Gusto vs OnPay

Gusto offers straightforward monthly plans with options starting at a monthly base fee of $49, plus an additional $6per employee per month. If you don’t have W-2 employees, you can use Gusto to pay your contractors for just $35/month plus $6/month per contractor (only in the months you pay them). There are no hidden fees, and our base price includes setup, tax filing, multiple payroll runs, reporting, and other essentials.

Onpay charges a base fee of $40 per month plus $6 per employee per month. There are no pricing tiers or premium options available.

Running payroll

Both Gusto and OnPay can run your payroll in just a few clicks. Both platforms automatically calculate and file all federal, state, and local taxes every time you run payroll. Both platforms support multiple pay rates and schedules across multiple states, and both come with unlimited payroll runs each month.

However, OnPay doesn’t offer support for international payments or contractors, and their fastest direct deposit option is 4-days, as compared with Gusto’s same-day, next-day, and 2-day options.

Reporting

Onpay does provide custom payroll reports, but lacks support for more robust reporting options to help you dig into the numbers and better understand your business. In addition to payroll reports, Gusto also offers custom reports on workforce and project costing, time-off balances, and even employee satisfaction over time.

Employee Benefits

We know you want to give your employees the best. That’s why Gusto provides leading medical, dental, and vision benefits with all of our plans. Our team has licensed health insurance brokers in 37 U.S. states and counting offering more than 3,500 plans from top-tier networks like Humana, BlueCross BlueShield, United Healthcare, and more. Our licensed advisors will work with you to find affordable insurance options that keep your employees happy and healthy.

Both Gusto and Onpay offer benefits administration at no extra cost—you only pay the premiums for the plan you choose. But while Onpay offers traditional health benefits like medical, dental, and vision along 401(k)s and worker’s comp, what they don’t have is a wide range of flexible benefits like HSAs and FSAs. They also fall short in no-cost and low-cost benefits options such as commuter plans and the Gusto Wallet mobile app that lets employees manage their paychecks, save money, access emergency cash, and more.

Hiring & team management

Both Gusto and Onpay offer a basic suite of tools to help you hire, onboard, and retain your team including org charts, e-signing, secure document vaults, custom offer letters, and custom hiring checklists. However, Gusto’s hiring and team management suite is far more robust with custom employee handbooks, access to certified HR pros, and built-in employee surveys to make sure your team stays happy and engaged.

PTO & time tracking

Gusto’s Plus and Premium plans include time tracking, so employees can track hours, request paid time off, and easily view PTO straight from their accounts. And any approved hours automatically sync to payroll. Onpay offers similar PTO capabilities, however they don’t offer any built-in time tracking options.

If you already have a favorite time-tracking software, Gusto offers dozens of integrations to seamlessly integrate with payroll. Onpay has just two: Quickbooks Time and When I Work.

All of Gusto’s products come with full access to our friendly sales and customer support teams via phone, email, and chat Monday through Friday. And our FAQ and Help Center are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Companies with more than 10 employees also benefit from our dedicated onboarding support team.

Onpay also offers weekday email, phone, and chat support along with emergency email support on weekends.

Our payroll platform integrates with nearly 200 leading software tools for time tracking, expense management, point of sale (POS), accounting, and more. And we never charge extra for integrations. Check out our full list of integrations here.

Onpay integrates with just 6 different tools: Quickbooks and Quickbooks Time, Xero, Deputy, When I Work, and Poster Elite.