Gusto Pricing Plans & Features Explained

Gusto, launched in 2012 as ZenPayroll, makes payroll processing easy for small businesses that need to focus on growing their base of customers. The payroll and time-tracking software offer multiple tiers of plans with different price tags and features, each of which is suitable for different small business needs. This article breaks down each plan’s pricing structure to help you figure out which one benefits your company the most.

How Much Does Gusto Payroll Cost?

Gusto boasts four main affordable pricing plans for salaried, W-2 employees that are paid on a monthly basis. Pricing with Gusto plans starts at $19 per month and $6 per person with the Basic plan. The Core plan starts at $39 per month and $6/month per person and the Complete plan raises the per-person rate to $12 per month. The top-tier Concierge plan comes in at $149/month plus a rate of $12 per person.

The Complete plan adds in onboarding features, more options for employees to request paid time off, and an organization-wide employee directory. The Concierge plan has a significantly higher base rate, but it is for companies who want to enjoy a full-fledged HR resource repository and access to certified HR professionals.

An additional Contractor plan is available for companies that only hire 1099 employees. The plan comes with no base fee and starts at just $6 a month per employee. Gusto’s Contractor plan is mainly useful for companies who haven’t yet brought on full-time, salaried employees to their team and may not for some time. Gusto also offers the Basic plan (still in beta) for brand-new companies with teams of just one or two employees. The ‘Basic’ plan has a base starting price of $19/month and includes a $6 per-person fee.

How Does Gusto Pricing Work?

Gusto offers customers a four-tiered catalog of pricing plans for salaried employees that scale with the complexity and size of their business. Gusto is transparent and upfront about the pricing behind its plans, for which payments are made monthly. There’s no requirement that business owners sign a contract before they get started with the platform, and Gusto even throws in a free, 30-day trial that eases customers into the software’s features. This free trial is especially useful if you need extra time to decide which pricing plan makes the most sense for your business.

Gusto Pricing Breakdown

Screenshot of Gusto’s pricing page, captured 10/29/2020

Gusto lets you choose the plan that’s right for your business with three tiers of plans, plus a Contractor plan for 1099 employees, and a beta Basic plan for companies that are just starting out. Above is a snapshot of each plan’s starting base price, as well as the per-month, per-employee rates that come with each of them.

• Basic’(beta) plan starting at $19/month + $6/month per person
• Core plan starting at  $39/month + $6/month per person
• Complete plan for $39/month + $12/month per person
• Concierge plan, starting at $149/month + $12/month per person

It can get tough to keep track of which features come with which Gusto plans at a glance. Let’s dig a little deeper to see which tools and services set each of these plans apart from each other:

Basic

Gusto’s lowest-priced plan is also its most recent. The new beta ‘Basic’ plan is recommended for teams of one to two and starts at a reduced rate of $19 per month. Gusto adds an additional $6 monthly fee for each person that you add to the plan.

With Gusto’s ‘Basic’ plan you can access:

• Ability to sign employee profiles like W4 and I-9s through a self-service portal
• Full-service payroll processing in any given U.S. state
• Time-off options to choose from for vacation and PTO policies
• Administration options for worker’s compensation benefits
• The same best-in-class support available at higher-tier plans

Core

Gusto’s Core plan is perfect for up-and-coming companies who need to automate internal processes like payroll and HR management, since it grants access to the Payroll on Autopilot® feature. The Core plan also offers unlimited payroll services backed up by a customer support team with whom you can chat, mail, and call daily. This plan starts at $39 per month with no extra add-ons and begins with a $6 per-person monthly fee.

With Gusto’s Core Plan you get:

• Employee onboarding tools and forms
• Cheapest plan with access to the Gusto Wallet mobile app
• Automatic tax-filing options
• Two-day direct deposit
• Unlimited customer service over phone, email, and chat support
• Health benefits and workers’ compensation administration

Complete

Gusto’s Complete plan shares the same $39/month base rate as the Core plan, but increases the per-person fee to $12/month. The Complete plan sets itself apart from lower tiers with options to designate user access permissions, employee surveys, a comprehensive employee directory, time/project-tracking, and workforce cost projections.

