Gusto Pricing Explained: Published Tiers, Linked

Unlike the large legacy payroll providers, Gusto publishes its pricing directly on its website. That transparency is genuinely useful, but the published number is still not the whole story. This guide explains the tier structure and what typically changes as you move up, without repeating a specific dollar figure that could go stale. For current pricing, always check the live page.

How Gusto's Pricing Structure Works

Gusto prices its plans with a base monthly platform fee plus a per-employee-per-month charge added on top. Your total bill scales with headcount: add an employee, and the per-employee charge is added to your monthly total. This base-plus-per-employee model is standard across most published-tier payroll software, including QuickBooks Payroll.

Gusto sells multiple named tiers, generally moving from a simple payroll-only plan up through tiers that add HR tools, compliance support, and faster direct deposit. Each step up the tier ladder typically raises both the base fee and the per-employee rate. The exact tier names and dollar amounts change periodically, so the published page at gusto.com/pricing is the only reliable source for current figures.

What Changes as You Move Up Tiers

• Entry tier: Core payroll processing, federal and state tax filing, and basic reporting.
• Mid tier: Adds features like next-day direct deposit, time tracking integrations, and expanded HR tools.
• Top tier: Adds deeper HR support, compliance resources, and sometimes dedicated support access.

Because Gusto is DIY software rather than a managed service, every tier still requires you or someone on your team to log in, review, and run payroll each cycle. The published price buys you the platform, not the labor of running it.

What the Published Price Does Not Include

Even with transparent pricing, a few things typically sit outside the advertised tier price: your own time running payroll each cycle, the cost of correcting your own data-entry errors, and any premium add-ons like dedicated benefits brokerage or complex multi-state setup support. None of these show up in the sticker price, but they show up in your total time and cost.

For a full picture of how DIY software compares to a managed service across headcount, states, and add-ons, see our payroll software pricing guide. If you are specifically weighing Gusto against ADP, our Gusto vs ADP comparison lays out the tradeoffs.

The Alternative: Fully Managed Payroll

If the appeal of Gusto is transparent pricing, but you would rather not run payroll yourself, a managed service is the other side of that tradeoff. BEG publishes a flat $25-$45 PEPM, all-inclusive, and a team runs payroll for you instead of handing you software to run it yourself.

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