September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

In-app messaging and customer communications

Asked as “in-app messaging platform”, and as “customer communications tool for product messaging”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 44 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
20%
Contested · Userpilot 16%
20Intercom16Userpilot11OneSignal52others

20% 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
01Intercom20%24%38accepted challenger
02Userpilot16%9%32accepted challenger
03OneSignal11%14%28accepted challenger
04Stream Chat5%0%17accepted challenger
05Customer.io5%6%16accepted challenger
06Product Fruits5%0%12accepted challenger
07Pushwoosh5%10%10accepted challenger
08Appcues2%23%35accepted challenger
09Pendo2%28%18criticized challenger
10Braze2%38%26criticized challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
16Sendbird0%38%13criticized challenger
13Chameleon0%21%14accepted challenger
15MoEngage0%21%14accepted challenger
14CleverTap0%20%15accepted challenger
12UserGuiding0%15%13accepted challenger
11CometChat0%5%20accepted 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
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Intercom20%
02Userpilot16%
03OneSignal11%
04Stream Chat5%
05Customer.io5%
06Product Fruits5%
07Pushwoosh5%
08Appcues2%
09Pendo2%
10Braze2%
11CometChat0%
12UserGuiding0%
13Chameleon0%
14CleverTap0%
15MoEngage0%
16Sendbird0%

What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, 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.
Braze
38%
10 of 26 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Sources repeatedly flag Braze, Airship, CleverTap, Iterable, and often MoEngage as platforms to avoid initially” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
WhatsApp Business API
88%
7 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Using free, consumer-grade messaging apps to interact with users inside a business context poses severe security risks.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Intercom
24%
9 of 38 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“If you are a small-to-medium business on a tight or predictable budget, avoid Intercom's default AI tiers.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Facebook Messenger
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Ranked lowest (22.22/100) in Kaspersky's 2025 privacy ratings, collecting the most data among major messaging apps” MiniMax M2.5, 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. 282 links across 145 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 · Userpilot12 answers · 13 citations · 4 models
10 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Product Fruits10 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Knock8 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Helply7 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Pushwoosh7 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Gleap6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · GetVero6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · CometChat5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Guideflow5 answers · 5 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 in-app messaging platform”, “in-app messaging 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
Intercom intercom.com20%39233,1007,16564,348$3,304120
Userpilot userpilot.com16%2471,6001062,08461
OneSignal onesignal.com11%3224,40013329,726386
Tencent RTC Chat tencent.com7%10
Front front.com7%3290,500304,67663,585$1,62668
Stream Chat getstream.io5%485,40055281,47967
Customer.io customer.io5%2182,90017415,750$6,920112
Product Fruits productfruits.com5%814802346,52110
Pushwoosh pushwoosh.com5%5117044,46316
Appcues appcues.com2%1981,9002618,5062

