GTM AI Index
Index Marketing Loyalty › Referral Factory vs Open Loyalty
Loyalty, advocacy and referrals · September 2026 Edition

Referral Factory vs Open Loyalty

Zero of twelve models named Referral Factory first on the direct prompt; one named Open Loyalty. Referral Factory was named by eight of the twelve models and Open Loyalty by nine and Referral Factory carries 12 labels and Open Loyalty 14, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Referral Factory

accepted challenger

Named in three categories this edition.

Open Loyalty

accepted challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

First-choice share5%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate8%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#6#8A position in a field of 18; printed, not drawn.
Labels1214A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Referral Factory reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Referral Rock was named alongside these two in seven of the twelve direct answers. Smile.io vs Referral Factory · Smile.io vs Open Loyalty · Referral Rock vs Referral Factory

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; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the loyalty, advocacy and referrals page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Referral FactoryFirst choices, of twelve modelsOpen Loyalty
Direct01
Paraphrase20
Comparative00
Budget-constrained00
Scale-constrained00
Negative001 against Referral Factory
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

Every model, every framing

The seventy-two answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Referral Factory and Open Loyalty stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
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
MiniMax M2.5
Referral Factory Open Loyalty first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Referral Factory on the left and Open Loyalty on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Referral Factory and Open Loyalty stood in it.

Open Loyalty first, Referral Factory not the choice

1 of 12 modelsReferral Factory was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Perplexity SonarCustomerGauge, Open Loyalty alternatives: Talon.One

Neither was the first choice, one was named

2 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniAmbassador alternatives: CustomerGauge, Referral Factory, Salesforce Loyalty Management
GLM 4.7 FlashXTrue Loyal alternatives: Annex Cloud, Open Loyalty, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals

Neither was named

9 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5CustomerGauge alternatives: GrowSurf, Referral Rock, Salesforce Loyalty Management, Zinrelo
Gemini 3.5 FlashReferral Rock alternatives: Annex Cloud, Influitive, PartnerStack, SaaSquatch
Grok 4.1 FastInfluitive alternatives: Ambassador, Referral Rock, TrueLoyal
Mistral SmallGrowSurf alternatives: PartnerStack, True Loyal
DeepSeek V4 FlashAmbassador alternatives: CustomerGauge, PartnerStack, Referral Rock
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice alternatives: GrowSurf, Referral Rock
Qwen 3.7 FlashInfluitive alternatives: Ambassador, CustomerGauge
Kimi K2Referral Rock, Zinrelo alternatives: Kademi, PartnerStack
MiniMax M2.5GrowSurf, Referral Rock alternatives: FirstPromoter, Kademi, Zinrelo

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Referral Factory leads by eleven points.
Referral Factory11%#3 of 11
Open Loyalty0%#– of 11
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Referral Factory leads by two points.
Referral Factory5%#6 of 18
Open Loyalty2%#8 of 18
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Open Loyalty leads at enterprise.
Open Loyalty13%#3 of 18
Referral Factory2%#– of 18
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Referral Factory

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of three in this category shown.

“Lack of multi-channel support (Referral Factory) ... No dedicated support for the Starter plan” Llama 4 Maverick · negative prompt · soft negative
“I'd generally recommend Referral Factory if your primary goal is to launch and scale a customer referral program quickly” GPT-5.4 mini · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“I'd recommend Referral Factory if your main goal is to launch and scale a customer referral program quickly” Perplexity Sonar · paraphrase prompt · first choice

What the models said about Open Loyalty

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Two of two in this category shown.

“Open Loyalty is the best-fit option among the results for mid-market and enterprise companies” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · first choice
“API-first, composable toolkit for custom builds” Perplexity Sonar · comparative prompt · alternative
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.