September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

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Asked as “direct mail automation platform”, and as “print and direct mail marketing tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
54%
Clear leader
54Postalytics09Lob07PostGrid Print & Mail30others

54% of first choices, clear leader.

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
01Postalytics54%7%54endorsed leader
02Lob9%27%48criticized challenger
03Stannp7%0%21accepted challenger
04PostGrid Print & Mail7%24%41accepted challenger
05Sendoso4%22%45accepted challenger
06Click2Mail4%25%24criticized challenger
07PFL4%26%23criticized challenger
08Mailjoy2%11%19accepted challenger
09Reachdesk2%18%22accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Postie0%31%13criticized challenger
10Postal0%6%18accepted 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

One product takes 54% of first choices here, so the chart would put ten 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. Four products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.

What they warned about

Seven of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick 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.
Lob
27%
13 of 48 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Platforms to Avoid on a Tight Budget- Lob — Great API, but the $260–550/month platform fee” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
PostGrid Print & Mail
24%
10 of 41 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Platforms to Avoid on a Tight Budget ... Postgrid — Cheaper API alternative ($0–99/mo), but pricing is often quote-based” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Sendoso
22%
10 of 45 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Platforms with Significant Concerns ... Sendoso (and Postal.io - now acquired by Sendoso) Key Red Flags: Non-refundable prepaid balances that expire” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Click2Mail
25%
6 of 24 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Broken/misleading delivery tracking... their website is simply not working properly” DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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. 301 links across 100 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 · Postalytics14 answers · 18 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Guideflow14 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
11 answers · 18 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Lob10 answers · 16 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Capterra9 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
vendor site · CIENCE8 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Gartner8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · PostGrid7 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · DirectMail.io6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 11 citations · 1 model
5 answers · 8 citations · 1 model

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 direct mail automation platform”, “direct mail 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
Postalytics postalytics.com54%1601,000390,338282
Lob lob.com9%30227,1006,31955,936109
Stannp stannp.com7%87209
PostGrid postgrid.com
PostGrid Print & Mail 7%
7%1991,60011196,042$7651203
Sendoso sendoso.com4%2858,10010813,840107
Click2Mail click2mail.com4%1061,9002425,581$416
PFL pfl.com4%9849,5003,4961,4488
Mailjoy mailjoy.com2%6700
Reachdesk reachdesk.com2%2232,400251,2909
GundirXpress gundir.com2%1

