Gusto vs. isolved vs. Paychex

Gusto is well-suited for small businesses looking for a one-stop platform for payroll, tax-related tasks, and onboarding. It has many automated features that make tasks related to running a business/running an S-Corp simpler. I have not tried any other similar platforms, so I am unsure how it compares, but the pricing Gusto offers feels reasonable compared to other providers.

Incentivized

I have not yet run into a scenario that isolved is not appropriate. There have been a few specific functionalities that isolved couldn't accommodate, such as paid PTO plans. If employees frequently switch between different legal companies with different EINs, isolved really isn't built to handle that, and we've had to come up with creative solutions.

Incentivized

Paychex is great option for smaller employers as the site offers perk benefits to employees at no cost to the employer. I don't see anything like this being offered at competitors such as ADP RUN/Total Source, Bamboo, Trinet, Justworks or Gusto. Also, the initial set up is relatively easy and the dedicated support for set up is great along with our regular dedicated payroll support.

Incentivized

• 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

• The payroll processing has been a huge benefit in keeping our weekly payroll process on track and accurate.
• The COBRA services are very beneficial and we do not have to do any tracking. I appreciate this process is no longer on my duty list.
• I would say the third id probably the timekeeping. The system is effective for daily tracking and timecard review. The access to the time clock is exceptional with multiple access points. The adjustments for additional pay on holidays has been helpful.

• It provides a well account of Retirement Plan Account Information.
• Alerts are sent to email when there is new information to access.
• Employee access both online and thru app.
• Paperless options.
• Easy and quick access to paystubs and tax forms.
• Easy employee retirement management.

Incentivized

• 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

• Reminders/Notes to staff through the app that they have to read to be able to move forward to clock in or out.
• More key words to search in the library/help desk.
• Check boxes to delete Reports from the Que, rather than having to delete each one individually would be a nice enhancement!

• I understand logging you out is a security function, but I'd prefer it not to log you out so soon.
• The training we received for the team's meeting was subpar, in my opinion. Probably better geared for people with little to no computer experience. Very slow pace; we could have easily received all of this from some tutorials in a few minutes.

Incentivized

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.

I believe Isolved has helped with allot of our previous payroll and HR issues but I am not the sole person responsible for making the decisions. If it were my responsibility to make the decision I would say yes, my input does weigh heavily on the choices but it's not guaranteed.

Overall I like the features that Paychex Flex offers. I am sure that there are other features that I am unaware of, so I am excited to see if there is more that Flex is capable of to make my job easier. The basic features are really user friendly and easy to access. If there ever is an issue customer service is great

Incentivized

Wonderful overall usability – especially for the new business owner. The user interface is clean and intuitive, so it's easy to find what you're looking for. They also have great explanation pages ingrained into the process, so if you get stuck knowing what to do next, there's a link right there to walk you through the process!

Incentivized

It is very intuitive and user friendly. iSolved is always updating and improving things before they even become a problem. I like how they inform us of the new updates and provide us with the details of what is changing and how it will improve the usuage.

Employee usability is very good and user-friendly. For the most part, the employer usability is good, but for complicated rules and policies, it requires technical assistance, which in our case, was clunky and slow in implementation. Once is place, everything works as it should

Incentivized

Payroll due dates and send to us at the beginning of the year, with email reminders for holidays. The support email address is fairly fast, within 24-48 hours. But if something is needed immediately, I can just call and they help me out right then.

Incentivized

We have not experienced any difficulties with unplanned outages. Notifications are always made for outages, and they do not effect normal business operations.

Incentivized

We do not use the integration, so we have a csv file that I upload manually for payroll. That is our decision based on the software at our restaurants. Pages loaded fairly quickly, but reports to pdf lag about 15-20 seconds

Incentivized

Unless there is lag time within the internet, the Paychex Flex website loads exceptional fast, pages load quickly and reports that I need to print or download load quickly. If I need to create a specialized report, once I complete it I receive an e-mail telling me my report is ready to be downloaded. Changing between web pages is fast as well.

