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 › September 2026 Edition

Leave and absence management

Asked as “leave management software”, and as “PTO tracking tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
BambooHR
Contested
28% 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 businessTimetastic25%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketBambooHR28%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseWorkday37%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

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. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01BambooHR28%7%41accepted challenger
02Vacation Tracker13%11%35accepted challenger
03Rippling13%11%27accepted challenger
04LeaveBoard11%0%21accepted challenger
05Connecteam7%0%16accepted challenger
06Timetastic7%16%19accepted challenger
07Day Off2%0%12accepted challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Workday0%40%15criticized challenger
12Gusto0%27%11criticized challenger
11AbsenceSoft0%14%14accepted challenger
09Factorial0%7%14accepted challenger
08Calamari0%0%15accepted challenger
10HiBob0%0%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 vendor page.
Head to head
BambooHR vs Vacation TrackerBambooHR vs RipplingVacation Tracker vs Rippling

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
11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01BambooHR28%
02Vacation Tracker13%
03Rippling13%
04LeaveBoard11%
05Connecteam7%
06Timetastic7%
07Day Off2%
08Calamari0%
09Factorial0%
10HiBob0%
11AbsenceSoft0%
12Gusto0%
13Workday0%

02What they warned about

Two 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, Llama 4 Maverick, 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.
Workday
40%
6 of 15 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“comes with a much higher price tag and implementation complexity compared to tools like Timetastic” Qwen 3.7 Flash, comparative prompt
BambooHR
7%
3 of 41 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Generic HR Platforms with Weak Leave Modules ... Tools like **BambooHR** receive consistent complaints about: **Limited customization**” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Gusto
27%
3 of 11 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid full HR like BambooHR/Gusto ($6+/user or flat fees) unless you need payroll too.” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
Rippling
11%
3 of 27 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Multiple reviews strongly caution against it for **non-US / India-based teams**” DeepSeek V4 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

65 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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 803 links across 191 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

employsome.com
34 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
forbes.com
33 answers · 38 citations · 10 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People31 answers · 34 citations · 9 models
worldmetrics.org
21 answers · 37 citations · 9 models
g2.com
18 answers · 54 citations · 9 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow17 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
vacationtracker.io
vendor site · Vacation Tracker16 answers · 21 citations · 6 models
leapsome.com
vendor site · Leapsome16 answers · 17 citations · 7 models
apps365.com
16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
capterra.com
15 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
gitnux.org
14 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
attendancebot.com
vendor site · AttendanceBot14 answers · 14 citations · 8 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.

