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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

    SumTotal (legacy)

    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    The SumTotal Talent Expansion Suite included SumTotal (LMS), and was supported by Skillsoft since the October 2014 acquisition. Acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand in 2022, it is a legacy product, and Cornerstone recommends upgrading to their modern platform.N/A
    Pricing
    GustoSumTotal (legacy)
    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
    GustoSumTotal (legacy)
    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.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GustoSumTotal (legacy)
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    92%
    Would buy again
    563 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    464 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    576 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    316 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    376 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    GustoSumTotal (legacy)
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and SumTotal (legacy)
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    10% above category average
    SumTotal (legacy)
    -
    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
    Onboarding
    Comparison of Onboarding features of Gusto and SumTotal (legacy)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    SumTotal (legacy)
    8.2
    2 Ratings
    12% above category average
    New hire portal00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Manager tracking tools00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Performance and Goals
    Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Gusto and SumTotal (legacy)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    SumTotal (legacy)
    8.8
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Corporate goal setting00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Individual goal setting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Performance tracking00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of Gusto and SumTotal (legacy)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    SumTotal (legacy)
    8.2
    2 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Performance plans00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.52 Ratings
    Review status tracking00 Ratings7.92 Ratings
    Review reminders00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Succession Planning
    Comparison of Succession Planning features of Gusto and SumTotal (legacy)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    SumTotal (legacy)
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Candidate search00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Candidate development00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Recruiting / ATS
    Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Gusto and SumTotal (legacy)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    SumTotal (legacy)
    7.8
    2 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Job Requisition Management00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Company Website Posting00 Ratings7.52 Ratings
    Publish to Social Media00 Ratings7.92 Ratings
    Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings6.52 Ratings
    Applicant Tracking00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Gusto and SumTotal (legacy)
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    SumTotal (legacy)
    6.5
    1 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Course authoring00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Course catalog or library00 Ratings4.01 Ratings
    Player/Portal00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Assignments00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Compliance management00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Learning administration00 Ratings4.01 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoSumTotal (legacy)
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    ClearCo
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    Cornerstone Galaxy
    Score8.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoSumTotal (legacy)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    7.5
    (9 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    6.0
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    2.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.2
    (27 ratings)
    3.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoSumTotal (legacy)
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Very good for learning and development and training of employees. For Applicant tracking, recuirement, onboarding, and enablement, I prefer SAP SuccessFactors or Skillate. I also found that the SumTotal app is not very friendly on android and crashes sometimes and it is not optimized for mobile. Hence I end up never using it.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Assign complete learning plans to users so they don't have to spend time searching for courses.
    • Export learner's transcripts so managers can easily see their employee's progress.
    • Embed Social Media feeds that are relevant to their business.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Reporting
    • Mass importing of manual checks to be issued in California
    • Ability to fund pay cards immediately
    • Perform gross-up calculations within the payroll system automatically
    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
    Discontinued Products
    I have transitioned from a position who supported the product to a position where I use the product. I continue to be impressed with the robustness of the product and how efficient it is. It is a user friendly software that can be used to navigate and accomplish tasks to meet organizational requirements.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    I do not find SumTotal to be intuitive. I feel we need to adjust our needs to meet the functionality available in the tool.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    We have our own IT support to assist in SumTotal issues, however, we have had to log in cases directly. Support is mediocre at best.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    When I came to my company, they had been using a "light" LMS called Articulate. It was cheap and bare bones; i.e. not a lot of features, really just a platform to launch eLearning from and not real interface for student to utilize. When I began to overhaul the training department, this was one of the first things I changed. Articulate would only run courses built in their software, and the software was not 508 compliant. In addition, we had no ability to create learning plans, house transcripts, customize the interface, or manage the students. I made the choice to select and LMS that was a true LMS with all of the features that were critical to our clients' needs. Thus far, SumTotal has been able to support all of our needs, except one; mobile learning that is media rich
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • Clean front-end user interface for easier course catalog management.
    • Reporting has been more difficult than previous LMS.
    • Audience building has more variables making it more difficult to manage.
    • Slower overall client turnaround due to admin side interface.
    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

    SumTotal (legacy) Screenshots

    Screenshot of SumTotal Learning Management: Deliver the learning your organization needs including skilling/upskilling/reskilling, career planning & development. All delivered with our engaging learner experience across all modalities (desktop, tablet & mobile) and in the flow of workScreenshot of SumTotal Onboarding: Foster learning before day one with our robust onboarding solution. Build culture, complete necessary paperwork and begin the path to productivity for all your new and returning employees.Screenshot of SumTotal Performance: Performance management that meets the needs of today’s forward-thinking organizations. Align the goals and performance of your entire workforce with those of the broader organization for better business outcomes.Screenshot of SumTotal Succession: Make succession planning an organizational strength. SumTotal allows you to better understand your workforce now and better plan for your future with our intuitive succession planning tools.Screenshot of SumTotal Recruiting: A modern recruiting solution that delivers a powerful candidate experience, recruiter productivity, job matching and internal mobility.Screenshot of SumTotal Compensation: SumTotal makes compensation planning easier and less time consuming. Build a pay for performance culture that meets your organizations goals and objectives while keeping you competitive in the ever-changing marketplace.