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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    CharlieHR

    Score9.9 out of 10
    N/ACharlie, or CharlieHR from the company in London, offers a cloud-based software product designed to enable small companies to automate many of the administrative headaches that they experience as they scale. Charlie also includes onboarding and offboarding features, and its higher tier plan includes HR Advice from a personal advisor from Charlie to handle dismissals, grievances, or redundancies, or other difficult HR challenges.

    $6

    per month

    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
    CharlieHRGusto
    Editions & Modules
    CharlieHR
    £4
    per employee, per month
    CharlieHR + HR Advice
    From £179 (+ £4)
    per month (per employee)
    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
    CharlieHRGusto
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    CharlieHRGusto
    Considered Both Products
    CharlieHR
    No answer on this topic
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Would buy again
    488 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    395 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    501 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    254 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    311 Answers
    Features
    CharlieHRGusto
    Human Resource Management
    Comparison of Human Resource Management features of CharlieHR and Gusto
    Feature
    CharlieHR
    7.3
    1 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Employee demographic data8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Organizational charting7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Organization and location management7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of CharlieHR and Gusto
    Feature
    CharlieHR
    6.0
    1 Ratings
    28% below category average
    Gusto
    9.2
    514 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Support for external payroll vendors4.01 Ratings8.58 Ratings
    Direct deposit files7.01 Ratings9.5497 Ratings
    Reimbursement management7.01 Ratings9.5127 Ratings
    Pay calculation00 Ratings9.6493 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration00 Ratings8.9358 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings9.4383 Ratings
    Leave and Attendance Management
    Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of CharlieHR and Gusto
    Feature
    CharlieHR
    7.7
    1 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Approval workflow8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Balance details8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Annual carry-forward and encashment7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Employee Self Service
    Comparison of Employee Self Service features of CharlieHR and Gusto
    Feature
    CharlieHR
    7.5
    1 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    Update personal information9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    View company policy documentation6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Onboarding
    Comparison of Onboarding features of CharlieHR and Gusto
    Feature
    CharlieHR
    7.5
    1 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Gusto
    -
    Ratings
    New hire portal7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Manager tracking tools8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    CharlieHRGusto
    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
    CharlieHRGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.2
    (538 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (12 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.6
    (362 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.3
    (25 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    CharlieHRGusto
    Likelihood to Recommend
    CharlieHR
    As a part-time employee, it would be better if I was able to book leave on an hourly basis. Also, to be able to set up two leave types, paid and unpaid, and accrue lieu time.
    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
    Read full review
    Pros
    CharlieHR
    • Ensures personal requests are not lost in email
    • Makes managing leave days easier
    • Provides a standard UI for all
    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
    CharlieHR
    • Better ability to manage leave for part time / pro rata employees
    • Links to other HR apps such as free agent
    • Management of unpaid leave allowance as well as paid.
    Incentivized
    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
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    CharlieHR
    No answers on this topic
    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
    CharlieHR
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    CharlieHR
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    CharlieHR
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    CharlieHR
    Both the above work in different ways and provide different services to CharlieHR, although if we could use a single app for all, that would be better.
    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
    CharlieHR
    • Easier to track leave taken and left
    • Still need greater flexibility for leave types
    • Need to be able to book leave by the hour
    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

    Gusto Screenshots

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