GTM AI Index
Index › Customer › Customer success › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Customer success platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “customer success platform”, and as “customer health and retention management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Custify
Clear leader
55% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 73 categories →

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.
Small businessCustify55%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketChurnZero39%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseGainsight81%ConsensusStanding →

01The 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
01Custify55%7%59endorsed leader
02HubSpot Service Hub11%2%42accepted challenger
03Vitally9%13%46accepted challenger
04ClientSuccess5%12%40accepted challenger
05Akita5%6%17accepted challenger
06ChurnZero4%54%39criticized challenger
07Totango2%45%40criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Gainsight0%100%44criticized challenger
08Planhat0%63%19criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
ChurnZero vs VitallyChurnZero vs CustifyVitally vs Custify

One product takes 55% of first choices here, so the chart would put eight 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. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Grok 4.1 Fast, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash 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.
Gainsight
100%
44 of 44 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 22 hard negative
“Platforms to Avoid (or Approach with Extreme Caution)... Gainsight is widely considered the enterprise gold standard... notoriously complex and expensive.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Totango
45%
18 of 40 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“its architecture is still heavily rooted in enterprise-level needs... still requires a steep setup and implementation curve” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
ChurnZero
54%
21 of 39 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“Enterprise tools (Gainsight/ChurnZero) start $50K+ with 6-week setups—overkill/too pricey.” Grok 4.1 Fast, direct prompt
Planhat
63%
12 of 19 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“it requires a lot of technical expertise to design and configure... "blank slate paralysis"” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

21 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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 184 links across 69 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.

userpilot.com
vendor site · Userpilot9 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
usepylon.com
8 answers · 18 citations · 2 models
g2.com
6 answers · 13 citations · 2 models
coworker.ai
6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
learn.g2.com
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
oliv.ai
vendor site · Oliv6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
appcues.com
vendor site · Appcues5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
thecscafe.com
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
custify.com
vendor site · Custify4 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
gurusup.com
4 answers · 4 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.

userpilot.com/blog/customer-success-tools
9 answers · 2 models
usepylon.com/blog/csm-tools-2026
7 answers · 2 models
coworker.ai/blog/customer-success-platforms
6 answers · 2 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/customer-success-management-platforms
6 answers · 3 models
g2.com/categories/customer-success/small-business
5 answers · 2 models
learn.g2.com/best-customer-success-software
5 answers · 2 models
oliv.ai/blog/best-customer-success-platforms
5 answers · 2 models
thecscafe.com/p/best-customer-success-platforms
5 answers · 2 models
usepylon.com/blog/customer-success-software-comparison
5 answers · 2 models
appcues.com/blog/customer-success-software
4 answers · 2 models

