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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BrightHR

    Score3.4 out of 10
    N/ABritish company BrightHR offers a human resources platform which helps replace paper documents with edocuments and contains features for managing employee scheduling and ROTA, sick leave and tardiness, vacation and holiday shift planning, as well as providing employment law legal advice.

    $4.50

    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

    Pricing
    BrightHRGusto
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BrightHRGusto
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPrices start at £4.50 (per employee/per month)Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    BrightHRGusto
    Human Resource Management
    Comparison of Human Resource Management features of BrightHR and Gusto
    Feature
    BrightHR
    1.0
    2 Ratings
    155% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Employment history1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Job profiles and administration1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Organization and location management1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of BrightHR and Gusto
    Feature
    BrightHR
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Gusto
    9.2
    514 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Pay calculation7.01 Ratings9.6493 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors7.01 Ratings8.58 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management7.01 Ratings9.4383 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration00 Ratings8.9358 Ratings
    Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.5497 Ratings
    Reimbursement management00 Ratings9.5127 Ratings
    Leave and Attendance Management
    Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of BrightHR and Gusto
    Feature
    BrightHR
    1.0
    13 Ratings
    156% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Approval workflow1.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    Balance details1.012 Ratings00 Ratings
    Annual carry-forward and encashment1.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Employee Self Service
    Comparison of Employee Self Service features of BrightHR and Gusto
    Feature
    BrightHR
    3.6
    14 Ratings
    77% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    View and generate pay and benefit information1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Update personal information1.014 Ratings00 Ratings
    View company policy documentation8.813 Ratings00 Ratings
    HR Reporting
    Comparison of HR Reporting features of BrightHR and Gusto
    Feature
    BrightHR
    1.0
    2 Ratings
    153% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built reports1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of BrightHR and Gusto
    Feature
    BrightHR
    1.0
    2 Ratings
    155% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Review reminders1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency1.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Recruiting / ATS
    Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of BrightHR and Gusto
    Feature
    BrightHR
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Notifications and Alerts7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BrightHRGusto
    Small Businesses
    Zoho People
    Score8.4 out of 10
    OnPay
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho People
    Score8.4 out of 10
    APS
    Score1.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    PeopleStrong
    Score10 out of 10
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BrightHRGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    1.0
    (16 ratings)
    9.2
    (538 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (12 ratings)
    Usability
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.5
    (362 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    1.3
    (25 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BrightHRGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BrightHR
    I feel Bright HR is well suited to most small/medium sized businesses where they have a 'straight' forward resource set up. For larger businesses or for complex businesses similar to ourselves, where we operate 24 hours per day, rotational shift patterns, ambulatory staff, locums etc...we have to 'fudge' the way we use the information sometimes to make it work for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    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
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    Pros
    BrightHR
    • BLIP is working very well. Staff find it easy to use and the geo-fencing that can be set up is very useful.
    • Reporting, in particular reporting of Absence. We run this monthly and the information we can download is flexible and useful.
    • Sick analysis - helps in controlling absence.
    • Holiday planning and authorization is very helpful and details including date booked helps manage requests.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    • 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!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    BrightHR
    • Notifications for requests should be optional based on individual employees. For example an admin won’t necessarily want every staff members leave requests by email and push notification. The settings only currently allow for notifications for everyone or no one. Being assigned as a manager may not allow data viewing required of wider staff.
    • Toil should automatically be accrued into a balance if the employees clocked in time amounts to more than the target hours. It shouldn’t have to be calculated and requested.
    • When reviewing hours worked for the week, the history calculation should take into account approved leave and sickness etc. I have a staff members target of 37 hours, but if their hours show 29 hours worked then I have to work out why they worked less. It should account for this if the absence is approved.
    Read full review
    Gusto
    • 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
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    Likelihood to Renew
    BrightHR
    It's not entirely my decision - we are members of a 'community' of veterinary practices who have signed up to the contract with pensinusla and have bright hr as part of that contract however, I am usually involved in the tender process as I am one of the biggest users of both bright hr and the services from peninsula
    Incentivized
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    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
    Usability
    BrightHR
    It is quite good. Has alot of useful features such as the inbuilt learning / trainings. I really like the clock in function where admin can update or edit staff clock in times. I love the easily accessable annual leave section where we can easily see wat annual leave a staff has. However what would be useful is for 0 hour staff due to them not automatically having 17/28 days annual leave, if it can calculate itbased on hours they work
    Incentivized
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    Gusto
    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
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    Support Rating
    BrightHR
    The team are proactive, having an advocacy team is just amazing and a great way to really understand their product roadmap and have input into useful features or feedback
    Incentivized
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    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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    Implementation Rating
    BrightHR
    it was fairly easy to do but timely as i had to enter everything from scratch - i didn't at the time realise how important it was to set up the variable or fixed working pattern correctly given future changes as this is very tricky once it has been set up and i wished i had been aware that sometimes you can't make future changes without deleting the whole profile and starting again
    Incentivized
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    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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    Alternatives Considered
    BrightHR
    I chose BrightHR as it offered a one-stop platform for HR management for which we have dedicated UK and ROI HR specialists who not only give HR advice but also write policies and handbooks, etc. They are a one-stop-shop, which was very important as when I signed the contract I did not have an HR person in my team and they were essentially my back office. Also, by signing up, I got access to Bright Safe too; which is great as again it's a one-stop-shop for Health and Safety in the workplace. So I can roll out toolbox talks, training, and accident management.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    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
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    BrightHR
    • Able to reduce one member of staff in personnel from 5 days to 3 days.
    • Able to reduce time spent by payroll on holiday records significantly and improve accuracy significantly.
    • Able to improve control of sick absence and improve record keeping.
    • BLIP meant we did not need to buy expensive attendance software.
    • Looking at possible use of payroll and other aspects of Bright HR not used at present.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Gusto
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    BrightHR Screenshots

    Screenshot of BrightHR dashboardScreenshot of BrightHR LightningScreenshot of Bright ExchangeScreenshot of BrightSafeScreenshot of BrightBaseScreenshot of PoP by BrightHR

    Gusto Screenshots

    Screenshot of Gusto's automated payrollScreenshot of the time-off tracking interfaceScreenshot of the source of truth for HR data