# Referral Factory vs Open Loyalty: which do AI models recommend for loyalty, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, Loyalty, advocacy and referrals. Zero of twelve models named Referral Factory first on the direct prompt; one named Open Loyalty. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/loyalty-advocacy-and-referrals/referral-factory-vs-open-loyalty/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral Factory | 5% | #6 of 18 | 8% | 12 | 8 of 12 |
| Open Loyalty | 2% | #8 of 18 | 0% | 14 | 9 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Perplexity Sonar: open loyalty first (first choices: CustomerGauge, Open Loyalty) (alternatives: Talon.One)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither first, one named (first choices: Ambassador) (alternatives: CustomerGauge, Referral Factory, Salesforce Loyalty Management)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither first, one named (first choices: True Loyal) (alternatives: Annex Cloud, Open Loyalty, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither named (first choices: CustomerGauge) (alternatives: GrowSurf, Referral Rock, Salesforce Loyalty Management, Zinrelo)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither named (first choices: Referral Rock) (alternatives: Annex Cloud, Influitive, PartnerStack, SaaSquatch)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither named (first choices: Influitive) (alternatives: Ambassador, Referral Rock, TrueLoyal)
- Mistral Small: neither named (first choices: GrowSurf) (alternatives: PartnerStack, True Loyal)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither named (first choices: Ambassador) (alternatives: CustomerGauge, PartnerStack, Referral Rock)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named (alternatives: GrowSurf, Referral Rock)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither named (first choices: Influitive) (alternatives: Ambassador, CustomerGauge)
- Kimi K2: neither named (first choices: Referral Rock, Zinrelo) (alternatives: Kademi, PartnerStack)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither named (first choices: GrowSurf, Referral Rock) (alternatives: FirstPromoter, Kademi, Zinrelo)

## What the models said about Referral Factory

- "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

- "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)

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. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.