Conflict disclosure
The author operates Gane, which is building an operating system for B2B go-to-market; its product overlaps with this category. The data here is collected and scored exactly like every other category and is published unmodified.
Marketing automation and campaign management
Asked as “marketing automation platform”, and as “marketing automation and campaign management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 22 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing
HubSpot Marketing Hub64% of first choices and every model's direct pick, but a 28% negative rate makes it a criticized default: recommended by all six, with reservations from most. Brevo is the budget alternative at 23% with no negative labels.
First-choice share
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. Leader at 30% or more of first choices; criticized at 25% or more negative labels. Markers are keyed to the table below.
Negative label rate →
25% negative
30% first choices
Criticized challenger
Criticized default
Accepted challenger
Endorsed leader
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
080%First-choice share →60%
Full standing
| # | Product | First choices | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | HubSpot Marketing Hub | 64% | 28% | 32 | criticized default |
| 02 | Brevo | 23% | 0% | 13 | accepted challenger |
| 03 | ActiveCampaign | 9% | 14% | 22 | accepted challenger |
| 04 | Klaviyo | 0% | 15% | 13 | accepted challenger |
| 05 | Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | 0% | 29% | 21 | criticized challenger |
| 06 | Adobe Marketo Engage | 0% | 38% | 29 | criticized challenger |
| 07 | Salesforce Marketing Cloud | 0% | 46% | 13 | criticized challenger |
| 08 | Mailchimp | 0% | 58% | 12 | criticized challenger |
Warned against
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Adobe Marketo Engage38%
11 of 29 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“I’d initially screen out Salesforce Engagement and Marketo unless you can name the capabilities that justify them” GPT-6 Astra, negative prompt
HubSpot Marketing Hub28%
9 of 32 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“The Verdict: Avoid if you don't have high profit margins or a dedicated enterprise budget.” Gemini 3.1 Pro, negative prompt
Salesforce Marketing Cloud46%
6 of 13 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“These are platforms I'd generally **avoid for smaller organizations** unless Salesforce integration is strategically essential.” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement29%
6 of 21 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“These are platforms I'd generally **avoid for smaller organizations** unless Salesforce integration is strategically essential.” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt
Held under rewording
Whether each model's first choice on the direct prompt survived the paraphrase in this category, under the strict rule.
Claude Opus 5
Held
Claude Opus 4.8
Held
GPT-6 Astra
Held
GPT-5.6 Sol
Held
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Held
Perplexity Sonar Pro
Held
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat (simulated until 12 September 2026). Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
Claude Opus 5
1 of 4 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
0 of 3 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
0 of 3 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
1 of 3 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
2 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
2 of 3 flipped
What each model said, prompt by prompt
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. Bold is the first choice, grey the alternatives, red what the answer argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
| Prompt | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | GPT-6 Astra | GPT-5.6 Sol | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Perplexity Sonar Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct recommendation What is the best marketing automation platform for a mid-market B2B software company? | HubSpot Marketing Hub Act-On, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement against: 6sense | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub Adobe Marketo Engage, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement against: ActiveCampaign | HubSpot Marketing Hub Act-On, ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Customer.io against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement |
Paraphrase Which marketing automation and campaign management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company? | HubSpot Marketing Hub Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement against: 6sense, Adobe Marketo Engage | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Brevo against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud |
Comparative What are the top marketing automation platforms and how do they differ? | HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, Omnisend against: Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement | no first choice ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub +4 | no first choice ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, Brevo +5 | no first choice | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud against: Mailchimp | no first choice |
Budget constrained What is the best marketing automation platform for a company with a limited budget? | ActiveCampaign, Brevo Kit, Klaviyo, MailerLite, Omnisend against: HubSpot Marketing Hub | HubSpot Marketing Hub, MailerLite ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Omnisend against: Mailchimp | Brevo MailerLite | Brevo MailerLite against: HubSpot Marketing Hub | Brevo ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Omnisend against: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub | ActiveCampaign, Brevo Mailchimp against: MailerLite |
Scale constrained We are a 500 person company evaluating a marketing automation platform. What should we look at? | no first choice | no first choice | no first choice Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo +1 | no first choice | HubSpot Marketing Hub ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement against: Adobe Marketo Engage | no first choice |
Negative framing Which marketing automation platforms should I avoid or be cautious about? | no first choice against: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap | no first choice Brevo, MailerLite against: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, GetResponse +5 | no first choice against: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo +2 | no first choice against: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub +6 | no first choice ActiveCampaign, Brevo, MailerLite against: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap +4 | no first choice against: AWeber, Adobe Marketo Engage, Campaign Monitor +6 |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
HubSpot read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
Unresolved, counted raw
None awaiting human review.
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
Every prompt and answer
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, latency and cost. Full answer text is in the responses download on the Data page.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 19:49 | yes | 19 | 49 s | $0.24 |
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 19:49 | no | 0 | 19 s | $0.06 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 19:50 | yes | 4 | 32 s | $0.29 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 19:51 | yes | 4 | 39 s | $0.14 |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 19:50 | no | 0 | 28 s | $0.03 |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 19:49 | yes | 20 | 8 s | $0.01 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 19:52 | yes | 20 | 50 s | $0.25 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 19:52 | no | 0 | 23 s | $0.06 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 19:53 | yes | 6 | 37 s | $0.34 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 19:54 | yes | 6 | 28 s | $0.13 |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 19:53 | no | 0 | 25 s | $0.03 |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 19:52 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 19:55 | yes | 22 | 54 s | $0.34 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 19:56 | yes | 43 | 51 s | $0.25 |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 19:57 | yes | 9 | 46 s | $0.42 |
| Comparative | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 19:58 | yes | 7 | 49 s | $0.19 |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 19:56 | no | 0 | 22 s | $0.02 |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 19:56 | yes | 20 | 10 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 19:59 | yes | 20 | 72 s | $0.21 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 19:59 | no | 0 | 19 s | $0.06 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:00 | yes | 2 | 26 s | $0.29 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:01 | yes | 3 | 33 s | $0.13 |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:00 | yes | 4 | 30 s | $0.04 |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:00 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 20:02 | yes | 26 | 71 s | $0.36 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:03 | no | 0 | 23 s | $0.06 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:04 | yes | 5 | 39 s | $0.25 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:05 | yes | 7 | 71 s | $0.17 |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:03 | no | 0 | 27 s | $0.03 |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:03 | yes | 20 | 12 s | $0.02 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 20:06 | yes | 43 | 59 s | $0.33 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 20:10 | yes | 43 | 214 s | $0.47 |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 20:11 | yes | 5 | 38 s | $0.39 |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 20:12 | yes | 7 | 76 s | $0.24 |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 20:11 | yes | 12 | 34 s | $0.05 |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 20:10 | yes | 20 | 9 s | $0.02 |