The Best Gusto Alternatives: Top Payroll & HR Solutions

As of today, there are many robust options to help your team manage payroll and HR in one centralized solution. The benefits of utilizing a single platform include automated payroll processes and benefits administration, as well as a secure location for employee data. Gusto is a popular choice for many small to medium-sized businesses. Particularly companies that are looking to reduce their manual work. However, there are Gusto alternatives are more suited for your business needs in terms of scalability, features, and pricing.

It’s important you are well informed on your options when it comes to Gusto and Gusto alternatives. Being informed will help you to make a smart decision when it comes to evaluating key features like time tracking, payroll, and performance management. In this guide, we’ve outlined the 6 best Gusto alternatives so you can make an educated decision when it comes to investing in software.

Key Features to Look for in a Gusto Alternative

Before we take a look at the top alternatives to Gusto, let’s consider what key features we should look for. Most Gusto users are small to medium-sized businesses that utilize the following features:

• Payroll: When it comes to payroll features, you want a platform that automates your tax filings and direct deposits. Pay attention to alternatives to Gusto that sync payroll to employee hours and benefits to ensure you are properly compensating your team. Additionally, consider cloud-based solutions that offer seamless integration with other digital tools you may be using, including QuickBooks.
• Employee portal: Give your team autonomy with an employee self service portal. Through this platform, they can view their employee benefits including health insurance, request time off, check their PTO balance, and submit expenses for reimbursement. This cuts out the middle man of HR and allows your team to have full transparency over their hours, vacation time, and benefits.
• Time and attendance: Payroll and HR software that tracks your employee hours, performs attendance tracking, and syncs hours directly to payroll will save your team time. Regardless if you’re a small business or a large enterprise, automating your time management will enhance your efficiency and allow you to make more strategic moves. Moreover, invest in a Gusto competitor that offers a mobile app that allows your team to clock in/out regardless of their location.
• Talent Management: Managing a team is difficult, so make your life easier by investing in a platform that simplifies your workflows from recruitment to offboarding. When comprehensive talent management system includes automating onboarding, conducting performance reviews, and setting OKRs and goals for your team. Make sure your alternative to Gusto provides robust features to handle everything talent related including performance management and recruitment.

Ultimately, the best Gusto alternative will combine payroll and HR features into one platform, offer an employee self-service portal, and automate essential business functions. Ensure the platform you’re investing in gives you all the tools you need to manage your team across the full employee lifecycle. And bonus points if it evolves with you as you grow and expand your team.

Top 6 Gusto Competitors

It makes sense that Gusto is a popular choice for payroll and HR. However, that doesn’t mean it is a right fit for every team. If you’re trying to grow your business or your needs become more complex, Gusto may not provide the HR solutions and payroll services that you’re looking for. Exploring Gusto alternatives is a way for you to find a full service payroll software and HR software in a single platform. Let’s take a look at the best Gusto competitors to find a solution that will enhance how you hire, pay, and manage your team.

Factorial

Factorial is an all-in-one business management software that provides advanced HR tools and runs payroll for you. All your core business workflows will be centralized, in turn, simplifying how you run your business. Small business owners to large companies can benefit from Factorial’s sleek, user-friendly platform. It ensures compliance while providing your team with payroll and HR solutions.

You’re able to choose what features your business needs and customize workflows. Additionally, Factorial contains all the key features you’d want to assist you in workforce management.

• Time management: This cloud based platform helps you manage your PTO workflows, schedule shifts, track employee hours, and monitor billable hours. Additionally, within their time module, you’ll be able to calculate hours spent working on projects per employee, sync holidays with a company-wide calendar, and automatically input hours worked with payroll. An additional benefit, is their mobile app lets your remote works or construction crew clock-in from any working site.
• Performance: Assess your team’s work, conduct quarterly performance reviews, and monitor their progress from one centralized platform. You’ll be able to set individual goals using Factorial’s OKR feature and set up a training program to upskill, reinforce, or develop your team’s skills. Investing in your team’s performance enhances your company’s overall performance and set up your team for success.
• Payroll: Like Gusto’s payroll processing system, Factorial automates your payroll process with little to no manual work on your end. Employee hours and payroll will be synced to minimize human errors, tax filing is automated, and payslips are sent out in bulk to all employees and contractors. This payroll solution includes unlimited payroll runs so you can grow your team without worrying about additional costs.
• Recruitment: Factorial’s powerful ATS solution includes built-in AI features to match you to candidates faster, in turn, reducing your time to hire metric. With the recruitment module, you can write job descriptions with the help of AI, publish openings on multiple job boards with one click, and centralize all communication with candidates. Overall, Factorial’s recruitment module eliminates the need to review CVs per employee and automates the filtering process with AI.
• Finance: Track employee spending, generate budget reports, and reimburse your team directly through their paycheck. Employees will be able to scan receipts with Factorial’s mobile app to request their reimbursement. This helps saves your team time and increase visibility into budget spending.

