GTM AI Index
Index › Marketing › September 2026 Edition

Loyalty, advocacy and referrals

Asked as “customer loyalty and referral platform”, and as “customer advocacy and referral program tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 41 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Smile.io
Contested
24% of first choices, contested.
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 businessSmile.io33%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketSmile.io24%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseInfluitive15%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Smile.io24%19%36accepted challenger
02Referral Rock22%0%23accepted challenger
03Influitive10%17%23accepted challenger
04GrowSurf5%0%14accepted challenger
05Ambassador5%16%19accepted challenger
06Referral Factory5%8%12accepted challenger
07SlapFive2%0%13accepted challenger
08Open Loyalty2%0%14accepted challenger
09Zinrelo2%0%10accepted challenger
Show the nine products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
18Yotpo0%38%21criticized challenger
17Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals0%30%10criticized challenger
16ReferralCandy0%28%25criticized challenger
12LoyaltyLion0%25%28criticized challenger
15Friendbuy0%23%22accepted challenger
11Annex Cloud0%13%15accepted challenger
13Extole0%13%15accepted challenger
14Salesforce Loyalty Management0%0%11accepted challenger
10Talon.One0%0%11accepted 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
Smile.io vs Referral RockSmile.io vs InfluitiveReferral Rock vs Influitive

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
14
15
16
17
18
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Smile.io24%
02Referral Rock22%
03Influitive10%
04GrowSurf5%
05Ambassador5%
06Referral Factory5%
07SlapFive2%
08Open Loyalty2%
09Zinrelo2%
10Talon.One0%
11Annex Cloud0%
12LoyaltyLion0%
13Extole0%
14Salesforce Loyalty Management0%
15Friendbuy0%
16ReferralCandy0%
17Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals0%
18Yotpo0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX 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.
Smile.io
19%
7 of 36 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Billing complaints**: Multiple merchants report being charged even after cancelling their free plan” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Friendbuy
23%
5 of 22 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Outdated customer service**: Described as "stuck in the 80s" with slow response times” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
LoyaltyLion
25%
7 of 28 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Better for larger/scale brands; minimal plans start around $100+/month” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
Yotpo
38%
8 of 21 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Tight Budget - **Yotpo** — Quote-based pricing, historically more expensive” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget 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. 208 links across 122 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.

openloyalty.io
vendor site · Open Loyalty9 answers · 14 citations · 2 models
customergauge.com
vendor site · CustomerGauge5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
yotpo.com
vendor site · Yotpo5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
extole.com
vendor site · Extole4 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
talon.one
4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
voucherify.io
vendor site · Voucherify4 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
raftlabs.com
4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
bubblehouse.com
vendor site · Bubblehouse3 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
joy.so
3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
whitelabel-loyalty.com
3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
blog.hubspot.com
vendor site · HubSpot3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
capterra.com
vendor site · Capterra3 answers · 3 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.

openloyalty.io/insider/best-loyalty-software-comparison-guide
5 answers · 2 models
customergauge.com/blog/b2b-referral-software
4 answers · 3 models
blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-advocacy-platforms
3 answers · 1 model
extole.com/blog/retail-referral-software
3 answers · 2 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/loyalty-program-vendors
3 answers · 1 model
neoday.com/blog/best-customer-loyalty-platforms-2026
3 answers · 2 models
netguru.com/blog/best-customer-loyalty-software-platforms
3 answers · 1 model
openloyalty.io/insider/best-loyalty-management-software
3 answers · 1 model
tryxlr8.ai/blogs/best-customer-loyalty-and-referral-program-platforms-2026
3 answers · 2 models
voucherify.io/blog/best-loyalty-management-software-review
3 answers · 1 model

