Gusto is great at payroll — but it's light on HR. No real ATS, no performance management, no AI. HRGrove gives you a full HR platform with transparent per-seat pricing.
$39/mo + $6/employee/month. Every feature included from day one. Credit card required for trial.
$80/mo base + $12/employee/mo (Plus plan). Premium jumps to $180/mo base + $22/employee/mo.
Gusto charges a $80 base fee plus $12/employee/mo — that's $440/mo for 30 people, without an ATS, performance management, or AI. HRGrove covers the same team at $219/mo with all modules included.
Gusto is a payroll tool with HR light bolted on. HRGrove has a built-in ATS, onboarding workflows, performance management, succession planning, and people analytics — all the pieces Gusto doesn't have.
Gusto has zero AI capabilities. Grove AI writes offer letters, builds onboarding plans, drafts performance reviews, answers policy questions, and handles PTO approvals — 32 actions, right in your dashboard.
Gusto's employee interface is English-only. HRGrove's employee portal runs in English and Spanish — a concrete advantage for teams with diverse workforces.
Gusto offers no meaningful people analytics and no succession planning. HRGrove includes retention risk dashboards, skills heatmaps, headcount forecasting, and 9-box succession grids — at no extra cost.
HRGrove vs Gusto — what you actually get
| Feature | HRGrove | Gusto |
|---|---|---|
| Core HR | ||
| Employee records & org chart | Basic directory; no org chart | |
| Document storage & e-sign | Limited; no document templates | |
| PTO & leave management | ||
| Hiring | ||
| Built-in ATS | No hiring pipeline | |
| AI-generated offer letters | ||
| Onboarding | ||
| Onboarding workflows | Basic onboarding; no workflow builder | |
| AI onboarding plan generator | ||
| Time & Attendance | ||
| Time tracking | Plus plan and above only | |
| GPS clock-in / kiosk | ||
| Payroll | ||
| Payroll (all 50 states) | Full integration | |
| Contractor / 1099 management | Gusto's strongest feature | |
| Benefits | ||
| Benefits administration | ||
| Performance | ||
| Performance reviews | Not offered | |
| AI performance review drafting | ||
| Analytics | ||
| People analytics & dashboards | ||
| Retention risk dashboard | ||
| Succession planning | ||
| AI | ||
| AI HR assistant (32 actions) | ||
| Portal | ||
| Employee self-serve portal | ||
| Multilingual portal (EN/ES) | ||
| Security | ||
| MFA enforcement | ||
| Row-level data isolation | ||
| Integration | ||
| REST API | Limited public API | |
| Pricing | ||
| All modules at one per-seat price | Base fee + per-employee fee, limited HR modules | |
If payroll is all you need, Gusto is fine. But most small businesses need hiring, onboarding, performance, and analytics too — and Gusto charges more per head for less coverage. HRGrove is the all-in-one HR platform Gusto was never meant to be.
More comparisons