Managed Payroll · Compared
Justworks Payroll is the no-co-employment plan from a company best known for its PEO. Gusto was built as a standalone payroll platform from the start. Honest referee breakdown, both publish pricing.
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Contender One
Justworks Payroll is the standalone plan on Justworks's pricing page, sitting alongside its better-known PEO Basic and PEO Plus tiers. Unlike the PEO plans, Payroll keeps your company as the employer of record: no co-employment, no mandatory move to Justworks-sponsored benefits. Its published plan bundles payroll, HR tools, and access to time tracking for a base fee plus a per-employee monthly charge.
Justworks also publishes a Payroll-plus-health-insurance add-on, letting Payroll customers offer benefits without stepping into the co-employment PEO plans. The tradeoff is that Justworks's deepest HR consulting, dedicated support, and benefits administration live in its PEO tiers, not this standalone plan, so you are getting a lighter product than the company's flagship offering.
Contender Two
Gusto was built as a payroll platform first, with HR and benefits layered on as the product matured, rather than being the standalone offshoot of a PEO. Its published tiers run from contractor-only through premium, each adding a base fee, per-employee charge, and features like multi-state payroll and a dedicated service advisor at the top end.
Gusto also operates a licensed insurance brokerage with published add-on fees for broker integration and benefits administration. Because it was never structured around a co-employment product, there is no PEO tier to compare against or graduate into; what you see in its published pricing is the whole platform.
Side by Side
| Factor | Justworks Payroll | Gusto |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll model | Self-service software, no co-employment | Self-service software, no co-employment |
| Pricing visibility | Published base plus per-employee fee, linked | Published, multiple tiers plus add-ons, linked |
| Who runs payroll | Your team, inside the Justworks platform | Your team, inside the Gusto platform |
| Tax filing responsibility | Justworks files per its published model | Gusto files per its published model |
| Ideal company size | Small businesses wanting a PEO company's payroll without co-employment | Small businesses wanting tiered feature choice |
| Relationship to a PEO product | Sibling plan to Justworks's PEO Basic and Plus | No PEO product; payroll-first from the start |
| Support model | Standard support on Payroll; deeper support lives in PEO tiers | Tier-dependent, dedicated advisor on top plan |
Based on Justworks's published pricing page and Gusto's published pricing page.
How to Actually Decide
Lean Justworks Payroll. Starting on its standalone plan keeps a path open to its PEO Basic or Plus tiers later, inside the same company, if co-employment ever becomes attractive.
Lean Gusto. Since it was built payroll-first with no PEO sibling product, its tiers and add-ons are focused entirely on payroll, HR, and benefits administration rather than splitting attention across a PEO offering.
Pin down that decision first. Justworks selling both models under one roof is a hint that the real fork in the road is payroll software versus PEO, not which vendor logo you pick.
Weighing Gusto against a different rival instead? See Gusto vs OnPay or Square Payroll vs Gusto.
The Referee's Close
Justworks Payroll if a future PEO relationship with the same vendor appeals to you; Gusto if you want a platform built for payroll and nothing else, with no PEO sibling product pulling focus. Both publish real pricing, which makes comparing them on cost straightforward.
But both leave payroll execution with your team. If you want it actually run for you, without co-employment and without learning new software, that is BEG managed payroll: a flat $25 to $45 per employee per month, all-inclusive, with a $500 monthly minimum, a $10 PEPM benefits add-on if you need it, and a $300 one-time fee for multi-state setup. Your estimate is on screen in about 90 seconds.
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Questions
No. Justworks publishes a standalone Payroll plan alongside its PEO Basic and PEO Plus plans on its pricing page. The Payroll plan keeps you as the employer of record with no co-employment; the PEO plans move you into co-employment with Justworks-sponsored benefits.
Both publish pricing you can compare directly. Justworks Payroll lists a published base fee plus a per-employee monthly charge on its pricing page; Gusto's tiers scale up in base fee and per-employee cost depending on which plan and features you choose. Check both current pages for your exact headcount.
Its published Payroll plan includes HR tools and access to time tracking per its pricing page, similar in spirit to Gusto's lower tiers, though the deeper HR consulting and benefits administration Justworks offers live in its PEO plans, not the standalone Payroll plan.
Justworks publishes a Payroll-plus-health-insurance add-on on its pricing page for benefits-eligible employees, letting Payroll customers add health insurance access without moving into the co-employment PEO plans.
Both are self-service platforms your team operates, with published pricing. If you want payroll actually run for you at a flat $25 to $45 PEPM all-inclusive, without co-employment and without running the software yourself, that is BEG managed payroll, with an instant on-screen estimate.
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