Gusto vs UKG comparison

Read 125 UKG reviews

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89% willing to recommend

Gusto

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

UKG and Gusto are competing in the human capital management solutions category. Based on user feedback data, Gusto seems to have the upper hand in terms of user satisfaction, particularly for pricing and ROI.

Features: UKG's key features include robust time tracking, talent management, and advanced analytics capabilities. Gusto offers intuitive onboarding, efficient payroll processing, and streamlined benefits administration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: UKG's deployment process is more involved, tailored for large enterprises with complex needs. In contrast, Gusto's deployment is straightforward, benefiting smaller businesses. Gusto is praised for its responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: UKG requires a higher initial investment, but its ROI is optimized for businesses needing wide-ranging HR functionalities. Gusto provides a more budget-friendly setup, delivering substantial ROI due to its cost-to-benefit ratio, appealing to smaller enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Gusto vs. UKG Report (Updated: July 2025).

Gusto vs. UKG

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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

11th

Ranking in Talent Management

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

UKG

Ranking in Benefits Administration

5th

Ranking in Talent Management

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

125

Ranking in other categories

Employee Scheduling Software (1st), Cloud HCM (5th), Employee Time Tracking Software (2nd), HR Analytics Software (3rd), Talent Acquisition (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of Gusto is 1.0%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UKG is 7.9%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Benefits Administration

Featured Reviews

Mimi Evans

Owner/Operator at Fearless Bookkeeping Services LLC

Simple to use solution that offers a lot; gives employees the option to get cash advances

I think it's great that it syncs with QuickBooks Online and any payroll software that syncs with QuickBooks Online is great. My issue with their syncing was that every single account for a deduction went to a liability account, but not a lot of businesses run that way. As of September, they did not have the ability for me to put an employee's deduction for benefits in anything but a liability account; which made it not difficult, but added a manual step to the syncing of the entering of our payroll between Gusto and QuickBooks Online. I would also like for the tech support to be more responsive. Gusto also advertises their health benefits, but they don't do a good job of explaining why it's a better option to go through them. I think there's more communication that could be done on that. I also think that there are some HR benefits that they could be offering to these lower plans, without having to go to the Premium Plan. I think that that's something that they should consider in the future.

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Talia Jean Paul

Global HR UKG Specialist at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Affordable but needs to improve its stability

Our company is testing the UKG Ready Mobile App, but there are some glitches. I feel that in the system when you log on to Kronos, UKG Dimensions, and UKG Workforce Central, we have different modules in different versions. With regards to the newer version, I feel the older version, which was UKG Workforce Central, was more user-friendly for the end user as opposed to the newer version, which looks a bit more complicated. When training someone who wants implementations to be done, it would be easier if you could hover above certain things, and it shows you or tells you exactly what it is. There are certain SAP modules that can be audible. If you click on it if someone is being a bit slow with regards to training, the tool will tell you what needs to be done and what needs not to be done by you, but for us, it is fine because we are in the back end with configuration and the administrators. I am talking about the need for improvements in the tool for the benefit of the end users. The explanation on UKG's community consists of training manuals and some of the other stuff that we use, and we send to our supervisors at the site. With the tool in place, catching onto white-collared employees is quicker. The tool is not quick to catch onto certain blue-collared employees in the plant or supervisors who are actually working with machinery and stuff because they are not as computer-centric as white-collared employees. If I could scan the tool across the globe with our site supervisors, there are a few loopholes in the tool. There are some issues with the tool's stability. For me, I would like someone who is building the system in the back end to know if a front-end user can manipulate the system. I am not going to rate the tool's scalability to be high. I would rate the tool's scalability to be at a mediocre level or at something like 50 percent, so there is a lot of room for improvement.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"I appreciated the templates that they offered for new hires and onboarding."

"Gusto is a really good payroll solution for small businesses."

"It enables us to manage the system ourselves. We don't need an additional team to do a lot of maintenance and add the things that we want."

"The pay policies and approvals are valuable features."

