# Leave and absence management for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "leave management software" and as "PTO tracking tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/core/leave-and-absence-management/2026-11/enterprise

**Standing:** Workday leads with 24% of first choices; verdict contested. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Workday](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/workday/index.md) | 24% | 16% | 49 |
| 2 | [Rippling](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/rippling/index.md) | 22% | 4% | 28 |
| 3 | [UKG Pro](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/ukg-pro/index.md) | 6% | 0% | 20 |
| 4 | [AbsenceSoft](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/absencesoft/index.md) | 6% | 5% | 21 |
| 5 | [ADP Workforce Now](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/adp-workforce-now/index.md) | 6% | 13% | 15 |
| 7 | [SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central – Time Off](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/sap-successfactors-employee-central-time-off/index.md) | 4% | 16% | 25 |
| 11 | [Deel](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/deel/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 11 |
| 13 | [Calamari](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/calamari/index.md) | 2% | 18% | 11 |
| 19 | [BambooHR](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/bamboohr/index.md) | 2% | 48% | 31 |
| 20 | [Dayforce](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/dayforce/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 21 | Oracle Fusion Cloud Absence Management | 0% | 27% | 15 |
| 115 | [Vacation Tracker](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/vacation-tracker/index.md) | 0% | 53% | 15 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 116 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Rippling; alternatives Absence.io, Cocoon, HROne, Workday
- GPT-5.4 mini: AbsenceSoft; alternatives Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central – Time Off, Workday
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Rippling; alternatives Calamari, Factorial, Personio, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central – Time Off
- Perplexity Sonar: Rippling; alternatives AbsenceSoft, Deel
- Grok 4.20: Workday; alternatives Oracle Fusion Cloud Absence Management, Rippling, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central – Time Off
- Mistral Small: BambooHR, Rippling; alternatives Deel
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Rippling; alternatives ADP, Absence.io, Calamari, Keka
- Llama 4 Maverick: OfficeTimer; alternatives ADP, Paycom, Zoho People
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Rippling; alternatives BambooHR, Deel, Oracle Fusion Cloud Absence Management, UKG Pro
- Kimi K2: SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central – Time Off, Workday; alternatives Rippling
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Workday; alternatives ADP Workforce Now, HiBob, Oracle Fusion Cloud Absence Management, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central – Time Off
- MiniMax M2.5: Rippling; alternatives Calamari, actiPLANS
- GPT-6 Luna: AbsenceSoft; alternatives UKG Pro Absence, Workday
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Calamari, Deel; alternatives BambooHR, Factorial, Justworks, OfficeTimer

## Sources the answers cite

74 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- softwareadvice.com: 29 answers, 44 citations
- capterra.com: 25 answers, 40 citations
- peoplemanagingpeople.com: 25 answers, 32 citations
- forbes.com: 25 answers, 25 citations
- hono.ai: 23 answers, 26 citations
- g2.com: 21 answers, 28 citations
- actiplans.com: 20 answers, 27 citations
- keka.com: 19 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-leave-management-systems (24 answers)
- https://hono.ai/blog/best-employee-leave-management-system-for-enterprise (23 answers)
- https://keka.com/best-leave-management-software (19 answers)
- https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-leave-management-software (18 answers)
- https://desklog.io/blog/best-leave-management-software (17 answers)
- https://actiplans.com/blog/free-leave-management-software (16 answers)
- https://cxeverywhere.com/tools/leave-management-software (16 answers)
- https://employsome.com/best/leave-management-software (16 answers)
- https://saasworthy.com/list/leave-management-system (15 answers)
- https://capterra.com/leave-management-system-software (13 answers)

## Warned against

- BambooHR: 15 of 31 labels negative. "Mid-Market / SMB HRIS Platforms (e.g., BambooHR, Gusto, Zenefits, Personio) ... Avoid using their native leave modules as the core enterprise leave system" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Workday: 8 of 49 labels negative. "Workday's own documentation notes that being on leave does not automatically prevent a worker from entering time" (GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt)
- Vacation Tracker: 8 of 15 labels negative. "Excellent for small teams or Slack/Teams integrations but not built for enterprise complexity... Avoid if you need custom policies across locations" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Timetastic: 4 of 4 labels negative. ""Best for Small Businesses: Timetastic" ... they lack the enterprise features many large employers need" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Workday at 24%.

- Rippling: 2% to 22%, +20. Cleared the floor by 7 points · rank 9 → 2 of 116.
- Workday: 38% to 24%, −14. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 116, unchanged.
- UKG Pro: 10% to 6%, −4. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 2 → 3 of 116.
- AbsenceSoft: 8% to 6%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 3 → 4 of 116.
- ADP Workforce Now: 4% to 6%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 of 116, unchanged.
- SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central – Time Off: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 7 of 116.
- Deel: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 77 → 11 of 116.
- BambooHR: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 19 of 116.
- Calamari: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 19 → 13 of 116.
- Dayforce: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 21 → 20 of 116.
- Oracle Fusion Cloud Absence Management: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 20 → 21 of 116.
- Vacation Tracker: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 98 → 115 of 116.

## Record

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