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Index › Core HR and payroll › PEOs › Small business › October 2026 Edition

PEO providers for small business buyers

Asked as “PEO”, and as “professional employer organization”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
70%
Clear leader
70Justworks09TriNet06Rippling15others

70% of first choices, clear leader.

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.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Justworks70%0%55endorsed leader
02TriNet9%15%46accepted challenger
03Rippling6%5%22accepted challenger
04Paychex PEO4%0%11accepted challenger
05ADP TotalSource2%19%42accepted challenger
06Insperity2%17%29accepted challenger
07Paychex2%33%12criticized challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Gusto0%20%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 product page.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

One product takes 70% of first choices here, so the chart would put seven markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. One product carries a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Five of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5 and Muse Glimmer 30B 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.
ADP TotalSource
19%
8 of 42 labels negative · 8 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“ADP is known in the small business community for complex billing structures and bureaucratic customer support” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
TriNet
15%
7 of 46 labels negative · 6 of 14 models · 1 hard negative
“Cons repeatedly listed are undisclosed pricing and no online quotes... "I absolutely hate TriNet. They are the worst."” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt
Paychex
33%
4 of 12 labels negative · 4 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Paychex has a mixed-to-negative reputation regarding customer support responsiveness.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Insperity
17%
5 of 29 labels negative · 3 of 14 models · 2 hard negative
“Insperity frequently faces severe backlash on consumer forums and review sites. Common complaints include aggressive collection practices, difficulty canceling contracts” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

78 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1036 links across 183 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

50 answers · 59 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Deel36 answers · 55 citations · 12 models
33 answers · 35 citations · 12 models
vendor site · FirstHR32 answers · 36 citations · 11 models
29 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
27 answers · 33 citations · 11 models
27 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Rework26 answers · 30 citations · 11 models
24 answers · 32 citations · 12 models
23 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
vendor site · RemotePeople23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
22 answers · 31 citations · 9 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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best peo”, “peo”, “peos”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Justworks justworks.com70%28260,500452236,868$2,424120
TriNet trinet.com9%19074,000909232,419$53330
Rippling rippling.com6%1260301,00017,886712,399$42,013115
Paychex paychex.com
Paychex PEO 4%, Paychex 2%
6%92550,0004,7772,394,396 company68
ADP parent site
ADP TotalSource 2%
2%1462,740,00023,897
Insperity insperity.com2%9890,5001,172134,574$17,835120
Deel deel.com
Deel 2%, Deel PEO 0%, Deel HR 0%, Deel Hire 0%
2%52640,5001,210307,175$330,6081185
DecisionHR2%
Gusto gusto.com0%870673,00010,5601,629,483118
XcelHR0%

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 21 sites; 1 of them are among the sites the models cited here (deel.com). The first result for “best peo” is trustradius.com.

