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September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Compensation and total rewards › Compensation management › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Compensation management for small business buyers

Asked as “compensation management software”, and as “salary planning and compensation review software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 57 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
21%
Contested · BambooHR Compensation 16%
21Pave16BambooHR Compensation16Compease47others

21% of first choices, contested.

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
01Pave21%2%40accepted challenger
02BambooHR Compensation16%20%40accepted challenger
03Compease16%6%16accepted challenger
04Salary.com5%29%17criticized challenger
05Ravio4%4%24accepted challenger
06Comprehensive4%0%17accepted challenger
07QuotaPath4%0%13accepted challenger
08Rippling2%7%14accepted challenger
09Gusto2%8%12accepted challenger
10HiBob2%17%12accepted challenger
11Salary.com CompAnalyst2%20%10accepted challenger
12Lattice Compensation2%20%10accepted challenger
13Payscale2%33%15criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
16Lattice Compensate0%82%11criticized challenger
15Paycom0%33%15criticized challenger
14Deel0%10%10accepted 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
C03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Pave21%
02BambooHR Compensation16%
03Compease16%
04Salary.com5%
05Ravio4%
06Comprehensive4%
07QuotaPath4%
08Rippling2%
09Gusto2%
10HiBob2%
11Salary.com CompAnalyst2%
12Lattice Compensation2%
13Payscale2%
14Deel0%
15Paycom0%
16Lattice Compensate0%

What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 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 Workforce Now
100%
8 of 8 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Bait-and-switch pricing ... Many platforms designed for mid-market or enterprise companies (ADP, Paylocity) will sell to small businesses but deliver poor value.” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Workday Compensation
89%
8 of 9 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Enterprise compensation-planning suites (e.g., Workday) – These are typically designed for large organizations and may be overly complex and expensive for small businesses.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Compport
83%
5 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“such as Compport can be a poor fit for smaller teams; one review explicitly says it is "not suitable for small businesses under 50 employees"” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Paychex
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Paychex has a **1.2–1.7 star rating** across Trustpilot, Consumer Affairs, and BBB reviews” DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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

79 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. 1020 links across 172 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · G248 answers · 57 citations · 13 models
vendor site · FirstHR47 answers · 47 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Ravio45 answers · 74 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Comprehensive41 answers · 46 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G239 answers · 62 citations · 13 models
vendor site · HiBob39 answers · 40 citations · 12 models
27 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
vendor site · QuotaPath26 answers · 28 citations · 14 models
26 answers · 26 citations · 11 models
20 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
vendor site · CaptivateIQ20 answers · 23 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Pave19 answers · 35 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 compensation management software”, “compensation management software”, “compensation platforms”. 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
Pave pave.com
Pave 21%, Pave Market Data Lite 2%
23%21327,10028,4237,645$917
BambooHR bamboohr.com
BambooHR Compensation 16%
16%5590,5005511,055,247 company$44,6981065
Compease16%2102
Salary.com salary.com
Salary.com 5%, Salary.com CompAnalyst 2%
7%9012,100711,069,118$1,642701
Comprehensive comprehensive.io
Comprehensive 4%, Comprehensive.io 4%
7%5574,00018,8922,0214
Ravio ravio.com4%1651,9001818,4193
QuotaPath quotapath.com4%221,600521,168$1,54634
CompUp compup.io4%504023,016
Leapsome leapsome.com4%2982,9003251,450$18,53160
Compa compa.ai
CompAnalyst 2%, Compa 2%
4%1512,1001,3124,1240

