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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

    Zoho Expense

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AZoho Expense is online expense reporting software, tailor-made for businesses worldwide to automate expense report creation, streamline approvals and make swift reimbursements.

    $5

    per month per user

    Pricing
    GustoZoho Expense
    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
    Free
    $0
    Standard Plan
    $5
    per month per user
    Premium Plan
    $9
    per month per user
    Custom
    Get a Quote
    per month per user
    Custom
    Get a Quote
    per month per user
    Custom
    Get a Quote
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoZoho Expense
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional DetailsGusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.20% discount for annual pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    GustoZoho Expense
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Zoho Expense
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.1
    611 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Zoho Expense
    -
    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
    Expense Management
    Comparison of Expense Management features of Gusto and Zoho Expense
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Expense
    7.9
    3 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Employee Expense Reporting00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Corporate Card Reconciliation00 Ratings7.73 Ratings
    Payment Management
    Comparison of Payment Management features of Gusto and Zoho Expense
    Feature
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Expense
    7.2
    3 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Customizable Approval Policies00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Financial Document Management00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Payment Status Tracking00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Payment Audit Trail00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Duplicate Bill Detection00 Ratings7.93 Ratings
    Advanced OCR00 Ratings5.12 Ratings
    Electronic Funds Transfer00 Ratings5.23 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoZoho Expense
    Small Businesses
    Patriot Payroll
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Brex
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score5.7 out of 10
    Expensify
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.1 out of 10
    Emburse Expense Enterprise (formerly Chrome River)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoZoho Expense
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (633 ratings)
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (14 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (457 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.3
    (27 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoZoho Expense
    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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    Zoho
    easy of use for the end users as well as to manage. The option to add new categories (expenses) and have the end users use them immediately is wonderful. The ease of creating a new user as well as customer support has been great. The customer support while having issues has been quick to resolve any issues
    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
    Zoho
    • The program will notify users if they have entered a duplicate charge.
    • Once the end-users understood that receipts were mandatory, attaching those receipts has become second-nature. The app makes it very easy to do so.
    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
    Zoho
    • Could have more default options. Instead of making my users select payment method, allow us to default it to one of the options.
    • More room for customization by department. My service department needs different categories of expenses then my sales department.
    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
    Zoho
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Zoho
    Ease of use for the simple basic options. I wish the there was an option for reimbursement to be marked separately. Example for all corporate credit expense reports with $0 reimbursements still have to be marked as reimbursed in order to be removed from pending reimbursement section. For the cost the features offer benefits
    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
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    Zoho
    The only reason I give Zoho a 9 is because of the issue with the Chart of Accounts skewing every time I export/import. I believe this is due to the fact that I use sub-accounts and Zoho cannot differentiate. Still hoping. :)
    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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    Zoho
    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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    Zoho
    We selected (switched) to Zoho Expense because it had similar features at a lower price and we were able to receive a discount through our partner relationship with another software company. We have considered moving from Zoho Expense to something else recently due to continued issues with being able to accurately import credit card charges and organize them correctly be team member. Creating some confusion among users.
    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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    Zoho
    • We have had some issues with the credit card reconciliation process which has made our monthly accounting / close process. This has been a negative
    • Positive ROI is that team members spend less time on expense reports due to the ease of reporting
    • Positive ROI is that substantial training and onboarding is not needed due to the features and simplicity.
    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