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 loyalty and referral platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer advocacy and referral program tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top loyalty, advocacy and referral platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer loyalty and referral platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer loyalty and referral platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which loyalty, advocacy and referral platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5CustomerGauge
Four alternativesGrowSurf, Referral Rock, Salesforce Loyalty Management, Zinrelo
Referral RockChanged
Three alternativesBase, Influitive, SlapFive
Bubblehouse
Three alternativesAnnex Cloud, Friendbuy, Talkable
Joy Loyalty
Six alternativesBloop, Loyverse POS, Smile.io, Tapfiliate, UpPromote, Yotpo
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniAmbassador
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, Referral Factory, Salesforce Loyalty Management
Referral FactoryChanged
Five alternativesBase, Influitive, Orca, ReferenceEdge, impact.com / Advocate
no first choiceSmile.io
One alternativeReferralCandy
against: LoyaltyLion, Yotpo Loyalty & Referralsno first choiceagainst: Influitive AdvocateHub, LoyaltyLion
Gemini 3.5 FlashReferral Rock
Four alternativesAnnex Cloud, Influitive, PartnerStack, SaaSquatch
against: Salesforce Loyalty CloudBase.aiChanged
Three alternativesDeeto, Referral Factory, Referral Rock
against: Ambassador, Extole, InfluitiveLoyaltyLion, Smile.io
Ten alternativesBase, BrandChamp, Capillary, Friendbuy, GrowSurf, Influitive, ReferralCandy, Talkable, Talon.One, UserEvidence
Smile.io
Four alternativesGrowave, Joy Loyalty, Loloyal, Rivo.io
against: ReferralCandyno first choice
Seven alternativesAnnex Cloud, Extole, Friendbuy, LoyaltyLion, Talon.One, Voucherify, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
against: Friendbuy, Influitive, LoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Talkable, Yotpo
Perplexity SonarCustomerGauge, Open Loyalty
One alternativeTalon.One
against: Annex Cloud, Yotpo LoyaltyReferral FactoryChanged
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, Influitive, SlapFive
LoyaltyLion
Six alternativesAnnex Cloud, Mention Me, Open Loyalty, Smile.io, Talon.One, Yotpo
Smile.io
Three alternativesBON Loyalty, Joy Rewards, Square Loyalty
against: LoyaltyPassno first choiceagainst: Yotpo
Grok 4.1 FastInfluitive
Three alternativesAmbassador, Referral Rock, TrueLoyal
Referral RockChanged
Three alternativesCello, Influitive, SlapFive
no first choice
Five alternativesAntavo, Influitive, Open Loyalty, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Smile.io
One alternativeBON Loyalty
against: ReferralCandy, Yotpo Loyalty & Referralsno first choiceagainst: LoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Mistral SmallGrowSurf
Two alternativesPartnerStack, True Loyal
Referral RockChanged
Two alternativesBase, Influitive
no first choiceLoyverse, Square Loyalty
Six alternativesElementary POS, Loop.fans, Loyally.ai, Referral Factory, Smile.io, SumUp
no first choiceagainst: Points.com
DeepSeek V4 FlashAmbassador
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, PartnerStack, Referral Rock
against: Annex Cloud, TrueLoyalReferral RockChanged
Three alternativesAmbassador, Influitive, PartnerStack
Influitive
Six alternativesExtole, LoyaltyLion, SlapFive, Smile.io, Talkable, Yotpo Loyalty
Smile.io
Two alternativesJoy Rewards, Square Loyalty
against: Fivestars, LoyaltyLion, Yotpono first choiceagainst: FiveStars Loyalty, LoyaltyLion, PC Optimum, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Webloyalty.com / Reservation Rewards, Yotpo
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Two alternativesGrowSurf, Referral Rock
against: FriendbuyInfluitiveChanged
Two alternativesBrandbassador, Referral Factory
no first choiceSmile.io
Three alternativesBON Loyalty, ReferralCandy, Rivo
no first choiceagainst: Influitive, NiceJob, Referral Factory
Qwen 3.7 FlashInfluitive
Two alternativesAmbassador, CustomerGauge
against: Friendbuy, YotpoSlapFiveChanged
Two alternativesReferral Rock, UserEvidence
against: Influitiveno first choiceSmile.io
Two alternativesKangaroo Rewards, Loop
against: ReferralCandy, Yotpono first choiceagainst: Smile.ioagainst: Oracle Siebel, Salesforce CPQ, Smile.io, Yotpo
Kimi K2Referral Rock, Zinrelo
Two alternativesKademi, PartnerStack
Referral RockChanged
Three alternativesAmbassador, Influitive, SlapFive
no first choice
Nine alternativesDeeto, Friendbuy, Influitive, LoyaltyLion, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, SlapFive, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty
Smile.io
Four alternativesLoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Rivo, Stamped
no first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Bazaarvoice, Extole, Friendbuy, LoyaltyLion, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Talkable, Yotpo
GLM 4.7 FlashXTrue Loyal
Three alternativesAnnex Cloud, Open Loyalty, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Influitive AdvocateHubChanged
Three alternativesBase, Friendbuy, Referral Factory
no first choiceagainst: Viral LoopsSmile.io, meed
Seven alternativesFirstPromoter, Partnero, ReferralCandy, ReferralHero, Square Loyalty, Stamp Me, Yotpo Loyalty
no first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Friendbuy, Smile.io
MiniMax M2.5GrowSurf, Referral Rock
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, Kademi, Zinrelo
Influitive, Referral RockChanged
Two alternativesAmbassador, SlapFive
no first choiceSmile.io
Two alternativesLoyally.ai, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
no first choicenothing named
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 04:12yes149 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:35yes48 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:50yes1822 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:58yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:05yes014 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:52yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:49yes042 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:08yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:56yes038 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:49yes030 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:13yes030 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:16yes027 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:38yes1311 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:14yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:00yes2424 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:19yes175 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:25yes06 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:31yes07 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:53yes015 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:38yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:40yes047 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:29yes038 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:46yes073 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:18yes018 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:19yes89 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:49yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:11yes2527 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:57yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 22:58yes010 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:44yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:51yes029 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:06yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:35yes033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:38yes072 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:44yes0169 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:34yes026 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:15yes86 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:15no04 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:18yes1919 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:43yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:11yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:19yes010 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:55yes025 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:52yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:20yes021 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:41yes031 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:23yes0116 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:40yes010 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:53no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:16no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:31yes1123 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:56yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:55yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:46no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:52yes029 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:42yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:26yes068 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:30yes040 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 05:05no022 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:39yes027 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:35yes3213 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:03yes38 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:15yes1724 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:32yes209 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:31yes015 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:01yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:34yes068 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:34yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:41no048 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:11yes069 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:53yes027 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:49yes020 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
Salesforce read as Salesforce Loyalty Management
Unresolved, counted raw
AnnexCloud
Elementary POS
EverAfter
ExpertVoice
FiveStars Loyalty (Fivestars)
Loloyal
LoyaltyMethods (ReactorCX)
LoyaltyPass
Loyverse
Muster
OneClickPolitics
OpenLoyalty
Oracle Siebel
PC Optimum
Physical Punch Cards
Points.com
Rivo.io
Salesforce Loyalty Cloud
Stamp Me
SumUp
Toast
VoterVoice
Webloyalty.com / Reservation Rewards
Xoxoday Loyalife
Yotpo Referral
impact.com / Advocate
meed
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in marketing

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