AI Indexes
HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Core HR and payroll › Payroll software › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Payroll software for small business buyers

Asked as “payroll software”, and as “payroll provider”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
49%
Clear leader
49Gusto22Patriot Payroll10QuickBooks Payroll20others

49% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Gusto49%13%71endorsed leader
02Patriot Payroll22%6%33accepted challenger
03QuickBooks Payroll10%15%39accepted challenger
04OnPay6%5%43accepted challenger
05Rippling2%16%32accepted challenger
06Square Payroll2%9%11accepted challenger
07ADP2%57%21criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Paychex Flex0%36%36criticized challenger
11Deel0%30%10criticized challenger
10Wave Payroll0%20%10accepted challenger
08ADP RUN0%18%28accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
Q03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Gusto49%
02Patriot Payroll22%
03QuickBooks Payroll10%
04OnPay6%
05Rippling2%
06Square Payroll2%
07ADP2%
08ADP RUN0%
09Paychex Flex0%
10Wave Payroll0%
11Deel0%

What they warned about

Seven of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
ADP
57%
12 of 21 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“small businesses are most frequently cautioned about the larger, legacy payroll providers... "terrible customer support, long delays"” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
Paychex Flex
36%
13 of 36 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Low Trustpilot rating (1.7/5 ...) cites unresponsive support, payroll/tax processing mistakes, billing errors, and delays” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Gusto
13%
9 of 71 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“Gusto is excellent for basic, single-state payroll. However, if your business is scaling rapidly... proceed with caution.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
QuickBooks Payroll
15%
6 of 39 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“"a general caution against the bigger, older platforms like QuickBooks Payroll and Paychex/ADP due to notoriously poor customer support and hidden fees."” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

76 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 967 links across 179 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

46 answers · 70 citations · 11 models
vendor site · OnPay41 answers · 43 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Gusto39 answers · 72 citations · 12 models
vendor site · ADP32 answers · 49 citations · 11 models
29 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Workforce.com21 answers · 22 citations · 11 models
19 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
17 answers · 21 citations · 7 models
17 answers · 20 citations · 10 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best payroll software”, “payroll platforms”, “payroll software”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Gusto gusto.com
Gusto 49%, Gusto Simple 0%
49%870673,00010,5601,629,4831181
Patriot patriotsoftware.com
Patriot Payroll 22%
22%568,1001151,375,182 company412
QuickBooks Payroll10%1,000,00054,681
OnPay onpay.com6%10822,2002001,180,466$89484
Payroll4Free payroll.org4%161,3004977,0608
Rippling rippling.com2%1260301,00017,886712,399$42,013115
Square Payroll squareup.com2%239,9001903,658,565$9996
QuickBooks intuit.com
QuickBooks Workforce 2%
2%121,000,00054,68117,049,232$37,1781095
SurePayroll surepayroll.com2%1749,500170501,595$13,481104
ADP adp.com2%1872,740,00023,89713,578,070$62,4211082

