Zoho · 13 categories · RankedZoho People
221Judge labels
55First choices
12Negative labels
12 of 12Models named it
13Categories
September 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table vv2026-09.1, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
22% in HRIS and HCM platforms for mid-market buyers
Rank 2 of 46 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 12 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 15% of its 13 labels there were negative.
By buyer segmentStrongest at mid-market.
Small business3 of 48
16%24 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market2 of 46
22%13 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise28 of 48
0%1 label
under the label threshold
In hris and hcm platforms · 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 Zoho People 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HRIS and HCM platforms | Core HR and payroll | 22% | 2 of 46 | 15% | 13 | accepted challenger |
| Employee onboarding | Onboarding and employee experience | 18% | 3 of 104 | 0% | 11 | accepted challenger |
| Workforce management suites | Core HR and payroll | 11% | 4 of 95 | 8% | 13 | accepted challenger |
| HR help desk and case management | Onboarding and employee experience | 2% | 10 of 93 | 0% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by Zoho Desk at 26% |
| Performance management | Performance and talent management | 2% | 11 of 60 | 0% | 6 | under 10 labels · led by Lattice at 41% |
| Internal talent marketplace | Performance and talent management | 2% | 18 of 129 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Fuel50 at 26% |
| HR compliance and policy management | Core HR and payroll | 2% | 12 of 84 | 0% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by Rippling at 16% |
| Workforce planning | Workforce planning and analytics | 2% | 10 of 89 | 0% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by ChartHop at 31% |
| Leave and absence management | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 27 of 89 | 11% | 9 | under 10 labels · led by BambooHR at 28% |
| People analytics | Workforce planning and analytics | 0% | 30 of 99 | 0% | 4 | under 10 labels · led by HiBob at 15% |
| HR AI assistants | Onboarding and employee experience | 0% | 71 of 119 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Workativ Assistant at 12% |
| Skills intelligence | Performance and talent management | 0% | 117 of 162 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by TalentGuard at 19% |
| Workforce scheduling | Core HR and payroll | 0% | 57 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 Zoho People 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 Zoho People 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 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Mistral Small | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Kimi K2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
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
Direct31 labelsNone
Paraphrase10 labels1
Comparative26 labelsNone
Budget-constrained123 labels54
Scale-constrained15 labelsNone
Negative16 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative221 labels in all, every segment counted; 55 of the 56 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.
“For the smallest budgets, start with Zoho People (free up to 5 employees, then $1.25/employee) or Deel HR (free entirely)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · HRIS and HCM platforms · budget prompt · first choice
“The best workforce management software for a company with a limited budget is Zoho People, which starts at $1.50 per user per month.” Llama 4 Maverick · Workforce management sui · budget prompt · first choice
“For the tightest budget, Zoho People offers the best value with core features at the lowest per-user price.” MiniMax M2.5 · Employee onboarding · budget prompt · first choice
“start with Zoho People or When I Work. Zoho People offers the lowest cost per user with solid features” MiniMax M2.5 · Workforce management sui · budget 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.
“Sentiment trends negative at roughly 60 to 75 percent negative” Claude Haiku 4.5 · HRIS and HCM platforms · negative prompt · hard negative
“The user interface is functional but clunky, and the learning curve is steeper than modern, premium competitors.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · HRIS and HCM platforms · budget prompt · soft negative
“Zoho People / BambooHR — lighter options if your needs are simpler” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Workforce management sui · scale prompt · soft negative
“Verdict: Be Cautious.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Leave · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Zoho People, over the 221 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Zoho People 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 Zoho People. 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 202 of the 221 answers that named Zoho People and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
peoplemanagingpeople.com129
forbes.com122
fitsmallbusiness.com65
guideflow.com63
effy.ai58
gusto.com57
firsthr.app54
joinhomebase.com49
g2.com45
learn.g2.com45
687 of the 687 domain citations in answers naming Zoho People came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Names read as Zoho People
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Zoho People; a claim can dispute any of them.
Zoho People / Freshteam 1Zoho People Analytics 1Zoho People Free Tier 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 Zoho People'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 Zoho People, 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 zohopeople.com is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.
Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.