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September 2026 Edition, expanded tier · The six flagship models on every category, as published . The public index runs on the standard tier; this record is what the Expanded Edition Pack delivers on one category. The category page →
Index › GTM › Marketing › Marketing automation · September 2026 Edition

Marketing automation and campaign management

Asked as “marketing automation platform”, and as “marketing automation and campaign management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 22 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.

Gane, the publisher, sells software in this category. Every product here is measured by the same method as in every other category. How the conflict is handled.

Standing · first-choice share
64%
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Consensus
64HubSpot Marketing Hub23Brevo09ActiveCampaign05others

64% of first choices, consensus.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01HubSpot Marketing Hub64%28%32criticized defaultnewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 64% now.
02Brevo23%0%13accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 23% now.
03ActiveCampaign9%14%22accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 9% now.
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Mailchimp0%58%12criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
07Salesforce Marketing Cloud0%46%13criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
06Adobe Marketo Engage0%38%29criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
05Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement0%29%21criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
04Klaviyo0%15%13accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.

The floor is 12 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one can't be told apart from repeat variation, and both are shown. Each index measures its own floor from its own repeat, over its own categories, so the floor differs from one index to the next. How the floor is measured

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 head
HubSpot Marketing Hub vs BrevoHubSpot Marketing Hub vs ActiveCampaignBrevo vs ActiveCampaign

One product takes 64% of first choices here, so the chart would put seven 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. Five products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Six of six models held their first choice under the paraphrase. 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.
Adobe Marketo Engage
38%
11 of 29 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“I’d initially screen out Salesforce Engagement and Marketo unless you can name the capabilities that justify them” GPT-6 Astra, negative prompt
HubSpot Marketing Hub
28%
9 of 32 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“The Verdict: Avoid if you don't have high profit margins or a dedicated enterprise budget.” Gemini 3.1 Pro, negative prompt
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
46%
6 of 13 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“These are platforms I'd generally avoid for smaller organizations unless Salesforce integration is strategically essential.” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
29%
6 of 21 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“These are platforms I'd generally avoid for smaller organizations unless Salesforce integration is strategically essential.” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt

What they cite

Six of the six models returned a source list in this edition: six return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

28 of 36 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 6 of 6 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 437 links across 241 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 36 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

hubspot.com
vendor site · HubSpot11 answers · 15 citations · 4 models
toolradar.com
8 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
business.adobe.com
vendor site · Adobe8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
ventureharbour.com
8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
activecampaign.com
vendor site · ActiveCampaign7 answers · 9 citations · 4 models
salesforce.com
vendor site · Salesforce7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
insiderone.com
vendor site · InsiderOne5 answers · 6 citations · 1 model
thecmo.com
5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
alumio.com
vendor site · Alumio5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
digitalapplied.com
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
mailchimp.com
vendor site · Mailchimp5 answers · 5 citations · 4 models
prometheusagency.co
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.

ventureharbour.com/marketing-automation-software
7 answers · 3 models
alumio.com/blog/top-10-marketing-automation-platforms-in-2025
5 answers · 2 models
business.adobe.com/products/marketo/pricing.html
5 answers · 2 models
digitalapplied.com/blog/marketing-automation-platform-comparison-2026
5 answers · 2 models
prometheusagency.co/insights/top-marketing-automation-platforms
5 answers · 2 models
toolradar.com/blog/marketing-automation-software-comparison
5 answers · 3 models
toolradar.com/guides/best-marketing-automation-software
5 answers · 2 models
drip.com/blog/best-marketing-automation-platforms
4 answers · 1 model
gumloop.com/blog/best-marketing-automation-platforms
4 answers · 2 models
insiderone.com/best-marketing-automation-tools-smbs-enterprises
4 answers · 1 model

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 marketing automation platform”, “marketing automation 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
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Marketing Hub 64%		64%991368,0009,776
Brevo brevo.com23%44040,50032781,741$17,847106
ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com9%43718,100307235,709$1,42432
MailerLite mailerlite.com5%15049,50031159,716$85115
Klaviyo klaviyo.com0%36590,5001,560200,057$572205
Salesforce parent site
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement 0%, Salesforce Marketing Cloud 0%		0%317550,00060,632
Braze braze.com0%54027,1006,39555,552$13,11259
Customer.io customer.io0%2182,90017415,750$6,920112
Omnisend omnisend.com0%1999,90010851,545$11366
Adobe parent site
Adobe Marketo Engage 0%		0%3111,220,000117,563

