Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Gusto
Score 8.9 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.
$49
per month
Qstream
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Qstream headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts offers their eponymous sales enablement application.N/A
Pricing
GustoQstream
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
GustoQstream
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.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GustoQstream
Features
GustoQstream
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
9.1
580 Ratings
10% above category average
Qstream
-
Ratings
Pay calculation9.6557 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.9398 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.5561 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management9.2433 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management9.1174 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Gamification
Comparison of Sales Gamification features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Qstream
7.3
1 Ratings
6% below category average
Sales contest templates00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Custom sales contests00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Team competitions00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Contest flexibility00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Sales rep view00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Game notifications & updates00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Social competition / Game collaboration00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Sales performance reporting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GustoQstream
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GustoQstream
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(590 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(12 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(414 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
1.7
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
GustoQstream
Likelihood to Recommend
Gusto
Gusto is a great fit for small teams and startups that want a simple, reliable way to run payroll, manage tax filings, and give CPAs access without constant micromanagement. It’s especially useful for founders who need something that “just works.” The human support has been excellent—especially when forwarding confusing IRS mail.
That said, it’s a bit less intuitive when it comes to benefits and compliance for fully remote companies. For example, labor law poster distribution isn’t streamlined for digital teams, and setting up benefits felt more complex than it needed to be. Still, I’d recommend Gusto to any startup looking to get payroll right from day one.
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Qstream
Qstream is great when used for reinforcement of training conducted. Especially when that training is detailed or complex, Qstream will help to embed key concepts and drive adoption while ensuring reps are interacting.
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Pros
Gusto
  • Gusto really kills it on the simplicity. The app and website are very clear and straightforward.
  • Gusto also does a great job at being easy to navigate, visually pleasing, and logically posed.
  • Gusto communicates very clearly and provides just the right amount of communication.
  • Gusto makes the onboarding process very easy. I recently started at a new company and the process of filling out the necessary documents, filling out forms, and getting my benefit information input was soooooo easy!
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Qstream
  • Gamification: gets reps involved in ways that keep it interesting while bringing in elements of competition.
  • Mobile: ease of use and direct access to reps while on the move. The interface is intuitive and able to be interacted with in quick increments rather than lengthy elearning.
  • Coaching: provides direct insights into who is coping and who is not so that enablement efforts can be focused.
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Cons
Gusto
  • Adding in previous time manually could be more accessible.
  • Notifications for when employees manually change hours.
  • We should allow 1099 users to use the mobile app instead of restricting them to the website, especially since they can just log into the full website on their mobile device.
Read full review
Qstream
  • Reporting: we only had access to some of the reports so would have liked to see more detail and have the ability to create custom reports.
  • Licensing: we accessed qstream via Growthplay so only had access to limited features. Would like to see this extended so that we could truly experience all of the qstream benefits.
  • Content Creation: we were not able to create our own questions and streams but had to rely on the external team. Self-creation and self-directed streams would have been preferable.
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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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Qstream
Qstream is good in terms of gamification and driving adoption. However we are looking for a platform that supports content creation, ILT training as well as gamification. Qstream would meet only one of those criteria. We may still use them again if we are unable to find a compete platform in future
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Usability
Gusto
The overall platform and its speed of response are amazing. I would recommend this to any other business owner for ease of use and reliability. Email reminders are great if I’m super busy and have forgotten a few tasks. The price point compared to local payroll service is hands down a huge win.
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Qstream
Qstream was easy for us to use and gain insights from. Feedback from sales leaders and reps was generally positive. Having greater flexibility about creating custom reports and streams would have increased the rating
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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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Qstream
No answers on this topic
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
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Qstream
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Gusto
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.
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Qstream
Qstream was selected by default because it was offered by Growthplay as their preferred gamification and adoption tool. We have subsequently looked at acquiring Qstream for other initiatives and are in the process of evaluating options
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Return on Investment
Gusto
  • For me, it is hard to quantify payroll software as having an ROI. It does save quite a bit of time per pay period, so perhaps we could assign a theoretical number to an employee taking that time. I'd say, at the least, it saves 30-60 minutes a pay period compared to a more difficult-to-use payroll software.
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Qstream
  • Reps have adopted our new sales methodology quicker and with more rigour meaning we are more successful in the field.
  • We’ve been able to create scale to drive adoption. Without technologies like Qstream, we would never be able to meet our enablement and growth targets.
  • More reps talking a consistent message means our customer experience has improved at the sales front. This allows us to differentiate versus the competition and ensures we win more often.
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ScreenShots

Gusto Screenshots

Screenshot of Gusto's automated payrollScreenshot of the time-off tracking interfaceScreenshot of the source of truth for HR data