Gusto
Payroll service in Money & business
Payroll service people praise for running with little effort and reliability over years; the most common caveat is weak customer support.
Payroll service people praise for running with little effort and reliability over years; the most common caveat is weak customer support.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 52%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Payroll runs with little effort
“I basically do not even have to think about the problem or fiddle with it at all”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “Good Tools Are Invisible” “Gusto makes payroll zero clicks.”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Claude for Small Business” Reliable for years without issues
“used them for several years (12 I think) with no incident”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto” “this is what i buy and have no intent to replace”
Comment from 21 Feb 2026 in “A16Z partner says that the theory that we'll vibe code everything is ' wrong'” Popular with startups and SMBs
“Lots of startups avoid that problem by using Gusto.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto” “they were helping SMBs with a real problem”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Honey's Dieselgate: Detecting and Tricking Testers”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor, AI-driven customer support
“The support from Gusto is very poor, even a supervisor that's offshore when you call em won't be able to understand your basic questions.”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto” “They charged me for premium support automatically and when I tried to dispute it I had to talk in circles with their AI named Gus.”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Don't Make Me Talk to Your Chatbot” “they use LLMs to respond to support requests now and they don't seem to read what they're sending”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto” - Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto”
Trouble with unusual account setups
“Gusto did not file a quarterly wage report, so even though I owed nothing I was delinquent.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Qwen 3.8 27B is excellent, but it defaults to overthinking things” “Gusto is a nightmare if your account needs fall out of their happy path.”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Don't Make Me Talk to Your Chatbot” Strong dislike from some users
“Gusto may be is #2, so the worst together!”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto” “My wife tried using Gusto and hated it.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto” “They're both awful companies at heart.”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Guideline has been acquired by Gusto”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GustoThis page | 11 | 10 | 52% | 7 | — | — |
| Pixie | 9 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
20 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Gusto did not file a quarterly wage report, so even though I owed nothing I was delinquent.”
“I basically do not even have to think about the problem or fiddle with it at all”
“unlike other providers, they don't just sell your payroll data to data brokers”
“Gusto makes payroll zero clicks.”
“none of whom were ever explicitly asked for their consent to share their salary info”
“It is a bit inconvenient for me to have to remove the plates from the robot”
“A robot bringing me the food improves my experience as I don't have to wait as long”
“Gusto is a nightmare if your account needs fall out of their happy path.”
“They charged me for premium support automatically and when I tried to dispute it I had to talk in circles with their AI named Gus.”
“this is what i buy and have no intent to replace”
“they were helping SMBs with a real problem”
“Gusto may be is #2, so the worst together!”
“used them for several years (12 I think) with no incident”
“Their support is a literal train wreck”
“They're both awful companies at heart.”
“they use LLMs to respond to support requests now and they don't seem to read what they're sending”
“I swore off quickbooks payroll and have been happy with gusto ever since”
“The support from Gusto is very poor, even a supervisor that's offshore when you call em won't be able to understand your basic questions.”
“Lots of startups avoid that problem by using Gusto.”
“My wife tried using Gusto and hated it.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.