HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Workforce planning and analytics › People analytics › Small business › September 2026 Edition

People analytics for small business buyers

Asked as “people analytics platform”, and as “HR analytics software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 63 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
BambooHR
Clear leader
41% of first choices, clear leader.
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 businessBambooHR41%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketHiBob15%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseVisier65%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01BambooHR41%10%61endorsed leader
02Rippling10%4%27accepted challenger
03Lattice8%6%33accepted challenger
0415Five5%0%18accepted challenger
05Personio5%10%21accepted challenger
06Gusto5%0%17accepted challenger
07Culture Amp3%3%31accepted challenger
08Factorial2%0%12accepted challenger
09HiBob2%8%13accepted challenger
10ChartHop2%30%30criticized challenger
11Workday People Analytics2%73%11criticized challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
15One Model0%100%19criticized challenger
16Visier0%86%44criticized challenger
14Crunchr0%86%14criticized challenger
13Workday0%83%12criticized challenger
12Microsoft Power BI0%30%10criticized 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
HiBob vs CrunchrHiBob vs BambooHRCrunchr vs BambooHR

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 →
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Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01BambooHR41%
02Rippling10%
03Lattice8%
0415Five5%
05Personio5%
06Gusto5%
07Culture Amp3%
08Factorial2%
09HiBob2%
10ChartHop2%
11Workday People Analytics2%
12Microsoft Power BI0%
13Workday0%
14Crunchr0%
15One Model0%
16Visier0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 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.
Visier
86%
38 of 44 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 19 hard negative
“Avoid or be cautious about: Enterprise-grade dedicated people-analytics platforms (Visier, Workday People Analytics, One Model, ChartHop, Crunchr, Eletive, Workhuman iQ, Microsoft Viva Glint)” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
One Model
100%
19 of 19 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 13 hard negative
“Dedicated people analytics platforms (Visier, Crunchr, One Model) are enterprise tools ... not cost-effective for small businesses.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Crunchr
86%
12 of 14 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Dedicated people analytics platforms (Visier, Crunchr, One Model) are enterprise tools ... not cost-effective for small businesses.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Workday People Analytics
73%
8 of 11 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Workday is notorious for complex setups and high costs (often six-figure annual contracts). It is frequently cited as a poor first choice for small teams” 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. 758 links across 172 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

personio.com
vendor site · Personio37 answers · 44 citations · 9 models
eletive.com
vendor site · Eletive32 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
jugglehire.com
vendor site · JuggleHire32 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
vendor site · People Managing People30 answers · 34 citations · 9 models
thrivesparrow.com
vendor site · ThriveSparrow27 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
firsthr.app
vendor site · FirstHR23 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com
vendor site · Select Software Reviews23 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
hrbench.com
vendor site · HRBench22 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
learn.g2.com
19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
hibob.com
vendor site · HiBob17 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
workhuman.com
vendor site · Workhuman16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
hr.university
15 answers · 16 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.

