Conflict disclosure
The author operates Gane, which is building an operating system for B2B go-to-market; its product overlaps with this category. The data here is collected and scored exactly like every other category and is published unmodified.
Email marketing platforms
Asked as “email marketing platform”, and as “email marketing tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 18 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing
HubSpot Marketing Hub67% of first choices and every model's direct pick, at a 23% negative rate, just under the criticized line. Mailchimp is the most warned-against product here: half of its labels are negative.
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
08
090%First-choice share →60%
Full standing
| # | Product | First choices | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | HubSpot Marketing Hub | 67% | 23% | 26 | endorsed leader |
| 02 | Brevo | 11% | 22% | 18 | accepted challenger |
| 03 | MailerLite | 6% | 17% | 12 | accepted challenger |
| 04 | ActiveCampaign | 0% | 5% | 21 | accepted challenger |
| 05 | Customer.io | 0% | 0% | 10 | accepted challenger |
| 06 | Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | 0% | 0% | 10 | accepted challenger |
| 07 | Klaviyo | 0% | 24% | 17 | accepted challenger |
| 08 | Adobe Marketo Engage | 0% | 18% | 11 | accepted challenger |
| 09 | Mailchimp | 0% | 50% | 20 | 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.
Mailchimp50%
10 of 20 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“Mailchimp is the clearest documented case. Since Intuit acquired Mailchimp ... the platform has raised prices or reduced free plan limits nearly every year” Claude Opus 5, negative prompt
Constant Contact56%
5 of 9 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“**Verdict:** Avoid if you run an e-commerce store or want to set up advanced, automated email funnels.” Gemini 3.1 Pro, negative prompt
HubSpot Marketing Hub23%
6 of 26 labels negative · 4 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“**Verdict:** Avoid if you do not have a clear path to high revenue or if you only need a standalone email marketing tool.” Gemini 3.1 Pro, negative prompt
Brevo22%
4 of 18 labels negative · 3 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“Brevo's is notably strict: ... if the account is suspended again, they state they won't be able to reactivate it.” Claude Opus 5, 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
Held
Claude Opus 4.8
Held
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
1 of 4 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
1 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
0 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
3 of 5 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 email marketing platform for a mid-market B2B software company? | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Ortto +1 against: Braze, Klaviyo | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, Customer.io +1 | HubSpot Marketing Hub Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement |
Paraphrase Which email marketing tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company? | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Customer.io against: Adobe Marketo Engage | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Customer.io against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Mailchimp | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Customer.io, Encharge |
Comparative What are the top email marketing platforms and how do they differ? | ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, MailerLite against: Mailchimp | Klaviyo ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub +1 against: Mailchimp | MailerLite ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Constant Contact, Kit +1 against: HubSpot Marketing Hub | Mailchimp ActiveCampaign, Beehiiv, Brevo, Constant Contact +4 | ActiveCampaign Brevo, Kit, Klaviyo, Mailchimp against: HubSpot Marketing Hub | no first choice ActiveCampaign, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo +3 |
Budget constrained What is the best email marketing platform for a company with a limited budget? | Brevo EmailOctopus, MailerLite | MailerLite Brevo, Mailchimp, Zoho Campaigns | Sender MailerLite against: Brevo | Zoho Campaigns Brevo, Kit against: MailerLite | Sender Brevo, EmailOctopus, Moosend against: Mailchimp, MailerLite | Brevo MailerLite, Moosend, Sender, Zoho Campaigns |
Scale constrained We are a 500 person company evaluating an email marketing platform. What should we look at? | no first choice | no first choice | no first choice Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo +2 | no first choice | no first choice ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub +4 against: Mailchimp | no first choice |
Negative framing Which email marketing platforms should I avoid or be cautious about? | no first choice against: Brevo, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact +4 | no first choice | no first choice against: Brevo, Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub +2 | no first choice against: Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo +2 | MailerLite ActiveCampaign, Kit, Klaviyo against: AWeber, Brevo, Constant Contact +3 | no first choice Brevo, EmailOctopus, MailerLite, Moosend +1 against: AWeber, ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact +3 |
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 Marketing Hub
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 20:13 | yes | 25 | 47 s | $0.23 |
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:14 | no | 0 | 19 s | $0.06 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:15 | yes | 6 | 39 s | $0.43 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:15 | yes | 5 | 35 s | $0.13 |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:14 | no | 0 | 26 s | $0.03 |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:14 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 20:16 | yes | 38 | 59 s | $0.31 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:17 | no | 0 | 18 s | $0.06 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:18 | yes | 5 | 30 s | $0.33 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:18 | yes | 6 | 31 s | $0.17 |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:17 | no | 0 | 21 s | $0.02 |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:17 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 20:19 | yes | 32 | 50 s | $0.26 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:20 | yes | 38 | 49 s | $0.25 |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:22 | yes | 9 | 55 s | $0.46 |
| Comparative | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:23 | yes | 9 | 69 s | $0.33 |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:21 | yes | 9 | 29 s | $0.04 |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:20 | yes | 18 | 12 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 20:25 | yes | 25 | 134 s | $0.23 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:25 | no | 0 | 13 s | $0.05 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:27 | yes | 3 | 65 s | $0.17 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:28 | yes | 4 | 49 s | $0.12 |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:26 | yes | 21 | 41 s | $0.06 |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:26 | yes | 20 | 8 s | $0.01 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 20:29 | yes | 16 | 46 s | $0.16 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:29 | no | 0 | 25 s | $0.07 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:31 | yes | 6 | 49 s | $0.31 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:32 | yes | 5 | 77 s | $0.16 |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:30 | no | 0 | 25 s | $0.03 |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:30 | yes | 20 | 9 s | $0.02 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 20:33 | yes | 40 | 55 s | $0.26 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:34 | yes | 39 | 60 s | $0.28 |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:35 | yes | 5 | 30 s | $0.28 |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:36 | yes | 5 | 56 s | $0.23 |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:35 | no | 0 | 25 s | $0.03 |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:34 | yes | 20 | 7 s | $0.01 |