September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Enterprise · September 2026 Edition

Referral and partner programs for enterprise buyers

Asked as “referral program software”, and as “partner ecosystem and referral tracking tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
18%
Contested · Impartner PRM 16%
18Ambassador16Impartner PRM14PartnerStack51others

18% 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 an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Ambassador18%3%34accepted challenger
02Impartner PRM16%0%10accepted challenger
03PartnerStack14%0%28accepted challenger
04Extole8%16%38accepted challenger
05Referral Rock6%17%18accepted challenger
06Referral Factory6%35%20criticized challenger
07Talkable4%10%21accepted challenger
08impact.com2%7%14accepted challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
14ReferralCandy0%88%16criticized challenger
13GrowSurf0%55%11criticized challenger
09Friendbuy0%22%27accepted challenger
10Mention Me0%0%14accepted challenger
11Open Loyalty0%0%12accepted challenger
12Buyapowa0%0%11accepted 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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not enterprise.
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
13
14
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Ambassador18%
02Impartner PRM16%
03PartnerStack14%
04Extole8%
05Referral Rock6%
06Referral Factory6%
07Talkable4%
08impact.com2%
09Friendbuy0%
10Mention Me0%
11Open Loyalty0%
12Buyapowa0%
13GrowSurf0%
14ReferralCandy0%

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.
ReferralCandy
88%
14 of 16 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Avoid: Revenue-share models (like ReferralCandy's success fees) if predictability is your priority” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Referral Factory
35%
7 of 20 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Large enterprises should avoid or be extremely cautious with: 1. Simple template-based tools (Referral Factory, basic-tier ReferralCandy)” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Extole
16%
6 of 38 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid ... unpredictable total cost” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Friendbuy
22%
6 of 27 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Friendbuy: Strong A/B testing and e-commerce integrations, but pricing is steep ($299+/mo+), customization needs coding” 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. 347 links across 132 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 · Extole14 answers · 19 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Tremendous11 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
9 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Cello8 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Open Loyalty8 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Referral Rock7 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Voucherify7 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · FirstPromoter7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Capterra6 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Affise6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 6 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.

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
Ambassador getambassador.com18%10374,00040,6885720
Impartner PRM impartner.com16%312110163,0207
PartnerStack partnerstack.com14%4014,4006827,49516
Extole extole.com8%1278804768,207136
Referral Rock referralrock.com6%2227201018,59912
Salesforce parent site
Salesforce PRM 6%
6%178550,00060,632
Referral Factory referral-factory.com6%15748025,11531
Talkable talkable.com4%69590161,421
Influitive influitive.com4%3221024,094
impact.com impact.com2%3341,900153111,771$3,520117

