Calamari is a workforce management software system offered by Chrobrus.
$10
per month
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
Paychex
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Paychex Flex, of Paychex' Online Payroll Services, is a cloud-based human resource management and payroll platform. Paychex offers core and specialized services, and scales to meet the needs of small businesses, SMBs, and large enterprises.
N/A
Pricing
Calamari
Gusto
Paychex
Editions & Modules
Leave Mgmt
Starting at 10
per month
Clock In/Clock Out
Starting at 20
per month
Leave Mgmt + Clock In/Clock Out
Starting at 30
per month
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
Paychex Flex Pro
Custom Pricing
per month/+$4 per employee
HR Pro
Custom Pricing
HR PEO
Custom Pricing
Paychex Flex Select
Custom Pricing
Paychex Flex Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Calamari
Gusto
Paychex
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Required
Additional Details
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Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
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, …
We previously managed all of our PTO within Excel, which did not allow us to automatically approve PTO based on various management levels, track specific teams allowance or substitute easily.
Overall, Calamari definitely did help our HR team to save tons of time spent on monitoring the leaves manually. What is more, our team members can see their history and current leave status live. We can surely see the difference using Calamari brought to our business.
Our HR department used Excel and paper request forms for our vacation management, and tracking working hours didn't exist. We were only obliged to sign a list when we were entering the office. Calamari is a huge improvement in every aspect of time tracking and vacation …
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 …
When I first started with this company 5 years ago we used QuickBooks Time. I used it for about a year before we switched over to Gusto. QB Time was accurate and organized, but very chaotic and clunky to use. That software provided way too much info all at once and was not …
In my opinion, Rippling had a super bad UX. I felt like it was impossible to find the areas I wanted to go to- their site navigation simply did not make sense. With Gusto it's so much easier to naviagate.
I have evaluated Rippling, it is more expensive but does have more of the features for connecting to other systems to make onboarding and off boarding team members easier. It is more complex and will take time to implement, so I do think Gusto has a lot of whats needed for …
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.
Gusto was at a price point that fit our budget, without all the extra features our small company would not take advantage of. It was truly the right fit for our growing company, and we are happy that we made this switch! Looking forward to seeing more capabilities come out as …
Not sure what we used before I came into my role. We started using Gusto when we changed accounting services and it was their recommended platform to use.
Paycom was more than we needed for our payroll and human resource needs at this time. While it may offer additional integrations, features, and other bells and whistles it wasn't something we needed in the short team and Gusto meets our current and short term future needs. We …
I believe Gusto is the superior tool compared to these two. It's ease of use and 'all in one' HR platform makes it second to none. Gusto offers more features and does not look ancient like these other tools. Ease and functionality and the numerous possibilities make it above …
Gusto is cheaper and just much more user friendly than other tools with similar skill sets that I have used previously. I much prefer its user interface, how the mobile app and desktop work seamlessly, and how just how much more affordable it is. While it still is expensive, …
Gusto is a cost-effective solution for small businesses who don't require added modules, complex integrations or advanced reporting. Simple and effective!
Rippling has been more than frustrating to work with, to say the least. Gusto doesn't just do what a payroll software should do; they make it so easy that it doesn't feel like a burden. The comparison is unmatched. Gusto doesn't meet expectations; it blows them out of the …
Paychex is much more user friendly than ADP Run or ADP Total Source. However, I do like that ADP has an option to upload documents related to payroll such as notices from the state (DOR, UI, etc) and creates a case where notes from their rep are added and a case # is provided. …
I used Bangor Payroll prior to Paychex and they were better than Paychex. I didn't select Paychex, it was already at the organization when I joined it.
Both ADP and Paychex are very good at informing businesses of the latest changes regarding payroll. Not sure which one is better, but very much get the most out of each. Both are informative and always looking at additional topics in a world that is constantly changing. …
Paychex has been around for a long time and have used it at other organizations. The payroll functionality is the best out of the other systems I have used. They all are great with handling the HR needs of our organization but Paychex is the most streamlined.
We use BambooHR in tandem with Paychex. BambooHR is our timesheet service, and Paychex issues the checks/payments to our employees. Ideally we would use one service instead of two to achieve our payment and timesheet needs.
I far prefer Rippling to Paychex Flex, with its easy to navigate interface and user friendly model. I also appreciate the payday emails from Rippling and the paystub breakdown. It is also very easy and simple to request and view PTO in Rippling. I really dread having to use …
I'm unable to give you a comparison because Paychex is the only payroll service I've used since I started my business over ten years ago. I've had no reason to explore other payroll services or make a change. I trust it will remain that way for as long as I'm in business.
