Gusto offers payroll, benefits and compliance capabilities. Gusto is scaled for small to mid-sized businesses, and emphasizes an easy to use interface.
$46
per month
TriNet HR Platform
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Zenefits is a free, cloud-based core-HR platform. It primarily services small to mid-sized businesses and provides time management and benefits administration capabilities.
$10
per month
Pricing
Gusto
TriNet HR Platform
Editions & Modules
Simple: A streamlined set of automatic payroll features and benefits integrations
$40/month + $6/mo per person
$12 per employee/contractor
Plus: Comprehensive payroll, benefits, and HR tools for employers building a great place to work
$80/month + $12/mo per person
Premium: Scalable payroll and benefits, expert HR, and dedicated support for the complex needs of growing teams
Exclusive pricing, contact Gusto
Essentials
$10
per month per employee
Growth
$20
per month per employee
Zen
$33
per month per employee
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Gusto
TriNet HR Platform
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR, so you can choose the plan that meets your business needs.
We left Zenefits for Gusto after Zenefits bungled tax payments to multiple states and had terrible customer service when we were working to get this corrected. So far we have not had similar issues with Gusto. Also, the customer service reps from Gusto are based in the US so I …
Even with Intuit Full Service Payroll the difference that Gusto provides is night and day. I went from constantly filing on time or being fearful that I was not properly taking care of the taxes and paperwork to knowing Gusto has my back. Employees have a portal to login and …
When compared to Zenefits, Gusto is easier to use and set up. Zenefits only had benefit information and I still had to go to Gusto for pay stubs, taxes, etc.
Zenefits isn't the same but they are trying to compete with each other. Zenefits is terrible. We've moved healthcare over to Gusto because Gusto was already doing a good job and Zenefits had very slow and poor service. I'd get off Zenefits entirely but Gusto doesn't support …
I really liked Gusto, and they offer most of the same features. I actually preferred Gusto because their HelpDesk seemed to be better. However, my current company already had Zenefits. It has worked well for us so far.
Overall, we picked Zenefits since they still fit our small business needs but have the capability and technology to seamlessly hire and retain talent. I love the fact that Zenefits is easy for administrators and users to use. Compared to Gusto, their reporting and compliance …
Verified User
Employee
Chose TriNet HR Platform
Zenefits and Gusto used to work really well together and I think they're a sort of similar product, but since they have become less integrated it's been really difficult linking my payroll and having to deal with deductions separately. I wish they would find a better way to …
Zenefits is my favorite payroll provider. I have used them all (ADP, Zenefits, Gusto, Intuit Payroll etc etc) and none compare in terms of features and price.
I personally run two businesses and have had no problems receiving support from Gusto. In my opinion, it has been an absolute delight in comparison to Zenefits.
Verified User
Director
Chose TriNet HR Platform
I have only used Gusto as an employee, not an administrator. I found both Zenefits and Gusto to be user-friendly and easy from the employee perspective. Ultimately, as an administrator, I went with Zenefits because they offer a discount for nonprofit organizations.
Love the UX of Zenefits, and the pricing was very fair.
Verified User
Administrator
Chose TriNet HR Platform
Zenefits had more features with HR management beyond just payroll. Our payroll situation is not complex so this was better for us.
Verified User
C-Level Executive
Chose TriNet HR Platform
Zenefits low-cost all in one solution was an ideal option for our HR, benefits, and payroll needs. Rather than managing different vendors for these services, Zenefits made an easy to use interface, built around simplicity an easy choice. Our payroll and benefits administrators …
I selected Zenefits because it had more, easier to use features than the rest. The sales process was pleasant and not pushy at all! The cost was better/the same as others with a friendly interface and more reporting.
Zenefits works really well for small businesses. Implementation was quick and we were able to integrate easily with other products in our HR tech stack. While the other products also have similar functionality, Zenefits has an ease of use and a fair pricing model that worked …
A large company with 15k employees acquired the small startup I was working for. Overnight we went from using Zenefits to Workday. The difference in the ease of use between Zenefits and workday was very apparent. Our joke was never to use WorkDay on a rooftop because you would …
I like Zenefits 2nd best only behind Paycom. Too many things in Zenefits are interconnected. As an example in Paycom I can assign different admins for different aspects of 1 employee profile (Manager A can approve their timecard, Manager B is responsible for approve …
Verified User
Partner
Chose TriNet HR Platform
pretty good and can serve as the whole hr hub, but pricey
We looked at a lot of different systems (Gusto, PEOs, Paylocity, etc.) we chose Zenefits for their all in one system. We needed one place that employees could go to that had all employee benefits in one place. Going paperless was also a big factor for us when switching vendors.