personio.com/hr-lexicon/hr-analytics-tools
37 answers · 9 models
eletive.com/blog/people-analytics-tools
32 answers · 10 models
jugglehire.com/blog/hr-tips/people-analytics-tools
32 answers · 9 models
thrivesparrow.com/blog/best-people-analytics-software
27 answers · 9 models
hrbench.com/blog/best-people-analytics-software
22 answers · 9 models
selectsoftwarereviews.com/buyer-guide/analytics-tools
22 answers · 8 models
firsthr.app/compare/general/hr-analytics-software
21 answers · 7 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-people-analytics-software
21 answers · 8 models
learn.g2.com/best-hr-analytics-software
19 answers · 9 models
hibob.com/blog/best-hr-analytics-software-tools
17 answers · 9 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 people analytics platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which HR analytics software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top people analytics platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best people analytics platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a people analytics platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which people analytics platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Zimyo
Three alternativesBambooHR, Gusto, IntelliHR
against: HiBob, Qualtrics EmployeeXMBambooHR, GustoChanged
Two alternativesHiBob, Zoho People
BambooHR, Orgnostic
Six alternativesChartHop, Crunchr, Culture Amp, Deel HR, Qualtrics EmployeeXM, Visier
Zoho People
Three alternativesChartHop, PeopleHum, Personio
no first choiceagainst: Alteryx, Crunchr, Looker, One Model, Visier
GPT-5.4 miniRippling
Two alternativesBambooHR, Culture Amp
BambooHRChanged
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Lattice, Rippling
BambooHR, HiBob
Three alternativesCulture Amp, Lattice, Rippling
against: Workday People AnalyticsPeopleForce
One alternativePeopleInsight
against: BambooHRno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRippling
Seven alternativesBambooHR, ChartHop, Culture Amp, HiBob, Illoominus, Knoetic, Lattice
against: One Model, VisierRipplingHeld
Three alternativesBambooHR, ChartHop, Lattice
no first choice
Six alternativesBambooHR, ChartHop, HiBob, Lattice, Leapsome, Windmill
ChartHop
Five alternativesBambooHR, ChatGPT, Claude, Gusto, Looker Studio
against: Crunchr, One Model, VisierHiBob, Rippling
Six alternativesCulture Amp, Google Sheets / Excel, Lattice, Leapsome, Officevibe, Polly
against: ChartHop, Visieragainst: ActivTrak, Crunchr, Eightfold AI, Hubstaff, Looker, Microsoft Power BI, One Model, Tableau, Teramind, Visier, Workday Prism Analytics
Perplexity SonarBambooHR
Four alternativesHiBob, Personio, Rippling, ThriveSparrow
BambooHR, Employment HeroChanged
Two alternativesLooker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
against: RipplingBambooHR, Personio
Six alternatives15Five, Basedash, ChartHop, Culture Amp, Lattice, Metabase
against: VisierBambooHR, Google Sheets + Looker Studio
Two alternativesFactorial, Sage HR
against: Visierno first choiceagainst: BambooHR, ChartHop, Crunchr, One Model, Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics, Orgvue, SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics, Tableau, Visier, Workday People Analytics
Grok 4.1 FastBambooHR
Three alternatives15Five, Lattice, Personio
against: VisierBambooHRHeld
Two alternativesGusto, Rippling
BambooHR
Five alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Gusto, Lattice, Rippling
against: Visier, Workday15Five
Two alternativesBambooHR, Factorial
against: ChartHop, Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Zoho AnalyticsADP Workforce Now, Lattice, Personio
Three alternativesBambooHR, Google Sheets + Looker Studio, Microsoft Viva Insights
against: ChartHop, Visieragainst: Crunchr, Eletive, One Model, Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics, Qualtrics EmployeeXM, SAP SuccessFactors, Visier, Workday People Analytics
Mistral SmallCulture Amp, Lattice
One alternativeBambooHR
against: PersonioGusto, PersonioChanged
Two alternativesEmployment Hero, Rippling
BambooHR, Culture Amp, Lattice
Three alternatives15Five, ChartHop, Personio
against: Visier15Five, BambooHR
Two alternativesCulture Amp, Lattice
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Eletive, One Model, Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics, SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics, Visier, Workday People Analytics
DeepSeek V4 FlashBambooHR
Four alternativesChartHop, Culture Amp, Lattice, Personio
against: One Model, Visier, WorkdayBambooHRHeld
Three alternativesFactorial, Rippling, Zoho People
against: One Model, Personio, VisierBambooHR
Five alternatives15Five, ChartHop, Culture Amp, HiBob, Lattice
against: Crunchr, One Model, Visier, WorkdayBambooHR, Google Sheets + Looker Studio
Three alternatives15Five, Factorial, Personio
against: ChartHop, Culture Amp, Lattice, One Model, Visier, WorkdayBambooHR, Culture Amp, Lattice
One alternativeRippling
against: ChartHop, Crunchr, One Model, Visieragainst: BambooHR, ChartHop, Crunchr, One Model, SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics, Visier, Workday People Analytics / Prism Analytics
Llama 4 MaverickWorkday People Analyticsagainst: Eletive, VisierBambooHRChanged
Four alternativesEmployment Hero, Factorial, Naaloo, Sage HR
BambooHR
Four alternatives15Five, ChartHop, Culture Amp, Lattice
against: VisierLattice
Two alternativesGoogle Sheets + Looker, Personio
no first choiceagainst: BambooHR, Eletive, One Model, Oracle, SAP, Visier, Workday
Qwen 3.7 FlashBambooHR
Three alternativesCulture Amp, Factorial, Lattice
Zoho PeopleChanged
Two alternativesBambooHR, ChartHop
against: SAP, VisierCulture Amp, Lattice
Two alternativesChartHop, HiBob
against: BambooHR, VisierChartable.io, Daxio
Two alternativesMicrosoft Power BI, Rippling
against: ADPBambooHR, Greenhouse, Rippling
One alternativeChartHop
against: Visieragainst: Eletive, One Model, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday People Analytics, Workday Prism Analytics
Kimi K2BambooHR
Four alternativesFactorial, HiBob, Lattice, Personio
against: Visier, WorkdayBambooHR, GustoChanged
Three alternativesFactorial, Rippling, Zimyo
15Five, BambooHR
Four alternativesCulture Amp, Gusto, Lattice, Rippling
BambooHR
Four alternatives15Five, ChartHop, Microsoft Power BI, Personio
against: Visier, WorkdayRippling
Four alternativesBambooHR, HiBob, PeopleInsight, SplashBI
against: ChartHop, Crunchr, Visieragainst: Eletive, Microsoft Power BI, One Model, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Tableau, Visier, Workday HCM, Workday People Analytics
