# Check vs Gusto (slim)

> Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Gusto's 63.3 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Gusto leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do payroll run. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-gusto.md (~2,000 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-gusto.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/check-payroll-vs-gusto
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

Check scores 67.5 (B) on agent readiness against Gusto's 63.3 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Gusto leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do payroll run.

- Check: B 67.5, rank #193 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/check-payroll.min.md
- Gusto: B 63.3, rank #283 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gusto.min.md
- Check, good for A software platform that wants to sell US payroll inside its own product and can sign a partnership, with Check handling tax calculation, money movement and filings. Ahead on Reliability, 80 against 58; Security & auth, 74 against 60. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- Gusto, good for A software platform that wants to run US payroll for its own customers and can pass Gusto's partner reviews. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 86 against 78; Payments & pricing, 15 against 5.

| Category | Check | Gusto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 80 | 58 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 78 | 86 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 83 | 82 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 74 | 60 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 5 | 15 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 72 | 76 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 62 | 61 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Check | Gusto |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Check Technologies, Inc. | Gusto, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.checkhq.com` | no (local only) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Check's terms of service and partner agreement. The MCP server and CLI on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under Gusto's API Policy and Developer Terms of Service. The API clients on GitHub are MIT, and the React SDK and the Gusto CLI are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | 2021-09-03 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-04-18 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 18 stars | 2 stars, 25k npm/wk |