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RecruitIntroduction to Gusto Pricing: A Comprehensive Guide
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Gusto is a large US company that provides payroll and other HR services for clients in the US and around the world. While it posts a lot of its fees online, its pricing structure can be confusing and requires some clarification.
We’re here to help! In this review, we’ll take you through what Gusto does, explain the range of services it offers, and clarify its pricing. Our expert guidance will help you make an informed choice of whether or not this provider is the right partner for you.
Gusto Pricing Structure
Unlike a lot of its competitors, Gusto has posted a lot of its pricing on its website. However, the information that’s there could be clearer and there are some fees not listed. We’ll remedy the situation here.
If you want to use Gusto’s platform for payroll and HR management, you’ll need to choose one of these three service packages:
Simple: This package costs $49 per month plus $6 per employee per month (PEPM). It includes single-state payroll, HR admin, benefits admin, and other basic features. You can add on a time and attendance module for $6 PEPM (after your first two months free), an employee performance module for $3 PEPM, and next-day deposits for $15/month plus $3 PEPM. However, if you include these add-ons, it makes more sense to choose the Plus package.
Plus: This package costs $80 per month plus $12 PEPM, though you get a 25% discount on these fees for your first three months. It includes everything in the Simple package plus multi-state payroll, next-day deposits, time-tracking, and advanced tools for team management, scheduling, expenses, and hiring. You can add on a priority support and HR resources module for $8 PEPM.
Premium: Gusto’s Premium package costs $180 per month plus $22 PEPM though you also get a 25% discount for your first three months. This package includes everything in the Plus package, as well as support from a dedicated customer service manager and HR experts, compliance alerts, full-service payroll migration, and more.
| Gusto Plan | Monthly Base Fee | Per Employee Fee (PEPM) | Additional Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | $49 | $6 | Includes single-state payroll, HR and benefits admin, and basic features. |
| Simple Add-ons | Varies | $6 (Time & Attendance, after 2 free months) $3 (Performance Management) $15 + $3 PEPM (Next-Day Deposits) | Additional features can increase costs, making the Plus package a better value. |
| Plus | $80 | $12 | Includes all Simple features plus multi-state payroll, next-day deposits, time tracking, and advanced HR tools. First 3 months at 25% off. |
| Plus Add-on | Varies | $8 | Priority support and HR resources module. |
| Premium | $180 | $22 | Includes all Plus features plus dedicated support, HR experts, compliance alerts, and full-service payroll migration. First 3 months at 25% off. |
| Contractor-Only | $35 | $6 | For managing independent contractors. $35 fee waived for the first 6 months. |
| Employer of Record (EOR) | Varies | $399 (India & Philippines) $599 (Other countries) | Offered through Gusto’s partnership with Remote. |
Gusto doesn’t charge any additional set-up or implementation fees and it bills on a monthly basis so you don’t need to get locked into long-term service contracts.
You can also use Gusto to only manage independent contractors. This costs $35 per month plus $6 per person per month. However, the $35 fee is waived for your first six months of using the platform.
Finally, Gusto partners with service provider Remote to offer EOR (Employer of Record) services. The fee for this service is only $399 PEPM for employees in India and the Philippines and $599 PEPM in other countries.
REMOTE PEOPLE FURTHER READING
For a more in-depth review of Gusto, you can check out our detailed review.
All About Gusto
Gusto is an American payroll and HR services company with offices in San Francisco, Denver, and New York. It employs over 2,400 employees and works with over 300,000 client companies. As a private company, Gusto’s financials are not publicly available though there are indications that it’s valued at around $10 billion.
Gusto’s Main Services and Features
Gusto focuses its services on its cloud-based online platform designed for payroll and HR management. It also provides different levels of customer support depending on the service package selected, with its Premium package customers receiving hi-touch service and support from HR experts. Gusto’s main services and features include:
Payroll
Payroll is Gusto’s bread and butter. Its platform helps to automate many payroll-related tasks to help administrators save lots of time and produce payroll runs with great accuracy.
