# Gusto > Payroll and HR for small businesses, with apps for owners and staff Gusto is a payroll and HR service for small businesses. It runs regular and off-cycle payrolls, works out tax withholding and benefit deductions, and pays people by direct deposit or check. Owners approve hours and onboard new hires from its mobile app, and employees and contractors use the same app to see pay, track time and sign documents. - **Category:** Payroll - **Made by:** Gusto, Inc. - **Website:** https://gusto.com - **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android - **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026 ## Pricing Gusto is a paid product, starting at $49 per month, plus $6 per person paid (Simple). - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Simple | $49 per month, plus $6 per person paid | Payroll in one state: unlimited pay runs, tax filings and payments, and basic time-off and holiday pay rules. | | Plus | $80 per month, plus $12 per person paid | Adds multi-state payroll, time tracking and scheduling, unlimited next-day pay and contractor invoice handling. Marked best value. | | Premium | $180 per month, plus $22 per person paid | Adds a named advisor and premium support, HR guidance, Gusto Business Compliance, and unlimited same-day and instant pay. | Read from https://gusto.com/product/pricing on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Gusto before buying. ## Key features - **Regular and off-cycle payroll:** Runs payroll on a set schedule, including hours, paid time off and bonuses, plus one-off payrolls for corrections or special bonuses. - **Tax withholding and deductions:** Works out federal, state and local taxes by work location, takes pre-tax and post-tax deductions, and pays by direct deposit or check. - **Time and time off:** Employees and contractors clock in and out and request time off in the app; admins review and approve hours before payroll. - **Onboarding and documents:** Add and onboard new team members from the app, and have employees read and sign documents there. - **Expense reimbursements:** Employees photograph receipts and submit expenses, and admins approve them in the app. The App Store listing limits this to Gusto Plus and Premium. - **Gusto CLI and MCP server:** Customers connect their own systems to their Gusto account through a command-line tool or an MCP server; the full API is for approved partners. ## Good for - Small US businesses paying W-2 employees and contractors - Owners who want to approve hours and run payroll from a phone - Teams that want staff to handle their own pay details and documents ## Worth knowing - Gusto runs US payroll only: W-2 employees, state and local taxes and US contractors. Paying contractors abroad is a separate add-on covering 120+ countries. - Many extras cost more on Simple: next-day pay is $15 a month plus $3 a person, same-day pay $90 a payroll and instant pay $100 a payroll. - Priority phone and chat support is a $30-a-month add-on, plus $3 a person, on Simple and Plus. - Gusto's API is open only to approved integration and embedded-payroll partners, not to customers building their own links. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Gusto is the payroll most small US businesses look at first, and it's easy to see why: payroll, taxes, time tracking and onboarding in one app your staff use too. Simple is $79 a month for five people. Just know it covers one state until you move up to Plus, and there's no trial. - **Value for money: C.** Simple is $49 a month plus $6 a person, so $79 for a team of five. That sits between the cheapest quarter of this category ($65 or less for five) and the middle ($85). Pay people in more than one state and you need Plus at $80 plus $12 a person, which is $140. - **Free plan and trial: F.** Nothing free on record: no free plan and no trial in the listing. You pay from the first month. - **Features: B.** Regular and off-cycle payroll, taxes worked out by work location, time tracking, onboarding, document signing and expense claims, with contractors abroad as an add-on. That's the whole payroll job, spread across its three plans. - **Ease of use: A.** 4.8 from about 52,000 App Store ratings for Gusto Mobile, where owners approve hours and run payroll and staff see their pay and sign documents. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, and you can link your own systems through a command-line tool or an MCP server. No desktop app, and the full API is only for approved partners. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Gusto's own pages on 17 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Gusto's pricing page turned our reader away on 17 October 2026, so its prices are as the listing has them. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among payroll services - Gusto's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 6 of the 18 other payroll services we grade, and level with 9. - It stands best on ease of use (A, above 9 of 18) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $49 a month, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 9 of the 13 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.3 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/payroll ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Gusto you would be making payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $588 a year. - You could make: Time tracking and expense tracking: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. - You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## What people say - **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.8 out of 5 from 51,959 ratings in the United States, read Oct 17, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1478804271 **Tags:** Payroll, Time tracking, Expense tracking ## Alternatives - [Rippling](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rippling): HR, IT and finance platform with US and global payroll, by quote. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gusto-vs-rippling) - [OnPay](https://toolgpa.com/tools/onpay): US payroll with published prices, plus HR and time add-ons. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gusto-vs-onpay) - [QuickBooks Workforce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/quickbooks-payroll): Intuit's payroll and HR service, sold alone or with QuickBooks. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gusto-vs-quickbooks-payroll) - [RUN Powered by ADP](https://toolgpa.com/tools/adp-run): ADP's payroll and HR service for US businesses of 1 to 49 people. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/adp-run-vs-gusto) - [Square Payroll](https://toolgpa.com/tools/square-payroll): Payroll for Square sellers, with timecards from Square POS. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/gusto-vs-square-payroll) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026: - https://gusto.com/product/pricing - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gusto-mobile/id1478804271 - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gusto.money&gl=US&hl=en - https://docs.gusto.com/embedded-payroll/docs/payroll-fundamentals - https://docs.gusto.com/app-integrations/docs/introduction - https://docs.gusto.com/app-integrations/docs/oauth2 Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/gusto Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).