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RecruitTop 8 Gusto Alternatives
International hiring has become a whole lot easier. In the past, if you wanted to get a financial officer in Finland and a development team in Denmark, you’d need to own subsidiaries in both countries. Thankfully, geography doesn’t present the limit to hiring that it once did. With the digital tools in place to help you share data and communicate with your international workers, you can now hire based on skills instead of locations. There are also many new service providers available to help you with the legal and administrative sides of hiring workers around the world.
Gusto is one of these service providers. It calls itself an HR platform and that’s essentially what Gusto was built for while it has added global hiring services more recently. It can help you manage contractors as well as hire and administer HR for employees as an Employer of Record (EOR). However, there are a lot of alternatives to Gusto on the market, and it’s worth taking the time to find out if this provider is going to be the best partner for your organization.
To help you make this determination, we’ve created this list of the top 8 Gusto alternatives available today.
Gusto as an Employer of Record
Gusto was founded in 2012, making it one of the longest-established EOR providers around. However, this San Francisco-based company didn’t start out with EOR services. It is primarily a software-as-a-solution (SaaS) company that initially focused on developing software for HR, payroll, and benefits provision. It eventually added global services that included managed payroll, contractor management and payment, and finally, EOR services.
To provide EOR services, Gusto has teamed up with Remote, another major global hiring provider. Generally, clients manage their teams in the Gusto platform but Remote manages their employees in other countries. Currently, Gusto only provides EOR services in 15 countries and each of these is one in which Remote owns a registered business entity.
When you ask Gusto to hire an employee on your behalf, it’s actually the Remote subsidiary in that employee’s country that will sign a contract with them. This makes that subsidiary their full legal employer in that country and also makes it responsible for complying with all local labor and tax laws. Gusto, through Remote, manages their state-mandated benefits like social security contributions and paid time off (PTO). It also runs payroll and takes care of any other HR needs they may have. In countries where you own entities already, you can hire your own employees but use Gusto’s global payroll service to outsource payroll. You can also hire international contractors in 120 countries through Gusto and provide benefits for them and your full-time employees.
Gusto charges $599/employee per month for its EOR services. For hiring contractors, its prices are more confusing. You’ll need to choose a Gusto payroll plan first that starts from $40/month then pay a small service fee when you pay each international contractor.
Gusto’s Main Advantages
Every service provider has its own set of unique services that create pros and cons for its clients. The main advantages you can gain from partnering with Gusto include:
Extensive Platform
Gusto’s platform is one of the most extensive HR platforms available. It contains too many features to mention and acts as a standalone HRIS (human resources information system), which means you don’t need to use other software to manage HR for your workers.
Employee Mobile App
This platform lets employees access their own profiles through a convenient mobile app for iOS and Android devices. This app lets employees view their payslips and leave allowances. It also lets them clock in and out of work, sending their time and attendance data directly into payroll for easy calculations.
Integrations
Gusto offers well over 100 pre-built integrations with well-known apps for accounting, finance, communication, learning management, analytics, and more. These integrations give you the ability to easily and smoothly transfer data between the platform and the software you already have in your tech stack.
Benefits
In addition to the necessary benefits mandated by each country’s government, Gusto also offers additional benefits packages you can pass on to your employees. These include health (medical, vision, and dental insurance), retirement savings, and equity benefits that Gusto will administer for you.
Gusto’s Main Drawbacks
As with any choice in business, there are also drawbacks to working with Gusto that you need to consider before selecting this service provider, including:
Pricing
Gusto’s EOR fees start at $599 per employee per month, which is moderate for this industry. Its contractor management fee is unclear: $40/month to use its platform plus unspecified extra fees for payments. Many other providers are more affordable.
No active recruitment
Gusto’s platform includes an applicant tracking system (ATS) to help you manage your own talent-sourcing function by posting to job boards and managing candidates. However, it doesn’t directly offer active recruitment services to find workers for you. This means you’re left having to find your own international workers.
Limited coverage
Gusto, through Remote, only enables employee hiring in 15 countries, mostly in Western Europe. Compared to other competitors who offer over 100 countries, this is very limiting and may not allow you to employ all the workers you require.
Subcontracting
Gusto doesn’t manage its own EOR services but instead subcontracts them to Remote. While you can manage your international employees through the Gusto platform, your employees access their own files and gain support through Remote’s platform. This adds an extra layer of communication and can be a source of confusion.
