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Head to head · Payroll run · October 2026 research run

Employment Hero Payroll vs Gusto

Gusto scores 63.3 (B) on agent readiness against Employment Hero Payroll's 50.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Employment Hero Payroll leads on reliability. Both do payroll run.

Employment Hero PayrollEmployment Hero Pty Ltd · HTTP API D50.4/100#591 of 722 GustoGusto, Inc. · HTTP API B63.3/100#314 of 722

Which one, for what

Employment Hero Payroll D

Good for An agent acting for an employer or bureau already on Employment Hero Payroll in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Singapore or Malaysia, and white label partners who create businesses through the brand endpoints.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 65 against 58

Watch for

An API key carries the whole access of the user who generated it. No per-key scopes were found

Gusto B

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 51
  • Agent ergonomics, 82 against 53
  • Security & auth, 60 against 46
  • Payments & pricing, 15 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 76 against 68

Watch for

Production keys need commercial, security and implementation reviews with Gusto's partnerships team, and the docs say not all use cases are supported

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runEmployment Hero PayrollGustoEdge
Reliability16%206558Employment Hero Payroll +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25186Gusto +35
Agent ergonomics13%16.25382Gusto +29
Security & auth14%17.54660Gusto +14
Payments & pricing10%12.51015Gusto +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86876Gusto +8
Transparency & trust7%8.86061Gusto +1
Negative events≤1500
Total50.4 · D63.3 · B

Facts side by side

FactEmployment Hero PayrollGusto
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorEmployment Hero Pty LtdGusto, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Employment Hero's General Terms. The KeyPayV2 .NET client is MITProprietary 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 documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-082026-10-01
Terms last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity6 stars2 stars, 25k npm/wk

Verdicts

Employment Hero Payroll

Five public Swagger 2.0 files describe 660 to 821 operations per region, and any payroll user can generate an API key without a partner review. The key carries its user's whole access, no idempotency keys or API changelog were found, and the only official client is for .NET.

Gusto

This listing covers the Embedded Payroll API. Every reference page carries an OpenAPI 3.1 definition, payroll is calculated as a preview before submission, and each API version gets 12 months of deprecation support. Production needs commercial and security approval, no price was readable, and the status page lists 11 incidents between 14 July and 5 October 2026, five marked major.

Before you call either

Employment Hero Payroll

  1. Send the API key as the Basic auth username with a blank password, for example curl -u {api_key}: https://api.yourpayroll.com.au/api/v2/user
  2. Pick the Swagger file for the business's region (swagger-au.json, swagger-nz.json, swagger-uk.json, swagger-sg.json, swagger-my.json). Paths and models differ by region
  3. Stay under 5 requests a second per key and IP address. A 429 answered our test with retry-after: 1
  4. Page lists with $skip and $top (100 at most). Filter property names are capitalised, unlike the camelCase JSON
  5. Read GET /api/v2/business/{businessId}/payrun/{payRunId}/warnings before POST .../finalise. Finalise can lodge with the tax office and publish pay slips in the same call

Gusto

  1. Develop against https://api.gusto-demo.com. Production at https://api.gusto.com needs keys Gusto issues after its reviews
  2. Send X-Gusto-API-Version: 2026-06-15 on every call. Without it the application's minimum version applies
  3. Send the resource's current version with every PUT, and only the fields to change. A stale version returns 409
  4. Calculate and submit return 202. Poll GET on the payroll until calculated_at is set or the status is processed, and read submission_blockers first
  5. For a company already on Gusto, the Embedded API is the wrong route. Use the Gusto CLI or the MCP server at https://mcp.api.gusto.com, which draft payroll but can't submit it

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Employment Hero Payroll or Gusto?

Gusto scores 63.3 (B) on agent readiness against Employment Hero Payroll's 50.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Employment Hero Payroll leads on reliability.

Do Employment Hero Payroll and Gusto need an API key?

Employment Hero Payroll takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Gusto uses an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Employment Hero Payroll and Gusto without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Employment Hero Payroll. No hosted endpoint is listed for Gusto.

Other comparisons with Employment Hero Payroll or Gusto

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