Gusto is payroll software that covers everything a business needs to maintain a happy workforce. This includes organizing payments, insurance, support and initial onboarding.

It’s a comprehensive approach that sees Gusto rank among the best payroll software providers on the market. And, in this Gusto review, we help you decide whether it would be right for your business as we examine its pricing, features, support and overall ease of use.

Gusto is best suited to medium-sized businesses in the US, with smaller companies priced out with recent price rises and larger organizations uncatered-for in terms of some features and more advanced support.

• Our guide to the best payroll software

Gusto: Plans and pricing

Prices for Gusto have risen quite significantly in recent years. Back in 2023, we noted it had a $19/month base price, which has now climbed to $49.

That’s for the Simple package, which each person commanding a $6 monthly fee (something that hasn’t changed in those two years).

Plus ($80/month) and Premium ($180/month) unsurprisingly pack bigger punches, but unfortunately, you’ll be paying more per person as well as for the core functionalities.

Instead of $6/head, it’s $12 or $22 per person per month.

The Contractor Only packge, for companies who don’t have W-2 hires, is $35/month with a $6 monthly fee per person. At the time of writing in September 2025, this is free, so keep an eye out for discounts because Gusto clearly isn’t averse to them.

Solopreneurs can also use the platform for $49/month plus the $6 person fee, but that becomes a rather expensive way for filings returns.

Gusto: Features

More than just payroll software, Gusto gives you a full set of tools for effectively managing your workforce. These include full-service payroll, employee benefits, time tracking as well as HR tools for hiring and onboarding.

Think of it as an all-in-one solution for anything to do with people – be that time or money.

Gusto’s features include full-service payroll, like calculating taxes, filing federal/state/local returns and handling W-2s/1099s.

Really crucial to Gusto’s success is the fact that you can perform unlimited payroll runs (including off-cycle runs) without extra fees. Payment methods include direct debit, paper checks, payroll cards, the ability to split pay checks or deposit into multiple accounts, so most scenarios an HR team will ever encounter are covered.

Where its real strengths are, though, is in its combination of finance and human capital management solutions.

With Gusto, you can set up your payroll to run with just a few clicks; it can even be set to run automatically on the schedule you choose. The software can handle employees and contractors, multiple rates of pay along with payments in multiple states.

Gusto has a number of benefits features, including the Gusto Wallet app, which employees can use to manage their pay checks and access emergency cash.

Then there is workers’ compensation, health reimbursement (QSEHRA) - an alternative to traditional health insurance - and commuter benefits. Health insurance administration is also built into the platform at no extra cost (apart from the actual insurance premiums).

With Gusto, employees track their time for you to review and approve. You can also customize paid time off (PTO) policies with all liabilities automatically calculated. And accounting integrations exist for mainstream platforms like Quickbooks Online and Xero.

These tools from Gusto are designed to help you save time when introducing new team members. You’ll be able to send offer letters, work through an onboarding checklist, have all your documents signed and stored online, and set up your new hires with online tools like G Suite and Microsoft 365 with a single click.

Gusto has several measures in place to protect its customers’ data. It has its own on-site security team, actively tests its software, and all data is AES-256 encrypted between your browser and AWS servers.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) options are also available.

The Gusto application is kept secure with internal and third-party penetration testing, vulnerability scanning and a bug bounty program. Better still, all Gusto employees have specific security training.

Gusto: Ease of use

When you first log in to Gusto, you’ll begin the process of setting up all your company information, including your accountant, benefits, state and federal taxes, employees, pay schedule and workers’ compensation.

When you add an employee, they’ll be sent a welcome email, which will enable them to create their own account.

The onboarding process is simple and workers can self-onboard to free up some valuable time for HR teams.

Once setup is complete, you’ll be able to view all of your company’s employees, including ones who have been dismissed, and invite new hires to join the system.

Gusto’s platform has been praised for its intuitive and user-friendly interface, so it should be relatively easy to get your head around even if all of this comes new to you.

The dashboard design is clean, and things like tasks and to-do lists are highlighted easy to see, but there’s no real deep customization if you want to configure it to show precise metrics.

Gusto: Support

If you want to speak to Gusto sales, their website lists a number. But to get access to Gusto support, you need to be signed in to your account.

Once logged in, you’ll see a different phone number to call for support; or you can visit your account dashboard’s support page, where there is a multi-stage form that eventually provides a recommended resource.

If that doesn’t help, you can fill in another form to send Gusto an email.

Premium plans get more premium support, which includes a dedicated advisor, faster response time and more HR expert access – lower plans can add some of this at a cost.

While this might not be a huge problem for most companies, support is not around-the-clock – phone and email are only there during working hours.

Gusto: Final verdict

If you’re a small business owner who’s new to payroll, you’ll love Gusto because it’s so easy to use; you can finish important tasks with just a few clicks.

Once praised for its attractive pricing, costs have risen in recent years so it may be out of reach for more businesses. Its lack of some advanced features also means it may not be the perfect solution for the biggest businesses, so its appeal has tightened somewhat.

An alternative for larger businesses is OnPay, which has a very similar feature set, combining payroll and HR, but a simpler pricing structure.

Gusto is primarily a payroll platform with HR add-ons. Another alternative is Zenefits, which is the opposite: a complete HR solution with features like org charts and performance reviews and a payroll add-on.

If your workforce is small enough and the pricing is not an issue, Gusto provides first-class solutions for most of the important administrative areas of running a business.

• Read our guide to the best payroll software

QuickBooks has one of the most prominent profiles when it comes to accounting software and continues to have regular updates, which boosts its appeal. for example, users in the UK now benefit from an income tax estimator tool to help with self-assessment deadlines. There's a Live Assisted Bookkeeping option for people in the US too. 

