Gusto vs. Justworks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Gusto
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Gusto offers payroll, benefits and compliance capabilities. Gusto is scaled for small to mid-sized businesses, and emphasizes an easy to use interface.
$496
per month
Justworks
Score 5.7 out of 10
N/A
Justworks offers a platform for payroll, benefits, compliance support, with HR tools. As a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), Justworks offers PEO solutions that can bundle payroll, compliance, HR, and benefits under the Justworks umbrella, and help to administer employment-related responsibilities on the user's behalf. With Justworks' group buying power, customers can get access to PEO health insurance and other perks at more affordable rates. The vendor states that as a…
$59
per month per user
Pricing
GustoJustworks
Editions & Modules
Simple: A streamlined set of automatic payroll features and benefits integrations
$49/month + $6/mo per person
per month
Plus: Comprehensive payroll, benefits, and HR tools for employers building a great place to work
$80/month + $12/mo per person
per month
Premium: Scalable payroll and benefits, expert HR, and dedicated support for the complex needs of growing teams
$180/month + $22/mo per person
per month
Basic
$59
per month per user
Plus
$99
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GustoJustworks
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsGusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GustoJustworks
TrustRadius Insights
GustoJustworks
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Justworks and Gusto both present themselves as comprehensive solutions catering predominantly to small and growing businesses that require streamlined human resources services without maintaining a dedicated in-house HR team. Justworks users have consistently highlighted the platform’s utility in serving their entire organizations by simplifying payroll, benefits, and regulatory compliance. It is especially noted for its effectiveness in managing multiple aspects of HR, such as employee benefits, 401(k)s, and paid time off across multi-state operations. This makes Justworks a robust option for smaller businesses or startups needing an extensive range of HR services alongside responsive customer support to navigate complex HR landscapes.

Conversely, Gusto is extensively used for its payroll services, appreciated for its user-friendliness, and the integration capabilities with other tools such as time-tracking and accounting software. The platform’s design is frequently mentioned by users as a significant advantage, providing a simple yet effective interface that facilitates quick payroll processing and human resources management. Gusto also garners praise for features that automate various aspects of payroll and tax filings, which resonate well with users who prioritize ease of use and efficiency in their operations. This platform is particularly suited for smaller enterprises or startups that require an uncomplicated solution for HR tasks that integrates seamlessly with their other business systems.

In essence, while both Justworks and Gusto offer valuable HR and payroll services, the choice between them depends largely on the specific needs of a business. Justworks is more comprehensive for those requiring detailed, multi-state HR management and compliance assistance, whereas Gusto offers significant benefits in terms of ease of use and integration capabilities for businesses focusing more on payroll and less complex HR tasks.

