# Wave Payroll: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 2 judge labels across 1 category by 2 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/wave-payroll

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Contractor payments](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/spend/contractor-payments/index.md) | 0% | 81 | 50% | 2 |

## And against it

- "With a base fee it's more expensive than Square for low volumes." (Muse Glimmer 30B, Contractor payments)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Wave Payroll, from 2 of the 4 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- wingspan.app: 2
- worksuite.com: 2
- billed.app: 1
- business.usnews.com: 1
- deel.com: 1
- efilemyforms.com: 1
- erpvits.com: 1
- fabric.so: 1
- firsthr.app: 1
- fitsmallbusiness.com: 1

### Pages cited

- https://worksuite.com/resources/insights/best-contractor-payment-software: 2
- https://billed.app/hub/invoicing/best-invoicing-software-with-online-payments: 1
- https://business.usnews.com/payroll-software/best-cheap-payroll-software: 1
- https://deel.com/blog/best-contractor-management-software-for-global-payments: 1
- https://efilemyforms.com/blog/2026/09/07/the-5-best-online-1099-filing-platforms-for-small-businesses: 1
- https://erpvits.com/blog/sap-fieldglass-risk-management: 1
- https://fabric.so/comparison/best-contractor-payment-tool: 1
- https://firsthr.app/compare/payroll/best-1099-e-file-service: 1

## In its own words

What Wave Payroll's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: Run payroll for employees or contractors with peace of mind (https://waveapps.com/)
- For: employees or contractors (https://waveapps.com/)
- Price stated: add-on from $25/month (https://www.waveapps.com/pricing)
- Starting price: 25 (https://www.waveapps.com/pricing)
- Certifications: PCI DSS
- Customers named: Dae

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/finance.