Gusto vs SurePayroll

Gusto offers straightforward monthly plans with options starting at a monthly base fee of $49, plus an additional $6 per 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, federal, state, and local tax filing, multiple payroll runs, reporting, and other essentials.

Surepayroll charges $19.99 per month + $4 per person for their “No Tax Filing” plan and $29.99 + $5 per person for their “Full Service” payroll plan.

From there, you’ll need to pay $9.99 per month for multiple state filing, $9.99 per month for local tax filing, $9.99 per month for their time-clock integration, and an additional $4.99 per month if you want to integrate your accounting software.

Running payroll

With Gusto, you can complete payroll in just a few clicks whether you’re at your desk or on the go. It takes our customers 8 minutes, on average, to process payroll† and you can even set up AutoPilot to process your payroll automatically. You have the power to set up multiple pay rates and schedules, and we offer next-day pay and unlimited payrolls every month at no extra cost with all of our plans.

SurePayroll also includes unlimited payroll runs each month, and they have an AutoPayroll service to easily pay your salaried employees. They even support multiple pay rates and schedules. However, filing in multiple states costs an extra $9.99 per month, and they don’t support payments for international contractors.

If you’re looking for a bare bones payroll service to pay your nanny or household employees, then SurePayroll may be a good option, as this is not a service Gusto currently supports.

Tax Filing

All of Gusto’s plans include calculating, filing, and paying all federal, state, and local taxes. Both W-2s for your employees and 1099s for your contractors can be created and sent out right from the platform, all at no extra cost. Our Plus and Premium plans also include filing across multiple states.

SurePayroll’s basic plan includes NO tax filing, and their “full-service plan” still only includes federal and state. If you want local tax filing, you’ll have to pay an extra $9.99 per month. And if you need to file in multiple states, that’ll cost an additional $9.99 per month.

If you don’t choose their tax-filing option, they’ll still calculate deductions for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, state, and local taxes, but you’ll be responsible for filing all the necessary forms and getting them paid on your own.

	Gusto	SurePayroll
Federal and state tax filing		Only on Full-Service Plan
Local tax filing		Only with Full-Service Plan + $9.99 per month
Multiple pay rates & schedules
Multiple states	Only on Plus & Premium Plans	Only with Full-Service Plan + $9.99 per month
Unlimited payrolls
W-2s and 1099s		Only on Full-Service Plan
International contractors
Household payroll
Direct deposit	Same-day, next-day, 2-day	2-day only

Reporting

SurePayroll provides access to a few standard reports such as payroll summary, employee earning records, taxable wages, and workers’ compensation. But they lack 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.

Like Gusto, SurePayroll also offers 401(k)s and workers’ comp in addition to traditional benefits, but they charge fees on top of your workers’ comp premiums. Benefits administration is always free with Gusto—you only pay the premiums for the plan you choose.

Where Gusto really shines is our wide range of flexible options like FSAs, and HSAs, along with no-cost and low-cost add-ons like commuter plans and the Gusto Wallet mobile app that lets employees manage their paychecks, save money, access emergency cash, and more. No matter your budget, Gusto can help you build a benefits package that will grow with your business.

	Gusto	SurePayroll
Integrate your existing broker		For a fee
Medical, dental, vision
401(k)
Workers' comp
Life & disability insurance
FSAs and HSAs		Will manage existing plans
Commuter benefits
Interest-earning cash accounts
Access emergency cash
Automated savings tool

Hiring, onboarding & retaining your team

All of Gusto’s plans come loaded with the basic tools you need to help you hire, onboard, and retain your team including offer letters, onboarding checklists, e-signing, secure document vaults, and our easy-to-use employee self-service portal. Our Plus and Premium plans take it a step further with customized workflows, job postings, applicant tracking software, and powerful performance management tools like employee engagement surveys and performance reviews.

SurePayroll is primarily payroll-focused, so their suite of HR tools is significantly lacking compared with Gusto. They don’t provide any tools for hiring save for pre-employment screening and background checks, and they don’t offer any functionality to manage and retain your team once they’re on board.

Like Gusto, they do offer access to an HR specialist, and they’ll also help you handle new-hire and compliance paperwork.

PTO & time tracking

Gusto’s Plus and Premium plans include time tracking, so employees can clock in and out, track hours, request paid time off, and easily view PTO straight from their accounts. And any approved hours automatically sync to payroll. If you already have a favorite time-tracking software, Gusto offers dozens of integrations to seamlessly integrate with payroll, and integrations are always free.

SurePayroll has a time-tracking add-on through Stratustime that costs an additional $5 per month + $3 per employee per month. Stratustime offers web-based clock-in, online time-sheet entry…and that’s about it. SurePayroll also supports a handful of time-clock integrations, but you’ll need to pay an extra $4.99 per month to use them.

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.

SurePayroll offers phone support Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST, and Saturdays from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. They also offer live chat support during business hours, an FAQ page, and a dedicated phone support line for their accountant partners.

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

SurePayroll integrates with just a handful of accounting and time-tracking platforms, and like all integrations, it’ll cost you $4.99 per month to keep using your favorite software.

They currently list just six available accounting integrations: Intuit QuickBooks Online, Xero, Intacct, AccountEdge, Less Accounting, and Sage 50-U.S. Edition.