ClayHR (formerly BizMerlin) is an HR Management Solution targeted at small and medium-sized teams, allowing them to hire, onboard, manage, allocate and retain their team members. The application is cloud based and available via web browsers and native iOS and Android mobile apps. The vendor also offers 100+ integrations with JIRA, Salesforce, QuickBooks and others. According to the vendor, key capabilities include: Centralized database of people:…
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Gusto
Score 8.9 out of 10
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Gusto offers payroll, benefits and compliance capabilities. Gusto is scaled for small to mid-sized businesses, and emphasizes an easy to use interface.
$49
per month
Pricing
ClayHR
Gusto
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ClayHR
Gusto
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
We took the trial of 3 HR software before going with BizMerlinHR. We wanted to have a comprehensive HR solution to cover our Paperless employee records, employee onboarding, PTO, Timesheets and Employee Performance Management. We were not looking for an Applicant Tracking system and Retention management module, but when we saw the functionality and easy use we were completely sold to those modules as well. It was like add-on but the price of everything was more economical than the other software that we were reviewing
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
We took the trial of 3 HR software before going with BizMerlinHR. We wanted to have a comprehensive HR solution to cover our Paperless employee records, employee onboarding, PTO, Timesheets and Employee Performance Management. We were not looking for an Applicant Tracking system and Retention management module, but when we saw the functionality and easy use we were completely sold to those modules as well. It was like add-on but the price of everything was more economical than the other software that we were reviewing. Also, they really mean when they say "No setup fees" - because they helped us move all of our legacy data into the new system at no extra charge and helped us integrate with QuickBooks online. They definitely provide the best value of money when comparing the same set of features.
We have been using BizMerlinHR since 2018, and both our HR managers and users are very happy.
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.
In terms of costs, it is a very accessible platform, it is flexible and very easy to process the payroll, we also synchronize it directly with Linkedin for job announcements.
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.
