September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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

Sales engagement platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “sales engagement platform”, and as “sales engagement tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
50%
Clear leader
50Apollo.io13Klenty10HubSpot Sales Hub27others

50% 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
01Apollo.io50%7%59endorsed leader
02Klenty13%4%23accepted challenger
03HubSpot Sales Hub10%4%47accepted challenger
04Mailshake6%0%27accepted challenger
05Reply.io6%10%29accepted challenger
06Unify4%0%11accepted challenger
07SmartReach.io4%0%10accepted challenger
08Instantly2%9%23accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Outreach0%94%47criticized challenger
12Salesloft0%92%48criticized challenger
10Lemlist0%7%27accepted challenger
11Smartlead0%6%18accepted challenger
09Mixmax0%5%40accepted 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 fifteen head-to-head pages: the top six 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Apollo.io50%
02Klenty13%
03HubSpot Sales Hub10%
04Mailshake6%
05Reply.io6%
06Unify4%
07SmartReach.io4%
08Instantly2%
09Mixmax0%
10Lemlist0%
11Smartlead0%
12Salesloft0%
13Outreach0%

What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2 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.
Outreach
94%
44 of 47 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 23 hard negative
“best sales engagement platforms to avoid or be cautious about are Outreach and Salesloft, as they are enterprise-grade tools that are overkill” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Salesloft
92%
44 of 48 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 23 hard negative
“avoid or be cautious about are Outreach and Salesloft, as they are enterprise-grade tools that are overkill for most small businesses” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Salesforce Sales Engagement
88%
7 of 8 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Why to avoid: ... the total cost of ownership is high... Overkill unless your company is already a mature Salesforce shop.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Groove
50%
4 of 8 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Groove: Now part of Clari/Salesloft merger, complex pricing” 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. 265 links across 107 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 · Klenty10 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
9 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Forecastio9 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · HubSpot8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · La Growth Machine7 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
7 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Avoma7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Nooks7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Mixmax6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · ZoomInfo5 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 sales engagement platform”, “sales engagement 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 days
Apollo.io apollo.io50%101033,100396111,60894
Klenty klenty.com13%454801020,0661
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Sales Hub 10%, HubSpot Sales Starter 0%
10%687368,0009,776
Mailshake mailshake.com6%201,300318,0611
Reply.io reply.io6%627204236,88620
Unify unifygtm.com4%3533,10029,42222,1000
SmartReach.io smartreach.io4%1540042,8700
Instantly instantly.ai2%10774,00087,94459,881$98617
Zoho bigin.com
Bigin by Zoho 2%
2%74210331,9800
Saleshandy saleshandy.com2%162,40020193,5532

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 11 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (forecastio.ai, learn.g2.com, nooks.ai, pipeline.zoominfo.com). The first result for “best sales engagement platform” is forecastio.ai.

