Access Perks vs. Gusto

The platform is super well oriented to provide location-specific perks and discount programs to employees based on their local marketplace. It covers all of the major restaurants/retailers/destinations in a given geographic region (and even nationally). It would be great to see additional offerings in the alternative space - vegan vendors, local vendors, etc. as a counterpoint to the tried and true national brands.

Incentivized

I think Gusto is well-suited for any business, big or small, to use for accounting purposes. It makes it easy to keep track of many things, such as pay stubs, benefits, paid time off, and much more. Where I could see it being less useful is maybe for enterprise businesses with way more employees.

Incentivized

• easy to understand program
• actual discounts that employees can use
• Discounts on everyday things

Incentivized

• New employee/contractor onboarding - all the documents are stored and easily accessible (the same goes for off-boarding).
• A one-click option for syncing hours worked with payroll.
• The option to run payroll on auto-pilot.
• Ensuring I'm tax compliant with the states we have employees in.
• Always having digital records of payroll runs.

Incentivized

• UX Design of Site
• Expanded Perk Offerings
• More Remote/Dispersed Benefit Programming

Incentivized

• Digital compliance tools for remote teams
• Gusto upsold us labor law posters, but I later found them available for free online. Since we’re a fully remote team, I had to manually download and distribute them digitally. It would be much more efficient if Gusto offered free, auto-distributed digital posters tailored to remote compliance.
• Benefits setup is unintuitive for startups
• While our rep was helpful, navigating the benefits system felt complex and not tailored to early-stage companies. More guided flows or simplified options for small, remote startups would be a big help.
• Limited dashboard customization for remote workflows
• As a fully online company, we’d benefit from dashboard options that highlight relevant tools for remote operations—like compliance tracking, digital communications, or onboarding checklists.

Incentivized

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.

Gusto is pretty user-friendly, and the website is easy to navigate overall. They also offer good, responsive customer support and have helpful articles available when needed. So far, I have not had any major issues with the platform and am overall very happy with it.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

We also evaluated Tickets at Work - both are highly comparable options, but we went with Access Perks given both their incomparable discount network and mobile coupon program. The Access Perks website is also much easier to use, for both administrators and employees, and offers a more compelling discount/perk ratio across the board.

Incentivized

While I never actually got to the point of trying out ADP, I had several conversations with an ADP representative, and it seemed that they would be able to provide the same (if not less) level of service for a significantly higher price

Incentivized

• employees, for the most part, feel appreciated
• aids in employee retention
• immediate benefit for new hires

Incentivized

• Time tracking + payroll calculations me 30-60 minutes every time I run payroll.
• Integrated workers' comp, so I didn't have to find an outside carrier and get quotes—it's all taken care of in the same platform.
• Improved employee experience with onboarding.

Incentivized