Gusto Review 2024
- All-inclusive payroll, HR, and reporting features
- Contractor payroll (domestic and international)
- Easy to setup and use
- Transparent pricing
- No free trial or money-back guarantee
Overview
Gusto is an all-in-one payroll and HR administration platform that enables users to pay, manage, and hire their teams on one interface. It is suited for startups and small and mid-sized businesses based in the U.S. that hire employees or contractors in the country. They also cover payroll services for contractors in 120+ countries around the globe.
The platform claims to have worked with 300,000 businesses in the U.S. since it launched in 2012. So, it has significant experience in the payroll processing industry.
When it comes to their pricing, most customers say Gusto is affordable and sensibly priced for the value it provides.
How does Gusto work?
Gusto has a simple signup process and a user-friendly interface. The process of setting up an account takes roughly five minutes. It requires you to enter your company details, bank account details, and some other relevant information.
There’s also a questionnaire for those who aren’t quite sure which of the offered plans fits their needs best. You can also test out the platform using their interactive demo to experience the features firsthand.
Once you’ve signed up for an account, Gusto will send you a verification email within 4 hours or up to 2 days. Once that’s done, your account will be created, and you can start using its payroll and HR features.
You can then add all of your employee information—this can be time-consuming, depending on how many you need to list.
Once setup is complete, the work gets easier as most of the features are automated or need just a few clicks to be adjusted. You only need to input employee and contractor work hours weekly or biweekly.
What makes Gusto unique?
Gusto provides a wide range of payroll and HR automation tasks on a single platform. One of its unique features is that it allows small businesses and startups to hire and pay domestic and international contractors.
The platform also has a Wallet app for employees, which is a great add-on in terms of benefits and convenience. The app supports employees’ financial goals, empowering them to track, save, and access their earnings more easily.
Gusto review: Features
Gusto’s payroll and HR/admin-related features are comprehensive and can be quite valuable for startups and small to mid-sized businesses. The main features cater to employers, but there are also benefits for employees and contractors.
Payroll processing
Gusto’s primary offering is payroll processing, which allows businesses to automate complex tasks like calculating employee salaries over a certain period and delivering accurate and timely payments. The platform automatically syncs employee data and payment information for maximum convenience.
Gusto streamlines the process, and the automated system minimizes the risk of errors. Business owners and HR managers no longer have to struggle with complicated payroll obligations.
Employee benefits
Medical insurance, dental, life insurance, disability coverage—Gusto offers a complete range of employee benefits. The best part is that you can transfer the management of existing benefits providers for free: Gusto will be your broker moving forward.
If you want to manage your plans on the platform and remain with your current third-party insurance providers, the fee is only $6 per employee per month.
Employers can also enlist the help of Gusto’s licensed advisors to help them craft the right benefits package within their budget. Note that these benefits are currently only available in 37 states, DC states, and DC.
Tax filing
Gusto streamlines payroll tax filing for employees and contractors by automatically generating W2 and 1099 forms each year. It also takes care of filing quarterly and annual taxes (including Form 941).
You can print the forms or get digital copies for free. If you want Gusto to mail the forms for you, they will do it for a minimal fee. Gusto also lets the employees view their tax payments on their pay stubs.
Hiring and onboarding
Gusto also streamlines tasks related to hiring, onboarding, and retaining talent. While the company does claim to support businesses that want to scale, its hiring and onboarding functionalities include some complex manual processes that suggest otherwise. Gusto integrates with hiring and onboarding tools like Breezy HR, Ashby, and more.
If you’re getting the Plus or Premium plan, you get an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to help you manage hiring and onboard new talent. While ATS capabilities are not at full capacity, the features are certainly beneficial and something you won’t find with most competitors.
From personalized offer letters to onboarding checklists, Gusto simplifies the hiring process. You can also transfer some of the onboarding processes, such as completing employee records, to the new hires.
Apart from this, Gusto also provides background checks, custom document e-signing, and secure document storage. And you don’t have to worry about filing state-required paperwork for every new employee, as Gusto will take care of this for you.
Insights and reporting
All the data that you supply to Gusto is put to good use through its reporting and analytics features. You will get actionable insights on employee satisfaction, workforce expenses, project time, wages, hidden tax credits, and more. This feature also includes proactive updates and alerts for state and federal law changes or compliance notifications.
Time and attendance
Gusto’s time and attendance features allow employers to manage team hours, time-off requests, projects, cost reports, and more. This feature is standard among payroll providers, and Gusto doesn’t disappoint.
The platform automates these tasks to ensure accuracy and to reduce the workload for administrative teams. A highlight of the feature is that it generates reports for all teams, departments, and projects so organizations can identify obstacles preventing their team from optimal performance.
Talent management
Talent management features from Gusto focus on improving employee retention through efficient tools that help build an ideal workplace culture. They allow you to automate workflow for review setups, progress tracking, performance evaluations, feedback, etc.
