Gusto vs QuickBooks Payroll: $55 against $94.50 at one employee, $39.50 to $89 apart at every size
Last updated 2026-10-03. QuickBooks' pricing page was re-read that day. Gusto's pricing page could not be read that day (403), so its figures are as read 2026-09-27.
| Employees | Gusto Simple ($49 + $6) | QuickBooks Workforce Payroll + Simple Start ($88 + $6.50) | Gap per month | Gap per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $55 ($55 per employee) | $94.50 ($94.50 per employee) | $39.50 | $474 |
| 5 | $79 ($15.80) | $120.50 ($24.10) | $41.50 | $498 |
| 10 | $109 ($10.90) | $153 ($15.30) | $44 | $528 |
| 25 | $199 ($7.96) | $250.50 ($10.02) | $51.50 | $618 |
| 50 | $349 ($6.98) | $413 ($8.26) | $64 | $768 |
| 100 | $649 ($6.49) | $738 ($7.38) | $89 | $1,068 |
Monthly total, with the total divided by headcount in parentheses. List prices on monthly billing, no promotions. Gusto as read 2026-09-27, QuickBooks as read 2026-10-03.
See QuickBooks Payroll pricing
Short version
- Cheapest plan against cheapest plan, Gusto Simple is lower at every headcount: $39.50 a month lower at one employee, $89 at a hundred. There is no crossover.
- At ten employees it is $109 against $153, which is $10.90 against $15.30 per employee.
- QuickBooks' $88 includes QuickBooks Online Simple Start, its accounting product. Gusto's $49 includes no accounting software. The two prices do not cover the same work.
- One tier up, Gusto Plus ($80 + $12) against QuickBooks Workforce Payroll + Essentials ($125 + $6.50), the order flips: Gusto is lower through five employees, QuickBooks from nine.
- QuickBooks takes 50% off the base fee for three months ($44 on Simple Start). Gusto's Simple plan showed no promotion on the day it was read.
- Gusto Simple does not cover multi-state payroll (Plus does). QuickBooks' pricing page says nothing about multi-state either way.
Why the gap never closes
Gusto charges $6 per employee and QuickBooks $6.50; the base fees are $49 and $88. QuickBooks is higher on both lines, so the gap can only grow with headcount. It is the $39 difference in base fees plus $0.50 for every employee, which is $39.50 at one and $89 at a hundred.
For a headcount that is not in the table, enter your own number in the calculator and it returns both totals. The ten-employee line-up is at tool#n=10&mk=US&t=domestic.
What the $88 buys that the $49 does not
The plan name says it: "Workforce Payroll + Simple Start" is payroll bundled with QuickBooks Online Simple Start, the accounting product. On 2026-10-03 the pricing page carried no payroll-only price. The next bundle, "Workforce Payroll + Essentials," is $125 + $6.50, and "Workforce Premium + Plus" is $203 + $10; the base fee rises with the accounting plan that is bundled in.
Gusto Simple's $49 + $6 is a payroll price with no accounting software attached. Whether payroll and accounting need to come from the same company is the question in article-18. Here the only point is that the two figures do not describe the same scope of work.
Both include tax calculation and filing. QuickBooks' page reads "We'll calculate, file, and pay your payroll taxes for you," and Gusto Simple's dataset entry records tax filing as included. Year-end W-2s and 1099s are included on QuickBooks; Gusto's pricing page does not state how they are handled.
One note on the QuickBooks per-employee figure: this site's 2026-09-06 reading recorded $7. The 2026-09-27 and 2026-10-03 readings both show $6.50, and $6.50 is what this article uses.
