Deputy is a web-based workforce manager solution. Deputy is designed to help users simplify their scheduling, timesheets, HR, payroll, tasking, employee communication and administrative tasks. It includes various apps and one click payroll integration that aim to make workforce management easier. The Deputy platform enables users to schedule in line with demand, prepare accurate payroll, and communicate more clearly. Deputy streamlines employee admin, so teams can…
$5.50
per month per user
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.
$49
per month
Pricing
Deputy
Gusto
Editions & Modules
Lite
$5.50
per month per user
Core
$7.25
per month per user
Pro
$10
per month per user
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
Deputy
Gusto
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
Optional
No setup fee
Additional Details
Discount available for annual billing.
Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
Gusto is more user-friendly than some of the competition, and the base plans for small business are competitive in price or lower in most cases. Gusto has more 3rd-party integrations than many of their competitors, which is a huge bonus for us. Employee access portals are …
There's no comparison here. Any other payroll tool we've ever looked at just can't measure up, at least for our small business use. I'm sure there are some niche applications we're missing, but it just isn't an issue for us. Gusto has a better UI, better support, employees …
[My own feeling on the subject is] that large teams will probably enjoy the features much more than a smaller team. [In my opinion] I would not have signed up with Deputy had it not been for the integration with my payroll provider. [From my point of view] the cost is not worth it for a small team. [I've found] it has a lot of features geared towards big teams and those are not things you can "opt-out" of from a cost/tier standpoint [as far as I'm concerned].
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.
The basic functionality and overall efficiency it provides is enough to renew. I still would like to see improvements in reporting and leave management, but overall it is absolutely worth it to have the program. I especially like having remote access and supervisors scheduling and approving time sheets of employees
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.
Deputy is user-friendly and easy to understand for users with basic to moderate computer knowledge. The Employee is simple and easy for employees to understand. Employees get push notifications when shifts are scheduled and can clock in and out easily directly from the phone or kiosk, or using the website. The only challenge we’ve had is the ability for management to assign leave to employees who have not yet requested time off.
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!
Every time I have contacted support they have answered my question within the hour and solved every problem we have had. They follow up to make sure we are satisfied with our results which has been great when we are busy and get distracted
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.
It took me a bit to get all my staff input from our previous scheduling software. However, once all the information was there, everything went smoothly and we were able to start implementing Deputy right away. It did not take long to train my staff and have them comfortable with using the system.
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
For years we used TimeTrax systems but they were hard to use and required manual downloads of punches, networked setups, and we needed separate setups for each location. When evaluating cloud-based solutions we first tried TSheets, but the higher cost and lack of features made us choose Deputy. Our main complaint about the actual TSheets system was the IPads did not store punches when it first launched so if you lost internet it couldn't store the punches. When we were evaluating the system they were building a police station next door that resulted in intermittent internet outages and the kiosk app basically became a brick until the internet came back on.
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.
We have gone from using deputy simply to schedule a couple of members of staff on coffee shop shifts, to also scheduling staff in the retail unit part of our business, to now also scheduling team days and having remote working staff start on schedule shifts to track their working hours.
Hundreds of man-hours saved monthly that previously was spent on recording hours work.
Holiday management is very clear and support fair treatment of staff.
The 100% accuracy of timesheets is amazing. Once approved thousands of timesheets just land in our payroll system thanks to the export/import functions.
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.
