September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Customer › Customer success · September 2026 Edition

Customer success platforms

Asked as “customer success platform”, and as “customer health and retention management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
39%
Contested · Vitally 23%
39ChurnZero23Vitally16Custify21others

39% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

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. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01ChurnZero39%17%58endorsed leader
02Vitally23%12%50accepted challenger
03Custify16%5%42accepted challenger
04HubSpot Service Hub5%13%15accepted challenger
05Totango4%18%45accepted challenger
06Skalin4%7%14accepted challenger
07ClientSuccess2%14%35accepted challenger
08Catalyst2%14%14accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Gainsight Customer Success0%64%53criticized challenger
09Planhat0%22%40accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

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%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
C08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01ChurnZero39%
02Vitally23%
03Custify16%
04HubSpot Service Hub5%
05Totango4%
06Skalin4%
07ClientSuccess2%
08Catalyst2%
09Planhat0%
10Gainsight Customer Success0%

What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Gainsight Customer Success
64%
34 of 53 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“Gainsight - has a high risk score of 57/100 and 4 documented complaints, with issues related to aggressive subscription billing, cancellation friction” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
ChurnZero
17%
10 of 58 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Platforms to AVOID on a Limited Budget | ChurnZero | Starts at ~$849/month + $5K-25K setup fees” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Totango
18%
8 of 45 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Totango ⚠️ MIXED SIGNALS (Post-Merger Issues) ... 2024 merger with Catalyst created instability and uncertainty” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Planhat
22%
9 of 40 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Budget ... generally not where you should start” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 266 links across 90 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

12 answers · 15 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Userpilot11 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Gartner10 answers · 10 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Skalin7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Oliv7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Reddit6 answers · 13 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ClientSuccess6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Customerscore.io6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 4 models
5 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Vitally5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best customer success platform”, “customer success platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
ChurnZero churnzero.com39%2372,9003911,534$2,55819
Vitally vitally.io23%1634,40040,6413,154$138255
Custify custify.com16%11326018,58501
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Service Hub 5%, HubSpot Customer Success Workspace 2%, HubSpot CRM 0%
7%289368,0009,776
Totango totango.com4%1511,600201,8855
Skalin skalin.io4%1120315
ClientSuccess clientsuccess.com2%7672067,636123
Catalyst2%246,00021,098
Akita akitaapp.com2%17135,0009,342343
Successifier successifier.com2%5

