Gusto vs OnPay: 2 Payroll Platforms Compared

Here is the fact that makes this comparison unusual. Gusto Simple costs $49 a month plus $6 per person. OnPay costs $49 a month plus $6 per worker. Same base fee, same per-head fee, same billing model, published on both vendor sites for anyone to read. At 10 employees you pay $109 either way. At 50 you pay $349 either way.

The first time I lined these two up on a spreadsheet I assumed I had copied a cell wrong. I had not. Two payroll companies that market themselves very differently arrived at an identical price, which means the entire decision lives somewhere other than the number on the pricing page. It lives in what each of those identical dollars buys.

That turns out to be a much more interesting question. One vendor sells a single plan that includes almost everything and asks you to pay for HR features separately. The other sells three plans, holds back two features most small employers eventually need, and charges you to climb. Which structure is cheaper depends entirely on which features you happen to need, and the answer flips depending on where your people work and whether they punch a clock.

This comparison does the arithmetic. What each plan costs at 5, 10, 25, and 50 people, what sits inside each base plan, where each product is genuinely stronger, and which business profiles point clearly at one over the other. There is no universal winner. There is a right answer for a distributed salaried team, a different right answer for a restaurant with hourly staff, and a third for a company that plans to keep growing into more tooling.

Gusto vs OnPay at a glance

The two products solve the same job with opposite philosophies about tiers. OnPay sells one plan and puts nearly everything payroll-related inside it, then charges separately for HR modules that sit above payroll. Gusto sells three plans and uses the middle one as the gate for two features a growing small business tends to want: payroll in more than one state, and time tracking.

That difference explains most of what follows. Neither vendor is hiding anything. Both publish list rates on public pages, both bill by base fee plus head count, and both file federal, state, and local employment taxes at the entry price. What differs is the shape of the bill as your business changes.

Read that table for placement rather than presence. Almost every capability a small employer needs exists in both products somewhere. What matters is which plan you have to be on to reach it, and whether reaching it costs a tier jump or a small add-on. Three rows decide most purchases: multi-state payroll, native time tracking, and direct deposit speed.

The fourth row worth staring at is the HR add-on line. OnPay used to be described everywhere as the one-plan, everything-included provider, and the payroll half of that is still true. But PTO tracking, org charts, records management, and equipment tracking now sit in a paid module rather than the base plan, which changes the arithmetic for anyone comparing feature lists from an older roundup.

What Gusto and OnPay actually cost

At the entry tier the two products cost exactly the same, so the useful table is not a comparison of starting prices but a comparison of the plans you would realistically end up on. The grid below runs published rates at four headcounts, pairing each vendor configuration against its nearest functional equivalent.

Three patterns come out of that grid. First, the entry rows are a dead heat at every headcount, which is unusual enough that it deserves to be said twice. Second, adding OnPay HR costs less than moving up a Gusto tier at every size: $144 against $200 at 10 people, $464 against $680 at 50. Third, the moment multi-state payroll enters the picture, OnPay stays at the entry price while Gusto has to move, and that single fact is worth $181 a month at 25 people.

The per-person fee is what compounds, so it deserves more attention than the base fee when you model payroll pricing. Between OnPay Payroll Essentials and Gusto Plus the gap is $6 per person, which at 50 employees is $3,600 a year. Between the two entry plans the gap is zero. Between OnPay with its HR module and Gusto Premium the gap is $14 per person, or $8,400 a year at the same headcount.

What the base plan actually includes

Both base plans cover the full payroll job: unlimited pay runs, direct deposit, federal, state, and local tax filing, and year-end W-2 and 1099 forms at no separate charge. That baseline is genuinely equivalent, and a business that only needs payroll run correctly will not feel a difference between them.

Above that baseline the two plans diverge sharply, and the divergence is what you are really choosing between.

Two lines in that table do most of the work. Payroll in a second state costs a Gusto tier jump and costs nothing on OnPay. Time tracking costs a Gusto tier jump and does not exist on OnPay at any price, which means an hourly employer pays either way, just to different companies.