Elsewhere, other updates include automated bookkeeping, banking, improved personalised cashflow insights plus an expanded QuickBooks Employee Portal. QuickBooks also has an edition that will suit just about any kind of user too, from individuals through to businesses and all points in-between. However, having so much choice can make deciding on the right edition a little bit of a challenge.

Adding to the decision-making process is if you want to use QuickBooks Online, which can be done from a web browser, or if you prefer you can download a Windows or Mac app to run QuickBooks Simple Start, Essentials or Plus editions, only rather quicker. For a full-on QuickBooks experience then Live Bookkeeping is a complete solution whereby you get the benefit of hands-on professional help from the QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping team. 

You can even bolster your arsenal of QuickBooks tools with its Payroll option too. In addition, QuickBooks offers mobile payment services with its GoPayment product and point of sale packages too, both of which are also useful for business users.

However, currently there are a few versions of QuickBooks that should be able to help with most accounting and financial management needs. So, depending on your requirements, you can choose from QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Self-Employed, QuickBooks Online Advanced, QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, QuickBooks Desktop Pro, QuickBooks Premier and QuickBooks Enterprise. However, it is possible to create a custom package using the help of the QuickBooks team if you need a more bespoke accounts option.

• You can sign up for QuickBooks Online here

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QuickBooks: Pricing

With such a wide variety of QuickBooks options you’ll find that pricing is similarly expansive and there are often deals to be had too. At the time of writing QuickBooks Online, for example, has money off and prices are tweaked all the time.

Currently then, QuickBooks Online Simple Start is $15.00 a month, Essentials is $30 a month, Plus is $45.00 a month and Advanced $100. If you’re a freelancer then the Self-Employed package costs $15. There are custom options too, so for example it is possible to purchase QuickBooks Online, Payroll and Setup together.

For the UK, QuickBooks has business accounting options that include Simple Start, Essentials and Plus. Deals are often available on these too however, usually with a free trial for good measure. Freelancers with self-assessment needs can plump for the self-employed package. Accountants and bookkeepers can also talk to QuickBooks about getting a package tailored to suit their needs.

QuickBooks: Features

Even in its simplest guise QuickBooks comes with lots of features and functions, which should meet all of your accountancy needs. Usefully, these have been tailored to suit different locations around the globe. QuickBooks users in the UK have been given new UK tax software tools that help them with the changing face of tax when dealing with HMRC, along with other UK-centric features. Meanwhile, in the US, the Simple Start package lets you tracks income and expenses, capture and organize receipts, maximize tax deductions, invoice and accept payments, run general reports, send estimates, track sales and sales tax along with manage 1099 contractors. 

QuickBooks has even added a neat new feature in Track Miles that lets you monitor and categorize business and personal trips that can then be used to produce shareable reports. It’s great for working out potential deductions.

Move on up the package options and you get more features. Essentials adds on the ability to manage bills, track time more efficiently and also lets three users have use of the service. The Plus bundle adds on a 5 user option, lets you track profitability and inventory too. 

Advanced, meanwhile, features lots of beefier features, such as offering business analytics and insights, the ability to customize access by role and sophisticated extras such as a new restore company data function and the option for automating workflows. You get a dedicated account manager plus on-demand online training. It’s comprehensive to say the least.

QuickBooks: Setup and interface

Once you start your free trial for a paid tier, QuickBooks walks you through the setup process. You can setup your own business or experiment with a demo company. If you choose to use your own company, you will be asked to fill in some details. These include the business name and how long you have been in business. You can also choose the features you’re most likely to use. These can be changed at any stage through the settings tab.

The dashboard displays any information you’ve entered. From here you can connect your bank to your QuickBooks account. At this stage you can upload your company logo and fill in more information about your business. If you’ve been using another online solution which supports CSV/Excel format export, you can import this data into QuickBooks. The main screen displays your company name, logo, invoices, expenses, bank accounts, sales, profit and loss.

You can choose to hide any financial information displayed. QuickBooks also has a handy tip feature which nudges you to start invoicing, pay employees, track time, connect with an accountant and view your profits. This can also be hidden. Setup can be resumed at a time of your choosing. You can select banking, sales, expenses, workers, reports, taxes, accounting and my accountant from the left-hand side of the dashboard. 

There are several language options available depending on your location. English is available for users in the UK, US, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, UAE and Ireland. English and traditional Chinese are available in Hong Kong. Other languages supported are Italian and Spanish.

QuickBooks: Performance

You’ll get good performance from any of the QuickBooks range of products and services, with the cloud-based online options being as good as anything out there on the market. QuickBooks has also done a fine job with its app-based products, so if you’re keen to keep your finances and accounting duties up to date then this is another route that performs well. 

Not everyone wants to reply on being connected all of the time, however, so the downloadable software option is always good for being able to work on a computer or laptop in an office, home or on-the-road environment. Again, QuickBooks has had a long time to get its performance characteristics honed nicely, and it is therefore a great all-round contender.

QuickBooks: Ease of use

Getting to grips with QuickBooks is not quite as daunting as it might seem. While making the initial choice on which package to use might seem something of an uphill struggle, once you’re inside the software then it’s all pretty intuitive. QuickBooks has been around for a long time, so it’s been nicely honed over the years. Meanwhile, new features are added in to the existing working area without too much in the way of fuss.

QuickBooks: Support

QuickBooks has all bases covered when it comes to support, with a dedicated website area to get started. This features a host of articles, video tutorials and much more besides, if your query is more obvious or if you’re learning the ropes. 

Of course, there is also the capacity for getting in touch with QuickBooks personnel too, most notably so if you have the high-end package that gives you the added benefit of a dedicated account manager. 

