Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Gusto
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Gusto offers payroll, benefits and compliance capabilities. Gusto is scaled for small to mid-sized businesses, and emphasizes an easy to use interface.
$46
per month
Heartland Payroll+
Score 3.7 out of 10
N/A
Heartland Payroll+ is presented as a complete management solution, designed to serve as a single point of contact, making it easy to deal with any issue. Customers have online access to their payroll data and employee information, and Heartland’s tools are accessible on the go.N/A
Pricing
GustoHeartland Payroll+
Editions & Modules
Simple: A streamlined set of automatic payroll features and benefits integrations
$40/month + $6/mo per person
$12 per employee/contractor
Plus: Comprehensive payroll, benefits, and HR tools for employers building a great place to work
$80/month + $12/mo per person
Premium: Scalable payroll and benefits, expert HR, and dedicated support for the complex needs of growing teams
Exclusive pricing, contact Gusto
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GustoHeartland Payroll+
Free Trial
YesNo
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, so you can choose the plan that meets your business needs.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GustoHeartland Payroll+
Considered Both Products
Gusto
Chose Gusto
Heartland was cumbersome to load employee data into the system for the first run, took longer to adhere to direct deposit, and made it extremely difficult to fix a system error that resulted in incorrect payments.
Heartland Payroll+

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
GustoHeartland Payroll+
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
8.6
162 Ratings
4% above category average
Heartland Payroll+
8.3
8 Ratings
0% above category average
Pay calculation8.6154 Ratings9.24 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.9106 Ratings9.72 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.7157 Ratings3.17 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.4133 Ratings9.25 Ratings
Reimbursement management9.511 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings9.72 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GustoHeartland Payroll+
Small Businesses
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.0 out of 10
Patriot Software
Patriot Software
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.3 out of 10
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GustoHeartland Payroll+
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(175 ratings)
2.6
(8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
2.0
(23 ratings)
1.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(1 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
GustoHeartland Payroll+
Likelihood to Recommend
Gusto
I would love to use Gusto for companies of all staff sizes but I understand that larger businesses will opt for a PEO and willingly give up flexibility and features to do that. However, I love that Gusto can be customized on so many levels – offer letter, adding documents for new hires, document verification, deploying documents to existing staff, tracking who has signed, helping staff select health benefits (love that this is an entirely paperless process!), screen share support (love this!), a host of integrations with other apps are easy to link up. The interface is delightful (love the piglet!), HR support for Master Admins is very professional. There are templates, forms, rules and updates provided for all States. And the reports are so easy to read, customize and understand. Amazing!
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Global Payments
We changed payroll companies from Paycom to Heartland this year at the recommendation of our insurance agent who insisted they would integrate with the EASE system, which tracks employee benefits and deductions. However, 8 weeks into it, I regret my decision, since the setup hasn't been completed yet. The lack of responsiveness in some cases is astounding and often we have to ask 3, 4, and 5 times for something to be done. I hate to think what will happen after we are "handed off" from the payroll implementation team to the regular schmucks. We still are not able to track PTO and time off and we have been begging for the self-service feature to be turned on for employees so they can change addresses, bank account info, etc. Their training is NONEXISTENT and their manual is abysmal. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!! I wish I could go back to Paycom!
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Pros
Gusto
  • The self-service aspect of the software is very nice. We rarely need to get customer service involved.
  • For the first 2 years of our subscription to Gusto, customer service has been good when we needed it.
  • We have also had good experience with third parties recommended by Gusto including a 401(k) administrator, R&D tax credit analyst, and background check software.
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Global Payments
  • White-glove customer support. All employees are in the United States and they must pay them well, because they don't seem to have turnover there.
  • Technology is awesome. We have Payroll, HR, T&A, ATS, and onboarding with them.
  • Their Tax Credit tech is amazing. I received more money in tax credits last year than payroll cost me. That's a net positive!
  • Compliance with their HR team is great, and they don't hit you over the head on the price for it.
  • Pricing is fantastic with a 3-year price lock. No BS discounting that jumps back up a year later.
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Cons
Gusto
  • The support isn't very impressive, although it's rare that we even need their help.
  • I would like to see a better scheduling tool for the staff. Currently I have to use Homebase for this feature alone because Gusto's offering is lacking in this area.
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Global Payments
  • Sometimes the system (geocode) will not allow me to process address changes by asking for help from our specialist.
  • Response for assistance is usually a lot slower when our dedicated specialist is not available.
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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.
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Global Payments
No answers on this topic
Usability
Gusto
The UI is clean and simple. It's incredibly easy to find what you need to find, and if you can't, a quick search of their help files will direct you where you need to go about 90% of the time. For that last 10%, a support e-mail will result in a quick answer. Almost any time I try to do something new I haven't done before with Gusto, I can do it in a few minutes.
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Global Payments
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.
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Global Payments
I never have trouble reaching customer support. They always are able to assist with fixing any problems that arise. There honestly haven't been many issues at all. Only ones I've created :)
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Implementation Rating
Gusto
Super easy to implement and use!
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Global Payments
The Heartland team could care less about how difficult your experience is. In fact, I think they delight in seeing you struggle!
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Alternatives Considered
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 your shoulders and gives employees and easy to use portal to manage their personal payroll information.
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Global Payments
I've considered moving payroll over to QuickBooks Online so that everything is in one place, but it would probably take too much work considering that our current system works really well. I think QuickBooks would confuse me, honestly. There are other systems that offer different user interfaces that are neat looking, but I haven't done too much research because Heartland Payroll offered me a really good deal for processing since we are a small company.
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Return on Investment
Gusto
  • Saves me time and time is money so I've definitely saved money using Gusto over other payroll providers
  • 401k integration was not a good fit for my size company unfortunately, which I was disappointed about initially, but if you are a larger company it could be an excellent asset to your benefits structure for your team
  • Has increased employee retention because of its ease of use
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Global Payments
  • We have a net positive using Heartland. We actually bring more money in from their tax credits than the payroll service actually costs.
  • I used to have a part-time person handing our payroll/HR needs. Now this is done by me because it's so easy.
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ScreenShots

Gusto Screenshots

Screenshot of Flexible, automated payrollScreenshot of Time-off trackingScreenshot of The source of truth for HR data