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Gusto vs SAP HCM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Gusto
Ranking in Benefits Administration
10th
Ranking in Talent Management
13th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP HCM
Ranking in Benefits Administration
3rd
Ranking in Talent Management
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Cloud HCM (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of Gusto is 1.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HCM is 6.0%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HCM6.0%
Gusto1.8%
Other92.2%
Benefits Administration
 

Featured Reviews

PS
Founder at SelectSoftware Reviews
Provides time-saving solutions for small business payrolls
I would say, relative to another payroll solution, running payroll with Gusto probably costs half the price and saves us 5 to 10 hours a month. I would say Gusto is a really good payroll solution for small businesses. Running payroll with Gusto costs half the price and saves us 5 to 10 hours a month. My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. I was not offered a gift card or incentive for this review. I rated Gusto 9 out of 10 because of some customer support issues that kept it from being a 10.
SS
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
Centralized global HR data has improved expense control and supports secure employee management
The features of SAP HCM are valued by me as it had a clear idea about what was expected from the user point. The person or the application has a lot of features and it had actually all the information needed from our part. That aspect is nice. Apart from that, the T-codes are really helpful to understand which particular option we need when we put the T-code in the search box. The stability and reliability of SAP HCM product are really nice, very helpful, and secured. It has no point of leakage and is mostly reliable, as most companies and organizations prefer SAP over many tools. As for security, it's already secured from the beginning itself, and that is the only reason our organization relies on it. Since it's very useful at a global scale, it is a very useful tool and is very easy to access and handle.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I appreciated the templates that they offered for new hires and onboarding."
"Gusto is a really good payroll solution for small businesses."
"I like the payroll part. We also use documents and forms whenever we hire, such as a new hire form for each state, and we like that as well."
"They have some interesting features in the learning space."
"The user interface is the solution's most valuable feature. It makes it easy for us to use."
"The stability of the solution is good."
"Technical support is excellent."
"It's very suitable for large, multi-geography companies but also very suitable for medium companies with multi-geography operations."
"The most valuable feature, in my view, is the level of exceptions or error messages that come back when something goes wrong."
"Payroll is always the central area the tool focuses on. It needs to ensure things are flowing, employees are paid on time, and there are no issues related to location, pay, or hiring. SAP HCM helps observe all the work, from hiring to paying paychecks every month. It's a system that depends on the data you input. You don't want to work with bad data and expect miracles. If the data isn't clean, it's more work."
"We have features such as ABKRS based on the client's requirement, tariff and TMSTA, and so on."
 

Cons

"Their enrollment e-signature, enrollment forms, and other documents need a lot of work. Once we fill in the information, we cannot go back and change any of that. It's a time-taking process. If there is any mistake in the document and if we need to go and change a specific field in the form, it's not possible. We have to redo the entire form."
"In the beginning, their support was top-notch. And then around the beginning of 2022, and end of 2021, their support tanked. We used to get responses in the beginning within one to two business days, and towards the end, we were getting responses in one to two business weeks."
"My experience with Gusto's customer support sometimes shows they're not responsive, and they have definitely made mistakes in the past."
"SAP is not ready to sell the license on time and delays the progress of projects. It's better to work with a competitor like Oracle. Those that are selling the product just go through powerpoints and don't have the knowledge necessary to sell. They can't answer any questions."
"There's still room for improvement. We need end-to-end systems. Only the HR team uses HCM, but employees don't have access to their data. With Employee Central, employees can see their ratings, increment cycles, and other details, making things more transparent."
"SAP HCM has many different channels for communication with the consultants which makes it complex. There are delays when there is a problem."
"It is a bit tedious and manual to work with."
"The talent modules are lacking in HCM, so I would recommend switching to SuccessFactors for talent management, but HCM excels at time management and payroll."
"We are able to optimize a lot of processes but there is always room for improvement."
"SAP HCM needs to improve its UI."
"It would be very helpful for our company if a new version was released with the ability to contain all of the things that we have newly introduced in our company."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"In my view, this product is a waste of money for SMB because there are much better products available and licensing is an issue."
"The cost depends on the size of the organization. Compared to others, I'd say Oracle is number one, followed by Workday and SAP HCM."
"Licensing is pretty complex. SAP does not have a straight forward way of licensing, and it differs from client to client."
"The solution is cheap."
"The terms on which you buy licenses might change due to the way they license in a particular product."
"You pay per license. There not any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"SAP is extremely expensive. The integration costs and customization costs are also a lot."
"The product is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise39
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Gusto?
I wish Gusto's customer support was better for improvements. My experience with Gusto's customer support sometimes shows they're not responsive, and they have definitely made mistakes in the past.
What advice do you have for others considering Gusto?
I would say, relative to another payroll solution, running payroll with Gusto probably costs half the price and saves us 5 to 10 hours a month. I would say Gusto is a really good payroll solution f...
What is your primary use case for Gusto?
Our main use case for Gusto is for payroll, and we pay our US employees through it. Gusto helps with our payroll process because we use it for tax filings and benefits.
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
SAP HCM is the one of the best ERP for an organization with a small to large scale business. It has the most efficient payroll functionality. Regards : SAP HR classes in pune
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
HCM is a very important module that each organization should want to use. It will help any organization to calculate and control the cost of their human resources.
What is better, SAP HCM or SAP SuccessFactors?
When it comes to user experience, SuccessFactors is unquestionably superior, as it provides end users with a new experience and an advanced user interface. Additionally, the entire concept of SF is...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

ZenPayroll
SAP Human Capital Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Farmgirl Flowers, Bevel, Pooch Pals, ALL MAVEN
City of Cape Town, ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd., TransAlta Corporation, Keolis, PT XL Axiata Tbk, National Football League (NFL), Plan International, Yoh, A Day & Zimmermann Company, China Talent Group (CTG TMO), Umicore S.A., Butterfield Bank, Skrill Group Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Gusto vs. SAP HCM and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.