Cost:

• Its pricing range starts at $8 per employee per month. For a more customizable package, contact their sales team for a quote.

It’s undeniable that Factorial is a great alternative to Gusto. Its user-friendly platform, competitive pricing, and customizable dashboards are hard to beat. An added bonus is their customer support, there’s no limitation to the support you get when you’re a user. Get a free trial of Factorial to see firsthand how this one tool is the all-in-one solution you need. No need to pay for different payroll software and HR tools when Factorial combines all those features in a centralized solution for you.

Want to see how Factorial in action? Watch this quick video.

Rippling

Rippling is a popular choice as it’s platform provides more than just payroll features. It was designed to combine HR, IT, and finance tools for teams. It supports international teams, making it ideal for companies looking to expand their reach across the globe. What sets Rippling apart from Gusto is it’s ability to assist in running payroll and recruiting across the world. On the other hand, Gusto focuses on HR and payroll for U.S. based teams.

Rippling’s key features include:

• Global Payroll: With Rippling, you can automate your payroll processing for employees in the U.S. and abroad with no problems. This makes it easy for companies that have remote employees or want to start expanding their team.
• Custom Workflows: When using Rippling’s HR tools, you can customize your workflows based on your needs. Choose what works best for your team and automate the platform to run according to your criteria. For example, customize your onboarding workflow to welcome new hires based on their role, team, or seniority.
• Time and Attendance: Built-in time tracking that connects to payroll for seamless pay periods. You’ll be able to monitor your employees’ hours, approve PTO requests, and automate payroll processing from the same platform. Additionally, Rippling has a mobile app you can download to stay connected on the go.

Cost:

• Starts at $8 per employee per month. You may incur additional fees for payroll and other modules depending on your needs. Inquiry to receive a custom quote and receive more information about costs per employee per month for add-ons.

ADP

While looking at Gusto alternatives, ADP is one of the most established names in the space. It’s built for businesses ranging from small businesses to large enterprises that need something more robust. When comparing Gusto to ADP, you’ll find that ADP offers more advanced tools for compliance, tax filings, and HR support. It’s great at handling complex payroll needs, particularly in industries that are heavily regulated.

That said, while ADP is a very comprehensive system. This can be both a pro and con since their platform can be overwhelming for smaller teams and better suited for others. Due to its complex nature, it’s not as user-friendly, and there is a steep learning curve.

ADP’s key features include:

• Payroll: You can ensure compliance by paying taxes on time with ADP’s automated payroll processing and your tax filings. Their payroll management tool is connected with time tracking so you can pay your team their hourly or salary wages. Even pay contractors when you run payroll with no problems.
• Manage HR: You can store company documents, contracts, and SOPs with customized permission settings for security purposes. As well as other key HR functions like time tracking and workforce management features.
• Suitable for large companies and enterprises: They provide customer support when using their platform so for more complex questions, your team will be able to contact ADP for additional help. Their payroll and HR solutions frees up your team’s time and lets you focus on strategic growth.

Cost:

• ADP comes at a higher price point per employee than other Gusto competitors. For a more precise pricing range, you must contact ADP’s sales team for a quote.

BambooHR

BambooHR is great for small to medium-sized businesses looking for something customizable. It’s not only for teams looking for payroll companies like Gusto, but also for teams looking for more than just payroll. It was designed as an HR tool first so it covers all your core HR functions. However, payroll is not included in its core product as it is an add-on for an additional fee.

