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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Gusto

    Score9 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

    Rippling HCM

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ARippling HR is a human resources platform for managing employee records, onboarding, benefits, time and attendance, compliance, and other core people operations in one system. It serves as the HR layer of the broader Rippling platform, giving companies a central place to manage the employee lifecycle while connecting HR data to payroll, IT, and finance workflows when needed.

    $8

    per month per user

    Pricing
    GustoRippling HCM
    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
    Recommended
    $8.00
    starting price per user, per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoRippling HCM
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    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.For additional pricing details visit the Rippling pricing page.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GustoRippling HCM
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    Chose Gusto
    In my opinion, Rippling had a super bad UX. I felt like it was impossible to find the areas I wanted to go to- their site navigation simply did not make sense. With Gusto it's so much easier to naviagate.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Rippling has been more than frustrating to work with, to say the least. Gusto doesn't just do what a payroll software should do; they make it so easy that it doesn't feel like a burden. The comparison is unmatched. Gusto doesn't meet expectations; it blows them out of the …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is better than Square, but more expensive. Worse than Rippling, which is a very advanced offering with a ton of features and customization, but it is more expensive More features than Quickbooks payroll as well and slightly cheaper
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    In my opinion, ADP is a nightmare by comparison. Awful to onboard, awful to use - even logging in can be a total nightmare. One time I had to call some hotline just to be able to login because it kept going in loops and wouldn't let me in my account. The error was on their …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    I think gusto is better than Rippling. Rippling can be very difficult to use and there needs to be a lot of controls in place to make it work. Gusto is much easier for the employee to use and since it is a more established company there is not all the uncertainty of working …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto has a glitch-free on-boarding process that surpasses all of the other systems that I have ever tried and used. Rippling is the only other platform that comes close to the Gusto online experience, but Rippling has its PEO/behind-the-scenes legacy system glitches, and it's …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    Gusto is the easiest to use out of all the payroll programs that I have tried out at various companies. Manually entering time is less complicated and requires less time on gusto than on the others.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    cost effective, one stop shop, easy to use
    Incentivized
    Chose Gusto
    It’s the easiest to use, visually.
    Incentivized
    Rippling
    Chose Rippling HCM
    We switched from Gusto to Rippling and I wish we would've done it years ago. Rippling is so much more robust than Gusto and has made the lives of our HR team and each of our employees so much easier! I'd recommend Rippling over Gusto to every organization without any hesitation.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Honest they are all better than Rippling in their respective areas, Deel.com international payments / contractor management, and tax filings, Bamboo much better for hiring, and data integrity. Gusto overall easier platform to set up and maintain. Rippling does the best job at …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling beats Gusto on a few things. Rippling is more suited for growing and scaling a remote team in different states from a pricing perspective. Rippling does customer support significantly better than Gusto and is staffed with agents with technical backgrounds who can help …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Light years better from a usability standpoint. Easier to scale with than Gusto, which really starts to fall apart at about 100 employees. And finally, the ability to integrate with a majority of the systems we're already using today and to provision (and deprovision) those in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    I was not involved in the process of choosing our HR software. However, I am glad we switched to Rippling from Gusto because it's easy to use, and from an employee self-service perspective, it makes accessing my benefits, pay schedule, tax documents, and other HR needs easier …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling is much more comprehensive than Gusto. With Gusto, we had to use several different HR apps to have the complete experience that Rippling offers. In fact, we could probably get rid of a few apps and software that we still use, and switch entirely over to Rippling.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    With Gusto, payroll was consistently late, which was frustrating. Rippling, on the other hand, has been rock-solid when it comes to ensuring paychecks are always on time.

    Ontop was also good, but we had to manually transfer our pay to our bank accounts, which added an extra …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Simply put, Gusto was a great tool when we were a smaller company. Rippling fits our needs as a growing company with the variety of tools available to us.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling is much more useful for me to navigate my company since it's almost 10-20x the size of my previous organization. For instance, I could identify who was who in my company, and how long they have been working in NYLAG. I had a better sense of how to utilize my benefits. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Gusto seems to not be as scalable or a suitable option for larger companies. When we used Gusto we had occasional issues that caused a delay.

