# Check vs PayFit

> Check scores 67.5 (B) to PayFit's 55.5 (C) for payroll records. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-payfit
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-payfit.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-payfit.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-payfit.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against PayFit's 55.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. PayFit leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do payroll records.

- Check: grade B, 67.5/100, rank #252 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/check-payroll.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/check-payroll.json
- PayFit: grade C, 55.5/100, rank #656 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payfit.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/payfit.json
- Best payroll APIs and embedded payroll for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/payroll/index.md
- All 55 payroll comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payroll/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Check (B)

Good for: A software platform that wants to sell US payroll inside its own product and can sign a partnership, with Check handling tax calculation, money movement and filings.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 51
- Security & auth, 74 against 51
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 28

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No public price and no self-serve signup. The documentation says to request an API key through Check's sales contact

### PayFit (C)

Good for: An agent working for an employer that already runs payroll on PayFit in France, the UK or Spain and needs employees, contracts, payslips, absences or the payroll journal.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 10 against 5
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 62

Watch for: No operation runs, previews or approves a payroll. The API reads payroll status, payslips and accounting exports


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Check | PayFit | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 79 | Check +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 78 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 51 | Check +32 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 51 | Check +23 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 10 | PayFit +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 28 | Check +44 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 70 | PayFit +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **67.5 · B** | **55.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Check | PayFit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Check Technologies, Inc. | PayFit SAS |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.checkhq.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Check's terms of service and partner agreement. The MCP server and CLI on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under PayFit's general terms of service |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-07-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2021-09-03 | 2026-06-15 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-04-18 | 2026-06-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 18 stars | none |

## Verdicts

**Check.** Graded as embedded payroll through a partner API key, not access to an existing employer's payroll account. The API has idempotency keys on writes, a required preview before approval and queryable request logs. No price is public, a sandbox key comes through Check's sales team, and one API key carries the whole partner account.

**PayFit.** A public OpenAPI 3.0 file, llms.txt and scoped keys let a paying customer's agent read payroll outputs and write absences. The API cannot run or approve a payroll, new partner integrations are not being accepted, and no idempotency keys or SDKs were found.

## Before you call either

### Check

1. Use https://sandbox.checkhq.com with the sandbox key and https://api.checkhq.com with the production key. A key is not valid across environments
2. Preview a payroll before approving it, then pass `preview_started_at` to POST /payrolls/{id}/approve so a stale preview fails with 409
3. Send `X-Idempotency-Key` on every write. Keys expire after 24 hours, so list the resource before retrying later than that
4. On 429 wait for `Retry-After`. The limit is 10 requests a second in sandbox and for partners paying fewer than 1,000 payees a month, with 100 concurrent requests
5. Connect the MCP server with `?read_only=true` or `X-MCP-Readonly: true` unless writes are intended. In production, approving a payroll moves money

### PayFit

1. Have a company admin create the key at app.payfit.com/integrations/hub/api with only the scopes the task needs. The key is shown once
2. POST the key to `https://oauth.payfit.com/introspect` to get `company_id`, then call `https://partner-api.payfit.com/companies/{companyId}/...`
3. Page lists with `nextPageToken` and `maxResults`, which defaults to 10 and stops at 50
4. Check before repeating a failed POST. There is no idempotency key, and `POST /absences` creates an absence that is already validated
5. A collaborator or contract created through the API stays incomplete until an HR admin finishes it in the PayFit app, and a new contract takes 2 to 5 minutes to appear

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Check or PayFit?

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against PayFit's 55.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. PayFit leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Check and PayFit need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Check and PayFit without installing anything?

Check has a hosted endpoint at https://api.checkhq.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for PayFit.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-payfit.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-payfit.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "check-payroll", "b": "payfit"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare check-payroll payfit`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/check-payroll.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/payfit.json

## Other comparisons with Check or PayFit

- [Argyle vs Check](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-check-payroll.md)
- [Argyle vs PayFit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/argyle-vs-payfit.md)
- [Check vs Finch](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-finch.md)
- [Check vs Paychex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-paychex.md)
- [Employment Hero Payroll vs PayFit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/employment-hero-vs-payfit.md)
- [Everee vs PayFit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/everee-vs-payfit.md)
- [Finch vs PayFit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/finch-vs-payfit.md)
- [Gusto vs PayFit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gusto-vs-payfit.md)
- [Paychex vs PayFit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paychex-vs-payfit.md)
- [PayFit vs Salsa](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payfit-vs-salsa.md)
- [PayFit vs Worklio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payfit-vs-worklio.md)
- [PayFit vs Zeal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payfit-vs-zeal.md)
- [Check vs Employment Hero Payroll](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-employment-hero.md)
- [Check vs Everee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-everee.md)
- [Check vs Gusto](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-gusto.md)
- [Check vs Salsa](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-salsa.md)
- [Check vs Worklio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-worklio.md)
- [Check vs Zeal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-zeal.md)