Not in its standard plans. Its Simple, Plus, and Premium plans are software for payroll, benefits, and HR, and you stay the only employer of your team: Gusto files your federal, state, and local payroll taxes under your own accounts, places your health coverage through its brokerage in the regular small group market, and charges a published base fee plus a fee per person. Gusto announced a separate offering, Gusto PEO, on October 1, 2026, but it is limited to a waitlist of businesses that already run Gusto payroll in Texas, California, or Florida. TriNet is built on a different legal structure as a professional employer organization. The IRS has classified one of its subsidiaries as a certified professional employer organization, and under a co-employment agreement TriNet takes on defined employer responsibilities for the people you enroll, while day-to-day direction of the work stays with you. If access to benefits or offloading compliance work is why you are shopping, that structural gap outweighs any feature comparison.

Gusto vs TriNet: Pricing and Features Compared

Q: Is Gusto or TriNet cheaper for a small business?

There is no honest answer until you hold a TriNet quote, since TriNet posts no rates while Gusto lists its plan prices openly. On Gusto, the Simple plan runs $49 a month plus $6 for each person, Plus runs $80 plus $12, and Premium runs $180 plus $22. For a team of 25, that works out to $199, $380, or $730 a month depending on the plan. TriNet explains that its price varies with company size, industry, geographic footprint, and the services you need, and that it bills a flat amount for each employee every month instead of a share of payroll. Even with both figures in hand, the totals measure different things: a PEO invoice combines the admin fee with health premiums and the payroll taxes you owe as the employer, while a software invoice carries none of those.

Q: Does TriNet publish its pricing?

No. TriNet does not post a standard price list, and it gives the reason: each quote is built around company size, industry, geographic footprint, and the services a client needs. The part it does make public is how the fee works. It is a flat administrative charge for each employee each month, not a percentage of payroll, so giving someone a raise leaves that charge unchanged. TriNet is also clear about what the fee leaves out: medical, dental, and vision premiums, the employer share of payroll taxes, including FICA, FUTA, and SUTA, and optional services like background checks and drug screening. If a review site lists a per employee number for TriNet, treat it as an unverified outside estimate, not a rate TriNet has agreed to honor.

Q: What does the TriNet per employee fee include?

According to TriNet, the per employee administrative fee generally pays for running payroll and administering payroll taxes, access to HR expertise, administration of benefits and of workers compensation, use of its HR technology platform, and tools for onboarding new employees. The PEO offering as a whole also gives you access to medical, dental, and vision plans, a fully managed 401(k) plan, COBRA administration, workers compensation coverage, and employment practices liability insurance. The fee does not pay for the coverage itself: insurance premiums and retirement contributions are billed on top, as is your employer share of payroll taxes, along with optional services like background checks and drug screening. Because of that split, you have to unbundle a PEO quote and a software quote before you can compare them line by line.

Q: Does Gusto Simple cover payroll in more than one state?

No. In its own description, Gusto positions Simple as the plan for small businesses that run payroll in one state, and it places multi-state payroll among the Plus features. Needing that one feature changes the price more than many buyers assume. Simple is priced at $49 a month and $6 for each person, while Plus is $80 a month and $12 for each person, so the per person charge doubles. For a team of 25, the monthly bill rises from $199 on Simple to $380 on Plus. Registering for taxes in a new state is a separate Gusto add-on, priced state by state, that handles the paperwork of starting payroll in another jurisdiction. If someone on the team already works in a different state, or likely will within the next year, price the Plus tier, not Simple, against any PEO quote.

Q: Can a very small team use TriNet?

That depends on your headcount, so check eligibility before you spend time on a quote. The TriNet pricing page says a minimum number of worksite employees applies but does not give the figure, and its official company information page describes its clients as businesses with five to more than 1,000 employees. Gusto sets no published minimum, and it even offers a contractor-only plan for businesses that have no W-2 employees yet, priced at $35 a month and $6 for each contractor. The practical difference is in how you buy each one. Signing up for Gusto is self-serve, setup is free, there is no long-term contract, and you can switch or cancel whenever you like, so a three-person company can get started without talking to sales. A PEO relationship, by contrast, begins with a consultation, then a quote, then a service agreement. That process makes sense for a company handing off benefits and compliance work, and it is a lot of overhead for a company that only needs to pay four people.

Q: Which is better for health insurance?