Incentivized

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

They are very responsive and they have support for the specific issues. Clients receive a dedicated Support Representative with a back up dedicated support team. They also receive an Account Manager who follows up quarterly to discuss the company and future needs. They do have a support ticket hub, but it still needs a little work to fine tune it.

Chat has been helpful but the person I chat with isn't always able to help me with my questions. Phone support is ok, depending on your payroll specialist. We have a great one currently, but the few before that were never available and did not return calls.

Incentivized

All over the phone, but it was comprehensive.

Incentivized

We did online training only

Incentivized

We loved taking the course, we went through most of them before we went live and I believe that was very helpful. The online training helped us learn to navigate in the program. We still refer to the training and assign our managers and supervisors to it as well. I highly recommend using it. We have also been able to attend the Connect Conferences with are extremely valuable and we learn tips and tricks to help us better utilize our system.

It was easy to understand and follow along. I do like the informational videos that we can utilize before we opt to call in for customer service support. It has made a difference since sometimes that resolves the issue I may have had and saved myself a phone call to Paychex support.

Incentivized

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

The system was very cumbersome setting up as well as time consuming. There were times I just wanted to walk away and sometimes I did have to get up and walk away for a break and come back with a fresh perspective. The setup took me over a period of two to three months getting it to serve the purposes that we needed it two. I am very intuitive when it comes to computer software however getting all the right buttons checked in order for it to do what I needed didn't always work.

Implementation was very smooth. The most cumbersome task was entering the current employees into the system during initial set up, but Paychex staff handled most of that and verified against prior system reports as well as internal reports provided to ensure 100% accuracy.

Incentivized

It's been a while since I used QuickBooks for payroll, but it doesn't even come close to it. Gusto is infinitely easier, allowing for employee time tracking, handling calculations and payments of payroll and payroll taxes, managing regulatory compliance in the background, and more. I had a lot of moments using QuickBooks Payroll where I thought, "Am I even doing this right?" — it felt like you had to have additional knowledge of HR regulations in your state to do everything correctly. Gusto has it ALL handled so you can focus your time on higher-impact tasks in your business.

Incentivized

isolved provides a system and capabilities right at the sweet spot for our organizations. It is not overly complex and feature laden as to make it confusing and complex. On the other hand, it is fully functional and effective at the core requirements of HR and payroll without requiring additional work outside of the system. All of the systems we have previously considered or used were with limited on functionality or prohibitively expense and complex.

Incentivized

We still use QB Desktop Pro to maintain a Check Register / Overall Balance for the company, but once having tried QB Payroll Online for about 3 months prior to finding Paychex Flex I can tell you that there's just no comparison. QB online is VERY EXPENSIVE and not so user-friendly. I hated every minute of those 6 payrolls we ran through QB online.

Incentivized

Price increases do happen every year. I understand that the cost of living rises, but every year to us is a bit excessive.

We are a company of about 135 people at 9 locations in 2 towns. We were able to set locations and departments, and also have each location seperate so only that manager can see their employees.

Incentivized

I generally do payroll at the office, however I have had to go remote due to internet issues and also had to take payroll on vacation with me. Very easy to log in wherever you are and manage your TAA and payroll

Incentivized

All of iSvoled services are conducted very professionally

• I am not involved enough to know well, but I would say that Gusto has saved me about 1-2 hours in my onboarding process with my new company compared to my past experiences trying to onboard with ADP. I have also finished the process and am not frustrated like usual.

Incentivized

• When we had Paycom, we had 1/4 of our staff that were not logging in and using the system. That number is down to maybe 5% now
• Employees love having the ability to easily view and verify their timecards prior to payroll submission.

Incentivized

• With Paychex Flex we have been able to improve our compliance with required documentation for new/rehires
• Moving everyone to direct deposit and mobile clock in/out eliminated lines at punching stations and paycheck pickup stations
• Lost checks is a thing of the past

Incentivized