# Check vs Worklio

> Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Worklio's 38.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Worklio leads on payments & pricing. Both do payroll run. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-worklio
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-worklio.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-worklio.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-worklio.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 Worklio's 38.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Worklio leads on payments & pricing. Both do payroll run.

- Check: grade B, 67.5/100, rank #233 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/check-payroll.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/check-payroll.json
- Worklio: grade E, 38.6/100, rank #812 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/worklio.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/worklio.json

## 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:
- Reliability, 80 against 25
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 71
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 44
- Security & auth, 74 against 48
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 25
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 48

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Worklio loses 3 points for them

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

### Worklio (E)

Good for: A software platform, PEO or payroll bureau that wants to sell US payroll under its own brand and can sign a partner agreement, with Worklio handling tax filing and money movement.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 5

Watch for: No rate limits, 429 handling or idempotency keys were found in the reviewed documentation


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Check | Worklio | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 25 | Check +55 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 71 | Check +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 44 | Check +39 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 48 | Check +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 25 | Worklio +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 25 | Check +47 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 48 | Check +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **67.5 · B** | **38.6 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Check | Worklio |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Check Technologies, Inc. | Worklio, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.checkhq.com` | `https://api.worklio.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| 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. The public Terms of Use date from 2014 and the partner agreement isn't public. The front-end library sits in a private repository |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-06-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2021-09-03 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-04-18 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | 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.

**Worklio.** Worklio documents 853 REST operations with an OpenAPI fragment on every reference page, and a developer can register for the sandbox without a sales call. No rate limits or public SDK were found, the status page is password protected, and the payroll guide tells callers to treat an HTTP 500 as the signal to finalise.

## 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

### Worklio

1. Send `api-version: 2.0` on `/wep` calls. The reference marks the header as required
2. Get a token from `POST https://api.worklio.com/connect/token` with the password grant and scope `api`. It lasts 24 hours, so fetch a new one daily
3. Run payroll as start, `next` until it answers 500 with "Next step operation is not allowed", then `finalize`. Don't treat that 500 as a failure
4. Don't retry bonus, off-cycle, void or termination payroll starts blindly. The reference says those calls are not idempotent
5. Most `/wep` list endpoints return the whole result set. Paging, `filter` and `sort` work only under `/api/public`, and a `DataToken` expires after 60 seconds

## Questions

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

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Worklio's 38.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Worklio leads on payments & pricing.

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

Check takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Worklio uses an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. Check has a hosted endpoint at https://api.checkhq.com and Worklio at https://api.worklio.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Check or Worklio

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