It also focuses on state and federal laws to ensure total compliance with them, relieving the pressure on its clients. You need to load each employee’s profile into the payroll module and Gusto will help you set up an automatic calculation for each of them based on their salary, tax obligations, and benefits enrollments. After receiving time and attendance data for each pay period, the system automatically calculates and pays employee salaries, withholds and pays taxes, and deducts and makes contributions to benefits programs.
Benefits Administration
You’ll need to provide your employees with mandatory benefits that can include health insurance, Medicare, and Social Security. If you want to be a more attractive and favorable employer, you may also choose to provide additional benefits, including private medical, dental, vision, and mental health insurance, retirement savings, and tax-advantaged savings packages.
Gusto will administer these benefits as part of its service packages. However, it charges $6 PEPM to integrate current health insurance provider plans and variable prices to integrate 401(K) providers. It also charges various service fees to manage tax-advantaged savings plans like HSAs and FSAs.
Talent Acquisition
With its Plus and Premium plans, Gusto offers an ATS (applicant tracking system) to help clients create job postings and share them on popular job boards. It also helps you collect and store applicant information, move applicants through recruiting stages, and create hiring teams with access to applicant information. Gusto also integrates with a separate app, Gusto Recruiting, that offers recruiting services for additional fees.
Onboarding and Offboarding
You can send candidates offer letters directly through the Gusto platform. Once they sign them, an onboarding checklist for their position will open automatically. These lists can be easily customized and viewed by admins at any time to understand how far along the new hires have made it through the self-service process. A similar list is automatically generated when an employee is offboarded to help you work through the necessary steps to remove them from your organization.
Talent Management
Gusto includes performance management tools to help you keep your employees living up to their potential. These include a review builder and a system for collecting and sharing feedback as well as a scheduling to manage one-on-ones and other performance-related meetings.
Time and Labor Management
Gusto lets your employees clock in and out of work either through its web app or mobile app for added convenience. This hours-worked data as well as their paid time off (PTO) data is collected directly through the platform and instantly updates payroll and calendars so that everything is synched. Employees can also make PTO requests easily through the platform and admins can approve or reject them quickly.
HR Management
Gusto works as a central platform for all your HR needs, including hiring, onboarding, talent management, and more. It also includes a repository for all of your employees’ records and important documents as well as scheduling tools to help arrange everyone’s calendars. Gusto’s Priority Support and HR Resources package gives you access to HR experts, compliance information, an HR library, and document templates. These resources can make it possible for you to manage your organization without the need to hire a dedicated HR person, which is perfect for startups that want to stay agile.
EOR
Gusto also manages Employer of Record (EOR) services for its clients. As an EOR provider, it enables clients to hire employees in countries where they don’t own their own registered business entities. Instead, Gusto partners with Remote, an EOR provider that owns entities around the world. This service is currently limited to just nine countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Spain. In these countries, Remote’s local entity acts as the legal employer of local staff, entering into contracts to hire them on your behalf. It also manages all of its HR concerns, from payroll to benefits administration, so you don’t have to learn the ins and outs of other country’s labor laws.
Contractor Management
Gusto lets you hire independent contractors (aka freelancers) in other states and over 120 countries around the world. Its platform can be used to manage their payroll, receive their invoices, and submit their payments. You also don’t need to pay any fees for individual contractors in months when you don’t pay them.
Gusto and Its Pricing
Gusto has most of its prices listed online but a few of its fees are confusing or hard to find. You can use Gusto to manage payroll and HR for your teams in the US or around the world and even to hire employees and contractors internationally. With fees starting at $55 per month and no implementation fees and long-term contracts, Gusto provides a mid-range price and flexibility that’s appropriate for small and mid-sized businesses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, in a manner of speaking. You can start using the Gusto platform anytime by onboarding employees and exploring different functions. It’s free to do so until you choose to run payroll, at which point you’ll be asked for billing information. Gusto also offers free trials for add-ons like contractor-only payments if you don’t have any W-2 employees.
No, it doesn’t. However, migrating your historical data and all your employee information into Gusto can take you a lot of time. If you use Gusto’s Premium package, however, you get full-service data migration performed for you included in the package price.