It comes down to whether your problem is administering benefits or getting access to them. As your broker, Gusto charges no administration fee and offers a catalog of more than 9,000 plans across more than 30 carriers. Gusto also points out that small group rates are set under government regulation, which means the premium is identical whether you buy through Gusto or through another broker. So Gusto fixes the administration, not the price. A PEO goes after access and price, because a small employer becomes part of a benefits program designed around a far larger group of people, and that is the main reason businesses sign up for one. TriNet lists major national and regional carriers among its choices. If renewal quotes are what sent you shopping, ask for a real PEO benefits quote built on your census and compare total premiums rather than the admin fee.

Q: Do Gusto or TriNet require a contract?

Gusto requires no long-term contract, while TriNet operates under a service agreement. Gusto bills month to month, sets up your account at no charge, lets you switch or cancel whenever you want, and charges only for employees who are active. TriNet notes in its own pricing material that most PEOs require an annual agreement and that early termination fees may apply, so ask about agreement length, renewal terms, and exit costs before you sign anything. Put a price on that difference. Moving off payroll software is a matter of exporting your data and running the next payroll somewhere else. Moving off a PEO means setting up your own state tax accounts again, finding new health coverage and workers compensation, and shifting your team onto new plans, typically at a renewal date rather than on your own schedule.

Gusto vs TriNet for a small business: what Gusto costs at 10, 25, and 50 employees, why TriNet quotes instead of publishing, and who picks which.

TL;DR

Gusto sells software at published month-to-month rates with no long-term contract: Simple $49 plus $6 per person, Plus $80 plus $12, Premium $180 plus $22. TriNet quotes instead: a flat fee per employee per month, plus insurance premiums and employer payroll taxes. Choose Gusto to stay the sole employer, TriNet for benefits access, workers compensation, liability coverage, and offloaded HR work.

Author

Nick AnisimovFirstHR Founder

Gusto and TriNet side by side

Gusto is payroll and benefits software you run yourself, sold at a published price. TriNet is a professional employer organization, which means a co-employment agreement, a bundled service, and a quote.

Gusto has also announced a PEO of its own, Gusto PEO, but only its existing payroll customers in Texas, California, and Florida can join the waitlist, so this comparison covers its software plans. Read the table as two different answers to the question of who employs your team on paper.

	Gusto	TriNet
What it is at heart	Payroll and benefits software you operate	A PEO that co-employs your team
Employment model	You stay the sole employer	Co-employment: employer duties are split by contract
Published pricing	Yes, plan rates are on the website	No, quote only
Entry price	Simple, $49/mo plus $6/mo per person	Quote, flat per employee per month
Plan ladder	Simple $49 + $6, Plus $80 + $12, Premium $180 + $22	PEO or HR Plus, both quoted individually
Payroll and tax filing	In the plan price on every tier	Inside the monthly admin fee
Payroll in two states	Plus and Premium; Simple is single state	Inside the service
Health plan access	Gusto brokers small group plans, no admin fee	Plans reached through the PEO program
Workers compensation	Pay as you go add-on, starting at $14/mo	Administered inside the PEO
Employment liability cover	Not offered	Employment practices liability insurance included
Retirement	401(k) add-on, priced by integration	Fully managed 401(k) inside the PEO
Time and attendance	$6/mo per person on Simple, included on Plus	In the platform
Applicant tracking	Plus and Premium plans	Recruiting and onboarding in the platform
Access to HR experts	Premium plan only, at $180/mo + $22 per person	Assigned support pro inside the service
Minimum company size	None stated; a contractor-only plan exists	A minimum applies; TriNet serves five to more than 1,000 employees
Contract terms	Month to month, cancel anytime	Annual agreement is the norm for PEOs
Federal credentials	Not applicable to its software plans; Gusto PEO is not on the IRS list	IRS-certified PEO subsidiary, ESAC accredited since 1995

Verified October 2026 against each vendor pricing and product page. Gusto publishes every plan rate and most add-on rates. TriNet states that it does not publish standard list pricing because quotes are customized by company size, industry, geographic footprint, and services needed, so every TriNet cell here describes structure rather than price. Health insurance premiums, workers compensation premiums, retirement contributions, and employer payroll taxes are excluded from all figures.

The federal credentials row carries more weight than the rest. Under a PEO arrangement, employer responsibilities are divided between you and the provider, and TriNet notes that a subsidiary of the company is classified by the IRS as a certified professional employer organization.

