September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › HR › Core HR and payroll › Workforce scheduling › Enterprise · September 2026 Edition

Workforce scheduling for enterprise buyers

Asked as “employee scheduling software”, and as “shift scheduling tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
25%
Contested · Workday Workforce Management 16%
25UKG Pro Workforce Management16Workday Workforce Management08Deputy51others

25% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01UKG Pro Workforce Management25%4%26accepted challenger
02Workday Workforce Management16%5%19accepted challenger
03Deputy8%25%20criticized challenger
04Shiftboard6%5%22accepted challenger
05Dayforce2%0%13accepted challenger
06Rippling2%18%11accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Calendly0%55%20criticized challenger
07Acuity Scheduling0%45%11criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not enterprise.
All ten head-to-head pages: the top five products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01UKG Pro Workforce Management25%
02Workday Workforce Management16%
03Deputy8%
04Shiftboard6%
05Dayforce2%
06Rippling2%
07Acuity Scheduling0%
08Calendly0%

What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Calendly
55%
11 of 20 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Why to avoid: While popular for individuals and small teams, Calendly lacks the complexity, compliance, and integration capabilities required by large enterprises.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Acuity Scheduling
45%
5 of 11 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Missing enterprise features like advanced routing, compliance, and multi-department controls” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
Deputy
25%
5 of 20 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“I would not pick lighter tools like Deputy or When I Work as the primary platform for a very large enterprise” GPT-5.4 mini, paraphrase prompt
Doodle
60%
3 of 5 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Doodle: Free tiers display advertising to invitees, has no CRM integration, no routing/round-robin logic, and weak admin controls—unacceptable for customer-facing enterprise use.” Kimi K2, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

69 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1140 links across 343 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

39 answers · 70 citations · 11 models
vendor site · G229 answers · 33 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Zapier26 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Guideflow25 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Cal.com19 answers · 25 citations · 11 models
18 answers · 28 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Nowsta17 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
16 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
14 answers · 14 citations · 8 models
13 answers · 33 citations · 8 models
vendor site · G213 answers · 18 citations · 7 models
13 answers · 14 citations · 11 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best employee scheduling software”, “employee scheduling software”, “scheduling tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
UKG Ready ukg.com
UKG Pro Workforce Management 25%, UKG Ready 2%, UKG Shiftboard 2%
29%26718,100215310,168$11,996120
Workday parent site
Workday Workforce Management 16%, Workday HCM 2%, Workday GO 2%
20%2111,220,00023,848
Deputy deputy.com8%35640,50017,00045,127$3,222323
ADP parent site
ADP WorkForce Suite 4%, ADP Workforce Now 4%
8%5082,740,00023,897
Shiftboard shiftboard.com6%2612,1007221,163
Quinyx quinyx.com6%302,400381,6590
Blue Yonder blueyonder.com
Blue Yonder Workforce Management 4%
4%1520,207 company26
Workforce.com workforce.com4%501,00010349,6030
Ceridian dayforce.com
Dayforce 2%
2%339450,0002,983208,25238
Rippling rippling.com2%1438301,00017,886712,399$42,013115