How 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.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best PEO for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which professional employer organization would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top PEOs for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best PEO for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a PEO. What should we look at?”Negative“Which PEOs should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceJustworks, PaychexChanged
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, Rippling
Justworks, Rippling
Four alternativesADP TotalSource, Deel Hire, Insperity, TriNet
Justworks
Three alternativesAmplify PEO, CoAdvantage, Gusto
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Paychex, Rippling
GPT-5.4 miniJustworks
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, Deel, Remote, Rippling, TriNet
TriNetChanged
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Justworks, Paychex PEO/Oasis, Rippling
Justworks
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Paychex PEO, Rippling, TriNet
Justworks
One alternativeXcelHR
against: Paychex
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRippling
Four alternativesDeel PEO, Insperity, Justworks, TriNet
RipplingHeld
Three alternativesJustworks, Sequoia One, TriNet
Justworks
Four alternativesDeel, Insperity, Rippling, TriNet
Justworks
Three alternativesGusto, OnPay, Rippling
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Paychex Oasis, TriNet
Perplexity SonarJustworks
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, Deel, Insperity, Multiplier, TriNet
JustworksHeld
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, TriNet
Justworks
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, CoAdvantage, Insperity, Rippling, TriNet
Justworks
Three alternativesDeel, Multiplier, RemoFirst
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastJustworks
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex, TriNet
JustworksHeld
Two alternativesInsperity, TriNet
Justworks
Four alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Paychex PEO, TriNet
Justworks
One alternativeDeel
against: ADP TotalSource, TriNet
no first choiceagainst: Tandem HR
Mistral SmallJustworks
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity
Insperity, JustworksChanged
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, TriNet
Justworks
Five alternativesADP TotalSource, CoAdvantage PEO, Insperity, Paychex PEO, TriNet
Justworks
Two alternativesDeel HR, FirstHR
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashJustworks
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Rippling, TriNet
against: Gusto
JustworksHeld
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, TriNet
Justworks
Six alternativesADP TotalSource, Deel PEO, Insperity, Remote PEO, Rippling, TriNet
against: Gusto
Justworks
One alternativeAmplify PEO
against: ADP TotalSource, G&A Partners, Paychex
no first choicenothing named
Llama 4 MaverickPaychex PEOno first choiceChangedJustworks, TriNet
One alternativeInsperity
no first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashRippling
Three alternativesJustworks, Thriple, TriNet
against: Insperity
JustworksChanged
Two alternativesPeoWorks, TriNet
Justworks
Four alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex Flex, Rippling, TriNet
DecisionHR, Justworks, Paychex PEO
Three alternativesBBSI, Gusto, OnPay
against: TriNet
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Insperity, Paychex
Kimi K2Justworks
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Rippling, TriNet
Justworks, TriNetChanged
Two alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity
Justworks
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex PEO, TriNet
Justworks
Two alternativesBambee, Gusto
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Presidion Corporation, TriNet
GLM 4.7 FlashXJustworks
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex PEO, TriNet
Justworks, TriNetChanged
One alternativeInsperity
Justworks, Rippling
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex, TriNet
Justworks
Three alternativesGusto, Paychex PEO, Rippling
no first choiceagainst: ADP TotalSource, Insperity, TriNet
MiniMax M2.5no first choiceJustworks, TriNetChanged
One alternativeGusto
FirstHR, Justworks
Three alternativesADP TotalSource, Paychex PEO, XcelHR
Deel, Justworks
One alternativeADP PEO Basic
no first choicenothing named
GPT-6 LunaJustworks
Two alternativesInsperity, TriNet
JustworksHeld
One alternativeTriNet
Justworks
Four alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, Rippling, TriNet
Justworksno first choicenothing named
Muse Glimmer 30BADP TotalSource, JustworksJustworksChangedJustworks
Four alternativesADP TotalSource, Insperity, TriNet, XcelHR
Justworks
Three alternativesInfinity HR, Paychex PEO, RemoFirst
against: ADP TotalSource, Insperity, TriNet
no first choiceagainst: ADP PEO services, Insperity, TriNet
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The 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
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:36no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:27yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:26yes1526 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:19yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:20yes2013 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:28yes1310 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:24yes2133 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:22yes54 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:42no026 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:30yes1523 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:36yes1828 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:29yes513 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:38yes413 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:34yes1619 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:28yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:20yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:19yes1021 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:35yes172 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:33yes2212 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:29yes129 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:31yes2323 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:37yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:28yes838 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:33yes1012 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:41yes2427 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:29yes519 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:34yes311 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:36yes2122 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:25yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:41yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:36yes2128 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:22yes205 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:41yes2112 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:19yes89 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:20yes2226 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:24yes54 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:22yes934 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:41yes1521 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:18yes1831 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:33yes719 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:42yes727 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:19yes2228 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:29yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:26yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:35yes2125 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:31yes203 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:23yes1913 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:29yes97 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:30yes2024 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:21yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:22yes939 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:32yes1440 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:20yes1937 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:23yes1225 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:39yes113 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:37yes1020 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:33no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:31no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:28yes1424 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:26yes196 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:37yes1410 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:33no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:25yes1827 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:38yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:31yes522 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:36yes1521 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:26no012 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:20yes527 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:23yes420 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:41yes1331 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 21:23yes1710 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 21:19yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 21:24yes2928 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 21:37yes204 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 21:41yes2110 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 21:21yes57 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 21:42yes2120 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 21:37yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 21:21yes2351 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 21:23yes2356 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 21:26yes2346 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 21:33yes1932 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 21:23yes313 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 21:20yes2428 s

Normalization in this category

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

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
ADP read as ADP TotalSource
Unresolved, counted raw
ADP PEO Basic
ADP PEO services
Amplify
CoAdvantage PEO
DecisionHR
Infinity HR
Oasis Payroll
PEO Basic plan by a company
Paychex Oasis
PeoWorks (by ADP)
Presidion Corporation
Remote PEO
Tandem HR
Thriple
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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