Customer data platforms
Asked as “customer data platform”, and as “CDP”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 24 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing
Hightouch42% of first choices, a clear leader, and an endorsed one: 8% of its 24 labels were negative. Segment takes second on share and first on resentment.
First-choice share
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. Leader at 30% or more of first choices; criticized at 25% or more negative labels. Markers are keyed to the table below.
Negative label rate →
25% negative
30% first choices
Criticized challenger
Criticized default
Accepted challenger
Endorsed leader
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
080%First-choice share →60%
Full standing
| # | Product | First choices | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Hightouch | 42% | 8% | 24 | endorsed leader |
| 02 | Segment | 25% | 27% | 33 | criticized challenger |
| 03 | Census | 17% | 0% | 11 | accepted challenger |
| 04 | RudderStack | 12% | 0% | 23 | accepted challenger |
| 05 | Tealium | 0% | 14% | 14 | accepted challenger |
| 06 | mParticle | 0% | 27% | 11 | criticized challenger |
| 07 | Salesforce Data Cloud | 0% | 38% | 16 | criticized challenger |
| 08 | Adobe Real-Time CDP | 0% | 56% | 16 | criticized challenger |
Warned against
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.
Segment27%
9 of 33 labels negative · 6 of 6 models
“When you have substantial anonymous traffic or very granular event collection. Billing can involve monthly tracked users, API calls, and throughput” GPT-6 Astra, negative prompt
Adobe Real-Time CDP56%
9 of 16 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“What I'd steer you away from - **Adobe Real-Time CDP or Salesforce Data Cloud** — ... Mid-market implementations routinely stall.” Claude Opus 5, paraphrase prompt
Salesforce Data Cloud38%
6 of 16 labels negative · 4 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“What I'd steer you away from - **Adobe Real-Time CDP or Salesforce Data Cloud**” Claude Opus 5, paraphrase prompt
mParticle27%
3 of 11 labels negative · 3 of 6 models
“mParticle merged with Rokt in January 2025... acquisition transitions justify contractual road-map commitments” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt
Held under rewording
Whether each model's first choice on the direct prompt survived the paraphrase in this category, under the strict rule.
Claude Opus 5
Changed
Claude Opus 4.8
Changed
GPT-6 Astra
Held
GPT-5.6 Sol
Held
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Held
Perplexity Sonar Pro
Held
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat (simulated until 12 September 2026). Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
Claude Opus 5
0 of 4 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
1 of 3 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
2 of 3 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
1 of 3 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
1 of 4 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
1 of 3 flipped
What each model said, prompt by prompt
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. Bold is the first choice, grey the alternatives, red what the answer argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
| Prompt | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | GPT-6 Astra | GPT-5.6 Sol | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Perplexity Sonar Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct recommendation What is the best customer data platform for a mid-market B2B software company? | Census, Hightouch Segment against: Adobe Real-Time CDP, Oracle Unity | Hightouch Census, RudderStack, Segment | Hightouch RudderStack, Segment | Hightouch RudderStack, Segment against: Salesforce Data Cloud | Census, Hightouch Dreamdata, RudderStack against: Segment | Segment BlueConic, Hightouch, RudderStack, Tealium |
Paraphrase Which CDP would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company? | Hightouch, Segment BlueConic, RudderStack, Tealium against: Adobe Real-Time CDP, Bloomreach, Insider +2 | Census, Hightouch RudderStack, Segment against: HubSpot | Hightouch RudderStack, Segment | Hightouch Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, RudderStack, Segment | Census, Hightouch CaliberMind, RudderStack, Segment | Segment BlueConic, Hightouch |
Comparative What are the top customer data platforms and how do they differ? | Hightouch RudderStack, Salesforce Data Cloud, Segment, Tealium +1 against: ActionIQ, Adobe Real-Time CDP, Amperity +2 | no first choice Adobe Real-Time CDP, Hightouch, Salesforce Data Cloud against: Tealium | no first choice Adobe Real-Time CDP, Amperity, Hightouch, RudderStack +4 | no first choice Adobe Real-Time CDP, Amperity, Bloomreach, Hightouch +6 | no first choice against: Adobe Real-Time CDP | no first choice Adobe Real-Time CDP, Bloomreach, Klaviyo, RudderStack +3 |
