TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)

    Score7.2 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    Halogen Software offered the TalentSpace talent management solution which was acquired by Saba in 2017 and that is no longer for sale.N/A
    Pricing
    GustoHalogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    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
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoHalogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional DetailsGusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GustoHalogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    71%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    60%
    Delivers good value for the price
    3 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    86%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    GustoHalogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Pay calculation9.5587 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration8.7417 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.7592 Ratings00 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management9.0462 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reimbursement management9.0196 Ratings00 Ratings
    Onboarding
    Comparison of Onboarding features of Gusto and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    7.8
    8 Ratings
    7% above category average
    New hire portal00 Ratings7.76 Ratings
    Manager tracking tools00 Ratings7.68 Ratings
    Compliance tracking and reporting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Performance and Goals
    Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Gusto and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    5.1
    33 Ratings
    36% below category average
    Corporate goal setting00 Ratings3.528 Ratings
    Subordinate goal setting00 Ratings3.628 Ratings
    Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.232 Ratings
    Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings4.929 Ratings
    Performance tracking00 Ratings6.432 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of Gusto and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    6.1
    32 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Performance plans00 Ratings4.628 Ratings
    Plan weighting00 Ratings8.75 Ratings
    Manager note taking00 Ratings6.012 Ratings
    Performance improvement plans00 Ratings3.625 Ratings
    Review status tracking00 Ratings5.430 Ratings
    Rater nomination workflow00 Ratings7.85 Ratings
    Review reminders00 Ratings6.332 Ratings
    Workflow restrictions00 Ratings8.15 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency00 Ratings7.024 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings3.130 Ratings
    Succession Planning
    Comparison of Succession Planning features of Gusto and Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    7.8
    5 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings7.63 Ratings
    Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.63 Ratings
    Candidate search00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Candidate development00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoHalogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    SumTotal (legacy)
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    Cornerstone Galaxy
    Score8.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoHalogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    4.4
    (58 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.3
    (27 ratings)
    4.4
    (12 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    8.1
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoHalogen TalentSpace (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Discontinued Products
    I think it's a good platform for tracking and monitoring goals, feedback, and development. We don't use the 1:1 meeting feature, however, I can see how that would be valuable for many organizations. I do like that it is very customizable, however, that also presents problems in that sometimes forms and/or processes can be a bit challenging to create easily and quickly.
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • 1:1 agendas are easy to create, add comments to and prompt excellent conversation flow on the topics that truly matter to the manager and the employee.
    • The system can be easily customized to reflect your company's language and culture. We did this in several areas of the platform (goals, development, learning), and it made a world of difference in the understanding and adaptation of our users. One example is that in each learning module, we added 3 questions in the course description so that managers would be automatically prompted to ask to follow up / learning transfer questions when their employees enroll and take a learning course.
    • Halogen support is outstanding. Any question I have had has been answered upon the first contact or within 24 hours.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • My organization does not use all of the functions/modules that Halogen offers, but I find that those modules still appear on the Halogen main page. I think a great area for improvement is to hide these functions so as not to confuse employees.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Implementing a new system and process company wide is never an easy task. We moved so quickly in such a short period of time that we were able to learn quickly but also have the opportunity to improve the Halogen experience. We will more than likely will renew our use of Halogen as we already are seeing a small impact which hopefully in the long run will lead to a greater impact
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Halogen is very intuitive and provides very clean work-space ... lots of white space and modern layouts. There is more than one way to accomplish your action, too!
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Discontinued Products
    We only purchased the appraisal module and without the other modules offered, you are really limited in what you can do and the process becomes much more involved with needing to maintain information across multiple platforms. We found that they charge for everything and call it "consulting." We poured so much money and time into a system that was just overkill for what we really needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    It is very easy to use and I can do my own programming instead of paying a technician and waiting sometimes days for them to program the changes.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Get to know your CAM - Customer Account Manager! They are a lifesaver! (Thanks Jorie Basque!)
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Discontinued Products
    I have used other systems in the past and I like that Halogen provides everything in one space. I would like to see a more developed way to report training, not in the LMS, but I think that for the most part that Halogen is a robust system that is superior to its competition.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • We are able to get our reviews done in a quicker amount of time. Instead of 4-8 weeks we were able to get it done under a month.
    • Halogen has gotten better at given us a heads up when the system will be down. Most patches are done overnight so we can at least verify it was done, but their success rate of a patch not breaking something is not at 99%. So we do lose productivity when the system is down.
    • The tool is easier to do so there are fewer questions from users outside the core team.
    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

    Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued) Screenshots

    Screenshot of ReportsScreenshot of TalentviewScreenshot of 1-1 CoachingScreenshot of Create performance appraisalsScreenshot of Giving FeedbackScreenshot of Score report