Head to head · Payroll run · October 2026 research run
Worklio vs Zeal
Zeal scores 45.4 (E) on agent readiness against Worklio's 38.6 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Worklio leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do payroll run.
Which one, for what
Worklio E
Good for A software platform, PEO or payroll bureau that wants to sell US payroll under its own brand and can sign a partner agreement, with Worklio handling tax filing and money movement.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 48 against 34
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 0
Watch for
No rate limits, 429 handling or idempotency keys were found in the reviewed documentation
Zeal E
Good for A US staffing platform, marketplace or workforce product that will sign a partnership and run payroll for many employers under its own brand, including daily and on-demand pay.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 42 against 25
- Agent ergonomics, 63 against 44
- Maintenance & community, 61 against 25
Also in its favour
- No incidents deducted, where Worklio loses 3 points for them
Watch for
No self-serve signup. Zeal's team creates the partner account after a demo request, and no price is published
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Worklio | Zeal | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 25 | 42 | Zeal +17 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 71 | 68 | Worklio +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 44 | 63 | Zeal +19 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 48 | 34 | Worklio +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 25 | 0 | Worklio +25 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 25 | 61 | Zeal +36 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 48 | 51 | Zeal +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| Total | 38.6 · E | 45.4 · E |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Worklio | Zeal |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Worklio, Inc. | Puzzl Group Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.worklio.com | https://api.zeal.com |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service. The public Terms of Use date from 2014 and the partner agreement isn't public. The front-end library sits in a private repository | Proprietary service. The npm SDK declares MIT. The SDK repositories on GitHub carry no licence file |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-06-30 | 2026-07-31 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-01-16 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-01-16 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | |
| Popularity | none | 0 stars, 8 npm/wk |
Verdicts
Worklio
Worklio documents 853 REST operations with an OpenAPI fragment on every reference page, and a developer can register for the sandbox without a sales call. No rate limits or public SDK were found, the status page is password protected, and the payroll guide tells callers to treat an HTTP 500 as the signal to finalise.
Zeal
Graded on the partner REST API at api.zeal.com, which is the only access route. Three OpenAPI specs, llms.txt, a test environment that moves no money, a preview endpoint and a per-cheque approval flag are documented. Access starts with a demo request, prices are not published, each environment has one unscoped key, and no status page or working changelog was found.
Before you call either
Worklio
- Send
api-version: 2.0on/wepcalls. The reference marks the header as required - Get a token from
POST https://api.worklio.com/connect/tokenwith the password grant and scopeapi. It lasts 24 hours, so fetch a new one daily - Run payroll as start,
nextuntil it answers 500 with "Next step operation is not allowed", thenfinalize. Don't treat that 500 as a failure - Don't retry bonus, off-cycle, void or termination payroll starts blindly. The reference says those calls are not idempotent
- Most
/weplist endpoints return the whole result set. Paging,filterandsortwork only under/api/public, and aDataTokenexpires after 60 seconds
Zeal
- Use the Test API key until a person has approved live payroll. Error code 0 (403) means the account has no production access
- Send
companyIDon almost every call andpartnerIDon partner-level calls, in the body for POST and PATCH and the query for GET - Create cheques with
approval_required: true, run POST /preview/checks, then PATCH /employeeCheck withapproved: true. Without the flag Zeal processes pending cheques automatically - Send
x-idempotency-keyon every create so a retry within 24 hours doesn't pay twice - Previews and reports are jobs. Keep the
job_idand poll GET /preview or GET /reports, or wait for the Job Queue webhook - Check dates must be bank days and submitted before 2 PM Pacific two bank days ahead, or the call fails with code 89
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Worklio or Zeal?
Zeal scores 45.4 (E) on agent readiness against Worklio's 38.6 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Worklio leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.
Do Worklio and Zeal need an API key?
Worklio uses an OAuth sign-in. Zeal needs an API key.
Can an agent call Worklio and Zeal without installing anything?
Yes. Worklio has a hosted endpoint at https://api.worklio.com and Zeal at https://api.zeal.com.
Other comparisons with Worklio or Zeal
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/worklio-vs-zeal.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/worklio.json·/api/v1/tools/zeal.json - From a terminal
anchor compare worklio zeal(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "worklio", "b": "zeal"}at/mcp, no key