Rippling or Gusto? Our Comparison of Payroll, Benefits, and HR Support

Rippling and Gusto are two popular cloud HR platforms. 

They offer payroll and administration services to thousands of small and mid-size businesses worldwide, making them ideal for hiring and payroll outsourcing.

If you plan to choose one of them for your business, this review will help you make an informed decision. I have covered all the core areas for comparison and summarized their benefits and limitations for you.

Let’s start with the Rippling first.

Rippling Overview

Rippling is a comprehensive workforce management platform. It provides an all-in-one solution for automating HR functions and streamlining payroll.

Rippling’s core capabilities are talent management, salary disbursement, compliance, and finance. You’ll get a range of managed services to simplify complex HR workflows, with a cloud platform to manage day-to-day activities.

Rippling’s unique selling point is its customization. It’s incredibly flexible and delivers scalable solutions to manage global teams. It also provides IT support to help you create custom workflows.

Core Features of Rippling

• Recruiting and onboarding.
• Domestic and international payroll.
• Benefits administration.
• EOR and PEO services.
• Expenses management.

Gusto Overview

Gusto delivers software and services to manage your employees and contractors. It’s well-liked for its payroll capabilities and offers several productivity tools to automate time-consuming tasks.

Some of the things you can do via Gusto include hiring and onboarding, payroll processing, and benefits administration. The platform is designed to support domestic employees, but you can also work with local freelancers and hire overseas employees and contractors.

What makes Gusto stand out is its simplicity and efficiency. It’s quick to set up and provides an excellent payroll system for small teams.

Over 400k small and growing businesses use Gusto for domestic workforce management.

Core Features of Gusto

• Hiring and onboarding.
• Full-service domestic payroll.
• Local and International contractor payments.
• Employee benefits.
• Team management.

Rippling Vs Gusto—Feature Comparison

Rippling and Gusto have a lot in common. Both provide a good system for employee management, and both deliver outstanding payroll services.

To compare their core features, I have reviewed Rippling and Gusto’s hiring, payroll, and add-on services. I have also covered the cloud platforms to highlight their tech support.

1. Hiring and Onboarding

Hiring and onboarding are core HR functions. They involve sourcing, candidate shortlisting, confirmation, and initial training. 

Several tools are used to streamline the hiring and onboarding process, and both Rippling and Gusto offer these tools to help you hire the best person for the job.

Here’s a summary of Rippling and Gusto’s recruitment product.

Rippling

Rippling sells an end-to-end recruitment system. Via this platform, you can manage almost everything from headcount planning and applicant tracking to job interviews and confirmations.

Here, you’ll get a proper infrastructure to create and automate custom workflows. For example, you can add triggers in the onboarding process to automatically apply corporate card limits to employees meeting specific criteria. 

This is just one example. You can automate other core functions as well, such as shortlisting candidates, scheduling interviews, and sending offer letters.

You can also get the Employer of Record services from Rippling. With this service, you can hire and onboard an international team without establishing legal entities in other countries.

Gusto

Gusto’s onboarding and hiring tools are part of the core package. You’ll receive basic features in the starter plan and advanced functions in the Plus and Premium plans.

The recruitment here is comparatively basic, offering job postings and a built-in applicant tracking system. However, Gusto’s onboarding workflows are excellent, covering all the necessary tools to speed up the hiring cycle. 

For example. You can build custom onboarding checklists to personalize your employee experience and do background checks before hiring. You can also create digital offer letters and get e-signatures.

Verdict

Rippling’s recruitment and onboarding module has more features and customization.

Gusto’s hiring tools, on the other hand, are designed for small businesses. For its target audience, Gusto’s recruitment function is perfect.

2. Payroll

Payroll is a salary disbursement process. It covers multiple steps and careful consideration to ensure employees receive their earned wages on time. 

Most employers find Payroll a bit challenging and time-consuming because of its complex nature. You not only have to make sure you are making the right deductions but also have to take care of taxes and compliance.

Rippling and Gusto offer full-service payroll to help you simplify the process. They take care of the back end of the job and give you a system to oversee the operations remotely.

Here’s a summary of their payroll product.

Rippling

Rippling sells US and global payroll-managed services. You can use it to automate the salary disbursement and integrate taxes and employee benefits into the payroll.

Rippling gives you access to 140+ countries and global employee benefits. You can pay domestic employees, overseas teams, and independent contractors from one place.

You’ll have the flexibility to set variable pay rates and run monthly and off cycles. You can also apply reimbursements, bonuses, and garnishment to the monthly payroll and set up an approval system to control the actions.

Gusto

Gusto lets you process local payroll with ease. You can run unlimited multi-state payroll with no extra charge and send salaries within 24 hours.

Like Rippling, Gusto supports flexible pay rates and schedules. You can set up approval workflows for expenses and PTO, and automatically deduct garnishment pay from the salaries.

Your staff gets digital wallets and debit cards to manage funds. They can access their accounts from their smartphones.

Everything is digitized to make payroll paperless. You can also set your payroll on autopilot.

Verdict

Gusto’s payroll system is modern and accessible. It’s best for people who prefer a simple setup and easy workflows.

Rippling, on the other hand, has advanced capabilities. You can run both local and global payrolls and automate complex workflows.

In my opinion, both target different audiences. 

