# Referral Rock vs Friendbuy: which do AI models recommend for loyalty, October 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Loyalty, advocacy and referrals. Three of fourteen models named Referral Rock first on the direct prompt; one named Friendbuy. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/loyalty-advocacy-and-referrals/referral-rock-vs-friendbuy/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral Rock | 13% | #3 of 14 | 0% | 26 | 13 of 14 |
| Friendbuy | 2% | #8 of 14 | 30% | 23 | 13 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Grok 4.1 Fast: referral rock first (first choices: Referral Rock) (alternatives: Ambassador, Influitive AdvocateHub)
- Kimi K2: referral rock first (first choices: Referral Rock) (alternatives: Ambassador, Influitive AdvocateHub)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: referral rock first (first choices: Referral Rock, Smile.io) (alternatives: Ambassador)
- Mistral Small: friendbuy first (first choices: Friendbuy, Influitive AdvocateHub) (alternatives: LoyaltyLion, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Kademi) (alternatives: Annex Cloud, PartnerStack, Referral Rock, TrueLoyal)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Influitive AdvocateHub) (alternatives: Ambassador, Cello.so, FirstPromoter, PartnerStack, Referral Rock)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither first, one named (alternatives: Friendbuy, ReferralCandy, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals, Zinrelo)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Exponent) (alternatives: Referral Rock, Tnt1)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: Referral Factory) (alternatives: Ambassador)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither named (first choices: Enable3) (alternatives: Antavo, Gainsight, Open Loyalty)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither named
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither named (first choices: Cello) (alternatives: Annex Cloud, CustomerGauge, SlapFive)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither named (first choices: Enable3) (alternatives: GrowSurf, Influitive AdvocateHub, SlapFive, Zinrel0)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither named (first choices: SlapFive) (alternatives: Influitive AdvocateHub, ReferenceEdge, SaaSquatch by impact.com)

## What the models said about Referral Rock

- "Recommendation: Start with Referral Rock if referrals are primary—it's B2B-native, mid-market optimized, and quick to deploy." (Grok 4.1 Fast, direct prompt, first choice)
- "I recommend Referral Rock as the best balance of features, pricing transparency, and scalability" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Friendbuy

- "High-Friction Enterprise Platforms with Opaque Pricing & Long Contracts (e.g., Friendbuy, SaaSquatch, Annex Cloud) ... generally ill-suited for growing businesses" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Premium pricing without proportional value... Competitors offer similar core features for 60-90% less." (Kimi K2, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "has opaque pricing and long contracts, making it ill-suited for growing businesses" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Influitive and Friendbuy are the most highly recommended" (Mistral Small, direct prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen 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.