Under federal law, certified PEO status is not cosmetic: the tax code section on certified PEOs, 26 U.S.C. 3511, treats a certified organization as the employer for employment tax purposes on the wages it pays to work site employees. With payroll software, the IRS keeps the employer ultimately responsible for those taxes, so that liability never leaves you.

Gusto reviewed

Gusto

Best for payroll, tax filing, and benefits administration bought as software

Price

Simple $49 + $6, Plus $80 + $12, Premium $180 + $22 per month

Contractor only

$35 per month plus $6 per contractor

Cost at 10 / 25 / 50

$109 / $199 / $349 on Simple

Terms

No long-term contract, free account setup, switch or cancel anytime

Gusto sells software for the highest-risk work a small employer does, at a price you can read before speaking to anyone. Every plan includes unlimited payroll runs, direct deposits or printable checks, federal, state, and local tax filings and payments, automated payroll, payroll approvals, and multiple pay rates and schedules.

Every plan also covers domestic contractor payments, time off requests, expenses and reimbursements, and the employee and employer mobile apps. Unlimited custom admin roles come with Premium.

The onboarding layer is real at the entry tier. Simple carries employee self-onboarding, digital I-9s and W-4s, state new hire reporting, document storage, and offer letter templates, which covers most of what a small team needs when somebody starts. Custom onboarding checklists, custom document e-signing, an org chart and directory, and applicant tracking sit on Plus, so the cheapest plan is deliberately thinner on the HR side than on the payroll side.

Benefits are where Gusto differs most from a PEO. Gusto acts as your broker across more than 9,000 plans from over 30 carriers, with no administration fee. It also states that small group rates are government regulated, so you pay the same premium through Gusto as through any other broker.

Using Gusto as your broker fixes the administration of benefits enrollment and payroll deductions. It does not change the underlying price of coverage, which is the exact thing a PEO is bought to change.

What each Gusto plan adds

The ladder is about reach rather than depth. Simple is one state and the essentials, Plus adds what a distributed or hourly team needs, and Premium mostly buys people and support.

Plan	List rate	What it adds
Simple	$49/mo + $6 per person	Single-state full-service payroll, unlimited payroll runs, federal, state, and local tax filing, employee self-onboarding with digital I-9s and W-4s, state new hire reporting, document storage, offer letter templates, time off requests, expenses and reimbursements, health insurance administration, and domestic contractor payments
Plus	$80/mo + $12 per person	Everything in Simple, plus multi-state payroll, time tracking and scheduling, next-day pay, workforce cost reports, applicant tracking and job postings, custom onboarding checklists, custom document e-signing, org chart and directory, and performance and compensation management
Premium	$180/mo + $22 per person	Everything in Plus, plus a dedicated service advisor, access to certified HR experts, an HR document generator, an employee handbook, HR law updates, priority support, and payroll migration and account setup

Warning

One out-of-state hire changes which Gusto plan you should be pricing

Gusto describes Simple as the plan for businesses needing single-state payroll and lists multi-state payroll as a Plus feature. A single hire across a state line moves you from $49 plus $6 per person to $80 plus $12, which doubles the per person rate and takes a 25-person bill from $199 to $380 a month. If multi-state payroll is plausible inside a year, price Plus against your TriNet quote, not Simple.

Pros

Publishes every plan rate and most add-on rates, so you can budget without a sales call

Full-service payroll and tax filing in the plan price on every tier

No long-term contract, free account setup, and you can switch or cancel at any time

No administration fee for health benefits, with licensed advisors included

Charges only for active employees, and contractors only in months you pay them

Self-serve signup with no minimum company size, plus a contractor-only plan at $35 a month

Cons

Simple covers a single state, so a second state forces the Plus tier

Applicant tracking and the org chart need Plus; time tracking is a paid add-on on Simple

Access to certified HR experts comes only with Premium, at $180/mo plus $22 per person

Workers compensation, 401(k), and pre-tax accounts are separately priced add-ons

No employment practices liability insurance and no pooled benefits program

Per person pricing compounds: Premium reaches $1,280 a month at 50 employees

Everyone in one list, with who they report to

Position, department, type, manager and status for each person. People who have left move to a separate list.

