HR and payroll software · Comparison
Gusto vs Deel vs Justworks: Gusto and Deel 6.3, Justworks 5.6; 10 employees cost $109 to $220
We read the pricing, security, legal, help center and developer pages of three payroll services on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 10 employees cost, who each can pay, which HR tools come with the plan, and who should pick which.
On this page9 sections
On six indicators read from each vendor's public pages, Gusto and Deel both score 6.3 out of 10 and Justworks scores 5.6. For our reference scenario, 10 employees on US payroll in one state, billed monthly, Gusto Simple comes to $109 a month, Justworks Payroll to $130 and Deel's HR and US payroll bundle to $220. Gusto stands out for published, month-to-month pricing and HR basics on its entry plan; Deel for paying people abroad, with list prices for contractors and an employer of record, and SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 on its pages; Justworks for multi-state payroll at its entry price and a priced PEO path.
Gusto and Deel are in the Good band and Justworks in the Fair band. The scores measure what the public pages commit to, not how well each payroll run goes, and we did not sign up for any of them.
At a glance
| Gusto | Deel | Justworks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Full-service US payroll with HR basics, month to month | US and global payroll, contractors, EOR and a US PEO on one platform | Low-cost multi-state payroll with a PEO path |
| Free option | Free account until the first payroll | Demo only | None stated |
| Reference scenario (10 employees, one state) | $109 on Simple, computed | $220 on HR + US Payroll Core, computed | $130 on Payroll, computed |
| Multi-state payroll | Plus ($80 + $12 per person) | Included | Included |
| Contractors abroad | 120+ countries, per-payment fee | $49 per contractor a month | $39 per paid contractor |
| Employer of record | None listed | $599 per employee | $599 per employee, PEO plans only |
| PEO | None listed | $110 to $125 per employee | $79 or $109 per employee |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2, type not stated | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Score (public pages) | 6.3 Good | 6.3 Good | 5.6 Fair |
What the public pages show
Gusto sells three plans, each a monthly base fee plus a price per person: Simple at $49 + $6 (payroll in one state), Plus at $80 + $12 (multi-state payroll, time tracking, performance reviews) and Premium at $180 + $22. Every plan files and pays federal, state and local payroll taxes, pays US contractors and administers health insurance brokered by Gusto with no admin fee. The FAQ says plans are month to month.
Deel lists US payroll at $29 per employee, or $22 in its Core bundle with Deel HR, which adds time off, time and attendance and documents. Contractors cost $49 a month each and an employer of record $599 per employee, so a company that hires abroad stays on one platform. Its help center says payroll activation ends with a quote reviewed with sales.
Justworks sells Payroll at $50 a month plus $8 per employee, with multi-state payroll, tax filings, onboarding and PTO, and two PEO plans that co-employ your staff: PEO Basic at $79 and PEO Plus at $109 per employee. Its live pricing page did not load for us, so these prices come from the newest Internet Archive copy, dated May 21, 2026.
Strengths and things to know
Gusto. Strengths: every price on the page and month-to-month terms; the lowest 10-employee price of the three; time off, offer letters with e-signature and benefits administration on Simple; payroll records exportable as CSV or Excel. Things to know: Simple covers one state; no employer-of-record or PEO plan is listed; the security page names SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports without the type; state tax registration and 401(k) are priced case by case.
Deel. Strengths: US payroll, contractors abroad, an employer of record and a US PEO with list prices on one platform; SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 stated; reports export as CSV, PDF or Excel. Things to know: no free plan or trial; activation goes through a quote with sales; the pricing page gives three different US PEO prices ($110, $120 and $125) and two EOR country counts (130+ and 150+).
Justworks. Strengths: multi-state payroll, W-2 and 1099 filings at the entry price; published PEO prices with no base fee; mandatory multi-factor sign-in; listed add-on prices. Things to know: the pages we read state no SOC 2 report and document no public REST API; the employer of record needs a PEO plan; performance reviews come through integrations; the pricing page we could read is from May 2026.