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best customer success platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer health and retention management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top customer success platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer success platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a customer success platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which customer success platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Custify
Three alternativesCatalyst, Totango, Vitally
HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRMChangedagainst: Gainsight, Planhat, TotangoCustify, Vitally
Three alternativesCatalyst, Freshdesk Customer Success, HubSpot Service Hub
against: GainsightCustify
Three alternativesAkita, Freshdesk, Totango
no first choiceagainst: Gainsight
GPT-5.4 miniCustify, Vitally
Three alternativesChurnZero, HubSpot Service Hub, Planhat
CustifyChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Totango, Vitally
ChurnZero, Totango
Two alternativesClientSuccess, Vitally
against: GainsightHubSpot Service Hub, Zoho Desk
Two alternativesCustify, CustomerSuccessBox
against: Gainsightno first choiceagainst: ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Gainsight, Podium, Totango
Gemini 3.5 FlashCustify
Five alternativesClientSuccess, Customerscore.io, HubSpot Service Hub, Vitally, ZapScale
against: GainsightCustifyHeld
Three alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon
against: Gainsight, TotangoClientSuccess
Four alternativesCustify, Customerscore.io, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, VitallyCustify, Totango
Five alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Notion, Skalin, Trello, ZapScale
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, PlanhatCustify, Vitally
Two alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub
against: Gainsight, Totangoagainst: ChurnZero, Gainsight, Planhat, Totango
Perplexity SonarCustify
Two alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub
CustifyHeld
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon, Vitally
Custify, Vitally
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon, Totango
Custify, HubSpot Service Hub
One alternativeClientSuccess
no first choiceagainst: Catalyst, Gainsight, Salesforce Service Cloud, Totango
Grok 4.1 FastCustify
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Successifier, Vitally
against: Akita, ChurnZero, GainsightAkitaChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Totango Spark
against: ChurnZero, Custify, GainsightCustify
Three alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, GainsightHubSpot Service Hub
Two alternativesAkita, Totango
against: ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Vitallyno first choice
Two alternativesCustify, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, Salesforce Customer Success, Totango
Mistral SmallCustify
Two alternativesHook, Vitally
against: GainsightCustifyHeld
Three alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Vitally
Custify
Three alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Vitally
Custify
Four alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsightno first choice
Four alternativesCatalyst, ChurnZero, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango
against: Gainsightagainst: ClientSuccess, Gainsight, HubSpot Service Hub, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
DeepSeek V4 FlashCustify, HubSpot Service Hub
Three alternativesPlanhat, Totango, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, GainsightCustifyChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Planhat, Vitally
against: GainsightCustify
Three alternativesAkita, ClientSuccess, Vitally
against: Planhat, ZapScaleAkita
Three alternativesCustify, HubSpot Service Hub, HubSpot's free CRM
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, PlanhatCustify, Vitally
Three alternativesChurnZero, Hook, Planhat
against: Gainsightagainst: ChurnZero, Gainsight, Totango
Llama 4 MaverickCustify
One alternativeChurnZero
CustifyHeldCustify
Two alternativesClientSuccess, Hook
Custify
Three alternativesClientSuccess, Pylon, Vitally
Custify
Three alternativesChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Vitally
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCustify, Vitally
Four alternativesHubSpot Customer Success Workspace, Intercom, SmartKarrot, Userpilot
VitallyChanged
One alternativeHubSpot Service Hub
against: GainsightCustify
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Planhat, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, TotangoCustify
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Planhat, Tidio, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Zoho DeskHubSpot Customer Success Workspace
One alternativeTotango [Starter]
against: Gainsight, Salesforce Service Cloudagainst: Gainsight, Intercom, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Qualtrics, Salesforce Service Cloud, Totango, Zendesk
Kimi K2Custify
Two alternativesChurnZero, Vitally
against: Churnkey, Gainsight, TotangoCustifyHeld
Three alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango Free Tier
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, PlanhatCustify
Four alternativesClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, Totango, Vitally
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, PlanhatCustify
Four alternativesClientSuccess, GainTrace, HubSpot Service Hub, Skalin
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, Planhat, TotangoClientSuccess
Four alternativesChurnZero, Custify, Totango, Vitally
against: Gainsight, Salesforce Service Cloudagainst: Catalyst, ChurnZero, Gainsight, Totango, Vitally
GLM 4.7 FlashXCustify
Two alternativesAkita, Totango
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, VitallyCustifyHeld
Three alternativesAkita, HubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk
Skilljar
Six alternativesAkita, AskNicely, ChurnZero, ClientSuccess, Custify, Vitally
against: GainsightHubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk
Two alternativesIntercom Customer Success, Survicate
against: CustifyChurnZero, ClientSuccessagainst: Gainsightagainst: Gainsight, Planhat, Totango, Velaris
MiniMax M2.5Custify
Three alternativesAkita, Hook, Vitally
Akita, CustifyChanged
One alternativeHubSpot Service Hub
against: Gainsight, Planhat, TotangoClientSuccess, Custify
Three alternativesPylon, Userpilot, Vitally
against: GainsightHubSpot Service Hub
Two alternativesAkita, Custify
against: ChurnZero, Gainsight, TotangoChurnZero, ClientSuccessagainst: Catalyst, ClientSuccess, Custify, Gainsight, Planhat, Totango, Vitally
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:39yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:40yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:17yes1720 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:17yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:06yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:32yes07 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:15yes024 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:57yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:16yes065 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:07yes025 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:44yes067 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:26yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:17no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:11yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:41yes2523 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:57yes175 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:31yes010 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:38yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 05:02yes038 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:56yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:20yes036 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:31yes039 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:08yes019 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:43yes027 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:55yes1410 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:46yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:26yes2430 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:35yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:27yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:47yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:29yes048 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:48yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:16yes032 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:53yes062 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:34yes0122 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:16yes020 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:28yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:37yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:10yes1826 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 05:05yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:46yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:05yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:21yes029 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 04:49yes018 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:14yes041 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:11yes030 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:14yes016 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:10no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:07no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:00yes1226 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:45yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:55yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:24no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:18yes047 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:04yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:20no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:06yes029 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:57yes044 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:53yes013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:30yes1616 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:14yes66 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:00yes1120 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:37yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:05yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:59yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:43yes017 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:45yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:14no045 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:39yes030 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:30yes032 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:25yes019 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
HubSpot read as HubSpot Customer Success Workspace
SalesForce read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce (Standard Edition) read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Unresolved, counted raw
Accoil
GoMoment
HubSpot's free CRM
Nuvola
Totango Free Tier
Totango Spark
Totango [Starter]
Vivian
VivifyScr
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in customer

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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