Gusto is payroll for a small employer in the United States, and most people searching for a replacement have stopped fitting that description. They have hired abroad, grown into wanting HR and IT joined to payroll, or decided they would rather hand the whole obligation to a service. Where they go depends on which of those happened.
Niels AbrahamsenAnalyst, Security & Infrastructure
Elena Marchetti
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All fifty states are covered, but international at Gusto means contractor payments, not payroll. An employer with staff abroad needs a second provider whatever happens, and some prefer to consolidate with a vendor that offers employer-of-record or multi-country payroll instead of running two.
Pricing is a monthly base plus a charge per employee, both published. That is clear, but the base fee sits beside the headline rate, so it is worth pricing your exact headcount against providers that charge per employee only, and asking each what a corrected or off-cycle run costs.
Gusto makes running payroll painless, yet the employer still runs it. Companies without an HR function sometimes want a named specialist, as Paychex provides, or a co-employer that carries compliance and benefits, as Justworks does. That is a different purchase, not a better Gusto.
| Alternative | Country | Pricing | Our rank | Switch if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rippling | United States | Quoted by module; advertised from $8 per user per month | #9 | you want hiring, devices and payroll to happen as one action |
| Justworks | United States | Per employee per month, published; payroll-only plan adds a base fee | #3 | you are a small US company that wants the compliance burden taken off you entirely |
| Paychex Flex | United States | Quoted per organisation | #11 | you have no HR function and want a person who knows your filings |
| ADP Workforce Now | United States | Quoted per organisation | #10 | you have become a large employer and filing accuracy outweighs everything else |
| Deel | United States | Per contractor or per employee per month, published | #8 | you are hiring people in countries where you have no legal entity |
| Remote | United States | Per employee per month, published | #1 | you want your overseas employer of record to own the local entity itself |
| Multiplier | Singapore | Per employee per month, published; EOR priced higher | #6 | you need to employ one or two people in a country where you will not incorporate |
United States · Quoted by module; advertised from $8 per user per month
Treats payroll as one part of a joined system: a hire triggers payroll, laptop, software accounts and permissions in a single action, where Gusto's flow covers onboarding, filing, benefits and time off. Pricing is per employee by module, and the total climbs as modules are added.
Switch from Gusto if you want hiring, devices and payroll to happen as one action.
United States · Per employee per month, published; payroll-only plan adds a base fee
A professional employer organisation, so it becomes co-employer and carries the compliance and benefits weight that a Gusto customer still holds. Benefits come through its buying power, with less control over selection, and pricing is a simple published per-employee rate.
Switch from Gusto if you are a small US company that wants the compliance burden taken off you entirely.
United States · Quoted per organisation
Sells a named payroll specialist with software attached, the reverse of Gusto's self-service flow. The platform is average, pricing is quoted per organisation instead of published, and contract terms, notice periods and the cost of leaving are where customers report surprises.
Switch from Gusto if you have no HR function and want a person who knows your filings.
United States · Quoted per organisation
The incumbent for large employers, chosen for filing accuracy and country coverage that reaches well beyond Gusto's United States. In exchange you accept a dated interface, opaque negotiated pricing, and service that depends heavily on which team your account lands with.
Switch from Gusto if you have become a large employer and filing accuracy outweighs everything else.
ADP Workforce Now, #10 of 12 in our payroll software ranking →
United States · Per contractor or per employee per month, published
Does the thing Gusto does not: pays employees in countries where you have no entity, with contracts, local compliance documents and tax forms handled. It charges per contractor or per employee, which adds up at scale, and owns payroll in fewer countries than its marketing suggests.
Switch from Gusto if you are hiring people in countries where you have no legal entity.
United States · Per employee per month, published
An employer of record that runs its own legal entities in most countries it covers, removing a layer of partner risk from the overseas hiring Gusto does not handle. Like Gusto it publishes its price. Its country list is shorter than the largest aggregators.
Switch from Gusto if you want your overseas employer of record to own the local entity itself.
Singapore · Per employee per month, published; EOR priced higher
Employer-of-record hiring across 150 countries at a published price, for the international employment Gusto leaves to others. The monthly fee is many times what running your own payroll costs, so it suits a handful of people abroad, not a team in one country.
Switch from Gusto if you need to employ one or two people in a country where you will not incorporate.
Gusto is still the right choice for a small business whose employees are all in the United States and that wants to run payroll itself without a specialist. Filing in all fifty states, benefits, onboarding and time off sit in one flow, the pricing is published, and support answers. The alternatives either solve an international problem you may not have or charge for a service model you may not want.
The first live payroll on a new provider should be checked against a parallel run in Gusto. Differences in withholding or deductions show up as a mismatch between the two results, which is far cheaper to find there than on an employee's payslip.
Gusto keeps benefits, onboarding and time off in the same flow as the pay run. Leaving means deciding where each of those goes: into the new provider, into a separate HR system, or, with a PEO such as Justworks, into benefits you no longer select yourself.
If the replacement is payroll only, salaries and start dates will live in two places. Name one as the source of truth before switching, and test the link with a real change such as a mid-month salary increase; two systems disagreeing produces a wrong payslip.
Not as payroll. Gusto's international offer is contractor payments, so an employer with staff abroad needs a second provider. Deel, Remote and Multiplier sell employer-of-record services for countries where you have no entity, which is a different product with different per-employee prices and liabilities.
It is broader, not simply better. Rippling joins payroll to device and app provisioning, so one action sets up a new hire everywhere.
Its modular per-employee pricing adds up quickly and puts three unrelated jobs with one vendor. A team that already has strong IT tooling gains less from the switch.
With Gusto you remain the sole employer and run payroll through its software.
Justworks is a professional employer organisation: it becomes co-employer and takes on the compliance and benefits weight, with less control over benefits selection. Employers that want full control should stay with the Gusto model.
ADP Workforce Now is the usual destination for a large employer that needs filing accuracy above all, with coverage beyond the United States.
Expect quoted pricing, an old-fashioned interface and variable service. Paychex Flex is also quoted and sells a dedicated specialist instead of self-service software.
