Guideline 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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Overview
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Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews
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Overview

Guideline

3.4

(22)

Pricing

Starting at $49.00 per month

About Guideline

Guideline enables small businesses to manage 401(k) plans, employees benefits and government filing operations. It offers a centralized dashboard that allows employees to increase or decrease the contribution rates and log recent activities.

The application helps users select investment plans based on recommended portfolios, create custom plans or adjust existing portfolios. Guideline enables lets managers to view employees’ account details including current status, balance and portfolio. Pricing is available on a monthly subscription and support is extended via phone, email and other online measures.

Guideline Screenshots

Guideline Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $49.00 per month

Free Trial

Free Version

Basic

$49.00

per month

No plan information available

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Guideline Features

Popular features found in Benefits Administration
ACA Reporting
Compliance Management
Deduction Management
Employee Benefits Administration
Employee Database
Health Insurance Administration
Payroll Management
Provider Management
Self Service Portal
More features of Guideline
Employee Onboarding
FMLA Administration

Guideline User Reviews

Overall Rating

3.4

Ratings Breakdown

50%

32%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

3.7

Value for money

3.4

Customer support

3.2

Functionality

3.4

Have you used Guideline and would like to share your experience with others?

Stephen G.

Verified reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed April 2024

Stress-free retirement for my team (and me)

Guideline has been fantastic. It's taken a huge weight off my shoulders knowing my employees have a great retirement option, and it's affordable for my business.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The ease of use was incredible. Setting up the plan and onboarding employees took no time at all. Plus, their transparent fee structure is a breath of fresh air – it saves me money and keeps things simple.

Cons:

Honestly, I love guideline. There could be a wider range of reporting for 401(k) and investing nerds, but nothing major. Overall, very happy.

Reasons for choosing Guideline

Guideline won me over because it was so easy to set up and manage. The other options seemed more complex and had hidden fees.

Arka R.

Verified reviewer

Biotechnology

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed March 2025

Guideline is the premier retirement account management platform

Guideline has been exceptional in management my financial goals. The interface and user experience is standalone. I have never felt more in control in my life regarding retirement plans.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Functionality

Pros:

Guideline is likely the best retirement account management software out there.

Cons:

I can't really say I dislike anything about Guideline.

Reasons for switching to Guideline

Guideline has a better management team than TriNet.

Sarah K.

Verified reviewer

Computer Software

201-500 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2025

Great for smaller companies getting started with 401(k)

We began using Guideline as a small startup and have continued as we've grown to a few hundred employees. 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). However, we're now looking to make some changes to our investment plan, and Guideline is pretty limited in the ability to do so. Ultimately, though, the last few years that we've been on Guideline have been a positive experience.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Guideline is a great option to support 401(k) offerings for startups and is easy enough to use when you're a smaller company. They also have a helpful payroll integration with Rippling, which makes this very much set it and forget it.

Cons:

As our company has grown beyond 200 employees, the customizations in Guideline feel much more limited than their competitors. Additionally, most Guideline customers don't have dedicated support, and it can be challenging to find all of the documents and reports needed for an audit.

Verified

Reviewer

Information Technology and Services

2-10 employees

Used monthly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed August 2025

They really nailed a critical and oft-neglected feature. Excellent UX.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It was very easy to rollover my money out of Guideline--I did it from my phone in like 2 minutes. Best experience doing this out of the 5-6 times I've had to do it in my career. TBF, the money has to make its way into my other account, but I'll be sure to report back if anything goes awry =) Also customer support was very responsive. I'm loathe to email CS in general, but I'm glad I emailed Guideline; I got a response within minutes, not days.

Cons:

The info in the user portal could be slow to update at times. I'm not typically looking for lightning-fast updates so it didn't bother me too much, but there's definitely an opportunity for Guideline to provide more peace of mind.

Verified

Reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

51-200 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2025

Functional and affordable modern investment platform

Very good overall experience and would recommend to small or medium business owners who want a simple and modern 401k experience for their team at a reasonable price point.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Guideline has a clean interface and they make 401k and or Roth management for small and medium business simple.

Cons:

Sometimes it's hard to find documents, the UX is fine but documents are categorized in ways that don't always make intuitive sense.

Ekaterina P.

Verified reviewer

Medical Practice

1001-5000 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed April 2025

terrible service

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Nothing

Cons:

they do not execute distribution requests, the customer service is useless

Verified

Reviewer

Health, Wellness and Fitness

51-200 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed April 2023

401k Provide that works

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Guideline is a very easy to use tool for facilitating 401k and roth. We don't need any user support in order to utilize the tool - in essence it's a great tool if you want to provide 401k with little to no hastle!

Cons:

I've experienced some issues with customer support, but for the most part I haven't seen any cons.

Ian L.

Verified reviewer

Financial Services

11-50 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed December 2022

Guideline- Review

Our overall experiences has been positive. In the past we have had issues with 401k providers and Guideline has totally wiped out all of those issues, for administrators and employees alike.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

This 401k provider is very easy to set-up and connect to our payroll system, Gusto. Employees enjoy the plan and the investment choices and it has been easy to use.

Cons:

The one con that we have is that the coding of the expenses into our internal quickbooks requires some manual entries. Otherwise, it's great.

Reasons for switching to Guideline

Too clunky and didn't play nice with our payroll system.

Eileen S.

Verified reviewer

Computer Software

11-50 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2022

Best use of my time

Wonderful experience. They have exceptional customer service

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Guideline has such great integration with my payroll services that I literally do nothing except review for tasks. They fulfill all areas of administration for the retirement accounts and do it timely and accurate.

Cons:

Nothing, I’m a big fan. Everything needed is on the portal

Verified

Reviewer

Computer Software

51-200 employees

Used monthly for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed November 2020

Guidline is amazing

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

By far one of the highest quality software I have used. Incredibly user-friendly, easy to navigate--the engineers behind this app are excellent. I'm very obsessed with keeping good track of my savings/investments, and Guideline does an outstanding job of helping me achieve this. Their system for 401Ks is perfect, and actually taught me some things I wasn't aware of. Overall amazing app and if your company offers benefits, they should definitely be using Guideline.

Cons:

Maybe a little more interaction. For some people, it may be nice that Guideline stays quiet unless you log in, but I wouldn't mind if maybe, once a month, they checked in to see if what you previously filled out was what you currently wanted. Maybe something like "Hey, you filled out that you want to deduct ____ much money per paycheck for your 401K, is that still alright with you? etc..."

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