Gusto will appeal to both new and experienced payroll administrators because of its usability and top-notch payroll setup, processing, and reporting tools. Additional HR capabilities and excellent support make Gusto the best in its class.
Summary
Gusto, still relatively young in a crowded field of established payroll services, stands out. It provides a smart set of commonly-used payroll tools for small businesses and an exceptional user experience that should especially appeal to managers unfamiliar with payroll. Gusto has steadily improved over the years, adding new functionality recently in areas like hiring and onboarding, payroll run flexibility, and employee paycheck management. It continues to provide excellent support for every area it covers.
Gusto wins an Editors’ Choice award for small business payroll services once again this year because of its usability, customizability, mobile access, comprehensive setup tools, and management of payroll runs. We recommend it first to new payroll managers and very small businesses (1-10 employees). For larger businesses, our Editors’ Choice pick is Rippling because of its superior enterprise support.
Pros
- Exceptional user experience
- Flexible, thorough employee records
- Simple, intuitive payroll processing, even for novices
- Contractor-only version
- A good set of customizable reports
- Excellent employee versions
- Comprehensive mobile access
Cons
- Some screens load slowly
- No time tracking features included with Core plan