20 categories · RankedPaylocity
278Judge labels
19First choices
57Negative labels
12 of 12Models named it
20Categories
September 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table vv2026-09.1, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
17% in Payroll software for mid-market buyers
Rank 3 of 43 in the mid-market standingcriticized challenger
5 of 12 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 29% of its 35 labels there were negative.
By buyer segmentStrongest at mid-market.
Small business21 of 34
0%2 labels
under the label threshold
Mid-market3 of 43
17%35 labels
criticized challenger
Enterprise16 of 51
0%21 labels
accepted challenger
In payroll software · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Paylocity for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll software | Core HR and payroll | 17% | 3 of 43 | 29% | 35 | criticized challenger |
| HR compliance and policy management | Core HR and payroll | 8% | 3 of 84 | 5% | 20 | accepted challenger |
| Time and attendance | Core HR and payroll | 6% | 9 of 90 | 0% | 11 | accepted challenger |
| HRIS and HCM platforms | Core HR and payroll | 2% | 9 of 46 | 16% | 25 | accepted challenger |
| Compensation management | Compensation and total rewards | 2% | 14 of 189 | 10% | 10 | accepted challenger |
| Benefits administration | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 13 of 54 | 14% | 22 | accepted challenger |
| Workforce planning | Workforce planning and analytics | 0% | 16 of 89 | 8% | 13 | accepted challenger |
| Workforce management suites | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 14 of 95 | 0% | 11 | accepted challenger |
| Employee onboarding | Onboarding and employee experience | 0% | 18 of 104 | 0% | 7 | under 10 labels · led by BambooHR at 29% |
| Succession planning | Performance and talent management | 0% | 24 of 99 | 0% | 6 | under 10 labels · led by Lattice at 31% |
| Global payroll and employer of record | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 18 of 66 | 0% | 4 | under 10 labels · led by Deel at 22% |
| HR help desk and case management | Onboarding and employee experience | 0% | 33 of 93 | 0% | 3 | under 10 labels · led by Zoho Desk at 26% |
| People analytics | Workforce planning and analytics | 0% | 76 of 99 | 33% | 3 | under 10 labels · led by HiBob at 15% |
| Performance management | Performance and talent management | 0% | 23 of 60 | 0% | 3 | under 10 labels · led by Lattice at 41% |
| HR AI assistants | Onboarding and employee experience | 0% | 65 of 119 | 0% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by Workativ Assistant at 12% |
| Leave and absence management | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 41 of 89 | 0% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by BambooHR at 28% |
| Earned wage access | Compensation and total rewards | 0% | 41 of 61 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Tapcheck at 29% |
| Flexible benefits and lifestyle spending accounts | Compensation and total rewards | 0% | 44 of 76 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Compt at 30% |
| Learning management systems | Learning and development | 0% | 65 of 74 | 100% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by TalentLMS at 48% |
| Workforce scheduling | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 69 of 94 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Deputy at 26% |
Movement
This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Paylocity yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.
By model
How each model treated Paylocity across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 15 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 19 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 17 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 3 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 26 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 14 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 3 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 20 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 3 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 15 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 11 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct85 labels10
Paraphrase49 labels5
Comparative50 labelsNone
Budget-constrained9 labels1
Scale-constrained26 labels3
Negative59 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative278 labels in all, every segment counted; 19 of the 20 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“It is widely considered the industry leader for the mid-market... Most balanced system for the mid-market size; least friction for Finance teams.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Time and attendance · direct prompt · first choice
“Request demos from top fits like UKG (great for 50-500 employees), Paycom (all-in-one), or Paylocity (AI scheduling).” Grok 4.1 Fast · Time and attendance · scale prompt · first choice
“Highly rated for mid-market payroll and HR, offering compliance dashboards, ACA compliance, tax management” Mistral Small · HR compliance · direct prompt · first choice
“1. ADP Workforce Now 2. Paylocity These software options are designed for midsize and large businesses” Llama 4 Maverick · HR compliance · direct prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“here are the platforms you should be cautious about and why: ### 1. Paylocity ... claim the software causes significant errors in payroll processing” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Payroll software · negative prompt · hard negative
“Was sued by DrinkPAK for software errors that allegedly caused wage and hour violations, leading to two class-action settlements” Kimi K2 · HR compliance · negative prompt · hard negative
“multiple user discussions describe poor support and technical issues, so it is a candidate for extra due diligence” Perplexity Sonar · Payroll software · negative prompt · hard negative
“here are compensation platforms you should avoid or be cautious about... Paylocity - Trustpilot Rating: 1.02/5 stars” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Compensation management · negative prompt · hard negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Paylocity, over the 275 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Paylocity was named but was not.
ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Paylocity. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 236 of the 275 answers that named Paylocity and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
peoplemanagingpeople.com93
guideflow.com90
learn.g2.com76
g2.com68
gartner.com61
forbes.com60
paylocity.comYour site54
rippling.com51
adp.com50
hibob.com46
595 of the 649 domain citations in answers naming Paylocity came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Names read as Paylocity
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Paylocity; a claim can dispute any of them.
Paylocity Global 2Paycor / Paylocity 1Paylocity / Justworks / Deel 1Paylocity / Paycor 1Paylocity Global Payroll 1Paylocity Time & Labor 1
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Paylocity's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Paylocity, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at paylocity.com is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.
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