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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

    PlanAdvisor

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AZywave in Milwaukee offers PlanAdvisor, a healthcare plan design toolkit and employee decision support tool so policyholders can better understand their costs and control their health care spending.N/A
    Pricing
    GustoPlanAdvisor
    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
    GustoPlanAdvisor
    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
    GustoPlanAdvisor
    Considered Both Products
    Gusto
    No answer on this topic
    Zywave
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    488 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    395 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    501 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    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
    GustoPlanAdvisor
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of Gusto and Zywave PlanAdvisor
    Feature
    Gusto
    9.2
    514 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Zywave PlanAdvisor
    -
    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
    GustoPlanAdvisor
    Small Businesses
    OnPay
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Ease
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    APS
    Score1.4 out of 10
    Employee Navigator
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ADP Streamline Payroll
    Score6.4 out of 10
    ADP Mobile Solutions
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GustoPlanAdvisor
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (538 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (12 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (362 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.3
    (25 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GustoPlanAdvisor
    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
    Zywave
    We utilize only one of the four components available because the other three are either too time consuming for what you get or just don't deliver what we need. The renewal estimator is the real star here and worth the cost of the tool (even if you don't use the other components, although we hope Zywave PlanAdvisor puts some money/time here to further develop them). It accurately projects renewals which help employers budget as they prepare for renewal. It is invaluable in our marketing and carrier negotiations because it is a an underwriting tool with the science and language that will speak to an underwriter... it's not a best guess, but accurate and respectable analytics.
    Incentivized
    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
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    Zywave
    • Renewal projection - forecasting renewal rates is accurate and has been very beneficial to our clients and business.
    • Single period report is decent, but not as user friendly as we'd like it to be. It really only works with certain carriers.
    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
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    Zywave
    • Single Period Report: We hoped it would be like a "DMW lite" but it is only usable with a few carriers, and it's clunky/time consuming to use. We stopped using it.
    • Plan Modeler: It's a good idea, but we don't use it much. It needs more development and modeling options.
    • Plan Selector: It's a good idea, but it's too time consuming to add the info. If we could import it easily, we'd use it much more.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Zywave
    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
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    Zywave
    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
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    Zywave
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Zywave
    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
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    Zywave
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Zywave
    • The renewal estimator has helped us win new business!
    • The renewal estimator has successfully helped us with marketing and carrier negotiations, i.e., it holds weight with underwriters and is hard to argue against.
    • The renewal estimator has helped us prepare our clients for their upcoming renewal by forecasting cost changes well in advance so that there are no major shocks or surprises.
    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