    Once we transitioned to Rippling I was considered there would be onboarding issues, but everything went over smoothly and there was no …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Gusto was severely lacking in terms of FSA/HSA management.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    At a previous company, we used Gusto, and Rippling stacks up just as well if not better.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    It helps keep all the systems centralized and unifies processes into a single tech stack. This is very helpful for small HR teams, especially remote ones that might need assistance with different laws and regulations from different states or countries. It also helps to have a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling is ahead of the curve on automation for HRIS systems. The others pale in comparison. If you need a system that functions as a multitool, this is doing the work that others cannot
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    100% better from a tech/analytics platform, benefit rates on the PEO vary. Good for companies in hyper growth and growth. Excellent automation.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling was better suited to scale with our organization and provided excellent onboarding/implementation support.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling blows all the rest of the payroll providers out of the water! The ease of use for employees to update info, and the reports that you can get from Rippling surpass any other payroll service provider
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling is the perfect balance between a PEO and a standalone payroll system. They have all the functions, features and support that a company needs, but allows the user (company) the flexibility to utilize the system with control. Other systems were missing this feature, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Significant more features and a much better mobile application. Rippling's mobile application is a serious win! Our employees love the ability of submitting human resources related tasks through their phone at any time. In addition, Rippling has a significant larger pool of …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Rippling was the only vendor that allowed us to consolidate all our payroll operations. Had all of the requirements we needed, from HRIS to payroll, document management, reporting automations, etc. and far better functionality and easy of use than the other platforms we tested.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    In my opinion, superior reporting and easier access to manage HR & Benefits. Not too many bells and whistles, the user-friendly platform and data set pulls are great for myself and my clients.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    Better benefits overall and lower price to us. The key facotr for us to make this decision was twofold. First, what is the total cost to the company. In this aspect Rippling placed first. Second, was the benefits and options provided to employees, in which Rippling also placed …
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    RIppling feels flexible, innovative and enterprise like while being a very powerful under the hood.
    Incentivized
    Chose Rippling HCM
    We liked the simplicity of Rippling as well as the deep integrations.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    1191 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    817 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    1192 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    589 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    616 Answers
    Features
    GustoRippling HCM
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    612 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Rippling HCM
    9.4
    1101 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Pay calculation9.5588 Ratings9.4990 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration8.7417 Ratings9.1970 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.7593 Ratings9.5970 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management9.0463 Ratings9.5743 Ratings
    Reimbursement management9.0197 Ratings9.4647 Ratings
    Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings9.2693 Ratings
    Human Resource Management
    Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.1
    1055 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.9746 Ratings
    Employment history00 Ratings8.9775 Ratings
    Job profiles and administration00 Ratings9.3884 Ratings
    Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings9.3783 Ratings
    Organizational charting00 Ratings9.3921 Ratings
    Organization and location management00 Ratings9.1820 Ratings
    Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings9.0632 Ratings
    Leave and Attendance Management
    Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.2
    990 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Approval workflow00 Ratings9.5958 Ratings
    Balance details00 Ratings9.2911 Ratings
    Annual carry-forward and encashment00 Ratings9.0682 Ratings
    Employee Self Service
    Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.1
    1152 Ratings
    10% above category average
    View and generate pay and benefit information00 Ratings9.41091 Ratings
    Update personal information00 Ratings9.51140 Ratings
    View company policy documentation00 Ratings9.3952 Ratings
    Employee recognition00 Ratings8.6630 Ratings
    View job history00 Ratings8.9818 Ratings
    Asset Management
    Comparison of Asset Management features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    8.5
    489 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings8.5490 Ratings
    HR Reporting
    Comparison of HR Reporting features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    8.7
    591 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Report builder00 Ratings8.6574 Ratings
    Pre-built reports00 Ratings8.8543 Ratings
    Ability to combine HR data with external data00 Ratings8.8495 Ratings
    Onboarding
    Comparison of Onboarding features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.2
    818 Ratings
    13% above category average
    New hire portal00 Ratings9.4797 Ratings
    Manager tracking tools00 Ratings9.0622 Ratings
    Performance and Goals
    Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.0
    475 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Corporate goal setting00 Ratings9.1408 Ratings
    Individual goal setting00 Ratings9.0436 Ratings
    Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings9.0405 Ratings
    Performance tracking00 Ratings8.9435 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.3
    544 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Performance plans00 Ratings9.2487 Ratings
    Performance improvement plans00 Ratings9.1461 Ratings
    Review status tracking00 Ratings9.2486 Ratings
    Review reminders00 Ratings9.5514 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency00 Ratings9.3443 Ratings
    Succession Planning
    Comparison of Succession Planning features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.1
    402 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings8.9336 Ratings
    Candidate ranking00 Ratings9.0345 Ratings
    Candidate search00 Ratings9.2362 Ratings
    Candidate development00 Ratings9.4342 Ratings
    Recruiting / ATS
    Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Gusto and Rippling HCM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Rippling HCM
    9.0
    461 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Job Requisition Management00 Ratings8.9366 Ratings
    Company Website Posting00 Ratings8.9355 Ratings
    Publish to Social Media00 Ratings9.1310 Ratings
    Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings8.9319 Ratings
    Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings8.9321 Ratings
    Applicant Tracking00 Ratings9.1353 Ratings
    Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings9.1432 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoRippling HCM
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    UZIO
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score6 out of 10
    Zoho People
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.6 out of 10
    PeopleStrong
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoRippling HCM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (634 ratings)
    9.2
    (1204 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    8.9
    (22 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (458 ratings)
    9.4
    (1201 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.9
    (27 ratings)
    9.1
    (902 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoRippling HCM
    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
    Rippling
    When I first started my new job, it was an additional one on top of a day job I already had. I didn't have time to waste between getting home and starting this new night job, so the first thing that I found was that I was blown away at how quickly and easily I could log in and start. When starting a new job, I didn't need the added stress of learning another app/portal when I had more important things to learn. I am really grateful for those 2 factors alone. Once I got more familiar with the portal, I was able to search around a bit and found some great features that have just enriched the experience even more...no training needed.
    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
    Rippling
    • Keeping track of and entering time off and watching time of approvals
    • Providing fast links to access accounts for health/retirement benefits
    • Extremely convenient access to see how much money is left in my flexible savings account and reordering a new card if I need one
    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
    Rippling
    • The overall look and feel of Rippling is dated; it looks like it's straight out of the 00's.
    • The could be more functionality in the LMS, expanded features, more options, it works, and it's basic, but it could be really great with a few added features.
    • The shift from using people's personal email to log in to their work email, not everyone wants to use their personal information to log into a work system.
    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
    Rippling
    I've been fully impressed with the tool so far in my 6 months of being a daily user. It's rare to run into an issue that can't be solved. Customer service is quick to respond and are usually very helpful. The price is great for the upgrade we got from our past tool. We hit our ROI within the first month.
    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
    Rippling
    It is easy to use. It has an option to favorite commonly used functions, such as timekeeping and payroll. The app is easily accessible and easy to use, thanks to a quick-use option. This can be managed remotely and is great for all things HR for a company employee.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Rippling
    I like that the availability in using Rippling at any given time is useful to me. Getting on the site freely when I need gives me security of knowing that I can be in control of viewing health insurance and hours information. I have yet to get any errors in using the Rippling app.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Rippling
    Rippling's performance has been great, no errors or glitches yet so far. I am confident that Going from one page to the next and all its complexity usage does not lag or times out, it works effectively and efficiently. While using Rippling and other apps it does not tend to slow it down, works great. No complaints.
    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
    Rippling
    I have contacted support one time, and I was assisted by the Artificial Intelligence bot. Not only did it help with my inquiry, but it also went the extra mile by suggesting other options. I was looking for a feature I could not find, and it was very helpful. It would be nice also to chat with an actual person.
    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
    Rippling
    It's really easy to implement in comparison to other tools or applications. Different key points are easily configured and implemented as per need, having different configurations in systems. Implementation is something which binds the different parameters of an organization in a single row. Implementation of rippling is much easier, quicker, and error free than any other software. I recommend it strongly!
    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
    Rippling
    Rippling has a much more modern, user-friendly approach, and it continues to build out their product suite to help create a seamlessly integrated eco-system. BambooHR is also more modern, but doesn't seem to have the broad product suite that Rippling is pursuing. UKG felt so disconnected and archaic to work with... quite painful, actually. I really like that Rippling has been extremely supportive with the onboarding process, ensuring that you work with various members of their implementation team to get things up and running which leads to a better experience and quicker ROI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Rippling
    I can go on here and see all my hours and pto plus health benefits. I like to have the work handbook handy to refer to legal things. How to work my role within it's limits. Being able to put in my hours and view when they are approved is a huge benefit for me.
    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
    Rippling
    • It was great to receive money from other country.
    • It was very helpful to use an user friendly platform for my first oversea job.
    • It was great to keep track of the amount of money I've received for the time I was employed overseas.
    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

    Rippling HCM Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Rippling Dashboard: Employees' home for their payroll, benefits, documents, devices, expenses, and apps.Screenshot of Rippling Payroll: Runs payroll in 90 seconds. Pays employees and contractors around the world. Automatic tax filing.Screenshot of Rippling Benefits Administration: For the management of employees' Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K, FSA, HSA, and commuter benefits.Screenshot of Rippling Single Sign-On: Employees can access all of their SaaS apps in one click from their Rippling dashboard.Screenshot of Rippling’s Time & Attendance platform. This integrates with the rest of the product suite so that when employees clock in, their approved hours automatically synced with payroll and accounting systems.Screenshot of Rippling Mobile Device Management: To manage employees' computers and devices 100% remotely.