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    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

    QuickBooks Online

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AQuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.

    $38

    per month

    Pricing
    GustoQuickBooks Online
    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
    Simple Start
    $38
    per month
    Essentials
    $75
    per month
    Plus
    $115
    per month
    Advanced
    $275
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoQuickBooks Online
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsGusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GustoQuickBooks Online
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    Chose Gusto
    I like Gusto because it's much more user-friendly than Workforce. I would rate QB a 6/10 and Gusto a 10/10 for user reliability and friendliness.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is the far superior product.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    I prefer Gusto's visual interface and ease of use. The employee visual for Gusto was much better. The customer service support that I have received with Gusto has far exceeded any other payroll processing service that I have used.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is much more easier to use.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto was easier and more affordable.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    I have used the ADP Payroll service, and Gusto's functionality is by far easier to use.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    ADP is more expensive and too cumbersome for my needs.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Cost and efficiency.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    More modern and user friendly, personal touch
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    I selected Gusto due to pricing and my accountant's recommendation
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is so much more user friendly and the customer service is excellent. Waiting on hold for ADP and Quickbooks was very frustrating and I almost never got my issue resolved. When I did get a call back, there was often a “hard sell” attached to the call.
    Incentivized
    Chose 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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is much easier to use! Cheaper as well.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is more approachable with a less corporate, more personalized feel. When we started, it was helpful for Paychex to be a one-stop shop where they offered a ton of add on services we hadn't thought of but found useful. Now that we are better able to navigate our needs, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is incredibly user friendly and leaves you with a step by step guide of what you need to do, what you're missing and helps catches everything you might have missed.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Workful was a budget-conscious choice last year. However, it couldn't handle the nuances of a non-profit and was also not available to automate payroll tax filing in every state. They abruptly stopped offering payroll service, leaving me to switch clients immediately. Justwork…
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is way easier to use and understand than other platforms. They just focus on what they're really good at without cluttering up the experience with other offers. The customer service is much better as well. Support is very responsive and helpful.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    I think Quickbooks is hard to navigate and it has too many outages/down times. In my experience, you have to jump through hoops to get your information updated. I think it is slow and ugly
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto has many more features than this other program has to offer.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto seems to offer everything that ADP Payroll does, but at a much more affordable cost. Gusto's prices are much more reasonable for very small businesses and startup businesses. Most of my clients fall into that category. I would say ADP is more for larger small …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto offers a better experience for both employees and employers with more intuitive navigation, simplified step-by-step builds for back-end structure, and user-friendly, secure processes for employees. Gusto is a well-designed platform that is years ahead of the others in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto has a better user experience than Paycor and is priced better than Paycor.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    QBO was awful. It never quite worked correctly and was not intuitive at all. Plus, it was expensive! And when we had a problem getting something to work right, it took three days for their customer support team to respond. And they're answer was basically, "Sorry. We can't fix …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is cheaper than ADP and easier to use. Employees also love Gusto.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    I did not select Gusto, as I am an employee and not an admin, but the functionality of Gusto seems smoother than other applications I have used, easy to edit, easy to view and understand. The only thing that I can think of that the others have as an advantage is that Toggl …
    Incentivized
    Intuit
    Chose QuickBooks Online
    I use Gusto but have not evaluated it. It works great for us.
    Incentivized
    Chose QuickBooks Online
    The only other service I have used that was similar to QuickBooks was Gusto. My experience with it was pretty limited. We did not use it for very long. We tried it because it was made for small businesses and we are a smaller department. QuickBooks was more scalable and worked …
    Incentivized
    Chose QuickBooks Online
    Sage Intacct is very difficult to use and the inter-face is decades behind QB online. The ease to which one can find and manage information on QB online versus Sage Intacct is remarkable. QB Online is made for people who actually manage and facilitate financial information. I …
    Incentivized
    Chose QuickBooks Online
    As an accountant, QuickBooks Online uses the language I learned in school and throughout my career. Xero tries to simplify it, while actually making it more difficult to understand.
    Incentivized
    Chose QuickBooks Online
    As I've mentioned, there aren't a lot of similar products, and certainly not with all the capability of QuickBooks Online. In my opinion, they nickel and dime for everything but they also do work pretty well across the board. I think the reconciliation process is also by far …
    Incentivized
    Chose QuickBooks Online
    Other software packages such as NetSuite and Intacct I used in the past are more robust in terms of supporting a bigger organization, but at my current company we selected QuickBooks Online as our ERP because it is a perfect fit for the size of the company and our operations as …
    Incentivized
    Chose QuickBooks Online
    I have used larger ERP systems like SAP and Netsuite which do offer a better solution however for the size of business (small) that is best fit for QuickBooks Online, it is a good tool to use. We selected this because its cloud bases, billed easy, low cost, and easy to learn.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    83%
    Would buy again
    129 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    87%
    Delivers good value for the price
    124 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    129 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    82%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    117 Answers
    Features
    GustoQuickBooks Online
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    10% above category average
    QuickBooks Online
    7.7
    125 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Pay calculation9.5587 Ratings8.0114 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration8.7417 Ratings6.962 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.7592 Ratings8.1105 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management9.0462 Ratings7.778 Ratings
    Reimbursement management9.0196 Ratings7.784 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    7.0
    116 Ratings
    8% below category average
