2 categories · RankedGuideline
Guideline is a 401(k) provider that employers use to offer retirement plans to their employees · guideline.com ↗
Strongest at small business, contested with Human Interest. Thin evidence at enterprise: eight labels.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Ranked first, contested: Human Interest has 16%.
Human Interest is first at 27%. 0 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Fidelity Investments is first at 48%.
Why models recommend it
“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-constrained question · first choice
“Choose a Tech-Forward Provider (Guideline, Human Interest, Betterment) if you have under 50 employees”Gemini 3.5 Flash · Comparative question · first choice
“Guideline looks like the strongest low-budget option for many small businesses”GPT-5.4 mini · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“Guideline is the best 401(k) provider for most small businesses”Claude Haiku 4.5 · Budget-constrained question · first choice
What gives them pause
“execution and service seem unreliable—avoid if you value responsive support.”Grok 4.20 · Negative question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Guideline, over the 81 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | 5 | View → | |
| 44 | 5 | Compare → | |
| 42 | 4 | Compare → | |
| 40 | 7 | Compare → | |
| 27 | 4 | Compare → | |
| 26 | 0 | View → | |
| 25 | 0 | View → | |
| 23 | 4 | Compare → | |
| 23 | 1 | View → | |
| 19 | 3 | View → |
What the models named instead of Guideline →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Guideline's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- small businesses; companies; solopreneurs; small and medium-sized businesses; anyone hiring their first employee or managing hundreds
- Price stated
- transparent pricing; 50% off employer fees for your first year
- Certifications
- SOC 2 Type II
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 70 of the 81 answers that named Guideline and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
240 of the 240 domain citations in answers naming Guideline came from a third party's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
What it publishes
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-11 to 2026-10 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog | 90 | 1 | 2026-08-28 | ||
| Comparison | 7 | 0 | 2026-05-01 | ||
| Template or tool | 2 | 0 | 2025-12-10 | 401(k) providers | |
| Glossary or explainer | 2 | 1 | 2026-08-26 | ||
| Case study | 1 | 0 | 2025-08-06 |
Most recent
- 2026-08-28Guideline gusto acquisition agreement blog
- 2026-08-2610127196 new 401 k participant welcome guide glossary or explainer
- 2026-05-018593852 what is a qualified default investment alternative qdia comparison
- 2026-03-06A top retirement expert weighs in about how to strengthen the u s retirement system blog
- 2026-03-06How much can you contribute to a 401 k in 2024 blog
- 2026-03-06What is esg investing glossary or explainer
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page guideline.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. Read October 5, 2026.