In addition to the ones listed above, we also used BenePay, a local payroll company. We found Paychex Flex priced in the middle, with ADP the most expensive and too complicated, with many features that were unnecessary for us. We found that Paychex Flex's features and reporting …
Based on what I've noticed, Paychex is comparable to DayForce, which has similar timekeeping functions. I think DayForce has a few easier-to-navigate tools from an Employee Self Service standpoint. iSolved is much better all around from my personal usage. If my company had more …
Gusto is more intuitive than Paychex and easier for smaller companies. Paychex has better customer support than Paylocity. Paychex is easier to navigate than Paycom.
Paychex offers much more than just tracking employee attendance and managing employee records. It offers Payroll services, Human Resource Services, Retirement Services, On-Boarding Services, Employee-Self Services, Employee Benefits Management, Employee Handbook Services, …
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).
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.
Overall we have had a good experience. The unfortunate part of being with them for over 10 years is the change-over in support specialists and sometimes the lack of transparency when that occurs or the lack of personalized communication. However, the ease of use and streamlined services for reporting and recording payroll and onboarding employees is definitely a benefit to the service. Being able to pull reports and review past employees information can be invaluable at times. Knowing I have peace of mind when it comes to tax documentation because someone else is ensuring it is handled and handled correctly is very important
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.
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.
When it comes to audit reports, Paychex Flex could improve on helping clients locate the correct reports for audit purposes more easily
When a client receives a discount, it would be helpful if the discount were automatically provided each year, or if the Paychex rep proactively reached out to the client first, versus the client having to call and request that the discount continue.
It would be helpful if the invoice was emailed to the client versus the client logging in to access invoices.
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.
there are a lot of competitors on the market such as BambooHR and Insperity. Paychex need to make significant improvement on their offline customer service in order to compete with the other guys. Everything is online now and timely response to customer's questions is vital. Customers won't enjoy being put on hold for 45 mins every time they have a question regarding their HSA problems
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!
Employee usability is very good and user-friendly. For the most part, the employer usability is good, but for complicated rules and policies, it requires technical assistance, which in our case, was clunky and slow in implementation. Once is place, everything works as it should
We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.
Unless there is lag time within the internet, the Paychex Flex website loads exceptional fast, pages load quickly and reports that I need to print or download load quickly. If I need to create a specialized report, once I complete it I receive an e-mail telling me my report is ready to be downloaded. Changing between web pages is fast as well.
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.
Chat has been helpful but the person I chat with isn't always able to help me with my questions. Phone support is ok, depending on your payroll specialist. We have a great one currently, but the few before that were never available and did not return calls.
It was easy to understand and follow along. I do like the informational videos that we can utilize before we opt to call in for customer service support. It has made a difference since sometimes that resolves the issue I may have had and saved myself a phone call to Paychex support.
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
Implementation was very smooth. The most cumbersome task was entering the current employees into the system during initial set up, but Paychex staff handled most of that and verified against prior system reports as well as internal reports provided to ensure 100% accuracy.
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.
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.
Paychex is much more user friendly than ADP Run or ADP Total Source. However, I do like that ADP has an option to upload documents related to payroll such as notices from the state (DOR, UI, etc) and creates a case where notes from their rep are added and a case # is provided. This helps create a good way to track a notice and be sure it is resolved. I have sent requests to close different states when a company no longer has an employee there or have been told an item has been filed/completed, only to receive a notice later from Paychex notification or the the state claiming the issue is unresolved. When you have as many clients as we do, this can feel messy.
Employees can log in at home and get up to date information on their FSA balance and any medical bill reimbursements they may have uploaded. At renewal time they have the ability to make changes to their FSA or for new employees star the enrollment.
This software has provided visibility to shift managers and department leads that they never had before in managing their subordinates. They now have an easy-to-use go-to source for seeing who has PTO, how much they have available, and what the work calendar looks like, allowing them to make better-informed decisions.
With this software to manage open enrollment, we can now get through that process with a tool we use regularly, rather than jumping into enrollment management software only once a year and having to relearn it each year.
Literally thousands of steps are saved each week by not needing to traverse the entire shop floor or track people down to clear up questions with time cards. With everything digital, so much can be observed and addressed in real-time through the app.
