Gusto is a Payroll, benefits & HR platform by Gusto, Inc. This profile pulls together Gusto's ratings across the major review sites, its company and funding details, leadership, features, pricing, and the latest news, with every external source cited at the bottom.
About Gusto, Inc.
Gusto is a payroll, benefits, and HR platform built for US small and midsize businesses. It launched in December 2012 as ZenPayroll and rebranded to Gusto in 2015, founded by Joshua Reeves, Edward Kim, and Tomer London after going through Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch. The platform runs payroll, files state and federal payroll taxes, and administers health benefits, 401(k), and workers' comp from one dashboard, serving more than 500,000 businesses. Gusto remains a private company headquartered in San Francisco, and in 2025 it acquired 401(k) provider Guideline to bring retirement plan administration in-house.
| Category | Payroll, benefits & HR platform |
| Company | Gusto, Inc. |
| Founded | 2011 (launched publicly December 2012 as ZenPayroll) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, US |
| Industry | Human Resources Services · Payroll & benefits software |
| Team size | Approximately 4,300-4,400 (LinkedIn / Revelio Labs, 2026 estimates; company has not published an exact current headcount) |
| Ownership | Private, venture-backed |
| Founder / CEO | Joshua Reeves, Edward Kim, and Tomer London (co-founders, 2011) |
| Specialties | Payroll, employee benefits administration, health insurance, 401(k), workers' compensation, HR tools, time tracking, hiring and onboarding |
| Website | gusto.com |
Find Gusto on: Wikipedia · Crunchbase · LinkedIn · G2 · Capterra · trustradius.com
Gusto ratings across the web
Aggregated from the major review platforms. Each links to the source.
Also rated: TrustRadius 8.9/10 (1,459) · Trustpilot 2.1/5 (~2,200).
Rating breakdown
Per-category scores from Capterra Gusto (4,217 reviews).
Who uses Gusto
Gusto reviews from Topickz readers
Reader-submitted and moderated. This is separate from the third-party scores above. Verified-buyer reviews are labeled.
Be the first to review Gusto. Your honest take helps the next buyer decide.
Review Gusto
Your honest take, in about two minutes. We verify each review before it publishes.
Review submitted. You're entered!
Your giveaway entry token:
Screenshot this token and keep it safe. We draw 10 winners every month and email them, so watch the inbox for the email you entered with. Your review is showing below now and goes live once our editors verify it. Terms.
What people say about Gusto
Our synthesis across 11,743 G2 reviews at 4.6/5, 4,217 Capterra reviews at 4.6/5, 1,459 TrustRadius reviews at 8.9/10, and roughly 2,200 Trustpilot reviews at 2.1/5. No fabricated quotes, this is the consistent pattern across reviews and third-party analyses.
Most praised
- Setup and day-to-day payroll runs are consistently called fast and simple; reviewers describe running payroll in a few clicks once the account is configured
- The employee self-service portal (paystubs, W-2s, time off, benefits enrollment) is repeatedly cited as reducing HR admin workload for small teams
- Automated federal and state tax filing is one of the most-cited reasons small businesses pick Gusto over running payroll manually
- Reviewers with under 50 employees frequently say Gusto is affordable and easy for a non-specialist to operate without dedicated payroll staff
Most cited complaints
- Customer support responsiveness is the largest gap between review sites: G2 and Capterra skew positive on support, while Trustpilot's much lower 2.2/5 score is driven heavily by slow or unhelpful support when payroll or tax issues go wrong
- Multi-state payroll forces an upgrade from the Simple plan to Plus, a jump reviewers and independent pricing analyses describe as a steep and sometimes unexpected cost increase
- Reporting is described as simplistic; reviewers who need more advanced payroll or compliance reporting say it does not scale well past a certain company size
- A recurring subset of Trustpilot reviews report payment errors such as incorrect tax withholding or account debit issues that are more serious than typical software complaints
What we found testing it
What's great
- Unlimited payroll runs on every plan, no per-run fee on top of the monthly base
- Automated state and federal tax filing with penalty protection on Plus and Premium tiers
- Employee self-service portal covers paystubs, W-2 access, PTO requests, and benefits enrollment in one place
Watch-outs
- In March 2026 the Simple plan jumped from $40 to $49/mo base, a 23% increase with no notice to existing accounts
- Multi-state payroll requires the Plus plan ($80 base, $12/employee), nearly double Simple, the upgrade cliff surprises growing companies
- Trustpilot sits at 2.5/5 from 2,364 reviews, support becomes a serious bottleneck when tax filings go wrong
Gusto funding & ownership
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $6.1M | Dec 2012 | Investors included Aaron Levie and David O. Sacks |
| Series B | $20M | Feb 2014 | Valued the company above $100M |
| Series C | $50M | Dec 2015 | Valued the company at $1B |
| Series D | $200M | Jul 2019 | Valued the company at $3.8B |
Low risk for an SMB payroll vendor, though it carries the usual private-company caveats. Gusto is not publicly traded, so it does not file audited financials, but it has raised over $746 million from investors including General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, and Y Combinator, reached a $9.6 billion valuation in 2023, and reportedly crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue by early 2026. It serves more than 500,000 businesses and made an acquisition (Guideline, a 401(k) provider) in 2025, which points to expansion rather than distress. The most consistent risk signal in reviews is not solvency, it is a pricing structure that gets noticeably more expensive once a business crosses into multi-state payroll.
