Gusto review: full-service payroll for small businesses

What Gusto handles

• Payroll runs with automatic federal, state and local tax filing
• Contractor payments
• Benefits and workers' comp administration
• Onboarding, time off and basic HR tools

Who should look elsewhere

Companies that need device management or complex global payroll should compare Rippling.

Plans and prices change. Check current pricing on the official page: gusto.com/product/pricing.

See Gusto plans →Official site, not an affiliate link

How this page was made: from each provider's official product and pricing pages and its public documentation, read on the date named in the page. We have not run a hands-on test, lab benchmark, or paid user study for this page. A step-by-step section describes the vendor's published flow. It is not a test we performed.

Gusto pricing

All plans are month-to-month with unlimited payroll runs. Listed add-ons include Priority Support ($30 plus $3 per person), broker integration ($6 per eligible employee) and Next-Day pay on Simple ($15 plus $3 per person). Contractor-only payments are billed only in months contractors are paid.

Gusto prices below are the figures recorded from gusto.com/product/pricing in October 2026. On 6 November 2026 that page blocked this check, so the dollar amounts were not reconfirmed. State registration, benefit premiums and some add-ons cost extra. The Gusto button on this site is not an affiliate link.

See Gusto pricing explained for worked examples.

Who it's for, and who should skip it

How we evaluated

Scores on this page are editorial scores out of 10. They are a judgment from the provider's product, pricing and documentation pages, using the weights below. They are not user ratings, lab results, or a ranking anyone paid for. A price is only as current as the date written next to it. The research methodology covers what we do not do.

This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Payroll tax rules vary by state. Check with a qualified accountant for your situation.

How a Gusto payroll run is described

These steps follow Gusto's published payroll flow. This site has not submitted a payroll in a Gusto account.

1. Review hours for hourly staff, or import them from time tracking.
2. Add bonuses, commissions or reimbursements.
3. Preview the payroll, checking gross pay, taxes and net pay per employee.
4. Submit before the cutoff for your chosen pay date.
5. Gusto debits your account, pays employees and remits taxes, then files the related forms.

Plan differences

Simple ($49 + $6/person as listed) covers single-state full-service payroll. Plus ($80 + $12) adds multi-state payroll and more HR features. Premium ($180 + $22) adds advanced support and HR resources. Check Gusto's plans for the current feature split.

Compliance tasks that sit beside payroll

Payroll is one part of employer compliance. Depending on your state and size, you'll also deal with new-hire reporting, required workplace posters, paid sick leave rules, minimum wage changes, overtime calculations, workers' compensation insurance and I-9 employment eligibility verification. Many providers help with some of these, for example by filing new-hire reports or offering workers' comp through partners. Make a list of which tasks your provider handles and which remain yours, and put the remaining ones on a calendar.

Employee onboarding, done well

Good onboarding saves hours and reduces mistakes. A typical self-service flow sends the new hire an invite, where they enter personal details, tax withholding, bank account for direct deposit, and e-sign documents such as an offer letter and handbook acknowledgement. Managers get tasks such as ordering equipment or scheduling training. If your platform includes IT features, as Rippling does, onboarding can also create accounts in work apps and ship a laptop. Test the flow by onboarding yourself or a colleague before your next real hire.

How to compare total cost fairly

Payroll pricing usually combines a monthly base fee with a per-person fee, and the per-person count may include contractors. Add-ons such as time tracking, benefits administration, HR support or extra states may be billed separately. PEOs typically charge per employee per month and may include benefits administration in that fee.

1. Count employees and contractors you'll pay each month.
2. List the features you need: multi-state payroll, time tracking, benefits, HR advice, onboarding.
3. Get each provider's price for exactly that configuration, in writing.
4. Ask about one-time setup or migration fees and contract terms.
5. Compare annual totals rather than headline monthly prices.

Year-end: what to expect

Around the end of the year your provider will ask you to review employee addresses and details, confirm any bonuses or final payroll adjustments, and approve year-end forms. W-2s and 1099s are then generated and, on full-service plans, filed with agencies and made available to workers. Before then, check that contractor tax IDs are on file, reconcile benefits deductions, and confirm any taxable fringe benefits have been recorded.

Time off and leave tracking

Paid time off touches payroll every pay period, so it belongs in the same system if possible. Set up policies for vacation, sick leave and holidays, including accrual rules (per hour worked, per pay period or a fixed annual grant), carryover limits and whether unused balances are paid out at termination. Several states and cities have paid sick leave laws with specific accrual and usage rules, so check your locations. Let employees request time off in the app, route requests to managers, and have approved time flow into payroll automatically so balances on pay stubs stay accurate.

Time tracking for hourly teams

For hourly employees, accurate time records are both a payroll input and a legal record. Look for mobile clock-in, optional location or job tagging, manager approval before payroll, and overtime rules that reflect your state. Daily overtime rules in some states differ from the federal weekly standard. Decide whether you'll use the payroll provider's built-in time tracking or a separate tool with an integration, and test that approved hours import correctly before your first live payroll.

Employee or contractor? Getting classification right

Misclassifying workers is one of the most expensive mistakes a small business can make, and payroll software can't decide it for you. In the US, the tests look at how much control you have over how the work is done, whether the worker uses their own tools and sets their own hours, whether they work for other clients, and whether the work is a core part of your business. Federal and state tests differ, and some states use stricter tests than the IRS.

Practical steps: document why each contractor is a contractor, use written agreements, collect a W-9 before paying them, and pay contractors through a system that can produce 1099 forms at year-end. If you're unsure about a specific role, ask an employment attorney or accountant before you start paying.

Questions to ask in a payroll demo

1. Which states and local taxes do you file for me, and are any excluded?
2. What is the full monthly price for my exact headcount and features?
3. Are contractors counted in the per-person fee?
4. How many payroll runs are included, and is off-cycle payroll extra?
5. What happens if you make a filing error?
6. How is support provided, and during what hours?
7. Is there a contract term or cancellation fee?
8. Can I export all payroll history if I leave?

Handling tax notices

Even with full-service payroll, agencies sometimes send notices, often because of a registration mismatch, a missing account number or an old provider's filing. Don't ignore them. Read what period and tax the notice concerns, check whether your provider filed for that period, and forward it through the provider's notice-handling process if they filed. Keep copies of every notice and response. Most issues are resolved by matching account numbers and filing records.

Payroll glossary

Full-service payroll

A provider calculates, pays and files payroll taxes for you.

PEO

Professional employer organisation: a company that becomes a co-employer for tax and benefits purposes.

EOR

Employer of record: a company that legally employs workers on your behalf, often in other countries.

Off-cycle payroll

A payroll run outside the regular schedule, for a bonus or correction.

W-2 / 1099

Year-end US forms for employees and contractors respectively.

SUI

State unemployment insurance, paid by employers in each state where they have employees.

What "full-service" tax filing actually covers

Full-service payroll providers generally calculate, withhold, pay and file payroll taxes on your behalf. That typically includes federal income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment tax, and state and local withholding and unemployment where supported. They also prepare year-end forms such as W-2s for employees and 1099s for contractors.

What they usually can't do is fix wrong inputs. If an employee's address is out of date, a state account number is missing, or a worker is misclassified, the filings will be wrong too. Check each provider's documentation for which states and local taxes it supports, and whether it offers a guarantee for filing errors it makes.

Protecting payroll data

Payroll systems hold Social Security numbers, bank accounts and salaries, which makes them attractive targets. Turn on two-factor authentication for every admin, limit who can change bank details, require approval for payroll runs where supported, and be wary of emails asking to change an employee's direct deposit account; confirm such requests by phone. Review admin access when staff change roles or leave.

Judging support before you need it

You find out how good payroll support is on the worst day: a missed deadline, a rejected bank debit or a tax notice. Before buying, check what channels are offered (chat, phone, email), the hours, whether higher plans get priority or dedicated support, and how tax notices are handled. During the trial or demo, ask a specific question such as how the provider handles a notice from your state unemployment agency, and note how clear the answer is.

Payroll setup checklist

Whichever provider you choose, setup asks for the same core information. Gathering it before you sign up turns a stressful week into an afternoon.

1. Business details: legal name, EIN, business address, entity type and the date you started paying people.
2. State registrations: state withholding and unemployment insurance account numbers for each state where you have employees. Some providers can help register, but timelines vary by state.
3. Bank account: the account payroll will be debited from, plus verification.
4. Employee information: names, addresses, start dates, pay rates, and federal and state withholding forms. Most providers let employees enter this themselves during onboarding.
5. Payroll history: if you've already paid people this year, year-to-date wages and taxes so year-end forms are correct.
6. Benefits and deductions: health premiums, retirement contributions, garnishments and any other recurring deductions.
7. Pay schedule: weekly, biweekly, semimonthly or monthly, and your first pay date.

Run a preview payroll before your first live run, and compare it to your previous provider's output line by line.