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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Harpoon

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AHarpoon is a web-hosted accounting and finance app that helps freelancers and consultants set and meet their financial goals. In addition, Harpoon provides useful tools to help users collect revenue and manage finances. Features include time tracking, invoicing, expense tracking, project scheduling and more.  The vendor’s value proposition is that their solution that helps users boost their freelancing career.

    $19

    per month

    Pricing
    GustoHarpoon
    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
    Single User - Unlimited Everything
    $19
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoHarpoon
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsGusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GustoHarpoon
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Harpoon
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    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
    GustoHarpoon
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Harpoon
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    612 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Harpoon
    -
    Ratings
    Pay calculation9.5588 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration8.6417 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.7593 Ratings00 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management9.0463 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reimbursement management9.0197 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoHarpoon
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Time Doctor
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score6 out of 10
    Toggl Track
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.6 out of 10
    TimeCamp
    Score7.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoHarpoon
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (634 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (458 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    5.0
    (27 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoHarpoon
    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
    Harpoon
    I think Harpoon works best for freelancers, consultants, self employed people and smaller companies with less client to bill. For larger enterprises with hundreds or thousands of clients, there are larger, more intricate platforms in the market that are better suited for those needs.
    Incentivized
    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
    Harpoon
    • Makes Sending Invoices & Collecting Payment Easy, for Freelancers
    • Tracking Financial Goals (Monthly & Annual) & Projecting Future Results
    • Provides Insights On AR, Earned Income, Top Clients, and other helpful but highly relevant data points.
    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
    Harpoon
    • Sometimes expense reporting bring up duplicate transactions, which may be more of a fault of the API that connects my account, which is Plaid
    • Would be nice if in the future, they can offer ACH as one of the payment options for invoices
    • There are some redundancies that pop up when setting time frames for client work and the projects attached to them. If they aren't aligned, it can cause inaccurate reporting. If it just sent it once and it took care of both functions, it would be easier
    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
    Harpoon
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Harpoon
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Harpoon
    The few times I've needed help or had questions about the platform, the founder got back to me. And fairly fast. The extra effort resonated well with me
    Incentivized
    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
    Harpoon
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Harpoon
    I've used Less Accounting and & Quickbooks Online. After Less Accounting was acquired, its development was mostly stopped. While the tool was a simple way to manage invoices and expenses, its directional philosophy changed with the new owners. Quickbooks Online was a solid tool, but the company support was unhelpful and hard to work with at times. Harpoon provides a great tool, with a company that cares about its users.
    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
    Harpoon
    • Clear and precise visibility of my financial status.
    • Projections of how I'm doing today, this month, and this year.
    • Clarity on what needs to happen with client development to reach my goals.
    • It shrinks the amount of time I spend on getting clients to pay my invoices.
    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

    Harpoon Screenshots

    Screenshot of Harpoon's Dashboard showcases over a dozen crucial metrics to help you understand the health of your business. Enjoy the big picture view of your freelancing finances.Screenshot of Every business has expenses and Harpoon is the perfect place to track them. Assign expenses to your projects and easily add those expenses to invoices for reimbursement.Screenshot of You'll appreciate how simple it is to create invoices, and your clients will appreciate the one-click ease of making payments online. Harpoon's invoices are clean and beautiful, a perfect complement to the professional services and products you provide.Screenshot of All of a project's invoices, expenses, and recorded hours are grouped and organized in one convenient place ready for you to take action, or simply there for historical reference. Handy!Screenshot of Harpoon gives you powerful tools to track and organize your time. Simple one-click timers combined with flexible reporting puts you in total control of your business's tracked time.