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 13 sites; 7 of them are among the sites the models cited here (directmail.io, g2.com, gartner.com, lob.com, postalytics.com, postgrid.com, thecmo.com). The first result for “best direct mail automation platform” is thecmo.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 direct mail automation platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which print and direct mail marketing tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top direct mail automation platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best direct mail automation platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a direct mail automation platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which direct mail automation platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5PFL
Two alternativesPostGrid Print & Mail, Sendoso
PFLHeld
Three alternativesPostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics, Sendoso
Sendoso
Four alternativesLob, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics, Thanks.io
Postalytics
One alternativeMailjoy
against: Click2Mail
no first choiceagainst: Postie, Stadium
GPT-5.4 miniSendoso
One alternativePFL
LobChanged
Three alternativesPostGrid Print & Mail, Reachdesk, Sendoso
against: Direct Mail Manager
no first choice
Six alternativesLob, PFL Direct Mail Platform, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics, Reachdesk, Sendoso
Postalyticsagainst: Sendosono first choiceagainst: Direct Mail Processing, LLC
Gemini 3.5 FlashPostalytics, Reachdesk
Three alternativesAlyce, Lob, Postal
against: Sendoso
Lob, Postalytics, SendosoChangedLob, PostPilot, Postalytics, Sendoso
Four alternativesPebblePost, Poplar, PostGrid Print & Mail, Reachdesk
Stannp
Three alternativesMailjoy, PostGrid Print & Mail, Thanks.io
against: Lob, Postalytics
no first choiceagainst: Inkit, Lob, Reachdesk, Sendoso
Perplexity SonarPostalytics
Three alternativesDirectMail.io, Lob, Sendoso
PostalyticsHeld
Three alternativesPFL, PostGrid Print & Mail, Sendoso
Lob, PostGrid Print & Mail
Five alternativesPFL, Postalytics, Postie, Reachdesk, Sendoso
Postalytics
Four alternativesClick2Mail, GundirXpress, Lob, Mailjoy
no first choiceagainst: Click2Mail, Keap, Lob, Mailform, Mailjoy, PostGrid Print & Mail, PostcardMania, SendGrid, Twilio Campaigns
Grok 4.20Postalytics
Three alternativesLob, PostGrid Print & Mail, Sendoso
against: PFL
PostalyticsHeld
One alternativePostGrid Print & Mail
against: Lob, PFL, Sendoso
Postalytics
Two alternativesLob, Sendoso
Click2Mail, Postalytics
Three alternativesLob, Mailjoy, Stannp
PostGrid Print & Mail
Two alternativesLob, Postalytics
against: Lob, PFL Direct Mail Platform, PostGrid Print & Mail, Sendoso
Mistral SmallPostalytics
Three alternativesLob, PostGrid Print & Mail, Sendoso
PostGrid Print & MailChanged
Three alternativesAmazingMail, Click2Mail, PFL
Lob
Seven alternativesMailjoy, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics, Postie, Reachdesk, Sendoso, Stannp
Mailjoy, Postalytics
Three alternativesClick2Mail, Oppizi, Stannp
no first choiceagainst: Direct Mail Processing, LLC, Distribution Processing Center, LLC, Lob, PFL Direct Mail Platform, PostGrid Print & Mail, PostcardMania
DeepSeek V4 FlashPostalytics
Four alternativesLob, PFL, Reachdesk, Sendoso
PostalyticsHeld
Two alternativesLob, Sendoso
against: PFL
Postalytics
Nine alternativesClick2Mail, Lob, Mailjoy, PFL, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postie, Reachdesk, Sendoso, Stannp
Stannp
Three alternativesClick2Mail, Postalytics, REmail
against: Lob, PostGrid Print & Mail, PostcardMania
Lob, Postalytics
Five alternativesPFL, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postie, Sendoso, Stannp
against: Click2Mail, Mailjoy, Printfection
against: Boingnet, Click2Mail, Lob, PFL, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics, Postie, Reachdesk, Sendoso, Stadium/Snackmagic/Swagmagic
Llama 4 MaverickPostalytics
One alternativeMagileads
no first choiceChangedCM.com
One alternativePostGrid Print & Mail
GundirXpress
Two alternativesModern Postcard, PostcardMania
no first choiceagainst: Click2Mail
Qwen 3.7 FlashPostalytics
Three alternativesClick2Mail, LetterStream, Sendoso
PostalyticsHeld
Three alternativesLob, Postal, Sendoso
Lob, Stannp
Nine alternativesClick2Mail, Mailjoy, PFL, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postal, Postalytics, Postie, Reachdesk, Sendoso
PostKnock
Three alternativesMailjoy, Postalytics, REmail
against: PostcardMania
no first choiceagainst: Lob, PFL, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postie, Stadium
Kimi K2Postalytics
Three alternativesLob, PFL, Sendoso
PostalyticsHeld
Two alternativesLob, Sendoso
PostGrid Print & Mail
Six alternativesClick2Mail, Inkit, Lob, Postalytics, Sendoso, Stannp
Click2Mail, Stannp
Three alternativesBirdseyePost, PostPilot, Postalytics
against: Lob, PostGrid Print & Mail
Lob, Postalytics
Three alternativesInkit, PFL, Sendoso
against: "Direct Mail", Click2Mail, Lob, PFL, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postal, Reachdesk, Sendoso
GLM 4.7 FlashXPostalytics
Four alternativesLob, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postal, Reachdesk
against: Sendoso
PostalyticsHeld
Three alternativesPostGrid Print & Mail, Sendoso, Stannp
Lob
Five alternativesPostGrid Print & Mail, Postal, Postalytics, Reachdesk, Sendoso
Postalytics
Four alternativesClick2Mail, LetterStream, Mailjoy, Stannp
no first choiceagainst: Lob, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics, Postie, Sendoso, Stadium, Tremendous
MiniMax M2.5Postalytics
Four alternativesLob, Postal, Sendoso, Stannp
PostGrid Print & MailChanged
Two alternativesLob, Postalytics
PostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics
Seven alternativesLob, Mailjoy, Postal, Postie, Reachdesk, Sendoso, Stannp
Postalytics Free Tier
Three alternativesPostGrid Print & Mail, PostPilot, REmail
no first choiceagainst: Lob, PostGrid Print & Mail, Postalytics, Reachdesk, Sendoso, Stadium
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 04:23yes139 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:48yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:39yes1823 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:48yes205 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 00:46yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:42yes012 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:43yes036 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:07yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:53yes057 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:27yes021 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:41yes048 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:04yes022 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:13yes138 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:30yes54 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 22:58yes1117 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:24yes205 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 02:43yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:03yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:13yes012 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:40yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:36yes030 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:49yes023 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:51yes027 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:00yes018 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:41yes79 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:04yes611 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:33yes2726 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:31yes208 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 02:56yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:31yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:47yes050 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:48yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:40yes040 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:58yes031 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:33yes019 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:45yes013 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:02yes149 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:19yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:24yes2527 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:19yes1719 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 03:36yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:11yes011 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:56yes017 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:31yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:19yes032 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:44yes025 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:02yes044 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:06yes020 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 05:02no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:07no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:06yes1226 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:00yes179 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 01:17yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:53yes07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:22yes020 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:33yes01 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:01yes023 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:16yes035 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:03yes063 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:05yes017 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:54yes1510 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:29yes35 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:01yes1225 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:17yes208 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 01:00yes011 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:41yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:27yes062 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:37yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:17yes032 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:46yes051 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:13yes0105 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:45yes017 s

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
PostGrid read as PostGrid Print & Mail
Postgrid read as PostGrid Print & Mail
Unresolved, counted raw
"Direct Mail" (Mac-based software - directmailmac.com)
DirectIQ / LocusLogic
Distribution Processing Center, LLC
Magileads
Mailbox / Sendoso
Postalytics Free Tier
Printavo + Postalytics
PrintingforLess
Twilio Campaigns
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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