Pricing reality
Reference scenario: 10 W-2 employees on US payroll in one state, on the cheapest plan that files and pays payroll taxes for you, billed monthly, at US list prices before tax, without benefits premiums, insurance or add-ons.
| Service | Plan | Monthly cost | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto | Simple | $109 | Computed: $49 base + $6 × 10 |
| Justworks | Payroll | $130 | Computed: $50 base + $8 × 10 (prices from the May 21, 2026 archive copy) |
| Deel | Deel HR + Deel Payroll — US, Core | $220 | Computed: $22 × 10; Deel Payroll alone would be $29 × 10 = $290 |
The plan you need moves the number more than the entry price. A second state costs nothing extra on Justworks or Deel but moves Gusto to Plus: $80 + $12 × 10 = $200 a month (computed). Performance reviews are on Gusto Plus ($200) and Deel's Advanced bundle ($39 × 10 = $390); Justworks lists performance management integrations on its PEO plans, not a built-in tool. Hiring one employee abroad through an employer of record adds $599 a month on Deel; on Justworks it needs a PEO plan first, for example PEO Basic at $79 × 10 = $790 plus $599 (computed).
How we scored them
Every product in this category is scored on the same six indicators, read from the vendor's own pricing, security, legal, help center and developer pages, with fixed formulas. The overall score is the plain mean. Our methodology page explains how these scores work.
| Indicator | Gusto | Deel | Justworks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing clarity | 6 | 4 | 7 |
| Free plan and trial | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Price for 10 employees | 7.4 | 5.1 | 6.8 |
| Who you can pay | 5.5 | 9.4 | 8.6 |
| HR tools | 9.2 | 9.2 | 8 |
| Security, API and data export | 7 | 10 | 3 |
| Overall | 6.3 | 6.3 | 5.6 |
Gusto's lead on price and its free setup balance Deel's lead on international hiring and security; they finish level. Deel's pricing clarity is lower because activation goes through sales and several cards on its pricing page disagree. Justworks scores well on who it can pay and on price, and its overall score comes down mostly from the security indicator, where its pages state no SOC 2 report and no public API.
Also in this category
Rippling scores 3.3: the broadest platform and compliance file we read (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, 27018 and 42001), with HR, payroll, IT and finance on one employee record, but every product is priced by custom quote, so our scenario cannot be priced. BambooHR scores 3.6: a full HR system with published plan prices (a flat $250 a month for Core up to 25 employees) and a free trial without a card, while payroll, benefits administration and time tracking are add-ons priced by quote.
Who should choose which
- Choose Gusto if you pay a small US team in one state and want published, month-to-month pricing with HR basics included. Look elsewhere if you need multi-state payroll at the Simple price or plan to hire employees abroad.
- Choose Deel if you pay people in the US and abroad and want list prices for contractors and an employer of record, with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. Look elsewhere if you want to sign up without a call with sales or want the lowest US-only price.
- Choose Justworks if you run payroll in more than one state on a small budget and may want a PEO with group benefits later. Look elsewhere if your security review needs a SOC 2 report or an API.
Bottom line
From public pages alone, Gusto and Deel finish level at 6.3: Gusto with the lowest price and the clearest terms for a US team, Deel with the widest reach abroad and the strongest security file of the three. Justworks, at 5.6, offers multi-state payroll for $130 a month for 10 employees and a priced PEO, but its pages say little about audits. For all three, price the plan that covers your states, your contractors and any hires abroad, not the entry plan.
How we checked
We read the vendors' pricing pages and plan data, security and trust pages, legal terms, help center articles and developer docs on Oct 16, 2026. gusto.com returned errors to our requests, so we read Internet Archive copies (the pricing page as of Oct 9, 2026). justworks.com answered with a bot check, so its prices come from the newest Internet Archive copy of the pricing page, dated May 21, 2026, and its help center articles from the help center's public article API. Deel's prices are filled in by script; we read the plan data embedded in its pricing page. We did not sign up, start a trial, request a quote or call an API. Facts the pages did not state, such as Justworks' audit reports, are left out rather than guessed. Every figure is on the vendors' pages as of those dates or, where marked, computed from them.
