Payroll and HR
Does Payworks store data in Canada?
Payroll, HR and time management
Yes.
For Canadian customers, Payworks stores data in Canada. It is Canadian-owned.
Tier 2: Canadian-owned, data in CanadaCanadian-owned and data stored in Canada, but the servers belong to AWS, Microsoft or Google, or the vendor does not say whose servers they are.
Checked 2026-10-13 against the vendor's own pages.
The facts, claim by claim
- Where data is stored
- Two Canadian data centres; employee data "remains here"
- Where it is processed
- Canada
- Support and backups
- Not stated on the pages read
- Owner
- Payworks (Winnipeg, MB), co-founded 2000; a Canada's Best Managed "Canadian owned and managed" company · Parent country: Canada
- Servers run by
- Two Canadian data centres (operator not named) · Owner not stated
- Customer-held keys
- Not recorded
- Certifications
- Not recorded (blank means not checked, not none)
- Worth knowing
- National Bank of Canada partner. Bilingual support.
- Caveats
- Ask which data centres and who operates them.
What the rules say about this
- Nova Scotia public bodies: Storage and access must both be in Canada: check support access and backups, not only storage.
- Québec Law 25: Canada is not Québec: storage in Toronto still needs a privacy impact assessment for Québec data.
- OCAP®: Data held by any outside vendor is not in the Nation's possession, whoever owns the vendor.
Summaries only; each rule page links the law or regulator. Not legal advice.
Canadian alternatives to Payworks
Other payroll and hr listings that are Canadian-owned, not US-owned, or self-hostable.
| Listing | Tier | Stored in Canada? | Owner | Servers run by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avanti | Tier 2: Canadian-owned, data in Canada | Yes | Canadian | Owner not stated |
| Nethris | Tier 2: Canadian-owned, data in Canada | Yes | Canadian | Owner not stated |
| Employment Hero (formerly Humi) | Tier 3: Not US-owned, data in Canada | Yes | Australia | US company |
Sources
All checked 2026-10-13. Claims about storage and ownership rest on the vendor's own pages (or its parent's); supporting links can include regulators and program lists.
- Where the data is stored: https://www.payworks.ca/solutions/corporate
- Who owns it: https://blog.payworks.ca/proud-to-a-canadian-workforce-management-solutions-provider
- Supporting page: https://www.payworks.ca/canadian-payroll-service