QuickBooks also has a very vibrant community, which is a great place to head for if you want to see what others are talking about, or ask a real time user how to do something. The QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping option is another angle worth looking at if you’re going to need more help as this will keep you connected with an accountancy expert. 

There’s QuickBooks Pro Advisor too, which can also hook you up with an independent accountant, bookkeeping expert or tax specialist if you need it. If anything, the supply of potential help can be a little bewildering if you’re only just getting acquainted with QuickBooks.

QuickBooks: Final verdict

There is certainly plenty to recommend when it comes to QuickBooks dazzling array of products and services, with the Online aspect of the range being the most obvious to pick from. 

However, Intuit is a big and powerful concern that now owns this and other accountancy and bookkeeping options including TurboTax and Mint, so it might have other products that take your fancy too. As it stands though, whichever QuickBooks product you choose, be it Online or Desktop Pro to name but two of the variants, you’ll be sure of a solid user experience that comes packed with features, even at the most basic level. 

If you’re prepared to spend some money then you get much more too, including comprehensive levels of support and lots of product updates as times and the economic landscape changes.

• Take a look at the best personal finance software

Norway-based Runbox is one of the leading lights for secure email, with over twenty years of experience in the industry.

And it’s not just about secure email with Runbox, either: this provider also commits to sustainability, with 100% renewable energy from hydroelectric sources powering the business.

• You can sign up for Runbox here.

Runbox: Plans and pricing

Runbox has one of the more complicated pricing structures you’ll find when you search for a secure email provider, with six pricing tiers and further customizations beyond that. Pleasingly, it’s possible to pay with Bitcoin and even cash sent via postal or courier services.

The Micro plan costs $19.95/£15.98 per year and comes with one email domain, 2GB of email storage and 200MB of secure file storage. The $34.95/£27.99 Mini plan upgrades to 10GB of email storage and 1GB of file storage – and five email domains.

The Medium plan costs $49.95/£40 and upgrades to ten domains, 25GB of email storage and 2GB of file storage, and the Max plan costs $79.95/£64.04 and boosts email and file storage to 50GB and 5GB respectively. It’s possible to upgrade the Max plan to versions with even more storage, too: 100GB for $119.95/£96.08 annually or 250GB for $179.95/£144.14.

These main accounts include encryption, 100 email aliases, the ability to send and receive 500 and 5000 messages daily, and 100MB email message sizes.

Once you’ve purchased that main account, you can add subaccounts with their own email and file storage space, with prices ranging between $7.95/£6.37 and $99.95/£80.06 per year.

You can add extra email or file storage to any plan for $9.95/£7.97 per gigabyte, extra email hosting for $4.95/£3.96 per domain per year, and additional email aliases for $4.75/£3.80 for five addresses annually.

It’s a complicated system, especially if you’re buying for an organization and want to add domains, users, and more storage. If you start doing that, it may get expensive, too. And there are no industry-specific products and no division between personal and business plans. Instead, if you want something specific, it’s best to contact Runbox and work with their specialists to create a bespoke plan.

If you’re sticking with those base plans and not going further than that, though, Runbox has reasonable pricing – it usually works out cheaper than many rivals, especially before you get to the Max tier. And if you’re unsure, there’s a thirty-day free trial and 60-day money-back guarantee.

Runbox: Features

Currently, Runbox doesn’t have end-to-end encryption, so you’ll need to use a third-party PGP-based extension like Mailvelope if this is something you’d like to deploy. Happily, though, Runbox plans to introduce native PGP in its Runbox 7 client in the future, and the organization currently recommends deploying PGP to deliver the strongest possible encryption for your entire email process.

At the moment it’s possible to use the beta version of Runbox 7, too – when you sign in, you can choose between the stable Runbox 6 release and the beta version of Runbox 7.

Right now, Runbox fully encrypts emails with TLS/SSL security, and removes IP addresses from outgoing emails. You have to provide your name and an alternative email address, but you can easily avoid your real name and use a burner email address. Phone number provision is optional, too.

When you use Runbox webmail, every email you send or receive is encrypted during its journey between your device and Runbox’s services, and emails are encrypted during transfer if you use third-party clients.

Emails sent using third-party clients are not encrypted while stored on Runbox’s servers. However, those servers are housed in a secure facility in Oslo and protected by some of Europe’s strictest privacy laws. Runbox is also GDPR compliant.

IP address safelisting and two-factor authentication limit who can access your account, and Runbox has excellent spam and virus filters.

If you want to use Runbox with third-party email clients like Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird, it uses S/MIME encryption, which relies heavily on security certificates to provide its independent security verification. And if you want to set up a third-party client, Runbox works flawlessly with POP, IMAP and SMTP.

Elsewhere, it’s worth noting that some of your data will be held for up to five years if you pay for a Runbox subscription – this is to comply with Norweigan privacy laws. And much of Runbox is open source, too, with commitments from the organization to be even more open source in the future.

Beyond email, Runbox offers a secure calendar and cloud storage system, a complete contacts system, and easy ways to import contacts and emails to your account. But you don’t get any other extra features using Runbox – and if that’s something you need, then you can look at rivals like Proton or Mailbox.org, which offer VPNs, password managers and word processors.

And while it’s very easy to use Runbox using mobile browsers or in mobile email clients, there is no native Android or iOS app.

Runbox: Interface and in use

Indeed, the entire Runbox interface feels a little archaic, with underwhelming fonts and visuals. But that’s a surface-level criticism, and the interface layout is tidy and intuitive. It uses two- and three-pane layouts with customization available, and icons deliver easy access to your calendar, contacts and account settings.

