Gusto Reviews 2,413

Cancelation policy. When you cancel this terrible service, not only is it an impossible interface, they will ALSO charge you an extra month. I canceled on the 5th. They said because I didn't cancel between the 1st and 5th, they need to charge an additional month. Yes, you read that correctly (the 5th doesn't count). Plus you need to call them. WORST platform, ever.

Gusto is the worst company I have ever worked with. Their application doesn't work, customer service is non existent and they will continue to charge you after canceling. I canceled. Then a year later they started charging me again.

I signed up with Gusto 2 years ago, when they marketed themselves as "cannabis industry friendly." The ease of the platform is great compaired to previously using Enjoy Wurk which is overly complicated but their customer service is absolutely horrible and just today I received an email that starting next month we would be charged an additional $18 per employee & contractor, per month. That's thousands of dollars and they tell us that the charges will be effective next month or they give us the link to cancel our account. We aren't even a cannabis license. We only teach online education which we practically give away. We are switching to Paragon which is MUCH more cannabis industry user friendly (even lets you know when agent cards expire). Gusto was a great platform.... not anymore.

I cannot recommend this company given how horrible the support experience has been.

For context, we converted our entity type from an LLC to a C-corp on Jan 1 this year. Gusto assured us they could handle this process no problem and provided some instructions to set up a new account. For the first few days they were responsive and helpful, but then they completely ghosted us in the middle of the migration. Their support has been completely unreachable for almost 2 months now. Phone support never calls you, email support never responds, and chat support always shows "No agents available, try again later".

We now have two active Gusto accounts, and all of our benefits are locked into the old account, so our employees can't contribute to their 401k and we can't offer additional health benefits that we promised new hires. This is creating a compliance nightmare for us.

We plan to migrate to Rippling if we can't get a response soon.

I wish I had visited these reviews before signing on with Gusto. The overall sentiment here is spot on. The platform itself is fine. The issue is their customer service. They were remarkable unhelpful in a situation where they could have easily done the right thing. Rather than fix the issue on their side, they offered temporary pricing adjustment and advised that I call back in every 3 months to see if they can extend the pricing adjustment. Absolutely not doing that. I'll be moving off their platform ASAP.

Aymen is an outstanding customer service agent at Gusto super knowledgeable, patient, and genuinely helpful and she resolved my concern on getting logged in quickly with clear explanations and a friendly attitude that made the whole interaction feel easy and stress-free! 5/5 stars, highly recommend

I am filing this complaint against Gusto for false advertising and repeated failure to provide payroll services as advertised.

Gusto clearly states on its website that direct deposits are processed and available before 5:00 PM local time on payday. However, this has repeatedly not been the case. Once again, it is after 5:00 PM local time on payday and there are NO direct deposits released.

This is not an isolated event. This happens every single payday. Despite advertising timely payroll processing — and even promoting “early pay” features — Gusto consistently fails to release payroll within the timeframe it publicly promises.

Payroll timing is critical. Employees rely on payday funds for rent, mortgage payments, utilities, and automatic withdrawals. When a payroll provider advertises a specific deposit deadline and repeatedly fails to meet it, that constitutes misleading representation of its services.

Other payroll providers routinely release deposits early in the day on payday. Gusto, by contrast, consistently delays payroll beyond the stated 5:00 PM local time commitment.

Resolution Requested:

A full refund of payroll processing fees for the affected pay periods due to failure to deliver services as advertised.

A written explanation for why payroll is consistently not released before 5:00 PM local time as advertised.

Immediate corrective action to ensure payroll is released on time going forward.

If Gusto cannot reliably meet its advertised processing standards, correction of its public advertising to accurately reflect actual performance.

I am paying for a service that is not being delivered as promised. I expect either compliance with the advertised standards or a refund of fees for failure to perform.

Unacceptable Data Retention Policy — 1 Star

After canceling my Gusto account, I attempted to remove my banking information from their platform. To my surprise, Gusto's policy allows them to retain your banking details even after you've closed your account and are no longer using their services.

As a former customer, I have no ongoing relationship with Gusto, yet they insist on holding onto sensitive financial information I never consented to keep on file post-cancellation. This feels like a serious violation of consumer trust.

My issues with this policy:

No opt-out: There is no way to delete your own banking information upon account closure.
Lack of transparency: This policy is buried and not made clear during the cancellation process.
Unnecessary risk: Retaining sensitive data for inactive accounts creates unnecessary exposure in the event of a data breach.

