GTM AI Index
Index › Marketing › Loyalty › Smile.io vs Referral Rock
Loyalty, advocacy and referrals · September 2026 Edition

Smile.io vs Referral Rock

Zero of twelve models named Smile.io first on the direct prompt; three named Referral Rock. Smile.io was named by twelve of the twelve models and Referral Rock by nine and Smile.io carries 36 labels and Referral Rock 23, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Smile.io

accepted challenger

Named in three categories this edition.

Referral Rock

accepted challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

First-choice share24%22%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate19%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 18; printed, not drawn.
Labels3623A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Smile.io reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Smile.io vs Influitive · Referral Rock vs Influitive

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.
Smile.ioFirst choices, of twelve modelsReferral Rock
Direct03
Paraphrase06
Comparative10
Budget-constrained100
Scale-constrained001 against Smile.io
Negative006 against Smile.io
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.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Smile.io and Referral Rock stood in it.

Referral Rock first, Smile.io not the choice

3 of 12 modelsSmile.io was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Gemini 3.5 FlashReferral Rock alternatives: Annex Cloud, Influitive, PartnerStack, SaaSquatch
Kimi K2Referral Rock, Zinrelo alternatives: Kademi, PartnerStack
MiniMax M2.5GrowSurf, Referral Rock alternatives: FirstPromoter, Kademi, Zinrelo

Neither was the first choice, one was named

4 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Claude Haiku 4.5CustomerGauge alternatives: GrowSurf, Referral Rock, Salesforce Loyalty Management, Zinrelo
Grok 4.1 FastInfluitive alternatives: Ambassador, Referral Rock, TrueLoyal
DeepSeek V4 FlashAmbassador alternatives: CustomerGauge, PartnerStack, Referral Rock
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice alternatives: GrowSurf, Referral Rock

Neither was named

5 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
GPT-5.4 miniAmbassador alternatives: CustomerGauge, Referral Factory, Salesforce Loyalty Management
Perplexity SonarCustomerGauge, Open Loyalty alternatives: Talon.One
Mistral SmallGrowSurf alternatives: PartnerStack, True Loyal
Qwen 3.7 FlashInfluitive alternatives: Ambassador, CustomerGauge
GLM 4.7 FlashXTrue Loyal alternatives: Annex Cloud, Open Loyalty, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals

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
Smile.io leads by two points.
Smile.io33%#1 of 11
Referral Rock30%#2 of 11
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Smile.io leads by two points.
Smile.io24%#1 of 18
Referral Rock22%#2 of 18
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Level: the same share of first choices.
Smile.io2%#12 of 18
Referral Rock2%#10 of 18
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Smile.io

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

“Billing complaints: Multiple merchants report being charged even after cancelling their free plan” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · hard negative
“Billing disputes (charges post-cancel, free plan limits eroding, overcharges on order counts); support delays on refunds” Grok 4.1 Fast · negative prompt · soft negative
“various tiers of Smile.io) have been flagged by users for aggressive pricing behaviors” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Smile.io (Best for $0 Budget) ... the only major loyalty platform with a permanently free plan that actually includes referrals” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“Smile.io stands out as the best customer loyalty and referral platform for companies with a limited budget.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · first choice
“The best customer loyalty and referral platform for a company with a limited budget is Smile.io” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice

What the models said about Referral Rock

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

“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
Also compared
Smile.io vs InfluitiveReferral Rock vs InfluitiveThe full loyalty standing

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