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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

    Sage CRM

    Score8.9 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    Sage CRM is an SMB-oriented CRM platform offered in both SaaS and on-premise editions. Unlike the Sage SalesLogix product, the SaaS version is a true multi-tenant offering. The platform offers excellent integration with Sage ERP and accounting products. It is also a good global solution and is available in many languages and is used by over 12,000 customers worldwide, with many customers in Europe.

    $33

    per month

    Pricing
    GustoSage CRM
    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
    Sage CRM (cloud)
    $45
    Per User per Month
    Sage CRM (on premise)
    $0
    Lifetime License per Seat
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoSage CRM
    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.Tiered pricing is available for multiple users.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    GustoSage CRM
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Sage CRM
    -
    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
    Sales Force Automation
    Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    8.8
    17 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
    Workflow management00 Ratings8.616 Ratings
    Territory management00 Ratings8.517 Ratings
    Opportunity management00 Ratings8.917 Ratings
    Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings9.016 Ratings
    Contract management00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
    Quote & order management00 Ratings9.016 Ratings
    Interaction tracking00 Ratings9.216 Ratings
    Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings8.716 Ratings
    Customer Service & Support
    Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    8.1
    16 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Case management00 Ratings8.016 Ratings
    Call center management00 Ratings8.215 Ratings
    Help desk management00 Ratings8.214 Ratings
    Marketing Automation
    Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    8.7
    16 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Lead management00 Ratings8.816 Ratings
    Email marketing00 Ratings8.715 Ratings
    CRM Project Management
    Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    9.0
    17 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Task management00 Ratings9.016 Ratings
    Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings9.015 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings9.113 Ratings
    CRM Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    8.6
    17 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Forecasting00 Ratings8.716 Ratings
    Pipeline visualization00 Ratings8.416 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings8.717 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    8.6
    17 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Custom fields00 Ratings8.517 Ratings
    Custom objects00 Ratings8.516 Ratings
    Scripting environment00 Ratings9.016 Ratings
    API for custom integration00 Ratings8.314 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    8.7
    17 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.717 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.813 Ratings
    Social CRM
    Comparison of Social CRM features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    9.4
    13 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Social data00 Ratings9.513 Ratings
    Social engagement00 Ratings9.313 Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-party Software
    Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    9.0
    14 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Marketing automation00 Ratings9.114 Ratings
    Compensation management00 Ratings8.912 Ratings
    Platform
    Comparison of Platform features of Gusto and Sage CRM
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Sage CRM
    7.8
    16 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Mobile access00 Ratings7.816 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoSage CRM
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Salesflare
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    Kintone
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    Oracle Sales
    Score8.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoSage CRM
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    8.9
    (28 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    5.1
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    8.9
    (11 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.3
    (27 ratings)
    7.9
    (8 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoSage CRM
    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
    Sage
    as it is a very flexible software that can be adapted to any business model, other functions human resource management, manufacturing and supply chain planning, all these functions are housed in a highly technological interface. I liked this system because it made automating accounts payable so much easier.the control of the basic accounting of any type of company
    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
    Sage
    • When in client profile, it is very intuitive, allowing you to easily transcribe notes in the clients profile.
    • Sage allows 3rd party plugins, so if you utilize a particular phone services or would like to import something as simple as google drive, its compatible.
    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
    Sage
    • Reliance on Apache Tomcat causes a lot of headaches. There are common issues trying to start up the server, resulting from Apache Tomcat misconfigurations, or Java. Some forum posts on Sage City address common issues, but digging into server logs seems to be an often occurrence.
    • Support is somewhat lacking, less user install base means error messages are sometimes hard to find quick answers for. Most of the knowledge found on the internet is in the Sage City forum.
    • Integration with Microsoft 365 causes you to have to turn off some security features. This will result in your 365 tenants running lower security standards than recommended, it may put you at risk for targeted attacks.
    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
    Sage
    There are really no other words to say, it is a very easy to use application that is more straightforward and has provided better results with the bulk of features that appeal to a very broad amount of users. There may be other CRM platforms out there that are more prevalent, but I have found them to be much more clunky and less intuitive than Sage CRM.
    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
    Sage
    Excellent integration with the most important social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) to get leads. The mobile app is quite useful for speeding up the tasks at hand and not relying on the computer or being in the office to get them done.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Sage
    Sage works very quickly based on the network you are using it on. It is internet based so if your network is slow, it will perform slowly. Reports seem to run reasonably fast, if there is too much information it is trying to populate that could slow it down a little. When Sage CRM is integrated with a Sage ERP product it doesn't tend to slow down either system at all
    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
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    Sage
    Support team is really slow and they need to work on this really. Sometimes it takes days to resolve a simple query and there is no way to get it expedited. Rest the product is is amazing but the team should look into the costumer support and get it working
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Gusto
    No answers on this topic
    Sage
    Most training would come after a upgrade. Otherwise we would self teach new employees. Training was with a Sage Software partner SWK technologies.
    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
    Sage
    The implementation and upgrades were rather quick and straight forward. Attempting to link Sage CRM with Sage 100 ERP however was a nightmare and will be avoided by us in the future due to numerous issues.
    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
    Sage
    Whilst SAGE CRM was selected around 10 years ago and we became a partner, the main contenders would have been at the time Sales Logix and MS CRM 4.0. However, we had extensive experience of the mid-market CRM's and decided on SAGE CRM since it had a clean, easy to understand interface and importantly offered both workflow automation and Self Service capability, all of which across both the Case and Sales and Marketing functionality was seamless and saved time. As it was pure browser based, access was from anywhere we wanted. In my view, SAGE CRM still stacks up well against all the other mid-market CRM systems and offers good value for money, but more importantly, it is an easy to operate and customisable solution which user like. Again, we can teach administration users very quickly to support and customise themselves since the admin. function are clear as well.
    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
    Sage
    • It is very affordable in pricing, compared to competitors
    • Lead management and convertion into prospects is also a very easy process
    • Lead capture from web pages should be available, and better ways to capture leads from tradeshows by uploading directly from scanned business cards
    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