Join us as we delve into the Gusto Payroll review for 2023, exploring its suitability as the perfect HR software solution for your business. We will evaluate the features and benefits of Gusto Payroll to determine if it aligns with your organization’s needs to help you discover if Gusto Payroll is the right choice for streamlining your HR processes.
Gusto Payroll is one of the best payroll software solutions available for small businesses that can help them streamline and automate the payroll process and broker health insurance. And Gusto Payroll services are highly flexible, with a series of service offerings and plans to meet the unique needs of every small business.
Quick View: Pros & Cons
pros
- Highly flexible service offerings
- Access to full-service features with the Simple plan
- Automated calculation, filing, and payment of local, state, and federal taxes
- Broker and sync medical, vision, and dental insurance at no extra cost
- Integrate existing health brokers and provide financial benefits at no extra cost
cons
- No free trial
- No money-back guarantee for dissatisfied customers
- Must upgrade to a Plus or Premium plan to access advanced and more comprehensive tools
- No accounting, billing, invoicing, or accounts receivable features
When to Use
Gusto Payroll software may be the right choice for your business if you want:
- Payroll solutions that scale as your business and team grow
- Time-tracking features with full-service payroll solutions
- Multiple options to process direct deposits
You may want to look at alternatives to Gusto Payroll if you want:
- Multi-state payroll as a standard feature
- Withholding options for contractor-only plans
- Comprehensive payroll services for more than 1000 employees
Gusto Payroll Review – Deciding Factors
Gusto Payroll offers a good mix of features and flexibility, making it one of the leading contenders for the best payroll software. Some of the key deciding factors that can help HR professionals and small business owners assess whether Gusto Payroll is suitable for their business needs are:
| Price | Gusto Payroll plans start from $40/month + $6/employee/month |
| Maximum Number of Users | You can add any number of employees at $6 per employee per month. However, Gusto Payroll is unsuitable for businesses with over 1000 employees. |
| Value for Money | Good. Gusto Payroll plans are less cost-effective than a few of its competitors, and adding employees at $6 per month can build up the costs quickly. |
| Ease of Sharing with Accounts | Good. Gusto Payroll does not have in-built accounts receivable and accounts payable features, so you need to run them on a different platform. But Gusto Payroll facilitates easy integration with accounting software to overcome this issue. |
| Scalability | Excellent. Gusto Payroll is a flexible payroll solution that scales as your business grows. |
| Ease of Use | Excellent. Gusto Payroll is easy for employers and employees, even without in-depth technical know-how. |
| Features | Excellent. Gusto Payroll offers full-service automated payroll plans that can meet any small business’s payroll needs. |
| Popularity | Excellent. Gusto Payroll boasts a strong reputation and has become a respected brand name among HR professionals. |
Gusto Payroll – Plans and Pricing
Gusto Payroll software offers two payroll options, one for businesses that only hire contractors and the other for companies that need full-service automated payroll solutions. The four plans available from Gusto Payroll are:
Contractor Only Plan
This plan is best suited for businesses that rely solely on contractors. At $35/month + $6/contractor/month, this plan offers features like:
- Unlimited payments across all 50 states
- 4-day direct deposit
- New hire reporting
- 1099-NEC forms
However, this plan does not offer backup withholding or contractor withholding features.
Simple Plan
The Simple Plan is a full-service single-state payroll plan. At $40/month + $6/employee/month, this plan offers features like:
- Limited self-service features for employees (like access to pay stubs or tax forms)
- Standard hiring and onboarding features
- Health Insurance and financial benefits administration
- Payroll or time-off reports
- Custom admin permissions
- Option to integrate features like time tracking, expense management, or accounting
- 24/7 access to the online help center
- Limited live customer support
Plus Plan
At $80/month + $12/employee/month, the Gusto Payroll Plus plan offers all the features of Simple plan plus:
- Multi-state payroll
- Advanced hiring and onboarding features
- Paid time-off policies and management
- Team management and time-tracking tools
- Next-day direct deposit
- Workplace case reports
- Full customer support
Premium Plan
Premium plans have custom pricing to meet your business needs and size, and you will need to contact the Gusto Payroll sales team to work out a pricing plan best suited for you. If you opt for the Premium plan, you will have access to all the features of the Plus plan plus:
- Access to the HR resource center for expert guidance
- Automated compliance alerts
- Full-service payroll migration
- Health insurance broker migration support
- Employee surveys, performance reviews, and insights
- Dedicated personalized customer support
Considering the range of pricing and plans available, it is clear that you can customize Gusto Payroll’s flexible service offering to suit your business size and payroll needs without much hassle.
Gusto Payroll Review – Ease of Use
Gusto Payroll is extremely easy-to-use even for people without technical know-how. Some features that improve Gusto Payroll’s ease of use are:
- Intuitive dashboard
- Guided setup and onboarding
- How-to guides
- Online help center
- Live email, phone, and in-app chat support
Because of these, you can easily set up Gusto Payroll and start processing payrolls in less than 24 hours. And user-friendly dashboard, easy-to-follow setup process, and readily available online support (how-to guides and resource center) ensure there is no steep learning curve for small businesses using Gusto Payroll.
Gusto Payroll – Customer Service and Support
Gusto Payroll customer service and support are available via email, live chat, and phone. Live phone support is available Monday to Friday between 9 am to 4 pm. Premium plan members have access to extended weekday hours (7 am to 6 pm) and can skip cues for phone support. However, Gusto Payroll does not offer 24/7 phone support.
Is Gusto Payroll Right for Your Business?
Gusto Payroll’s design and service offerings keep small businesses and dynamic startups in mind to provide flexible payroll services that evolve as the business grows. Especially for companies with a contractor-heavy workforce, it is one of the best payroll solutions. You can easily set up and use Gusto Payroll features and have the flexibility to customize and scale the Gusto Payroll features as your business grows and your team expands.
So, if you are a small business owner that wants to automate and streamline your payroll processes, automate tax fillings, and facilitate compliance guidance, Gusto Payroll is the right choice for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Gusto Payroll good for?
Gusto Payroll is suitable for growing small businesses and startups that rely on a mixed workforce of employees and contractors and want to streamline and automate their payroll, insurance, and benefits administration processes.