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 engagement platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which sales engagement tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top sales engagement platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best sales engagement platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a sales engagement platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales engagement platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Klenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
Three alternativesApollo.io, Growbots, Lemlist
KlentyChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mailshake, Reply.io
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Klenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
Three alternativesApollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Yesware
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Klenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
Five alternativesApollo.io, Bigin by Zoho, HubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax
against: Outreach, Salesloft
no first choiceagainst: Instantly, Outreach, Salesloft
GPT-5.4 miniApollo.io
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mailshake
against: Outreach, Salesloft
HubSpot Sales HubChanged
One alternativeApollo.io
Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub
Two alternativesLemlist, Salesloft
against: Outreach
Apollo.io, Saleshandy
One alternativeHubSpot Sales Hub
no first choiceagainst: ActiveCampaign, SalesRabbit
Gemini 3.5 FlashApollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, Reply.io
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io
Five alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io
Four alternativesInstantly, Lemlist, Mixmax, Saleshandy
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io
Three alternativesAmplemarket, HubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist
against: Outreach, Salesloft
against: Groove, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
Perplexity SonarApollo.io
Six alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Mailshake, Mixmax, SmartReach.io, Yesware
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.ioHeld
Three alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Mixmax
Unify
Six alternativesApollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax, Reply.io, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io
Three alternativesMailshake, Mixmax, Yesware
no first choiceagainst: Outreach, Salesloft
Grok 4.20Apollo.io
Six alternativesGroove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Lemlist, Mixmax, Reply.io
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mixmax, Pipedrive, Reply.io
against: Outreach, Salesloft
HubSpot Sales Hub
Five alternativesApollo.io, Klenty, Mixmax, Reply.io, Unify
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesInstantly, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
no first choice
Five alternativesApollo.io, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesloft
against: HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesloft
Mistral SmallApollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, Unify
against: Groove, Outreach, Salesloft
HubSpot Sales Hub, La Growth MachineChanged
Four alternativesApollo.io, Bigin by Zoho, Instantly, Mixmax
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Unify
Six alternativesApollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, Mixmax, Smartlead
SmartReach.io
Four alternativesApollo.io, Lemlist, Mailshake, Mixmax
no first choiceagainst: Outreach, Salesloftagainst: Gong Engage, Outreach, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
DeepSeek V4 FlashApollo.io
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mixmax
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, SmartReach.io
against: Outreach, Salesloft, ZoomInfo Engage
Apollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io, SmartReach.io
Three alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io, Klenty
Two alternativesReply.io, Rework
against: Mixmax, Outreach, Salesloft
against: Apollo.io, Gong Engage, Instantly, LeadIQ, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft, Smartlead, ZoomInfo Engage
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Five alternativesKlenty, Koncert, Mailshake, Reply.io, Unify
KlentyChanged
Two alternativesMailshake, Reply.io
Unify
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Mixmax, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Unify
Five alternativesApollo.io, Instantly, Mixmax, Smartlead, Yesware
no first choiceagainst: Outreach, Salesloft
Qwen 3.7 FlashApollo.io
Six alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Mailshake, Mixmax, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Yesware
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.ioHeld
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Starter, Instantly, Lemlist, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io
Five alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, SmartReach.io, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Unify
Four alternativesApollo.io, Mixmax, SmartReach.io, Smartlead
Instantly
Three alternativesApollo.io, Clay, Smartlead
against: Outreach, Salesloft
against: Apollo.io, La Growth Machine, LinkedHelper, Outreach, Phantombuster, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft, Seamless.AI, Zoho Sales Insights
Kimi K2Apollo.io
Six alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, Mailshake, Mixmax, Reply.io
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales HubChangedagainst: Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement, SalesloftHubSpot Sales Hub
Seven alternativesApollo.io, Close, Instantly, Mixmax, Reply.io, Unify, Yesware
against: Outreach, Salesloft
Apollo.io
Four alternativesLemlist, Mailshake, Mixmax, Yesware
Apollo.io
Four alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Mixmax, Unify
against: Outreach, Salesloft
against: Apollo.io, Klenty, Lemlist, Outreach, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
GLM 4.7 FlashXApollo.io
Two alternativesClose, HubSpot Sales Hub
Apollo.ioHeld
Two alternativesClose.io, HubSpot Sales Hub
Apollo.io, Close
Two alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Reply.io
against: Salesloft
Apollo.io
Five alternativesClose, HubSpot Sales Hub, MailRush.io, Smartlead, Woodpecker
no first choiceagainst: Amplemarket, Apollo.io, Gong Engage, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Outreach, Reply.io, Salesforce Sales Engagement, Salesloft
MiniMax M2.5Klenty, Mailshake, Reply.io
One alternativeBigin by Zoho
KlentyChanged
Three alternativesInstantly, Mailshake, Salesforge
Apollo.io
Four alternativesBigin by Zoho, Close, HubSpot Sales Hub, ZoomInfo Engage
Bigin by Zoho, HubSpot Sales Hub
One alternativeApollo.io
no first choiceagainst: Groove, Mixmax, Outreach, Salesloft, ToutApp
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 00:22yes68 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:38yes65 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:26yes1115 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:33yes205 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 02:30yes012 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:54yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:42yes024 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:58yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:39yes025 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:20yes053 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:52yes013 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:59yes09 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:55yes88 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:01yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:04yes1519 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:11yes205 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 01:56yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:15yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:26yes022 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:17yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:05no033 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:53yes019 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:07yes042 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:41yes018 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:48yes89 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:03yes46 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:29yes1424 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:56yes208 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 04:14yes06 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:54yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:28yes024 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:51yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:49yes040 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:41yes044 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:37yes026 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:25yes010 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:55yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:51yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:38yes1823 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:44yes205 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 01:30yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:16yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:38yes022 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:49yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:40yes031 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:14yes025 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:43yes081 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:47yes011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:21no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:33no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:22yes824 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:36yes209 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 23:52yes010 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:43no04 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:38yes044 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:23yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:18no041 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:23yes025 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:42no09 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:20no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:00yes178 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:18yes39 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:17yes1325 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:53yes2020 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 01:52yes012 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:40yes010 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:59yes024 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:35yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:10yes066 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:04yes078 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:30yes055 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:39yes015 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
Gong read as Gong Engage
HubSpot read as HubSpot Sales Hub
Salesforce read as Salesforce Sales Engagement
ZoomInfo read as ZoomInfo Engage
Unresolved, counted raw
Close.io
Growbots
Instant
LinkedHelper
MailRush.io
Zoho Sales Insights
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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