Runbox: Support

Runbox’s support system is limited. Users can submit a ticket or email Runbox directly to receive technical support, and there’s an extensive knowledge base and a handy page that displays service status.

That’s it, though – there’s no sign of the live chat or phone support you’ll often find provided by larger organizations. That’s disappointing for businesses or anyone paying for one of the more expensive accounts.

The competition

That lack of support sees Runbox fall behind rivals like Mailbox.org or Hushmail, which offer varying phone and live chat support levels, especially at higher tiers. And if you want extra features, like a VPN and password management, check out Proton instead.

Runbox comes into its own when it comes to pure security, however. The service uses effective layers of protection, great security for its servers and an eco-friendly approach. Runbox is also refreshingly honest about its end-to-end encryption situation, providing straightforward advice if you want to deploy PGP, too.

Final verdict

That level-headed, eco-friendly approach to security is refreshing and trustworthy, and Runbox offers an excellent level of protection for virtually every user from its base in Norway. Thanks to its straightforward design, it’s easy to use and integrates with loads of third-party email clients.

The pricing can get confusing and expensive, though, and the support options are lacking. So while Runbox may be effective for individuals or smaller organizations, it’s tricky to recommend for any enterprise needing more robust support.

• You can sign up for Runbox here.

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Mailfence is based in Belgium, which is a good start for any secure email provider – the country is famed for its strict data protection legislation.

And if you opt for Mailfence, you don’t just get secure email – there’s a messaging tool, cloud storage module and calendar, too.

That marks this product out as a great alternative to conventional email providers like Gmail and Outlook, and places Mailfence in competition with keen rivals like Proton and Mailbox.org, which also offer extra tools and abilities alongside their core email offering.

• You can sign up for Maifence here.

Mailfence: Plans and pricing

Mailfence immediately outpaces Mailbox.org and squares up to Proton by offering a free product – something that Mailbox.org does not provide.

The free tier on Mailfence delivers end-to-end encryption, access to Mailfence’s Android and iOS apps and web client, and one email address with 500MB of email space and 500MB of cloud document storage. That’s great, but with Proton your free account includes 1GB of email storage and 5GB of cloud storage capacity.

Mailfence’s base package costs €2.50/$2.75/£2.10 per month and provides 5GB of email space, 6GB of cloud storage and 10 aliases, and the entry-level product costs €3.50/$3.85/£2.95 and provides 10GB of email space and 30GB of storage.

At this level, you also unluck POP, IMAP, SMTP and ActiveSync compatibility, so you can use Mailfence with your favored email client, and you can get user management and custom email domains – ideal for smaller organizations.

Those prices are excellent: Proton’s Mail Plus and Proton Unlimited packages provide more storage but they’re more expensive, and Mailbox.org is a little more costly, too.

Mailfence’s business tiers are designated as Entry, Pro and Ultra. The Entry product is the same as the €3.50/$3.85/£2.95 product from the personal plans.

The Pro product costs €9.50/$10.45/£7.99 and upgrades the storage and allows 100 aliases. It also adds telephone support. And the Ultra plan, which costs €29/$31.90/£24.40 monthly, adds loads of additional storage and 200 aliases.

Custom business plans can be built on request, too, with personalized logos, domain names, tools, integrations and security requirements, and Mailfence supports cryptocurrency payments.

Mailfence: Features

Mailfence uses end-to-end encryption with OpenPGP, with keys stored on Mailfence servers protected by AES-256 encryption. The service includes an integrated keystore. All connections to Mailfence servers are encrypted with SSL/TLS for both web services and IMAP/POP/SMTP access, and different third-party clients can use different passwords. TLS is used for outgoing SMTP messages.

Elsewhere, there’s digital signature support, you can send password-encrypted messages and emails to non-Mailfence users with symmetric encryption – which means the unlocking key is never shared on Mailfence’s back-end systems

Reliance on PFS means no previous communications can be accessed if there’s a breach, and the MTA-STS and DANE encryption methods ensure that incoming mail is encrypted, too. The service supports two-factor authentication.

And, finally, Mailfence also deploys IP stripping to ensure that your IP address is never attached to your messages.

When it comes to security that’s a strong start, but Mailfence isn’t without its flaws in this area. The service may strip your IP address from outgoing messages, but Mailfence does collect and store IP addresses, sender and recipient addresses, timestamps, countries and some other small pieces of information.

This is done to ensure that Mailfence complies with Belgian law and Mailfence can inform users if its services are legally compromised. And while Mailfence maintains a “warrant canary” system and publishes transparency reports, this data storage could raise eyebrows for users who are particularly cautious about privacy.

Additionally, while Mailfence uses lots of open-source encryption and cryptographic methods in its systems, the system’s software and apps are not open-source. Mailfence has said they intend to open source their code in the future, but it’s not happened yet.

Elsewhere, Mailfence deploys a useful calendar that you can share securely with others, password-protected document storage with basic editing abilities, and the contact module allows you to build secure groups for sharing sensitive information between particular people. 

Mailfence: Interface and in use

Mailfence might have a reasonable set of features, but its interface is a little outdated and clunky – even if it is reasonably functional.

On the main screen you’ll find a calendar on the left, your account information on the right and access to your inbox, documents, contacts and other modules at the top. Head to the inbox, and you’ll find a conventional three-pane display. You can use light or dark modes, but that’s it for customization.

Thankfully there are straightforward Android and iOS apps, and a reasonable mobile interface, but no desktop client.

Mailfence: Support

Every Mailfence user gets access to email support, including those on the free plan, but people on pricier plans – like the Pro and Ultra plans – are prioritized. All paid plans get access to phone support, and the business is active on Reddit and has an extensive knowledge base on its website.

