Managed Benefits · Compared
Gusto benefits administration lives inside Gusto payroll and only works if you run payroll there. Employee Navigator is a standalone benefits platform distributed through insurance brokers. Different anchors, different trade-offs.
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Contender One
Gusto benefits is benefits administration for companies that already run Gusto payroll, and that anchoring is the whole design. Deductions, enrollment, onboarding, and tax reporting live in one system because benefits never leave the payroll platform. Gusto operates a licensed brokerage: choose health plans through Gusto and its published position is that the administration is included, with you paying the premiums.
Already have a broker you trust? Gusto's broker integration connects your existing plans and broker to the platform, published at 6 dollars per eligible employee per month on the Plus plan and included with Premium. Its pricing page also publishes add-ons such as FSA administration at 4 dollars per participant monthly with a 20 dollar minimum, and COBRA administration at 30 dollars per month. Published numbers are genuinely rare in this category; Gusto deserves credit for them. The catch is the tether: leave Gusto payroll and the benefits administration goes with it.
Contender Two
Employee Navigator anchors to the broker instead of the payroll. Insurance agencies license the platform and run client benefits sites on it; by its own count the network spans 195,000+ employers, 7,000+ brokers, and 600+ integration partners. Your broker builds the plans, manages open enrollment setup, and handles the carrier connections, while the platform covers enrollment, onboarding, ACA reporting, and payroll connections through its integration marketplace.
Because it is payroll-agnostic, Employee Navigator works whether you run ADP, Paychex, Paylocity, or something else, and it survives a payroll switch. Its pricing page lists four broker tiers behind contact-sales, with one printed number: a 45 cent per employee per month fee for 834 EDI feeds on middle tiers. Employers rarely see any of this directly; the cost typically rides inside the broker relationship.
Side by Side
| Factor | Gusto Benefits | Employee Navigator |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor | Your payroll: exists inside Gusto payroll only | Your broker: agencies license and run it |
| Who it is for | Gusto payroll customers, mostly small businesses | Employers of brokers who license the platform |
| Broker relationship | Gusto can be your broker, or integrate yours for a published fee | Built around your broker; the broker is the operator |
| Payroll dependency | Total: leave Gusto payroll, lose the ben admin | None: payroll-agnostic, connects via 600+ integrations |
| ACA reporting | Handled within the platform for its plans | ACA module with 1094/1095 reporting |
| Pricing visibility | Published: plan prices and add-on fees on its site | Broker tiers published, dollar amounts gated, EDI fee printed |
| Plan sophistication | Small-group focus through the Gusto brokerage or integration | Handles the broader small and mid-size group market |
| If you switch payroll | Benefits administration must be rebuilt elsewhere | Platform stays; only the payroll feed changes |
| COBRA administration | Published add-on at $30 per month | Not a core feature; usually a separate vendor or your team |
| Carrier / 834 feeds | Runs through Gusto brokerage or broker integration | Supported; per-employee EDI fee on some tiers |
| PEO or co-employment? | No; Gusto is payroll and HR software, not a PEO | No; it is software distributed through brokers |
| Best-fit company profile | Small business already on Gusto payroll wanting one bill | Employer whose broker actively runs the platform, any payroll provider |
Based on each company's published pages: Gusto benefits, Gusto pricing, and Employee Navigator pricing.
The Analysis
Gusto ties benefits to payroll; Employee Navigator ties benefits to your broker. Outgrow Gusto payroll and your benefits administration moves with it. Fall out with your broker and your Employee Navigator site is theirs, not yours. Neither dependency is wrong, but you should choose it deliberately, because it is the thing that will hurt later.
Gusto is happiest when it is also your broker: the administration is included and the experience is seamless. Keep your own broker and you pay a published integration fee for the privilege. Employee Navigator starts from the opposite premise: the broker you already trust runs the system for you. If your broker relationship is an asset, Employee Navigator respects it structurally, and so does BEG.
