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Benefits administration · October 2026 Edition

Gusto vs Paylocity

Zero of fourteen models named Gusto first on the direct prompt; one named Paylocity. Gusto was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Paylocity by eleven and Gusto carries 44 labels and Paylocity 19, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Gusto

criticized challenger

Named in twenty-four categories this edition.

Paylocity

accepted challenger

Named in twenty categories this edition.

First-choice share20%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.

Negative rate25%5%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.

Rank in category#1#7A position in a field of 13; printed, not drawn.

Labels4419A count; the two differ.

The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Gusto reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.ADP Workforce Now was named alongside these two in eleven of the fourteen direct answers. Gusto vs ADP Workforce Now · Gusto vs Employee Navigator · Gusto vs Rippling

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the benefits administration page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.

GustoFirst choices, of fourteen modelsPaylocity

Direct013 against Gusto

Paraphrase202 against Gusto

Comparative00

Budget-constrained801 against Paylocity

Scale-constrained00

Negative106 against Gusto

Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Gusto and Paylocity stood in it.

Model	Direct	Paraphrase	Comparative	Budget-constrained	Scale-constrained	Negative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B

Gusto

Paylocity

first choice

named as an alternative

argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Gusto on the left and Paylocity on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Gusto and Paylocity stood in it.

Paylocity first, Gusto not the choice

1 of 14 modelsGusto was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.

Qwen 3.7 FlashPaylocity alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, Dayforce, Rippling

Neither was the first choice, one was named

6 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.

Gemini 3.5 FlashRippling alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, Employee Navigator, Paycor, Paylocity, PlanSource

Perplexity SonarADP Workforce Now alternatives: Forma, Paycor, Paylocity, Rippling

Grok 4.1 FastADP Workforce Now alternatives: Paycor, Paylocity, PlanSource

Mistral SmallADP Workforce Now, Paycor alternatives: Gusto

Kimi K2Rippling alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Gusto

Muse Glimmer 30BPlanSource alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Businessolver, Employee Navigator, Justworks, Namely, Paycor, Paylocity, Rippling

Neither was named

7 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.

Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

GPT-5.4 miniEase, Employee Navigator alternatives: PlanSource, bswift

DeepSeek V4 FlashRippling alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, PlanSource

Llama 4 Maverickno first choice

GLM 4.7 FlashXPlanSource alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, Benefitfocus, Employee Navigator, Rippling

MiniMax M2.5ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR alternatives: Businessolver

GPT-6 LunaEmployee Navigator, Rippling alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, PlanSource

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.

Small business

Gusto leads by sixty-two points.

Gusto#1 of 14

Paylocity#10 of 14

The full small business standing →

Mid-marketThe figures above

Gusto leads by eighteen points.

Gusto#1 of 13

Paylocity#7 of 13

The full mid-market standing →

Enterprise

Level: the same share of first choices.

Gusto#12 of 12

Paylocity#– of 12

The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Gusto

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Two of two in this category shown.

“Poor Customer Support: Limited communication options and difficulty reaching representatives” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · hard negative

“Gusto stands out as one of the top recommendations for benefits administration, especially among small businesses” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · first choice

What the models said about Paylocity

No label in this category carried a quote.

Also compared

Gusto vs ADP Workforce Now Gusto vs Employee Navigator Gusto vs Rippling Gusto vs PlanSource Gusto vs Namely Gusto vs BambooHR ADP Workforce Now vs Paylocity Employee Navigator vs Paylocity Rippling vs Paylocity PlanSource vs Paylocity Namely vs Paylocity Paylocity vs BambooHR All twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full benefits administration standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.