September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Revenue operations › Commissions › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Sales commissions and incentive compensation for small business buyers

Asked as “sales commission management platform”, and as “incentive compensation management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 54 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
54%
Clear leader
54QuotaPath15Commissionly06EasyComp26others

54% of first choices, clear leader.

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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01QuotaPath54%5%60endorsed leader
02Commissionly15%2%43accepted challenger
03EasyComp6%0%22accepted challenger
04Qobra4%0%30accepted challenger
05Visdum4%0%25accepted challenger
06Sales Cookie4%0%17accepted challenger
07Salesforce Spiff4%50%34criticized challenger
08CaptivateIQ4%68%37criticized challenger
09Everstage2%61%18criticized challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Xactly Incent0%100%29criticized 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 small business.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01QuotaPath54%
02Commissionly15%
03EasyComp6%
04Qobra4%
05Visdum4%
06Sales Cookie4%
07Salesforce Spiff4%
08CaptivateIQ4%
09Everstage2%
10Xactly Incent0%

What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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.
Xactly Incent
100%
29 of 29 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 20 hard negative
“Frequently criticized for complex implementation needing third-party consultants, clunky/outdated UI, poor reporting/customization, and high costs” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
CaptivateIQ
68%
25 of 37 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“Don't buy enterprise tools like Xactly or CaptivateIQ unless you have complex, multi-country compensation needs” Qwen 3.7 Flash, comparative prompt
Salesforce Spiff
50%
17 of 34 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“ecosystem-locked tools with connector fees (Salesforce Spiff)... a hidden-cost trap if you're not” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Everstage
61%
11 of 18 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“What to Avoid: Enterprise platforms like Xactly, Everstage, or CaptivateIQ (overkill for small teams)” Mistral Small, direct 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. 299 links across 72 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 · Visdum14 answers · 22 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Everstage13 answers · 19 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Qobra12 answers · 29 citations · 3 models
vendor site · QuotaPath12 answers · 22 citations · 4 models
vendor site · CaptivateIQ11 answers · 14 citations · 4 models
8 answers · 12 citations · 4 models
8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Capterra7 answers · 9 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Forma.ai7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Guideflow7 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
7 answers · 7 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 sales commission management platform”, “sales commission management 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
QuotaPath quotapath.com54%1811,600521,168$1,546343
Commissionly commissionly.io15%582100447
EasyComp easycomp.ai6%1517041020
Qobra qobra.co4%39260147,8087
Visdum visdum.com4%3370315,22501
Sales Cookie salescookie.com4%512601384374
Salesforce parent site
Salesforce Spiff 4%
4%139550,00060,632
CaptivateIQ captivateiq.com4%1464,4004117,854312
Carvd2%
Compport2%1101

