September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

Referral and partner programs

Asked as “referral program software”, and as “partner ecosystem and referral tracking tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
19%
Contested · Referral Rock 15%
19PartnerStack15Referral Rock10ReferralCandy56others

19% of first choices, contested.

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
01PartnerStack19%10%21accepted challenger
02Referral Rock15%3%34accepted challenger
03ReferralCandy10%10%31accepted challenger
04Ambassador8%9%22accepted challenger
05Viral Loops4%20%20accepted challenger
06FirstPromoter2%6%16accepted challenger
07Referral Factory2%15%13accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals0%25%12criticized challenger
11Talkable0%17%12accepted challenger
09Friendbuy0%15%26accepted challenger
10Extole0%12%16accepted challenger
08GrowSurf0%11%27accepted 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-one head-to-head pages: the top seven 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01PartnerStack19%
02Referral Rock15%
03ReferralCandy10%
04Ambassador8%
05Viral Loops4%
06FirstPromoter2%
07Referral Factory2%
08GrowSurf0%
09Friendbuy0%
10Extole0%
11Talkable0%
12Yotpo 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.
Friendbuy
15%
4 of 26 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“here are the tools you should avoid or scrutinize closely: ### 1. Friendbuy ... frequently flagged for "contractual friction."” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Viral Loops
20%
4 of 20 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Multiple reports of billing issues ... 1-star reviews highlight "deceptive practices" and "waste of money."[” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
25%
3 of 12 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to avoid for mid-market B2B” DeepSeek V4 Flash, direct prompt
Ambassador
9%
2 of 22 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Some 1-star reviews describe it as "HORRIBLE" with poor handling of migrations.” Grok 4.20, 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. 293 links across 133 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 · Tremendous11 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · ReferralCandy8 answers · 13 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Extole8 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Capterra5 answers · 5 citations · 4 models
vendor site · CustomerGauge5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · LinkJolt5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Open Loyalty5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Referral Rock5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
4 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Cello4 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Introw4 answers · 5 citations · 3 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 referral program software”, “referral program software”. 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
PartnerStack partnerstack.com19%4014,4006827,49516
Referral Rock referralrock.com15%2227201018,59912
ReferralCandy referralcandy.com10%188590318,870286
Ambassador getambassador.com8%10374,00040,6885720
Smile.io smile.io6%108260268,962$1,46812
Viral Loops viral-loops.com4%8459031,1581
Cello cello.so4%42165,00028,0813,1913
Kiflo PRM kiflo.com4%1452001,941$4575
ReferralHero referralhero.com4%157
JourneyBee journeybee.io4%535004,243