Top 8 Gusto Alternatives
Gusto has a very extensive platform, provides supplementary benefits packages for employees, and offers mid-range prices. At the same time, it’s missing some services, and its global coverage is very limited, so this may not be the ideal provider for many organizations to partner with.
| Company | Description |
|---|---|
| Horizons | Provides customized EOR and recruitment solutions to simplify global expansion, ensuring compliance with international employment laws. |
| Deel | Offers an all-in-one platform for global hiring, handling payroll, compliance, and benefits for companies of all sizes. |
| Remote | Specializes in managing global payroll, taxes, and benefits while ensuring compliance for distributed teams worldwide. |
| Rippling | Integrates HR, payroll, and IT management into a single platform, streamlining global team hiring and administration. |
| Global Expansion | Provides tailored EOR services, enabling businesses to hire employees globally while managing compliance and risks. |
| Velocity Global | Helps companies expand internationally with flexible EOR, payroll, and global workforce management solutions. |
| Safeguard Global | Delivers end-to-end global payroll and workforce management solutions, ensuring compliance and scalability for businesses. |
| Multiplier | Provides scalable EOR and HR services, making international hiring seamless with compliance and benefits management. |
To help you find other options, here’s our list of the top 8 Gusto alternatives available:
1
Horizons
One of the best choices for many companies looking to hire internationally is Horizons, a company founded in 2018 to provide global hiring solutions. Horizons charges far less than Gusto for its EOR services, which start at just $299/employee per month. Its contractor management price can also be cheaper at $29/person per month with no extra fees.
The Horizons platform is also a comprehensive HRIS offering a multitude of tools and features to help clients manage their HR functions. While it includes an ATS, Horizons also actively recruits workers for its clients to help them get the top talent they require. Like Gusto, it also administers supplementary benefits for employees.
Horizons Key Features:
- Horizons provides EOR and contractor management services in over 180 countries.
- It supplements mandatory employee benefits with equity, health insurance, and pension packages.
- Horizons’ recruiters assess clients’ hiring needs and find them workers around the world.
- Convenient add-on packages include background checks, immigration support, equipment provisioning, and other services.
2
Deel
One alternative to Gusto that offers services for the same price is Deel. At $599/employee per month, its EOR services are in direct competition with Gusto’s, except that Deel offers them in over 150 countries worldwide. It also helps clients manage contractors in the same number of countries.
Deel’s platform is quite extensive and also provides over 100 out-of-the-box integrations to enable easy sharing of data. Like Gusto, Deel doesn’t offer recruiting services. However, it has begun offering additional employee benefits in many countries where it works. It also now offers a free AI tool to give advice and insights on top of the help clients receive from its legal and HR experts globally.
Deel Key Features:
- Deel has EOR and contractor management services in over 150 countries.
- The Deel platform is highly rated as easy to implement and use for administration.
- This provider also offers HR, global payroll, and IT outsourcing services internationally.
- It now provides employee benefits like pensions and health benefits in many countries.
REMOTE PEOPLE FURTHER READING
Explore our detailed guide for an in-depth comparison between Deel and Gusto, highlighting their features, strengths, and key differences.
3
Remote
Remote is the service provider that Gusto has partnered with to offer its international hiring services. Remote manages Gusto clients’ employees through its comprehensive platform, which is also considered a standalone HRIS. Its
EOR service starts at the same price, $599/employee per month, as what Gusto offers. It also manages contractors for a reasonable $29/person per month. Remote only manages employees in the 100 countries where it has its own subsidiaries so it can keep its services consistent.
Remote has no active recruiting services. It does, however, provide clients with access to talent pools and an AI-powered candidate-matching tool. It also administers mandatory and additional employee benefits around the world.
Remote Key Features:
- Remote provides EOR services in 100 countries and contractor management in over 180.
- The Remote platform works as a comprehensive HRIS and has a mobile app for employees.
- Its supplementary employee benefits packages include health insurance and pensions.
- Remote’s platform includes useful recruitment tools for clients who want to source their own global talent.
4
Rippling
Rippling is a service provider that compares closely with Gusto. Rippling was also built originally as an HR management platform and later added international hiring services like EOR. This means that Rippling has a comprehensive HRIS platform that also provides an impressive 600+ pre-built integrations with other apps. Rippling enables contractor management around the world but, like Gusto, presents only a small list of countries, 32 to be exact, where it hires employees.
Like Gusto, Rippling’s EOR price starts at $599/employee per month. It doesn’t reveal its contractor management price or other fees online. Rippling provides users with an ATS full of useful recruiting tools but doesn’t actually recruit actively. It also manages supplementary employee benefits in all the countries where it works.
Rippling Key Features:
- Rippling offers contractor management services in over 185 countries but its EOR services are limited to just 32.
- It administers optional employee benefits that include health, vision, and dental insurance as well as retirement savings.
- Rippling’s platform works as a standalone HRIS and offers more than 600 pre-built integrations and a mobile app.
REMOTE PEOPLE FURTHER READING
Explore our detailed guide for an in-depth comparison between Gusto and Rippling, highlighting their features, strengths, and key differences.