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 23 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (captivateiq.com, comprehensive.io, g2.com, peoplemanagingpeople.com, ravio.com). The first result for “best compensation management software” is gartner.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 compensation management software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which salary planning and compensation review software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top compensation platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best compensation management software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a compensation management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which compensation platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.515Five, Comprehensive
Four alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Compease, Deel, OpenComp
BambooHR CompensationChanged
Three alternativesAeqium, Paycom, Salary.com CompAnalyst
against: CaptivateIQ
BambooHR Compensation, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Four alternativesCompBldr, Compa, Paycom, QuotaPath
Compease
Two alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Deel Payroll
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR Compensation, Compa, Compport, OpenComp, Payscale, Pequity
GPT-5.4 miniHiBob
Five alternativesDeel, Gusto, Paycor, Payscale, QuotaPath
Salary.comChanged
Two alternativesPayscale Ascent, Workleap
no first choice
Seven alternativesCaptivateIQ, Deel Payroll, Gusto, HiBob, Lattice Compensation, Paycom, Salary.com
CompUp
One alternativeHRSoft Compensation Management
against: ADP Workforce Now, Deel, Paycor
no first choiceagainst: Anaplan, Deel Payroll, Paycom, SAP SuccessFactors Compensation, Salary.com
Gemini 3.5 FlashPave, QuotaPath
Six alternativesAeqium, BambooHR Compensation, Everstage, HiBob, Rippling, Workleap Compensation
Workleap CompensationChanged
Four alternativesChartHop, Everstage, Pave, QuotaPath
Pave
Five alternativesBarley, Deel, Gusto, OpenComp, QuotaPath
Pave
Five alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Comprehensive, Deel, QuotaPath, Workleap
against: CaptivateIQ, Payscale, Salary.com, Spiff, beqom
Pave
Eight alternativesAeqium, BambooHR Compensation, Barley, HiBob, Lattice Compensation, Ravio, Rippling, Workleap Compensation
against: Salary.com, Workday Advanced Comp, beqom
against: CaptivateIQ, Carta, CompensationXL, Glassdoor, HRSoft Compensation Management, Mercer IBE, Payscale, Radford, Willis Towers Watson, Xactly Incent, beqom
Perplexity SonarCompease
One alternativeTriNet
BambooHR Compensation, PaveChanged
One alternativeisolved
against: Lattice Compensate
BambooHR Compensation
Six alternativesGusto, Pave, Paycom, QuotaPath, Salary.com, isolved
BambooHR Compensation
Two alternativesPaycom, Salary.com
no first choiceagainst: Compport, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, Payscale
Grok 4.1 FastPayscale, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Three alternativesDeel, HRSoft COMPview, Payfactors
BambooHR CompensationChanged
Four alternativesComprehensive, Gusto, Pave, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Comprehensive.io, Pave
Three alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Pulley, Ravio
against: ADP Workforce Now, Carta, Workday Compensation
Pave
Two alternativesComprehensive.io, Ravio
against: Compease
Comprehensive
Three alternativesCompUp, Ravio, Salary.com CompAnalyst
against: ADP Workforce Now, Brigit, EarnIn, Gusto, Oracle Fusion Cloud Compensation, Paychex, Paycom, SAP SuccessFactors Compensation, Workday Compensation
Mistral SmallCompease
One alternativeCompXL
BambooHR CompensationChanged
Two alternativesCompAnalyst, Ravio
Pave, Ravio
Two alternativesComprehensive, QuotaPath
against: Lattice Compensate
BambooHR Compensation
Two alternativesPaycom, Salary.com
no first choiceagainst: Compport, Glassdoor, Hays, Workday Compensation
DeepSeek V4 FlashBambooHR Compensation
Four alternativesCarta Total Comp, Deel, Payscale, Salary.com CompAnalyst
Compease, PaveChanged
Four alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Comprehensive.io, Lattice Compensate, Ravio
Pave
Three alternativesCompease, Lattice Compensate, Ravio
against: BambooHR Compensation
no first choicePave, Ravio
Two alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Rippling
against: COMPview, Compport, HiBob, Lattice Compensate, Workday Compensation
against: ADP Workforce Now, Decusoft, HRSoft Compensation Management, Lattice Compensate, Paychex, SAP SuccessFactors Compensation, Salary.com CompAnalyst, beqom
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceSalary.com
Two alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Paycom
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR Compensation, Lattice Compensateagainst: Compport, Workday Compensation
Qwen 3.7 FlashCompease
Three alternativesCaptivateIQ, Commissionly, Deel
against: Excel templates
Gusto, RipplingChanged
Four alternativesCaptivateIQ, Compease, Comprehensive, QuotaPath
Deel, Pave
One alternativeBambooHR Compensation
against: Ceridian, Paycom
Compease
Three alternativesCompUp, Excel, Pave
no first choice
Two alternativesBetterment, Lattice Compensation
against: Workday Compensation
against: ADP Workforce Now, Oracle Fusion Cloud Compensation, Paychex, QuickBooks Online, SAP SuccessFactors Compensation, Workday Compensation
Kimi K2Pave
Three alternativesBambooHR Compensation, CompUp, Workleap Compensation
against: HRSoft Compensation Management, Paycom, Xactly
BambooHR CompensationChanged
Three alternativesComprehensive, Pave, Payscale
Pave
Five alternativesCarta Total Comp, Compa, OpenComp, Payscale, Salary.com CompAnalyst
CompUp, Pave
Three alternativesComprehensive, Empxtrack, Excel/Google Sheets
against: BambooHR Compensation, Lattice Compensation, OpenComp, SimplyMerit
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, Carta Equity Suite, Deel Payroll, Engage PEO, Paychex Flex, Paylocity, Vensure Employer Solutions
GLM 4.7 FlashXCompease
Four alternativesComprehensive, Deel Payroll, HiBob, Workleap Compensation
Salary.comChanged
Four alternativesAeqium, Pave, QuotaPath, Rippling
