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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    First Advantage, now with Sterling Check

    Score6.6 out of 10
    N/AFirst Advantage background and identity solutions, now with Sterling Check, help build a foundation of trust and safety for employees, customers, and partners around the world. Sterling's CourtDirect technology provides direct online digital access to ~90% of US criminal search records, and SmartData technology enables First Advantage to further automate across the end-to-end employment criminal background check process – from matching candidate data to determining reportability and applying any…N/A

    Gusto

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AGusto 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
    First Advantage, now with Sterling CheckGusto
    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
    First Advantage, now with Sterling CheckGusto
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    First Advantage, now with Sterling CheckGusto
    Considered Both Products
    First Advantage
    No answer on this topic
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    78%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    78%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    78%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    Features
    First Advantage, now with Sterling CheckGusto
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of First Advantage, now with Sterling Check and Gusto
    Feature
    First Advantage, now with Sterling Check
    -
    Ratings
    Gusto
    9.1
    612 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Pay calculation00 Ratings9.5588 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings8.58 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration00 Ratings8.7417 Ratings
    Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.7593 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings9.0463 Ratings
    Reimbursement management00 Ratings9.0197 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    First Advantage, now with Sterling CheckGusto
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    APS
    Score6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    First Advantage, now with Sterling CheckGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    2.6
    (10 ratings)
    9.1
    (634 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (458 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    4.9
    (27 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    First Advantage, now with Sterling CheckGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    First Advantage
    SterlingOne has had my background check in progress for nearly a month. I spoke with them 5 days ago about the issue and discovered there was a criminal record flag in Connecticut. I have never been to Connecticut. They said this can often happen if an individual has the same name, birthday, or last four digits of SSN. This is clearly a flaw in their system if someone with the same name or birthday can appear on the same background check. I feel bad for any John Smith who applies for a job with a company that uses SterlingOne, they'll never get past the screening. Not only is this a flawed system, but when I spoke with customer service about this, they guaranteed they would expedite this within 24-48 hours. It has now been 5 days and when I called back, they said they would expedite this as if I had never called in the first place. I have been through numerous background checks for work in my life, I have done live scans and had my fingerprints taken, and have been approved to work with children with special needs (which requires a very rigorous screening) and I have never experienced such a disjointed and unprofessional process.
    Read full review
    Gusto
    I think Gusto is well-suited for any business, big or small, to use for accounting purposes. It makes it easy to keep track of many things, such as pay stubs, benefits, paid time off, and much more. Where I could see it being less useful is maybe for enterprise businesses with way more employees.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    First Advantage
    • Crisp and clean documentation around candidate profiles
    • Lean and efficient business processes which are predictable and outcome centric
    • Prompt customer support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    • 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
    Read full review
    Cons
    First Advantage
    • In my opinion, Horrible new platform "Sterling check"
    • No designated account representative
    • In my experience, Poor troubleshooting support
    • Customer service often doesn't answer questions
    • Many back and forth needed to resolve issues
    • Recently changed platform and not offering the same services
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    • 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
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    First Advantage
    No answers on this topic
    Gusto
    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.
    Read full review
    Usability
    First Advantage
    No answers on this topic
    Gusto
    Gusto is pretty user-friendly, and the website is easy to navigate overall. They also offer good, responsive customer support and have helpful articles available when needed. So far, I have not had any major issues with the platform and am overall very happy with it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    First Advantage
    • Sterling Talent is an excellent company for performing the background checks for our new hires. However, the delay in processing times can be improved.
    • Also, there should be automation from legacy systems to pick up the candidate details as much as possible instead of asking for more details from the candidate via email.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    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
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    First Advantage
    No answers on this topic
    Gusto
    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
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    First Advantage
    We had no issues with HireRight. The system worked well and we had excellent service. The only reason we selected Sterling is we changed our ATS to Compas and wanted to be integrated with a background check company. Sterling was only one of two options and offered onboarding capabilities. The other did not
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    First Advantage
    • Quick results allow us to hire people in short time frames and get them onboarded quickly.
    • The product, and the customer service team, doesn't require much management from a vendor relations perspective.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    • Time tracking + payroll calculations me 30-60 minutes every time I run payroll.
    • Integrated workers' comp, so I didn't have to find an outside carrier and get quotes—it's all taken care of in the same platform.
    • Improved employee experience with onboarding.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Gusto Screenshots

    Screenshot of Gusto's automated payrollScreenshot of the time-off tracking interfaceScreenshot of the source of truth for HR data