Features
GustoJustworks
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
9.2
Ratings
11% above category average
Justworks
-
Ratings
Pay calculation9.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
User Ratings
GustoJustworks
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
4.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(0 ratings)
4.9
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.2
(0 ratings)
9.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
GustoJustworks
Likelihood to Recommend
Gusto is a great fit for small teams and startups that want a simple, reliable way to run payroll, manage tax filings, and give CPAs access without constant micromanagement. It’s especially useful for founders who need something that “just works.” The human support has been excellent—especially when forwarding confusing IRS mail.
That said, it’s a bit less intuitive when it comes to benefits and compliance for fully remote companies. For example, labor law poster distribution isn’t streamlined for digital teams, and setting up benefits felt more complex than it needed to be. Still, I’d recommend Gusto to any startup looking to get payroll right from day one.
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Overall, Justworks is a great platform to use to manage organization wide payroll, benefits (medical/dental/vision), and other misc. HR related services (401(k), life insurance, AD&D). The value Justworks brings to our organization greatly exceeds its cost, which I find very reasonable. I particularly love its customer service, which is fast, reliable, and helpful (By calling a number, you get connected directly to a customer service rep., no answer machines or need to press multiple buttons/selections to get to where you need). By implementing Justworks for our HR needs in the U.S., it greatly reduces the time I spent on HR administration duties while offering great benefits and HR services to our employees.
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Pros
  • Gusto makes onboarding employees and ensuring their documents are signed very easy.
  • The way you can integrate things like Google Workspace makes both onboarding new employees into the apps you use a breeze, as well as when you need to offboard them.
  • Managing benefits is simple, because they take care of all the heavy lifting. I just have to review the options, make a selection, and they take it from there.
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  • The JustWorks platform is extremely user-friendly. Everything is built in with a seamless user experience. 9 times out of 10, if my employees are looking for something, it is right in front of them.
  • JustWorks has amazing customer service. Every member of their team is equipped to answer any questions you may have. This is super helpful when you have an immediate need and can't get a hold of your Account Manager. They can look up your account, answer questions and relay the information to your Account Manager providing seamless communication.
  • JustWorks did an outstanding job walking my employees through their initial set up process. While hesitant about switching insurance carries, our Account Manager was able to answer every question we had with transparency. They even made suggestions about rolling over deductibles that had already been met and gave important information about current healthcare providers being in network.
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Cons
  • Adding in previous time manually could be more accessible.
  • Notifications for when employees manually change hours.
  • We should allow 1099 users to use the mobile app instead of restricting them to the website, especially since they can just log into the full website on their mobile device.
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  • More HR info in regards to compliance and resources for employees to stay in compliance (they have just started to do this with sexual harassment but more things like this would be great!)
  • Better integrations with company holidays and timesheets. They have recently updated PTO to integrate so I'm hoping that company holidays would also be a feature added.
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Likelihood to Renew
Unless they break it, I'm never leaving. It's just too easy. Gusto is also really affordable, and for what I pay, it's worth having the historical record within the system. I like that I can go back and pull up W2's for year's past. This sort of easy access reporting, has been helpful especially when getting reports for PPP loans.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
The overall platform and its speed of response are amazing. I would recommend this to any other business owner for ease of use and reliability. Email reminders are great if I’m super busy and have forgotten a few tasks. The price point compared to local payroll service is hands down a huge win.
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Justworks is a really good platform for payroll and even vendor payments. There are some areas of improvement that Justworks could make in the area of bulk processing, to decrease administrative time as well as reporting. There are no reports we currently use from the Justworks platform as we have not found them useful.
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Support Rating
Gusto's customer service has really deteriorated lately and they seem to have really changed their focus. It used to be when you called you were routed to an individual who knew about payroll, benefits, reporting, etc. but now you get someone who seems to have not received the correct training. My last call about a dismissal payroll took me over an hour of my time and the person still could not help me and finally transferred me to someone else.
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Justworks offers many different options for customer service. You can contact them via email, phone or Slack. They are quick to resolve issues and if your Account Manager is out of office, they have other Managers covering your account who are knowledgable and ready to support. They also have an office in New York, which makes their support even more localized.
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Implementation Rating
Reach out to support immediately if you are having trouble setting up Gusto. Rather than being confused and trying to figure it out yourself, it's much better to talk to someone who knows what they are doing. Save yourself time and frustration and reach out to support
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
It's been a while since I used QuickBooks for payroll, but it doesn't even come close to it. Gusto is infinitely easier, allowing for employee time tracking, handling calculations and payments of payroll and payroll taxes, managing regulatory compliance in the background, and more. I had a lot of moments using QuickBooks Payroll where I thought, "Am I even doing this right?" — it felt like you had to have additional knowledge of HR regulations in your state to do everything correctly. Gusto has it ALL handled so you can focus your time on higher-impact tasks in your business.
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ADP was our previous PEO and, in my experience, they were old, clunky and never got back to us. In my opinion, the customer service was non-existent. Insperity was out of our budget but I think it is a good product. Paychex Flex was similar and I like their product for payroll; however, we wanted to offer healthcare, commuter benefits and a 401k to employees and although Paychex is starting to offer those items through 3rd party providers, it wasn't as integrated of a solution as Justworks presented.
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Return on Investment
  • I am not involved enough to know well, but I would say that Gusto has saved me about 1-2 hours in my onboarding process with my new company compared to my past experiences trying to onboard with ADP. I have also finished the process and am not frustrated like usual.
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  • The tool is much cheaper than hiring an outsourced payroll provider (cheaper than other PEO).
  • Cheaper than going to market for health insurance on our own.
  • Manages all employment tax, etc. which is a huge help and would require additional resources to manage without Justworks.
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ScreenShots

Gusto Screenshots

Screenshot of Gusto's automated payrollScreenshot of the time-off tracking interfaceScreenshot of the source of truth for HR data

Justworks Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of