Mailfence’s usual response time is within 24 hours, and there’s plenty of documentation online too. Aside from live chat, it’s a very comprehensive offering.

The competition

Proton and Mailbox.org are two of Mailfence’s biggest competitors. And while both are more expensive than Mailfence, the difference isn’t that big. They are arguably more reliable in terms of security due to Mailfence’s information retention and open-source situation.

Elsewhere, Proton goes further with its VPN and password manager feature, while Mailbox.org offers more office abilities.

Mailfence does fight back with its business options – get in touch with them, and they’ll build you a complete, customized solution.

Final verdict

That’s a boon, Mailfence is affordable, and despite our queries, it still offers good email security. So if you’re budget-conscious and you’re happy with the security compromises involved, then Mailfence is a good option.

That said, its rivals have more robust security and more features, so it’s worth investigating those if you’ve got some extra money to spend.

• You can sign up for Maifence here.

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Hushmail is a well-established secure email provider that’s been around for 25 years, and this Canadian business aims at particular industries, like healthcare, law, and smaller companies.

Those kinds of organizations often need to share sensitive information, so it makes sense that they’d try to find a secure email provider. But is Hushmail the right option?

• You can sign up for Hushmail here.

Hushmail: Plans and pricing

Hushmail’s healthcare plans start at $11.99 monthly for one basic email account, but it’s worth upgrading to the $24.99 plan for the full experience. When using that pricier plan you get five email addresses, secure web forms and electronic signatures. Upgrade to the $47.99 monthly service and you get ten accounts and web forms. Unsurprisingly, all of those healthcare plans are HIPAA compliant.

Hushmail’s legal and small business plans are a little cheaper than the healthcare versions but don’t include HIPAA compliance or Information Manager Agreements, which are both specific to the healthcare industry.

There are personal plans, too, with an encrypted account with 15GB of storage costing $59.99 annually with a 60-day money-back guarantee. That’s a good price – lower than many rivals, especially if you pay monthly – and the sixty-day refund period is generous, too. And if you pay for three years, it’s even cheaper.

Hushmail: Features

Hushmail’s service allows you to use their domain or your own domain to access secure email, and the service uses OpenPGP encryption for email content, with TLS/SSL deployed to protect emails when they’re in transit and ensure encryption of emails sent to and from non-Hushmail users. PFS and HSTS are also deployed as part of Hushmail’s systems, and Hushmail uses a zero-knowledge model.

That solid start should sate most people, although reliance on OpenPGP means that subject lines aren’t encrypted. And rather than using end-to-end encryption by default, Hushmail hands control back to the user, offering a toggle to activate or deactivate its encryption.

Hushmail can be accessed from your browser and through email apps on PCs, laptops, Android phones, and iOS devices thanks to its POP/IMAP support. There’s a dedicated iOS app, too, but no Android app.

In addition to its toggled encryption, Hushmail has some clever features that benefit its core healthcare and legal audiences.

It’s packed with preset forms that can be used by healthcare and legal professionals to gather data from patients and customers securely, and you can create your own, too – a genuinely valuable addition to the service. ESIGN and UETA-compliant electronic signatures can also be used with Hushmail’s forms and messages.

Medical professionals, in particular, will be pleased to see popular self-administered questionnaires like PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5 and DASS included, too.

To keep things manageable, clients and patients using these features can sign in with their own Google, Apple or Microsoft accounts, so they don’t have to register for another account to interact with your forms or documents.

There’s also an encrypted private messaging center where non-Hushmail users can receive a link to a secure web page to read encrypted messages sent using Hushmail.

That sounds reasonable, but Hushmail has some question marks about its security credentials. IP addresses of Hushmail website visitors are recorded, and your IP address, email, billing address and credit card details are logged – it’s not anonymous.

The organization keeps activity records for eighteen months. Because Hushmail is based in Canada and owned by a US company, it can receive enforceable legal orders to disclose data, including from the US government.

Hushmail isn’t open source, either, and Hushmail can also capture user passphrases for decryption.

The sign-up process could be better, too. There’s no free trial, and you need to hand over your phone number and a current email address when you register.

Elsewhere, there’s no calendar and no cloud storage, and the email storage could be more generous – some of the pricier accounts still only include 15GB of space, which looks miserly when compared to some other services.

Hushmail: Interface and in use

Unsurprisingly, Hushmail’s interface is businesslike and straightforward, with a basic two-pane design, and there doesn’t appear to be an option to switch to a three-pane layout in any of Hushmail’s settings menus.

The responsive mobile view works reasonably well, although some of the lists of forms in the secure form-building module do not display correctly on mobile devices.

Hushmail’s interface falls behind several rivals when it comes to both functionality and visuals, so we’re pleased that Hushmail can be used with third-party clients.

Hushmail: Support

Technical support is available over the phone from 9 am – 5 pm Pacific Time from Monday to Fridays – a solid option for anyone on those Healthcare, Legal or Small Business plans as long as you’re in the right time zone, but less useful for organizations in other countries. Weekend support would have been helpful, too.

Live chat is available, at least, and email support is reliable and relatively fast. One-on-one setup assistance is available on most plans, too, and there’s an extensive online knowledge base.

Hushmail: Security

Hushmail offers end-to-end encryption using open-source OpenPGP. While this is strong encryption for the body of your email, it means recipients and subject lines aren’t encrypted. In transit, emails are protected by an SSL/TLS tunnel and HSTS. Your password is also hashed, and Hushmail uses a zero-knowledge model, so they can’t decrypt your emails without your password. 

