Guideline vs Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan
Zero of fourteen models named Guideline first on the direct prompt; zero named Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan. Guideline was named by twelve of the fourteen models and Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan by twelve and Guideline carries 25 labels and Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan 18, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan
accepted challengerNamed in one category this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the 401(k) providers page.
By framing
GuidelineFirst choices, of fourteen modelsEmployee Fiduciary 401(k) PlanAcross every category in the November 2026 Edition, Guideline and Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan were named in the same answer twenty-seven times, of the 81 answers naming Guideline and the 47 naming Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan. In those answers Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan took the first choice four times and Guideline eleven.
Every model, every framing
| Model | DirectEF | ParaphraseEF | ComparativeEF | Budget-constrainedEF | Scale-constrainedEF | NegativeEF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | EF | |||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | |||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | EF | EF | |||
| Perplexity Sonar | EF | |||||
| Grok 4.20 | | EF | EF | | ||
| Mistral Small | | EF | ||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | EF | | |||
| Llama 4 Maverick | EF | |||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | ||||
| Kimi K2 | EF | |||||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | EF | EF | ||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | EF | | ||||
| GPT-6 Luna | EF | |||||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | EF |
GuidelineEF Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Guideline on the left and Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan on the right.The direct prompt
Neither was the first choice, one was named
3 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
11 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Guideline25%#1 of 11Guideline10%#3 of 18Guideline2%#– of 11What the models said about Guideline
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.
“execution and service seem unreliable—avoid if you value responsive support.” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · hard negative
“Guideline is frequently ranked first for cost/automation, with $89 base + $8/employee in current provider listings, and no setup fee.” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice
“Choose a Tech-Forward Provider (Guideline, Human Interest, Betterment) if you have under 50 employees” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Guideline looks like the strongest low-budget option for many small businesses” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Employee Fiduciary 401(k) Plan
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“If you have 6–30 employees: Choose Employee Fiduciary. The flat annual fee ($1,500) is the best value proposition in the market.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · budget prompt · first choice
“For most small businesses with limited budgets, Employee Fiduciary offers the best combination of low cost and transparency.” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice
“I'd get a quote from Employee Fiduciary first.” GPT-6 Luna · budget prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.