HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Core HR and payroll › Global payroll › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Global payroll and employer of record for enterprise buyers

Asked as “employer of record”, and as “global payroll provider”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Remote
Contested
19% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessDeel29%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketDeel22%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseRemote19%ContestedThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Remote19%10%48accepted challenger
02Deel16%19%53accepted challenger
03G-P16%10%30accepted challenger
04ADP12%33%12criticized challenger
05Papaya Global7%14%43accepted challenger
06Velocity Global7%12%16accepted challenger
07Atlas HXM2%0%12accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Oyster0%36%14criticized challenger
09Multiplier0%20%10accepted challenger
08Rippling0%19%31accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Deel vs Papaya GlobalDeel vs OysterPapaya Global vs Oyster

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
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Remote19%
02Deel16%
03G-P16%
04ADP12%
05Papaya Global7%
06Velocity Global7%
07Atlas HXM2%
08Rippling0%
09Multiplier0%
10Oyster0%

02What they warned about

Zero 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, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
Deel
19%
10 of 53 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Deel** ⚠️ Major Red Flags... Active criminal and civil litigation creates significant counterparty risk” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Papaya Global
14%
6 of 43 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“like **Papaya Global**, explicitly advocate *against* the wholly owned model, choosing instead to orchestrate third-party local partners” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Oyster
36%
5 of 14 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“"less suited for large enterprises" needing strict compliance” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Remote
10%
5 of 48 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Large enterprises often find their support structures rigid. Their pricing model... can become prohibitively expensive” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

63 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 948 links across 232 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner31 answers · 46 citations · 10 models
deel.com
vendor site · Deel30 answers · 43 citations · 11 models
topsourceworldwide.com
27 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
employsome.com
26 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
remote.com
vendor site · Remote24 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
teamed.global
vendor site · Teamed22 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
eorhq.com
19 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
hr.software
19 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
whichpayroll.com
18 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
globaleorservices.org
17 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People15 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
papayaglobal.com
vendor site · Papaya Global13 answers · 16 citations · 7 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.

gartner.com/reviews/market/employer-of-record-eor
29 answers · 10 models
employsome.com/employer-of-record/best-eor
23 answers · 9 models
remote.com/blog/payroll/best-global-payroll-providers
18 answers · 9 models
globaleorservices.org/solutions/eor-comparison
13 answers · 8 models
teamed.global/compare/best-eor-providers-2026
11 answers · 6 models
pin.com/blog/best-eor-providers
9 answers · 6 models
topsourceworldwide.com/insights/best-employer-of-record-providers
9 answers · 6 models
whichpayroll.com/best-global-payroll
9 answers · 7 models
herohunt.ai/blog/the-best-employer-of-record-providers
8 answers · 7 models
deel.com/blog/top-employer-of-record-services
7 answers · 5 models

