Trolley vs Gusto
Zero of twelve models named Trolley first on the direct prompt; one named Gusto. Trolley was named by ten of the twelve models and Gusto by eleven and Trolley carries 12 labels and Gusto 37, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the contractor payments page.
By framing
TrolleyFirst choices, of twelve modelsGusto
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | ||||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | | |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | |||
| Perplexity Sonar | | | ||||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | ||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | |||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | ||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | |||
| Kimi K2 | | | | | ||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | | ||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | |
Trolley Gusto first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Trolley on the left and Gusto on the right.The direct prompt
Gusto first, Trolley not the choice
1 of 12 modelsTrolley was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
4 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
7 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Gusto59%#1 of 11Trolley2%#– of 11Trolley7%#5 of 14Gusto5%#7 of 14What the models said about Trolley
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.
“Trolley is a recommended freelancer payout software for mid-sized B2B companies” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“I'd recommend Trolley as the best overall starting point” Perplexity Sonar · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Trolley is highly recommended for freelancer payouts” Mistral Small · paraphrase prompt · first choice
What the models said about Gusto
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Gusto/QuickBooks are fine for small businesses but get strained at mid-market contractor scale.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · direct prompt · soft negative
“They lack the sophisticated bulk processing and deep ERP integration found in Tipalti or Routable.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · soft negative
“Gusto is widely considered the best user experience, but it costs more.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · budget prompt · soft negative
“Request demos from Gusto (mixed W-2/1099), Rippling (HR-integrated), Remote/Deel (global), OnPay (simple payroll).” Grok 4.1 Fast · scale prompt · first choice
“Bill.com or Gusto are the leading choices” Kimi K2 · direct prompt · first choice
“Choose Gusto if you operate in the U.S. and simply need an easy, affordable way to pay a mix of local 1099 contractors” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · alternative
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.