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 15 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (gleap.io, pushwoosh.com, userpilot.com). The first result for “best in-app messaging platform” is userpilot.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 in-app messaging platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer communications tool for product messaging would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top in-app messaging platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best in-app messaging platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an in-app messaging platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which in-app messaging platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Intercom
Three alternativesCustomer.io, Product Fruits, Userpilot
Drift, HelplyChangedagainst: IntercomProduct Fruits
Seven alternativesAppcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, CometChat, MoEngage, UserGuiding
OneSignal
Two alternativesFirebase, Product Fruits
against: MoEngage
no first choiceagainst: Facebook Messenger, LINE, WhatsApp Business API
GPT-5.4 miniAppcues
Three alternativesIntercom, Pendo, Userpilot
IntercomChanged
Two alternativesAppcues, Pendo
Braze
Six alternativesAWS End User Messaging, Airship, Amazon Pinpoint, Customer.io, Firebase In-App Messaging, OneSignal
Crisp
One alternativeUserpilot
against: Appcues, Intercom
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashCustomer.io, Gleap, Userpilot
Two alternativesFront, Userflow
against: Appcues, Braze, Intercom
Customer.io, Intercom, UserpilotChanged
Two alternativesChameleon, Gleap
against: Appcues, Braze, Pendo
Stream Chat
Seven alternativesAppcues, Braze, CometChat, Customer.io, OneSignal, Sendbird, Userpilot
Stream Chat, tawk.to
Seven alternativesCometChat, Crisp.chat, Firebase, HubSpot Live Chat, OneSignal, Product Fruits, UserGuiding
against: Appcues, Intercom, Userpilot
no first choiceagainst: GB WhatsApp, Intercom, Kik, Salesforce Service Cloud, Sendbird, Telegram, Twilio Programmable Chat, WhatsApp Business API, Zendesk Messaging
Perplexity SonarIntercom
Two alternativesAppcues, Userpilot
FrontChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Intercom
no first choice
Ten alternativesAppcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, Firebase In-App Messaging, Intercom, MoEngage, OneSignal, Pendo, Userpilot
OneSignal
Two alternativesUserGuiding, Zoho Cliq
against: Intercom
no first choiceagainst: Airship, Appcues, Braze, CleverTap, Customer.io, Iterable, MoEngage, Pendo, Userpilot
Grok 4.20Stream Chat
Two alternativesCometChat, Intercom
against: Sendbird
IntercomChanged
Three alternativesCustomer.io, Front, Helply
Braze, CometChat
One alternativeIntercom
Tencent RTC Chat
Four alternativesCometChat, Firebase, PubNub, Stream Chat
against: Agora, Rocket.Chat, Sendbird, Twilio Conversations
Braze, Intercom
Two alternativesAppcues, Userpilot
against: OneSignal, Pushwoosh
against: Chat & Ask AI, Discord, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Telegram, WhatsApp Business API
Mistral SmallUserpilot
Two alternativesIntercom, Product Fruits
against: Appcues
FrontChanged
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, Zendesk Messaging
no first choice
Eight alternativesAppcues, Braze, CometChat, Intercom, OneSignal, Pushwoosh, Twilio Conversations, Userpilot
against: Chameleon, CleverTap, MoEngage, UserGuiding
OneSignal
Three alternativesGleap, Product Fruits, Tencent RTC Chat
against: Appcues, Braze
no first choiceagainst: Discord, Facebook Messenger, LINE, Snapchat, Telegram, WeChat, WhatsApp Business API
DeepSeek V4 FlashIntercom
Four alternativesAppcues, Chameleon, Gleap, Userpilot
against: Pendo
UserpilotChanged
Two alternativesAppcues, Customer.io
against: AnnounceKit, Beamer, Braze, Intercom, Pendo
no first choice
Eleven alternativesAppcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, CometChat, MirrorFly, MoEngage, Stream Chat, TalkJS, Twilio Conversations, Userpilot
against: Intercom
Tencent RTC Chat
Five alternativesCometChat, OneSignal, PubNub, Stream Chat, UserGuiding
against: Intercom, Sendbird
no first choiceagainst: CometChat, PubNub, Rocket.Chat, Sendbird, TalkJS, Twilio Conversations
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceFrontChanged
Four alternativesHelp Scout, Heyy.io, Intercom, Zoho Desk
no first choiceTencent RTC Chat
Two alternativesCustomer.io, OneSignal
no first choiceagainst: Appcues, Braze, Chameleon, CleverTap, OneSignal, UserGuiding
Qwen 3.7 FlashIntercom, Product Fruits
Two alternativesAppcues, Userpilot
against: Drift
IntercomChanged
Two alternativesAppcues, Customer.io
against: Airship, Braze
Appcues, Userpilot
Eight alternativesBraze, Chameleon, CleverTap, CometChat, Firebase, Intercom, OneSignal, Twilio Conversations
Pushwoosh
Five alternativesOneSignal, Stream Chat, Tencent RTC Chat, Zoho SalesIQ, tawk.to
against: Airship, Braze
no first choiceagainst: Bird, Sinch, TikTok
Kimi K2Userpilot
Two alternativesAppcues, Pendo
PendoChanged
Three alternativesGainsight PX, Intercom, Userpilot
no first choiceOneSignal
Four alternativesFirebase, Knock, Novu, Tencent RTC Chat
no first choice
Ten alternativesAppcues, Braze, CleverTap, CometChat, OneSignal, Pendo, Product Fruits, Stream Chat, UserGuiding, Userpilot
against: Telegram, WhatsApp Business API
against: Airship, Braze, Firebase Cloud Messaging, JPush, Kumulos, Leanplum, Mobpush, OneSignal, Pushbot, Umeng
GLM 4.7 FlashXUserpilot
Four alternativesAppcues, Intercom, Product Fruits, UserGuiding
LaunchNotesChanged
Five alternativesAppcues, Beamer, Courier, Customer.io, Intercom
Intercom
Seven alternativesAppcues, Braze, CometChat, Customer.io, OneSignal, Pendo, Userpilot
OneSignal
Seven alternativesAppcues, Firebase, LiveChat, Pushwoosh, Tidio, UserGuiding, tawk.to
