Gusto offers payroll, benefits and compliance capabilities. Gusto is scaled for small to mid-sized businesses, and emphasizes an easy to use interface.
$46
per month
Optimum Solutions HRIS (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Optimum Solutions, Inc. was a software development company providing Payroll, Human Resources, and Time & Attendance software for both the IBM iSeries (AS/400) and Microsoft Windows platforms or in the cloud. In October 2019 they were acquired by Kronos, Inc (now UKG after merging with Ultimate Software). Former Optimum products are now supported by Kronos / UKG, and are no longer sold available for sale.
N/A
Pricing
Gusto
Optimum Solutions HRIS (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
Simple: A streamlined set of automatic payroll features and benefits integrations
$40/month + $6/mo per person
$12 per employee/contractor
Plus: Comprehensive payroll, benefits, and HR tools for employers building a great place to work
$80/month + $12/mo per person
Premium: Scalable payroll and benefits, expert HR, and dedicated support for the complex needs of growing teams
Exclusive pricing, contact Gusto
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Gusto
Optimum Solutions HRIS (discontinued)
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
Required
Additional Details
Gusto offers three pricing plans for payroll, benefits, and HR, so you can choose the plan that meets your business needs.
Gusto is especially well-suited for small businesses. Its down-to-earth support staff and simple-to-use platform without extensive training make it a no-brainer. Larger companies may need a more comprehensive program, but it is harder for me to judge as I work for small businesses. It's very versatile, and no company should worry about using it.
Optimum Solutions works very well for all our payroll needs. We run payrolls weekly, semi-monthly, monthly and yearly. The end of year process is lined out very well and webinars are available to go over any new regulations required. We haven't utilized the HR part of the software as much on the iSeries but are planning on changing that once we get converted to the Windows version later this year. The main reason for this is the HR part of the software on the iSeries is separate from payroll.
Timesheetsv were super easy to access and user friendly. You always know how many hours you worked and good reminders as well if you forget to clock in or out.
I liked how the app always had a countdown to payday. In my own weird way it was a good way to keep on top of my expenses
Expense breakdown in Gusto wallet. It is quite helpful.
The fact that you could print employee verification letters is a really good feature.
The setup of Optimum HRIS was intense as the software comes as a basic shell and everything is personalized to our organization. All earnings codes, leave time, employee types, job codes, taxes, etc. are set up for each company. While this was almost overwhelming at the beginning, we have so much control over the set up and better grasp of the inner workings of the system.
Tax updates come quickly and are easily applied. This is especially welcome at year end.
The built-in reporting is robust and offers a lot of options, but the ability to dig in to the database using SQL and Excel allows for very powerful reports that are infinitely personalized.
I already think the app is streamlined, and I've had no complaints about using it.
Since [I think] people can get a Gusto account mainly through an employer organization, the only doubt I had is that I thought my employer could see all of my financial information in my account. But after a 2-minute phone call and reassurance that this fear would violate federal banking laws, I was relieved. Maybe a disclaimer could be included on the webpage or in employees' onboarding that would put people with that concern at ease.
When exporting reports to Excel I found the formatting to be difficult to work with and having to reformat the reports can be a nightmare. My company's IT department created its own business tools to make the reporting format more user friendly.
Unless they break it, I'm never leaving. It's just too easy. Gusto is also really affordable, and for what I pay, it's worth having the historical record within the system. I like that I can go back and pull up W2's for year's past. This sort of easy access reporting, has been helpful especially when getting reports for PPP loans.
I gave this rating because it is really easy to access through my phone which is super helpful. The user interface is also simple to navigate and find where I need to go. Also the pig walking in space is a great thing to watch while waiting for the info to load.
Gusto's customer service has really deteriorated lately and they seem to have really changed their focus. It used to be when you called you were routed to an individual who knew about payroll, benefits, reporting, etc. but now you get someone who seems to have not received the correct training. My last call about a dismissal payroll took me over an hour of my time and the person still could not help me and finally transferred me to someone else.
Gusto has a glitch-free on-boarding process that surpasses all of the other systems that I have ever tried and used. Rippling is the only other platform that comes close to the Gusto online experience, but Rippling has its PEO/behind-the-scenes legacy system glitches, and it's not nearly as user friendly as Gusto. Gusto's reports are THE best compared with all the other platforms that I have tried.
We evaluated some payroll services but found the ongoing cost greater than the initial cost of purchasing our own software and keeping the payroll process in house. Other payroll software was generally more expensive and we are satisfied with Optimum Solutions. I would say the main reason we stayed with Optimum Solutions, converting from their iSeries version to their Windows version, was because of their outstanding staff and support.
After a recent glitch with the payroll processing system, employees were forced to accept paper checks for a few weeks while Gusto's technical support team figured out the problem. This led to some employees being forced to miss work and lose money while having to deal with an antiquated paper check process.