employsome.com/best/leave-management-software
34 answers · 10 models
forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-leave-management-systems
33 answers · 10 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-leave-management-software
29 answers · 9 models
guideflow.com/blog/leave-management-software
16 answers · 7 models
leapsome.com/blog/absence-management-software
15 answers · 7 models
technologyadvice.com/blog/human-resources/leave-management-tools
14 answers · 7 models
attendancebot.com/blog/8-best-leave-management-software-for-small-businesse…
13 answers · 8 models
g2.com/software/employee-leave-management
11 answers · 8 models
actiplans.com/blog/free-leave-management-software
10 answers · 4 models
articsledge.com/post/leave-management-software
10 answers · 6 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 leave management software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which PTO tracking tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top leave management tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best leave management software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a leave management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which leave management tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5HROne, Rippling
Three alternativesBambooHR, Namely, Sparrow
BambooHR, Vacation TrackerChanged
Two alternativesFactorial, Gusto
no first choice
Two alternativesGoCo, Time Off Manager 365
against: TimetasticTimetastic
Four alternativesLeave Dates, OrangeHRM, Pause, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: Factorial, Matrix Absence Management, PlanMyLeave, Timetastic
GPT-5.4 miniBambooHR
Three alternativesAbsenceSoft, Calamari, Sparrow
BambooHR, RipplingChangedagainst: GustoAbsenceSoft, Sparrow
Seven alternativesBambooHR, Keka, Leave Dates, LeaveBoard, Pause, Rippling, greytHR
absentify
One alternativeVacation Tracker
against: PurelyHRno first choiceagainst: Rippling
Gemini 3.5 FlashRippling
Five alternativesAttendanceBot, Cocoon, HiBob, Tilt, Vacation Tracker
Vacation TrackerChanged
Four alternativesBambooHR, Calamari, HiBob, Rippling
Timetastic, Vacation Tracker
Four alternativesBambooHR, Deel, Gusto, Rippling
Vacation Tracker
Five alternativesConnecteam, Jibble, LeaveBoard, Timetastic, TracefyHR
no first choiceagainst: ADP, Excel, Google Sheets, Lincoln Financial, MS Access, PowerApps, Unum, Workday
Perplexity SonarRippling
Three alternativesAbsenceSoft, HiBob, Keka
BambooHRChanged
Three alternativesBuddy Punch, Connecteam, Deputy
no first choiceLeaveBoard
Five alternativesAttendanceBot, Day Off, Timetastic, Vacation Tracker, actiPLANS
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastRippling
Two alternativesBambooHR, Paycor
against: WorkdayBambooHRChanged
Three alternativesConnecteam, Paycor, Vacation Tracker
Vacation Tracker
Six alternativesBambooHR, Calamari, Deel, Factorial, Rippling, Timetastic
against: WorkdayLeaveBoard
Three alternativesAbsenca, Day Off, actiPLANS
against: BambooHR, Gusto, Vacation Trackerno first choiceagainst: ADP Workforce Now, MetLife, Replicon, The Standard, UKG Ready
Mistral SmallKeka
Four alternativesBizneo Time Management, HROne, LeaveSource, Sparrow
Connecteam, HomebaseChanged
Two alternativesAbsence.io, Time Off Manager 365
no first choiceTimetastic
Four alternativesDay Off, LeaveBoard, Vacation Tracker, actiPLANS
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Manual Tools
DeepSeek V4 FlashBambooHR
Six alternativesHiBob, LeaveBoard, Paycor, Rippling, UKG Pro, Vacation Tracker
BambooHRHeld
Five alternativesAttendanceBot, Gusto, Jibble, LeaveBoard, Vacation Tracker
LeaveBoard, Timetastic
Six alternativesBambooHR, Calamari, Factorial, Replicon, Vacation Tracker, Workday
Connecteam, actiPLANS
Four alternativesAttendanceBot, Calamari, LeaveBoard, Zoho People
against: Gusto, Vacation TrackerBambooHR
Three alternativesFactorial, Namely, Rippling
against: Five, Timetastic, UKG Pro, Vacation Trackeragainst: AbsenceSoft, Access PeopleHR, Rippling, UKG Ready, Vacation Tracker, Workday
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceTime Off Manager 365Changed
Two alternativesHomebase, Vacation Tracker
Vacation Tracker
One alternativeGusto
LeaveBoard, Timetastic, Vacation Tracker
One alternativeTracefyHR
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashBambooHR
Four alternativesADP Workforce Now, Deel, Paylocity, Rippling
against: SAP SuccessFactors, WorkdayBambooHRHeld
Six alternativesDeel, Deputy, Gusto, Oyster, Rippling, UKG Pro
Timetastic, Vacation Tracker
Four alternativesBambooHR, Calamari, Replicon, Rippling
against: WorkdayLeaveBoard
Four alternativesConnecteam, Pause, TimeOff.Management, TracefyHR
no first choiceagainst: AbsenceSoft, Employee Leave Management India, Rippling, Zoho People
Kimi K2BambooHR
Four alternativesDeputy, HiBob, Namely, Zoho People
BambooHR, ConnecteamChanged
Two alternativesDeputy, Float
Timetastic, Vacation Tracker
Seven alternativesAbsence.io, AbsenceSoft, BambooHR, Calamari, Deel, Factorial, Remote
Staff Leave, Vacation Tracker
Two alternativesConnecteam, EzNxT
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Spreadsheets & Manual Systems
GLM 4.7 FlashXRippling
Two alternativesCalamari, Connecteam
PaycorChanged
Three alternativesConnecteam, Factorial, LeaveBoard
no first choiceDay Off, Vacation Tracker
Five alternativesBuddy Punch, Connecteam, Factorial, LeaveBoard, TracefyHR
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Namely
Five alternativesAbsence.io, BambooHR, HiBob, Leapsome, Rippling
BambooHRChanged
Five alternativesDeputy, LeaveBoard, Paycor, TMetric, Time Off Manager 365
BambooHR
Two alternativesPaycom, Personio
LeaveBoard
Two alternativesTimetastic, Vacation Tracker
no first choicenothing named
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 19:41yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:54yes48 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:06yes1626 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:53yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:16yes3718 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:48yes1412 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:48yes2019 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:53yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:25no030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:56yes1535 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:38yes2866 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:33yes1128 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:36yes99 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:10yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes1149 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:22yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:26yes3314 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:37yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:06yes1916 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:05yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:31no033 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:33yes1018 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:40yes2346 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:58yes1544 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:25yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:34yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:06yes854 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:24yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:54yes2317 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:04yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:17yes2769 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:36yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:12yes527 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:57yes1038 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:43yes9146 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:21yes818 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:00yes99 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:03yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes941 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:50yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:16yes2115 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:02yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:45yes109 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:11yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:28yes822 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:46yes1016 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:42yes954 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:40yes1527 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:54no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:10no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:07yes1360 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:42yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:45yes1210 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:44no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:14yes1975 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:08yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:25no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:29yes1056 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:09no024 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:38yes517 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:37yes158 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:46yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:57yes1751 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:35yes197 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:40yes4721 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:48yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:10yes1722 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:14yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:16yes838 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:15yes2937 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:06yes23120 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:01yes1332 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
Deel HR read as Deel
SAP read as SAP SuccessFactors
Workday HCM read as Workday
Unresolved, counted raw
Access PeopleHR
Activ People HR
Bizneo Time Management
Employee Leave Management India
EzNxT
Five
HR Partner
Hartford
Lincoln Financial
MS Access
Manual Tools (Spreadsheets, Email, Calendars)
Matrix Absence Management
MetLife
PowerApps
Spreadsheets & Manual Systems
Staff Leave
The Standard
Unum
absentify
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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