I would love to use Gusto for companies of all staff sizes but I understand that larger businesses will opt for a PEO and willingly give up flexibility and features to do that. However, I love that Gusto can be customized on so many levels – offer letter, adding documents for new hires, document verification, deploying documents to existing staff, tracking who has signed, helping staff select health benefits (love that this is an entirely paperless process!), screen share support (love this!), a host of integrations with other apps are easy to link up. The interface is delightful (love the piglet!), HR support for Master Admins is very professional. There are templates, forms, rules and updates provided for all States. And the reports are so easy to read, customize and understand. Amazing!
I think as a small business owner, this system gives peace of mind. When I'm onboarding an employee I can automatically integrate the process with Gmail and Quickbooks. I feel like they are always doing work in the background and I don't have to keep checking up on them or verifying the work that's been done
The self-service aspect of the software is very nice. We rarely need to get customer service involved.
For the first 2 years of our subscription to Gusto, customer service has been good when we needed it.
We have also had good experience with third parties recommended by Gusto including a 401(k) administrator, R&D tax credit analyst, and background check software.
The support isn't very impressive, although it's rare that we even need their help.
I would like to see a better scheduling tool for the staff. Currently I have to use Homebase for this feature alone because Gusto's offering is lacking in this area.
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.
We've already renewed after our first year with Zenefits due to the cost savings, ease of administration, reduction in overhead required to perform HR functions, and the employees happily embracing and liking the software. I've found employees generally hate anything new, but we've had no complaints about Zenefits outside the first few weeks of getting used to it.
The UI is clean and simple. It's incredibly easy to find what you need to find, and if you can't, a quick search of their help files will direct you where you need to go about 90% of the time. For that last 10%, a support e-mail will result in a quick answer. Almost any time I try to do something new I haven't done before with Gusto, I can do it in a few minutes.
It's extremely user friendly and customer service is super helpful. The app needed help a while back but it has greatly improved. There were issues with files being cut off, and when I was onboarded, it actually cut my offer letter off hiding important information. Since then, it's been fixed so they are continually improving.
We have not experienced any application errors or unplanned outages in the two years I have been using this app. Sometimes there is a lag in the time keeping/ confirming your location, however, it quickly resolves itself within seconds and more often than not is an internet connection error
This app always loads extremely quickly and in a reasonable time frame. Like I said, when we do experience lags from this app, it is more often than not an internet connection error
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.
Not good at all. Basically I typically feel like they can solve the issue at hand. However, they take forever and it never feels like they really care. It can be frustrating that the agent will never speak with you on the phone or just give you their direct contact info so that you can continue to follow up on the same issue. Once they "close" the issue - you have to go back to the main customer service email or line again, even though it may be related to something you've contacted them about in the past
Unfortunately I do not have any insights on the implementation of Zenefits as I was not employed with this company when Zenefits was introduced. Based on how effortless it is to use Zenefits, I wouldn't image there would be many issues with the implementation of Zenefits
Gusto was the only payroll provider we used for our business. Before Gusto we were running payroll manually, which was cumbersome and didn’t account for our tax liability. Gusto is heads and shoulders above running payroll manually. It takes the load of payroll management off your shoulders and gives employees and easy to use portal to manage their personal payroll information.
Zenefits has been a better tool for our purposes than Paychex Flex. While Zenefits is a fairly rigid tool without a lot of options for customization, Paychex has even fewer options for customization and their customer services is even more difficult to deal with
Saves me time and time is money so I've definitely saved money using Gusto over other payroll providers
401k integration was not a good fit for my size company unfortunately, which I was disappointed about initially, but if you are a larger company it could be an excellent asset to your benefits structure for your team
Has increased employee retention because of its ease of use
California Meal Break Violations cost a full hour of each employees pay rate. If an employee clocks in 1 minute early it costs us at least 10.50 (minimum wage Ca, 15.00 in Los Angeles) which adds up quickly. We had 37 meal break violations when we first rolled it out. They need to add a feature that disallows them to clock in ahead of 30 minutes, or add a feature that shows them how long they've been on break.