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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

    Sterling Check

    Score6.6 out of 10
    N/ASterling background and identity solutions help you build a foundation of trust and safety for your employees, customers, and partners around the world. Sterling's CourtDirect technology provides direct online digital access to ~90% of US criminal search records, and SmartData technology enables Sterling to further automate across the end-to-end employment criminal background check process – from matching candidate data to determining reportability and applying any order rules.N/A
    Pricing
    GustoSterling Check
    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
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GustoSterling Check
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsGusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GustoSterling Check
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Sterling
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    488 Answers
    71%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    395 Answers
    71%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    501 Answers
    71%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    254 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    311 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    GustoSterling Check
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Sterling Check
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.2
    514 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Sterling Check
    -
    Ratings
    Pay calculation9.6493 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for external payroll vendors8.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration8.9358 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct deposit files9.5497 Ratings00 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management9.4383 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reimbursement management9.5127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GustoSterling Check
    Small Businesses
    OnPay
    Score9.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score1.4 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.4 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoSterling Check
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (538 ratings)
    2.1
    (8 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (12 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (362 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.3
    (25 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoSterling Check
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Sterling
    SterlingOne has had my background check in progress for nearly a month. I spoke with them 5 days ago about the issue and discovered there was a criminal record flag in Connecticut. I have never been to Connecticut. They said this can often happen if an individual has the same name, birthday, or last four digits of SSN. This is clearly a flaw in their system if someone with the same name or birthday can appear on the same background check. I feel bad for any John Smith who applies for a job with a company that uses SterlingOne, they'll never get past the screening. Not only is this a flawed system, but when I spoke with customer service about this, they guaranteed they would expedite this within 24-48 hours. It has now been 5 days and when I called back, they said they would expedite this as if I had never called in the first place. I have been through numerous background checks for work in my life, I have done live scans and had my fingerprints taken, and have been approved to work with children with special needs (which requires a very rigorous screening) and I have never experienced such a disjointed and unprofessional process.
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    Sterling
    • The initiation of a background check is very simple by only needing the name and email of the new candidate and submitting that as the new ticket.
    • Sterling communicates with the new candidate to keep the background check moving which saves us time by not needing to keep a close eye on the process of the background check.
    • Sterling communicates with the employer to let them know if additional charges are needed to run the background check and we can either approve or deny the charge.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Sterling
    • In my opinion, Horrible new platform "Sterling check"
    • No designated account representative
    • In my experience, Poor troubleshooting support
    • Customer service often doesn't answer questions
    • Many back and forth needed to resolve issues
    • Recently changed platform and not offering the same services
    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
    Sterling
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    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
    Sterling
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Sterling
    • Sterling Talent is an excellent company for performing the background checks for our new hires. However, the delay in processing times can be improved.
    • Also, there should be automation from legacy systems to pick up the candidate details as much as possible instead of asking for more details from the candidate via email.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Sterling
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Sterling
    We had no issues with HireRight. The system worked well and we had excellent service. The only reason we selected Sterling is we changed our ATS to Compas and wanted to be integrated with a background check company. Sterling was only one of two options and offered onboarding capabilities. The other did not
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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
    Sterling
    • Quick results allow us to hire people in short time frames and get them onboarded quickly.
    • The product, and the customer service team, doesn't require much management from a vendor relations perspective.
    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