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best employer of record for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which global payroll provider would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade EOR and global payroll platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best employer of record for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating an employer of record. What should we look at?”Negative“Which EOR and global payroll platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceADPChanged
Five alternativesDayforce, Guidepoint, Paychex Flex, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
no first choicePapaya Global
Two alternativesDeel, Multiplier
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniDeel, Remote
Two alternativesG-P, Velocity Global
ADP Celergo, ADP GlobalView PayrollChanged
Two alternativesDeel, Papaya Global
Deel
Two alternativesPapaya Global, Remote
Remote
One alternativeDeel
no first choiceagainst: Deel, G-P, RemoFirst, Remote
Gemini 3.5 FlashRemote
Three alternativesDeel, G-P, Safeguard Global
ADPChanged
Three alternativesCloudPay, Deel, Papaya Global
Deel
Five alternativesG-P, Mercans, Papaya Global, Remote, Rippling
Deel, Remote
One alternativePapaya Global
no first choiceagainst: Deel, Papaya Global, Safeguard Global
Perplexity SonarG-P
Three alternativesDeel, Rippling, Velocity Global
ADP GlobalView PayrollChanged
One alternativePapaya Global
against: Ripplingno first choiceAtlas HXM
Two alternativesRemoFirst, Remote
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Agile HRO, Gusto, Horizons, Insperity, Justworks, Native Teams, RecruitGo, Skuad, TriNet
Grok 4.1 FastDeel, Velocity Global
Three alternativesG-P, Papaya Global, Remote
ADPChanged
Four alternativesCloudPay, Dayforce, Papaya Global, Workday
against: Deel, Ripplingno first choiceG-P
Four alternativesDeel, Papaya Global, Remote, Rippling
against: Multiplier, RemoFirstno first choiceagainst: Gusto, Neeyamo, Oyster, Papaya Global, Payoneer Workforce Management, Rippling
Mistral SmallVelocity Global
One alternativeRemote
ADP Global Payroll, Papaya GlobalChanged
One alternativeRemote
Deel, Remote
Six alternativesADP, Multiplier, Oyster, Papaya Global, Rippling, Skuad
Remote
One alternativeDeel
against: G-Pno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashG-P, Papaya Global, Velocity Global
Two alternativesDeel, Rippling
ADP GlobalView PayrollChanged
Three alternativesPapaya Global, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday Payroll
against: Deel, Remote, RipplingDeel, Remote
Eight alternativesADP GlobalView Payroll, Atlas HXM, G-P, Papaya Global, Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors, Velocity Global, Workday
against: Oracle HCM CloudDeel
Two alternativesG-P, Papaya Global
against: Ripplingno first choiceagainst: ADP, Deel, Multiplier, Oyster, Papaya Global, Paychex Flex, Workday
Llama 4 MaverickG-P
Three alternativesRemote, Teamed, Velocity Global
no first choiceChangedDeel
Four alternativesADP GlobalView Payroll, Papaya Global, Remote, Rippling
no first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashG-P
Three alternativesDeel, Remote, Rippling
against: OysterADPChanged
Two alternativesG-P, Rippling
Deel, Remote
Four alternativesADP, Papaya Global, Rippling, Velocity Global
Deel, Remote
One alternativeRippling
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Deel, Mercor, Papaya Global, Remote, Windmill
Kimi K2Deel, G-P
Two alternativesPapaya Global, Remote
ADP, Workday HCMChanged
Two alternativesDayforce, SAP SuccessFactors
Remote
Five alternativesAtlas HXM, Deel, Oyster, Papaya Global, Rippling
against: Velocity GlobalG-P
Three alternativesAtlas HXM, Deel, Remote
no first choiceagainst: Deel, G-P, Oyster, Safeguard Global, Velocity Global
GLM 4.7 FlashXRemote
Four alternativesDeel, G-P, Papaya Global, Safeguard Global
ADP Global PayrollChanged
One alternativePapaya Global
Deel, Papaya Global
Six alternativesADP GlobalView/Celergo, Atlas HXM, G-P, Multiplier, Remote, Rippling
RemoFirst
Two alternativesMultiplier, Velocity Global
against: Deelno first choiceagainst: ADP, Deel, Papaya Global, Remote
MiniMax M2.5Remote
Three alternativesG-P, Papaya Global, Velocity Global
against: RipplingADP GlobalView PayrollChanged
Six alternativesCloudPay, Neeyamo, Oracle HCM Cloud, Papaya Global, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll, Workday Payroll
no first choiceDeel
Two alternativesRemote, Remote People
no first choiceagainst: Deel, Neeyamo, Oyster, Papaya Global, Remote
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The 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-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:46no06 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:26yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:02yes1146 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:35yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:35yes3723 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:24yes53 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:31yes1917 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:38yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:44no030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:15yes1021 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:36yes1590 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:31yes733 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:14no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:17yes39 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:59yes1554 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:47yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:55yes3817 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:52yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:40yes1816 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:22yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:23yes1276 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:34yes1525 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:50yes12132 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:25no038 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:01yes1815 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:49yes69 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes1552 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:35yes2013 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:57yes3117 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:16yes1515 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:36yes2833 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:28yes54 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:24yes530 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:42yes1945 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:33yes1578 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:16yes1032 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:29yes1910 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:33yes58 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:04yes1630 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:14yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:26yes3521 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:40yes2515 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:47yes2880 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:17yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:38no028 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:51yes2042 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:27yes29139 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:14yes1533 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:17yes1716 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:43no014 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:55no017 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:28yes2012 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:19yes1511 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:08no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:10yes2030 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:48yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:17yes529 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:27yes1571 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:37yes1348 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:28yes2027 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:51yes2614 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:26yes58 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:24yes2140 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:26yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:07yes2016 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:02yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:48yes3059 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:00yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:25no037 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:48yes3046 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:32yes32127 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:27yes2362 s

Normalization in this category

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

Category-scoped readings
ADP Global read as ADP Global Payroll
ADP GlobalView read as ADP GlobalView Payroll
Atlas read as Atlas HXM
Ceridian read as Dayforce
Ceridian Dayforce read as Dayforce
Oracle read as Oracle HCM Cloud
Oyster HR read as Oyster
Paychex read as Paychex Flex
Payoneer read as Payoneer Workforce Management
Strada read as Alight
Unresolved, counted raw
Borderless AI
GoGlobal
Standard/Hays (Traditional Consultancies)
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in core hr and payroll

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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