AI Indexes
GTM AI Index
October 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Marketing › Conversational mktg › Small business › October 2026 Edition

Conversational marketing platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “conversational marketing platform”, and as “website chat for converting B2B visitors into pipeline”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 55 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, fourteen models each. Added to the October 2026 Edition on October 4, 2026; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
33%
Contested · HubSpot Conversations 16%
33Tidio16HubSpot Conversations05Drift45others

33% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the October 2026 Edition →

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 fourteen models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Tidio33%3%61endorsed leader
02HubSpot Conversations16%4%26accepted challenger
03ManyChat5%7%15accepted challenger
04Intercom5%49%57criticized challenger
05Drift5%70%50criticized challenger
06Smartsupp4%0%14accepted challenger
07Crisp2%0%16accepted challenger
08ChatBot.com2%8%12accepted challenger
09HubSpot Marketing Hub2%50%12criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Qualified0%75%16criticized challenger
10Chatfuel0%8%12accepted 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.
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
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Tidio33%
02HubSpot Conversations16%
03ManyChat5%
04Intercom5%
05Drift5%
06Smartsupp4%
07Crisp2%
08ChatBot.com2%
09HubSpot Marketing Hub2%
10Chatfuel0%
11Qualified0%

What they warned about

Three of fourteen models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-6 Luna and Muse Glimmer 30B 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.
Drift
70%
35 of 50 labels negative · 13 of 14 models · 21 hard negative
“Verdict: Avoid completely unless you are a venture-backed startup with a dedicated marketing operations team and a massive budget.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Intercom
49%
28 of 57 labels negative · 12 of 14 models · 7 hard negative
“Avoid pricier options like Intercom/Drift initially—they're enterprise-grade and start higher” Grok 4.1 Fast, paraphrase prompt
Qualified
75%
12 of 16 labels negative · 7 of 14 models · 6 hard negative
“**Qualified** | Enterprise-focused; starts at ~$2,500/month for ABM features” Kimi K2, direct prompt
HubSpot Marketing Hub
50%
6 of 12 labels negative · 6 of 14 models · 3 hard negative
“**Why avoid:** Users report a steep learning curve, missing or limited features in cheaper plans, and high pricing” Mistral Small, negative prompt

What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1005 links across 269 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 252 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

45 answers · 71 citations · 13 models
42 answers · 42 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Guideflow37 answers · 38 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Wonderchat34 answers · 51 citations · 12 models
vendor site · CloudTalk34 answers · 34 citations · 12 models
30 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Spotsaas25 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Storylane23 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Mailmodo19 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
15 answers · 16 citations · 10 models
vendor site · 1mind15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
vendor site · ZoomInfo14 answers · 25 citations · 10 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 “conversational marketing 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
Tidio tidio.com33%2286,60010279,12864
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Conversations 16%, HubSpot Live Chat 5%, HubSpot Chat 5%, HubSpot Chatbot 2% and 1 more
31%934368,0009,776
ManyChat manychat.com5%6090,500779187,60373
Intercom intercom.com5%44133,1007,16564,348$3,304120
Salesloft drift.com
Drift 5%
5%236201,00063,08533,917
Smartsupp smartsupp.com4%21480198621
Sender sender.net4%1059,90010,34969,07813
Crisp crisp.chat2%7260,50036,27629,6852
ChatBot.com chatbot.com2%363200136,7541
tawk.to tawk.to2%352,9006313,4447