Businesses should only hold onto sensitive financial data for as long as there is an active customer relationship. Keeping it beyond that — without a clear legal obligation or the customer's explicit consent — is, in my opinion, unreasonable and should be revisited by regulators.
I would caution anyone considering Gusto to

I've never had so many issues with a HR/payroll provider. When signing up for benefits, all of my information was input correctly (I double checked!). But when I received my health insurance cards my birthdate was incorrect as well as my daughters name. Both of these issues did not allow for me to use the insurance. The birthdate issue was resolved in about a week but the incorrect name has yet to be resolved and that has now been over a week.

The customer service with Gusto is awful. We have used them for several years, and are most likely going to be switching to another payroll/HR software later this year. Several times, Gusto's Benefits team has enrolled our employees in the wrong insurance plans, causing employees to not have correct coverage or access to their medical benefits for 6+ months. Whenever you chat with their team regarding a benefits issue, they refuse to escalate, lie about sending follow up emails, and refuse to take any effort to resolve issues.

Furthermore, if you want to advocate for your employees and call the insurance companies yourself to correct issues, Gusto will threaten you by claiming you are "break the contract" with them being your benefits provider.

Their systems seem nice and user friendly, but they're not flexible enough. Their time tracking isn't great. They also are always updating the user interface for some reason, causing issues with running payroll or knowing where things are.

Absolute garbage company. They were fine at first—reasonable onboarding, not too complicated to use—but AS SOON as I had to interact with their support team, everything started to go down hill. They try to use AI to help you first—that's fine—but their automated system when you email them, even in direct reply to a human, ALWAYS creates a new ticket and gives another AI response. I kept replying and replying, trying to get attention, but it was like yelling into a void.

From the messages I did receive, I have been lied to over and over and over again about things that they were going to do for me. I accidentally created a duplicate Non-Gusto Payroll. I immediately asked for it to be removed. Instead, it was left there until the W-2 was drafted. I noticed it in the draft, and asked the it be removed. They said it would be, but instead it was filed. I asked for them to create a W-2C to reconcile this. They said they would, but it would take about two weeks to do so. I wasn't happy it would take so long, but it wouldn't disrupt my filing timeline, so it was okay. Two weeks later I noticed the draft hadn't even appeared in my account. (at this point I realized I could tell the AI chat bot "human" and it would give me access to a human support chat) They said sorry for the mistake and after telling me they "file every Monday," I requested they file the same day, due to the circumstances of their error. They agreed, telling me they would file a new W-2C correcting everything "manually" within the day and that I would receive a refund for the taxes owed (since it was doubled) in "7-10 days." I was happy at this point… but later that day I saw the LACK of a W-2C draft, so I called just to check in on it. After waiting 30 minutes on hold just to be transferred from person to person to person to find the right person that could help me, I found out the six to eight different agents I had previously talked to were all LYING to me—and if not lying by admission, lying by omission—just to make me feel better. Apparently, my situation was way worse than I had even feared. Instead of that originally two weeks that I was told, the new W-2C would only be created after the errored W-2C (that should have been corrected before being sent out) filing was completed the following Monday. Only then would the filing be complete two weeks after that, because they only file every OTHER Monday, rather than the "every Monday" I was told. She said very explicitly that they cannot file "manually." She also said that the refund process would not even start until after the W-2C was filed, saying it would be "4-8 weeks" from now that I would receive the refund. I was quite distraught by this, and because I was still trusting them up until this point, I did not think to record the call. I politely asked if she would send me the recording of the call that they would have. She said she would try, but if she couldn't she would send me articles referring to the details we talked about. It's been almost 24 hours and she still has not sent anything (based on this companies track record, I don't expect anything at this point, but I suppose it's possible).