The rest is closer than the marketing suggests. Both platforms collect new hire paperwork with e-signature, both store documents, and both broker health insurance without an administration fee. If your shortlist came down to onboarding quality, you are unlikely to be disappointed by either.

Both platforms reviewed

Below is the honest version of each product: what it is built around, what it does better than the other, and where it will annoy you.

Gusto is a payroll company that grew a wider platform around the pay run, and the breadth shows. Time tracking, scheduling, hiring tools, and workforce cost reporting all live inside the product rather than in a partner integration, which means an hourly business can run clock-in, approvals, and payroll from one login. That is a real operational advantage over a payroll engine that hands the hours problem to somebody else.

Direct deposit is the other place Gusto is measurably ahead, though with a caveat worth reading before you budget. Gusto states that direct deposit itself is free on any of its plans and that it offers both two-day and next-day pay schedules. On the pricing page, however, next-day pay is listed among the payroll add-ons rather than as a plan feature, and Gusto publishes no price for it. Treat two days as the standard you can count on and next-day as something to get quoted. Even at two days, holding funds a shorter time before a pay run is not a luxury feature, it is working capital, and it gives you a wider margin when a payroll run gets approved late.

The frustration is the tier structure. Two of the features a growing small business most predictably needs, multi-state payroll and time tracking, sit behind the same upgrade, and the upgrade doubles the per-person rate rather than adding a modest module fee. A company that hires one remote worker and wants a time clock pays $12 per person instead of $6, whether or not it uses anything else Plus contains.

OnPay sells one payroll plan and puts an unusual amount inside it. Multi-state payroll, W-2 and 1099 year-end filings, state new hire reporting, employee self-onboarding with e-signed I-9 and W-4 forms, document storage, a custom report designer with more than 50 reporting fields, and benefits administration through in-house licensed agents all sit at $49 plus $6. Setup and data migration are done by the vendor at no charge, and OnPay states it charges no implementation or integration fees.

The vertical coverage is the underrated part. OnPay publishes dedicated handling for restaurants, farms and agriculture, nonprofits, dental practices, and religious organizations, and those sectors carry payroll rules that generic software handles awkwardly. Tip credits, agricultural filings, and clergy tax treatment each ask the payroll engine to behave unusually, and a vendor that names the vertical is more likely to have built it than one that does not. If you run a restaurant payroll or a nonprofit payroll, that matters more than interface polish.

The two real gaps are time and speed. There is no native time clock, so an hourly workforce needs a third-party tool synced in, which is a second subscription and a second vendor relationship. And OnPay publishes a maximum four-day direct deposit turnaround, against a two-day standard on the other side of this comparison. Four days is not a problem until the week you approve payroll late, and then it is the only thing that matters.

Where each one is genuinely stronger

Strip out the marketing and each product has two or three things it does measurably better. Everything else is close enough that it should not decide a purchase.

Where Gusto wins

Time and money movement. Time tracking, scheduling, and hours approval live inside the platform on Plus, which removes an integration and a second bill for any business with hourly staff. And the published two-day deposit schedule gives you float that a four-day cycle does not, with direct deposit itself free on every plan including the entry one.

The third advantage is optionality. Three tiers plus a contractor-only plan means the platform has somewhere to go as the company changes shape. A business that starts with five contractors, hires its first W-2 employee, then opens in a second state can stay on one vendor through all three transitions, paying more each time but never migrating.

Where OnPay wins

Predictability and coverage. One plan at one price with multi-state payroll, year-end filings, benefits brokerage, and onboarding inside it means the invoice does not change when the business does. There is no upgrade conversation, no feature you discover is one tier up, and no per-state surcharge. For a founder who wants payroll to be a settled line item rather than a recurring decision, that is worth real money.

The second advantage is vertical depth. Restaurants, farms, churches, and dental practices are named on the vendor site with dedicated handling, and payroll in those sectors is where generic software quietly gets things wrong. The third is migration: free setup and data migration performed by the vendor removes the single biggest reason small businesses stay on a payroll provider they dislike.