Google's top ten for the one searches hold 9 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (g2.com, thecmo.com). The first result for “conversational marketing platform” is qualified.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 conversational marketing platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which website chat for converting B2B visitors into pipeline would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top conversational marketing platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best conversational marketing platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a conversational marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which conversational marketing platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5HubSpot Conversations, Intercom
Three alternativesCrisp, Freshdesk's Freshchat, tawk.to
TidioChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Chatbot, Intercom
against: Drift
Tidio
Four alternativesDrift, HubSpot Chat, Intercom, Landbot
Tidio
Two alternativesChatfuel, SendPulse
no first choiceagainst: 1mind, Chatfuel, Drift, Freshchat, Intercom, Landbot, LivePerson, Tidio
GPT-5.4 miniHubSpot Marketing Hub
Two alternativesIntercom, Qualified
against: Drift
Intercom with Fin for SalesChanged
Three alternativesChatBot.com, Qualified, Tidio
HubSpot Conversations
Three alternativesIntercom, ManyChat, Tidio
against: Drift
HubSpot Conversations
One alternativeTidio
against: Intercom
no first choiceagainst: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Intercom, Klaviyo, Podium
Gemini 3.5 FlashHubSpot Conversations
Three alternativesIntercom, Landbot, Tidio
against: Drift, Qualified
HubSpot ConversationsHeld
Three alternativesIntercom, Nutshell Chat & AI Chatbot, Tidio
against: Drift, Qualified
Tidio
Three alternativesHubSpot Conversations, ManyChat, SleekFlow
against: Intercom
Tidio
Three alternativesCrisp, HubSpot Conversations, ManyChat
against: Drift, Intercom
HubSpot Conversations
Four alternativesBreakout, Chatfuel, Omnifox, Tidio
against: Intercom
against: Drift, Google Dialogflow CX, Intercom, Salesforce Einstein, Sprinklr
Perplexity SonarTidio
Three alternativesDrift, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Qualified
TidioHeld
Three alternativesChili Piper, Drift, Intercom
against: ZoomInfo Chat
Tidio
Three alternativesDrift, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Intercom
Tidio
Two alternativesChatfuel, Smartsupp
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
no first choiceagainst: Drift, Qualified
Grok 4.1 FastHubSpot Chat
Two alternativesIntercom, Tidio
against: Drift
HubSpot's free live chat toolChanged
Two alternativesLiveChat, Tidio
against: Drift, Intercom
ManyChat, Tidio
One alternativetawk.to
against: Drift, Intercom
ManyChat
Three alternativesChatfuel, HubSpot Conversations, Tidio
no first choiceagainst: Birdeye, Conversica, Drift, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Intercom, LivePerson, Podium, Qualified
Mistral SmallDrift, Intercom
Three alternativesChatfuel, Customers.ai, HubSpot Marketing Hub
DriftChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Live Chat, Intercom
Olark
Three alternativesHubSpot Chatbot, Landbot, ManyChat
against: Drift
Intercom, Senderno first choiceagainst: Intercomagainst: Drift, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Intercom, Olark, Qualified
DeepSeek V4 FlashTidio
Three alternativesHubSpot Conversations, Wonderchat, tawk.to
against: Drift, Intercom
HubSpot ChatChanged
Two alternativesIntercom, Tidio
against: Drift
Tidio
Four alternativesFreshchat, HubSpot Conversations, ManyChat, tawk.to
against: Intercom
Tidio
Six alternativesChatfuel, ChipBot, Crisp, Freshchat, HubSpot Conversations, Smartsupp
against: Drift, Intercom
HubSpot Conversations, Tidio
One alternativeIntercom
against: Drift, Qualified
against: AskNicely, Drift, Intercom, Landbot, Qualified
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceTidio
Two alternativesChatBot.com, Smartsupp
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashSmartsupp, Tidio, Wonderchat
One alternativeLandbot
against: Drift, Intercom
DriftChanged
Three alternativesCrisp, HubSpot Conversation Ads, Tidio
against: tawk.to
Crisp, Tidio
One alternativeHubSpot Conversations
against: Drift, Intercom
Crisp, Tidio
Two alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Smartsupp
no first choiceagainst: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Salesmsg, Tidio
Kimi K2HubSpot Conversations
Two alternativesIntercom, Tidio
against: Drift, Qualified
TidioChanged
Two alternativesCrisp, HubSpot Live Chat
against: Drift, Intercom, Qualified, Warmly
Crisp, Tidio
Two alternativesHubSpot Live Chat, Intercom
against: Drift
Tidio
Four alternativesChatBot.com, Crisp, Poper, Smartsupp
Tidio
Two alternativesHubSpot Conversations, Intercom
against: Drift
against: ChatBot.com, Drift, Front, Intercom, Qualified
GLM 4.7 FlashXHubSpot Chatbot
Two alternativesTidio, Userlike
against: Drift, Intercom
ChatBot.com, HubSpot Live ChatChanged
Two alternativesIntercom, Tidio
Tidio
Four alternativesFreshchat, HubSpot Chat, Olark, Podium
against: Intercom, Verse.ai
Chatbase, ManyChat, Tidio
Four alternativesBotpress, Chatfuel, Dialogflow, HubSpot CRM
against: Intercom
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5no first choiceHubSpot Live ChatChanged
One alternativeTidio
against: Drift, Intercom
Tidio
Four alternativesDrift, HubSpot Conversations, Intercom, Olark
Sender, Smartsupp
One alternativeText Request
no first choice
Two alternativesHubSpot Conversations, Tidio
against: Drift, Intercom
GPT-6 LunaHubSpot Conversations
Two alternativesCrisp, Intercom
HubSpot Live ChatChanged
One alternativeIntercom
HubSpot Conversations
Three alternativesManyChat, Respond.io, Tidio
against: Intercom
ManyChat
One alternativeCrisp
no first choiceagainst: Drift, Intercom, ManyChat, Podium
Muse Glimmer 30BTidio
Four alternativesChatfuel, Crisp, HubSpot Live Chat, Intercom
against: Drift
HubSpot ChatChanged
One alternativeTidio
against: Drift
Intercom, Tidio
Four alternativesDrift, Freshchat, HubSpot Marketing Hub, LiveChat
Tidio, tawk.to
Four alternativesChatfuel, Heyy, ManyChat, Sender