Key features of BambooHR:

• Employee records: All your employee data is centralized into one platform with a historic view of each team member. This cloud based HR software safely and securely stores your company and employee records. Additionally, you can build your company’s org chart to help your team understand your organization’s structure.
• Employee onboarding: Onboard new hires with ease as you automate and digitize this process with BambooHR. Employee onboarding can be tailored depending on their department and position, which enhances the onboarding experience. This is particularly helpful to retain employees and reduce turnover as a good onboarding experience sets the tone for your new hire.
• Payroll: Although this feature is only available in the U.S. BambooHR’s payroll services come with unlimited payroll runs and are synced with time and attendance data. BambooHR’s payroll management feature is an additional cost unlike other Gusto competitors where Payroll is included in their bundle.

Cost:

• Pricing for BambooHR is not listed publicly. You’ll need to request a custom quote based on your team size and selected features. Payroll is priced separately.

Deel

Deel makes a great Gusto alternative for global teams. Features like recruitment and payroll makes this platform easy for hiring, paying, and managing talent. It simplifies compliance, contracts, and international payroll all in one place. Deel is especially useful if your team is remote, international, or scaling fast.

Key features of Deel:

• Employer of record (EOR): Business owners can expand their team and reach by hiring employees and contractors without the need of setting up a local entity. Additionally, their EOR services complete onboarding, training, and offboarding tasks. This means Deel’s EOR does the bulk of the work of expanding your team while you reap the benefits of more hands. This can be great for small businesses that are ready to take their company to the next level.
• Payroll: Deel’s payroll solution is ideal for companies with global employees and contractors. In addition to an automated payroll, you can also manage your employee benefits through this platform. Like other Gusto competitors, time tracking and payroll will be synced to ensure each employee is fairly compensated for their hours worked.
• Local legal support: You’ll receive assistance when it comes to ensuring compliance with local employment regulations. This additional feature frees up your human resources team so they can focus on strategic growth.

Pricing:

• Deel’s pricing varies on what service you are looking for. However, in general their bundles are as followed:
  • $49 per contractor per month
  • EOR starts at $599 per user per month
  • Global payroll requires a custom quote from the Deel team, please contact them to for more information about costs per user.

Zenefits

Zenefits is a solid option for teams that want a stronger focus on HR with payroll built in. This alternative to Gusto offers a simple payroll setup and benefits administration. It’s useful for teams looking to use a single platform that’s more than a payroll software.

Key features of Zenefits:

• Payroll: Zenefits provides a full-service payroll. This includes automated payroll processing, tax filing, and direct deposits. These features help make your work easier and provide you with a comprehensive payroll solution.
• Benefits administration: Your team can easily check their benefits through their employee self-service and enroll into their preferred plans. Additionally, they can review their plan details and make changes if necessary. Ultimately, Zenefits is equipped with compliance features and syncs with payroll to simplify human resources tasks.
• Onboarding: Your human resources team can automate their employee onboarding processes from collecting documents, tracking their tasks, and assigning mandatory courses. This ensures each new hire complies with employment and company policies such as completing IT security courses or having the valid certifications.

Pricing:

• Zenefits offers a wide range of pricing bundles, however for their essentials package it starts at $10 per user per month. Premium bundles increase in price per user including their payroll add-on. For more information about their pricing, contact their sales team.

All-in-One Gusto Alternative

Centralizing your human resources workflow is a critical aspect of any business. That’s why looking into Gusto alternatives that streamline your human resources processes and payroll should be a top priority. We know how important it is for employers to have smooth operations when it comes to processing payroll. That’s why an all-in-one platform, with excellent customer support can be a powerful tool for your team. As outline above, there are plently of Gusto alternatives that are equipped to support your team.

Factorial is the top all-in-one platform that centralizes both HR and payroll features. It’s business management software allows your team to track attendance, monitor performance, and provides compliance features to support your HR team. Additionally, it automates your payroll, sends payslips in bulk to your team, and completes your tax filing. Factorial is suited for all sized businesses and is easy to tailor to your specific company, team, and industry.

Look no further when deciding on a Gusto alternative as Factorial is the stand out option. They provide a user-friendly interface with competitive pricing and features that outrank other platforms like BambooHR and Zenefits. Check out their free trial to see how easy it will be to automate your direct deposits and manage your team.