{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "rippling",
 "name": "Rippling",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "rippling.com",
 "category": "HR & People",
 "task": "Payroll & team benefits",
 "summary": "Workforce platform that unifies HR, IT and Finance in one system of record: run payroll and benefits, manage hiring, onboarding and time tracking, and provision devices and app access automatically — with policy-driven automation across employee data, approvals and compliance. Three additions the vendor announced during 2026, read on rippling.com on 22 September 2026 and not something we have tested: Helpdesk (announced 1 September), an agent that resolves routine IT requests — app access, password resets, device replacements — through deterministic, admin-approved steps across Rippling's own device, inventory and identity tools; AI Governance (announced 20 August), which breaks AI spend down by employee attribute and governs how staff connect LLMs to other tools; and Data Cloud, an AI-powered BI layer over the same employee record. Check availability before you buy the middle one: on Rippling's own AI Governance page only the AI Spend Console invites you to try it, while the AI Gateway and the discovery of unsanctioned AI use are waitlists and the MCP Gateway routes to sales.",
 "best_for": "growing companies that want HR, IT and Finance on one employee record — so a single hire can trigger payroll, a provisioned laptop and app access at once, and offboarding claws it all back automatically",
 "skip_if": "you need only one function, like standalone payroll or device management, where a focused and transparently-priced point tool is cheaper and simpler — or you need firm pricing before committing to a sales conversation",
 "honest_knock": "The published '$8 per user a month' is real but it's only the floor, and it's the HR-and-payroll entry — not the price of the platform. Rippling sells HR, IT and Finance as separate, separately-quoted modules, so you can't comparison-shop without a sales call, and a single-module deployment pays platform prices for a point tool. You're buying a system of record; the value only shows up once you consolidate several systems onto it.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$8",
  "entry_price_terms": "per user a month (published floor for the global-payroll platform)",
  "from_price_usd_month": 8.0,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(verified 2026-08-27) Rippling is modular and mostly quote-led. The pricing page is a 'request a custom quote' form with no public numbers — you tell it which of HR, IT and Finance you need and your headcount, and a price comes back through sales. The one figure Rippling publishes is a floor: its global-payroll page advertises 'Starting at $8 per month per user' for the platform (HR, payroll, benefits, spend, devices and apps). That $8 is an entry point, not a quote — the buttons beside it read 'Get a free quote' and 'Contact Sales', and the real bill depends on which modules you switch on and how many employees you run. Some product pages show no price at all. Decide the exact module mix you need before you compare vendors, because Rippling's cost scales with how much of it you adopt.",
  "verified_at": "2026-08-27",
  "source_url": null
 },
 "free_plan": false,
 "free_plan_evidence": null,
 "cost_traps": [
  {
   "id": "per_seat",
   "label": "Per-seat pricing",
   "evidence": "The one figure Rippling publishes is a floor: its global-payroll page advertises 'Starting at $8 per month per user' for the platform (HR, payroll, benefits, spend, devices and apps).",
   "verified_at": "2026-08-27",
   "source_url": null
  }
 ],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "Gusto",
  "why": "Gusto is the simple, transparently-priced US payroll-and-HR incumbent for domestic teams; Rippling is the broader system of record that also runs IT and Finance and scales internationally. Choose Gusto for straightforward payroll, Rippling to consolidate systems onto one record"
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/rippling.json",
  "review": "https://officesoftwaremarketplace.com/rippling-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/rippling/",
  "vendor_site": "https://rippling.com"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://try.rippling.com/02bwxo4t3avf",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "rippling:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "rippling:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "rippling:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "rippling:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": {
   "what": "Built on Code Mode rather than one tool per API: the agent searches a catalog of functions and executes code against them, across HR, IT, Time and Payroll. Rippling puts the token cost of a typical task at 98% below wrapping their 238 APIs as tools.",
   "plan": "Not stated in their own announcement.",
   "status": "Live",
   "source": "https://www.rippling.com/blog/building-mcp-server",
   "checked": "2026-07-28",
   "note": "The vendor's own MCP server, from our MCP research; it works with your own account at the vendor."
  },
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}