Best payroll software

We asked 10 models: The best payroll software for a small or mid-sized business. Each named its own top 10.

Agreement between models

75%

Same model, run twice

89%

Different picks

18

When agreement between models is well below a model's agreement with itself, the split reflects real differences in taste rather than randomness.

The consensus

Each cell is the position that model gave the pick; blank means it left the pick off. Click a row for each model's reasoning.

#	Pick	Score	Listed by	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6.1 Sol	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
1	Gusto		10/10	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2	QuickBooks Payroll		10/10	5	3	5	6	2	2	2	2	3	3
3	ADP Run		9/10		2	3	2	5	3	3	3	2	2
4	Paychex Flex		10/10	4	6	4	4	4	4	5	4	4	4
5	Rippling		9/10	3	4	2	3	7	6	6		6	5
6	OnPay		10/10	10	5	6	5	3	5	4	7	10	6
7	Square Payroll		7/10		8	8	7	8	7	10	6
8	Patriot Software		6/10		7			6	8	8	10		7
9	Paylocity		6/10	7	9	10	10				9	8
10	SurePayroll		5/10		10			9	9	7			8
11	Justworks		5/10	8		9		10			8	9
12	Deel		2/10			7						5
13	ADP Workforce Now		1/10	2
14	Wave Payroll		3/10						10	9	5
15	BambooHR		3/10				8					7	9

3 lower-scoring picks are not shown; every ballot below lists them in full.

Every ballot

Hover a pick to find it on the other ballots. Marked picks appear on no other ballot.

Claude Haiku 5.5

1. Gusto
2. ADP Workforce Now
3. Rippling
4. Paychex Flex
5. QuickBooks Payroll
6. Paycor
7. Paylocity
8. Justworks
9. Paycom
10. OnPay

62% with consensus · 85% self-consistent

GPT-6.1 Sol

1. Gusto
2. ADP Run
3. QuickBooks Payroll
4. Rippling
5. OnPay
6. Paychex Flex
7. Patriot Software
8. Square Payroll
9. Paylocity
10. SurePayroll

87% with consensus · 91% self-consistent

Gemini 4 Argon

1. Gusto
2. Rippling
3. ADP Run
4. Paychex Flex
5. QuickBooks Payroll
6. OnPay
7. Deel
8. Square Payroll
9. Justworks
10. Paylocity

81% with consensus · 97% self-consistent

Qwen 3.8 Flash

1. Gusto
2. ADP Run
3. Rippling
4. Paychex Flex
5. OnPay
6. QuickBooks Payroll
7. Square Payroll
8. BambooHR
9. Workday
10. Paylocity

81% with consensus · 85% self-consistent

DeepSeek V4 Pro

1. Gusto
2. QuickBooks Payroll
3. OnPay
4. Paychex Flex
5. ADP Run
6. Patriot Software
7. Rippling
8. Square Payroll
9. SurePayroll
10. Justworks

87% with consensus · 91% self-consistent

GLM-5.3

1. Gusto
2. QuickBooks Payroll
3. ADP Run
4. Paychex Flex
5. OnPay
6. Rippling
7. Square Payroll
8. Patriot Software
9. SurePayroll
10. Wave Payroll

97% with consensus · 91% self-consistent

Kimi K3

1. Gusto
2. QuickBooks Payroll
3. ADP Run
4. OnPay
5. Paychex Flex
6. Rippling
7. SurePayroll
8. Patriot Software
9. Wave Payroll
10. Square Payroll

91% with consensus · 83% self-consistent

MiniMax M3

1. Gusto
2. QuickBooks Payroll
3. ADP Run
4. Paychex Flex
5. Wave Payroll
6. Square Payroll
7. OnPay
8. Justworks
9. Paylocity
10. Patriot Software

89% with consensus · 94% self-consistent

Mistral Large 4

1. Gusto
2. ADP Run
3. QuickBooks Payroll
4. Paychex Flex
5. Deel
6. Rippling
7. BambooHR
8. Paylocity
9. Justworks
10. OnPay

81% with consensus · 89% self-consistent

Nemotron 3 Ultra

1. Gusto
2. ADP Run
3. QuickBooks Payroll
4. Paychex Flex
5. Rippling
6. OnPay
7. Patriot Software
8. SurePayroll
9. BambooHR
10. Paycom

88% with consensus · 84% self-consistent

Who agrees with whom

Overlap between two models' lists, weighted toward the top · 100 means identical · Color runs from 56 (lightest) to 94 (darkest)

	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6.1 Sol	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
Claude Haiku 5.5		60	69	66	57	58	56	57	62	61
GPT-6.1 Sol	60		79	86	79	86	84	76	83	92
Gemini 4 Argon	69	79		86	71	79	74	74	78	79
Qwen 3.8 Flash	66	86	86		70	80	74	72	80	85
DeepSeek V4 Pro	57	79	71	70		90	88	81	71	80
GLM-5.3	58	86	79	80	90		94	89	79	87
Kimi K3	56	84	74	74	88	94		84	76	85
MiniMax M3	57	76	74	72	81	89	84		77	78
Mistral Large 4	62	83	78	80	71	79	76	77		87
Nemotron 3 Ultra	61	92	79	85	80	87	85	78	87