The Complete plan offers features such as:

• Next-day direct deposits
• Requests for both PTO and time-off policies
• Ability to delegate permissions for access
• Employee surveys and directory
• Tracking options for projects and workforce costing

Concierge

Created with full-fledged HR departments and resources in mind, Gusto’s Concierge plan is also its highest-priced. This plan comes in at a massively increased $149 per-month base price with no minimum but maintains its per-person rate at $12/mo. The Concierge plan is best for companies that are finally ready to fully automate their HR processes and departments, but that also need a few more HR resources to make that a reality:

Gusto’s ‘Concierge’ plan boasts a range of features including:

• At-your-service certified HR professionals
• A complete resource center for HR processes and tools
• Pre-created templates for employee handbooks and training plans
• Job description templates to streamline new-hire to-do lists

Extra Gusto Costs & Fees

In addition to their different tiers of pricing plans, Gusto boasts strong add-on services that can make the software platform more customizable. These add-ons make it easier for businesses to scale their software solutions with their activities, without committing to a more expensive plan. Here are Gusto’s most popular integrable add-on services that you can purchase for your plan of choice:

401(k) Retirement Plans

Gusto offers a free setup for its 401(k) retirement plan options, which begin with a base fee of $39 per month and an $8 fee per person. Companies can add as many participating employees as they want to their 401(k) benefits system, each of whom can enjoy affordable investment options and investing guidance.

Gusto’s 401(k) plans truly highlight the software platform’s ease of integration. You can jumpstart your team’s saving opportunities by syncing their integrated retirement plans with Gusto Payroll. The portal also gives your employees options to change their contributions as they see fit at any given time. Gusto partners with Guideline to give employees an easy-to-use portal that lets them quickly find and choose recommendations to add to their investment portfolio.

Health Reimbursement

Up-and-coming companies can greatly benefit from the flexibility to choose how much they want to reimburse their employees for different health premiums. Gusto’s health reimbursement benefits, starting at $15 per month per employee, provide that same level of flexibility. With Gusto’s health reimbursement options, business owners get to choose their monthly contributions up to a set maximum amount.

The add-on service also automatically reviews your employees’ submissions to prove their health insurance payments. Gusto instantly reimburses your team when it’s done reviewing their documents, all without having you lift a finger. Gusto partners with HealthSherpa to make it easy for employees to locate plans for their healthcare coverage, all of which are healthcare.gov-approved.

College Savings Accounts

Like its 401(k) retirement plan options, Gusto offers a free setup for its 529 college savings benefits. This add-on starts at a minimum of $18 per month and includes a $6 per-month fee for each participating employee. Gusto’s tax-advantaged savings accounts are made possible through a partnership with Gradvisor and make it easy for employees to allocate their savings for higher education.

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) & Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)

Gusto offers pre-tax accounts for qualified health savings starting at $2.50/month per participant. Employees can use their Gusto Wallet app, which integrates with different Gusto Cash Accounts, to help allocate their pre-tax savings. The HSA add-on, unlike Gusto’s options for FSAs, doesn’t include a per-month minimum. For pre-tax FSA expenses and qualified dependent care expenses, Gusto offers FSA benefits starting at $20 per month and $4/mo for each participating employee that you add.

Gusto Pricing Plans Compared

It’s no question that you’re getting an integration-friendly, easy-to-use software with Gusto, no matter the plan you choose. But the additional fees and added features that come with Gusto’s more expensive tiers may not be worth it to newer, growing companies. We’ve put together a comparison table of Gusto’s different pricing plans to make it as easy as possible to choose the one that’s right for you:

The Bottom Line: Calculating The Cost Of Gusto

Gusto is a quality software platform that blows most of the competition out of the water in terms of pricing. It easily integrates with several add-ons, for which it provides best-in-class customer support. To top it off, it scales with both new businesses that need a limited amount of resources as well as growing companies that have already automated many of their internal processes.

Here are the biggest takeaways from our Gusto price plan comparison and the main price factors to consider before you make your final purchase:

• Benefits such as 401(k) plans and health reimbursement carry premium prices
• Majority of HR resources only come with the Concierge plan
• Best-in-class customer support and automated full-service payroll for all plans
• Free trial and no contract sign-on for any plan

Gusto is a company among very few others that understands that small businesses have limited resources to work with. The software provides flexible resources in all of its plans to automate payroll processes and streamlines ease-of-use with on-call customer support. Companies that want to automate and consolidate their internal HR resources and processes will probably want to consider the Concierge plan. Ultimately, though, Gusto’s four main plans are flexible enough to accommodate nearly any small business that wants a robust, affordable software solution to its business needs.