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 10 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (affise.com, extole.com, referral-factory.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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which partner ecosystem and referral tracking tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade referral program tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best referral program software for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a referral program software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which referral program tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Cello, PartnerStack
Two alternativesExtole, Friendbuy
impact.comChanged
Two alternativesPartnerStack, Salesforce PRM
Friendbuy
Three alternativesOpen Loyalty, SaaSquatch, Talkable
against: Extole
Talkable
One alternativeReferral Factory
no first choiceagainst: Referral Factory, ReferralCandy
GPT-5.4 miniPartnerStack
Two alternativesExtole, Friendbuy
Crossbeam, PartnerStackChangedExtole
Four alternativesAnnex Cloud, Mention Me, Talkable, impact.com
Extole
One alternativeMention Me
against: ReferralCandy
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashPartnerStack
Four alternativesExtole, GrowSurf, Introw, Referral Rock
Impartner PRMChanged
Three alternativesCrossbeam, PartnerStack, impact.com
no first choice
Six alternativesBuyapowa, Extole, Friendbuy, Mention Me, SaaSquatch, Talkable
Extole
Four alternativesFriendbuy, Open Loyalty, Referral Rock, Voucherify
against: ReferralCandy
no first choiceagainst: AffiliateWP, FirstPromoter, ReferralCandy, Rewardful, UpViral, Viral Loops
Perplexity SonarAmbassador
Four alternativesCustomerGauge, Influitive, PartnerStack, impact.com
Impartner PRMChanged
One alternativePartnerStack
no first choiceVoucherify
One alternativeOpen Loyalty
against: Annex Cloud, Referral Factory
no first choiceagainst: KickoffLabs, LoyaltyLion, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Grok 4.20Ambassador, Influitive
Two alternativesExtole, PartnerStack
against: Referral Rock, impact.com
Impartner PRMChanged
Three alternativesPartnerStack, Salesforce PRM, impact.com
Extole
Four alternativesAmbassador, Friendbuy, Talkable, impact.com
Referral Rock
Two alternativesReferral Factory, Talkable
against: Extole, GrowSurf, ReferralCandy, SaaSquatch
ERIN
Four alternativesExtole, PartnerStack, Referral Factory, Referral Rock
against: Friendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, Talkable, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Mistral SmallPartnerStack
Three alternativesAmbassador, GrowSurf, impact.com
against: Extole
Impartner PRM, Salesforce PRMChanged
Three alternativesAmbassador, PartnerStack, ZINFI Unified Partner Management
Extole
Five alternativesAmbassador, Friendbuy, Open Loyalty, Referral Rock, Talkable
Talkable
Two alternativesReferral Factory, Referral Rock
against: Friendbuy, ReferralCandy
Extole
Four alternativesCello, GrowSurf, PartnerStack, SaaSquatch
nothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashAmbassador
Two alternativesPartnerStack, impact.com
against: Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, Rewardful
Ambassador, Impartner PRMChanged
Two alternativesCrossbeam, Salesforce PRM
against: Cello, Extole, Friendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock, Rewardful
no first choiceReferral Factory
Two alternativesAmbassador, Referral Rock
against: Extole, FirstPromoter, GrowSurf, ReferralCandy, Rewardful, Talkable, Viral Loops
PartnerStack
Three alternativesCello, Extole, Friendbuy
against: GrowSurf, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, ReferralHero, Shopify-app widgets, Viral Loops
Llama 4 MaverickAmplifinity, CustomerGauge, Extole
Three alternativesFriendbuy, Lootly, Talkable
PartnerStackChangedOpen Loyalty
Three alternativesAmbassador, Buyapowa, Extole
no first choiceno first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Extole, Friendbuy
Qwen 3.7 FlashAmbassador
Five alternativesAdvocateHub, CaptivateIQ, PartnerStack, Variable, impact.com
Salesforce PRMChanged
Two alternativesChannelscaler, Impartner PRM
Cello, Influitive, Talkable
Six alternativesBuyapowa, Extole, Friendbuy, Mention Me, Reference Edge, SlapFive
against: Referral Factory
Ambassador
Three alternativesTapfiliate, UpPromote, impact.com
Ambassadornothing named
Kimi K2Referral Rock
Three alternativesAmbassador, Amplifinity, Extole
Impartner PRMChanged
Four alternativesCrossbeam, Salesforce PRM, WorkSpan, impact.com
Extole, Talkable
Five alternativesAmbassador, Buyapowa, Friendbuy, Mention Me, Referral Rock
Referral Rock
Two alternativesReferral Factory, Viral Loops
against: ReferralCandy
no first choice
Four alternativesAmbassador, Extole, PartnerStack, Referral Rock
against: Friendbuy
against: Friendbuy, Lootly, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, Superfiliate
GLM 4.7 FlashXAmbassador
Three alternativesAmplifinity, CustomerGauge, Extole
against: Viral Loops
Impartner PRMChanged
Two alternativesEverflow, PartnerStack
Ambassador, Extole
Five alternativesBuyapowa, Friendbuy, Open Loyalty, PartnerStack, Rivo
Partnero, Referral Factory
Two alternativesAmbassador, SaaSquatch
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Ambassador, Influitive
Two alternativesGrowSurf, Open Loyalty
Impartner PRM, Salesforce PRMChanged
Four alternativesAmbassador, Friendbuy, PartnerStack, Unifyr
no first choice
Eight alternativesAmbassador, Annex Cloud, Buyapowa, Extole, Open Loyalty, PartnerStack, Referral Rock, Smile.io
Referral Factory
Two alternativesCello, Extole
against: GrowSurf, ReferralCandy
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-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:25yes715 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:05yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:05yes2328 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:49yes206 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 04:26yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 05:04yes011 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:43yes019 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:54yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 05:05no032 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:53yes033 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:55yes083 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:57yes013 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:14yes88 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:10yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:03yes1019 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:34yes205 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 01:03yes011 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:13yes011 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:35yes025 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:08yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:52yes042 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:21yes028 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:23yes015 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:20yes014 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:14yes1814 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:13yes67 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:57yes2731 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:39yes209 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)2026-09-14 23:20yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:22yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:31yes070 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:40yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:25yes043 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:05yes044 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:34yes056 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:23yes012 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:40yes149 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:06yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:19yes3027 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:26yes205 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 04:10yes09 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:47yes08 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:50yes047 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:56yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:56no041 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:31yes031 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:34yes020 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:53yes059 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:43yes3216 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:33no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:43no017 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:41yes2023 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 01:29yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:39yes010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:06yes059 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:32yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:59yes050 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:32yes079 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:20yes033 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:45yes021 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:21yes1510 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:21yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:56yes2427 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:09yes206 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 03:38yes09 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:29yes07 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 05:03yes021 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:10yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:10no043 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:13yes045 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 05:03yes049 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:35yes023 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
Impartner read as Impartner PRM
Yotpo read as Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Yotpo (Referral Module) read as Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
ZINFI read as ZINFI Unified Partner Management
Unresolved, counted raw
AdvocateHub
Builtfirst
Mezzofy
Referral SaaS by Extole
Sharkdom
Shopify-app widgets
Simppler
SmartRecruiters
Snipp
SoundGTM
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
← PRMABM →