Gusto

Gusto is what most small US companies should use for payroll. It is the first payroll product that made running payroll feel like sending an email rather than filing a tax return, and that tone has held up. Full-service payroll in all 50 states, automatic tax filings, contractor payments, direct deposit, and a clean self-service portal are all included on the entry tier. For a five to fifty person team, it is almost impossible to get wrong.

The HR layer is competent rather than best-in-class. You get offer letters, onboarding checklists, time tracking, PTO policies, and document storage on the Plus plan. For companies under 50 people it is genuinely enough HRIS to delay buying BambooHR. Health benefits are brokered by Gusto in most US states, which sounds small, but saves founders dozens of hours during open enrolment.

There are catches. Support is the weakest part response times creep up during peak payroll weeks, and you will sometimes get a generic answer when you need a specific one. The international contractor payments work, but if you have international employees (not contractors), Gusto pushes you into their Global product or a partner, and the experience is clunkier than Rippling's or Deel's.

Above 50 employees, the limits start to show. Reporting is thin, approval workflows are basic, and any company with real HR process needs will end up layering on BambooHR or moving to Rippling. But at the small-business scale Gusto was built for, it is hard to find a payroll product that does the job with less friction.