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 10 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (extole.com, referral-factory.com, referralcandy.com, referralrock.com, tremendous.com). The first result for “best referral program software” is referral-factory.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 referral program software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which partner ecosystem and referral tracking tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top referral program tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best referral program software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a referral program software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which referral program tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Cello
Four alternativesFriendbuy, Influitive, Partnero, Referral Rock
PartnerStackChanged
Three alternativesChanneltivity, Introw, Kiflo PRM
no first choiceVyper
Two alternativesBlossu, GrowSurf
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniReferral Rock
Two alternativesFriendbuy, Referral Factory
PartnerStack, impact.comChangedno first choiceReferralCandyagainst: Talkableno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashReferral Rock
Three alternativesGrowSurf, PartnerStack, impact.com Advocate
Kiflo PRMChanged
Three alternativesIntrow, PartnerPortal.io, PartnerStack
against: Crossbeam
FirstPromoter
Six alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, Rewardful, Viral Loops
against: PartnerStack
GoAffPro, Referralful
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, LaunchList, ReferralCandy, Rewardful, Viral Loops
against: PartnerStack
no first choiceagainst: ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Perplexity SonarAmbassador
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, GrowSurf, Referral Rock
PartnerStackChanged
Two alternativesCrossbeam, Unifyr
Extole, Friendbuy, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, Viral Loops
Three alternativesReferral Rock, Talkable, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Referral Factory
Four alternativesFirstPromoter, InviteReferrals, Smile.io, Viral Loops
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20Referral Rock
Three alternativesAmbassador, GrowSurf, Influitive
Kiflo PRMChanged
Three alternativesCrossbeam, PartnerPortal.io, PartnerStack
GrowSurf, ReferralCandy
Six alternativesExtole, Friendbuy, Referral Factory, Referral Rock, Talkable, Viral Loops
Smile.io
Three alternativesInviteReferrals, ReferralCandy, SparkLoop
against: GrowSurf
no first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Birdeye Referrals, GrowSurf, Viral Loops
Mistral SmallReferral Rock
Three alternativesAmbassador, Cello, GrowSurf
PartnerStackChanged
Three alternativesCello, Everflow, FirstPromoter
no first choice
Eight alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, SaaSquatch, Smile.io, Viral Loops, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
ReferralCandy, Smile.io
Three alternativesGrowSurf, OSI Affiliate Software, Viral Loops
no first choiceagainst: Brandbassador, SC Conjured Referral Program
DeepSeek V4 FlashReferral Rock
Two alternativesAmbassador, GrowSurf
against: Friendbuy, Lootly, ReferralCandy, Talkable, Viral Loops, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
PartnerStackChanged
Four alternativesCrossbeam, Kiflo PRM, PartnerTap, impact.com
GrowSurf, ReferralCandy
Seven alternativesExtole, Friendbuy, LoyaltyLion, Referral Rock, Smile.io, Talkable, Viral Loops
Viral Loops
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, ReferralCandy, Refgrow, Rewardful, WinWinKit
no first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Genius Referrals, ReferPro, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, Viral Loops
Llama 4 Maverickno first choicePartnerStackChangedno first choiceReferralCandy
Three alternativesReferral Rock, Smile.io, Tapfiliate
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCello
Three alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock
Ambassador, JourneyBeeChanged
Two alternativesCustomerGauge, PartnerPortal.io
against: DealHub, Impartner PRM
no first choice
Five alternativesAmbassador, Extole, Open Loyalty, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy
ReferralCandy, ReferralHero
Two alternativesFirstPromoter, InviteReferrals
against: GrowSurf, Referral Rock
ReferralHero, Sprout Social, TalentLyft, Workboardagainst: BambooHR, SAP SuccessFactors, Taleo, Workday, Zoho Peopleagainst: Ambassador.io, Extole, Friendbuy, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Kimi K2Referral Rock
Three alternativesAmbassador, GrowSurf, Influitive
Everflow, PartnerStackChanged
Four alternativesAmbassador, FirstPromoter, Referral Rock, Rewardful
against: impact.com
no first choice
Eight alternativesAmbassador, Extole, Friendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, Talkable, Viral Loops
ReferralCandy, Smile.io
Four alternativesGrowSurf DIY, InviteBox, Referral Factory, Referral Rock
no first choiceagainst: Copy Paste Profit System, Extole, FirstPromoter, Friendbuy, Referral Factory, Refersion, Viral Loops
GLM 4.7 FlashXAmbassador, PartnerStack
Three alternativesGrowSurf, Referral Rock, impact.com
PartnerStackChanged
Three alternativesCrossbeam, Everflow, PartnerTap
against: WorkSpan
no first choice
Eleven alternativesAffise, Extole, Friendbuy, InviteReferrals, Open Loyalty, Referral Factory, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Viral Loops, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Viral Loops
Three alternativesLoyally.ai, ReferralCandy, Rewardful
no first choiceagainst: Birdeye, EmployeeReferrals.com, Genius Referrals, Get The Referral, Refersion
MiniMax M2.5Referral Rock
Two alternativesMention Me, impact.com
against: Friendbuy
Ambassador, JourneyBeeChanged
Three alternativesImpact Partnership Cloud, Kiflo PRM, PartnerStack
Extole, ReferralCandy, Viral Loops
Four alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, PartnerStack, Talkable
FirstPromoter
Three alternativesGrowSurf, InviteReferrals, Shopjar
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 02:19yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:14yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:30yes1422 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:54yes204 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 01:16yes010 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:49yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:25yes023 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:13yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:14yes029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:42yes039 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:59yes017 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:25yes019 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:53yes1710 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:18yes27 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:04yes1327 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:04yes205 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 03:23yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:53yes09 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:24yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:17yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:22yes029 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:15yes047 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:40yes013 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:43yes014 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:44yes811 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:01yes710 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:34yes1624 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:39yes207 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 03:22yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:53yes06 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:58yes020 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:00yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:15yes021 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:34yes055 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:54yes016 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:33yes021 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:26yes76 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:51yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:21yes2824 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:30yes205 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 03:02yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:47yes06 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:47yes027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:33yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:19yes030 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:33yes023 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:24yes029 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:09yes012 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:12no015 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:43no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:36yes1623 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:44yes207 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 04:11yes06 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:02yes011 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:56yes021 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:14yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:56no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:57yes046 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:58yes056 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:43yes013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:37yes87 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:43yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:41yes1823 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:42yes207 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 04:47yes07 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:40yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:07yes054 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:11yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:58yes048 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:20yes026 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:30yes033 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:01yes014 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
Firstbird read as Radancy Firstbird
Impartner read as Impartner PRM
Kiflo read as Kiflo PRM
Yotpo read as Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Yotpo Loyalty read as Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Unresolved, counted raw
Ambassador.io
Copy Paste Profit System
Draftboard
EasyAffiliate
Erinf
GrowSurf DIY
LaunchList
LinkJilt
OSI Affiliate Software
Real Links
TalentLyft
Tango Card
WP Referral
WinWinKit
Workboard
Zoho People
impact.com Advocacy
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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