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TriNet reviewed

TriNet

Best for co-employment: pooled benefits, workers compensation, and HR support in one agreement

Price

Not published. A flat fee per employee per month, quoted per company

Billed separately

Insurance premiums and employer payroll taxes such as FICA, FUTA, and SUTA

Cost at 10 / 25 / 50

Quote at every headcount

Terms

A minimum worksite employee count applies; PEO agreements are typically annual

TriNet sells an employer relationship rather than a subscription. Its PEO covers payroll processing and payroll tax administration, access to medical, dental, and vision coverage, a fully managed 401(k), workers compensation, employment practices liability insurance, COBRA administration and open enrollment support, and strategic HR support. All of it arrives through one service agreement and one platform, with time and attendance, recruiting, and onboarding built in.

The pricing model is stated even though the price is not. TriNet charges a flat fee per employee per month rather than a percentage of payroll, and it points out that the admin fee therefore does not rise when someone gets a raise.

The admin fee generally covers payroll and tax administration, HR expertise, benefits administration, workers compensation administration, platform access, and onboarding tools. Insurance premiums, retirement contributions, and the employer share of payroll taxes are separate, as are extras such as background checks and drug screening.

Checkable credentials matter more with a PEO than with software, because the money you hand over has to reach tax agencies and carriers. TriNet states that one of its subsidiaries is IRS-certified as a professional employer organization, which you can confirm on the IRS public listing of certified PEOs. TriNet adds that it has maintained Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC) accreditation since 1995.

TriNet also markets a non-PEO alternative: HR Plus, its administrative services organization (ASO), which includes the HR platform TriNet acquired with Zenefits in 2022 (the login still calls it TriNet Zenefits).

TriNet began moving customers of the software-only Zenefits product onto HR Plus in 2025 and, according to its second-quarter 2026 filing, is still winding the old product down. HR Plus, rather than the old Zenefits software, is the non-PEO option actually on sale.

What the TriNet relationship covers

Read this as a service scope rather than a feature list. The point of a PEO is that several purchases a small employer would otherwise make separately arrive as one agreement.

Area	What TriNet provides	What it means for you
Employment model	Co-employment: certain employer responsibilities are allocated by contract while you keep control of day to day work	You are not buying a tool, you are entering a relationship with exit costs
Payroll and tax	Payroll processing, payroll tax administration, and year-end forms	Handled inside the admin fee rather than as a subscription line
Benefits	Access to medical, dental, and vision coverage from major national and regional carriers, plus a fully managed 401(k)	The main reason most small employers buy a PEO at all
Risk	Workers compensation and employment practices liability insurance	Two purchases that are separate add-ons or separate vendors elsewhere
HR support	Assigned support contact backed by specialist teams	A person to call, rather than a help center and an add-on fee
Technology	One platform covering onboarding, payroll, time and attendance, and recruiting	Fewer systems, but the platform comes with the service rather than standalone
Pricing	Flat per employee per month admin fee, quoted individually	You cannot compare it with a published rate until you request a quote
Non-PEO option	HR Plus, an administrative services arrangement with Payroll Pro and People Pro service levels	Platform and support without co-employment, also quoted rather than published

Good to know

A PEO invoice contains three different kinds of money

The admin fee is only one line. A PEO bill also carries insurance premiums and the employer share of payroll taxes, which TriNet states are separate from the per employee fee. Compare those three components against what you pay today for software, brokered premiums, workers compensation, and liability coverage. The IRS obligations behind that middle number do not shrink because a PEO remits them.

Pros

Benefits access is the real product: a small employer reaches plans through a much larger program

Workers compensation and employment practices liability insurance come with the service

Flat per employee admin fee rather than a percentage of payroll, so raises do not raise the fee

An IRS-certified professional employer organization subsidiary and ESAC accreditation since 1995

An assigned support professional inside the service, where Gusto reserves HR experts for Premium

Payroll, benefits, time and attendance, and recruiting arrive on one platform

Cons

No published pricing at any tier, so budgeting requires a sales conversation

Insurance premiums and employer payroll taxes are billed on top of the admin fee

A minimum worksite employee count applies, which rules out the smallest teams

PEO agreements are typically annual and may carry early termination terms

Co-employment is a structural change with real exit costs, not a software swap

Leaving means re-establishing your own tax accounts and re-sourcing coverage

What each costs at 10, 25, and 50 employees

Half this table is arithmetic and half is a blank the vendor will not fill in. Gusto publishes a base fee and a per person fee, so the numbers below are exact. TriNet publishes neither, so the only accurate entry is Quote, and no third-party estimate has been substituted for it.