3. Add-ons

Add-ons are optional tools that you can integrate into your system.

They are unique features that increase your software functionality and extend the service coverage.

Rippling and Gusto both provide add-on tools and services to personalize the user experience. Rippling delivers them as modules and separate services, while Gusto offers them as premium features.

Here’s a summary of Rippling and Gusto Add-ons.

Rippling

Rippling sells its primary products as add-ons. You can add one or multiple modules to your core package and get specific services.

For example, one of Rippling’s primary products is spend management. You can issue corporate cards to international employees and track global expenses with ease.

Other notable add-ons provided by Rippling are PEO, IT, Helpdesk, and learning management.

Gusto

Gusto offers tax registration, employee benefits, and contractor management as add-on services. 

You can also buy some premium features as add-ons in the basic plan. For example, compliance and HR support are free in the Premium package, but you can purchase them in the starter plan as well.

Employer of Record and international contract payments are also available as add-ons. They are a little limited, but they allow you to work with the international team legally. 

Verdict

Gusto offers fewer add-ons comparatively, but all are powerful features and budget-friendly. 

Rippling, on the other hand, provides more add-ons and customization. They might increase the product price, but the flexible options make the platform attractive.

4. Online Platform

As online service providers, Rippling and Gusto deliver intuitive cloud platforms to handle subscriptions and daily activities.

These platforms come with built-in recruitment tools, integrated payroll gateways, and workflow automation, so you can onboard employees remotely and automate payroll.

Here’s a summary of Rippling and Gusto’s cloud platform.

Rippling

Rippling’s cloud platform is rich in features and customizable. You can use it to streamline your HR, payroll, and IT operations. Plus, you’ll get over 600+ third-party integration options to extend the software’s functionality.

The platform has advanced reporting capabilities with workforce directory and administration functions. 

For core operations, you’ll get scheduling tools, a time and attendance module, a leave management system, and performance review options.

You can set up role-based policies to control data access and create an approval workflow. You’ll receive a mobile app for remote monitoring.

Gusto

Gusto’s cloud platform supports recruitment, onboarding, time and attendance, and payroll. You’ll get all the necessary tools to manage your employee’s billable hours, attendance, leave, and expenses.

Talent management features are also available. You can set up an employee directory to store data and create permission levels to delegate tasks. 

You can connect Gusto with your business tool to sync the data and add Slack for messaging. Gusto provides over 140 third-party integrations.

Verdict

Rippling’s cloud platform is built for growing teams. It has tons of integration options and can be scaled to meet high volumes. 

Gusto also delivers an excellent platform for HR management. It’s comparatively limited, but the software is easy to navigate and has good integrations. 

To summarize, Gusto is best for its usability, while Rippling is more flexible.

5. Price

Rippling and Gusto both charge monthly subscriptions. However, their pricing method varies a little. 

While Gusto sells standard payroll packages, Rippling offers customized solutions.

Here’s a summary of their pricing structure.

Rippling

Rippling also follows the per-employee fee structure, but it has broken down its core features into separate modules and charges separately for each. 

You’ll receive a core workforce management system in the package, with modules as add-ons. You can purchase each module as a standalone product and buy a bundle pack, it’s up to you.

Rippling also offers packages for independent accountants working for multiple clients.

Product prices are not mentioned on the website, but you can schedule a 30-minute product demo with a Q&A session to get details.

Gusto

Gusto has a simple pricing structure, charging a fixed base and per-employee fees. You get three subscription packages and the option to create a free account to explore the features.

The starter plan costs around $49 per month plus $6 per employee. For the Plus and Premium packages, Gusto charges $60 to $135 monthly base fees.

Per-user charges increase as you upgrade your plan. For example, in the Plus plan, you’ll only have to pay $9 per employee. In the Premium subscription, per-employee charges are around $17.

Verdict

Gusto’s prices are pretty straightforward and affordable. You pay a fixed fee each month to use the software and service. 

Rippling, on the other hand, delivers flexible packages. You can add and remove any module you want and pay only for the features you need. 

If you need a simple pricing structure, Gusto is best for you. If you need custom packages, go for Rippling.

Pros and Cons

Rippling and Gusto have a good reputation in the market. They offer excellent managed services and intuitive cloud systems to make payroll easier.

But before you make your purchase decision, you should consider their advantages and limitations to get a clear idea of their service quality.

Here are a few pros and cons of Rippling and Gusto for comparison.

Rippling

Pros

• The range of services is diverse and scalable, designed to meet various business needs.
• The software is robust and supports more integrations comparatively.
• The packages are highly customizable.

Cons

• While tech support is excellent, it isn’t beginner-friendly.
• The prices are designed for growing businesses, so startups might find Rippling a bit expensive.

Gusto

Pros

• The online platform is user-friendly and free of clutter.
• Prices are straightforward and affordable, making it ideal for small businesses.
• The software works well with third-party productivity tools.

Cons

• The product range is limited, and packages might not be as flexible.
• Customer support may be a bit inadequate.

Conclusion

Rippling and Gusto both have their unique selling points. The former sells an extensive range of services and customization, while the latter delivers a simple and efficient payroll system for the domestic workforce.

Based on my observations, Rippling is best for growing businesses dealing globally, and Gusto is ideal for startups and small companies.

Book demos to get a better idea of their services and software capabilities. Good luck!