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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

    Seismic Learning

    Score6.8 out of 10
    N/ASeismic Learning (formerly Lessonly, acquired by Seismic in August 2021), is a learning management system (LMS). The vendor emphasizes eLearning for client-facing skills, as well as a drag-and-drop interface. Lessonly supports customizable learning paths and corporate onboarding processes.N/A
    Pricing
    GustoSeismic Learning
    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
    Pro
    Contact sales team
    Pro + Coaching
    Contact sales team
    Enterprise Learning for Global Teams
    Contact sales team
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoSeismic Learning
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    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
    Features
    GustoSeismic Learning
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Seismic Learning
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Seismic Learning
    -
    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
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Gusto and Seismic Learning
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Seismic Learning
    6.7
    110 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Course authoring00 Ratings9.7108 Ratings
    Course catalog or library00 Ratings9.6106 Ratings
    Player/Portal00 Ratings5.485 Ratings
    Learning content00 Ratings3.0104 Ratings
    Mobile friendly00 Ratings9.058 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications00 Ratings9.996 Ratings
    Assignments00 Ratings2.2107 Ratings
    Compliance management00 Ratings9.763 Ratings
    Learning administration00 Ratings7.1100 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics00 Ratings6.495 Ratings
    Social learning00 Ratings2.072 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoSeismic Learning
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Tovuti LMS
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    iSpring LMS
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    Bridge LMS, Skills & Performance Management
    Score7.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoSeismic Learning
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    6.3
    (114 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.3
    (27 ratings)
    9.7
    (97 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoSeismic Learning
    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
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    Seismic
    If you are onboarding new employees or consultants and you have a complex product, solution, or your business is layered and complex, this can help distill down the layers into basics so that new team or partners can build their knowledge base up the right way. This ensures they are learning what needs to be learned, and not what they surmise or assume, which can be incorrect and cause issues down the road - this is especially sensitive in our field. Training of all kinds can be done easily with this tool.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Seismic
    • Open to feedback and ideas and constantly innovating and iterating on their product to serve new needs that arise
    • Making me feel like more than just a customer: They aren't transactional and focus on building the relationship and making me feel heard.
    • Extremely easy to use product so building content takes little time, and I can leverage other subject matter experts to build content as well.
    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
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    Seismic
    • Media import (audio, video) are still in infancy. Reliability of uploaded content isn't 100%.
    • The Events function lacks some features that are more built out in other platforms.
    • Reporting interface has a bit of a learning curve, but overall isn't bad.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Seismic
    Worried about its acquisition by Seismic and hope that they don't change the product or the terms drastically.
    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
    Seismic
    It's completely simple and intuitive, anyone can pick it up. The hardest part is looking for a save button and finally figuring out you don't need one. We don't provide training for users and never have complaints. For creators, we provide best practices, but using Lessonly itself requires nothing .
    Incentivized
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    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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    Seismic
    The support team is very friendly and eager to help you learn the ins and outs of Lessonly. They can set up training for large groups or send links in a chat for individual help. They are quick to respond and if one person doesn't have the answer, they will collaborate with others to help find the answer.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Seismic
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Seismic
    I felt some of these products had more features than were necessary and needed for our team. Some of them were limited on the number of content creators that were allowed which to me forces you to use one or two people to create content where I would rather see it done by key members of each department.
    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
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    Seismic
    • We've had an increase in quality overall as a company, as we are able to continually train our employees outside of our New Hire Training program.
    • We've seen stronger communication as we are able to send out material to our stylists about products, policies, procedures, etc. and they are able to provide us with feedback. After all, it is their tool for learning and we want to know the best way to provide that information to our Team Members.
    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