"The most valuable feature is being able to get time management reports which break out reclassified jobs and departments to separate areas of the company. This allows for better tracking of hours spent in certain jobs and where more hours may be needed."

"The employee self-service feature is most valuable. This is the restaurant industry, and they have a mobile app that allows employees to go in and manage their data. So, employees can manage direct deposit accounts, emergency contacts, and other things in the app. That's definitely the biggest benefit."

"The solution's employee experience is pretty good."

"UKG allows us to customize our home screen so that we can easily monitor important items on a daily basis."

"I like UKG's integration."

"The solution's UI is good. Also, it is very easy to use."

More UKG pros

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."

"My experience with Gusto's customer support sometimes shows they're not responsive, and they have definitely made mistakes in the past."

"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."

"The solution could improve by simplifying it even more core reports, such as more sample reports, more generic reports that you can edit and improve on yourself."

"The tool needs improvement on the configuration side."

"The system is slow sometimes."

"I would like to see more functionality in the next release to be able to get hours and dollars per calendar month rather than just by payroll in the Business Intelligence reports."

"UKG has complex clock-in and clock-out features. It changes things too often, and it feels like the tool is constantly changing things without testing before implementing changes in production. Additionally, it doesn't communicate these changes very well."

"The navigation on the screen could be better. Sometimes, I have to dig a little bit deep to find what I need. Everything is there. It just needs to be a little bit smoother."

"I would like the capability to use UKG as a single platform without the need to alternate between systems."

"The solution could use better reporting with standard reports. We use the Cognos platform in BI for a lot of our reporting. However, they need to have more robust standard reporting available to their user base."

More UKG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"While I am unsure of the licensing cost itself, the total cost of implementation and licensing for a company with over 5000 employees would be around 6,00,000. So, there are additional costs beyond licensing."

"The platform is not affordable but also not the most expensive."

"The pricing depends on the number of licenses we buy."

"If you're going for the full suite, it can be fairly pricey."

"I wasn't involved in the pricing part. I'm a user, and I believe it is based on the user count. One thing that is nice about Ultimate is that you can learn how to use the system without additional fees. The learning aspect is the life of a product, and the training was a huge reason why we went with Ultimate. We did have some integration costs. They were a part of the implementation because of the integrations to other systems that we included in our implementation."

"UKG's pricing and licensing model involves ongoing expenses based on the number of employees paid. The initial implementation cost is low when UKG implements it directly. However, when partners handle the implementation, it becomes more expensive since partners don't receive the monthly recurring fees."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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 needs improvement with UKG?

UKG needs more publicity. It is a productive ERP ( /categories/erp ) application, but many people in the IT market are not aware of it. Greater awareness could increase its adoption.

What is your primary use case for UKG?

I worked for a healthcare organization and a university. Most organizations use UKG ( /products/ukg-reviews ) to track employee timesheets, capturing accurate swipe-in and swipe-out data. UKG ( /pr...

What advice do you have for others considering UKG?

Publicity is very important for any software. If people aren't aware of UKG, despite its productivity, they won't use it. Expanding the awareness is essential for greater adoption. Overall, I would...

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Product Reports

Benefits Administration

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Also Known As

ZenPayroll

UKG Pro, UKG Dimensons, UKG Ready

Overview

Gusto provides payroll, benefits and HR to modern companies, by handling payments to employees and contractors and also electronically handling the paperwork necessary to help companies comply with tax, labor, and immigration laws.

Gusto

At UKG, our purpose is people — real people with real challenges, and a simple request. Help me keep my employees productive, connected, and happy. So that’s what we did.

We’ve created an unmatched suite of HR and workforce management solutions, backed by our people who care about yours. Our solutions deliver global workforce experiences that truly reflect the connection between life and work today. That means insights are deeper. Work is easier. And interactions are more meaningful.

Sample Customers

Farmgirl Flowers, Bevel, Pooch Pals, ALL MAVEN

Tesla, Marriott, Yamaha, Aramark, Feeding America, Samsung, Sony Music, Dave & Buster's, Revlon

Gusto vs. UKG