September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

In-app messaging and customer communications for enterprise buyers

Asked as “in-app messaging platform”, and as “customer communications tool for product messaging”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
23%
Contested · Braze 13%
23Intercom13Braze09Pendo55others

23% 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 an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Intercom23%16%37accepted challenger
02Braze13%22%37accepted challenger
03Pendo9%5%20accepted challenger
04Sendbird6%20%20accepted challenger
05Userpilot4%15%20accepted challenger
06OneSignal4%35%20criticized challenger
07CometChat2%6%17accepted challenger
08Stream Chat2%17%12accepted challenger
09Zendesk Messaging2%9%11accepted challenger
10Microsoft Teams2%50%10criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
14MoEngage0%40%10criticized challenger
13CleverTap0%30%10criticized challenger
12Appcues0%29%17criticized challenger
11Airship0%19%16accepted 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 enterprise.
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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Intercom23%
02Braze13%
03Pendo9%
04Sendbird6%
05Userpilot4%
06OneSignal4%
07CometChat2%
08Stream Chat2%
09Zendesk Messaging2%
10Microsoft Teams2%
11Airship0%
12Appcues0%
13CleverTap0%
14MoEngage0%

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.
WhatsApp Business API
100%
8 of 8 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Popular consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat ... lack central management capabilities and do not contain critical encryption and security protocols” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Braze
22%
8 of 37 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Custom quote-only pricing; $50K–$400K+/year with MAU + data points + message volume complexity. Opaque.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
OneSignal
35%
7 of 20 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid for Cost Predictability... Charges per in-app impression — makes total cost almost impossible to predict.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Facebook Messenger
100%
6 of 6 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram, may not be suitable for enterprise use due to security and compliance concerns” Llama 4 Maverick, 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

22 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. 329 links across 160 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 · Userpilot11 answers · 15 citations · 4 models
8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Product Fruits8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Guideflow7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Helply7 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Pushwoosh7 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · TextUs7 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Braze6 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · CometChat5 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Knock5 answers · 7 citations · 1 model
5 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.com23%39233,1007,16564,348$3,304120
Braze braze.com13%54027,1006,39555,552$13,11259
Pendo pendo.io9%40912,10076119,185$3,60993
Sendbird sendbird.com6%512,9008647,136$2023
Userpilot userpilot.com4%2471,6001062,08461
Pylon usepylon.com4%3640,5003,11829,726$16621
OneSignal onesignal.com4%3224,40013329,726386
CometChat cometchat.com2%48720129,3297
Stream Chat getstream.io2%485,40055281,47967
Zendesk Messaging zendesk.com2%285,365,445$16,18163

