Gusto and Justworks both offer HR and payroll support and earn high scores in our evaluation for features and ease of use. Gusto is a payroll software that helps you manage your payroll and offer benefits, while Justworks is a professional employer organization (PEO) that focuses heavily on ensuring your business is complying with payroll and HR laws and offering the best benefits.
So, which one should you choose? We recommend both for the following niches:
- Gusto: Best small business payroll system with solid HR solutions
- Justworks: Best PEO service to outsource payroll and HR compliance
Both Gusto and Justworks are featured in many of our buyers’ guides as top choices. Gusto is featured in our best HR for small businesses guide, and Justworks is featured in our best PEO companies for small businesses guide. For this article, I compared Gusto vs Justworks based on affordability, HR and payroll features, and how easy the software is to use.
The Fit Small Business editorial process follows strict standards to ensure that our best answers are founded on the basis of accuracy, clarity, authority, objectivity, and accessibility.
With over two decades of human resources and payroll expertise centered around small businesses, I bring a unique perspective on determining the best software between Gusto and Justworks. Additionally, I have over three years of expertise in evaluating HR, PEO, and payroll software.
For this article, I evaluated Gusto and Justworks to determine affordability, payroll and HR features, and how easy each was to use. See my full methodology below.
Staff Writer / Human Resources Expert at Fit Small Business
Gusto vs Justworks: Compared
Pros
- Reasonably priced, full-featured, and easy to use
- Offers most needed HR benefits like health insurance and 401(k)
- Integrates with many third-party software
Cons
- You have to upgrade to its premium plans for next-day direct deposits
- May not be flexible enough for businesses scaling quickly
- Doesn’t offer PEO services if you need an expert team to handle your day-to-day HR, payroll, compliance, and employee benefits
Overview
Who Gusto is Best For:
Compared to Justworks, Gusto is more of a software than a service. It is a good option for small businesses that need an HR payroll solution to manage employees and basic day-to-day HR tasks.
Why Gusto is Recommended:
Its automation tools streamline HR and payroll processes, while its multiple payment options allow you to pay workers via pay cards, direct deposits, and paychecks. A range of benefits plans is also available to your employees, and you even get basic HR solutions for hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, and software provisioning (or managing employee access to commonly used business apps).
Pros
- Affordable PEO program (compared to similar providers)
- 24/7 customer service
- Access to enterprise-level benefits packages from major health insurance companies
Cons
- Less control over some HR functions
- Limited integrations
- Paydays for hourly and non-exempt salaried employees must follow Justworks’ regular schedule (Fridays)
Read our Justworks Review
Overview
Who Justworks is Best For:
Justworks is best for those that want payroll and HR benefits but don’t have the time or expertise to manage them all, or for larger companies that are comfortable giving up some control in return for being relieved of the administrative tasks of HR.
Why Justworks is Recommended:
Justworks is recommended because it provides more of a service than a software. As a PEO, it provides a co-employment option for businesses looking for competitive benefits to offer employees and efficient HR tools to streamline processes. As a co-employer, it will handle your payroll, file taxes for you under its employer identification number (EIN), and manage employee benefits plans.
Best Overall: Gusto
Both programs offer user-friendly software, access to benefits, and full-service payroll with tax filings and year-end reporting. However, if you want an affordable small business payroll solution with essential HR tools and robust third-party software integrations, Gusto is the best option for you.
It may not have Justworks’ PEO services, but it does have extensive health insurance coverage (now in all 50 states). And, it offers a wide variety of benefits options and even provides access to HR professionals who can help you manage compliance issues.
Best for Pricing: Gusto
In terms of pricing, Gusto is more affordable. Its starter plan is priced at only $49 plus $6 per employee, per month; whereas Justworks’ monthly fees for its payroll services are priced at $50 plus $8 per employee, per month.