Budget constrained What is the best customer data platform for a company with a limited budget? | Segment Jitsu, RudderStack against: Klaviyo | RudderStack HubSpot, Jitsu, Snowplow against: Segment | Segment RudderStack | RudderStack Brevo, Lytics, PostHog against: Segment | RudderStack, Tracardi Apache Unomi, Census, Customer.io, Hightouch +2 against: Segment | Segment Capsule, Customer.io, Fivetran, Klaviyo +1 |
Scale constrained We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer data platform. What should we look at? | no first choice Census, GrowthLoop, Hightouch, Segment +1 | no first choice | no first choice Adobe Real-Time CDP, Hightouch, RudderStack, Salesforce Data Cloud +2 | no first choice | no first choice | no first choice |
Negative framing Which customer data platforms should I avoid or be cautious about? | no first choice against: Adobe Real-Time CDP, Salesforce Data Cloud, Segment +1 | no first choice | no first choice against: Adobe Real-Time CDP, Hightouch, Lytics +2 | no first choice against: Adobe Real-Time CDP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, SAP Customer Data Platform +3 | ActionIQ, Census, Hightouch HubSpot, Klaviyo against: Adobe Audience Manager, Adobe Campaign, Adobe Real-Time CDP +3 | no first choice against: Adobe Real-Time CDP, Hightouch, Segment +2 |
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
Adobe read as Adobe Real-Time CDP
HubSpot read as HubSpot
Oracle read as Oracle Unity
SAP read as SAP Customer Data Platform
Salesforce read as Salesforce Data Cloud
Unresolved, counted raw
None awaiting human review.
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
Every prompt and answer
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, latency and cost. Full answer text is in the responses download on the Data page.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 09:49 | yes | 26 | 55 s | $0.25 |
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 09:50 | yes | 42 | 45 s | $0.20 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 09:51 | yes | 4 | 37 s | $0.35 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 09:52 | yes | 7 | 40 s | $0.19 |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 09:51 | no | 0 | 27 s | $0.03 |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 09:50 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 09:53 | yes | 22 | 48 s | $0.25 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 09:53 | no | 0 | 20 s | $0.06 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 09:54 | yes | 4 | 29 s | $0.27 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 09:55 | yes | 9 | 45 s | $0.18 |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 09:54 | no | 0 | 25 s | $0.03 |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 09:53 | yes | 20 | 5 s | $0.01 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 09:56 | yes | 37 | 65 s | $0.38 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 09:59 | yes | 32 | 148 s | $0.26 |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:01 | yes | 9 | 56 s | $0.52 |
| Comparative | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:02 | yes | 11 | 77 s | $0.33 |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:00 | yes | 6 | 40 s | $0.05 |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 09:59 | yes | 20 | 8 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:03 | yes | 41 | 54 s | $0.34 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:04 | yes | 34 | 96 s | $0.33 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:05 | yes | 2 | 24 s | $0.29 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:06 | yes | 5 | 27 s | $0.13 |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:05 | yes | 11 | 32 s | $0.04 |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:04 | yes | 20 | 5 s | $0.01 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:07 | yes | 7 | 49 s | $0.15 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:07 | no | 0 | 20 s | $0.06 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:08 | yes | 6 | 42 s | $0.26 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:09 | yes | 2 | 58 s | $0.12 |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:08 | no | 0 | 26 s | $0.03 |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:07 | yes | 20 | 9 s | $0.02 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 10:11 | yes | 40 | 80 s | $0.34 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 10:12 | yes | 38 | 52 s | $0.29 |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 10:13 | yes | 5 | 41 s | $0.39 |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 10:14 | yes | 7 | 60 s | $0.24 |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 10:12 | yes | 9 | 36 s | $0.05 |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 10:12 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |