PAYROLL & HR SOFTWARE · MIGRATION GUIDE

Switching from Gusto to Rippling

Rippling says it picks up payroll where your previous provider left off, including mid-year, and imports your year-to-date payroll. The work on your side is getting the right reports out of Gusto and the timing right.

Jump to migration steps Read the full comparison

By Bill Belcamino · Last updated September 17, 2026 · Our methodologyResearched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team

Switching from Gusto to RipplingVerified Sep 17, 2026

Quick verdict: You do not have to wait for year end. Rippling says its team imports and analyses your year-to-date payroll so quarterly and annual taxes are filed accurately. Your job is to export complete payroll history from Gusto, agree a first Rippling pay date, and settle which modules you are buying — Rippling prices the required core platform plus each product by quote.

Current Contact / Record Count 25,000

Active User Seats 10

Estimate assumes: 1 hour of data-mapping/cleaning labor per 2,000 records, a blended $75/hr ops rate, tiered migration & cleaning tooling fees, and 4 hours of retraining per seat at a $45/hr fully-loaded rate.

Estimated Migration Time —

Data Friction Rating —

Total Hidden Switching Cost $0

Why teams move from Gusto to Rippling

One platform for HR, IT and finance

Rippling combines payroll and HR with identity and device management, expenses, cards and bill pay on one employee record.

International teams

Rippling offers global payroll and employer-of-record services.

Modular buying

Beyond the required core platform, you buy only the products you need.

How the migration actually works

Payroll switches are about tax continuity. Get the data and the dates right and the rest follows.

Step	What you do
1Get a quote for your modules	Rippling prices the required core platform plus each product by quote. Confirm exactly what you are buying.
2Pick your first Rippling pay date	Agree the last Gusto payroll and the first Rippling payroll so no pay run is missed or doubled.
3Export payroll history from Gusto	Download year-to-date payroll registers, tax filings and payment records, plus employee and contractor details.
4Hand over year-to-date data	Rippling’s team imports and analyses your year-to-date payroll so quarterly and annual filings stay accurate.
5Re-create benefits, deductions and time tracking	Set up benefits, deductions and time-tracking rules in Rippling and check them against Gusto.
6Run a parallel check	Compare the first Rippling payroll against the equivalent Gusto run before closing the Gusto account.

What this path doesn’t do for you:

Neither vendor publishes what a Rippling migration costs, because Rippling prices by quote. Year-end forms must be filed by only one provider, so confirm with both which company files W-2s for the year you switch.

Pricing side by side

Plan	Gusto	Rippling
Free	No, free account setup	No
Entry paid	Simple — $49/mo + $6/person	Core platform + products, by quote
Mid	Plus — $80/mo + $12/person	By quote
Top	Premium — $180/mo + $22/person	By quote

Gusto prices from gusto.com/product/pricing; Rippling does not publish prices. Checked September 17, 2026.

Feature parity check

Capability	Gusto	Rippling
Published pricing	Yes	No, quote only
Contracts	None	Not published
Mid-year switch	Supported	Supported, with year-to-date import
Global payroll / EOR	Global contractor payments add-on	Yes
IT and device management	No	Yes

Going the other direction, or want the full comparison first?

Read the Gusto vs Rippling comparison Switching from Rippling to Gusto instead?

Verified data

Security & access: what changes when you switch

Security, offline and access rules that differ between Gusto and Rippling. Rows where both tools are the same (1) are left out; the full side-by-side is on each tool’s page: Gusto, Rippling.

What changes	Gusto (today)	Rippling (after)
SOC 2 report	SOC 2 reportType not stated by vendorsource	SOC 2 Type IIsource
ISO/IEC 27001	Not published	Certifiedsource
Other certifications	Not published	SOC 1 Type II, SOC 3, CSA STAR Level 2, ISO/IEC 27018, ISO/IEC 42001source
HIPAA (BAA)	BAA availableFor benefits and health-insurance datasource	Not published
Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC)	Nosource	Not published
Two-factor authentication	YesEnforcement: Primary admin setting; applies to admins only (plan not stated)source	Not published
Admin audit log	Not published	Yessource
Data residency choices	US onlysource	Not published
Encryption	AES-256 at rest (AWS); TLS 1.2 in transitsource	AES at rest; 256-bit TLS in transitsource
Offline mode	Not documented	PartialOnly the Rippling time Kiosk works offline: employees can clock in and out, switch jobs, take breaks and capture photos without a connection.source
Device & session controls	Not published	YesRippling IT device management (Apple and Windows MDM): remote lock and wipe, custom security policies, automated device offboarding.source
Office & room hardware	Time Kiosk turns any internet-connected tablet or computer into a shared clock-in station (Plus, Premium, or Time & Attendance Plus Simple add-on).source	Rippling Time & Attendance runs a Kiosk for shared clock-in and out, and the Kiosk has an offline mode.source

Editorial assessment

Before you cut over

Rippling adds offline access (partial): install the mobile app for staff who work on the move.
Gusto offers a HIPAA BAA; we found none for Rippling. Don’t move protected health information until that is settled.

Checked September 19, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I switch from Gusto to Rippling mid-year?

Yes. Rippling says it picks up payroll where your previous provider left off and imports your year-to-date payroll.

How much will Rippling cost?

Rippling does not publish prices. You need a quote for the core platform plus each product you choose.

What should I export from Gusto?

Year-to-date payroll registers, tax filings and payments, and employee and contractor details.

Who files the W-2s?

Only one provider should file year-end forms for the year. Confirm the handover with both Gusto and Rippling.

Canonical data for the tools on this page

Every pricing fact, rating, AI billing model and switching guide we hold on each tool, on one page, with the date each figure was last verified.

GustoPricing, free plan, AI cost & every comparison›

RipplingPricing, free plan, AI cost & every comparison›

Gusto vs RipplingHead-to-head comparison OnPay vs GustoHead-to-head comparison OnPay vs RipplingHead-to-head comparison

Rippling to GustoSwitching guide Gusto to OnPaySwitching guide OnPay to GustoSwitching guide OnPay to RipplingSwitching guide Rippling to OnPaySwitching guide

Sources

Prices on this page were recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown at the top of the page. Vendors change pricing often — check the live source before you buy.

Gusto pricing (gusto.com)
Rippling pricing (rippling.com)

Every figure is also in our open dataset (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0), with its source page and verification date. See how we research pricing.

Source links on this site are checked every month; last check October 4, 2026. How sources are checked.

Bill Belcamino

Founder and author, HelpCompare

Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

“I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 17, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.

Browse by category

Recently verified

Recently updated switching guides

What every guide covers

Open data

Pricing data

Original research

Security & compliance

Where your team works

Side by side

Switching from Gusto to Rippling

Switching Cost & Friction Estimator