Gusto vs UKG

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 tax filing, multiple payroll runs, reporting, and other essentials.

How does that compare with UKG? We wish we could tell you, but they don’t provide any upfront fee information—you’ll have to fill out a form and request a quote. Based on which features you need such as time tracking, scheduling, hiring, international payroll, benefits administration, or performance management, your monthly rate will increase.

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 11 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 direct deposit at no extra cost. 

We automatically calculate, file, and pay all your federal, state, and local taxes every time you run payroll. We even handle W-2s and 1099s for your employees and contractors come tax time. Got employees in multiple states? We’ve got you covered. 

UKG offers similar payroll functionality with automated federal, state, and local taxes, support for multiple jurisdictions, and built-in tax compliance. But they don’t offer next-day or same-day direct deposit. 

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 all 50 states offering more than 9,000 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.

UKG also offers benefits administration as part of both their UKG Ready and UKG Pro packages. And while their benefits suite is powerful and enterprise-ready, it falls short of Gusto when it comes to ease of use. With Gusto, we make it easy for businesses of any size to offer benefits.  With UKG, you’ll need to navigate a much more complex process, and many of their tools are designed with large, global workforces in mind. 

Employee self-service

Gusto’s self-onboarding makes adding new team members a breeze while confidential information stays confidential. And with Gusto’s lifetime employee access, employees will always be able to access their W-2s and benefits information without having to contact anyone on your team—no matter how long it’s been since they left the company.

UKG also offers employee self-service, though their UX is less user-friendly than Gusto and it’s not clear if employees gain lifetime access. 

Hiring & onboarding

Both Gusto and UKG offer a full suite of tools to help you hire, onboard, and retain your team, including team directories, org charts, and custom onboarding checklists. Both Gusto and UKG have a strong focus on building a positive employee culture. But UKG’s tools are strongly focused on automated, high-volume hiring for large global businesses where more than 90% of screening and hiring is automated. For smaller businesses especially, this may not be the kind of culture they’re trying to foster.

Time tools

Gusto’s Plus and Premium plans include time tracking and scheduling, so employees can track hours, request paid time off, and easily view PTO straight from their accounts. Employees can clock in and out via web, mobile, or time kiosk, and any approved hours automatically sync to payroll. 

UKG also offers powerful time tracking and scheduling functionality, but once again, it’s designed with enterprise businesses in mind, and you’ll probably be paying for more power than you need.

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. 

UKG offers 24/7 phone, email, and chat support but users have reported that their response times are often slow—or nonexistent.

Our payroll platform integrates with over 120 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.

UKG also offers an extensive list of software integrations as well as custom APIs, but setting up many of these integrations may incur a fee, and you won’t know until you need it.