Later the same day, my wife and I called to talk with a supervisor, recording the call, so we could just make sure we had all of the right details and confirm whether anything, anything at all, could be done—since, at this point, deadlines that would had would be missed. The first woman we talked to made it very clear that she did not like my wife, as my wife explained the urgency of talking with a supervisor given our circumstances. We waited on hold for many minutes before finally being connected with a supervisor. The supervisor said that the Gusto department we needed to talk to only works over email. Seeing how our email and chat experiences had gone, we made it clear we really wanted to keep it on the phone, for faster, and more clear communication. She said she would communicate with them and get all of the details we need, calling us as soon as she heard back. I never got a call back, but at least I was emailed an updated W-2C draft. The agent said, "You should be able to see this updated version reflected on your end in the Gusto portal by next week." I asked for the expected filing completion timeline. The agent said, "5 to 10 business days" and mentioned "slight delays" due to SSA, but said "I will let you know when the filing is fully completed!" I asked for confirmation on timeline start and asked if my case would be prioritized. She said "…when the form’s status updates to 'filing in progress'…we hope to have it fully completed by March 10 (or earlier)…we are absolutely ensuring this moves through our system as quickly as possible…[I] will notify you the moment the SSA approves it." I never heard back from anyone after this point, but I was refunded the money withdrawn for taxes.

I appreciate how simple this company is and how it makes it easy for a business owners no matter who you are to be able to do business correctly I use this company and it has helped me to stay compliant and to learn how to do business intentionally.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY: They scam hardworking new buisnesses out of money saying that they are properly filing taxes when instead they are only withholding the bar minimum causing company loss at the end of the year.

The w-4 was never seen or signed, and yet they are using that as the basis for their irregular minimal filing excuse.

First time took up to 6 days, second time took even longer more than 8 days, how is that possible?

Gusto boasts about being easy and user friendly, but they aren’t either of those things. I signed up for their “easy save account” it’s been more than a month of haggling to get the money I ALREADY EARNED, unless I pay their fee. They have an “issue” with my bank when it comes to paying out this money AND will not just transfer that money to the exact same account the rest of the paycheck is deposited How is this easier? Call my bank? You had one job Gusto!

We chose Gusto because of the price point, the simplicity of the system, and the promise of an easy-to-manage payroll and compliance platform. On the surface, it appears streamlined and cost-effective.

Unfortunately, when issues arise, that simplicity quickly becomes a liability.

Customer service is extremely limited and largely generic. When we experienced glitches within their payroll system that affected a payroll run — including a significant deduction error — there was no meaningful investigation or ownership of the problem. Instead, we were directed to call during limited weekday hours, regardless of urgency. For something as critical as payroll, that level of support is unacceptable.

This is not the first issue we’ve encountered where support was minimal and accountability was lacking.

The lower price point ends up being misleading. While the software may appear affordable, the time spent double-checking payroll, reworking items, and correcting system-related errors eliminates any savings. In reality, the added administrative burden and risk exposure can make it more expensive than providers who charge more but actually stand behind their platform with responsive service.

If payroll accuracy, reliability, and real customer support matter to your business, I would strongly recommend carefully evaluating alternatives before choosing Gusto.

We had a major issue with Gusto after updating our business bank account. Gusto failed to debit the new account, even though the account information was confirmed as correct by their support team. As a result, payroll was blocked and our account was downgraded from 2-day to 4-day processing.

What’s most frustrating is that customer service offered no meaningful help, refused to escalate the issue, and stated that a supervisor would “say the same thing.” We were told we have to wait months for a reevaluation, even though the issue happened during a routine bank update.

They also told us a supervisor would call us the next morning, and no one ever called back.

Payroll is too critical for a business to be handled this way. The lack of transparency, inability to resolve the problem, and dismissive customer service made us lose confidence in the platform.

I would not recommend Gusto to any business that needs dependable payroll timing and responsive support.

I used Gusto for my small business. After walking through there setup for my payroll deductions, I was hit with a $XX k bill for unpaid taxes. This was the whole idea of hiring a payroll company. To take out the proper amount of taxes.

A year later, I was hit with to IRS amounts owed due to errors in filing forms 940 and 1120.
Their customer support is non existent, terrible and ambivalent.

If you want someone to make massive tax mistakes that cause years-long headaches for you with the IRS...

Someone who will make it impossible to get someone who can actually understand the problem and fix it...

And instead, repeatedly tell you to just fix it yourself (when it is impossible for you to fix yourself, because it has to be fixed on their end)

....Then Gusto is the company for you!

I was charged a monthly subscription fee even though I never knowingly activated the account and never used the service.

No payroll was run, no employees were onboarded, and no tax filings were submitted. When I attempted to close the account, I was informed that I could not do so myself and had to contact support to request closure.

This was frustrating and time-consuming, especially since charges were applied despite zero usage. Billing transparency and clearer confirmation before activating paid subscriptions would greatly improve the experience.