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
TriNet
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
TriNet provides small and medium size businesses (SMBs) with full-service HR and payroll solutions tailored by industry. TriNet also offers specialized services through client access to HR representatives for advice and notifications on impactful regulatory changes.
N/A
Workable
Score 7.4 out of 10
N/A
Workable is a recruiting software with HR integrations and AI-powered candidate sourcing. It has SEO-optimized job descriptions and one-click advertising across popular job boards. Workable also features communication tracking, real-time syncing, reporting, and mobile accessibility for collaboration.
$359
per month
Pricing
Gusto
TriNet
Workable
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
Standard
$360
per month (starting with 1-20 employees)
Premier
$599
per month (billed annually) (starting with 1-20 employees)
Enterprise
$799
per month (billed annually)
Premier
$8148
per year (starting with 1-20 employees)
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Gusto
TriNet
Workable
Free Trial
Yes
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Optional
Additional Details
Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
—
20% discount for annual pricing on Standard plan. Buyers can also select add-ons for an additional fee.
My employer had already selected Gusto. I would say it's about the same, but the UX is better. TriNet has a better benefit page that clearly breaks down what is included in your insurance. I got a much better monthly payment for similar health insurance with Gusto than I did …
Payroll is on par, however, the benefits management is not even close. BambooHR and TriNet both offered better benefit plans and over the course of years, never caused my teams to be uninsured for any period of time. BambooHR and TriNet support teams have always communicated …
TriNet is definitely a more robust platform that offers better benefit options, however Gusto is more cost effective and simple to use. Also, TriNet customer service isn't the best. I haven't had to use Gusto's customer service for anything, so I'm not sure how it compares but …
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.
Gusto has been my favorite option both as an end-user (ie. employee) and admin (ie. employer). It's easy to use, has all the features we need, integrates with Guideline (our preferred 401k provider), and priced well for great value.
Gusto was affordable and worked the best for what our organization needed. We only have four employees, so we didn't want something expensive or hard to use. Gusto is easy and works for us!
Verified User
Partner
Chose Gusto
Gusto is so much better than anything we've found so far. I know QuickBooks does have a feature for paying people, but Gusto has so much more features that make HR a breeze. I highly recommend Gusto to anyone that is just starting their business. QuickBooks does not even compare.
TriNet has quite a bit more functionality, albeit at a greater cost. For those companies moving from small to medium in size, TriNet is likely the better solution. For those that are very small, Gusto may be the better solution. Both should be evaluated side by side for each …
Gusto is geared more specifically to small businesses, which would service the majority of my clients. I find their platform and customer service are also quite good. Since they are more geared to a small business, under 5 employees, the cost difference is helpful for those …
When Astrolabe was founded we used Gusto. They have a slick portal and they are significantly cheaper than TriNet (order of magnitude or more). Unfortunately, Gusto does not provide small companies (less than 5 employees) with benefits or any concrete HR services other than …
I looked into Gusto, Concierge, but then I started seeing terrible reviews from my colleagues who utilize their service so I did not pursue a relationship with them.
Out of all of the platforms, I still think that Gusto is the most user friendly for employers and employees. However, they did not provide the support that I get with TriNet. In just a year, I feel that TriNet is listening to it clients and have already made changes to improve …
Trinet has more features than Gusto and QuickBooks Online as far as HR reporting, census, off-cycle payroll, tax reports etc. But the biggest thing it doesn't have that all of these other do is a live chat feature that is completely necessary for immediate payroll issues that …
TriNet has way more features and functionalities than Gusto. Specifically, the HR function is a big life from mine and the VP of Operations shoulders, and it's nice to have an HR function where we can direct the team to.
We found TriNet to be easier to understand and set up than Gusto.
Verified User
General Manager
Chose TriNet
Both Insperity and TriNet have failed us in the same and different ways. Justworks was initially more expensive for benefits than TriNet. However, TriNet's benefits renewed with an average 10% increase, so we did not see savings for very long. If we could just be free of a …
Verified User
Executive
Chose TriNet
Neither are as robust or as easy to use as Trinet. Customer service is not nearly as good as TriNet.