How to choose between them

Five questions settle this comparison faster than any feature matrix. Answer them honestly about the next 18 months rather than about today.

One thing sits outside the software choice entirely. Whichever vendor files your returns, the IRS holds the employer ultimately responsible for withheld income tax and both halves of Social Security and Medicare tax. The deposit and reporting rules do not soften because a vendor pressed the button, so reconcile your quarterly payroll tax filings against your own register either way.

The same goes for records. The Department of Labor requires three years of payroll records and two years of the time cards and wage tables behind them, and neither platform relieves you of producing those on request. For broader context on choosing systems, SHRM treats platform selection as one of the higher-leverage operational decisions a growing small business makes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Gusto or OnPay cheaper?

At the entry price they are identical: $49 per month plus $6 per person on both, which is $109 at 10 people and $349 at 50. The gap opens when you need something Gusto Simple does not carry. Multi-state payroll sits on Plus at $80 plus $12, which is $380 at 25 people against $199 for OnPay. It runs the other way for hourly teams, where OnPay needs a separate time tracking subscription.

How much does OnPay cost per month?

One plan, Payroll Essentials, at $49 per month plus $6 per worker, advertised as starting at $55 because that is the base fee plus one worker. It covers full-service payroll for W-2 and 1099 workers, tax filing, multi-state payroll, unlimited pay runs, year-end filings, self-onboarding, and benefits administration. Three add-ons sit outside it: HR at $15 plus $2 per worker, Compliance Resources at $10, and Live HR Support at $75.

How much does Gusto cost per month?

Simple is $49 per month plus $6 per person, Plus is $80 plus $12, and Premium is $180 plus $22. A business paying only independent contractors can use Contractor Only at $35 plus $6 each, currently promoted with the base fee waived for six months. Outside the plan price, priority support on Simple is $30 plus $3 per person, keeping your own insurance broker is $6 per eligible employee, and HSA and FSA accounts carry a $200 annual service charge.

Does OnPay charge extra for multi-state payroll?

No. OnPay includes paying workers in as many states as you need at the base rate, with no per-state fee and no tier to upgrade to. Gusto also charges no per-state fee, but restricts multi-state payroll to Plus and Premium, so the cost of a second state is the upgrade itself. That takes a 25-person company from $199 a month to $380, triggered by one remote hire.

Does OnPay have time tracking?

No, not natively. OnPay syncs with third-party time tracking tools rather than shipping a clock of its own, and its paid HR add-on covers PTO approvals rather than hours worked. Gusto builds time tracking into the Plus and Premium plans. For a salaried team this changes nothing. For an hourly team it means the real OnPay cost is the subscription plus whatever a time tracking tool charges per user.

Which is better for a restaurant, a farm, or a church?

OnPay is the stronger default, because it publishes dedicated setups for restaurants, farms and agriculture, nonprofits, dental practices, and religious organizations. Tip credits, agricultural filings, and clergy tax treatment each ask the payroll engine to behave unusually. Gusto serves those sectors too and is a reasonable choice, but its published strengths sit in hiring, time tracking, and employee experience instead.

Do Gusto and OnPay both include benefits administration?

Yes. Both act as licensed brokers and fold benefits administration into the subscription with no separate admin fee. OnPay uses in-house licensed agents and offers 401(k) through named partners Vestwell and Betterment, with pay-as-you-go workers compensation through an integrated partner it does not name. Gusto brokers health, dental, and vision itself, and charges $6 per eligible employee per month if you want to keep an outside broker, waived on Premium. Insurance premiums are separate from the software fee on both.

Does using Gusto or OnPay make them responsible for my payroll taxes?

No. The IRS holds the employer ultimately responsible for income tax withheld from wages and for both the employer and employee portions of Social Security and Medicare tax, even when a third party calculates, files, and deposits on your behalf. Neither vendor claims otherwise. Keep every agency notice, read it, and reconcile your quarterly returns against your own payroll register regardless of who filed them.