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 12 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (clientsuccess.com, gartner.com, reddit.com, usepylon.com, userpilot.com, vitally.io). The first result for “best customer success platform” is gartner.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best customer success platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer health and retention management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top customer success platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer success platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer success platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which customer success platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Vitally
Three alternativesChurnZero, Custify, Totango
no first choiceChanged
Two alternativesGainsight Customer Success, Totango
against: HubSpot Operations Hub, HubSpot Service Hub
no first choice
Three alternativesChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Custify, HubSpot Service Hub
Four alternativesFreshdesk Customer Success, HubSpot CRM, UserGuiding, ZapScale
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniChurnZero
Two alternativesGainsight Customer Success, Totango
ChurnZeroHeld
Two alternativesGainsight Customer Success, Totango
no first choice
Six alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
ChurnZero, HubSpot Customer Success Workspace
Three alternativesAirtable, Catalyst, Notion
against: Gainsight CS, Totango
no first choiceagainst: Hatch, Shape
Gemini 3.5 FlashVitally
Three alternativesChurnZero, Planhat, Totango
against: Gainsight Customer Success
ChurnZeroChanged
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Custify, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success, HubSpot Customer Success Workspace, Planhat, Salesforce Service Cloud
Gainsight Customer Success
Seven alternativesCatalyst, ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
HubSpot Service Hub
Eight alternativesAirtable, ClientSuccess, Custify, Customerscore.io, Notion, Skalin, Trello, ZapScale
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Catalyst, ChurnZero, Custify, Skalin, Vitally
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Salesforce Client 360
against: Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Totango, Vitally
Perplexity SonarChurnZero
Four alternativesClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Vitally
ChurnZeroHeld
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, monday.com Customer Success
against: Gainsight Customer Success
no first choiceCustify
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Totango
no first choiceagainst: Gainsight Customer Success
Grok 4.20ChurnZero
Five alternativesClientSuccess, Custify, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Vitally
against: Skalin
ChurnZeroHeld
Three alternativesCustify, Totango, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success
Five alternativesClientSuccess, Custify, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
HubSpot Service Hub
Three alternativesAkita, Freshchat, Totango
against: ChurnZero, Custify, Gainsight Customer Success, Vitally
ChurnZero, Vitallyagainst: Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango
Mistral SmallChurnZero, Vitally
Four alternativesClientSuccess, Custify, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
VitallyChanged
Two alternativesChurnZero, Custify
against: Freshsuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, HubSpot Service Hub
Gainsight Customer Success
Seven alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Oliv, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
Custify, Skalin
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Vitally
no first choice
Five alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
against: Catalyst, ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango
DeepSeek V4 FlashVitally
Three alternativesCatalyst, ChurnZero, Planhat
against: Gainsight Customer Success
VitallyHeld
Five alternativesCatalyst, ChurnZero, Custify, Planhat, Totango
against: Gainsight Customer Success
Gainsight Customer Success
Five alternativesChurnZero, Custify, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
against: Hook
Custify
Three alternativesGainTrace, Skalin, Totango
against: Catalyst, ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, Intercom Customer Success, Planhat, Vitally
no first choiceagainst: Gainsight Customer Successagainst: ChurnZero, CustomerSuccessBox, Gainsight Customer Success, Totango, Vitally
Llama 4 MaverickChurnZero
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Planhat, Vitally
ChurnZero, Custify, VitallyChangedno first choiceCustify
One alternativeCuoral
Totango
Three alternativesChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Qwen 3.7 FlashChurnZero, ClientSuccess
One alternativeSkalin
ChurnZeroChanged
Seven alternativesHubSpot Customer Success Hub, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Totango, monday.com Customer Success
against: Gainsight Customer Success
no first choice
Five alternativesChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Oliv, Totango, Vitally
Akita
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Retain, Totango
against: ClientSuccess, Vitally
ChurnZero, Vitally
Four alternativesClientSuccess, Oliv, Totango, Userpilot
against: Gainsight Customer Success
against: Gainsight Customer Success, HubSpot Customer Success Workspace, Intercom, Procentrix, Salesforce Service Cloud, SuccessCompass, Zendesk
Kimi K2ChurnZero
Four alternativesClientSuccess, Custify, Planhat, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
ChurnZeroHeld
Three alternativesCustify, Planhat, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
Gainsight Customer Success
Six alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Skalin, Totango, Vitally
Custify
Six alternativesAkita, HubSpot CRM, HubSpot Service Hub, Skalin, Totango, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Vitally
Two alternativesChurnZero, Planhat
against: Akita, Custify, Gainsight Customer Success
against: Catalyst Software, ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
GLM 4.7 FlashXVitally
Three alternativesChurnZero, Custify, Planhat
against: Gainsight Customer Success
ChurnZeroChanged
Three alternativesCustify, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango
against: Gainsight Customer Success
ChurnZero, Gainsight CS
Six alternativesCatalyst, Custify, Planhat, Salesforce Service Cloud, Totango, Vitally
Custify, Successifier
Five alternativesCrisp, Freshchat, HubSpot Service Hub, Tidio, Vitally
against: Hook
ChurnZero
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Planhat, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, Salesforce Service Cloud, Totango
MiniMax M2.5ChurnZero, Vitally
Two alternativesClientSuccess, Planhat
against: Gainsight Customer Success
ChurnZeroChanged
Four alternativesClientSuccess, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
Oliv
Seven alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Hook, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
Totango
Two alternativesCustify, HubSpot Service Hub
no first choiceagainst: ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:50yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:45yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:13yes1617 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:52yes2019 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:40yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:25yes05 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:19yes017 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:27yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:50yes016 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:19yes035 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:42yes042 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:57yes013 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:54no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:14yes55 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:49yes817 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:13yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:29yes09 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:32yes010 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:37yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:09yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:33yes021 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:54yes031 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:24yes063 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:07yes014 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:23yes87 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:07yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:44yes1628 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:25yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:55yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:03yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:19yes040 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:54yes01 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:51yes034 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:41yes022 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:51yes020 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:57yes014 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:31yes810 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:06no04 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:50yes1320 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:34yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:46yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:56yes010 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:08yes017 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:41yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:04yes049 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:50yes026 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:06yes024 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:38yes011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:15no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:24no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:32yes1125 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:10yes1911 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:42yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:50yes09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:14yes014 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:48yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:59yes047 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:17yes047 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:15yes051 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:16yes015 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:13yes158 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:52yes36 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:48yes2724 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:21yes209 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:44yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:10yes010 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:42yes045 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:38yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:59no050 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:28yes072 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:48yes029 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:13yes018 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Gainsight read as Gainsight Customer Success
HubSpot read as HubSpot Customer Success Workspace
Salesforce read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Unresolved, counted raw
Catalyst Software
Cuoral
Freshsuccess
HubSpot Customer Success Hub
Nativity/Zendesk
Pebble
Procentrix
Retain
Salesforce Client 360
SuccessCompass
Territory Management
Workona
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← FeedbackHelpdesk →