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 14 sites; 0 of them are among the sites the models cited here. The first result for “best marketing automation platform” is pipeline.zoominfo.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.
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ModelDirect“What is the best marketing automation platform for a mid-market B2B software company?”Paraphrase“Which marketing automation and campaign management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company?”Comparative“What are the top marketing automation platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best marketing automation platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a marketing automation platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which marketing automation platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Opus 5HubSpot Marketing Hub
Three alternativesAct-On, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
against: 6senseHubSpot Marketing HubHeld
Two alternativesCustomer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
against: 6sense, Adobe Marketo EngageHubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, Omnisend
against: Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account EngagementActiveCampaign, Brevo
Four alternativesKit, Klaviyo, MailerLite, Omnisend
against: HubSpot Marketing Hubno first choiceagainst: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap
Claude Opus 4.8HubSpot Marketing Hub
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
HubSpot Marketing HubHeld
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
no first choice
Eight alternativesActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
HubSpot Marketing Hub, MailerLite
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Omnisend
against: Mailchimpno first choiceagainst: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
GPT-6 AstraHubSpot Marketing Hub
Two alternativesAdobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
HubSpot Marketing HubHeld
Two alternativesAdobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
no first choice
Nine alternativesActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Brevo
One alternativeMailerLite
no first choice
Five alternativesAdobe Marketo Engage, Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
GPT-5.6 SolHubSpot Marketing Hub
Three alternativesAdobe Marketo Engage, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
against: ActiveCampaignHubSpot Marketing HubHeld
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
no first choiceBrevo
One alternativeMailerLite
against: HubSpot Marketing Hubno first choiceagainst: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Gemini 3.1 ProHubSpot Marketing Hub
Four alternativesAct-On, ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
HubSpot Marketing HubHeld
Three alternativesAdobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
against: MailchimpBrevo
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Omnisend
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing HubHubSpot Marketing Hub
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
against: Adobe Marketo Engageagainst: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap, Mailchimp, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Perplexity Sonar ProHubSpot Marketing Hub
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Customer.io
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account EngagementHubSpot Marketing HubHeld
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloudno first choiceActiveCampaign, Brevo
One alternativeMailchimp
against: MailerLiteno first choiceagainst: AWeber, Adobe Marketo Engage, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
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.
Thirty-six rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-08 19:49yes1949 s
Direct recommendationClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-08 19:49no019 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-08 19:50yes432 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-08 19:51yes439 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-08 19:50no028 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-08 19:49yes208 s
ParaphraseClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-08 19:52yes2050 s
ParaphraseClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-08 19:52no023 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-08 19:53yes637 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-08 19:54yes628 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-08 19:53no025 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-08 19:52yes206 s
ComparativeClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-08 19:55yes2254 s
ComparativeClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-08 19:56yes4351 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-08 19:57yes946 s
ComparativeGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-08 19:58yes749 s
ComparativeGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-08 19:56no022 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-08 19:56yes2010 s
Budget constrainedClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-08 19:59yes2072 s
Budget constrainedClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-08 19:59no019 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-08 20:00yes226 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-08 20:01yes333 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-08 20:00yes430 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-08 20:00yes206 s
Scale constrainedClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-08 20:02yes2671 s
Scale constrainedClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-08 20:03no023 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-08 20:04yes539 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-08 20:05yes771 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-08 20:03no027 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-08 20:03yes2012 s
Negative framingClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-08 20:06yes4359 s
Negative framingClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-08 20:10yes43214 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-08 20:11yes538 s
Negative framingGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-08 20:12yes776 s
Negative framingGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-08 20:11yes1234 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-08 20:10yes209 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

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Claude Opus 5
1 of 4 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
1 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
1 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
0 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
1 of 3 flipped

Normalization in this category

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

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Category-scoped readings
HubSpot read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
Unresolved, counted raw
None awaiting human review.
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in marketing

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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