Gusto publishes real numbers, from plan pricing to add-on fees, which makes budgeting straightforward. Employee Navigator costs are mostly invisible to the employer, folded into broker economics. Invisible is not the same as free: it means you cannot compare it. If you like knowing what things cost, that difference alone may decide this comparison.
Gusto gives your team self-serve software; Employee Navigator gives your broker a platform to run. In both cases, open enrollment questions, life-event chasing, carrier discrepancies, and data cleanup still land on a human on your side of the table. If that human is you, the comparison you actually need is software vs done-for-you administration.
How to Actually Decide
Lean Gusto. Benefits inside the payroll you already use, with published fees and no second vendor, is a clean setup for a small team, especially if you are comfortable with Gusto as your broker or the integration fee for keeping yours.
Lean Employee Navigator. It is built for exactly that arrangement: your broker operates the platform, your payroll connects through an integration, and a payroll switch later does not blow up benefits.
Then pick neither as the fix. Self-serve software and broker-run software both leave enrollment chasing and compliance on someone at your company. Compare done-for-you administration before you re-platform.
Weighing Employee Navigator against its direct-sale rival? See Employee Navigator vs PlanSource.
The Referee's Close
This one is honestly clean: Gusto benefits if you run Gusto payroll and want everything in one published-price platform; Employee Navigator if your broker is the center of your benefits world and you want software that outlives any payroll decision. Both are good at what they anchor to.
If you want software your team runs, pick from these. If you want the administration off your desk without a co-employment contract or losing your broker, that is BEG Managed Benefits, powered by isolved: a dedicated team runs enrollment, changes, carrier updates, and ACA forms behind the plans you and your broker already chose, on a platform that is not tethered to whose payroll you run. Your estimate is on screen in about 90 seconds.
One clarification worth stating directly: BEG Managed Benefits is not a PEO. There is no co-employment, your company remains the employer of record, and your broker stays in place. BEG is a broker-ally, adding a team that runs the administration, not a replacement for the relationships you already have.
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Questions
No. Gusto benefits administration exists inside the Gusto payroll platform; it is a feature of the payroll product, not a standalone system. If you do not run payroll on Gusto, its benefits administration is not on your menu.
It can, but it does not have to. Gusto operates a licensed brokerage, and its published position is that benefits administration is included when Gusto acts as your broker, with you paying premiums. Its broker integration keeps your existing broker, at a published 6 dollars per eligible employee per month on the Plus plan and included on Premium.
In practice, no. Employee Navigator publishes plans for brokers: agencies license the platform and run client sites on it. Employers get Employee Navigator through a broker who uses it, which is exactly why it protects the broker relationship.
They are hard to compare on price because the money flows differently. Gusto publishes payroll plan pricing plus benefits add-ons like broker integration fees. Employee Navigator dollar costs are quote-gated to brokers and typically absorbed into broker compensation, so it can feel free to the employer without being free.
Both leave the administration work with your team or your broker. BEG Managed Benefits, powered by isolved, is the done-for-you option: a dedicated team runs enrollment, changes, carrier updates, and ACA forms while you keep your broker and your plans, whatever payroll you run.
Gusto publishes a COBRA administration add-on at 30 dollars per month on its pricing page. Employee Navigator does not sell COBRA administration as a core feature; that work typically sits with a separate COBRA vendor, your broker, or your HR team. Either way, missing a COBRA election notice deadline can expose an employer to an IRS excise tax of up to $110 per day per qualified beneficiary, so confirm ownership of that task in writing.
Employee Navigator supports 834 EDI carrier feeds through its broker-run platform, with a published 45 cent per employee per month fee on some tiers. Gusto's carrier connections run through its own brokerage or its broker integration path. In both cases, a feed rejection or mismatched record needs a person watching for it, not just a connection that exists.
Neither. BEG Managed Benefits, powered by isolved, is not a professional employer organization, so there is no co-employment and your company stays the employer of record. BEG is a broker-ally: it works alongside your existing broker rather than replacing them, adding a dedicated team that runs the administrative work behind the plans you already have.
Compliance references: U.S. Department of Labor, COBRA continuation coverage and IRS ACA employer information reporting. This page is general information, not legal advice.
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