Plan	10 employees	25 employees	50 employees	What the price covers
Gusto Simple	$109	$199	$349	Single-state payroll, tax filing, onboarding, benefits admin
Gusto Plus	$200	$380	$680	Adds multi-state payroll, time tracking, applicant tracking
Gusto Premium	$400	$730	$1,280	Adds HR experts, dedicated advisor, priority support
TriNet PEO	Quote	Quote	Quote	Admin fee per employee, plus premiums and payroll taxes billed separately
TriNet HR Plus	Quote	Quote	Quote	The non-PEO option: platform plus support, also priced per employee

Gusto figures are the published base fee plus the published per person fee at each headcount, taken from the Gusto pricing page in October 2026, before any add-on. TriNet does not publish rates for the PEO or for HR Plus, and states that HR Plus pricing depends on your number of employees and the service level selected, so Quote is the only honest entry. No third-party estimate has been substituted. Insurance premiums, workers compensation premiums, retirement contributions, and employer payroll taxes sit outside every number in this table.

Three things are worth pulling out of that grid. First, the Gusto curve is steep at the top: Premium at 50 employees lists at $1,280 a month, more than three times Simple at the same headcount, because everything is priced per person.

Second, the tier you should be pricing is decided by facts about your team rather than your budget, since one out-of-state hire pushes you from Simple to Plus. Third, a quote is not a red flag on its own. A PEO cannot post a rate card when the product includes insurance that gets underwritten around your employee census.

The comparison only becomes real when you unbundle both sides. Add up what you pay today for payroll software, brokered premiums, workers compensation, liability coverage, and any HR advice you buy, then set that total against the PEO quote total including premiums.

Comparing a $199 software line against a per employee admin fee is comparing a part with a whole, and it is how companies talk themselves into and out of PEOs for the wrong reasons.

Tip

Get the quote before you decide the answer

A PEO quote costs a conversation and produces the one number this comparison cannot supply. Ask for the admin fee per employee per month, the benefit premiums for your actual census, the workers compensation rate, the agreement length, the renewal terms, and the exit process. Then price payroll software plus your current broker against it. Whichever way it lands, you will have compared totals rather than fragments.

What sits outside the sticker price

The fastest way to see why the two prices are not comparable is to list the jobs a small employer needs done and mark where each vendor puts them. Software charges for modules. A PEO folds most of these into one fee and bills the insurance separately.

Job to be done	Gusto	TriNet
Running pay and filing taxes	In the plan price on every tier	Inside the per employee admin fee
Payroll in a second state	Plus or Premium; state tax registration is an add-on priced by state	Inside the service
Getting health coverage priced	Gusto brokers plans in the regular small group market, at government-regulated rates	Access through the PEO benefits program with major national and regional carriers
Administering enrollment	No administration fee with Gusto as broker; $6 per eligible employee to keep your own	Included, with COBRA administration and open enrollment support
Workers compensation	Pay-as-you-go add-on starting at $14 a month	Administered inside the PEO
Employment practices liability	Not offered	Included in the PEO offering
Retirement plan	401(k) add-on, pricing varies by integration	Fully managed 401(k) inside the PEO
Tracking hours and schedules	$6 per person add-on on Simple, included on Plus	Time and attendance in the platform
Posting jobs and tracking candidates	Plus and Premium plans	Recruiting and onboarding in the platform
Talking to an HR expert	Premium plan only, at $180 a month plus $22 per person	Assigned support contact included
Pre-tax accounts	One $200 annual service charge covers HSA, FSA, dependent care, and commuter, plus per participant fees	Offered within the PEO benefits program
Federal employment tax liability	Stays with you	A certified PEO is treated as the employer for tax on the wages it pays

Two rows deserve a second look before you shortlist. Liability coverage has no Gusto equivalent, so a company that wants it buys a separate policy, and that cost belongs in the comparison. Benefits pricing is the other: administration software and a pooled program solve different halves of the same complaint, and only one of them can move a renewal quote.

Where each one is genuinely stronger

Neither product wins across the board, and the honest answer changes with the situation. The table below maps common small-business circumstances to the one that handles them better.

