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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 Advanced

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AQuickBooks Online Advanced is a SaaS-based accounting software designed to scale with growing businesses. It includes the functionalities of QuickBooks Online, as well as more robust business analytics, customization, and resource management.N/A
    Pricing
    GustoQuickBooks Online Advanced
    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
    GustoQuickBooks Online Advanced
    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
    GustoQuickBooks Online Advanced
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    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
    Cost and efficiency.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is cheap and easy if you just want to process payroll. If you want customer service, support, and any help whatsoever from a live person, do not use Gusto. They have no sense of urgency in resolving problems, and reaching a live person who can actually provide …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    There are three major concerns for me. Ease of use; how easy is it to perform the payroll. Most systems are competitive here. Tax compliance; how well do they handle tax filings and tax payments. Here Gusto needs to improve a little. Payments are timely and so is reporting, …
    Incentivized
    Intuit
    Chose QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Our company currently uses both of these platforms. In my opinion, QuickBooks Online Advanced has more capabilities than Xero, but Xero is more aesthetically pleasing. The biggest difference is the QuickBooks Online Advanced payroll processing and payroll tax filings. With …
    Incentivized
    Chose QuickBooks Online Advanced
    I like [QuickBooks Online Advanced] a lot better than Xero, it has more widespread system integrations and seems to be more user friendly. I do think that the support on Xero is better though.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    91%
    Would buy again
    145 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    130 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    148 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    120 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    87%
    Implementation went as expected
    126 Answers
    Features
    GustoQuickBooks Online Advanced
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    10% above category average
    QuickBooks Online Advanced
    -
    Ratings
    Pay calculation9.5587 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration8.7417 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.7592 Ratings00 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management9.0462 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reimbursement management9.0196 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online Advanced
    7.9
    111 Ratings
    4% above category average
    API for custom integration00 Ratings7.792 Ratings
    Plug-ins00 Ratings8.096 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online Advanced
    8.4
    205 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.4180 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.3201 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online Advanced
    8.2
    220 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.3208 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.5220 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.7211 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online Advanced
    8.2
    228 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Accounts payable00 Ratings8.4215 Ratings
    Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.5214 Ratings
    Cash management00 Ratings8.5189 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.1218 Ratings
    Expense management00 Ratings8.5201 Ratings
    Time tracking00 Ratings7.7107 Ratings
    Multi-currency support00 Ratings6.554 Ratings
    Multi-division support00 Ratings7.294 Ratings
    Regulations compliance00 Ratings8.3100 Ratings
    Electronic tax filing00 Ratings8.8124 Ratings
    Self-service portal00 Ratings7.9119 Ratings
    Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings8.294 Ratings
    Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings8.095 Ratings
    Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings8.4194 Ratings
    Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings7.985 Ratings
    Configurable Accounting00 Ratings8.4107 Ratings
    Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings8.980 Ratings
    Standardized Processes00 Ratings8.4148 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online Advanced
    6.3
    88 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Inventory tracking00 Ratings6.388 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of Gusto and QuickBooks Online Advanced
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    QuickBooks Online Advanced
    6.8
    147 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Pricing00 Ratings6.8108 Ratings
    Order entry00 Ratings6.597 Ratings
    Credit card processing00 Ratings7.2126 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoQuickBooks Online Advanced
    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
    Score5.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoQuickBooks Online Advanced
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    7.9
    (230 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.8
    (20 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    8.4
    (16 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.2
    (27 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    7.4
    (10 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.7
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoQuickBooks Online Advanced
    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
    Well suited for a larger company with many classes that need to be differentiated. It is relatively intuitive to use, whether you have used other versions of QuickBooks, or any other accounting software. Easy to dig into your accounts from wither the Balance Sheet or the Profit and Loss when trying to analyze performance.
    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
    • Budgeting is easy to input. Our entities have multiple departments, so using classes to separate and report the results of each department is important.
    • Reports are easy to customize to provide meaningful data to the board and department managers.
    • QuickBooks Online Advanced has a large market share of accounting software in use, so it is relatively easy to find new employees with prior experience with QuickBooks Online Advanced.
    • Able to open both entities at the same time, which is helpful due to the number of transactions between the two entities.
    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
    • Continued growth around AI usage and tool.
    • There are still some reporting gaps that make setting up custom reports not absolutely top-tier.
    • There can be a lot of UI clutter as different features keep getting turned on. Can become harder to navigate.
    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 has become second nature to use Quick Books at the company. If you need a report you log in and pull the report. It helps expedite reconciliation of bank accounts, the automation of most tasks make it easy to get mundane tasks completed quickly.
    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
    QuickBooks Online Advanced is highly usable and intuitive for most day-to-day financial tasks. Its interface is clear, and core functions such as invoicing, reconciliation, and reporting are easy to perform. While some advanced features like report customization or integrations can be less straightforward, overall the platform offers a smooth and efficient user experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    In the 5 years I have been using it, I cannot recall there ever having been an outage or not being able to access the system. Sure, there are issues with internet speeds sometimes that are unrelated to Intuit but it is a very reliable system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    Since we do not integrate the software with other systems, I do not have any issues with speed related to that. Pages tend to load pretty quickly, but there are times when reports or other pages take a little longer to load than usual. It is not an overly frustrating amount of time, though, and it happens infrequently.
    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
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    The online training is good enough.
    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
    I did not participate in this part particularly much. The implementation was simple and easy to perform. There were not any major issues that arose during the process. QuickBooks has made the processes pretty streamless and I believe they had anticipated many difficulties ahead of time. This was easy enough
    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
    QBO is great because it does accounting very well, and it can integrate well with everything. I appreciate that it has third-party integrations with many other software companies, so we can focus on doing our accounting through QuickBooks while adding other software as needed through those integrations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Intuit
    Software is very flexible
    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
    • Spreadsheet sync reduces manual data entry significantly. Exporting data into my customized Excel workbook that has complex formulas and macros for automating makes uploading changes and reconfiguring easy and convenient, saving a lot of time.
    • Automating AP approval has reduced lost paper copies, improved internal controls, and reduced audit findings.
    • Having banking connections has improved cash flow management, streamlined credit card expenses and reconciliation. I have found that utilizing it for my primary operating account actually makes things more difficult and can easily double-post payments, so I avoid using it on the checking account. It has been well for the credit card account, though.
    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