# Marketing automation and campaign management for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 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, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "marketing automation platform" and as "marketing automation and campaign management tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/marketing-automation/2026-10/smb This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/marketing-automation/smb/index.md **Standing:** ActiveCampaign leads with 39% of first choices; verdict contested. 51 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts. ## First-choice share | Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | [ActiveCampaign](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/activecampaign/index.md) | 39% | 6% | 67 | | 2 | [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-marketing-hub/index.md) | 31% | 26% | 69 | | 3 | [Brevo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/brevo/index.md) | 25% | 2% | 52 | | 4 | [Mailchimp](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailchimp/index.md) | 4% | 38% | 42 | | 5 | [Klaviyo](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/klaviyo/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 24 | | 6 | [GetResponse](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/getresponse/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 16 | | 7 | [MailerLite](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mailerlite/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 | | 8 | [Omnisend](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/omnisend/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 | | 32 | [Keap](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/keap/index.md) | 0% | 55% | 11 | | 44 | [Adobe Marketo Engage](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/adobe-marketo-engage/index.md) | 0% | 72% | 18 | Rank is by share of first choices among all 44 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 Haiku 4.5: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Zoho MarketingPlus - GPT-5.4 mini: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Zoho Marketing Automation - Gemini 3.5 Flash: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Brevo, Zoho CRM, Zoho Marketing Automation - Perplexity Sonar: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Zoho Marketing Automation - Grok 4.20: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub - Mistral Small: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub - DeepSeek V4 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub - Llama 4 Maverick: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, Customer.io, GetResponse - Qwen 3.7 Flash: ActiveCampaign; alternatives HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap - Kimi K2: ActiveCampaign; alternatives Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub - GLM 4.7 FlashX: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives Brevo, Zoho Marketing Automation - MiniMax M2.5: ActiveCampaign; alternatives HubSpot Marketing Hub - GPT-6 Luna: HubSpot Marketing Hub; alternatives ActiveCampaign, Brevo - Muse Glimmer 30B: ActiveCampaign; alternatives GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp ## Sources the answers cite 74 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers: - getresponse.com: 35 answers, 41 citations - ventureharbour.com: 34 answers, 37 citations - brevo.com: 30 answers, 43 citations - blog.hubspot.com: 24 answers, 31 citations - activecampaign.com: 20 answers, 40 citations - improvado.io: 20 answers, 20 citations - pipeline.zoominfo.com: 19 answers, 26 citations - bloomreach.com: 19 answers, 19 citations Pages named in the most answers: - https://ventureharbour.com/marketing-automation-software (31 answers) - https://brevo.com/blog/best-marketing-automation-software (26 answers) - https://getresponse.com/blog/small-business-marketing-automation-software (26 answers) - https://improvado.io/blog/marketing-automation-tools (20 answers) - https://bloomreach.com/en/blog/best-marketing-automation-software (19 answers) - https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-automation-software-tools (16 answers) - https://emailtooltester.com/en/blog/best-b2b-marketing-automation-platform (15 answers) - https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/marketing/b2b-marketing-automation-platforms (15 answers) - https://thinkific.com/blog/marketing-automation-platforms (15 answers) - https://fitsmallbusiness.com/best-marketing-automation-software (14 answers) ## Warned against - HubSpot Marketing Hub: 18 of 69 labels negative. "it is generally not recommended for small businesses with tight budgets" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt) - Adobe Marketo Engage: 13 of 18 labels negative. "Designed for mid-market and enterprise, not SMBs | • Overly complex workflows and interface | • Can be very expensive for small teams" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt) - Mailchimp: 16 of 42 labels negative. "While user-friendly and suitable for very small lists, it may lack the depth and scalability needed as your business grows." (Mistral Small, negative prompt) - Salesforce Marketing Cloud: 8 of 8 labels negative. "Platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud are designed for large enterprises... can be prohibitively expensive for small businesses" (Mistral Small, negative prompt) ## Movement since September 2026 Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat. Same leader: ActiveCampaign at 40%. - ActiveCampaign: 51% to 40%, −11. Cleared the floor by 0 points · rank 1 of 42, unchanged. - Brevo: 15% to 24%, +9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 3 of 42, unchanged. - HubSpot Marketing Hub: 25% to 31%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 2 of 42, unchanged. - MailerLite: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 → 7 of 42. - Mailchimp: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 4 of 42. - Klaviyo: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 5 of 42. - GetResponse: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 32 → 6 of 42. - Omnisend: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 8 of 42. - Kit: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 28 of 42. - Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 45 → 40 of 42. - Adobe Marketo Engage: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 47 → 42 of 42. ## Record - Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology - License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.