Your situation	Stronger choice	Why
You want the price before a sales call	Gusto	Every plan rate and most add-on rates are published
Health renewals are why you are shopping	TriNet	A pooled program can change premiums; brokered small group rates cannot
You have three or four people	Gusto	No stated minimum, self-serve signup, contractor-only plan available
You want workers comp and liability cover in one place	TriNet	Workers compensation and employment practices liability come with the service
You want to switch vendors easily later	Gusto	Month to month with no long-term contract, against an annual PEO agreement
Nobody at the company owns HR questions	TriNet	Assigned support contact inside the service, while Gusto keeps HR experts on Premium
Single-state salaried team on a budget	Gusto Simple	$109 a month at 10 employees with payroll and tax filing included
Distributed team across several states	Either, priced carefully	Gusto Plus at $80 plus $12, or the PEO where multi-state sits inside the fee
You are hiring constantly	Gusto Plus	Applicant tracking and job postings on the plan you would already need
You want one invoice for pay, benefits, and risk	TriNet	The bundle is the product, even though premiums are billed separately

The pattern comes down to what you are actually buying. Gusto wins whenever the answer is a tool: known price, fast start, easy exit, you remain the employer. TriNet wins whenever the answer is a relationship: benefits access, risk transfer, and someone else carrying work that nobody at your company has time for.

Companies that regret their choice usually bought a relationship when they needed a tool, or bought a tool when the real problem was that nobody owns HR.

Org chart

Michael ScottRegional Manager3 departments

Dwight SchruteSalesReports to Michael

Darryl PhilbinWarehouseReports to Michael

My Team

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Departments

Dwight SchruteSales3 people

Darryl PhilbinWarehouse1 person

Kelly KapoorCustomer Service1 person

Core HR

Who works here and who does what

Profiles, departments and an org chart, with every change kept on record.

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How to choose between Gusto and TriNet

Five questions settle this faster than any feature matrix. Answer them before you book either conversation.

Questions to settle the choice

Are you buying software or an employer relationship?This routes the decision more than price. Gusto leaves you as the sole employer and hands you a system for pay, tax, and benefits administration. A PEO divides employer responsibilities by contract, which is why a certified organization is treated as the employer for employment tax on the wages it pays. If the idea of sharing employer status makes you uncomfortable, that reaction is information, and the software answer is probably yours.

Is your problem benefits access or benefits admin?Write down what your last renewal quote did to your budget. If coverage is expensive or hard to get for a small census, a pooled PEO program addresses the cause, and software cannot, because small group rates are regulated and identical through any broker. If coverage is fine and the pain is enrollment paperwork and deduction errors, you are buying administration, and paying for co-employment to fix a paperwork problem is an expensive way around it.

How many states will you run payroll in within a year?Gusto Simple covers a single state, and multi-state payroll starts on Plus, which takes the rate from $49 plus $6 per person to $80 plus $12. At 25 people that is $199 becoming $380 a month, so the tier you compare against a PEO quote should reflect your hiring map rather than today's payroll. Multi-state handling sits inside the PEO service, which is one of the places a bundled fee gets easier to justify.

What happens if you want to leave in 18 months?Gusto is month to month with free account setup and no long-term contract, so leaving means exporting data and running the next cycle elsewhere. Exiting a PEO is a project: your own state tax accounts have to be re-established, health coverage and workers compensation re-sourced, and staff moved onto new plans, usually at a renewal date. Ask about agreement length, renewal, and termination terms in the first call, not the last.

Are you at the size each vendor is built for?TriNet requires a minimum worksite employee count, so confirm eligibility before investing in a quote process. Gusto has no stated minimum and sells a contractor-only plan at $35 a month plus $6 per contractor for companies with no W-2 employees yet. Size cuts the other way too: the larger and more distributed your team, the more the risk transfer and pooled benefits in a PEO are worth relative to a per person software bill.

One habit helps whichever way you lean. Run a full new hire through any product you seriously consider, from offer letter to signed I-9 to first paycheck, before you commit. HR software lives or dies on adoption rather than feature depth, and one realistic run tells you more than a two-hour demo. For a PEO, the equivalent test is the quote itself: how quickly you get real numbers is a fair preview of the service.

Before you choose

The decision underneath this page is not really Gusto against TriNet. It is whether you want a PEO at all, or a standalone HR stack you assemble yourself: payroll software, a broker, a workers compensation policy, and a system for records. An ASO, like HR Plus from TriNet, sits between those poles.

Where we fit is narrow, so here it is plainly. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform that runs the records layer: onboarding workflows, employee records, training modules, and document management. It works beside payroll software or a PEO rather than replacing either, so payroll, payroll tax filing, benefits administration, and co-employment stay with the two products above.