5
Global Expansion
The next provider on our list of the top 8 Gusto alternatives is Global Expansion (GX), a company based in Denver, Colorado. This service provider blows Gusto out of the water with its extensive global coverage. It enables employee and contractor hiring in 214 countries and territories, essentially everywhere on earth. It also manages additional benefits for employees everywhere.
GX lets its clients choose the additional services they require and provides high-touch services that are available 24/7 for both clients and their employees. It also has a much higher price, however, with its EOR service fees starting at $850/employee per month. GX’s contractor price is more affordable at $39/person per month.
Global Expansion Key Features:
- Global Expansion hires employees and manages contractors in 214 countries and territories.
- It offers additional employee benefits like equity, pensions, and health insurance.
- GX employs recruiters to source talent for its clients globally.
- This provider offers 24/7 support and consultations from HR, tax, and legal experts.
6
Velocity Global
Velocity Global, also based in Denver, provides EOR and contractor management services in an impressive 185 countries. Its platform is essentially an HRIS, though it’s missing important recruitment tools that would make it fully comprehensive.
However, it provides active recruitment services around the world through a network of recruiting agencies. Velocity Global also administers supplementary employee benefits. Its pricing structure isn’t available online, however, which makes it difficult to compare this provider with its competitors.
Velocity Global Key Features:
- Velocity Global helps clients hire employees and contractors in 185 countries.
- It provides optional benefits for employees and contractors, like retirement savings and health insurance.
- Instead of recruiting in-house, it connects clients to a network of pre-vetted recruitment agencies worldwide.
7
Safeguard Global
Safeguard Global is another service provider that helps its clients hire employees and contractors in more than 170 countries worldwide.
It also helps them source talent. It features active recruitment services for employees but also includes temporary staffing solutions. In addition, this provider lets clients who own international entities outsource their HR and payroll functions.
Unfortunately, Safeguard Global doesn’t give most of its pricing structure online. However, its contractor management services start at an incredibly low $5/person per month which is far less than most competitors.
Safeguard Global Key Features:
- Safeguard Global offers EOR and contractor management services in more than 170 countries.
- Unlike most competitors, it recruits both permanent and temporary staff.
- Safeguard Global also has entity setup services for clients that want to expand their businesses globally.
8
Multiplier
The last provider on our list of the top 8 Gusto alternatives is Multiplier, a company based in Singapore. Like most of the options we’ve listed, Multiplier has much more coverage than Gusto, offering EOR and contractor management services in over 150 countries.
Its prices are also more affordable, at least for EOR services, which start at $400/employee per month, though its contractor price of $40/person per month is somewhat high.
Unlike Gusto, though, Multiplier doesn’t deal with recruitment either with tools within its platform or active recruitment services. It does, however, also provide benefits in addition to those mandated by the various countries where it works.
Multiplier Key Features:
- Multiplier has EOR and contractor management services in over 150 countries.
- It administers supplementary employee benefits like health insurance, pensions, and equity packages.
- Multiplier provides immigration support for mobile employees in over 140 countries.
How to Choose the Best Alternative to Gusto
Gusto has a comprehensive platform, but its global hiring services can leave a lot to be desired. If you’re looking for an alternative to this service provider, we recommend focusing on these criteria to help you narrow the field and find an ideal partner efficiently:
Pricing
Gusto charges a starting price of $599/employee per month for its EOR services, and its contractor management fees are not very clear. There are other much more affordable options available if you’re on a tight budget or are just looking for better value.
Recruitment
Recruitment services are crucial for organizations looking to hire in multiple countries. If you haven’t already sourced your global staff, pick a service provider that can help you with active recruitment services.
Global Coverange
Gusto only enables employee hiring in 32 countries. Other competitors can help your organization hire staff in over 180 countries, so if you need extensive coverage, especially in emerging economies, look for one of these to partner with.
Simple Support Service
Gusto works through Remote to provide EOR services which can be confusing. It can be simpler to work with a provider that has a great platform and manages international hiring on its own.
Horizons as Your Employer of Record Gusto Alternative
While Gusto’s platform is comprehensive and provides global hiring at mid-range prices, its services are limited. Horizons makes a very good alternative to this provider. It also offers a great platform but hires in many more countries and at a much more affordable price, making it an ideal partner for many organizations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Gusto doesn’t employ recruiters or network with recruitment agencies worldwide. However, its platform includes an ATS that can be a great tool to help clients perform their own talent sourcing.
Gusto has recently announced the impending addition of its AI assistant, which is expected to be rolled out in the next few months. This assistant will provide consultation and advice to organizations to help them manage HR and legal compliance.
Yes, Gusto is essentially an HR and payroll provider that also provides global services. If you own entities around the world, you can buy a platform subscription and pay an individual fee for each employee Gusto manages on your payroll.