Their service is way better than ADP. I was not impressed with the ADP PEO response times and provided support. I would recommend TriNet over them any day if you are looking for a reliable PEO. Oracle is outdated, when I was recently using it within a company, very clunky. Payl…
Very bottom of the list - I did not select TriNet, as I joined the company after it had already been implemented and in use for some time. If I had been involved, Rippling and/or Zenefits would have been my top choices due to their wide breadth of HR/Payroll/People support …
TriNet has fulfilled our requirements and making a switch would require us to change our benefit offerings quite a bit. From that standpoint, it paid to stay with TriNet. They also have been extremely responsive and we enjoy the level of support we receive. The only issue we …
TriNet by far is superior in terms of service and platform. Their focus on state and federal compliance is unparalleled compared to the other products I have used in the past.
Compared to other websites that I have used to submit applications (including resumes and cover letters), workable stands out as one of the easiest to use. I had little to no confusion and I didn't need to replicate information that was already in my resume and cover letter. A …
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.
I truly believe TriNet is the best PEO out there. Our specialist, [...], was top notch and always made me feel special. I appreciate all the features available, not just for my employees but for me, as an HR specialist. The benefits I am now able to offer is why we joined but all the features and ease of use is what will keep us clients moving forward. My only issue was feeling a bit rushed through training. I was told I would get written procedures but they were pretty antiquated.
Workable is great at creating job posts and posting them to multiple job boards with a single click and also running paid campaigns on social media platforms to reach passive candidates as well. Workable has a friendly UI and has a very gentle learning curve. It is more appropriate for larger organizations where you need to hire thousands of people a year and need to always have a pipeline of great talent.
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!
Customer support is great when working with Amy Hoffman. She's always very quick to respond and helpful. I'd say she's the thing that makes me want to stay with TriNet the most.
The webinars are very helpful. I utilize those frequently and our CFO has signed up for some as well.
The expense management system has been very helpful. There are a couple issues with it, but it's leaps better than what the company was doing before this system through TriNet.
The platform allows us to implement a scorecard service through which it is possible to keep track of the quality of nutrition that each prospective employee could bring to the company, so that the decision to hire any of them is as profitable as possible.
Communication with candidates is very easy to track, so that it is possible to make sure that the results proposed by each employee in the recruitment area are totally adequate. This is useful to filter possible failures that may occur on the part of the recruitment team.
The platform works with recruitment funnels, whose structure allows us to purify the information of real utility for the company by the employees, and where we can even add databases with the information of all prospective employees that are kept in the recruitment process.
Using Workable in conjunction with the information provided by their online technical assistants results in a huge improvement in our labor operation, as they know the best strategies to leverage our hiring management. Workable's technical support is active most of the day.
Using Workable was no problem for our employees in the human talent development area, mostly because they, despite not having any experience with Workable, were able to adapt to the platform with incredible speed, thanks to the ease of use of Workable and the number of tools it has right out of the box.
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.
The ability to schedule interviews via Workable was great, but it was unable to pull other items from your calendar, so it was easy to end up double booked for appointments if you weren't careful.
The reporting leaves a bit to be desired, there is not a lot of customization for what I really needed reports on.
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.
This is one stop shopping perse. They provide tools for Benefits and 401k. There reports are easy to read and the support given from Trinet support is awesome. Having everything in one place is best then having multiple places for things. Why change if things are working well? All the information is all there when needed.
It's become a part of the fabric of our hiring process and we are growing like crazy! Once we have a working platform in place the cost of the change management typically far out weighs the benefits derived from the change! It's especially hard to change a process with employees who are not key stake holders, they are alway hesitant to invest time in a new product they are only going to use once in a while. With that said if something else came along with benefits far and above workable that we would gain a clear lift in productivity and capabilities we would make the change, we've done it with other parts of our tech stack
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.
