September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Customer success platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “customer success platform”, and as “customer health and retention management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
55%
Clear leader
55Custify11HubSpot Service Hub09Vitally25others

55% of first choices, clear leader.

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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Custify55%7%59endorsed leader
02HubSpot Service Hub11%2%42accepted challenger
03Vitally9%13%46accepted challenger
04ClientSuccess5%12%40accepted challenger
05Akita5%6%17accepted challenger
06ChurnZero4%54%39criticized challenger
07Totango2%45%40criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Gainsight Customer Success0%98%45criticized challenger
08Planhat0%63%19criticized 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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

One product takes 55% of first choices here, so the chart would put eight markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Four products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Grok 4.20, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash 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
98%
44 of 45 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 22 hard negative
“Platforms to Avoid (or Approach with Extreme Caution)... Gainsight is widely considered the enterprise gold standard... notoriously complex and expensive.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Totango
45%
18 of 40 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“its architecture is still heavily rooted in enterprise-level needs... still requires a steep setup and implementation curve” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
ChurnZero
54%
21 of 39 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“Enterprise tools (Gainsight/ChurnZero) start $50K+ with 6-week setups—overkill/too pricey.” Grok 4.20, direct prompt
Planhat
63%
12 of 19 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“it requires a lot of technical expertise to design and configure... "blank slate paralysis"” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative 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

21 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. 291 links across 92 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.

vendor site · Userpilot14 answers · 14 citations · 3 models
12 answers · 24 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Oliv10 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Gartner9 answers · 9 citations · 4 models
8 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Custify8 answers · 12 citations · 4 models
8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Zapier8 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Velaris7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ClientSuccess7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Guideflow6 answers · 7 citations · 3 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
Custify custify.com55%11326018,58501
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Service Hub 11%, HubSpot Customer Success Workspace 2%, HubSpot CRM 2%
14%289368,0009,776
Vitally vitally.io9%1634,40040,6413,154$138255
ClientSuccess clientsuccess.com5%7672067,636123
Akita akitaapp.com5%17135,0009,342343
ChurnZero churnzero.com4%2372,9003911,534$2,55819
Zoho parent site
Zoho CRM 2%, Zoho Desk 2%
4%33149,500660
Zendesk zendesk.com2%4674,0003,5665,365,445$16,18163
Totango totango.com2%1511,600201,8855
Pylon usepylon.com0%3640,5003,11829,726$166216

