Gusto – Payroll & HR Platform Review & Pricing 2026
Our comprehensive Gusto review examines pricing, features, and user experience of this leading small business payroll platform. Discover how Gusto's payroll automation, benefits administration, and HR tools compare to competitors like ADP, Paychex, and Rippling.
Gusto has earned its reputation as the best payroll platform for small businesses, and it continues to deserve that title in 2026. The platform makes payroll genuinely enjoyable - automatic tax filing, next-day direct deposits, and a clean interface that even non-accountants can navigate. Its benefits administration is surprisingly robust for the price, with health insurance, 401(k), and workers' comp all integrated. The Plus plan at $12/person/month is the sweet spot for most small businesses. Where Gusto falls short is scale - companies over 100 employees will outgrow it, and its HR features, while improving, can't match dedicated HRIS platforms. For businesses with 5-100 employees who want payroll that just works, Gusto remains the gold standard.
Watch: Gusto Overview
Pros & Cons
A balanced analysis of Gusto's strengths and limitations based on extensive testing and real user feedback.
- Exceptionally intuitive payroll interface that requires minimal training
- Automatic tax calculation, filing, and year-end tax forms
- Comprehensive benefits administration including health, 401(k), and HSA
- Modern, clean UI that employees enjoy using for self-service
- Strong contractor payment capabilities including international
- Excellent onboarding workflows for new hires
- Affordable pricing for small businesses
- Limited scalability for companies over 100 employees
- HR features less comprehensive than dedicated HRIS platforms
- Performance management tools are basic compared to Lattice or 15Five
- No native time-tracking hardware integration
- Customer support wait times can be long during tax season
- International payroll limited to contractors only
What Customers Say
Authentic testimonials from verified Gusto customers across different industries and company sizes.
"Switching to Gusto cut our payroll processing time from 4 hours to 20 minutes. Tax filing is completely hands-off now."
"The benefits administration is fantastic for our size. We got health insurance, 401(k), and workers' comp all set up in one afternoon."
"Great for payroll but we eventually outgrew the HR features. The performance review tools are too basic for a 150-person company."
Pricing & Plans
Detailed breakdown of Gusto's tiered pricing structure. Choose the plan that fits your business needs.
Simple
Basic payroll and hiring tools
- Full-service payroll
- Employee self-service
- Health benefits administration
- Workers comp
- Basic hiring tools
- Standard support
- Basic reports
- Payroll tax filing
Plus
Full payroll, benefits, and HR
- Everything in Simple
- Next-day direct deposit
- Time tracking
- PTO management
- Employee surveys
- Performance reviews
- Advanced hiring tools
- HR resource centre
Premium
Dedicated support and compliance
- Everything in Plus
- Dedicated support team
- HR resource centre
- Compliance alerts
- Custom admin permissions
- Priority support
- Health insurance broker integration
- Full-service payroll migration
Add-ons & Additional Modules
- International contractor payments: built-in
- State tax registration: included with Premium
- R&D tax credits: Gusto-partnered service
How Gusto Compares
Side-by-side comparison of Gusto against leading competitors in the payroll and HR space.
Rating Comparison
Feature Comparison
Ready to Simplify Your Payroll & HR?
Gusto offers a comprehensive payroll and HR platform perfect for small businesses that want payroll automation, benefits administration, and HR tools in one place.