HR AI Index
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HR compliance and policy management · September 2026 Edition

Gusto vs Paylocity

Zero of twelve models named Gusto first on the direct prompt; three named Paylocity. Gusto was named by twelve of the twelve models and Paylocity by ten and Gusto carries 26 labels and Paylocity 20, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Gusto

accepted challenger

Named in eighteen categories this edition.

Paylocity

accepted challenger

Named in twenty categories this edition.

First-choice share12%8%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate8%5%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#3A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels2620A 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.Rippling was named alongside these two in eleven of the twelve direct answers. Rippling vs Gusto · Rippling vs Paylocity

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve 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 HR compliance and policy management page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
GustoFirst choices, of twelve modelsPaylocity
Direct031 against Gusto
Paraphrase00
Comparative00
Budget-constrained60
Scale-constrained011 against Gusto
Negative001 against Paylocity
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

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

3 of 12 modelsGusto was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Mistral SmallPaylocity alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, Rippling
Llama 4 MaverickADP Workforce Now, Paylocity
MiniMax M2.5Paylocity alternatives: Mitratech Mineral, Rippling

Neither was the first choice, one was named

7 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Claude Haiku 4.5Rippling alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Paylocity
Gemini 3.5 FlashRippling alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, Deel, Paylocity, SixFifty
Perplexity SonarRippling alternatives: BambooHR, Mitratech Mineral, Paycor, Paylocity
Grok 4.1 FastRippling alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Gusto, Paylocity
DeepSeek V4 FlashRippling alternatives: Deel, Paylocity, TriNet
Qwen 3.7 FlashPaycor alternatives: ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, Paylocity, Rippling
GLM 4.7 FlashXRippling alternatives: BambooHR, Deel, Gusto, Namely, Paycor, Personio

Neither was named

2 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
GPT-5.4 miniRippling alternatives: ADP SmartCompliance, Mitratech Mineral, SixFifty
Kimi K2HiBob, Rippling alternatives: Namely

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
Paylocity is not named for this buyer.
Gusto25%#1 of 7
Paylocity—not named
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Gusto leads by four points.
Gusto12%#2 of 11
Paylocity8%#3 of 11
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Level: the same share of first choices.
Gusto0%#– of 9
Paylocity0%#– of 9
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Gusto

No label in this category carried a quote.

What the models said about Paylocity

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

“Was sued by DrinkPAK for software errors that allegedly caused wage and hour violations, leading to two class-action settlements” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · hard negative
“Highly rated for mid-market payroll and HR, offering compliance dashboards, ACA compliance, tax management” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
“1. ADP Workforce Now 2. Paylocity These software options are designed for midsize and large businesses” Llama 4 Maverick · direct prompt · first choice
Also compared
Rippling vs GustoRippling vs PaylocityThe full HR compliance standing

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