Competitive intelligence · 8 to 9 Aug 2026

MerchantHQ vs Merchant Advice Service: who AI actually names

What this is

Three separate sets of prompts, each run through the OpenAI API (ChatGPT, model gpt-4o, live web search forced on). Every prompt is a randomly generated, realistic UK buyer question, not hand-picked to favour either brand. Direct brand-vs-brand prompts (anything naming both companies in the question itself) are excluded throughout, since asking AI to compare two named brands guarantees both appear and does not reflect organic discovery. Each set was scanned afterwards for who the AI actually names in its answer.

The three sets test three different markets:

  1. The main payments market: the whole UK card-payments and merchant-services space, the ground every provider competes on.
  2. MerchantHQ’s own target market: only the specific verticals and trades MerchantHQ has actually built pages for.
  3. Merchant Advice Service’s own target market: only the prompts matching Merchant Advice Service’s own stated specialisms.

Each column below shows the top 3 most-named providers in that set, plus MerchantHQ and Merchant Advice Service pinned underneath with their own actual rate, even when neither makes the top 3.

✓ No brand-vs-brand prompts were analysed anywhere on this page. Every prompt naming both companies directly (or any two named brands) in the question itself was excluded from all three columns, since that guarantees both names appear and is not a neutral test.
MerchantHQ Merchant Advice Service everyone else
Column 1
The main payments market
500 prompts, brand-vs-brand excluded · card machines, high-risk, EPOS, gateways, compliance, broker framing, generic head-terms
12.8%
MerchantHQ named
(64 of 500)
1.4%
Merchant Advice Service, any hit
(7 of 500)
Top named providers
Square35.4%
SumUp28.4%
Stripe17.4%
MerchantHQ · ranked #612.8%
Merchant Advice Service · ranked #271.0%
Real prompts where a brand got shown
MerchantHQCheapest card machine for a small business UK
MerchantHQBest value card reader for a new business UK
MerchantHQBest card machine for a first time business owner UK
Merchant Advice ServiceWho should I trust for unbiased merchant account advice UK
Merchant Advice ServiceIs Merchant Advice Service trustworthy for comparing payment providers
Full per-prompt detail: 542-prompt dashboard
Column 2
MerchantHQ’s own target market
673 prompts, brand-vs-brand excluded · scoped tight to what MerchantHQ actually built: 34 high-risk verticals, 55 trades, faith and community, EPOS, compliance, switching. No generic head-terms.
15.2%
MerchantHQ cited as source
(102 of 673)
0.0%
Merchant Advice Service, any hit
(0 of 673)
Top named providers
Square22.4%
SumUp18.7%
MerchantHQ · ranked #315.2%
Merchant Advice Service · not present0.0%
Real prompts where MerchantHQ got shown
MerchantHQBest card machine for a small independent restaurant with table service and takeaway
MerchantHQBest card terminal for a beauty salon where several therapists take payments
MerchantHQBest payment terminal for a butcher with one shop and high transaction volumes
MerchantHQBest card machine for a chiropractor with one clinic
MerchantHQBest card machine for a market trader who only trades two days a week
Merchant Advice Service does not appear anywhere in this dataset, 0 of 673 raw AI responses mention it.
Column 3
Merchant Advice Service’s own target market
205-prompt subset of column 1, brand-vs-brand excluded · only prompts matching Merchant Advice Service’s own stated specialisms: high-risk, EPOS, payment gateways, broker and matchmaking positioning
2.0%
Merchant Advice Service, cited as source
(4 of 205)
4.4%
MerchantHQ named
(9 of 205)
Top named providers
Square26.3%
Stripe23.4%
Epos Now12.7%
MerchantHQ4.4%
Merchant Advice Service2.0%
Real prompts where a brand got shown
MerchantHQBest unbiased card machine comparison site UK
MerchantHQIs CBD legal to sell online with card payments in the UK
MerchantHQWho is the best card payment broker or advisor in the UK
Merchant Advice ServiceIs Merchant Advice Service trustworthy for comparing payment providers
Merchant Advice ServiceWho should I trust for unbiased merchant account advice UK
MerchantHQ still leads more than 2x even on Merchant Advice Service’s own best-promoted ground, though its rate drops from column 1’s 12.8% since this subset leans EPOS, gateway and broker-framing prompts rather than MerchantHQ’s strongest high-risk and trade pages.
Who each brand helps get cited
Beyond being named itself, does either brand show up as the AI’s backing source behind a claim about a DIFFERENT company or product? Checked across the 542-prompt main market dataset (before the brand-vs-brand exclusion, since this specific check needs the full source-attribution pass).
23 products/brands
merchanthq.co.uk cited as the backing source for, 47 instances total
SumUp Solo 9×
Dojo Go 6×
Square Terminal 4×
Tide Card Reader 2×
Zettle Reader 2 2×
0 products/brands
merchantadviceservice.co.uk cited as the backing source for, real named products or brands
No genuine product or brand backing found. The few raw hits in this dataset are non-entity noise (generic words like “API” and “overview” picked up by the bold-text extraction pass, not real named companies).
Full methodology

Column 1 is the full combined Merchant Advice Service-scoped audit (217 prompts round 1, 8 Aug, plus 325 round 2, 9 Aug, 542 total), scoped to payments broadly (card machines, high-risk, EPOS, gateways, compliance, broker framing, generic head-terms neither brand specifically owns), with the 42 direct brand-vs-brand prompts removed, leaving 500. Column 2 is MerchantHQ’s own separate audit (682 prompts, run 8 Aug), scoped tight to what MerchantHQ actually built, deliberately excluding generic head-terms, with 9 brand-vs-brand prompts removed, leaving 673. Column 3 is not a new prompt run: it is a keyword-classified subset pulled from column 1’s 500 clean prompts, keeping only the ones matching Merchant Advice Service’s specific stated specialisms (high-risk merchant accounts, EPOS, payment gateways, and broker or matchmaking positioning), excluding plain card-machine-picking prompts which stay column-1-only. Brand-vs-brand prompts are excluded from all three columns throughout, since asking AI to directly compare two named companies is not a neutral test of who gets discovered organically, it guarantees both names appear in the answer regardless of either site’s real visibility.

All three sets: ChatGPT (OpenAI Responses API, gpt-4o, web_search_preview tool forced on, GB location), scanned against the same whitelist of real UK acquirer, terminal and gateway brands. A separate incremental slice covering business banking, cash advance and merchant finance, direct debits, open banking and loyalty was drafted and then not used, this page stays payments-only throughout.