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 12 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (clientsuccess.com, custify.com, gartner.com, usepylon.com, userpilot.com). 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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer health and retention management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top customer success platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer success platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a customer success platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which customer success platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Custify
Three alternativesCatalyst, Totango, Vitally
HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRMChangedagainst: Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, TotangoCustify, Vitally
Three alternativesCatalyst, Freshdesk Customer Success, HubSpot Service Hub
against: Gainsight Customer Success
Custify
Three alternativesAkita, Freshdesk, Totango
no first choiceagainst: Gainsight Customer Success
GPT-5.4 miniCustify, Vitally
Three alternativesChurnZero, HubSpot Service Hub, Planhat
CustifyChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Totango, Vitally
ChurnZero, Totango
Two alternativesClientSuccess, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
HubSpot Service Hub, Zoho Desk
Two alternativesCustify, CustomerSuccessBox
against: Gainsight Customer Success
no first choiceagainst: ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, Podium, Totango
Gemini 3.5 FlashCustify
Five alternativesClientSuccess, Customerscore.io, HubSpot Service Hub, Vitally, ZapScale
against: Gainsight Customer Success
CustifyHeld
Three alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon
against: Gainsight Customer Success, Totango
ClientSuccess
Four alternativesCustify, Customerscore.io, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Vitally
Custify, Totango
Five alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Notion, Skalin, Trello, ZapScale
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Custify, Vitally
Two alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub
against: Gainsight Customer Success, Totango
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango
Perplexity SonarCustify
Two alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub
CustifyHeld
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon, Vitally
Custify, Vitally
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon, Totango
Custify, HubSpot Service Hub
One alternativeClientSuccess
no first choiceagainst: Catalyst, Gainsight Customer Success, Salesforce Service Cloud, Totango
Grok 4.20Custify
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Successifier, Vitally
against: Akita, ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success
AkitaChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Totango Spark
against: ChurnZero, Custify, Gainsight Customer Success
Custify
Three alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success
HubSpot Service Hub
Two alternativesAkita, Totango
against: ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Vitally
no first choice
Two alternativesCustify, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Salesforce Customer Success, Totango
Mistral SmallCustify
Two alternativesHook, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
CustifyHeld
Three alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Vitally
Custify
Three alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Vitally
Custify
Four alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success
no first choice
Four alternativesCatalyst, ChurnZero, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango
against: Gainsight Customer Success
against: ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success, HubSpot Service Hub, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
DeepSeek V4 FlashCustify, HubSpot Service Hub
Three alternativesPlanhat, Totango, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Gainsight Customer Success
CustifyChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Planhat, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
Custify
Three alternativesAkita, ClientSuccess, Vitally
against: Planhat, ZapScale
Akita
Three alternativesCustify, HubSpot CRM, HubSpot Service Hub
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Custify, Vitally
Three alternativesChurnZero, Hook, Planhat
against: Gainsight Customer Success
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Totango
Llama 4 MaverickCustify
One alternativeChurnZero
CustifyHeldCustify
Two alternativesClientSuccess, Hook
Custify
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Pylon, Vitally
Custify
Three alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Vitally
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCustify, Vitally
Four alternativesHubSpot Customer Success Workspace, Intercom, SmartKarrot, Userpilot
VitallyChanged
One alternativeHubSpot Service Hub
against: Gainsight Customer Success
Custify
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Planhat, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Totango
Custify
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Planhat, Tidio, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Zoho Desk
HubSpot Customer Success Workspace
One alternativeTotango [Starter]
against: Gainsight Customer Success, Salesforce Service Cloud
against: Gainsight Customer Success, Intercom, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Qualtrics, Salesforce Service Cloud, Totango, Zendesk
Kimi K2Custify
Two alternativesChurnZero, Vitally
against: Churnkey, Gainsight Customer Success, Totango
CustifyHeld
Three alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango Free Tier
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Custify
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat
Custify
Four alternativesClientSuccess, GainTrace, HubSpot Service Hub, Skalin
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango
ClientSuccess
Four alternativesChurnZero, Custify, Totango, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success, Salesforce Service Cloud
against: Catalyst, ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Totango, Vitally
GLM 4.7 FlashXCustify
Two alternativesAkita, Totango
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Vitally
CustifyHeld
Three alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk
Skilljar
Six alternativesAkita, AskNicely, ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
HubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk
Two alternativesIntercom Customer Success, Survicate
against: Custify
ChurnZero, ClientSuccessagainst: Gainsight Customer Successagainst: Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango, Velaris
MiniMax M2.5Custify
Three alternativesAkita, Hook, Vitally
Akita, CustifyChanged
One alternativeHubSpot Service Hub
against: Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango
ClientSuccess, Custify
Three alternativesPylon, Userpilot, Vitally
against: Gainsight Customer Success
HubSpot Service Hub
Two alternativesAkita, Custify
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight Customer Success, Totango
ChurnZero, ClientSuccessagainst: Catalyst, ClientSuccess, Custify, Gainsight Customer Success, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
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 04:39yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:40yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:17yes1720 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:17yes205 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 03:06yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:32yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:15yes024 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:57yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:16yes065 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:07yes025 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:44yes067 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:26yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:17no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:11yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:41yes2523 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:57yes175 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)2026-09-14 23:31yes010 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:38yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 05:02yes038 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:56yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:20yes036 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:31yes039 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:08yes019 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:43yes027 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:55yes1410 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:46yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:26yes2430 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:35yes207 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 00:27yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:47yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:29yes048 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:48yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:16yes032 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:53yes062 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:34yes0122 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:16yes020 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:28yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:37yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:10yes1826 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 05:05yes205 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)2026-09-15 01:46yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:05yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:21yes029 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:56yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:49yes018 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:14yes041 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:11yes030 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:14yes016 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:10no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:07no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:00yes1226 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:45yes209 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 02:55yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:24no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:18yes047 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:04yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:20no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:06yes029 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:57yes044 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:53yes013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:30yes1616 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:14yes66 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:00yes1120 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:37yes207 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 04:05yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:59yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:43yes017 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:45yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:14no045 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:39yes030 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:30yes032 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:25yes019 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
HubSpot's free CRM read as HubSpot CRM
SalesForce read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce (Standard Edition) read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Unresolved, counted raw
GoMoment
Nuvola
Totango Free Tier
Totango Spark
Totango [Starter]
Vivian
VivifyScr
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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