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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Frontline HCM

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AN/AN/A

    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
    Frontline HCMGusto
    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
    Frontline HCMGusto
    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
    Frontline HCMGusto
    Considered Both Products
    Frontline Education
    No answer on this topic
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    86%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    9 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    Features
    Frontline HCMGusto
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Frontline HCM and Gusto
    Feature
    Frontline HCM
    -
    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
    Frontline HCMGusto
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Frontline HCMGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (16 ratings)
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    4.3
    (27 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Frontline HCMGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Frontline Education
    Frontline is well suited for an organization such as a school district where teachers sometimes need to put in for a substitute at the last minute or especially early in the morning. The system also helps with substitutes in picking up the jobs when a teacher puts in an absence.
    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
    Frontline Education
    • Easily submission process. Select the day you need to schedule on the listed calendar, mark the type of request, and submit.
    • Works on different digital devices including phones, tablets, and computers.
    • Easily track your balances by looking at your account history.
    • Delete requests you have already submitted.
    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
    Frontline Education
    • Teachers cannot cancel their own absence. We have to ask the office staff to do so. This is irritating when an absence must be canceled (Due to a canceled professional development, for example).
    • Sometimes absences go unfilled. It would be great if AESOP could have a roster of qualified substitutes to cover absences.
    • You cannot assign your absence to a particular substitute if you know he or she is available and a good fit for your absence.
    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
    Frontline Education
    Long time customer with Frontline Absence Management. Product support has been excellent, integrations easy to work with, & suite of products mesh together well.
    Incentivized
    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
    Frontline Education
    While we have had minor issues logging in as our organization has its own login page, the site and its application are very easy to use. So long as members of a group log in through the appropriate page, navigating and using this site is quite easy. With the transition from Aesop to Frontline, the page also seems to have worked through any glitches found with the previous page and its app.
    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
    Frontline Education
    There have been several times the system was unavailable. When there has been an issue, Frontline HAS NOT notified us....which has been disappointing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Frontline Education
    No issues reported by end users of slow or not loading pages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Frontline Education
    Internal support is provided by EDU Staff based out of Grand Rapids. Whenever I have had an issue they are very responsive to my needs. For instance, there may be conflicts in the amount of money that was listed for the contract. There may be questions about the length of an assignment such as 1/2 day, full day, or early dismissal. The school will sometimes enter the wrong information. Very good IT support, but sometimes you are on hold for 5 to 10 minutes because they do not have enough workers in their Call Center
    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
    In-Person Training
    Frontline Education
    Our Implementer/Trainer was a product line expert. He (Connor) walked us through every step with confidence and explained everything in detail. Frontline provided written documentation, cut-n-paste emails to staff, and a test environment for us to play in. We were able to test unique scenarios without actually sending emails, notifications, alerts to staff. This was very useful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Frontline Education
    Our Frontline implementer was an expert in the field & knew the product in & out. We had very little issues going live.
    Incentivized
    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
    Frontline Education
    Frontline seems to be the industry standard for this software in the education industry. I am not familiar with any competitors or what was evaluated prior to implementing Frontline. For it to be the industry standard, I would assume that its cost is fair in relation to competitors and that the onboarding process is simple.
    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
    Scalability
    Frontline Education
    Our district has approximately 300 substitutes & 1,800 employees. Size has never been an issue with Absence Management. There are other districts much larger using Absence Management with no problems
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Frontline Education
    • It's given staff direct access to inputting their absences and secure coverage quicker, whereas before they had to make a call to a person. That person had to secure coverage for the entire district at different levels. Sometimes that person was absent or unable to provide coverage.
    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