Does small business payroll have to be this hard?

You guys, I really love Gusto.

It’s not the fanciest tool out there. And it’s not cutting-edge anymore.

That damned pig has been marching for over a decade at this point.

But they’re really, really good at what they do.

In that way that competence is often invisible.

Until you see how someone else does it.

I helped a client migrate from ADP Run to Gusto this week.

Run is like ADP’s sh!tty knock-off Gusto.

(They don’t like it when you call it that. A miffed ADP manager once pointed out to me that Run came out in 2008, where Gusto wasn’t founded until 2011.)

So anyway, Gusto and ADP’s sh!tty knock-off gus-d’oh look similar when you first jump in.

Similar functionality

Menus on the left

Clean, white background

Cards with a simple, sans serif font

It’s what happens when you click on those buttons that makes the difference. 

In Gusto, the experience is the same every time. 

Click a button, it does the thing. 

Like clockwork. Because behind the button, everything is automated by elegant software design that understands the rules and directs you to the right place.

In ADP’s sh!tty knock-off gus-d’oh, it’s a crapshoot.

Rather than guiding you through a series of algorithmic decisions, it’s a short road to an undertrained human doing their best to make decisions with partial information.

Because Gusto has all the processes mapped and programmed, it’s easy to flag errors.

IF 501(c)3 AND no SUI → 🟢

IF for-profit AND no SUI → 🔴 Whoops! It looks like you forgot something. Here’s a helpful Help Center article to guide you through it.

Easy. Reliable. Useful.

Because ADP’s sh!tty knock-off gus-d’oh relies on people, it looks like this:

IF client AND no SUI → Kylie in Tucson

Kylie in Tucson knows that not paying taxes is bad.

Kylie calls you on the phone.

You don’t pick up because Kylie is calling from an unknown number and anyway, you’re a busy business person and only spammers use the phone in 2026.

Maybe there’s an error or something, but you never see it because how would you? And half of those ADP warning emails are made-up anyway.

Kylie marks you as noncompliant.

ADP charges you $50/mo for not having the number.

Is this actually how the exact process works in ADP’s sh!tty knock-off gus-d’oh?

Maybe not. But it’s consistent with the errors I’ve experienced when using the “product.”

Because under that clean, white UI, Gusto’s product is software. ADP’s product is people.

And people make mistakes. 

I trust a marching pig more.

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