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 22 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (business.com, peoplemanagingpeople.com, zapier.com). The first result for “best employee scheduling software” is buddypunch.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best employee scheduling software for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which shift scheduling tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade scheduling tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best employee scheduling software for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating an employee scheduling software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which scheduling tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5ADP Workforce Now
Two alternativesConnecteam, Paycor
ADP Workforce Now, UKG Pro Workforce ManagementChanged
Two alternativesDeputy, Nowsta
Dayforce
Two alternativesADP Workforce Now, Paychex
Quinyx
Four alternativesPaylocity, Shiftboard, UKG Pro Workforce Management, Workday Workforce Management
no first choiceagainst: Calendly
GPT-5.4 miniUKG Pro Workforce Management
One alternativeDayforce Workforce Management
ADP WorkForce Suite, Workday Workforce ManagementChangedagainst: Deputy, When I WorkCalendly
Six alternativesAcuity Scheduling, Doodle, Google Calendar, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Outlook
Workday GO, Workday Workforce Management
One alternativeUKG Pro Workforce Management
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashAssembled, Chili Piper
Five alternativesCal.com, Calendly, Dayforce, UKG Pro Workforce Management, Zendesk WFM
UKG Pro Workforce ManagementChanged
Five alternativesDayforce, Deputy, Shiftboard, Skedulo, Workday Workforce Management
Calendly
Six alternativesActiveBatch, BMC Control-M, Chili Piper, Redwood RunMyJobs, Stonebranch, Timify Enterprise
UKG Shiftboard, Workforce.com
Three alternatives7shifts, Connecteam, Homebase
no first choiceagainst: Acuity Scheduling, Cal.com, Calendly, Doodle, X.ai
Perplexity SonarWorkday Workforce Management
Two alternativesDeputy, Shiftboard
Shiftboard, Workday Workforce ManagementChanged
One alternativeSAP SuccessFactors Workforce Scheduling
Shiftboard
Three alternativesDeputy, Rippling, UKG Pro Workforce Management
Connecteam
Two alternativesRippling, Shiftboard
no first choiceagainst: Calendly, Microsoft Project, Oracle ASCP, SAP APO/IBP, Siemens Opcenter
Grok 4.20UKG Pro Workforce Management
Four alternativesADP WorkForce Suite, Dayforce, Oracle HCM Cloud, Workday Workforce Management
against: Deputy, Shiftboard
UKG Pro Workforce ManagementHeld
Four alternativesDayforce, Oracle HCM Cloud, Shiftboard, Workday Workforce Management
against: Deputy, Homebase, Rippling
UKG Pro Workforce Management
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Shiftboard, Workday Workforce Management
UKG Pro Workforce Management
Two alternativesRippling, Zoho People
against: EpicShifts
Rippling, Workforce.com
Two alternativesDeputy, When I Work
against: 7shifts, Acuity Scheduling, Calendly, Doodle, Homebase, When I Work, YouCanBookMe
Mistral SmallQuinyx, UKG Pro Workforce Management
Three alternativesDayforce, Shiftboard, Workday Adaptive Planning
QuinyxChanged
Two alternativesIndeavor, Shiftboard
Resource Guru
Two alternativesClockwise, Shiftboard
EpicShifts
Two alternatives7shifts, Homebase
against: Rippling
no first choiceagainst: Calendly, HotSchedules
DeepSeek V4 FlashUKG Pro Workforce Management
Three alternativesADP WorkForce Suite, Quinyx, Workday Workforce Management
Blue Yonder Workforce Management, Workday Workforce ManagementChanged
Two alternativesQuinyx, Shiftboard
Deputy
Three alternativesConnecteam, Rippling, Shiftboard
When I Work
One alternativeDeputy
against: EpicShifts, Oracle Workforce Management, SAP, Sling, UKG Pro Workforce Management, Workforce.com
no first choiceagainst: Calendly, Excel, Google Sheets, SAP, Workday Workforce Management
Llama 4 MaverickDeputyShiftboardChanged
One alternativeIndeavor
no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceagainst: Calendly, Opsgenie
Qwen 3.7 FlashWorkday Workforce Management
Three alternativesADP Time and Labor Management, Deputy, UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG ReadyChanged
Two alternativesDayforce, Rippling
no first choiceagainst: Redwood RunMyJobsDeputy, Workday HCM
Two alternativesUKG Pro Workforce Management, User Solutions
no first choiceagainst: Acuity Scheduling, Calendly, Cron, Microsoft Bookings, Motion, Quartz, Reclaim.ai, When2meet, Windows Task Scheduler
Kimi K2Deputy, Shiftboard
One alternativeADP Time and Labor Management
Dayforce, UKG Pro Workforce ManagementChanged
Three alternativesBlue Yonder Workforce Management, SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Scheduling, Workday HCM
against: Deputy, When I Work
Calendly, Oracle Primavera P6
Three alternativesChili Piper, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet
against: Microsoft Bookings
Humanity, UKG Pro Workforce Management
Two alternativesEpicShifts, Shiftboard
against: Deputy, Homebase, When I Work
UKG Pro Workforce Management
Five alternativesADP WorkForce Suite, Shiftboard, Smartsheet, TCP Software, Workday Workforce Management
against: Acuity Scheduling, Appointlet, Calendly, Doodle
GLM 4.7 FlashXWorkday Workforce Management
Five alternativesADP WorkForce Suite, Blue Yonder Workforce Management, Dayforce, Rippling, UKG Pro Workforce Management
Blue Yonder Workforce ManagementChanged
Three alternativesNowsta, Shiftboard, UKG Pro / Dayforce
Shiftboard
Four alternativesAcuity Scheduling, Calendly, Monday.com, Resource Guru
Deputy
Two alternativesDayforce, UKG Pro Workforce Management
no first choiceagainst: Acuity Scheduling, Asana, Calendly, Findmyshift, Jira, Setmore, ZoomShift
MiniMax M2.5ADP WorkForce Suite, Workday Workforce Management
Two alternativesHumanity, Microsoft Teams Shift
UKG Pro Workforce ManagementChanged
Three alternativesADP Workforce Now, Dayforce, Rippling
UKG Pro Workforce Management
Three alternativesDayforce, Oracle Workforce Management, SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Scheduling
