2 categories · RankedGusto
Gusto is an online HR service that covers payroll, benefits and other HR tasks, aimed at small businesses · gusto.com ↗
Leads at small business. Ranked 13 of 78 for enterprise buyers.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Ranked first. Next is Square Payroll at 25%.
Tipalti is first at 28%. 0 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Tipalti is first at 47%.
Why models recommend it
“Best for: U.S. businesses paying U.S. contractors and wanting payroll + contractor payments in one system.”GPT-5.4 mini · Comparative question · first choice
“The easiest to set up for domestic work. Automates 1099-NEC tax reporting and W-9 collection natively.”Qwen 3.7 Flash · Comparative question · first choice
“Gusto’s Contractor Only plan is usually the best balance of price + ease of use + 1099 filing”GPT-5.4 mini · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“Mostly U.S. contractors: Gusto”GPT-6 Luna · Comparative question · first choice
What gives them pause
“Gusto is a solid simpler option, but it's usually better for smaller orgs than a true mid-market, multi-team setup”GPT-5.4 mini · Direct question · warning
“Gusto is primarily U.S.-focused and does not support international contractor payments.”Perplexity Sonar · Negative question · warning
“less suited for global, high-volume, or complex AP scenarios”DeepSeek V4 Flash · Direct question · warning
“Poor customer support with limited communication options”MiniMax M2.5 · Negative question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Gusto, over the 147 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 114 | 24 | Compare → | |
| 71 | 6 | Compare → | |
| 68 | 8 | Compare → | |
| 59 | 4 | View → | |
| 57 | 18 | Compare → | |
| 41 | 12 | Compare → | |
| 38 | 4 | Compare → | |
| 35 | 0 | View → | |
| 29 | 0 | View → | |
| 26 | 0 | View → |
What the models named instead of Gusto →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Gusto's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- small businesses
- Price stated
- You’ll pay nothing ‘til you’re ready to run payroll.
- Free plan or trial
- Create free account
- Certifications
- SOC 1, SOC 2
- Hosting
- AWS region US-West-2 (Oregon), AWS region US-East-1 (Virginia)
- Customers named
- Magnolia Café, Mason’s Creamery, Forge Fire, Big Monocle
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 129 of the 147 answers that named Gusto and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
315 of the 379 domain citations in answers naming Gusto came from a third party's page. Twenty-nine were to the publisher's own pages (the Gane Index), which the models cite like any other source; they are not counted as a third party.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
What it publishes
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glossary or explainer | 12 | undated | |||
| Comparison | 10 | undated | |||
| Template or tool | 4 | undated | |||
| Webinar or virtual event | 1 | undated | |||
| Report or ebook | 1 | undated |
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page gusto.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.