33% of first choices, contested.
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%.
“Typically Not Recommended for Small Businesses: **Avalara & Vertex O Series:** Industry leaders but designed for mid-market to enterprise” Qwen 3.7 Flash, direct prompt
“Vertex is prohibitively expensive for most small to mid-sized businesses, and implementation complexity can result in lengthy rollout timelines” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
“Avoid TaxJar if a large part of your revenue is tax-exempt resale; it is optimized for taxable e-commerce.” Muse Glimmer 30B, direct prompt
“Enterprise-Grade Giants (Vertex, Sovos, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE) ... Why small businesses should avoid them” Gemini 3.5 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. 1036 links across 114 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TaxJar taxjar.com | 33% | 174 | 6,600 | 63 | 181,783 | $119 | 55 | 2 |
| TaxCloud taxcloud.com | 31% | 103 | 1,000 | 24 | 229,957 | 44 | 8 | |
| Avalara avalara.com Avalara AvaTax 15%, Avalara Select 0% | 15% | 193 | 27,100 | 703 | 2,604,517 company | $21,470 | 108 | 1 |
| Anrok anrok.com | 7% | 66 | 3,600 | 43 | 12,295 | $1,852 | 85 | 5 |
| Zoho zoho.com Zoho Books 5% | 5% | 326 | 27,100 | 268 | 1,216,894 company | $51,031 | 119 | |
| Zamp zamp.com | 4% | 32 | 2,900 | 262 | 24,260 | $588 | 8 | |
| Stripe parent site Stripe Tax 2% | 2% | 79 | 823,000 | 102,741 | ||||
| Kintsugi trykintsugi.com | 2% | 24 | 90,500 | 3,219 | 38,197 | $1,359 | 63 | |
| Shopify shopify.com Shopify Tax 2% | 2% | 12 | 1,000,000 | 38,067 | 3,486,997 company | $3,351 | 110 | |
| Quaderno quaderno.io | 0% | 30 | 720 | 23 | 62,203 | 0 | 6 |
Google's top ten for the three searches hold 15 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (avalara.com, tax.thomsonreuters.com, taxcloud.com, taxjar.com, wolterskluwer.com). The first result for “best sales tax compliance software” is avalara.com.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 08:45 | yes | 9 | 8 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 08:16 | yes | 4 | 6 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 07:38 | yes | 21 | 22 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 08:28 | yes | 20 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 09:43 | yes | 19 | 10 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 11:06 | yes | 13 | 7 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 08:23 | yes | 22 | 25 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 08:22 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 10:29 | yes | 8 | 51 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 08:03 | yes | 13 | 27 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 11:25 | yes | 19 | 45 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 08:38 | yes | 9 | 24 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 08:50 | yes | 9 | 7 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 09:57 | yes | 2 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:51 | yes | 16 | 22 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 09:05 | yes | 19 | 4 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 11:15 | yes | 22 | 9 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 08:49 | yes | 5 | 23 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 10:09 | yes | 22 | 27 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 09:18 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:08 | no | 0 | 29 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 09:59 | yes | 18 | 26 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 10:44 | yes | 19 | 213 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 11:25 | yes | 12 | 42 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 07:44 | yes | 9 | 8 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 09:06 | yes | 4 | 8 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:29 | yes | 15 | 27 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 07:37 | yes | 18 | 4 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 10:40 | yes | 21 | 9 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 10:59 | yes | 9 | 9 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 11:11 | yes | 21 | 44 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 11:18 | yes | 8 | 2 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 07:58 | yes | 8 | 31 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 08:19 | yes | 16 | 25 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 09:49 | yes | 24 | 29 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 11:17 | yes | 12 | 19 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 09:25 | yes | 9 | 6 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 09:23 | yes | 3 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:25 | yes | 22 | 26 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 11:03 | yes | 20 | 3 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 08:37 | yes | 21 | 9 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 07:55 | yes | 9 | 5 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 08:09 | yes | 21 | 38 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 10:32 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:22 | yes | 10 | 19 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 08:39 | yes | 15 | 20 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 10:13 | yes | 14 | 23 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:03 | yes | 13 | 25 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 08:32 | no | 0 | 6 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 09:33 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 08:22 | yes | 10 | 24 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 08:31 | yes | 20 | 5 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 09:11 | yes | 14 | 8 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 10:36 | no | 0 | 6 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 09:33 | yes | 15 | 32 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 09:28 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 11:27 | no | 0 | 27 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 08:10 | yes | 9 | 19 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 08:40 | yes | 11 | 14 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 10:30 | yes | 5 | 15 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-10-01 09:46 | yes | 18 | 8 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-10-01 09:15 | yes | 4 | 5 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-10-01 10:24 | yes | 13 | 23 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-10-01 11:21 | yes | 16 | 4 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-10-01 09:37 | yes | 21 | 8 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-10-01 08:39 | yes | 14 | 6 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-10-01 09:17 | yes | 24 | 38 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-10-01 08:59 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-10-01 08:17 | yes | 11 | 57 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-10-01 09:17 | yes | 24 | 31 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-10-01 07:43 | yes | 20 | 23 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-10-01 08:21 | yes | 19 | 32 s |
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
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