Gusto Pricing
Current discount: Save 25% for the first three months on the Plus and Premium plans. (subject to change)
- Simple: $49 per month + $6 per person per month
- Full service single-state payroll including W2s and 1099s, full support, employee profiles and self-service, basic hiring and onboarding tools, Gusto-brokered health insurance administration, employee financial benefits, payroll and time-off reports, custom admin permissions, integrations (accounting, time tracking, expense management)
- Add ons:
- Next-day direct deposit: $15 per month plus $3 per month per person
- Time and attendance plus: $6 per month per person
- Priority support: $30 per month plus $3 per month per person
- HR resources: $50 per month plus $5 per month per person
- Performance: $3 per month per person
- Plus: $80 + $12 per employee
- Everything in the Simple plan, plus full-service multi-state payroll including W2s and 1099s, next-day direct deposit, advanced hiring and onboarding tools, pto management and policies, time tracking, project tracking, time kiosk, expenses and reimbursements, workforce costing and reports, team management tools, performance reviews, employee surveys and insights
- Add ons:
- Priority support: $30 per month plus $3 per month per person
- HR resources: $50 per month plus $5 per month per person
- Premium: $180 + $22 per employee
- Everything in the Plus plan, plus dedicated customer success manager, HR resource center, compliance alerts, access to certified HR experts, full service payroll migration and account setup, health insurance broker integration, R&D tax credit discount, priority support, special pricing for eligible companies
- Contractor-only Payroll:
- $35 + 6 per contractor monthly
Currently discounted to $0 + $6 per contractor monthly for the first six months. (subject to change)
- $35 + 6 per contractor monthly
- Global Contractor Payments:
- No monthly per-contractor fee
- Foreign exchange rates vary
- Pricing shown before payment
- State Tax Registration:
- Gusto Global:
- $699 per employee per month
Discounted to $599 per employee per month (through December 31, 2024). - Employer of Record (EoR) services to onboard and pay employees around the world
- $699 per employee per month
- Add-ons:
- Benefits administration using own broker: $6 per eligible employee monthly
- Health insurance: Pay for premium only
- 401(k) retirement savings: Pricing varies depending on provider/plan integration
- Health savings account (HSA): $2.50 per month per participant
- Flexible spending account (FSA): $4 per month per participant; $20 monthly minimum
- Dependent care FSA: $4 per month per participant; $20 monthly minimum
When to Consider Justworks
Gusto may be far less expensive, but it is a payroll software with only basic time tracking and HR tools. Justworks, on the other hand, offers PEO services.
It handles more of the administrative work and takes on more responsibilities, including legal concerns in some cases. So if you don’t have an in-house HR staff and have the budget to spend, then Justworks is an excellent choice.
Justworks Pricing
- PEO Basic: $79 per employee per month
- Includes payroll for all employees, compliance, HR consulting and tools, 24/7 support, commuter benefits, access to time tracking
- PEO Plus: $109 per employee per month
- Includes everything in PEO Basic, plus medical, dental, and vision insurance, HSA/FSA accounts, health advocacy services, One Medical access
- Payroll: $50 base fee + $8 per month per employee
- Includes payroll for all employees, HR tools, expert support, access to time tracking
- Add-ons:
- Time Tracking: $8 per employee monthly (available with all plans)
- International Contractor Payments: $39 per paid contractor per month (available with Basic and Plus plans)
- Employer of Record (EoR): $599 per month per employee (available with Basic and Plus plans)
- Payroll + Health Insurance: $8 per month per benefits-eligible employee (available with Payroll plan)
Gusto vs Justworks Pricing Calculator
Want an easy way to calculate costs? Use our online calculator to compute the estimated monthly and annual fees for Gusto and Justworks.
Best Payroll Features: Gusto
Gusto lets you manage payroll for any type of employee. Similar to Justworks, it calculates and remits payments; files state, federal, and local taxes; and does end-of-year tax reporting. It also handles multiple pay rates, tips credits, garnishments, PTO policies, and multistate payroll.
You can pay employees by check, direct deposit, or pay card. Time, workforce, and project tracking are also included in its higher tiers, but if you’re already using a time and attendance solution, Gusto integrates with time tracking systems like When I Work, 7shifts, Homebase, and QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets).
Gusto lets you change paydays, add pay schedules, and activate its “Payroll on AutoPilot” feature if you want automatic pay runs.
(Source: Gusto)
When to Consider Justworks for Payroll
Justworks may not have a pay card option and only pays employees through direct deposits, but it can handle all types of payouts like tips, off-cycle payroll, bonuses, contractor payroll, and vendor payments. It does accept manual check payments for supplemental bonus payouts, but you have to select the “physical check” option in the system and prepare the checks yourself. This is unlike Gusto, which lets you easily switch from direct deposit payouts to check payments if you need to.
While Justworks integrates with QuickBooks Time to capture the work hours you need to pay employees, you can use its “Timecards” feature to directly input time data into the system. You can also get its time tracking add-on, which is priced at $8 per employee monthly (as of this writing).
With Justworks, you can choose to enter the employees’ work hours yourself or allow workers to input their own time data for pay processing. (Source: Justworks)
Best for HR & Employee Benefits: Justworks
As a professional employer organization (PEO), Justworks will place you in an enterprise-level plan for insurance, which means much better rates. It also provides dental and vision, HSA/FSA, medical reimbursement programs, gym benefits, commuter benefits, life and disability insurance, and health advocacy services.
While Gusto and Justworks both offer workers’ compensation through AP Intego and have HR experts on hand to answer your questions on compliance issues, Justworks is the stronger of the two for compliance—although, its workers’ comp program doesn’t cover businesses that engage in high-risk manual labor (such as construction).
When to Consider Gusto for HR & Employee Benefits
Since our last update: Gusto now offers healthcare options in all 50 states, plus D.C.
As a health insurance broker, Gusto has access to over 3,500 plans from more than 100 carriers that work with small businesses. Thus, it can find you a good plan for your employees, and it offers dental and vision insurance, HSA, FSA, retirement savings (through Guideline), commuter benefits, and Gusto Wallet, a free financial management app.
