobs, a local team that knows the account is the whole point of a PEO.
Six medical plan designs across PPO and HDHP, with dental, vision, supplemental lines and a 401(k) alongside, is a fuller menu than many regional PEOs offer. It gives a small employer a real choice of plan design rather than one take-it-or-leave-it option.
No private equity owner, no acquisition integration underway on the Helpside side, and a brand that has been in the Utah market for more than three decades under two names. Continuity of ownership tends to mean continuity of service team, which is what regional PEO clients are buying.
The October 2025 combination with High Road PEO gave Helpside a stronger Idaho presence, so a Boise-area employer gets a local relationship rather than a Utah phone number.
We frame these as considerations rather than negatives because most are real trade-offs rather than disqualifying flaws, but they are things we make sure clients understand before signing.
This is the consideration we raise every time. Without CPEO status there is no federal sole-liability shift for employment taxes and no wage-base carryover on a mid-year start; without ESAC there is no bonded third-party assurance behind client funds. For a CFO, a lender or an auditor who asks for either, Helpside will not clear the gate. For an owner-led small business the practical risk is lower, but it should be a conscious decision, and we would ask for financial statements and references at your headcount.
Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Wyoming are the core, with Kansas City and St. Louis as expansion metros. An employer with meaningful headcount outside those markets should ask specifically how those employees are serviced; outside the Intermountain West we usually steer clients to a national PEO instead.
Helpside sells on people. An employer whose team expects a modern self-service platform of the kind the tech-first PEOs lead with will notice the difference, so weigh the local team against the app and decide which matters more to your workforce.
When a client is evaluating Helpside, these are the three alternatives we most often put on the shortlist. The rationale below explains when each one beats Helpside and when it doesn't. For the full comparison on cost, benefits and service, read Helpside alternatives compared.
The other founder-owned Utah PEO, with a dedicated HR consultant model and the ability to serve clients in all 50 states; the natural head-to-head for a Mountain West employer.
Read full review →A founder-led Southwest PEO that carries both CPEO certification and ESAC accreditation, for a buyer who likes the regional service model but needs the credentials Helpside lacks.
Read full review →The Rocky Mountain alternative that bundles accounting, recruiting and managed IT under the same agreement; it carries the same credential gap, so compare on scope rather than certification.
Read full review →A 15-minute call, then we shortlist the alternatives, gather quotes, and sit in the negotiation calls. Free to you, our fee is paid by the PEO you ultimately pick, at the same rate regardless of which one.
No. Helpside is not on the IRS CPEO list and is not ESAC accredited. It is a NAPEO member. If your finance team requires either credential, compare a certified peer such as Nextep.
Helpside positions for 20 to 150 employees, with the best fit between 25 and 100: large enough to use a named service team, small enough not to need an internal HR department.
Its core is Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Wyoming, with offices in Lindon, Phoenix, Meridian, Overland Park and St. Louis. The October 2025 merger with High Road PEO deepened its Idaho presence.
No. Every quote is built per client, typically as a PEPM fee or a percentage of payroll.
The credential stack: no IRS CPEO certification and no ESAC accreditation, which means no federal sole-liability tax shift and no bonded financial assurance. It is the first thing we flag for finance-led or audit-sensitive buyers.
Both are independent Utah PEOs with named-contact service models, and neither holds CPEO or ESAC credentials. Helpside leads with local offices across the Intermountain West and a six-plan medical program; Stratus HR leads with a dedicated HR consultant model and serves clients in all 50 states. Get both on the same comparison.
Yes. The company was founded in 1990 as A Plus Benefits and rebranded to Helpside in December 2017. In October 2025 it merged with High Road PEO.
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