What is the difference between Gusto and Workday?

Gusto is best for Small US businesses wanting easy payroll and benefits, while Workday is best for Large enterprises needing unified HR and finance management. Gusto starts at $40/mo + $6/person and Workday starts at Custom pricing.

Is Gusto or Workday cheaper?

Gusto starts at $40/mo + $6/person. Workday starts at Custom pricing.

Gusto vs Workday

Gusto is payroll, benefits, and HR platform built for small businesses, while Workday is enterprise cloud platform for HR, finance, and planning. The biggest difference up front: Workday is free, while Gusto starts at $40/mo + $6/person. Gusto is built for small us businesses wanting easy payroll and benefits, whereas Workday targets large enterprises needing unified hr and finance management.

At a glance

	Gusto	Workday
Best for	Small US businesses wanting easy payroll and benefits	Large enterprises needing unified HR and finance management
Starting price	$40/mo + $6/person	Custom pricing
Free tier	—	—
Open source	—	—
Free tier available	—	—
Open source	—	—
Benefits	✓	✓
Financial planning	—	✓
HCM	—	✓
HR	✓	—
Payroll	✓	✓
Performance management	—	✓
Time Tracking	✓	—

Gusto

Strengths

Includes Payroll as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows
Includes Benefits as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows
Pricing starts at $40/mo + $6/person, which includes the full hr & recruiting feature set
Established product with 14+ years on the market and a mature ecosystem

Weaknesses

Starts at $40/mo + $6/person — on the expensive side, especially for small teams or solo users
Fewer built-in features means you may need additional tools to cover gaps
Ecosystem of third-party integrations is smaller than the market leaders in hr & recruiting
Limited team/admin features if your organization eventually scales up

Try Gusto → Full review

Workday

Strengths

Comprehensive HCM covering the entire employee lifecycle
Unified platform for HR and finance reduces data silos
Strong analytics and workforce planning capabilities
Regular feature updates on a single cloud platform

Weaknesses

Extremely expensive — enterprise pricing only
Implementation can take 6-12 months
Steep learning curve for administrators
Overkill for companies under 1,000 employees

Try Workday → Full review

The bottom line

Pricing: Workday is completely free, which makes it the obvious pick if budget is the top concern. Gusto starts at $40/mo + $6/person. That cost buys you a more polished or feature-rich experience, so it comes down to whether the extras justify the spend.

Feature gaps: Gusto offers HR and Time Tracking that Workday lacks. Workday brings Financial planning, HCM and Performance management that Gusto does not have. Both share Benefits and Payroll.

Where each tool shines: Gusto's biggest strengths are: includes payroll as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows. includes benefits as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows. Workday's biggest strengths are: comprehensive hcm covering the entire employee lifecycle. unified platform for hr and finance reduces data silos.

Watch out for: With Gusto, users commonly note that starts at $40/mo + $6/person — on the expensive side, especially for small teams or solo users. With Workday, the main complaint is that extremely expensive — enterprise pricing only.

Choose Gusto if...

You need a tool built for small us businesses wanting easy payroll and benefits
You specifically need HR and Time Tracking
You care about includes benefits as a core feature, purpose-built for hr & recruiting workflows

Choose Workday if...

You need a tool built for large enterprises needing unified hr and finance management
Budget is a hard constraint — Workday is free, Gusto is not
You specifically need Financial planning and HCM
You care about unified platform for hr and finance reduces data silos