Clockify vs. Gusto vs. TriNet HR Plus

Clockify is an easy 10 over 10 recommendation for me. I would recommend this anyone especially if they're required to track their time and productivity while on the job. Office workers, tellers, bankers - any desk jobs really can very well use the awesome features of Clockify to the fullest extent. It is easy to use, very simple to set up, and doesn't require that much resource from your computer for up-keep

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

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

Incentivized

• Clockify records exact times on a per project basis when you click Start/Stop.
• User interface is very easy. It is easy to add a project on the fly, change the times I just recorded if I forgot to click Stop for example. The interface is intuitive and gives me the flexibility I need.
• Reporting gives me everything I need from times, hours per project, billable or not, per client and any tags I've created. This provides enough flexibility for many different use cases.

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

• Payroll services in all 50 states, including payroll tax filings
• Integrations with tools like QuickBooks, Google Workspace, Slack, and Human Interest (401(k))
• Simple yet powerful mobile app for employees to access information including paystubs, benefits, and time off requests
• Streamlined admin portal for People Ops professionals

• In general, manuals or how to use instructional videos are always welcome - just covering the very basic are very good to get everyone up and running.
• Maybe work on your scalability - the main reason why we switched to a different provider is because the company was ramping up and the competitors have more features that come with not just time and productivity tracking.
• I always like the classic blue and white pallets on the app but sometimes I just wish there's more option to customize how it looks just to give it a little more flavor.

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

• Support doesn't exist once you are a customer
• Tax team has a 3-6 month response time
• Poor Menu/Navigation structure
• Fails to pay taxes on time, results in delinquency notices and fees
• Glitchy UI, sometimes you need to wait a day or two for a section to work again
• Feels like a perpetual beta product, nothing polished about it

I'm using the free version at the moment and loving it. What a great product, easy, responsive and has better up time than Yahoo Mail. :) What isn't there to like?

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.

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.

Incentivized

Very affordable, accessible and simple. For this very reason I would say, it culminates to Clockify being very beginner and start-up friendly. It is its strongest suit after all, and this is the main reason why I would recommend this to anyone. I am very thankful for me ex colleague who recommended this to me, we're no longer working together but I still hear that he's still using Clockify to this very day on his own business

Incentivized

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

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.

I have never had an issue logging in or it not being available. I use Clockify every work day during the week, frequently starting/stopping projects. I've had past experience with other systems that suddenly aren't usable for an hour and that is something I have never experienced with Clockify. They are doing something right on their backend. Nice job, Clockify folks

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

I already mentioned how it feels light across the wire. Pages load fast in the web browser. I have not tried the browser plug-in nor the mobile app. I give it a 9 instead of 10 as the desktop app seemed to hesitate when I clicked the start/stop of a project/task

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

I dealt very little with customer support because Clockify is so easy to use. That being said, the few times I did, I got fast responses and any issues that I did have were solved in a very fast manner.

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

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

Incentivized

Can't really say just because I would not know.

Incentivized

It went through successfully.

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

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

Incentivized

Harvest is very similar to Clockify. The only difference is that Harvest also has an invoicing and billing system built into it. So if you're billing your clients based off of time directly, Harvest may be a better option as far as that goes. Of course, Harvest only has minimum billing increments of 6 or 10 minutes, there is no 10-minute option so that's something where Clockify has them beat. They are both very easy to use.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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

Because it feels light on the wire and runs so smoothly with great up-time. I have to assume that the same is true as it scales. I'm a single user so maybe I don't see if there are any scalability issues. With the way it seems architected to run so quickly across many platforms (desktop, mobile, web, browser plug-in), I have to think that it is using recent technology that provides scalability options

Incentivized

It is very easy to use and does not require the end user to go to multiple sites to obtain many facets of HR/ Payroll information that the app offers

Incentivized

• The free plan really did everything we needed for the 6 months or so we used it. Without Clockify, we would have had to pay roughly $40+/month for a software tool.
• When we upgraded to the paid version, it was still only $10/month and helped us be able to have minimum billing increments which is a huge monetary increase.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• 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.