Gusto is an online human resource management system that offers payrolls, benefits, and other human resource functions. It includes reports, employment benefits, payroll taxation, and expert support for small and medium businesses.
Three individuals, namely Josh Reeves, Tomer London, and Edward Kim, have always wanted to innovate to help small businesses. All of their families experienced being ignored and facing injustice as a small enterprise. Their personal commitments led them to launch ZenPayroll in 2012 and rename it Gusto in 2015, headquartered in San Francisco.
General Overview of Gusto
Gusto has unique features compared to others, especially its specialty, which is payroll and other factors such as employee onboarding, time tracking, and analytics and reporting.
As of the second quarter of 2021, Gusto’s total revenue accounted for 294 million USD with a valuation of 9.5 billion USD, which is one of the most valuable HR companies. In addition, it has raised an overall of 746.1 million USD and has gained 117 investors.
Gusto has three locations, expanded to Denver, Colorado, in 2015 and New York City in 2019. Despite having only these central locations, it has enlarged to support all the 50 states in the United States since 2015.
These are the top 10 companies that compete with Gusto and offer alternatives to it.
1. OnPay
Founded in 2009 and based in Atlanta, OnPay is a cost-effective payroll service for companies that experience employee fluctuations each month since it is not totally automated. Before processing payroll, several of the displays need your approval.
There aren’t any different price levels. You only need to pay for the additional workers if the amount of staff grows quickly. Additionally, OnPay has a complete set of customizable HR tools that simplify managing recruiting.
Its simplicity makes it stand out; The customizable reports it offers are an outstanding feature, and the company’s integrations are far better for small businesses than those of its rivals.
2. Square Payroll
Square Payroll is highly favored by restaurants and small businesses due to its convenience and relatively low price. There won’t be a monthly membership charge when you are solely paying contractors. You simply pay for the number of contractors or workers that are paid each month.
Additionally, there are no charges for repeated payroll runs. What sets it apart from Gusto is that it has the option to halt Square Payroll for up to 12 months during the lean season without incurring any fees.
It is known for its services such as time tracking, overtime calculations, benefits administration, shift scheduling, and custom reporting for all the plans.
3. Paychex Flex
Paychex was founded 51 years ago in 1971, is headquartered in New York, and has 100 offices providing services in the US and Europe. It has generated 4.06 billion USD in revenue as of 2021, making it one of the largest HR companies.
It has extensive reporting that can be compared to Gusto. Also, it is well known for its benefits administration, “hire to retire,” which has many options and the capacity to combine everything in one location.
4. Rippling
Rippling is another excellent alternative for small and medium companies as it offers various services, including benefits administration, apps, device management, payroll, and human resources management, from one dashboard.
It is well-favored for the convenience of setting up and operating. Also, it has an advantage over Gusto since it’s also an excellent choice if you have foreign employees. Rippling features an amazing mobile application and thorough reporting.
5. Zenefits
Zenefits, founded in 2013, is also headquartered in San Francisco and is a cloud-based human resource platform specializing in payroll. Due to its add-on module, it is well known for providing services to more than 11,000 small and medium businesses.
The add-on module of Zenefits makes it unique as the HR and payroll modules automatically share information about new hires, benefits deduction, PTO, and time tracking. Direct payments, tax filings, various pay rates, garnishments, tip reporting, and bonus issuance are also covered by Zenefits.
6. ADP Workforce
With approximately 700,000 small company clients, ADP has established itself as a market leader in payroll processing organizations. ADP, founded in 1949, making it one of the oldest HR companies, would attract newcomers with the platform’s well-organized user interface.
ADP is a single database-based platform with capabilities for human resource and talent management, labor and time management, payroll, analytics and reporting, benefits, and return to work. This all-in-one service makes management never easier.
Using the ADP’s user-friendly employee portal, employees may easily access tax forms, pay stubs, and other HR data. Numerous positive feedbacks from small company clients favor this level of help.
7. Justworks
Justworks is a software service company founded in 2012 and based in New York. Compared to Gusto, it has less sufficient HR services, but it specializes in professional organization employer (PEO) services.
Justworks excels in handling the standard payroll-related duties, such as direct deposits, off-cycle payments, payroll tax compliance, and managing employee hours. But the most significant differential is its staff of experts, who are on call 24/7 to assist clients.
It keeps things simple, from its two straightforward price levels to its UI, which is so simple to use that it can be learned with minimum training.
8. QuickBooks Payroll
Quickbooks is well known for being an accounting software company. However, its payroll system is on the verge of being one of the best. Quickbooks payroll is one of the apps of Quickbooks that attract 29 million small businesses.
It is a desktop or cloud-based program that maintains the financial records of the workers, computes payroll and handles taxes. The application would assist in managing even more of the company’s financial concerns inside the system once combined with other QuickBooks accounts. Also, it has built-in accounting software, which Gusto lacks.
9. Paylocity
Paylocity, another older cloud-based payroll and human resource management was founded in 1997 and is based in Illinois. It fits best with medium and large companies due to its advanced and versatile features.
It includes all the essentials, including personnel management, time tracking, and reports. Payments are where Paylocity truly excels, with more than 300 integrations.
Payroll, benefits, personnel, and workforce management are well managed using the all-in-one software. Also, it has a culture that cares about the success of the customers, which sets it apart from its competitors.
10. Sure Payroll
Sure payroll is a small business payroll company that has been operating for more than 20 years since 2000, based in Illinois. It has a relatively low price with only $29.99 per month plus $4 per employee for its full-service package.
SurePayroll delivers market-leading benefits, competitive pay, an entrepreneurial atmosphere, and Paychex’s reliability. Due to its distinctive solution set that saves time on crucial back-office activities, SurePayroll is acknowledged by industry experts.
SurePayroll facilitates the automation of payments and supports numerous pay schedules and rates. It is also categorized into small businesses such as households, offices, restaurants, churches, NGOs, and others, which are unavailable using Gusto.
Final Verdict
Gusto is well favored for its various features, especially payrolls, taxes, and reporting, which are relatively advanced compared to the others. It is ideal for new businesses or companies that need tax filing in multiple states and best for companies paying independent contractors.
