Gusto is a company that provides a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and human resource management software for businesses based in the United States. Gusto handles payments to employees and contractors and also handles electronically the paperwork necessary to help client companies comply with tax, labor, and immigration laws. Gusto is operational in all 50 US states.
History
ZenPayroll was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch. The service launched officially on December 11, 2012 in California. On June 12, 2013, ZenPayroll announced support for paying contract workers, including making sure of tax compliance. This was touted by some technology writers as giving the company an advantage over competitors such as ADP and Paychex, whose payroll software was claimed to lack the flexibility to accommodate contract workers. The company also announced plans to launch services in Florida, Texas, and New York state. By August, services were available in all 50 states. In August 2013, ZenPayroll announced that it had crossed $100 million in payments processed annually, and was launching in Florida, Texas, and Washington state. In September 2014, ZenPayroll announced its application programming interface and partnerships with over a dozen small and medium business back-office service companies. In December 2014, ZenPayroll announced support for letting companies match employees' charitable donations. In April 2015, ZenPayroll announced support for all 50 states. In July 2015, ZenPayroll announced that it had expanded its business and opened a new office in Denver, Colorado. In September 2015, it was announced that ZenPayroll had changed its name to Gusto, and was broadening its focus to integrate health benefits and workers' compensation into its payroll software. In 2016, the firm launched an ad campaign featuring Kristen Schaal playing a Gusto human resources representative. In 2019, Gusto announced the opening of its third location. The new office is located in New York City.
reported on Gusto's price hike on August 10, 2016, stating “Gusto rationalized the increase as the result of... recent improvements, such as the launch of integrated health benefits, an 'enhanced' employee on-boarding experience that includes I-9 support and welcome emails, paid time-off tracking, and multiple pay rate tools.” However, in a Gusto-issued press release on September 17, 2015, the company announced many of these features: “For the first time... with Gusto, employees can easily: — Learn about their benefits, enroll or make changes to their health plans, through their personal Gusto accounts. — Contact Gusto’s dedicated care team with their benefits-related questions. — Access their paystub and plan data in one place.” In 2014, when Gusto was named ZenPayroll,VentureBeat listed Gusto among the best back-office software for small businesses. The New York Times has compared Gusto to larger payroll processors such as ADP, citing both advantages and disadvantages. Gusto has been praised by TechCrunch and PandoDaily for offering an easy-to-use service to small businesses and companies using contractors. Gusto was ranked #18 in Forbes Cloud 100 list of 2019.
Product and pricing
Gusto's core product offering is payroll processing. As part of the core payroll product, Gusto offers employee onboarding. Separately, Gusto offers employee health insurance, dental insurance, and vision insurance enrollment and administration. In addition, Gusto offers other employee-benefit and related products through third parties, including 401K and workers' compensation insurance. Gusto charges a per employee per month fee, similar to other software providers.