no first choiceagainst: Facebook Messenger, Keybase, Kik, Regular SMS Text Messages, Snapchat, TeleMessage, Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp Business API, Whisper
MiniMax M2.5Product Fruits, Userpilot
Four alternativesAppcues, Customer.io, Intercom, Pendo
no first choiceChanged
Three alternativesIntercom, Pendo, WalkMe
no first choice
Eight alternativesAppcues, Braze, CleverTap, CometChat, Intercom, OneSignal, Pendo, Userpilot
Pushwoosh
Two alternativesTencent RTC Chat, UserGuiding
against: OneSignal
no first choiceagainst: Braze, Chameleon, Facebook Messenger, Pendo, QuickBlox, Snapchat, Userpilot
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 01:37yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:05yes55 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:36yes2025 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:27yes204 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 04:34yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 05:07yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:11yes016 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:22yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:53yes039 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:50yes029 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:25yes026 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:13yes018 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:14yes810 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:27yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:51yes1023 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:33yes204 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 02:28yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:14yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:37yes033 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:40yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:15yes059 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:59yes025 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:38yes034 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:54yes036 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:19yes137 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:24yes810 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:25yes1721 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:02yes208 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 00:47yes09 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:17yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:34yes017 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:20yes01 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:57yes038 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:03yes036 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:26yes031 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:08yes016 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:46yes96 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:48no02 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:34yes1526 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:42yes204 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 01:47yes010 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:08yes05 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:04yes027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:14yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:47yes035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:54yes020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:53yes031 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:15yes015 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:38no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:36no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:28yes1025 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:12yes207 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 03:18yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:53no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:10yes033 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:31yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:17yes041 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:44yes045 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:21yes039 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:55yes014 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:13yes159 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:53yes26 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:44yes1923 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:36yes207 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 04:58yes06 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:31yes06 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:08yes040 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:47yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:34no044 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:34yes043 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:03yes0123 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:11yes016 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
GetStream read as Stream Chat
GetStream (Stream Chat) read as Stream Chat
GetStream.io read as Stream Chat
Stream read as Stream Chat
Stream (GetStream) read as Stream Chat
Stream (formerly GetStream) read as Stream Chat
Tencent RTC read as Tencent RTC Chat
Twilio read as Twilio Conversations
WhatsApp read as WhatsApp Business API
WhatsApp (Meta) read as WhatsApp Business API
Zendesk read as Zendesk Messaging
Unresolved, counted raw
Agora Chat
Chat & Ask AI
Freshworks (Freshdesk/Freshsales)
GB WhatsApp
Heyy.io
Keybase
Mesibo
Mobpush
Novu
Pushbot
QuickBlox
Regular SMS Text Messages
Self-hosted Matrix/Element
Signal Protocol-based solutions
Umeng (Alibaba)
Whisper
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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