So if payroll, benefits, or risk transfer is the problem in front of you, one of the two products above is your answer rather than us.

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Key takeaways

1Only one side publishes rates: Gusto lists Simple at $49 a month plus $6 per person, Plus at $80 plus $12, and Premium at $180 plus $22, while TriNet states it does not publish standard list pricing because quotes are customized by company size, industry, geographic footprint, and services needed.

2The two prices are not measuring the same thing: a TriNet invoice carries a flat per employee admin fee plus insurance premiums plus the employer share of payroll taxes, while a Gusto plan rate covers software and administration only, so the honest test is comparing totals rather than a plan rate against an admin fee.

3The structural difference outranks the feature list: Gusto leaves you as the sole employer, while TriNet is a co-employment arrangement whose certified subsidiary is treated as the employer for employment tax on the wages it pays.

4One out-of-state hire changes the Gusto tier you should compare: Simple covers a single state, so a second state means Plus at $80 plus $12 per person, taking a 25-person bill from $199 to $380 a month.

5Decide by what you are buying: a tool with a known price, a fast start, and an easy exit points to Gusto, while benefits access, workers compensation, liability coverage, and offloaded HR work point to TriNet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Gusto or TriNet cheaper for a small business?

Nobody can answer that without a TriNet quote, because TriNet does not publish rates. Gusto does: Simple lists at $49 a month plus $6 per person, Plus at $80 plus $12, and Premium at $180 plus $22, so 25 employees cost $199, $380, or $730 a month by tier.

TriNet charges a quoted flat fee per employee per month, with premiums and employer payroll taxes billed separately, so the two bills cover different scopes even once you hold both.

Does TriNet publish its pricing?

No. TriNet states that pricing is customized based on company size, industry, geographic footprint, and services needed, so it does not publish standard list pricing. It does publish the shape of the fee: a flat charge per employee per month rather than a percentage of payroll, which means the admin cost does not move when someone gets a raise. Any per employee number you find on a review site is an unverified third-party estimate.

Is Gusto a PEO?

Not in its standard plans. Gusto is payroll, benefits, and HR software that you run as the sole employer, filing taxes under your own accounts and brokering health plans in the regular small group market. Its own PEO, Gusto PEO, announced on October 1, 2026, is open only by waitlist to existing Gusto payroll customers in Texas, California, and Florida.

TriNet is a professional employer organization, and co-employment is a legal structure rather than a feature. If your reason for shopping is benefits access or transferring compliance work, that difference decides more than any feature grid.

What does the TriNet per employee fee include?

TriNet states the admin fee generally covers payroll processing and payroll tax administration, HR expertise, benefits administration, workers compensation administration, platform access, and onboarding tools, with the PEO adding medical, dental, and vision access, a managed 401(k), workers compensation, employment practices liability insurance, and COBRA administration. Premiums, retirement contributions, and employer payroll taxes are billed separately, as are extras such as background checks.

Does Gusto Simple cover payroll in more than one state?

No. Gusto describes Simple as the plan for single-state payroll and lists multi-state payroll under Plus. Moving to Plus takes the rate from $49 plus $6 per person to $80 plus $12, raising a 25-person bill from $199 to $380 a month. Gusto also sells state tax registration as a separate add-on priced by state, for the paperwork of running payroll in a new jurisdiction.

Can a very small team use TriNet?

TriNet says a minimum worksite employee count applies but leaves the number off its pricing page. The TriNet company information page puts its clients at five to more than 1,000 employees, so confirm eligibility before starting a quote process.

Gusto has no stated minimum and sells a contractor-only plan at $35 a month plus $6 per contractor for businesses with no W-2 employees. The buying process differs as much as the price: self-serve signup on one side, a consultation and service agreement on the other.

Which is better for health insurance?

It depends on whether the problem is administration or access. Gusto brokers more than 9,000 plans from over 30 carriers and charges no administration fee. It also states that government-regulated small group rates mean you pay the same premium through Gusto as through any broker.

A PEO changes the pool your rates are built from, which is the main reason small employers buy one, so compare total premiums for your census rather than admin fees.

Do Gusto or TriNet require a contract?

Gusto does not require a long-term contract: setup is free, you can cancel anytime, and it charges only for active employees. TriNet works on a service agreement, and its own material notes that most PEOs require an annual agreement and may include early termination fees. Price the exit as well as the entry, because leaving software means an export while leaving a PEO means re-establishing tax accounts and re-sourcing coverage.

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