Gusto vs Square Payroll: costs, contractors and terms

Gusto vs Square Payroll at a glance

10 employees a month

$109 vs $95Gusto Simple vs Square full-service

Contractors only

$49 base + $6 vs $6, no basePer contractor paid, per month

Exit terms

Published vs not publishedSquare's cancellation and record access not found

Payroll score

69 vs 55Gusto vs Square, out of 100

Square Payroll is the cheaper of the two at every team size we priced, and it has a contractor-only plan with no base fee. Gusto costs more but publishes the things you need when something goes wrong: penalty terms, support hours, how cancellation works and what records you keep afterwards. Square's main draw is its link to Square POS timecards, so it suits restaurants and shops already running on Square.

Vendor detail: Square Payroll pricing and Gusto's plans and add-ons.

Side-by-side: prices, add-ons, guarantee and support

Prices are from gusto.com/product/pricing and squareup.com/us/en/payroll/pricing; guarantee and terms details from each company's legal and help pages, all checked October 16, 2026. Scores follow how we score payroll providers. Square scores well on price and loses points for unpublished exit terms and support hours.

Cost for 5, 10 and 25 people

Square is $14 a month cheaper than Gusto Simple at any team size, because the per-person fee is the same $6 and only the base differs ($49 minus $35 = $14). Over a year that is 12 x $14 = $168. If you need Gusto Plus for a second state or time tracking, the gap at 10 employees grows to $200 minus $95 = $105 a month.

Small extras: Square charges $3 per form per year if you want paper W-2s or 1099s mailed, so 10 mailed W-2s add 10 x $3 = $30. Gusto's next-day pay on Simple adds $15 + $3 per person, or $15 + 10 x $3 = $45 a month for 10 people. Payroll taxes are separate and usually much larger; our employee cost calculator adds them by state, and our payroll cost guide compares every provider we price.

Restaurants, retail and tips

Square's case is strongest when you already use Square POS. Payroll pulls hours from Square timecards and imports tips, so you do not re-key them each pay period. If your team clocks in elsewhere, that advantage goes away.

Gusto does not document a Square POS link on the pages we checked. It offers time tracking on Plus and above. If you run a restaurant, check how each handles tip pooling, the tip credit in your state and how tips are reported on W-2s before you choose; our restaurant payroll guide covers those rules.

If payroll taxes are filed wrong

Both promise to pay penalties caused by their own errors, and neither names interest.

• Square: if a notice results from a Square Payroll error, Square says it will "cover any associated penalties and fines". No cap or notice deadline is stated. The payroll terms (updated March 16, 2026) exclude penalties and interest from inaccurate or incomplete information you provide.
• Gusto: Section 11 of the payroll terms reimburses "the amount of any penalties directly arising from" Gusto's failure to remit on time. You must have funded payroll on time and must tell Gusto about the notice at least 30 days before the agency's response date. Errors from your data, suspended accounts and final filings after you leave are excluded.

Choose Square Payroll if

• You run on Square POS and want timecards and tips to flow into payroll.
• You want the lowest posted price: $35 a month plus $6 per person.
• You pay contractors only, where Square's $6 per contractor with no base fee beats Gusto by $49 a month.
• Your team is in one state, since Square does not publish multi-state details.

Choose Gusto if

• You have or expect employees in more than one state, and want Gusto to register the new state accounts.
• You want published support hours, including weekend chat.
• You want written cancellation rules and continued access to past W-2s and reports after you leave.
• You want benefits, time tracking or next-day pay options in the same system.

Switching and canceling

Gusto's rules are published: cancellation is self-serve and immediate, you pay the full month if you cancel after the 5th or already ran payroll, and Gusto charges $100 federal, $100 per state and $5 per form if it files your final returns. Square's cancellation process and post-cancellation record access were not published on the pages we checked, so call Square at 1 (855) 700-6000 and ask before you leave.

1. Download every pay stub, payroll register, quarterly Form 941, state wage report and W-2 from the old system first.
2. Switch at a quarter end if you can. If you switch mid-year, load year-to-date totals so the 2026 Social Security wage base of $184,500 carries over.
3. Agree in writing who files the final quarter and who issues the year's W-2s and 1099s.
4. Keep filing state unemployment reports without a gap; a missed quarter can raise your rate (one owner reported a jump "from 0.8% to 12.75%", Hacker News, August 2026).
5. If you move off Square POS timecards, set up time tracking in the new system before the first payroll.

For other options, see Gusto alternatives and our guide to setting up payroll.

Documented complaints

Gusto

• Tax filing errors with penalties left to the customer (October 2 and September 22, 2026).
• Hard to cancel; W-2s and reports withheld after leaving (September 17 and June 3, 2026).
• Multi-state errors after employees moved (June 10 and October 6, 2026).
• Payroll blocked for insufficient funds (September 27, 2026).

Source: Gusto on Trustpilot, 1.9 from 2,535 reviews; G2 4.6 from 13,492 (seen October 16, 2026).

Square Payroll

We could not read Square's Trustpilot page and did not research Square Payroll complaint patterns, so we list none. Square Payroll's G2 page shows 4.2 from only 31 reviews (seen October 16, 2026), too few to show a pattern. Ask other Square sellers in your industry how tax notices and corrections were handled.

Other payroll comparisons

Gusto is also compared in Gusto vs SurePayroll, OnPay vs Gusto and Gusto vs ADP. For contractor-heavy teams, see paying contractors. Every provider is ranked in our payroll software rankings.