Mine is a small company (smaller than yours) doing billable/consulting type work.
Based on HN comments, we tried Rippling, Zenefits, and Gusto. Of the three, Gusto was the best in our assessments (most matched our desired workflows and policies). We use them for payroll & benefits, and do time tracking outside Gusto.
Sad to say, even with this, Gusto leaves a ton to be desired and the other critical comments ring true. With all these startups trying to be the unified HR/Payroll/Benefits/Timekeeping platforms, it's surprising how bad they all still are.
- Plenty of bugs in their benefits system and terrible communications about upcoming benefits deadlines, etc. For this year, our benefits options were all missing their Statements of Benefits and Coverage ("Coming soon" placeholders or somesuch) at the time open enrollment was set to end. We had to call and have them push it back multiple times. At benefits enrollment time, they generate a bunch of inapplicable forms they want employees to sign - this bugginess has been there at least two years and their answer is basically, "Yeah, that's our system. Don't worry, we won't submit inapplicable forms to the carrier, but you still need to sign them to complete enrollment."
- Poor responsiveness for e-mail help requests, and they don't do much to help you if there are problems communicating with the insurance providers for whom Gusto are the brokers.
- Tax filing issues for one of our out-of-state employees.
- Non-customizable e-mail communications. You can't stop them from blasting notifications to your employees about whatever Gusto thinks appropriate. Even if the employee wants it to stop. Also, I'm not a millennial and find their overly casual, cutesy e-mail tone with emojis and all to be quite cloying.
- Limited integrations with other 401(k) providers. Guideline is OK for a completely bare-bones, limited flexibility offering. If you want more flexibility as an employer, most other major providers are not well-integrated with Gusto.
- Their time-tracking is heavily oriented toward low-skill labor, with clocking in, clocking out, etc. It's really ill-suited for high-skilled consulting types. We have to use an outside timekeeping system.
When I have been able to get them on the phone, I am usually able to get things fixed, done, or worked-around. Pretty disappointing, but it seems like many of the companies in this space are. I can't imagine using Gusto at 15+ people. We are basically kicking the can of getting off them, but know they are not a good long-term fit.