Tier against tier, where the order reverses
| Employees | Gusto Plus ($80 + $12) | QuickBooks Workforce Payroll + Essentials ($125 + $6.50) | Gap per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $92 | $131.50 | QuickBooks $39.50 higher |
| 5 | $140 | $157.50 | QuickBooks $17.50 higher |
| 10 | $200 | $190 | Gusto $10 higher |
| 25 | $380 | $287.50 | Gusto $92.50 higher |
| 50 | $680 | $450 | Gusto $230 higher |
| 100 | $1,280 | $775 | Gusto $505 higher |
Gusto Plus is $12 per employee and QuickBooks Essentials $6.50, so the per-employee order is the reverse of the first table. The $45 difference in base fees is eaten by the $5.50 per-employee difference at the ninth employee: adding rows with base + per-employee x headcount gives $176 against $177 at eight and $188 against $183.50 at nine. Gusto's page labels Plus "BEST VALUE"; QuickBooks' page marks the Essentials bundle "FAVORITE."
Top tier against top tier, Gusto Premium ($180 + $22) against QuickBooks Workforce Premium + Plus ($203 + $10): $202 against $213 at one employee, $290 against $253 at five, $400 against $303 at ten, $730 against $453 at twenty-five, $1,280 against $703 at fifty, $2,380 against $1,203 at a hundred. An added row at two employees is $224 against $223, so one employee is the only headcount where Gusto Premium is lower.
QuickBooks' 50% off for three months
All three QuickBooks bundles carried "50% off for 3 months" on 2026-10-03. The discount applies to the base fee only; the $6.50 and $10 per-employee fees do not change. On Simple Start the three promo months are $44 + $6.50 x headcount, which at ten employees is $44 + $65 = $109. By coincidence that is the same figure as Gusto Simple's list price at ten. From month four it returns to $153.
Over a first year at ten employees, QuickBooks Simple Start is $1,704 with the promotion against $1,836 at list, a saving of $132. Gusto Simple is $109 x 12 = $1,308, which is $396 below QuickBooks even after the promotion.
Gusto's page describes Simple, Plus and Premium as "month-to-month, cancel anytime," and the 2026-09-27 reading showed no discount on any of the three (only the Contractor Only plan carried a limited-time $0 base fee). Neither vendor publishes a setup fee, a free trial or a minimum term on its pricing page.
A second state, and year-end forms
Gusto Simple does not include multi-state payroll. A second state means Plus ($80 + $12), which moves the ten-employee bill from $109 to $200. QuickBooks' pricing page says nothing about multi-state, so there is nothing to put beside it.
Year-end W-2s and 1099s are included on all three QuickBooks bundles. Gusto's pricing page does not mention them on any plan. "Not stated" here means the pricing page does not say, not that the vendor does not do it.
Who this is not for
This is a list-price comparison, not a product comparison. We have not used either. Nothing here speaks to how good the accounting software is, how the payroll runs feel, or what support is like. It also leaves out negotiated prices, a payroll-only QuickBooks price (not on the pricing page), and state-by-state tax differences. US prices only; QuickBooks Payroll in the UK is a separate dataset.
Sources
- https://gusto.com/pricing, checked 2026-09-27 (returned 403 on 2026-10-03, could not be re-read)
- https://quickbooks.intuit.com/payroll/pricing/, checked 2026-10-03
- https://seatbill.com/payroll-pricing/d/gusto, checked 2026-10-03
- https://seatbill.com/payroll-pricing/d/quickbooks-payroll, checked 2026-10-03
Related on this site
- Gusto's cost by headcount, Simple, Plus and Premium (d/gusto)
- QuickBooks Payroll's three bundles by headcount (d/quickbooks-payroll)
- OnPay against QuickBooks Payroll, same $6-range per-employee fee, different base (vs/onpay-vs-quickbooks-payroll)
- Do payroll and accounting need to come from the same company? (article-18)
- Published-price alternatives to QuickBooks Payroll (alt/quickbooks-payroll-alternatives)
- Work it out at your own headcount (tool)
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from vendors' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products.
Written by Kaz, independent publisher. No commercial relationship with the companies named unless it is listed on the disclosure page.
Published September 27, 2026. The figures above come from the government and vendor pages listed under Sources.
I have not used these products. Nothing here is a personal test result.
Corrections: contact form.