42% of first choices, clear leader.
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%.
“Platforms to be cautious about (with specific reasons)**1. PayPal (for contractor payouts specifically)** - **High fees** ... **Account freezes/holds**” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
“most cautious** about payment platforms that create **tax, compliance, fraud, or tracking problems**—especially **cash**, **ad hoc bank wires**, and **consumer P2P apps** like **Venmo, Cash App” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
“riskier for business use because of refund difficulty, weak tracking, and tax-record complications” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
“small businesses should approach with extreme caution or consider avoiding... **Bill.com** has seen a significant shift in negative sentiment recently” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
79 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1086 links across 224 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.
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.
| Company and products | Share | Own site cited | Name searches, Google | AI search demand, est. | Organic visits | Paid search a month, est. | Google ads, last 30 days | Best Google position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto gusto.com | 42% | 124 | 673,000 | 10,560 | 1,629,483 | 118 | ||
| Square squareup.com Square Payroll 10% | 10% | 30 | 1,000,000 | 497,526 | 3,658,565 company | $9 | 99 | 3 |
| QuickBooks parent site QuickBooks Contractor Payments 8%, QuickBooks Payroll 2%, QuickBooks Payments 0% | 10% | 59 | 1,000,000 | 54,681 | ||||
| Deel deel.com | 8% | 170 | 40,500 | 1,210 | 307,175 | $330,608 | 118 | |
| Melio melio.com Melio 5%, Melio Core 2% | 7% | 277 | 33,100 | 492 | 36,039 | $1,429 | 60 | |
| Wise Business wise.com | 5% | 292 | 1,900 | 167 | 158,520,306 | $81 | 78 | 1 |
| Rippling rippling.com | 2% | 99 | 301,000 | 17,886 | 712,399 | $42,013 | 115 | |
| OnPay onpay.com | 2% | 10 | 22,200 | 200 | 1,180,466 | $89 | 48 | 5 |
| BILL bill.com | 2% | 444 | 2,740,000 | 1,063,001 | 1,783,039 | $199,231 | 119 | |
| Track1099 avalara.com | 2% | 7 | 8,100 | 48 | 2,604,517 | $21,470 | 108 |
Google's top ten for the three searches hold 22 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (wise.com, worksuite.com). The first result for “best contractor payments and 1099 platform” is wise.com.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 10:25 | yes | 9 | 7 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 10:26 | yes | 2 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 07:44 | yes | 22 | 28 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 08:56 | yes | 17 | 3 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 08:01 | yes | 25 | 11 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 08:20 | yes | 10 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 11:00 | yes | 20 | 35 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 11:26 | yes | 8 | 5 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 09:35 | no | 0 | 24 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 10:21 | yes | 14 | 23 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 07:47 | yes | 24 | 27 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 08:31 | yes | 9 | 20 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 08:17 | yes | 10 | 7 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 11:11 | yes | 3 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 09:13 | yes | 14 | 27 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 09:33 | yes | 29 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 07:45 | yes | 24 | 7 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 08:13 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 08:28 | yes | 24 | 24 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 11:07 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:15 | no | 0 | 24 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 07:55 | yes | 15 | 27 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 10:06 | yes | 20 | 101 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 11:11 | yes | 16 | 50 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 11:01 | yes | 9 | 9 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 07:42 | yes | 5 | 6 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 09:40 | yes | 17 | 26 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 09:02 | yes | 18 | 5 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 09:41 | yes | 20 | 9 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 08:21 | yes | 7 | 14 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 09:18 | yes | 25 | 27 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 09:10 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 07:42 | yes | 22 | 35 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 10:07 | yes | 10 | 19 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 08:40 | yes | 24 | 119 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 09:42 | yes | 10 | 27 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 08:43 | yes | 17 | 9 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 11:26 | yes | 3 | 5 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:25 | yes | 22 | 31 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 09:03 | yes | 18 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 08:12 | yes | 24 | 7 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 07:49 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 09:11 | yes | 23 | 22 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 08:50 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:01 | yes | 9 | 38 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 07:48 | yes | 10 | 19 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 09:34 | yes | 23 | 112 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:06 | yes | 10 | 22 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 08:33 | no | 0 | 5 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 08:49 | yes | 3 | 10 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:28 | no | 0 | 16 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 10:02 | yes | 18 | 6 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 08:38 | yes | 13 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 10:50 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 08:32 | yes | 19 | 30 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 10:22 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:50 | yes | 14 | 39 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 08:28 | yes | 17 | 27 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 09:52 | yes | 14 | 31 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:04 | yes | 5 | 19 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 09:20 | yes | 18 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 10:32 | yes | 3 | 5 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 10:48 | yes | 16 | 28 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 08:29 | yes | 19 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 09:33 | yes | 23 | 9 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 07:43 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 10:18 | yes | 25 | 30 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 10:13 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:38 | yes | 9 | 27 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 07:59 | yes | 22 | 26 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 07:59 | yes | 23 | 64 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:44 | yes | 20 | 31 s |
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
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