Best Workday alternatives
Ranked by Share of Answer — how often each vendor is the AI's single first pick for Payroll software (SMB), pooled across GPT-5.5, Claude, and Gemini. Updated weekly (2026-06-28).
When buyers ask AI for the best payroll software (smb), Workday is the first pick 0% of the time — strongest with Anthropic (0%). The alternative the models recommend most instead is Gusto at 27%. Here are the 12 alternatives ranked by what the models actually recommend.
Workday alternatives, ranked by AI
| # | Alternative | Share of Answer | Considered | Anthropic | OpenAI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gusto | | 51% | 42% | 41% | · |
| 2 | Rippling | | 40% | 8% | 28% | · |
| 3 | ADP | | 32% | 28% | 5% | · |
| 4 | Toast Payroll | | 7% | 3% | 9% | · |
| 5 | Deel | | 19% | · | 6% | · |
| 6 | Quickbooks Payroll | | 7% | 1% | 5% | · |
| 7 | Patriot Software | | 4% | 2% | 2% | · |
| 8 | Remote.com | | 5% | · | 2% | · |
| 9 | Paychex | | 10% | 1% | · | · |
| 10 | Homebase | | 1% | 1% | · | · |
| 11 | Square Payroll | | 6% | · | · | · |
| 12 | Bamboohr | | 5% | · | · | · |
Per-model cells = that model's Share of Answer for the vendor. · = never first-picked by that model. How this is measured →
See where Workday and every alternative rank head-to-head, with confidence intervals and weekly movement, on the full Payroll software (SMB) leaderboard →