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
When I Work
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
When I Work is a way for businesses to schedule, track time and attendance, and communicate with their hourly employees. The schedule and time clock is placed in every employee's pocket with When I Work's iOS and Android apps. It can be used to keep track of time off, employee availability, and manage shift swaps with a few clicks. When I Work integrates with payroll providers to streamline the process and avoid human error.
$2.50
per month per user
Pricing
Gusto
When I Work
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
Essentials
$2.50
per month per user
Essentials + Attendance
$4
per month per user
Pro
$5
per month per user
Pro + Attendance
$7
per month per user
Premium
$8
per month per user
Premium + Attendance
$10
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Gusto
When I Work
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
When I Work is much more detail oriented. When I Work has less features and the app is confusing. Gusto houses all of the systems I use to manage more than just When I Work and how much I earn/earned. I like Gusto much more than When I Work.
Both When I Work and Wave Accounting are not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison with Gusto, as each one has a benefit that Gusto does not currently provide (scheduling shifts in When I Work, and accounting in Wave). Gusto wins on all other fronts. However, I can integrate …
I love both but prefer the pay calculation abd time off management features in Gusto. They are easier to use and navigate. I love the scheduling and group work chat feature better in When I Work. It is the main aspect of the app and prioritized communication in the app.
Gusto is cheap and easy if you just want to process payroll. If you want customer service, support, and any help whatsoever from a live person, do not use Gusto. They have no sense of urgency in resolving problems, and reaching a live person who can actually provide …
I felt that the customer reviews and feedback for Gusto spoke volumes, and the Gusto interface was straightforward and simple to use. The value of the tier-based subscription model is great too. I found that other HR software plans were more expensive and more cluttered, less …
Gusto is better than all of its competitors - hands down. The closest competitor is sure payroll, and they are lightyears behind what gusto does. For small business and for the price there is no comparison. Gusto is the best. They fixed what ADP/Paychex were lacking, which is …
Gusto is well-suited for small businesses looking for a one-stop platform for payroll, tax-related tasks, and onboarding. It has many automated features that make tasks related to running a business/running an S-Corp simpler. I have not tried any other similar platforms, so I am unsure how it compares, but the pricing Gusto offers feels reasonable compared to other providers.
I recommend When I Work to those companies that are looking for a way to manage work schedules and want to increase the productivity of all employees. This is an important platform that would bring excellent results to small, medium and large companies. This is a constant monitoring system which allows employees to complete their tasks in the indicated time, When I Work sends automated alerts when an employee is not complying with their tasks and this allows us to know exactly the productivity we are having in each one of the sectors. It is an excellent platform for planning and administration of working hours, it has a very easy-to-use UI that allows schedules to be easily managed. Without a doubt, When I Work would be a perfect implementation for any sector or company, since it has a lot of potential to collect exact data on compliance with working hours.
When I Work allowed me to color-code each employee's schedule.
When I Work allowed me to show who was "off" during what time of day. This was essential for morale, as our event included 16-18 hour days, and I wanted to show that everyone had down time each day.
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.
When pulling up the schedule on the app, it defaults to Tuesday when the screen is done loading.
If you pull up an individual's schedule it removes your default settings. For example, I have mine set to just my store, but if I need to see an employee's schedule it resets those defaults. You're always looking at the last schedule you pulled up.
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.
Wonderful overall usability – especially for the new business owner. The user interface is clean and intuitive, so it's easy to find what you're looking for. They also have great explanation pages ingrained into the process, so if you get stuck knowing what to do next, there's a link right there to walk you through the process!
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.
Every time I contact When I Work staff with an issue, someone is there with a quick solution to my problem. I love the chat feature. I can continue to work on other things while the When I Work representative assists me.
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
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.
When I Work seemed a bit easier to implement for our team and employees. When I Work had all the things we needed without a lot of the bells and whistles that we wouldn't really utilize. When I Work was also a bit more affordable for our budget. Overall, it was the better choice.
I am not involved enough to know well, but I would say that Gusto has saved me about 1-2 hours in my onboarding process with my new company compared to my past experiences trying to onboard with ADP. I have also finished the process and am not frustrated like usual.
