# Marketing automation and campaign management: what AI models recommend, September 2026

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

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "marketing automation platform" and as "marketing automation and campaign management tool", six framings each, to six frontier models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/marketing-automation/2026-09-expanded

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 9, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/marketing-automation/index.md

**Standing:** HubSpot Marketing Hub leads with 64% of first choices; verdict consensus. 22 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-marketing-hub/index.md) | 64% | 28% | 32 |
| 2 | [Brevo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/brevo/index.md) | 23% | 0% | 13 |
| 3 | [ActiveCampaign](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/activecampaign/index.md) | 9% | 14% | 22 |
| 5 | [Klaviyo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/klaviyo/index.md) | 0% | 15% | 13 |
| 6 | [Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/salesforce-marketing-cloud-account-engagement/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 21 |
| 10 | [Adobe Marketo Engage](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/adobe-marketo-engage/index.md) | 0% | 38% | 29 |
| 21 | [Salesforce Marketing Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/salesforce-marketing-cloud/index.md) | 0% | 46% | 13 |
| 22 | [Mailchimp](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailchimp/index.md) | 0% | 58% | 12 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 23 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Opus 5: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Act-On, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- Claude Opus 4.8: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- GPT-6 Astra: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- GPT-5.6 Sol: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Adobe Marketo Engage, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- Gemini 3.1 Pro: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
- Perplexity Sonar Pro: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Customer.io

## Sources the answers cite

28 of 36 answers came back with a source list, from 6 of 6 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- hubspot.com: 11 answers, 15 citations
- toolradar.com: 8 answers, 10 citations
- business.adobe.com: 8 answers, 9 citations
- ventureharbour.com: 8 answers, 8 citations
- activecampaign.com: 7 answers, 9 citations
- salesforce.com: 7 answers, 7 citations
- insiderone.com: 5 answers, 6 citations
- thecmo.com: 5 answers, 6 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

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

## Warned against

- Adobe Marketo Engage: 11 of 29 labels 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: 9 of 32 labels 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: 6 of 13 labels 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: 6 of 21 labels negative. "These are platforms I'd generally avoid for smaller organizations unless Salesforce integration is strategically essential." (GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.