    API for custom integration00 Ratings6.996 Ratings
    Plug-ins00 Ratings7.198 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    8.2
    191 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.3156 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.1181 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    8.0
    217 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.1204 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.3211 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.7195 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    7.8
    234 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Accounts payable00 Ratings8.6200 Ratings
    Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.6217 Ratings
    Cash management00 Ratings7.9198 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.0223 Ratings
    Expense management00 Ratings8.2206 Ratings
    Time tracking00 Ratings6.998 Ratings
    Fixed asset management00 Ratings7.798 Ratings
    Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.549 Ratings
    Multi-division support00 Ratings7.180 Ratings
    Regulations compliance00 Ratings7.979 Ratings
    Electronic tax filing00 Ratings8.0118 Ratings
    Self-service portal00 Ratings7.3126 Ratings
    Global Financial Support00 Ratings6.541 Ratings
    Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings7.972 Ratings
    Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings7.672 Ratings
    Localizations00 Ratings7.855 Ratings
    Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings8.5146 Ratings
    Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings7.062 Ratings
    Configurable Accounting00 Ratings7.789 Ratings
    Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings7.560 Ratings
    Standardized Processes00 Ratings8.6108 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    6.8
    90 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Inventory tracking00 Ratings6.685 Ratings
    Automatic reordering00 Ratings6.947 Ratings
    Location management00 Ratings7.254 Ratings
    Manufacturing module00 Ratings6.537 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online
    7.7
    144 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Pricing00 Ratings7.991 Ratings
    Order entry00 Ratings7.787 Ratings
    Credit card processing00 Ratings8.3111 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold00 Ratings8.0110 Ratings
    Order Orchestration00 Ratings7.347 Ratings
    End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings7.750 Ratings
    Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.443 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoQuickBooks Online
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
    Score4.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    MYOB
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    Microsoft Dynamics GP
    Score5.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoQuickBooks Online
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    8.3
    (252 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.6
    (27 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    8.2
    (167 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.1
    (27 ratings)
    9.9
    (70 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.4
    (18 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.3
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    2.0
    (3 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoQuickBooks Online
    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
    Intuit
    QBO is a great solution for small and midsize companies. If the goal is to record all transactions and pull reliable financial reports, QBO is a great option. QBO is also a great solution if most operations are run in a system like Ramp. It syncs well with systems like that and turns the data into something management can use to make decisions. QBO is great because so many people use it. It is easy to find training online, and many people have experience with it.
    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
    Intuit
    • Workflows for accounts payable invoice review are terrific.
    • Bill payment allows you to pay vendors online via ACH or check without having to write a physical check, which reduces admin time.
    • The cloud based login lends well to a remote or hybrid work environment for staff.
    • QuickBooks Online allows you to pre-configure vendors' general ledger expense accounts. This helps with general ledger coding accuracy and consistency.
    • QuickBooks Online integrates with Rippling HRIS, Coast, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, etc., which lends well to an efficient month-end closing and reduced administrative time.
    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
    Intuit
    • I dislike that the online bill pay option through QuickBooks is required for their invoicing.
    • The auto-fill portion of the customer setup, specifically the company name, is listed, but it also auto-fills in the name portion, which is inconvenient and time-consuming to remove.
    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
    Intuit
    It like the product 'right out of the box' and I trust Intuit will continually improve it over the years based on my experience with their desktop products. The large providers of Apps makes customizing the entire package relatively easy and seamless for a wide variety of business types.
    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
    Intuit
    Beyond being overkill for a small org's needs, QBO is constantly stealing screen real estate and attention by hammering users for account upgrades, connecting to one of their approved consultants or buying add-ons. The idea of using a simple configurable bookeeping and light accounting interface is completely missing. At the very least, we should be able to hide functions like inventory that we will never use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    We have rarely had outages in the last 10 years. I can only recall 2 times in the last 10 years where we were not able to access our client files.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    Everything process has its bugs lately with the new interface. Nothing has worked smoothly since this all began last month.
    Incentivized
    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
    Intuit
    In my experience, most representatives keep me on the phone for hours, literally, for a single issue and then usually cannot resolve it satisfactorily. I have 10 open cases that need resolution and, in my experience, there has been NO follow-up communication on any of them.
    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
    Intuit
    The person in charge of QB needs to be very accurate with record keeping and is recommended to stay on top of tasks. The biggest issue we have is reconciliation, and those issues occur only when too much time has occurred between reconciliations
    Incentivized
    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
    Intuit
    As a freelance bookkeeper, the Desktop version of QuickBooks Online doesn't allow for ease of access from any device. Having to be on a computer with the software downloaded creates additional work to gain access to all required filings etc. Also, I personally find the linking functionality on the Online version to be much more streamlined and user friendly.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    As we have grown along our professional path, we have also expanded our use of QB. The scalability is easy and features seem to be waiting for you until you need them. We have increased profits by over 10x from our first year in business to the current and have yet to find a reason to look elsewhere
    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
    Intuit
    • QuickBooks has given us a useful portal by which to get an overview of our financials.
    • QuickBooks has given us a relatively easy way to send out invoices quickly and efficiently.
    • Due to the customization limitations on QuickBooks, we've had to get creative in third-party implementations to better represent our brand and to track financials.
    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

    QuickBooks Online Screenshots

    Screenshot of the accounting and bank transactions interfaceScreenshot of an overview of the accounting inventoryScreenshot of book marksScreenshot of the business tax overviewScreenshot of the customer hubScreenshot of the dashboard