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

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

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Referral Rock | 22% | #2 of 18 | 0% | 23 | 9 of 12 |
| Referral Factory | 5% | #6 of 18 | 8% | 12 | 8 of 12 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

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

## What the models said about Referral Rock

- "Top Pick: Referral Rock ... highly regarded for mid-market B2B companies because it is built to handle the complexity of longer B2B sales cycles" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt, first choice)
- "For most mid-sized B2B companies, I'd recommend starting with Referral Rock for its focused referral capabilities and reasonable pricing" (Mistral Small, paraphrase prompt, first choice)

## 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)

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.