GLM 4.7 FlashXBambooHR
Two alternativesCulture Amp, Lattice
against: Visier, WorkdayBambooHRHeld
Five alternativesFactorial, Gusto, Rippling, SnapHRM, Zoho People
Culture Amp, Personio
Three alternatives15Five, BambooHR, Lattice
against: Visier, WorkdayBambooHR, Factorial
Five alternativesChartHop, Excel with Templates, Google Sheets + Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI, PeopleHum
against: Crunchr, One Model, VisierBambooHR
Five alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Lattice, Personio, Workday People Analytics
against: Visieragainst: ChartHop, Crunchr, Eletive, Looker, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Viva Glint, One Model, Visier, Workday People Analytics, Workhuman iQ, Zoho Analytics
MiniMax M2.5BambooHR, Personioagainst: Visier, WorkdayBambooHRChanged
Three alternativesFactorial, Gusto, Rippling
15Five, BambooHR
One alternativeCulture Amp
against: Lattice15Five, BambooHR
Four alternativesChartHop, Culture Amp, Effy AI, Google Sheets
BambooHR, Lattice
Two alternativesChartHop, Culture Amp
against: Visieragainst: Crunchr, One Model, Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, Tableau, Visier, Workday People Analytics
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 18:10yes96 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:57yes26 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:00yes2756 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:51yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:26yes3218 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:44yes56 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:20yes1326 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:31yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:59yes529 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:22yes822 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:30yes2455 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:02yes630 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:08yes1610 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:32yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:06yes951 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:22yes175 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:45yes3616 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:40yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:30yes2322 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:14yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:37no032 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:02yes918 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:46yes1484 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:24yes1138 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:19yes1411 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:33yes314 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:30yes2021 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:48yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:24yes2316 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:09yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:40yes2223 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:12yes75 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:49no036 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:14yes1842 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:43yes22220 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:08yes923 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:56yes147 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:18yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:13yes1428 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:25yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:39yes3616 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:21yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:47yes812 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:38yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:12no024 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:59yes623 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:40yes11134 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:23yes939 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:10no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:11no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:37no016 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:56yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:26yes1212 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:06no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:10yes1950 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:06yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:04no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:15yes1528 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:16yes1033 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:02yes521 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:38yes1511 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:31yes05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:03yes1852 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:21yes209 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:54yes2214 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:03yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:43yes2935 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:32yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:28yes524 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:56yes1759 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:28yes1670 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:07yes1229 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
Glint read as Microsoft Viva Glint
Oracle Cloud HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Oracle HCM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Oracle HCM Cloud read as Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Power BI read as Microsoft Power BI
Power BI (Desktop) read as Microsoft Power BI
Power BI Pro read as Microsoft Power BI
Qualtrics read as Qualtrics EmployeeXM
Qualtrics (EmployeeXM/People Analytics) read as Qualtrics EmployeeXM
Unresolved, counted raw
Alteryx
Basedash
Charlie
Chartable.io
Chorus
Excel with Templates
Humantelligence
Metabase
Naaloo
PeopleForce
SnapHRM
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in workforce planning and analytics

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