Small business▲+9Since September 2026: 0% → 9%, +9 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
9%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 4 pointsRank 8 → 3 of 47
QuickBooks Payroll
74Judge labels
6First choices
21Negative labels
13 / 14Models named it
2Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.7, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
10% in Payroll software for small business buyers
Rank 19 of 58 in the mid-market standingcriticized challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 29% of its 21 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of QuickBooks Payroll →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business3 of 50
10%39 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market19 of 58
0%21 labels
criticized challenger
Enterprise50 of 52
0%5 labels
under the label threshold
In payroll software · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named QuickBooks Payroll for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll software | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 19 of 58 | 29% | 21 | criticized challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| PEO providers | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 23 of 53 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Justworks at 24% |
Movement
Since September 2026, QuickBooks Payroll held within the floor in all two categories: no change cleared 13 points.
Best category · Payroll software · by segment
Mid-market=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 13 pointsRank 12 → 18 of 55
Enterprise=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 13 pointsRank 44 → 48 of 50
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll software | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 13-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 12 → 19 of 58 |
| PEOs | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 23 of 53, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 13 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated QuickBooks Payroll across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated QuickBooks Payroll across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct10 labels1
Paraphrase10 labels3
Comparative24 labelsNone
Budget-constrained6 labels1
Scale-constrained6 labels1
Negative18 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative74 labels in all, every segment counted; 6 of the 7 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Ideal for companies already using QuickBooks for accounting, offering seamless integration.” MiniMax M2.5 · Payroll software · direct prompt · alternative
“QuickBooks Payroll is the natural fit if your finance team already works inside QuickBooks.” Perplexity Sonar · Payroll software · comparative prompt · alternative
“Best For: Small business owners who want their CFO to stay out of the backend operations.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Payroll software · comparative prompt · alternative
“Pick QuickBooks Payroll if you're already all-in on QuickBooks for your bookkeeping.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Payroll software · comparative prompt · alternative
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Platforms to Be Cautious About ... Terrible customer support ... Over 4,100 complaints with the BBB” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Payroll software · negative prompt · hard negative
“entry-level payroll solutions (like basic Gusto, QuickBooks, or Patriot Software) ... will likely start to feel manual, slow, and operationally risky” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Payroll software · scale prompt · soft negative
“also named in that same discussion as a platform to be cautious about for support and fee transparency” Muse Glimmer 30B · Payroll software · negative prompt · soft negative
“your volume is too high for simple Small Business solutions (like basic Gusto or QuickBooks Online)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Payroll software · scale prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as QuickBooks Payroll, over the 74 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and QuickBooks Payroll was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as QuickBooks Payroll, over the 74 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and QuickBooks Payroll was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named QuickBooks Payroll. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 69 of the 74 answers that named QuickBooks Payroll and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
forbes.com37
gusto.com37
adp.com36
onpay.com26
workforce.com24
rippling.com18
techrepublic.com18
smallbiztrends.com17
cnbc.com15
technologyadvice.com15
No domain is on file for QuickBooks Payroll, so its own site is not marked.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where QuickBooks Payroll stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where QuickBooks Payroll stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 22,200 a month (“quickbooks payroll”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 1,820 a month
- Its own site
- No site of its own on file, so no site figures
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
0%
rank 19 of 58 in payroll software
Segment leader
20%
Rippling
- First choices
- 6 across its categories
- Named in
- 74 answers
- Its own site cited
- No site on file to match
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as QuickBooks Payroll
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as QuickBooks Payroll; a claim can dispute any of them.
QuickBooks 2Intuit QuickBooks Payroll 1QuickBooks Online 1QuickBooks Online (QBO) Payroll 1QuickBooks Online Payroll 1QuickBooks Payroll (Intuit Workforce) 1QuickBooks Payroll / Workforce 1
Follow QuickBooks Payroll
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
QuickBooks is the company behind QuickBooks Payroll.ShowHide
The company
QuickBooks is the company behind QuickBooks Payroll.
ShowHideOn record
Company records- Also from QuickBooks
- QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Payroll, QuickBooks Time, QuickBooks Workforce
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when QuickBooks Payroll's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as QuickBooks Payroll, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for QuickBooks Payroll by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where QuickBooks Payroll is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name QuickBooks Payroll, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.