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 15 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (captivateiq.com, everstage.com, quotapath.com, visdum.com). The first result for “best sales commission management platform” is everstage.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 sales commission management platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which incentive compensation management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top sales commission management platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best sales commission management platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a sales commission management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales commission management platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5EasyComp
Two alternativesForma.ai, QuotaPath
against: Performio
EverstageChanged
One alternativeVisdum
QuotaPath
Two alternativesSalesforce Spiff, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ
QuotaPath
Two alternativesCommissionly, Sales Cookie
no first choiceagainst: Nice SPM, SAP Commissions, Salesforce Spiff
GPT-5.4 miniQuotaPath
Two alternativesCaptivateIQ, Sales Cookie
against: Xactly Incent
Salesforce SpiffChanged
One alternativeXactly Incent Core
QuotaPath
Three alternativesCaptivateIQ, Salesforce Spiff, Visdum
against: Xactly Incent
QuotaPath
One alternativeVisdum
against: Salesforce Spiff
no first choiceagainst: QuotaPath, Varicent
Gemini 3.5 FlashQuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, Qobra, Visdum
against: Salesforce Spiff, Varicent, Xactly Incent
QuotaPathHeld
Three alternativesEasyComp, Pipedrive, Qobra
against: Salesforce Spiff
Sales Cookie
Four alternativesDriven, ElevateHQ, Palette, QuotaPath
against: CaptivateIQ, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
Sales Cookie
Three alternativesCommissionly, Quota Queue, QuotaPath
against: CaptivateIQ, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
QuotaPath
Three alternativesCentify, EasyComp, Sales Cookie
against: CaptivateIQ, Salesforce Spiff, Varicent, Xactly Incent
against: CaptivateIQ, Highly Custom Google Sheets / Excel Templates, Salesforce Spiff, Varicent, Xactly Incent
Perplexity SonarQuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, Sales Cookie, Visdum
QuotaPathHeld
Three alternativesCaptivateIQ, Commissionly, Salesforce Spiff
QuotaPath
Four alternativesCommissionly, Qobra, Sales Cookie, Visdum
Commissionly
Two alternativesQuotaPath, Sales Cookie
no first choiceagainst: CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Oracle HCM, SAP Commissions, Salesforce Spiff, SuiteCRM, Xactly Incent
Grok 4.20QuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra
against: CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Salesforce Spiff
QuotaPathHeld
Two alternativesCommissionly, Sales Cookie
against: CaptivateIQ, Xactly Incent
Commissionly, QuotaPath
Three alternativesEasyComp, Qobra, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ, Xactly Incent
Commissionly, QuotaPath, Sales Cookieagainst: CaptivateIQ, Monday.com, Xactly IncentQuotaPath
Four alternativesEverstage, Qobra, Salesforce Spiff, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ, Xactly Incent
against: Anaplan, CaptivateIQ, Core Commissions, Iconixx, Javelin, Model N, NetCommissions, Performio, SAP Commissions, Visualbonus, Xactly Incent
Mistral SmallQuotaPath
Four alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Xactly Incent
QuotaPathHeld
One alternativeSalesforce Spiff
against: Xactly Incent
QuotaPath
Four alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
Commissionly
Two alternativesQuotaPath, Sales Cookie
QuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra
against: CaptivateIQ, Core Commissions, Easy-Commission, Model N, NetCommissions, Salesforce Spiff, Varicent, Xactly Incent
DeepSeek V4 FlashEasyComp, QuotaPath
Two alternativesCommissionly, Qobra
against: CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Performio, Xactly Incent
QuotaPathChanged
Two alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp
against: CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
QuotaPath
Three alternativesEasyComp, Qobra, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ, Commissionly, Everstage, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
Commissionly
One alternativeSales Cookie
against: CaptivateIQ, Performio, QuotaPath, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
QuotaPath
Two alternativesEasyComp, Qobra
against: CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Performio, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
against: Anaplan, CaptivateIQ, Everstage, Javelin, Model N, SAP Commissions, Salesforce Spiff, Xactly Incent
Llama 4 MaverickQuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra
Qobra, QuotaPathChangedQuotaPath
Four alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra, Visdum
CommissionlyEasyComp, QuotaPath
Two alternativesCentify, Qobra
against: CaptivateIQ
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashToplyne
Three alternativesCaptivateIQ, Commisyon.io, Gainsight Pay
QuotaPathChanged
Two alternativesEasyComp, Qobra
QuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, Salesforce Spiff, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ, Xactly Incent
Commissionly
One alternativeSales Cookie
against: QuotaPath
CaptivateIQ, Compport, Salesforce Spiffagainst: Provisio, Veeva, Xactly Incentagainst: Easy-Commission, Javelin Gridstone, Model N, NetCommissions, QCommission, SAP Commissions, incentX
Kimi K2QuotaPath
Two alternativesCaptivateIQ, Salesforce Spiff
QuotaPathHeld
Three alternativesCaptivateIQ, Centify, Salesforce Spiff
QuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, Qobra, Visdum
Carvd, QuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, Everstage, Sales Cookie
QuotaPath
Four alternativesCommissionly, Qobra, Sales Cookie, Visdum
against: CaptivateIQ, Xactly Incent
against: Anaplan, CaptivateIQ, Performio, SAP Commissions, Xactly Incent
GLM 4.7 FlashXQuotaPath
Two alternativesCaptivateIQ, Salesforce Spiff
VisdumChanged
Three alternativesCommissionly, Qobra, Salesforce Spiff
QuotaPath
Three alternativesCaptivateIQ, Commissionly, EasyComp
against: Everstage
Commissionly
Three alternativesPipedrive, QuotaPath, Zoho CRM
Qobra
Four alternativesCaptivateIQ, Centify, QuotaPath, Salesforce Spiff
against: Oracle Incentive Compensation, Varicent, Xactly Incent
MiniMax M2.5QuotaPath
Two alternativesCommissionly, Qobra
CaptivateIQ, VisdumChanged
Two alternativesCore Commissions, Everstage
QuotaPath
Four alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra, Visdum
against: Everstage, Varicent, Xactly Incent
Commissionly
Two alternativesQobra, Visdum
QuotaPath
Three alternativesCommissionly, EasyComp, Qobra
nothing 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 00:28yes88 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:56yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:20yes2323 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:20yes196 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 02:25yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:54yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:27yes069 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:22yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:44no033 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 05:02yes025 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:12yes040 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:25yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:35yes88 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:55yes24 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:02yes1822 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:46yes205 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 02:22yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:43yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:06yes032 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:26yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:49yes025 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:21yes035 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:54yes022 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:19yes015 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:57yes79 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:22yes39 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:35yes2427 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:22yes209 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 01:11yes011 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:25yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:42yes041 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:38yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:30yes042 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:26yes035 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:42yes033 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:16yes010 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:50yes129 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:47yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:56yes2424 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 22:52yes205 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 04:49yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:59yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:24yes015 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:57yes07 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:47yes030 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 05:04yes029 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:48yes0119 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:51yes012 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:58no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:30no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:43yes1023 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:05yes207 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)2026-09-14 23:18yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:40yes06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 05:07yes022 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:45yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:29no030 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:34yes031 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:14yes018 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:32yes016 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:46yes1911 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:44yes35 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:18yes1421 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:31yes207 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 02:43yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:29yes010 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:54yes026 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:25yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:59yes043 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:02yes045 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:35yes059 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:41yes030 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
Salesforce (Spiff) ICM read as Salesforce Spiff
Xactly read as Xactly Incent
Xactly (Incent) read as Xactly Incent
Xactly (specifically Xactly Incent) read as Xactly Incent
Unresolved, counted raw
Commisyon.io
Compport
FileDrop Template
Gainsight Pay
Highly Custom Google Sheets / Excel Templates
Javelin Gridstone
Nice SPM
Provisio
Remuner
SimpleRev
Toplyne
Vena Solutions Excel Template
Xactly Incent Core
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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