Gusto features & integrations
Security & compliance
| Standard | Availability |
|---|---|
| GDPR | Not applicable (Gusto serves US-based businesses only) |
| HIPAA | Business Associate Agreements available for benefits/health data |
| SOC 2 Type II | Yes (SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II) |
| SSO / SAML | Yes (provisioning integrations for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom) |
Integrations: QuickBooks Online, Xero, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom, TSheets, Guideline (401k), Clover, and Xero.
Gusto leadership
Gusto pricing
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor Only | $35/mo + $6/contractor | Businesses paying only 1099 contractors, no W-2 employees |
| Simple | $49/mo + $6/employee | Single-state payroll for teams under about 25 employees |
| Plus | $80/mo + $12/employee | Multi-state payroll or teams needing time tracking |
| Premium | $180/mo + $22/employee | Larger teams wanting HR advisory access and compliance alerts |
The catch: Gusto's pricing is per-employee plus a monthly base, and it is transparent up front, but the jump between tiers is real. Simple starts at $49/mo plus $6/employee for single-state payroll only. The moment a business hires in a second state, it needs Plus at $80/mo plus $12/employee, nearly double the Simple base. Premium at $180/mo plus $22/employee adds HR advisory access and compliance alerts. There is a separate Contractor Only plan at $35/mo plus $6/contractor for businesses that only pay 1099s. Confirm current pricing on gusto.com before budgeting, since Gusto has raised the Simple base price before without much advance notice to existing accounts.
Gusto alternatives & where it appears
Head-to-head comparisons
Featured in our guides
Latest Gusto news
Auto-pulled from Google News, refreshed on each deploy. Headlines link to the source.
- Josh Reeves, Gusto CEO: A Fortt Knox Update - CNBCMon, 11 May 2026
- Gusto Cofounder: An AI agent that runs payroll, HR, and benefits without waiting to be asked - The New StackThu, 18 Jun 2026
- Embedded credit done right: Why Gusto’s Payroll Bridge wins big for SMBs - TearsheetTue, 09 Dec 2025
- Gusto CEO talks building a business, and HR department, from the ground up - HR BrewTue, 16 Dec 2025
- Choosing the Right Embedded Payroll Partner: ADP vs. Gusto Embedded vs. Check - ADPMon, 16 Feb 2026
- Gusto’s path to $1 billion in revenue, milestone-by-milestone - FortuneThu, 07 May 2026
Gusto FAQs
Is Gusto free to use?
No. Gusto does not have a free tier for running payroll; it offers a 30-day free trial on its paid plans. Pricing starts at $49/mo plus $6 per employee for the Simple plan, which only covers single-state payroll.
How much does Gusto cost for a small business?
For single-state payroll, Simple starts at $49/mo plus $6/employee. Once you have employees in more than one state, you need Plus at $80/mo plus $12/employee. Premium, at $180/mo plus $22/employee, adds HR advisory access. A contractor-only plan is $35/mo plus $6/contractor.
Does Gusto handle payroll taxes automatically?
Yes. Gusto automatically calculates and files federal and state payroll taxes on behalf of the business, and this is one of the most consistently praised features in reviews. Plus and Premium plans add penalty protection related to tax filing.
Is Gusto SOC 2 compliant?
Yes. Gusto maintains SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type II reports, updated annually, and encrypts data in transit and at rest. It also enters into Business Associate Agreements to protect health-related benefits data. Check Gusto's security page for the current scope of its compliance program.
Who is Gusto best for?
Gusto fits US-based small businesses, roughly under 100 employees, that want payroll, benefits, and basic HR in one system without a dedicated payroll team. It is weaker for companies needing deep custom reporting, complex multi-entity payroll, or international payroll, where reviewers more often point to larger platforms like ADP or Rippling.
Sources
Every external figure on this page traces to a public source, last collected on the dates shown.
- G2: Gusto product reviews — rating 4.6/5 across 11,743 reviews (product-specific page; the g2.com/sellers/gusto seller-aggregate page shows 12,848 across all Gusto products and should not be used as the entity figure) (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Capterra: Gusto reviews — rating 4.6/5, 4,217 reviews, ease of use 4.6, customer service 4.4, demographics (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Gartner Peer Insights: Gusto (Driver Payroll Systems) — rating 4.4/5 across 4 reviews, low sample size (accessed August 1, 2026)
- TrustRadius: Gusto reviews — score 8.9/10 across 1,459 reviews (via search aggregation; direct page fetch was blocked) (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Trustpilot: Gusto reviews — TrustScore approximately 2.1/5 across roughly 2,200-2,400 reviews, driven by support and payment-error complaints (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Wikipedia: Gusto, Inc. — founding date, founders, HQ, funding rounds, valuation history, acquisitions (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Crunchbase: Gusto — total funding over $746M, founded 2011, investor list (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Y Combinator: Gusto company profile — W12 batch, founding story (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Gusto Security page — SOC 2 Type II, encryption at rest and in transit (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Gusto Help Center: SOC reports and bridge letters — confirms SOC 1 and SOC 2 report availability (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Gusto Help Center: App directory and integrations overview — integration list including QuickBooks, Xero, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom (accessed August 1, 2026)
- PayrollDetective: Gusto pricing 2026 — current tier pricing and multi-state upgrade cost analysis (accessed August 1, 2026)
- Topickz: Best Payroll Software for Small Business — internal tested pros/cons and pricing verification, cross-checked (accessed August 1, 2026)