But Hushmail is far from a no-logging service. IP addresses of visitors to the website are recorded, and when you make a purchase, your IP address, email, billing address, and credit card details are logged and sent to third parties. Even reading or moving emails in the user interface creates a log. Records of activities are kept for 18 months. If the company received an enforceable order under the laws of British Columbia, Canada, they may disclose data in an unencrypted format to governments, including the US.

The competition

Hushmail’s HIPAA compliance and focus on emails and forms make it an ideal option for healthcare and legal organizations, but its security concerns do put some other rivals in the frame.

Products like Proton Mail are also HIPAA-compliant and offer various business pricing plans, and Proton includes a VPN, cloud storage and several other features that Hushmail can’t provide. That said, it’s more expensive than Hushmail.

And if you’re an organization or individual with some worries about Hushmail’s security and privacy features, Tuta is a better option, with more robust security that won’t be held to the whims of the American or Canadian governments.

Final verdict

Hushmail’s secure forms, reasonable security and HIPAA compliance make it a good choice for healthcare organizations that handle sensitive medical data, and it’s ideal for legal firms that need better security, too.

But because Hushmail is based in Canada and owned by a US company, your data can be accessed at the request of those governments, its privacy isn’t as robust as many other services. Hushmail’s awkward sign-up process and lack of additional features don’t help its cause elsewhere.

If you work in a healthcare organization and need Hushmail’s specific features and compliance, then it’s worth investigating. But for everyone else, we’d look elsewhere.

• You can sign up for Hushmail here.

• We've featured the best email hosting providers.

PayPal Business App is another aspect of this company that is evolving all the time and now has numerous products and services aimed at making life for business owners that little bit easier. If you’re frequently on the move, or just prefer to have your business activities at your fingertips rather than being stuck at a desk then the PayPal Business App is a real boon. It allows you to do all manner of business related tasks, such as creating and sending invoices and keeping tabs on your business account activity along with issuing refunds to customers where necessary. 

• Want to try PayPal Business App? Check out the website here

Being able to do all that and more, from your mobile phone, offers your business that additional edge when you're away from a desktop or laptop machine. And, because this is PayPal you’re getting the benefit of a truly global operation, which is available in just about every part of the world.

Pricing

If you’re already a PayPal Business user then you’ll doubtless be well aware of the numerous different tiers of charges that are involved when you have an account with the company. PayPal has lots of different products and services, so for an accurate breakdown that matches your needs then you’re best off heading to the pricing page on their website. The other thing to remember is that prices are different depending on the way you pay, the currency you’re using and also your business location.

Features

The PayPal Business App comes with plenty of features to help make your workflow more efficient. You get a comprehensive overview of all your business activities for starters, and having a complete toolkit for issuing things like invoices on the go means that it’s easy to keep on top of finances even if you’re not at your desk. In fact, producing invoices is a doddle, even within the confines of a smaller mobile phone screen thanks to a dedicated invoice-making tool. 

Complimenting that is the way you can issue payment reminders to help ease cashflow. The app will also give you a detailed breakdown of sales and account activity, with a range of different views allowing you to get a snapshot of business turnover from monthly through to annual overviews. 

It’s possible to transfer money using the app as well as issue refunds when you need to. Rounding it all out is the ability to get detailed insights into all of your customer activity, which will reveal everything from invoicing histories through to processing ongoing payments.

Performance

You can get the PayPal Business App for iOS or Android and it continues to be downloaded by many business account holders who want to have the added convenience of mobile productivity. As you’d expect from a large company, the app has been well put together, although there is a proportion of users who seem to have experienced operational difficulties with it. 

PayPal does have a lot of different products and services, which might also be the source of some customer woes as its portfolio can be a little bewildering. Bear in mind that, as the name suggests, this is a business-based app, so you’ll need to have the right setup with PayPal in order for it to work properly.

Ease of use

Credit should go to PayPal for developing a business app that, while it does come packed to the hilt with features to aid productivity, is also easy to use. Considering the powerful feature set you can easily switch between tasks. Naturally, having most if not all of the tools you’d normally use on a desktop computer at your fingertips and on the move is hugely helpful. 

Just being able to ping a new invoice to a customer on the go is beneficial, but to also monitor payments as well as keep an eye on sales activity means there’s plenty here to help your business. It’s all easily mastered too. The interface is a nice balance of PayPal’s blue and easy-to-read white with black text overlaid, which makes the app all the more practical if you’re using it in less than ideal conditions.

Support

With so many products and services falling under the PayPal banner it’s quite easy to feel a little overwhelmed by your support options. PayPal does, of course, have the usual support hubs where you can find answers to lots of common queries, but the company has a raft of other options open to you if your enquiry is less straightforward. 

Similarly, because PayPal processes a lot of payments it’s only natural for the business to have a resolution center, in case of any issues with a transaction or a problem with your account. Lookout too for healthy community areas, which are often great places to find answers, as well as the Message Centre that will be the first place to check into if you’re expecting correspondence from PayPal.

Final verdict

PayPal Business App is extremely useful, especially if you’re frequently tackling business tasks while you're on the go. Even though many of us are doing less mobile business due to coronavirus, PayPal’s Business App is still a boon for its convenience factor. 

You’ll obviously get more from it if you’re signed up for other PayPal services, and you’ll need a PayPal Here account if you want to process credit and debit card payments on your mobile too. However, being able to process payments, transfer funds along with issuing invoices on-the-fly makes the PayPal Business App a worthy addition to your arsenal of business-focused phone software.

• This is the best billing and invoicing software on the market

AOMEI Technology, the company behind this product, was founded in 2009 in China by an entrepreneur named Jack Mei, and still specializes in data management tools – and Backupper is still its most popular product.

It’s been around since 2012, adding features and improving existing ones, and several different versions are available: from Standard and Professional to Workstation, Server and Technician.

