Six of twelve models named Rippling first on the direct prompt; zero named Gusto. Both were named by all twelve models and Rippling carries 41 labels and Gusto 25, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in twenty-eight categories this edition.
Named in eighteen categories this edition.
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 employee onboarding page.
Across every category in the September 2026 Edition, Rippling and Gusto were named in the same answer 453 times, of the 1168 answers naming Rippling and the 802 naming Gusto. In those answers Gusto took the first choice 150 times and Rippling fifty-three.
| 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 |
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.
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Two of two in this category shown.
“I'd recommend starting with BambooHR if your priority is simplicity and fast deployment, or Rippling if you also want to automate IT provisioning” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Rippling stands out because it doesn’t just handle paperwork—it automatically creates user accounts, assigns laptops, and enrolls employees in benefits.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. One of one in this category shown.
“For a limited budget, Gusto (if you already use it for payroll) or ExactHire (flat $130/mo) often give the best value per employee.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · budget prompt · first choice
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.