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
Rippling
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Rippling’s platform for HR, IT, payroll, and spend management automates the entire employee lifecycle, ensures compliance, supports device management, and provides real-time financial visibility from a central dashboard.
$8
per month per user
Pricing
GustoRippling
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
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
Considered Both Products
Gusto
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 …
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 …
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
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 …
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 …
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.
Chose Gusto
cost effective, one stop shop, easy to use
Rippling
Chose Rippling
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. …
Chose Rippling
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.
Chose Rippling
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 …
Chose Rippling
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.
Chose Rippling
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 …
Chose Rippling
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 …
Chose Rippling
Rippling provides a higher level of customization and flexibility compared to Gusto. Including workflows, and reporting. Rippling provides a robust self-service portal where employees can manage their own benefits, time off, and other HR-related tasks that I haven't found as …
Chose Rippling
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 …
Chose Rippling
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 …
Chose Rippling
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.
Chose Rippling
Gusto is "prettier" for a user experience but I think rippling has more functionality than Gusto does and can consolidate all the things we currently do at the agency all in one platform/software. I prefer being able to keep everything together in one platform which my company …
Chose Rippling
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
Chose Rippling
100% better from a tech/analytics platform, benefit rates on the PEO vary. Good for companies in hyper growth and growth. Excellent automation.
Chose Rippling
Rippling was better suited to scale with our organization and provided excellent onboarding/implementation support.
Chose Rippling
It’s a much more intuitive and complete platform compared to others we explored. It also has a stronger reputation in the market. The partnerships we were able to build—and the post-sale support we received—made the entire experience much more robust.
Chose Rippling
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
Chose Rippling
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, …
Chose Rippling
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 …
Chose Rippling
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.
Chose Rippling
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.
Chose Rippling
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 …
Chose Rippling
RIppling feels flexible, innovative and enterprise like while being a very powerful under the hood.
Features
GustoRippling
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
9.1
576 Ratings
10% above category average
Rippling
9.3
1114 Ratings
13% above category average
Pay calculation9.5553 Ratings9.41001 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.8396 Ratings9.0976 Ratings
Direct deposit files9.4557 Ratings9.5980 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management9.1431 Ratings9.4751 Ratings
Reimbursement management9.1171 Ratings9.3655 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings9.0699 Ratings
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.1
1067 Ratings
12% above category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.9756 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings8.9781 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings9.2888 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings9.2790 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings9.3926 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings9.2821 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings9.0636 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.3
998 Ratings
13% above category average
Approval workflow00 Ratings9.4962 Ratings
Balance details00 Ratings9.3918 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment00 Ratings9.2680 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.2
1162 Ratings
11% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information00 Ratings9.41100 Ratings
Update personal information00 Ratings9.51148 Ratings
View company policy documentation00 Ratings9.4951 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.7635 Ratings
View job history00 Ratings9.1824 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
8.9
494 Ratings
10% above category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings8.9494 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.0
601 Ratings
17% above category average
Report builder00 Ratings8.8581 Ratings
Pre-built reports00 Ratings9.1549 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data00 Ratings9.2497 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.4
825 Ratings
16% above category average
New hire portal00 Ratings9.5803 Ratings
Manager tracking tools00 Ratings9.3625 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.1
484 Ratings
12% above category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings9.2416 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings9.0446 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings9.2412 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings9.0439 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.3
556 Ratings
16% above category average
Performance plans00 Ratings9.2490 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings9.2464 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings9.2494 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings9.4522 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings9.3453 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.1
411 Ratings
15% above category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings9.1341 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings9.2350 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings9.2367 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings9.0348 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Gusto
-
Ratings
Rippling
9.1
469 Ratings
17% above category average
Job Requisition Management00 Ratings9.1373 Ratings
Company Website Posting00 Ratings9.1358 Ratings
Publish to Social Media00 Ratings9.2315 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings9.0326 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings9.1327 Ratings
Applicant Tracking00 Ratings9.0359 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings9.1440 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GustoRippling
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.4 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.2 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Infor Human Resources
Infor Human Resources
Score 7.1 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GustoRippling
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(590 ratings)
9.2
(1164 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(12 ratings)
8.9
(20 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(414 ratings)
9.4
(1162 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
1.5
(26 ratings)
9.2
(877 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(2 ratings)
7.8
(9 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
6.5
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
GustoRippling
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.
Read full review
Rippling
Considering my past employers used Workday and Kronos, Rippling is miles ahead in terms of a friendly user interface and fast, easy access. For an environment like a fintech, Rippling is definitely the best one considering the need for a fast pace. I think Rippling would be less appropriate for a much older large company like a legacy bank that has built their entire HR systems already off of a different software. Making a transition for a company so large from Workday to Rippling would seem like a bit too much.
Read full review
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!
Read full review
Rippling
  • It is really easy to navigate, I barely needed instruction on how to do things in it as it is very intuitive.
  • Ease of workflow mapping, it was easy to have emails auto-generated to our staff regarding their eLearn content or compliance requirements.
  • Onboarding was made much easier with the workflows, auto emails sent at different points in the onboarding process, ensuring everything gets done to prepare the company to accept the new hire and to inform the new hire of what to expect.
Read full review
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
Rippling
  • Could clarify what is being asked when creating expense reports.
  • It could make 2FA more intuitive on mobile, such as allowing iPhone users to use Face ID as an alternative if the device is locked.
  • Overall avoid using too much jargon when asking questions.
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
The AI assistant has always been able to direct me to the correct solution to any question i have about Rippling. Payroll is so easy, it takes about 10 minutes to go through the process.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Rippling
The interface is very user-friendly. Everything you do on Rippling is communicated to you via email (for example, when your invoice is approved, when your payment will be received, and any login attempts). There are some things that need work, though, some minor issues with "where some menus are located", but those are minor things that don't spoil the overall experience with the product (but they should be addressed nonetheless).
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.
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.
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.
Read full review
Rippling
When I did have to reach out to Rippling for assistance I was able to get quick help and my problem resolved in a time efficient manner with out any type of hick up. The customer support team is professional, kind and always available. This makes Rippling more welcoming to use on a daily basis.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Gusto
No answers on this topic
Rippling
The trainer went slow and and answered our questions.
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
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!
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Rippling
We chose Rippling primarily based on cost and feature set available. As a small organization, budget is a high priority. Rippling gave us enterprise-level features at an affordable cost for an early stage start up. We appreciate that we have the opportunity to expand our feature set within Rippling as our business and workforce grow.
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Rippling
  • Our HR team used to spend almost three days doing payroll calculations before Rippling. This platform has cut that time down by 75%! Now they can devote the time they would've spent on payroll to other important tasks.
  • Rippling saves employees time by making time-tracking less of a headache.
  • Rippling has so many so many services that it's essentially a one-stop-shop for centralized HR solutions!
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 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.