ADP Resource (Discontinued) vs. Gusto

I would highly recommend ADP Resource. It is a one stop shop for all human resource needs. One key question that I would ask on any product is: Does it cover all my HR needs in one application? ADP does just that.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• ADP has an easy to read portal that is easy to navigate. The UI is fairly intuitive and as a user I can find the right information quickly.
• The ADP portal is flexible in the sense that we can change payroll amounts for special circumstances such as a special bonus or special payout. This allows our payroll team to make the necessary changes right away.
• The reporting capabilities are quite robust and there are many ways to customize reports that we use for finance, payroll, HR, etc.

Incentivized

• Gusto makes onboarding employees and ensuring their documents are signed very easy.
• The way you can integrate things like Google Workspace makes both onboarding new employees into the apps you use a breeze, as well as when you need to offboard them.
• Managing benefits is simple, because they take care of all the heavy lifting. I just have to review the options, make a selection, and they take it from there.

Incentivized

• My biggest peeve is....and they are aware of this - a new state is sometimes very difficult to set up. With all the different classifications in states back east, it can take days to get it set up correctly.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

I would renew my use of ADP Resource if I had the need. It is a great format but at this time I do not have the need for the product

Incentivized

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.

Really.....I hate to keep repeating my self but I am very confident in any ADP software. They are worldwide and have proven their capabilities throughout the world

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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

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

ADP is just a well known brand and is fairly affordable. Compared to other software such as Workday, it was a more affordable price point for our budget. However, if we had more resources and time to examine, Workday seems to offer a strong alternative to ADP in terms of payroll, HR, and financial systems. Overall though, there are more consultants knowledgeable about ADP which made it an easier choice for us

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Positive - ADP has simplified our payroll batches as the payroll side is quite intuitive.
• Negatives - Because of a lack of internal coordination, we've often had to have multiple phone calls to resolve issues.
• Positive - The reporting within the tool has allowed us to be more efficient during our financial audits.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized