September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

Loyalty, advocacy and referrals

Asked as “customer loyalty and referral platform”, and as “customer advocacy and referral program tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 41 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
24%
Contested · Referral Rock 22%
24Smile.io22Referral Rock12Influitive AdvocateHub41others

24% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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
01Smile.io24%19%36accepted challenger
02Referral Rock22%0%23accepted challenger
03Influitive AdvocateHub12%20%25accepted challenger
04GrowSurf5%0%14accepted challenger
05Ambassador5%16%19accepted challenger
06Referral Factory5%8%12accepted challenger
07SlapFive2%0%13accepted challenger
08Open Loyalty2%0%15accepted challenger
09Zinrelo2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the eight products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
17Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals0%32%37criticized challenger
16ReferralCandy0%28%25criticized challenger
12LoyaltyLion0%25%28criticized challenger
15Friendbuy0%23%22accepted challenger
13Extole0%13%15accepted challenger
10Annex Cloud0%12%16accepted challenger
14Salesforce Loyalty Management0%0%11accepted challenger
11Talon.One0%0%11accepted 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
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Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Smile.io24%
02Referral Rock22%
03Influitive AdvocateHub12%
04GrowSurf5%
05Ambassador5%
06Referral Factory5%
07SlapFive2%
08Open Loyalty2%
09Zinrelo2%
10Annex Cloud0%
11Talon.One0%
12LoyaltyLion0%
13Extole0%
14Salesforce Loyalty Management0%
15Friendbuy0%
16ReferralCandy0%
17Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals0%

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.
Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
32%
12 of 37 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Tight Budget - Yotpo — Quote-based pricing, historically more expensive” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Smile.io
19%
7 of 36 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Billing complaints: Multiple merchants report being charged even after cancelling their free plan” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Friendbuy
23%
5 of 22 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Outdated customer service: Described as "stuck in the 80s" with slow response times” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
LoyaltyLion
25%
7 of 28 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Better for larger/scale brands; minimal plans start around $100+/month” 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

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. 322 links across 158 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 · Open Loyalty10 answers · 15 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Extole7 answers · 11 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Yotpo7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Klaviyo6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Voucherify6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · CustomerGauge5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Bubblehouse4 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Guideflow4 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · HubSpot4 answers · 4 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 loyalty and referral platform”, “customer loyalty and referral 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
Smile.io smile.io24%108260268,962$1,46812
Referral Rock referralrock.com22%2227201018,5991
Influitive AdvocateHub influitive.com12%861004,094
GrowSurf growsurf.com5%9626002,07802
Ambassador getambassador.com5%10374,00040,6885720
Referral Factory referral-factory.com5%15748025,11537
CustomerGauge customergauge.com5%99210022,116$25417
Zinrelo trueloyal.com
Zinrelo 2%, True Loyal 2%
5%417038,010$749
SlapFive slapfive.com2%11170076
Open Loyalty openloyalty.io2%63170730,0151

