Welcoming Guideline to Gusto | Gusto

|Published Aug 27, 2025|4 Min

Small businesses deserve world-class retirement benefits. That’s why we’re thrilled to share that we signed an agreement for Guideline to join Gusto. While the agreement is still subject to final approvals, we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.

For nearly a decade, Guideline has helped businesses offer affordable retirement plans (such as 401(k)s and IRAs) to more than a million people. It’s already the most popular retirement product on Gusto by far, and we believe it’s simply the best out there – intuitive to employers, and loved by employees. Now, by joining together, we can deliver what customers have been telling us they want all along: one modern product to handle payroll, health insurance, HR, time tracking, compliance, and retirement benefits—built for small businesses.

Small business owners wear many hats—they’re the HR team, the payroll manager, the IT department, and everything in between. And they often juggle multiple systems just to keep their business running day-to-day. It can be very overwhelming, but that’s where Gusto comes in. We take the messy, complicated parts of running a business and make them feel simple and easy so customers can focus on what they’re most passionate about: building their businesses.

Tectonic regulatory changes in the retirement industry

For small businesses, the complexity and cost of offering retirement benefits, like a 401(k), can oftentimes feel overwhelming and out of reach. That shouldn’t be the case – they need retirement benefits to attract and retain talent, grow their companies, and take advantage of tax benefits. Retirement benefits make a real difference in employees’ lives. People are 15 times more likely to save for retirement when they have access to a workplace plan. 

And the time is now. At least 25 states have already enacted legislation requiring employers to either offer their own retirement plans or enroll employees in a state-funded auto-IRA. And more changes are on the horizon for how 401(k) funds can be invested, from crypto to private equity. It’s a pivotal moment, and we’re ready to help more businesses take action and give more employees a real path to retirement security.

Better together: Gusto + Guideline

Gusto and Guideline have a long history together. And we’re both built on the same belief—that small businesses deserve the best technology and services to build their business. I remember spending time with Kevin Busque, Guideline’s CEO & Co-Founder, in 2016, when Guideline was just getting started. He passionately described how modern technology could finally enable end-to-end automation of the 401(k) stack, and if this could be coupled with incredible service and an easy-to-use, intuitive user experience, the resulting product could democratize access to retirement benefits for millions of people.

Guideline has helped more than a million people—who work at businesses, startups, and franchises across industries—to save for retirement. Like Gusto, Guideline is obsessed with customer experience. By combining smart technology with dedicated service, Guideline saves small businesses time and money—enabling them to deliver retirement benefits that are truly accessible and impactful. And its intuitive, user-friendly interface makes it easy for employees to understand, engage with, and grow their savings.

Moving forward, Guideline and Gusto will continue to build products for small businesses to take care of their teams. By coming together, we’ll make it easier than ever for small businesses to stay compliant, offer high-quality benefits, and give their teams a real path to financial security. This means business owners will be able to set up all their benefits in one place, employees will onboard and update their benefits using a single app, and compliance requirements, taxes, and payments will be easily managed on a single dashboard.

We also believe in giving our customers the freedom to choose the tools that work best for them. We’ll continue to support other retirement benefits providers on our platform, just as we always have. We will always provide customers with a choice so they can use the software that best meets their specific needs.

Guideline, welcome! We’re looking forward to serving small businesses alongside you.

You can read more in Guideline’s post here. If you’d like to learn more, check out the FAQ here.