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 15 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer communications tool for product messaging would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade in-app messaging platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best in-app messaging platform for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating an in-app messaging platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which in-app messaging platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Intercom
Two alternativesBraze, Product Fruits
StaffbaseChanged
Three alternativesHaystack, Microsoft Teams, Sociabble
Braze
Two alternativesAirship, Iterable
Braze, Userpilot
One alternativeProduct Fruits
against: Intercom
no first choiceagainst: Facebook Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp Business API
GPT-5.4 miniBraze
Three alternativesCustomer.io, Intercom, Pendo
against: OneSignal
IntercomChanged
One alternativeBraze
Braze
Three alternativesAirship, Appcues, OneSignal
Brazeagainst: Appcues, Intercom, Userpilotno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashIntercom, Pendo
Six alternativesChameleon, CometChat, Sendbird, Stream Chat, Userpilot, Zendesk Messaging
PendoChanged
Three alternativesBraze, Customer.io, Intercom
Braze, Sendbird, Stream Chat
Five alternativesAppcues, CleverTap, CometChat, MoEngage, PubNub
MirrorFly
Four alternativesCometChat, Crisp, Matrix, Rocket.Chat
against: Ably, PubNub, Sendbird, Stream Chat
no first choiceagainst: Braze, Freshchat, Intercom, OneSignal, PubNub, Sendbird, Zendesk Messaging
Perplexity SonarBraze, Userpilot
One alternativeProduct Fruits
Salesforce Service CloudChanged
Three alternativesFront, Intercom, Zendesk Messaging
Braze
Six alternativesChameleon, CometChat, OneSignal, Pendo, Sendbird, Userpilot
Knock
One alternativeOneSignal
against: Airship, Braze, Customer.io
no first choiceagainst: Airship, Appcues, Chameleon, Firebase In-App Messaging, Intercom, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, OneSignal, Slack, UserGuiding, Userflow
Grok 4.20Intercom
Three alternativesDrift, Sendbird, Zendesk Messaging
Adobe Marketo EngageChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Intercom
Six alternativesBraze, CometChat, Drift, Sendbird, Stream Chat, Zendesk Messaging
PubNubagainst: Ably, CometChat, Sendbird, Stream Chat, Twilio Conversationsno first choiceagainst: Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp Business API, iMessage
Mistral SmallIntercom, Pylon
Six alternativesClearFeed, Microsoft Teams, Plain, Slack, TeamSupport, Zendesk Messaging
Twilio ConversationsChanged
Five alternativesConga, DocPath, Intercom, Moxo, Salesforce Service Cloud
Braze
Seven alternativesCometChat, Customer.io, Intercom, Knock, Pendo, Sendbird, StreamChat
OneSignal
Three alternativesAirship, Braze, Sendbird
no first choiceagainst: Discord, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp Business API, iMessage
DeepSeek V4 FlashIntercom, Sendbird
Five alternativesAppcues, CometChat, Knock, Stream Chat, Userpilot
PendoChanged
Two alternativesGainsight PX, Intercom
Braze, Intercom, Pendo, Sendbird, Stream Chat
Six alternativesAirship, Appcues, OneSignal, Twilio Conversations, UserGuiding, Userpilot
against: Chameleon, MoEngage
Pushwoosh
Two alternativesCometChat, Intercom
against: Airship, Braze, CleverTap, Knock, MoEngage, OneSignal, Sendbird
no first choiceagainst: Driftagainst: Discord, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp Business API, iMessage
Llama 4 MaverickProduct Fruits
Four alternativesAppcues, Knock, UserGuiding, Userpilot
FrontChanged
One alternativeSalesforce Service Cloud
Braze
Four alternativesCometChat, Intercom, Sendbird, Twilio Conversations
no first choiceno first choice
Four alternativesBraze, CometChat, Mattermost, Slack Enterprise Grid
against: Braze, Facebook Messenger, MoEngage, Telegram, WhatsApp Business API
Qwen 3.7 FlashIntercom
Three alternativesProduct Fruits, Userpilot, Zendesk Sunshine Chat
against: Appcues, Drift
Seismic Enablement CloudChanged
Three alternativesAllego, Highspot, MessageWorks
Airship, Braze
Five alternativesAppcues, CleverTap, Intercom, MoEngage, Userpilot
against: Chameleon
OneSignal
Three alternativesChatwoot, Firebase In-App Messaging, Knock
against: Appcues, Braze, CleverTap, Intercom, MoEngage, Pushwoosh, Userpilot
CometChat, Sendbird
Seven alternativesDrift, Intercom, Mattermost, Microsoft Teams, Rocket.Chat, Slack Enterprise Grid, Zulip
against: Braze, Iterable
against: Omnisend, OneSignal, PushBots, PushEngage, SendPulse
Kimi K2Intercom, Zendesk Messaging
Two alternativesFreshdesk, Pendo
against: WalkMe
PylonChanged
Two alternativesSalesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk Messaging
no first choiceStream Chat
Three alternativesAbly, PubNub, Sendbird
against: Appcues, Braze, Intercom, OneSignal, Pendo, Twilio Conversations, Userpilot
no first choiceagainst: Discord, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, WhatsApp Business API, Zoom Webinars
GLM 4.7 FlashXIntercom
Three alternativesAppcues, Customer.io, Knock
Gainsight PX, PendoChanged
Two alternativesCourier, WalkMe
no first choiceBraze
One alternativeMoEngage
against: CleverTap, OneSignal
no first choiceagainst: Facebook Messenger, Signal, TeleMessage, Telegram, WeChat, WhatsApp Business API, iMessage
MiniMax M2.5Intercom
Three alternativesBraze, Pendo, Userpilot
Braze, IntercomChanged
Three alternativesConga, Salesforce Service Cloud, Userpilot
Braze, Pendo
Two alternativesAmity, Intercom
Sendbird
Two alternativesAirship, OneSignal
against: Braze
Microsoft Teams, Slack Enterprise Grid
Two alternativesCometChat, Stream Chat
against: Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp Business API
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 01:55yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:34yes58 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:45yes1623 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:45yes207 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 04:53yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:58yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:01yes078 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:54yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:26yes055 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:09yes042 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:23yes022 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:21yes018 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:17yes168 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:43yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:37yes2226 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:27yes205 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 01:23yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:11yes09 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:19yes049 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:39yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:52yes092 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:19yes054 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:14yes013 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:04yes017 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:02yes3119 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:29yes67 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:13yes1324 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 05:01yes2012 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 03:11yes09 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:13yes012 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:14yes030 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:24yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 05:02yes039 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:55yes030 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:52yes039 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 05:07yes019 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:58yes1414 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:01yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:59yes1430 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:08yes205 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 03:14yes09 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:12yes010 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:00yes050 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:16yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:50yes056 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:57yes035 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:18yes043 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:19yes0101 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:25yes1210 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:10no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:49no016 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:54yes208 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 04:50yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:41yes010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:28yes032 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:20yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:32yes041 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:46yes032 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:32yes061 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:47yes023 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:52yes169 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:15yes15 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:18yes2837 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:55yes208 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 04:16yes06 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:50yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:37yes068 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:08yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:42no038 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:07yes047 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:04yes0137 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:13yes015 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
Salesforce Service Cloud with Agentforce read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Stream read as Stream Chat
Stream (GetStream) read as Stream Chat
Stream (GetStream.io) read as Stream Chat
Stream (formerly GetStream) read as Stream Chat
Twilio read as Twilio Conversations
WhatsApp read as WhatsApp Business API
Zendesk read as Zendesk Messaging
Unresolved, counted raw
DocPath
Haystack
MessageWorks
PushBots
StreamChat
Zendesk Sunshine Chat
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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