Church Windows vs Gusto

Church Windows provides church-management modules for membership, scheduling, donations, accounting, and payroll. Membership stores family records and involvement; Scheduler organizes calendars, locations, equipment, and event duties. Donations tracks pledges and giving, while Accounting uses fund accounting with reporting, exports, and direct imports from Donations and Payroll. Payroll generates checks, reports, and tax forms, updates federal and state tax tables and forms, and supports electronic filing through Aatrix. Web and Desktop editions have identical features: Web uses secure remote desktop access, while Desktop is installed locally. Desktop requires a 64-bit Windows computer. Web pricing includes one shareable seat with one user at a time; each additional concurrent seat costs $50 per month. Plans start at $19 a month for one Desktop module with Standard support on a 12-month contract. A free working trial is available, with Windows download access; Mac or Web trial access requires calling the company.

Gusto is a small business platform for payroll, benefits, and HR. Employers can pay employees and contractors, run unlimited payrolls, and have payroll taxes filed automatically. Health benefits and 401(k) plans integrate with payroll. Workforce tools cover scheduling, timesheets, PTO requests, and mobile time tracking; hiring features include job postings, offer letters, e-signing, applicant tracking, and new hire onboarding. Gusto’s app directory includes integrations across accounting, collaboration, time tracking, hiring, and expense management, with named examples such as QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, Expensify, Hubstaff, and Homebase. The platform is available on web, Android, iOS, and through an API, and its mobile app works on iPhone and Android phones. Plans are Simple at $49 a month, Plus at $80 a month, and Premium at $180 a month. Their listed per-person monthly charges are respectively $6, $12, and $22. Gusto says plans have no long-term contracts and can be canceled anytime. All plans include access to the online Help Center and business-hours phone or chat support; Premium adds a dedicated account partner.