Pave
Three alternativesCarta Total Comp, Personio, beqom
Compease
Two alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Pave
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, Deel Payroll, Paychex, Rippling
MiniMax M2.5Comprehensive.io, Leapsome
One alternativeTriNet
against: Paycom
CompAnalystChanged
Four alternativesBambooHR Compensation, Namely, Paycor, Ravio
Pave, Personio
Two alternativesFigures, HiBob
against: Salary.com
Pave
Two alternativesComprehensive, Ravio
no first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, Namely, Paychex, Paycor, QuickBooks 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 11:08yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:08yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:59yes1924 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:29yes166 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:41yes198 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:19yes135 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:45yes2234 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:52yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:34yes1363 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:38yes1321 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:03yes1275 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:42yes615 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:28yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 07:55yes17 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:01yes1619 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:01yes143 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 07:42yes208 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:03yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:27yes1824 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:29yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:12yes731 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:17yes1319 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:54yes2031 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:35yes517 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:34yes97 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:57yes56 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:52yes1525 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:55yes155 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:28yes2214 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 12:14yes87 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:27yes2273 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:47yes51 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:08yes925 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:26yes2028 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:05yes2343 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:10yes1423 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:59yes107 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:47yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:15yes2222 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:42yes172 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:45yes1910 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:00yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:54yes2213 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:56yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:44yes2045 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:07yes1329 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:06yes2219 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:53yes1230 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 07:38no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:07no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:31yes2129 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:51yes193 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:21yes128 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:57no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:46yes1734 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:48yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:25no027 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 07:49yes914 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:40yes12122 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:59yes511 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:58yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 07:48yes35 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:11yes2130 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:23yes193 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:13yes249 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:26yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:12yes2532 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:50yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:01no033 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:48yes2527 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:39yes22117 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:04yes1431 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
ADP read as ADP Workforce Now
ADP (Automatic Data Processing) read as ADP Workforce Now
ADP (RUN Powered by ADP / Workforce Now) read as ADP Workforce Now
BambooHR read as BambooHR Compensation
BambooHR (Compensation module) read as BambooHR Compensation
BambooHR (Elite tier) read as BambooHR Compensation
BambooHR Elite read as BambooHR Compensation
Carta Total Compensation read as Carta Total Comp
HRSoft read as HRSoft Compensation Management
Lattice read as Lattice Compensation
Mercer read as Mercer IBE
Oracle HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud Compensation
Oracle HCM Cloud read as Oracle Fusion Cloud Compensation
SAP SuccessFactors read as SAP SuccessFactors Compensation
Workday read as Workday Compensation
Unresolved, counted raw
BambooHR Compensation Management
Commissionly
Gradar
Levels.fyi Employer Benchmarking
OpenComp Market Pulse via Gusto
Optional / Workcube
Payscale Payfactors
Salary.com free tools
Shareworks
Vensure Employer Solutions
Workday Advanced Comp
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← Compensation benchmarkinEarned wage access →