AOMEI Backupper: Plans and pricing

The Standard version of Aomei Backupper is free – a great start for anyone who needs basic backup abilities.

There are five premium plans for Backupper: Professional, Workstation, Server, Technician, and Technician Plus.

The Professional plan is meant for personal use and costs $40 for an annual license and $70 for a lifetime license for single PCs. Workstation edition costs $50 or $80 for annual and lifetime single-PC licenses, and the Server version prices those two products at $149 and $249.

Aomei’s Technician products are configured a little differently. The standard Technician product costs $499 or $799 for annual or lifetime products for an unlimited number of PCs, and Technician Plus costs $699 or $999 and adds server backup ability to its slate of features.

In addition, loads of special offers are available on all of these products. At the time of writing a five-PC license for Aomei Backupper Professional is reduced from $350 to $90, and a five-PC version of Workstation Edition costs $199 instead of $338.

If you’re unsatisfied following your purchase, there’s a 90-day window to request a refund by contacting AOMEI’s support team. 90 days is one of the highest money-back guarantee periods we’ve seen in a software product.

AOMEI Backupper: Features

Aomei’s core backup module includes many options for preserving your entire system, individual disks, specific files and folders and your PC’s partitions. And happily, that’s not all: Aomei also lets you backup your email accounts and Outlook image files.

Several routes are available if you want to preserve this data. Users can pick from incremental, differential and scheduled backups, security comes from backup encryption, and you can pick from Aomei’s own backup service or Microsoft VSS.

To help users manage backups, this software allows you to schedule backup tasks ahead of time, either daily, weekly, or monthly. This way, the backup will automatically run whether you’re physically present or not. 

Aomei’s tool lets you restore backups based on your job history or image files, and you can also recover specific files and folders.

Elsewhere, Aomei Backupper has syncing options to ensure your files always stay up to date, including in real-time, and cloning tools to replicate systems, disks or partitions. There’s also an impressive array of extra modules – you can create bootable media, wipe disks, check images, create portable versions of images, and back up Apple smartphones.

It’s a great array of features for both home and business users: if you’re happy enough having backup protection for just one system, Aomei Backupper Professional is ideal for the workplace. And if you want SMB protection but don’t need high-end features, the five-PC license is suitable, too.

However, if you need more versatility, Backupper’s pricier editions have you covered. The Workstation edition has a PXE boot tool, and Server edition – as the name suggests – supports Microsoft’s server operating systems.

Technician is pricier, but it’s where you’ll find an upswing in the feature set. Priority support, options for single technicians to support multiple clients, image deployment tools and portable versions are all available at this level. You also enjoy unlimited PC licensing.

Workstation is the most suitable option here for SMBs, Server is ideal for larger organisations, and the two Technician products are well-suited to enterprises.

AOMEI Backupper: Interface and use

Aomei Backupper is a straightforward app to install and use. Head to the Home screen and you’ll see your recent backups. If you want to create a new backup, you can pick the type of operation, select the data and destination, and either start the backup immediately or navigate through some simple windows to tinker with advanced settings.

Tabs along the left-hand edge of the app let you select different syncing, restoration and clone options alongside other tools, and consistent interface design throughout the app means users will quickly be up to speed.

We tested our latest slate of backup apps with a 42GB document folder, a 2.5GB spreadsheet folder, a 162GB folder of media and an 82GB file that mixes all of those file types. We backed them up to three different SSDs to weed out any inconsistency.

Aomei’s average document backup time of 26 mins 23 secs was a mediocre result that sat right in the middle of nearly 20 different apps, and it took a similarly average 23 mins 8 secs to back up our media files and almost eight minutes to preserve our Excel files.

Its best result came with mixed media, where the app took 26 mins 46 seconds – but, even then, that score was only enough to help Backupper creep into the top half of our results tables.

It’s certainly not a slow app, but it’s not very fast either, and you would be better off with software from EaseUS, O&O, or Macrium if you’re searching for speed.

AOMEI Backupper: Support

AOMEI provides direct support to paid customers through a dedicated support email, but there’s no option for live chat or telephone support, which we consider a drawback. Otherwise, you can access tutorials, user guides, and documentation concerning Backupper on the official AOMEI website.   

AOMEI Backupper: The competition

Well-known alternatives to Backupper include Acronis Cyber Protect and EaseUS Todo Backup. Backupper offers features on par with most competitors and offers iPhone backups, but, unlike those alternatives, there is no MacOS option.

Additionally, Aomei’s test results indicate that tools from EaseUS, O&O and Macrium are faster than Aomei’s software – and those three apps were consistently the quickest in our tests.

AOMEI Backupper: Final verdict

If you’re a Windows user at home or in a small business and want a suitable tool to back up your files and recover them seamlessly, Backupper is a smart choice – it’s easy to use, it’s packed with features, and it’s not particularly expensive.

Even if you’re running IT in a larger business or enterprise, Backupper’s tools work well here, too, and the pricing at higher tiers remains competitive.

The lack of phone or chat support could be an issue, though, and there’s no Mac OS option. And if you need more speed, there are faster alternatives too.

But, still, Aomei Backupper is easy to use, affordable, accessible and offers moderate speed, so it’s a good all-rounder.

We've featured the best cloud backup.

R-Drive Image is a backup software product of R-Tools Technology Inc., a software company based in Canada. The company develops software tools compatible with Windows, macOS, or Linux for individual and enterprise use. 

R-Drive Image is one of its most popular products, alongside others like R-Wipe & Clean for privacy and security and R-Studio for data recovery. You can use R-Drive Image primarily to create disk image files for backup, disk cloning, or other duplication purposes.

As a company that commits to “setting new standards in the software development industry,” we’ve got high hopes for R-Drive Image.