The platform is highly intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy to navigate for both admins and employees when handling everyday tasks like payroll processing, benefits enrollment, and HR reporting. The flexibility in HR and payroll features does not require a need for extensive training. The mobile app stands out as amazing, with a great interface that enables quick access to employee related items
One thing, it just works as advertised. AI integration makes the work more easier, and we will be able to process the applications more faster with the help of AI.
We had an issue with application errors - took TriNet 5 months to fix it, mean while we had someone manually tracking and keeping up with many requests and questions about the application error which affected time off. When we were all registering for Benefits during open enrollment there were lots of bugs that caused issues with registering for benefits or being able to see what benefits were available
For the most part pages load quickly. Working for a software company we understand performance is everything, even a few seconds delay can feel like a lifetime, that being said, we ran into a few times where pages didn't load, information didn't load correctly, and an influx in users (like open enrollment) cause things to slow down
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.
The support overall is very good. There seems to be a good number of customer support staff and they are knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with and it almost all cases are able to resolve the question or issue very quickly. My only complaint would be having to wait in some cases as I'm based in the UK and the correct department may not be open 24 hours.
I have never had to rely on Workable's support team so I cannot attest to this. I have never had to rely on Workable's support team so I cannot attest to this. I have never had to rely on Workable's support team so I cannot attest to this.I have never had to rely on Workable's support team so I cannot attest to this. I have never had to rely on Workable's support team so I cannot attest to this.
it's been awhile, but I recall them being helpful. I got through a lot of it and when I needed help, they can walk me through it over the phone. It's also pretty user friendly in general at a platform. I don't really know what else to type, but they came and helped me in person and also when there was something new, they came and talked to me. They have not done that since with the new model that I hate
Since this was already implemented. I have another employee briefly train me. Then Trinet rep gave me some training as needed for things that came up. For one payroll preview report I figured it could be done, but I had asked the rep to be sure. One important training was when there was an employee leaving the company.
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
not applicable as I implementation was done 5 years ago and have no recollection of the details of the process. Above it says to skip question if not involved in the process but it will not allow me to skip it as it states explanation requitred thus making this process extremely frustrating.
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.
I liked Rippling's software better than TriNet. However, the pricing on employee benefits was through the roof, and they don't offer many selections/options. If it was a software only decision, I would go with Rippling (the 2.0 version of Zenefits which TriNet offers). However, the software isn't a major need, compared to smooth payroll and benefits that I get from TriNet (and great service). I'm happy at TriNet long term as long as the health insurance rates aren't exhorbinant.
Workable was an excellent tool for our start-up. It was cost effective but very user-friendly. It wasn't a difficult sell to ensure our hiring managers would utilize the tool, and I particularly liked the inbox feature to stay organized. I rated Workable very highly, though as our company grew exponentially, we did go in a different direction.
We are a small company, do we use it across departments and sites? Yes, we are all remote working, so there are as many sites as there are people. We also have our entire staff using TriNet, so every department from Accounting, Admin, HR, Development, QA, and Management are all using this. Can't say for sure how great the scalability is as we are only about 30 employees
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.
Stay within HR Compliance - when the new laws about Salary change came into effect I received an email on impacted employees and how to address.
More involvement in employee benefits. With greater benefit selection more employees were able to find plans that suited their needs.
The TimeClock took a little time to get used to. It is still a little frustrating at times for hourly employees to be able to track how many hours they actually have for the week/pay-period. The off the clock meals count towards "hours" and employees have to subtract that out to be able to see what they need for the rest of the week.
Workable has a had positive ROI on our workflow management, as the basic pay-as-you-go feature for a single role is incredibly affordable ($50/month) for a 2-3 month mid-to-senior level candidate search.
The ease of use has helped us move candidates faster as well - our average time to close a role decreased by 22% after our first 6 months of using Workable.