While some of the functionalities are limited to Premium subscribers, various integrations are supported on the platform, making the additional fee worth it.
Gusto review: Pricing and plans
Gusto offers four plans that come with tailored features for different business sizes, payroll needs, operating states, HR management functions, and more. Here is an overview of Gusto’s plans:
Simple
The Simple plan is its most affordable offering at $40 per month plus a $6 fee per month per person. The Simple plan includes the following features:
- Full-service single-state payroll (includes W-2 employees and 1099 contractors)
- Employee profiles with self-service features
- Standard hiring and onboarding features (custom letter templates, hiring documents, onboarding checklist, and team-signed e-cards)
- Financial benefits for employees
- Payroll and time-off reporting and analytics
- Health insurance administration (brokered by Gusto)
- Custom admin permissions
- Integrations
- Live customer support (limited)
- 24/7 access to Gusto’s online help center
This plan is great for small businesses or startups that operate in a single state and need basic HR task support.
Plus
The Plus plan is Gusto’s most popular offering at $80 per month plus a $12 fee per employee per month. The Plus plan includes everything in the Simple plan plus the following features:
- Full-service multi-state payroll
- Paid time off management and policies
- Advanced hiring and onboarding tools
- Team management tools
- Time and project tracking tools
- Workplace costing and reports
- Performance reviews
- Employee surveys and insights
- Next-day direct deposit
- Priority support and HR resources (additional $8 per month per person)
The Plus package includes more dedicated HR support and is ideal for businesses operating in two or more states.
Premium
Gusto’s Premium plan is its most comprehensive offering for small and medium-sized businesses. You can also avail of exclusive pricing based on your business size. The premium plan includes everything in the Plus plan plus the following features:
- Dedicated customer success manager
- HR Resource Center
- Certified HR experts
- Compliance alerts
- Full-service payroll migration and setup support
- Support for Gusto health insurance broker migration
- R&D tax credit scanning and document prep
- Priority support
This plan is best suited for teams with future scaling plans and need a provider that can offer add-on features for payroll, onboarding, and retention.
Contractor plan
The Contractor plan is a unique offering for businesses that only hire contractors. It is available at $35 per month plus a $6 fee per contractor per month. The Contractor plan includes the following features:
- Unlimited payments to contractors (all 50 U.S. states)
- 4-day direct deposit
- Reporting of new hires (if required by state)
- 1099-NECs (at year-end)
Gusto review: Additional features worth noting
Here are some additional features from Gusto that are included in its plans:
- Employee Wallet app – all employees can access savings tools and manage their paychecks and spending accounts
- R&D tax credits – identify qualifying expenses and prepare paperwork for the R&D credit claim for your tax forms
- Customer service and support – available via phone, email, and chat from 6 am to 6 pm MST, Monday through Friday
Gusto review: safety and security
When it comes to security, Gusto has you covered on multiple fronts. They have a dedicated team to ensure secure practices are followed, and incidents are dealt with quickly. The company also regularly updates security policies to meet the changing security demands of the digital age.
Gusto deploys multi-factor authentication, fraud monitoring, vulnerability scanning, and data encryption (AES-256) to protect all users from various security risks.
Companies can rest assured when hiring new candidates, as Gusto also performs background checks. They follow HIPAA guidelines to protect consumers’ protected health information (PHI).
You can take a closer look at their operating effectiveness and internal controls through their annual SOC 2 Type 2 reports.
Gusto alternatives and how they compare
Many payroll solutions providers in the market cover all types of businesses and employees. Here are a couple of Gusto alternatives that offer similar pricing, subscription packages, and features:
- ADP Run – no upfront pricing, charges additional fees for a lot of services that Gusto provides for free
- Paychex – no pricing details provided and charges a fee per payroll. It lacks a few of the standard payroll and HR features.
- QuickBooks Payroll – limited HR tools and employee benefits
- Square Payroll – no international payroll, limited HR tools and employee benefits
Is Gusto right for me?
To put it simply, Gusto is the ideal choice for businesses with the following requirements or conditions:
- Small or medium-sized companies in the U.S.
- U.S.-based companies hiring contractors (domestically and internationally)
FAQs
Does Gusto have a mobile app?
Gusto offers subscribers an employee-side mobile app that works on Android and iOS. It is meant for employees working for companies that use Gusto for payroll processing. The app allows employees to control and manage their earnings more effectively.
Does Gusto offer time-tracking features?
Gusto’s time tracking is only available with a subscription to its Plus and Premium plans. It can be used for the company’s hourly and salaried non-exempt employees.
Gusto review: Our verdict
Overall, Gusto is a reliable payroll solutions provider that caters to startups and small and mid-sized businesses. It makes the complicated task of payroll management much simpler for employers.
Most importantly, Gusto doesn’t fall short on its support to teams with limited operations. Its payroll processing features are quite strong, and so are its HR tools and reporting solutions.