Comparison

ADP vs Gusto

ADP and Gusto both land on Depends.

ADP

Depends

Confidence: Medium

Buy if you have 1-49 employees and want payroll, tax filing, and compliance fully handled, especially multi-state.

Depends

Confidence: High

Gusto is a well-rated, all-in-one payroll/HR pick for US small businesses that want payroll, benefits, and HR bundled.

ADP versus Gusto
Compare	ADP	Gusto
Verdict	Depends	Depends
Best for	1-49 employee businesses	US small businesses
Who it's not for	Solo founders . the onboarding overhead outweighs the value	Multinational teams needing multi-country payroll
Privacy	Formal security program with public alert pages; 2023 MOVEit exposure and a 2025 partner breach affected customer data.¹¹	No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed; UpGuard rates Gusto A (87), but customers have reported payroll account takeover fraud.
Support quality	Yelp and BBB cite unreachable support	BBB complaints alongside strong praise
Public sentiment	Reviews split sharply: G2 ratings are strong, but Reddit, Yelp, and BBB threads flag support frustration and pricing opacity.^¹	Polarized: G2 users rate Gusto 4.6/5 and rank it #1 for small-business satisfaction, while Reddit payroll pros report cost and service complaints.
Biggest gotcha	Real per-employee rates come via sales quote; vary by state, pay frequency, and add-ons.^⁶	Account takeover fraud reported; lock down your payroll account with extra security