Calamari vs. Gusto

Calamari should work fine for Small to Medium Businesses that want to keep track of their personnel's leave of absence, especially if they have different rules based on location, experience, etc. It also works adequately to allow for PTO to be approved based on a specific org structure (manager, then HR, etc).

Incentivized

Gusto is well-suited for small businesses looking for a one-stop platform for payroll, tax-related tasks, and onboarding. It has many automated features that make tasks related to running a business/running an S-Corp simpler. I have not tried any other similar platforms, so I am unsure how it compares, but the pricing Gusto offers feels reasonable compared to other providers.

Incentivized

• Feature rich.
• Cheap.
• Professional and helpful support team.
• Beautiful and clear UI.

Incentivized

• Quarterly tax access for CPA
• Gusto makes it easy for our CPA to access quarterly tax data directly, which saves us time and ensures tax reporting stays accurate for our LLC.
• IRS support via human reps
• Whenever we get confusing IRS mail, I forward it to Gusto. A real human rep either walks me through next steps or handles it directly—huge peace of mind.
• Payroll automation
• Once payroll is set up, it runs smoothly and automatically with little effort on my part. It’s reliable, affordable, and a great “set it and forget it” solution for a small business.

Incentivized

• It is overly efficient in terms of completing the activities and objectives set.
• For current labor issues, we can rely on everything included in the compensation package.

Incentivized

• I honestly don't have any complaints about Gusto as it stands.
• Maybe add 2-factor authentication for security purposes. I haven't seen that being part of the login process yet.
• I think Gusto pushes its easy Gusto card payroll method a bit too much. I'd like to see direct deposit as the main method it suggests and the Gusto card as a secondary one.

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.

Wonderful overall usability – especially for the new business owner. The user interface is clean and intuitive, so it's easy to find what you're looking for. They also have great explanation pages ingrained into the process, so if you get stuck knowing what to do next, there's a link right there to walk you through the process!

Incentivized

Working with my rep is so easy and has been the selling point on this platform. I like that I don't have to think about it much, love the Slack integrations for my team and how easy it was to transition from our old process into Calamari. It's simple, clear, and for a small team, it has everything I need. The customer support team has always responded promptly when I need anything, and we were even able to extend our trial period in the beginning and converted to a paying customer shortly after.

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

It was the only system that provided all of the features we required, including actiTIME, and was comprehensive enough to calculate various types of outages. Contactability with customer service, which is extremely quick, helpful, and friendly, and always resolves my problems, even when they are unique to my organization. I have faith that things will get a lot better.

Incentivized

I think Gusto has much better marketing than the rest of their competition, and it has the assets to get in front of more people, like on live TV during a sports game, so I just knew about it before the others. When comparing, I think feature-wise and usability were big for Gusto.

Incentivized

• Boosted employee productivity.

• It saves me time and energy - I'm not worried about being compliant or having everything I need for tax season. It's all there!
• I don't wonder when my team is working- they can easily log in and out of the system.
• I don't have to handle updating information when an employee or contractor has changes - they have their own portal.

Incentivized