HubSpot Conversationsagainst: Drift, Qualifiedagainst: Birdeye, Drift, HubSpot Conversations, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Intercom, Podium, Qualified
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. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Eighty-four rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:52yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 00:28yes46 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:40yes1522 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:29yes144 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:09yes2510 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:44yes108 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:33yes1844 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:59yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:31yes1251 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:16yes1922 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 01:01yes2547 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:28yes517 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:36yes314 s
Direct recommendationMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:51yes1418 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:37yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:21yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:40yes2025 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:01yes193 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:30yes238 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:03yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:23yes2431 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:49yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:17no028 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:00yes1921 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:23yes2039 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:31yes535 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:44yes312 s
ParaphraseMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:59yes2030 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:16yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:19yes611 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:43yes1026 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:25yes155 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:14yes2011 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-05 00:28yes1110 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:16yes2357 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:33yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:32no023 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:37yes2531 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:18yes2296 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:19yes814 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:37yes717 s
ComparativeMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 22:52yes2537 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 23:21yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-05 01:03yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-05 00:22yes2227 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:42yes152 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:13yes237 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:55yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:19yes2123 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:57yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:47yes838 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:45yes520 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:34yes2088 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:52yes59 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 22:30yes29 s
Budget constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-04 23:38yes1219 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-05 00:10no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:21no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:50yes1126 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 23:18yes174 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-05 00:46yes119 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:55no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-05 00:40yes2062 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:32yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:55no025 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-05 00:28yes1821 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-05 00:45no013 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-05 00:44yes920 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-05 00:22yes218 s
Scale constrainedMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:44yes1423 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:52yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:10yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:27yes1526 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-05 00:16yes175 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:29yes2112 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:44yes138 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:45yes2444 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-05 00:18yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-05 00:27yes526 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:29yes2530 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:08yes1481 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:38yes1931 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Lunagpt-6-luna2026-10-04 23:05yes521 s
Negative framingMuse Glimmer 30Bmeta/muse-glimmer-30b via togetherai2026-10-05 00:41yes1933 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
HubSpot read as HubSpot Conversations
HubSpot (Free Hub + Sales/Service Hubs) read as HubSpot Conversations
Zendesk read as Zendesk Chat
Unresolved, counted raw
ChipBot
Community (SMS)
Freshdesk's Freshchat
Heyy
HubSpot Conversation Ads (Chat)
HubSpot's free live chat tool
HubSpot's free/Starter tier
Intercom with Fin for Sales
Nutshell Chat & AI Chatbot
Perspective.ai
Poper
Text Request
Userlike
Verse.ai
Whippy
Wonderchat.io
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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