Compared to Justworks, Gusto’s compliance support is simpler but includes new hire reporting, workers’ compensation, and compliance. It also handles child support garnishments for all states except South Carolina. Plus, it provides online solutions for tracking applicants, posting open jobs, and monitoring performance reviews.
Best for Reporting: Tie
Both providers offer standard reports that you can generate and export into CSV file formats. It also has customization options if you want to create your own reports.
Justworks allows you to customize its payroll report by adding data types.
(Source: Justworks)
Gusto offers workforce insights to help you judge employee satisfaction. (Source: Gusto)
Best for Ease of Use, Customer Support & Integrations: Gusto
Both programs have wonderfully intuitive interfaces—and it’s easy to find the tools you need. They have in-app help, online guides, and access to HR professionals who can give expert advice on HR, payroll, and compliance issues. Although, Justworks includes HR consulting services in all of its plans while Gusto only offers this in its higher tiers.
However, if you need robust third-party software integrations, Gusto has a wider network as compared to Justworks. The latter connects with only QuickBooks Time, QuickBooks, and Xero, while the former integrates with accounting, hiring, learning management, time tracking, legal, POS, and collaboration tools.
Gusto integrates with many third-party software, such as accounting, collaboration, financial, onboarding, and performance management. (Source: Gusto)
When to Use Justworks
If you need 24/7 access to customer support, then consider Justworks. Gusto’s support team is available only on weekdays (from Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific time). You can even contact Justworks’ support team through phone, email, chat, SMS, and Slack. With Gusto, you only get phone, chat, and email support.
Best for User Reviews: Gusto
Expert Tiebreaker Insight: While Justworks scored slightly higher overall, Gusto had more than triple the amount of reviews, making it the winner in this category.
To compare Gusto vs Justworks on user popularity, we looked at each providers’ average overall ratings and the number of reviews on third-party review sites like G2 and Capterra. For a breakdown of how each provider scored, click the tabs below.
Gusto
Gusto earned above average ratings on third-party sites. It gets high marks from users for its intuitive interface and robust feature set. Employees praised the onboarding and employee portal, and managers appreciated the automation tools and ease of running payroll.
However, a few reviewers expressed their frustration over occasional software glitches and slow-loading pages. Customer support is also a hit or miss—some said that its support team is helpful, while others complained about having received delayed responses.
Justworks
Many users raved about Justworks’ ease of use, intuitiveness, and customer service. They also appreciate the content of the benefits packages they could offer their employees. However, some wished it offered more integration and reporting options, including providing dedicated account managers for small businesses and a more robust PTO calculator.
Methodology: How We Evaluated Gusto vs Justworks
Both Gusto and Justworks are excellent services that meet specific needs. Our evaluation highlights the providers’ differences and strengths so that you can decide which service is best for you. Aside from pricing and payroll functionalities, we looked at ease of use, HR features, integration and benefits options, customer support, and whether HR professionals are available to give expert advice.
Click through the tabs below for a more detailed breakdown of our evaluation criteria.
25% of Overall Score
We looked at whether providers offer transparent pricing, multiple plan options, and unlimited pay runs. We also checked if they charge setup fees and have a plan that costs less than $50 per employee.
25% of Overall Score
Automated tax filing services, year-end tax report prep, automatic pay runs, and two-day direct deposits are just some of the features that we consider essential payroll services. Providers are rated more favorably if they offer both employee and contractor payroll services, including a tax penalty-free guarantee.
25% of Overall Score
We looked for user-friendly, intuitive, and customizable platforms, including those that integrate with common small business software like QuickBooks, Homebase, and When I Work. We prefer providers with how-to guide options and live phone support.
10% of Overall Score
10% of Overall Score
We took the average review ratings from G2 and Capterra, which are based on a five-star scale; any option with an average of 4+ stars is ideal. Also, any software with 1,000+ reviews on any third-party site is preferred.
5% of Overall Score
Aside from offering basic payroll reports, we considered whether these are customizable and if you could create new reports to fit your specific needs.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Gusto is a cloud-based HR payroll software designed to streamline basic HR processes—from hiring and onboarding to pay processing and performance review management. Justworks, on the other hand, is a PEO—a service that Gusto does not offer—which provides a co-employment option where it assumes responsibility for some of your business’s HR tasks, like paying employees, filing payroll taxes, and handling compliance.
With Gusto, you get a reasonably priced and user-friendly HR payroll software for managing employees. It provides the essential HR tools you need to handle the entire employee lifecycle, from hiring to retiring. It also has multiple payroll plans, allowing you to choose an option that best fits your company’s HR requirements.
Justworks is a PEO service that handles all HR functions for your business. It acts as the employer of record to pay your employees and provide large company benefits; however, you remain the owner of the company and have the final say on all business decisions.