UKG Pro Workforce Management
Two alternativesLegion WFM, When I Work
against: Schedaddle
no first choiceagainst: Calendly
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:39yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:35yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:55yes1227 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:57yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 21:33yes3916 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:08yes148 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:50yes2324 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:12yes64 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:39yes517 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:04yes1040 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:19yes13114 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:43yes827 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:32yes98 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:03yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:43yes1924 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:02yes185 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 21:03yes3721 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:41yes1915 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:52yes811 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:03yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:47yes1038 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:08yes1934 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:01yes26137 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:42yes1032 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:50yes1714 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:25yes87 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:13yes2528 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:41yes2014 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:16yes4219 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:13yes109 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:04yes1724 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:33yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:12yes524 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:11yes1431 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 17:57yes2588 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:00yes1048 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:39yes179 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:11yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:44yes2330 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:37yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:37yes3726 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:35yes149 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:12yes2645 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:41yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:14yes3187 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:37yes1934 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:06yes27169 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:41yes1971 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:12yes1812 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:46yes510 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes737 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:08yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:16yes1514 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:29no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:45yes1921 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:15yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:34no034 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:15yes2043 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:03yes1394 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:36no015 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:13yes1811 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:39yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:06yes1626 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:35yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:40yes3918 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:02yes98 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:37yes2324 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:14yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:31yes2269 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:58yes3065 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:49yes2769 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:07yes1935 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
ADP Workforce Management read as ADP WorkForce Suite
Acuity read as Acuity Scheduling
Blue Yonder read as Blue Yonder Workforce Management
Blue Yonder (formerly JDA) read as Blue Yonder Workforce Management
Ceridian Dayforce read as Dayforce
Legion read as Legion WFM
Oracle read as Oracle Workforce Management
RunMyJobs by Redwood read as Redwood RunMyJobs
SAP SuccessFactors read as SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Scheduling
UKG read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG (Kronos) read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG (Ultimate Kronos) read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG (formerly Kronos) read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG Pro read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG Pro (Ultimate Kronos Group) read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
UKG Pro (formerly Kronos) read as UKG Pro Workforce Management
Workday read as Workday Workforce Management
Unresolved, counted raw
Amelia
Apache Airflow
Broadcom AutoSys
IBM Z Workload Scheduler
Opsgenie
Quartz
SAP APO/IBP
SchedPro
Schedaddle
Schedly
Siemens Opcenter
SubItUp
Synchronize Pro
Teamsly
Tidal Workload Automation
Timify Enterprise
Trackforce
UKG Shiftboard
User Solutions (RMDB)
Workload Automation by Automic
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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