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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    FreshBooks

    Score9.2 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.

    $21

    per month

    Gusto

    Score8.9 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
    FreshBooksGusto
    Editions & Modules
    Lite
    $21
    per month
    Plus
    $38
    per month
    Premium
    $65
    per month
    Select
    Custom Pricing
    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
    FreshBooksGusto
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details10% discount for annual pricing.Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FreshBooksGusto
    Considered Both Products
    FreshBooks
    Chose FreshBooks
    FreshBooks interface is better than QuickBooks. Xero's interface is more basic than both, but seems to work fine.
    Incentivized
    Gusto
    Chose Gusto
    The nature of my business is software development so naturally I was after a way to address this tedious task with some type of automation. Gusto was actually recommended by another tool I use (FreshBooks). After reviewing what it offered and having used Utilipro at work, I …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto was the only payroll provider we used for our business. Before Gusto we were running payroll manually, which was cumbersome and didn’t account for our tax liability. Gusto is heads and shoulders above running payroll manually. It takes the load of payroll management off …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    69%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    82%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    54%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    64%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    62%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    Features
    FreshBooksGusto
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of FreshBooks and Gusto
    Feature
    FreshBooks
    9.1
    35 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    API for custom integration9.330 Ratings00 Ratings
    Plug-ins9.026 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of FreshBooks and Gusto
    Feature
    FreshBooks
    10.0
    41 Ratings
    20% above category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Single sign-on capability10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions10.041 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of FreshBooks and Gusto
    Feature
    FreshBooks
    7.5
    57 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards9.057 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports8.855 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports4.82 Ratings00 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of FreshBooks and Gusto
    Feature
    FreshBooks
    7.5
    56 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Accounts payable8.041 Ratings00 Ratings
    Accounts receivable9.455 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cash management7.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Expense management6.651 Ratings00 Ratings
    Time tracking7.642 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-currency support7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Regulations compliance6.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self-service portal9.13 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of FreshBooks and Gusto
    Feature
    FreshBooks
    9.5
    49 Ratings
    25% above category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Pricing8.839 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order entry9.337 Ratings00 Ratings
    Credit card processing9.741 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of FreshBooks and Gusto
    Feature
    FreshBooks
    -
    Ratings
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Pay calculation00 Ratings9.5587 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings8.58 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration00 Ratings8.7417 Ratings
    Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.7592 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings9.0462 Ratings
    Reimbursement management00 Ratings9.0196 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FreshBooksGusto
    Small Businesses
    QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
    Score4.2 out of 10
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    MYOB
    Score8.3 out of 10
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Microsoft Dynamics GP
    Score5.4 out of 10
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FreshBooksGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.6
    (75 ratings)
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.6
    (18 ratings)
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    Usability
    9.6
    (20 ratings)
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.0
    (11 ratings)
    4.3
    (27 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FreshBooksGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    FreshBooks
    I recommend FreshBooks to anyone running a service-based business that needs invoicing, time reporting, and accounting tools. FB is adept in all three of these scenarios and isn't overly complicated like similar accounting packages I have used. I love how I can write estimates and proposals, manage the business development process from the software, and quickly convert prospects to invoiced clients.
    Incentivized
    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
    FreshBooks
    • Invoicing - FreshBooks basically ensures our accountants spend less time on invoices via its automated invoicing system, which sends invoices to our customers and clients alike and also send them regular reminders for them to pay up their bills.
    • Collecting business insights - FreshBooks enable our company analysts measure our business performances via data reports provided by FreshBooks' intuitive dashboard. Allowing us do a comparative analysis of key business metrics of a current month against past months and determine if the business is growing.
    • Expense tracker - We have recently embraced FreshBooks as an expense tracker for teams at our company branch. Thusfar, FreshBooks has performed very well, making our expense management a perfect operation; ensuring teams do not exceed their planned budget and also eliminating the need for tracking expenses on excel spreadsheets.
    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
    FreshBooks
    • I can brand invoices with my business logo, but I might like to change colours of the invoices themselves to match the rest of my business documents. That isn't a major point at all, but it's something that I'd like to see.
    • Freshbooks doesn't remember the categories that similar expenses were previously assigned to. It would be nice if Freshbooks would suggest a category for an already saved vendor, to ensure the consistency of expense reporting.
    • The home page of a Freshbooks account has a great graph display of expenses and income, but it only shows the last 6 months. This is still very useful, but I'd like to be able to see this kind of graph for different periods of time.
    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
    FreshBooks
    At the current needs of our business, FreshBooks suits us perfectly - it allows online access by our accountant to the system for GST purposes, easy input of expenses and tracking of Profit and Loss statements. FreshBooks customer service is great as well - very understanding and accommodating.
    Read full review
    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
    FreshBooks
    FreshBooks is very easy to use even for novices. If you're looking for an online accounting software that is full of features, has great aesthetics and is user-friendly, then this is definitely the software for you. I've been using it for several years now and despite being tempted to switch by other vendors, I like the feel of FreshBooks and it's mobile features.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Reliability and Availability
    FreshBooks
    FreshBooks is easy to use and always works!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    FreshBooks
    I think the support level for FreshBooks is on par with a 6 because the folks behind this application do a fairly good job at providing support for their customer base. I still don't think they are at an elite level when it comes to supporting but are getting there although too slow in my opinion.
    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
    FreshBooks
    I haven't changed my mind since my first evaluation. Freshbooks is still meeting my needs, easy to use, etc.
    Read full review
    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
    FreshBooks
    FreshBooks does very well in comparison, especially since it is free software for Barclays bank users. Sage software is much worse than FreshBooks. However, Xero and QuickBooks, the market leaders, are still ahead with usability, additional features, reporting, and connection with third-party software providers. We chose FreshBooks as it does everything we require from this type of software.
    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
    FreshBooks
    • In reality, we do not implement all of its use at the moment in order to determine an adequate ROI.
    • In our approach to the use of the system, it seems to us a considerable time saving by achieving the integration of the Mexican subsidiary with its parent located in the US.
    • Financial reports meet the necessary USGAAP requirements.
    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

    FreshBooks Screenshots

    Screenshot of the dashboardScreenshot of an invoice overviewScreenshot of an example of a customizable invoiceScreenshot of an invoice appearing across devicesScreenshot of expensesScreenshot of time tracking

    Gusto Screenshots

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