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Guideline Logo

401(k) plans for small businesses

Table of Contents

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Guideline - 2026 Pricing, Features, Reviews & Alternatives

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Verified reviewer profile picture

All user reviews are verified by in-house moderators and provider data by our software research team.  Learn more

Last updated: April 2026

Guideline overview

What is Guideline?

Guideline is designed to help small businesses streamline retirement plan administration, employee onboarding, and government filing operations. It enables users to manage discretionary year-end contributions to employees’ 401(k) accounts and do not charge participants any fees on investments, regardless of the value of their assets or retirement account balance.

Guideline enables organizations to automate plan administration and compliance management operations. Users can choose from both pre-tax and Roth options including traditional 401(k) and Roth 401(k). It lets professionals gain more incentive to participate in 401(k) benefits.

The centralized dashboard allows users to view their balance, contribution rates, recent activities, and notifications.

Starting price

4flat rate /
per month

Alternatives

with better value for money


Pros & Cons

Integrations

User Interface

Guideline’s user interface

Ease of use rating:

Guideline pros, cons and reviews insights

To determine these pros and cons insights, we analyzed responses from 

Overall rating

Reviews sentiment

 
 
 
1-2(8)
3-4(3)
5(11)

What do users say about Guideline?

TBF, the money has to make its way into my other account, but I'll be sure to report back if anything goes awry =)

Select to learn more


Who uses Guideline?

Based on 22 verified user reviews.

Company size

Small Businesses

Midsize Businesses

Enterprises

Top industries

Marketing and Advertising
Biotechnology
Information Technology and Services
Computer Software
Others

Use cases

Benefits Administration

Guideline's key features

Most critical features, based on insights from Guideline users:

Compliance management

All Guideline features

Features rating:

Compliance management
Employee onboarding
FMLA administration

Guideline alternatives

Guideline logo

Starting from

4

Per month

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8

/user

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Paylocity logo
visit website

Starting from

Empty state illustration for "No pricing info"

No pricing info

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Free version
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Starting from

Empty state illustration for "No pricing info"

No pricing info

Free trial
Free version
Ease of Use
Features
Value for Money
Customer Support

Guideline pricing

Value for money rating:

Pricing plans

Pricing details:

Free plan
Free trial
Subscription

Starter

49

Per month

Features included:

  • $6,000 employee contribution limit
  • No employer contributions

Core

119

Per month

Features included:

  • $24,500 employee contribution limit
  • Safe Harbor or Traditional 401(k)
  • Employer contributions and profit sharing

Enterprise

179

Per month

Features included:

  • $24,500 employee contribution limit
  • Support for plan transfers

Solo 401(k)

49

Per month

Contact vendor for more details

SEP IRA

8

Per month

Features included:

  • 0.08% annual account fee

Traditional IRA / Roth IRA

4

Per month

Features included:

  • 0.08% annual account fee
  • $2/month base fee + 0.08%/year if total account balance is under $10,000

User opinions about Guideline price and value

Value for money rating:

To see what individual users think of Guideline's price and value, check out the review snippets below.

“Most of our experience has been easy because 401(k) has not been a high priority (e.g. we're not doing any customizations or offering a match).”
SK

Sarah K.

People Ops Manager

“TBF, the money has to make its way into my other account, but I'll be sure to report back if anything goes awry =)”
Verified reviewer profile picture

Drew H.

Software Engineer

Guideline integrations (3)

Integrations rated by users

We looked at 22 user reviews to identify which products are mentioned as Guideline integrations and how users feel about them.

Gusto logo
Gusto

Integration rating: 4.5 (3)

I am in the process of switching to gusto simply so we can have payroll software that integrates with Connecteam.

JS

Jazzmine S.

Executive Director

Integration rating: 5.0 (3)

We are struggling with setting up a direct API of payroll detail by pay period directly to Sage Intacct GL.

SW

Shannon W.

Senior Director of Finance

Integration rating: 5.0 (1)

It's honestly one of the main reasons I recommend Jobber to clients. As an accountant, having invoices, payments, and customer data flow straight into QuickBooks Online means I'm not re-entering everything manually or chasing down missing information

Keeping expenses down for right now until we get ACT caught up and then will update QB to Online most likely

ED

Eri D.

ACCOUNTANT

1/2

Guideline support options

Typical customers

Freelancers
Small businesses
Mid size businesses
Large enterprises

Platforms supported

Web
Android
iPhone/iPad

Support options

Chat

Training options

Documentation

Guideline FAQs

Related categories