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (adp.com, equalpaytoday.org, forbes.com, gusto.com, joinhomebase.com, onpay.com). The first result for “best payroll software” is gusto.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best payroll software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which payroll provider would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top payroll platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best payroll software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a payroll software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which payroll platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Gusto
Four alternativesADP RUN, OnPay, Patriot Payroll, QuickBooks Payroll
GustoHeld
Three alternativesADP RUN, OnPay, Paychex Flex
Gusto
Four alternativesADP RUN, Homebase Payroll, OnPay, QuickBooks Payroll
against: Patriot Payroll
Patriot Payroll
Four alternativesHomebase, OnPay, Payroll4Free, Wave Payroll
no first choiceagainst: ADP, ADP RUN, Deel, Gusto, Paychex Flex
GPT-5.4 miniGusto
Three alternativesADP RUN, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
GustoHeld
Three alternativesADP RUN, Paychex Flex, Rippling
Gusto
Six alternativesADP RUN, OnPay, Patriot Payroll, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
Square Payroll
One alternativeGusto
against: QuickBooks Payroll
no first choiceagainst: Paychex Flex, Paycor, Paylocity, PaymentEvolution, Payroll4Free, Rippling, SurePayroll
Gemini 3.5 FlashGusto
Four alternativesDeel, QuickBooks Workforce, Remote, Rippling
GustoHeld
Two alternativesDeel, Rippling
against: QuickBooks Payroll
Gusto
Four alternativesOnPay, Patriot Payroll, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
against: ADP RUN, Paychex Flex
Patriot Payroll
Four alternativesOnPay, Roll by ADP, SurePayroll, Wave Payroll
against: Gusto
Gusto
Three alternativesJustworks, OnPay, Rippling
against: ADP, Gusto, Paychex Flex, Paycom, Paylocity, QuickBooks Payroll
Perplexity SonarGusto
Four alternativesADP RUN, Patriot Payroll, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
GustoHeld
Three alternativesOnPay, Paychex Flex, Wave Payroll
Gusto
Six alternativesADP RUN, OnPay, Patriot Payroll, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
OnPay, Patriot Payroll
One alternativeWave Payroll
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Justworks, Paychex Flex, Paycom, Rippling, Venmo, Zelle
Grok 4.1 FastGusto
Six alternativesADP RUN, Deel, OnPay, Papaya Global, Patriot Payroll, QuickBooks Payroll
GustoHeld
Three alternativesADP RUN, OnPay, QuickBooks Payroll
Gusto
Three alternativesADP RUN, OnPay, QuickBooks Payroll
against: Rippling
Patriot Payroll
Four alternativesOnPay, Payroll4Free, Square Payroll, Wave Payroll
against: Gusto
Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll
Three alternativesADP, Patriot Payroll, Paychex Flex
against: ADP, Gusto, Paychex Flex, Paylocity, Rippling, Wagepoint
Mistral SmallRippling
Three alternativesGusto, OnPay, QuickBooks Workforce
no first choiceChangedGusto
Seven alternativesADP RUN, Deel, Justworks, OnPay, Patriot Payroll, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll Core
Gusto
Two alternativesPayroll4Free, Square Payroll
no first choiceagainst: Deel
DeepSeek V4 FlashGusto, QuickBooks Workforce
Two alternativesPaychex Flex, Xero Payroll
against: ADP
QuickBooks PayrollChanged
One alternativeGusto
against: ADP RUN
Gusto
Five alternativesADP, Patriot Payroll, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
Patriot Payroll
Three alternativesGusto, OnPay, SurePayroll
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Deel, Intuit Payroll, Paycor
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choicePatriot Payrollno first choiceagainst: 1st Money, ADP, Gusto, OnPay
Qwen 3.7 FlashGusto
Three alternativesADP RUN, Deel, QuickBooks Payroll
GustoHeld
Two alternativesQuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
Gusto
Three alternativesADP, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
Patriot Payroll
One alternativeGusto
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Excel, Google Sheets, Paychex Flex, Square Payroll, Wave Payroll
Kimi K2Gusto, OnPay
Three alternativesADP RUN, Patriot Payroll, QuickBooks Payroll
GustoChanged
Two alternativesADP RUN, Square Payroll
Gusto, OnPay
Three alternativesADP RUN, Justworks, QuickBooks Payroll
Payroll4Free, SurePayroll
Two alternativesGusto, OnPay
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Workforce, Remote, Wagepoint
GLM 4.7 FlashXGusto
Three alternativesOnPay, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll
QuickBooks PayrollChanged
Two alternativesGusto, Rippling
Gusto
Five alternativesOnPay, Patriot Payroll, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll, Rippling
Patriot Payroll
Three alternativesGusto, SurePayroll, Wave Payroll
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Paychex Flexagainst: Complete Payroll Solutions, Dayforce, Intuit Payroll, OnPay, Paychex Flex, Paycom Payroll, Payroll4Free, SD Worx, SSCL, Zellis
MiniMax M2.5Gusto, QuickBooks Payroll
Two alternativesADP RUN, Paylocity
ADP, GustoChanged
One alternativePaychex Flex
Gusto, QuickBooks Workforce
Four alternativesADP RUN, OnPay, Paychex Flex, Rippling
Patriot Payroll, Payroll4Free
Two alternativesGusto, Zoho People
Gusto
Two alternativesPaychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll
against: ADP, Gusto, Paychex Flex, QuickBooks Payroll, Wave Payroll
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:33yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:24yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:55yes2022 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:48yes244 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:08yes156 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:42yes53 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:08yes2224 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:18yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:58yes1439 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 07:42yes1017 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:55yes1340 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:19yes515 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:04yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:56yes55 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 12:14yes1243 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:37yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:53yes2310 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:42no01 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 12:07yes2432 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:01yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:52no029 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:45yes2027 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:24yes2489 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:40yes525 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:27yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:47yes37 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:54yes2122 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:18yes205 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:43yes2511 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:00yes58 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 12:10yes2244 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:50yes54 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:41yes924 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:05yes1531 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:24yes1064 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:42yes1424 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:42yes910 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:18yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:43yes2428 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:45yes213 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:08yes129 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:31yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:15yes2325 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:11yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:06yes519 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:00yes1014 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:39yes20122 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:51yes512 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 12:08no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 12:01no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:43yes1222 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:05yes217 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:06yes1510 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:28no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:53yes1846 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:02yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:31no037 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:49yes919 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:46yes1052 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:09yes920 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:44yes188 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:32yes74 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:53yes1326 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:38yes204 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 12:08yes2410 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:19yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:51yes2332 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:46yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:00no040 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:32yes2329 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 12:04yes2539 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:49yes2532 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Ceridian read as Dayforce
Deel Payroll read as Deel
Patriot read as Patriot Payroll
Patriot Software read as Patriot Payroll
Paychex read as Paychex Flex
Paychex (Flex) read as Paychex Flex
QuickBooks Online Payroll read as QuickBooks Payroll
RUN Powered by ADP read as ADP RUN
Wave read as Wave Payroll
Unresolved, counted raw
1st Money
Check / Rippling
PaymentEvolution
QuickBooks Payroll Core
Roll by ADP
SSCL
Toast
Venmo
Zelle
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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