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (klaviyo.com, yotpo.com). The first result for “best customer loyalty and referral platform” is influencermarketinghub.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 loyalty and referral platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer advocacy and referral program tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top loyalty, advocacy and referral platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer loyalty and referral platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer loyalty and referral platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which loyalty, advocacy and referral platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5CustomerGauge
Four alternativesGrowSurf, Referral Rock, Salesforce Loyalty Management, Zinrelo
Referral RockChanged
Three alternativesBase, Influitive AdvocateHub, SlapFive
Bubblehouse
Three alternativesAnnex Cloud, Friendbuy, Talkable
Joy Loyalty
Six alternativesBloop, Loyverse POS, Smile.io, Tapfiliate, UpPromote, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniAmbassador
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, Referral Factory, Salesforce Loyalty Management
Referral FactoryChanged
Five alternativesBase, Influitive AdvocateHub, Orca, ReferenceEdge, impact.com Advocate
no first choiceSmile.io
One alternativeReferralCandy
against: LoyaltyLion, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choiceagainst: Influitive AdvocateHub, LoyaltyLion
Gemini 3.5 FlashReferral Rock
Four alternativesAnnex Cloud, Influitive AdvocateHub, PartnerStack, SaaSquatch
against: Salesforce Loyalty Cloud
Base.aiChanged
Three alternativesDeeto, Referral Factory, Referral Rock
against: Ambassador, Extole, Influitive AdvocateHub
LoyaltyLion, Smile.io
Ten alternativesBase, BrandChamp, Capillary, Friendbuy, GrowSurf, Influitive AdvocateHub, ReferralCandy, Talkable, Talon.One, UserEvidence
Smile.io
Four alternativesGrowave, Joy Loyalty, Loloyal, Rivo.io
against: ReferralCandy
no first choice
Seven alternativesAnnex Cloud, Extole, Friendbuy, LoyaltyLion, Talon.One, Voucherify, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
against: Friendbuy, Influitive AdvocateHub, LoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Talkable, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Perplexity SonarCustomerGauge, Open Loyalty
One alternativeTalon.One
against: Annex Cloud, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Referral FactoryChanged
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, Influitive AdvocateHub, SlapFive
LoyaltyLion
Six alternativesAnnex Cloud, Mention Me, Open Loyalty, Smile.io, Talon.One, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Smile.io
Three alternativesBON Loyalty, Joy Rewards, Square Loyalty
against: LoyaltyPass
no first choiceagainst: Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Grok 4.20Influitive AdvocateHub
Three alternativesAmbassador, Referral Rock, TrueLoyal
Referral RockChanged
Three alternativesCello, Influitive AdvocateHub, SlapFive
no first choice
Five alternativesAntavo, Influitive AdvocateHub, Open Loyalty, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Smile.io
One alternativeBON Loyalty
against: ReferralCandy, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choiceagainst: LoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Mistral SmallGrowSurf
Two alternativesPartnerStack, True Loyal
Referral RockChanged
Two alternativesBase, Influitive AdvocateHub
no first choiceLoyverse POS, Square Loyalty
Six alternativesElementary POS, Loop.fans, Loyally.ai, Referral Factory, Smile.io, SumUp
no first choiceagainst: Points.com
DeepSeek V4 FlashAmbassador
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, PartnerStack, Referral Rock
against: Annex Cloud, TrueLoyal
Referral RockChanged
Three alternativesAmbassador, Influitive AdvocateHub, PartnerStack
Influitive AdvocateHub
Six alternativesExtole, LoyaltyLion, SlapFive, Smile.io, Talkable, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Smile.io
Two alternativesJoy Rewards, Square Loyalty
against: Fivestars, LoyaltyLion, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choiceagainst: Fivestars, LoyaltyLion, PC Optimum, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Webloyalty.com / Reservation Rewards, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Two alternativesGrowSurf, Referral Rock
against: Friendbuy
Influitive AdvocateHubChanged
Two alternativesBrandbassador, Referral Factory
no first choiceSmile.io
Three alternativesBON Loyalty, ReferralCandy, Rivo
no first choiceagainst: Influitive AdvocateHub, NiceJob, Referral Factory
Qwen 3.7 FlashInfluitive AdvocateHub
Two alternativesAmbassador, CustomerGauge
against: Friendbuy, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
SlapFiveChanged
Two alternativesReferral Rock, UserEvidence
against: Influitive AdvocateHub
no first choiceSmile.io
Two alternativesKangaroo Rewards, Loop
against: ReferralCandy, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choiceagainst: Smile.ioagainst: Oracle Siebel, Salesforce CPQ, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Kimi K2Referral Rock, Zinrelo
Two alternativesKademi, PartnerStack
Referral RockChanged
Three alternativesAmbassador, Influitive AdvocateHub, SlapFive
no first choice
Nine alternativesDeeto, Friendbuy, Influitive AdvocateHub, LoyaltyLion, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, SlapFive, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Smile.io
Four alternativesLoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Rivo, Stamped
no first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Bazaarvoice, Extole, Friendbuy, LoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Talkable, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
GLM 4.7 FlashXTrue Loyal
Three alternativesAnnex Cloud, Open Loyalty, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Influitive AdvocateHubChanged
Three alternativesBase, Friendbuy, Referral Factory
no first choiceagainst: Viral LoopsSmile.io, meed
Seven alternativesFirstPromoter, Partnero, ReferralCandy, ReferralHero, Square Loyalty, Stamp Me, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Friendbuy, Smile.io
MiniMax M2.5GrowSurf, Referral Rock
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, Kademi, Zinrelo
Influitive AdvocateHub, Referral RockChanged
Two alternativesAmbassador, SlapFive
no first choiceSmile.io
Two alternativesLoyally.ai, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choicenothing named
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 04:12yes149 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:35yes48 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:50yes1822 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:58yes206 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 01:05yes014 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:52yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:49yes042 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:08yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:56yes038 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:49yes030 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:13yes030 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:16yes027 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:38yes1311 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:14yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:00yes2424 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:19yes175 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 04:25yes06 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:31yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:53yes015 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:38yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:40yes047 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:29yes038 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:46yes073 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:18yes018 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:19yes89 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:49yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:11yes2527 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:57yes2010 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)2026-09-14 22:58yes010 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:44yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:51yes029 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:06yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:35yes033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:38yes072 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:44yes0169 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:34yes026 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:15yes86 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:15no04 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:18yes1919 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:43yes205 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 01:11yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:19yes010 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:55yes025 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:52yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:20yes021 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:41yes031 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:23yes0116 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:40yes010 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:53no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:16no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:31yes1123 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:56yes2011 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 03:55yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:46no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:52yes029 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:42yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:26yes068 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:30yes040 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 05:05no022 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:39yes027 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:35yes3213 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:03yes38 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:15yes1724 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:32yes209 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 04:31yes015 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:01yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:34yes068 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:34yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:41no048 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:11yes069 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:53yes027 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:49yes020 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
Comarch read as Comarch Loyalty Management
FiveStars Loyalty (Fivestars) read as Fivestars
Influitive read as Influitive AdvocateHub
Influitive (AdvocateHub) read as Influitive AdvocateHub
Loyverse read as Loyverse POS
Salesforce read as Salesforce Loyalty Management
Yotpo read as Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Yotpo Loyalty read as Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Unresolved, counted raw
Elementary POS
ExpertVoice
Loloyal
LoyaltyMethods (ReactorCX)
Muster
OneClickPolitics
PC Optimum
Physical Punch Cards
Points.com
Rivo.io
Salesforce Loyalty Cloud
SumUp
VoterVoice
Webloyalty.com / Reservation Rewards
Xoxoday Loyalife
Yotpo Referral
meed
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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