Plans & pricing

Although thirty-day trial periods are available, R-Drive Image is a premium product without any free version. It’s also Windows-only, although some of R-Drive’s other products – like R-Wipe & Clean and R-Studio – are available for Mac.

R-Drive Image costs $45 and includes basic options, like drive and file backup, disk copying, boot disk creation, partition management and a scheduler.

The Corporate licence costs $189 and works with one PC or server, and that licence can be transferred to another system if the first one is decommissioned. It’s a lifetime licence and adds features like support for VDI virtual disks.

Technician costs $299 per license per PC and unlocks unlimited data transfer and custom rotation schemes – and this version of the app can be used to manage as many PCs as required as long as the app isn’t installed on more PCs than you have purchased licences. It’s a great deal if you want to manage many PCs or laptops in a business.

The Commercial plan costs $499 per license per PC and, as its name suggests, allows administrators to backup, restore, and deploy multiple machines in commercial settings.

The OEM kit plan costs $399 per license per PC. As its name suggests, this version only comes with a fully assembled computer. You can’t download it directly from R-TT.

Features

You can create images of entire hard drives, individual partitions, and individual files. In the process, you may choose to compress the size of the images to save storage space and, consequentially, costs. You can also lock image files with passwords to provide extra protection and ensure no unauthorized person can access them.

This software also lets you scan image files for errors and alert you immediately to anyone it detects. If you're using Corporate, Technician, or Commercial licenses, you can create image files in the VMDK file format adopted by virtual machines.

You can restore and navigate images, copy disks, create system recovery media and use extensive scheduling and scripting options to personalize your backups, how often they run, and how your computer behaves before, during and after the process.

Users can check images for integrity and accuracy, mount disks, and create batch backups for larger jobs.

With the ability to send backups to Dropbox folders, Google Drive destinations or Microsoft OneDrive, cloud options are present here, too.

Your backups can be created in R-Drive’s proprietary format, as a differential copy straight to another folder, or in VDI, VHD, VHDX or VMDK formats. There are varying compression speeds, the option to split your backup into smaller files, and use password protection with encryption.

Email notifications can be programmed, and this software lets you perform common disk management operations thanks to its flexible Partition Manager. You can create, wipe, delete or resize partitions at any time. 

Duplication implies when you want to copy the whole contents of a PC to another, often when you get a new PC and want to transfer all files from the older one to the new one. In such a case, simply create a hard drive image of the old one and restore it on the new one, and you can continue using your PC like you never ever changed it.

After creating an image of a hard drive, partition, or specific files, R-Drive Image lets you restore them at any time. You can restore to their original drives, new drives, partitions, and even free hard drive space. For example, you can restore the hard drive images from one drive onto another drive in case the former one has been damaged and is no longer suitable to use.

If you're using the Corporate, Technical, or Commercial license, you can restore images in the VMDK format, which is significantly faster than other file formats the app supports, including NTFS, FAT, and HFS.

This software lets you perform common disk management operations thanks to its flexible Partition Manager. You can create, wipe, delete or resize partitions at any time. You can also use this feature to wipe entire hard drives before disposing or transferring them to avoid sensitive data leaks.

You can set automatic schedules for R-Drive Image to back up your computer regardless of if you're present or not. This feature helps users to maintain frequent backups without much manual input. To always remain in the loop, you can set the program to send you automatic emails for any backup task that completes or fails.

Interface & use

The R-Drive Image interface may look a little dated, but it’s still one of the clearest we’ve seen from any backup app.

Key tasks are represented on the home screen with huge icons that make it very easy for even novice users to know what to do, and if you click those buttons you’ll get a straightforward dialog that instructs you to select what you want to backup and where you want those files or disks to go.

Destinations, cloud options and backup image formats are all easy to tweak. You’re kept away from advanced settings unless you head into the specific options menu – and even then it’s very easy to set password protection, notifications and more.

We tested our latest slate of backup apps with a 42GB document folder, a 2.5GB spreadsheet folder, a 162GB folder of media and an 82GB file that mixes all of those file types. We backed them up to three different SSDs to weed out any inconsistency.

This is one area where R-Drive Image failed to perform, with mediocre results in all four categories.

Its best result came with our folder of media files, where it averaged over fifteen minutes – but rivals from EaseUS and Macrium were twice as quick. It took over 26 minutes to back up our document folder, while some apps only took three or four minutes. And when tasked with backing up our folder of mixed files, it took nearly an hour.

It’s not the slowest backup app we’ve tested in this latest slate of reviews, but it’s not particularly impressive.

Support

The official R-Drive Image website has a lot of support resources. You can visit the FAQ page to find solutions to frequently encountered problems or the Knowledge Base, which contains comprehensive tutorials and user guides for the platform. There’s also an official forum where users interact and exchange tips and problem solutions.

Users who want further support can also contact R-TT's support team by email or telephone. Email support is available 24/7 but phone support is limited to 9 AM to 6 PM on Monday to Friday except on public holidays.

Competition

Apps like EaseUS ToDo Backup and Macrium Reflect have beat R-Drive in speed, but there’s not much to choose between R-Drive Image and its rivals regarding features. And depending on which version you buy, R-Drive could easily become more affordable.

Verdict

R-Drive is packed with features and is very easy to use, and several versions are affordable too. Combine that with its extensive support offering and there’s lots to like, especially for people in businesses who may need quick help if anything goes wrong.

When many rival apps relegate support to a single web form and perhaps a knowledge base or forum, that’s heartening.

R-Drive’s biggest negative is its mediocre pace, but it’s not a dealbreaker when other apps are slower. Just be aware that you can find much faster backup elsewhere.