GTM AI Index
Index › Marketing › Marketing automation › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Marketing automation and campaign management for small business buyers

Asked as “marketing automation platform”, and as “marketing automation and campaign management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 55 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
ActiveCampaign
Clear leader
51% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 73 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessActiveCampaign51%Clear leaderThis pageMid-marketHubSpot Marketing Hub55%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseAdobe Marketo Engage57%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01ActiveCampaign51%6%66endorsed leader
02HubSpot Marketing Hub25%31%64criticized challenger
03Brevo15%0%52accepted challenger
04MailerLite4%0%19accepted challenger
05Mailchimp2%44%43criticized challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Adobe Marketo Engage0%100%15criticized challenger
09Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement0%67%12criticized challenger
08Kit0%8%12accepted challenger
06Klaviyo0%8%25accepted challenger
07Omnisend0%0%15accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
HubSpot Marketing Hub vs BrevoHubSpot Marketing Hub vs ActiveCampaignBrevo vs ActiveCampaign

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01ActiveCampaign51%
02HubSpot Marketing Hub25%
03Brevo15%
04MailerLite4%
05Mailchimp2%
06Klaviyo0%
07Omnisend0%
08Kit0%
09Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement0%
10Adobe Marketo Engage0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. 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.
Mailchimp
44%
19 of 43 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Mailchimp - The Biggest Red Flag ... Who should avoid: Small businesses needing real automation workflows beyond basic email blasts.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
HubSpot Marketing Hub
31%
20 of 64 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“HubSpot - Overkill for Most Small Businesses ... Who should avoid: Small businesses without enterprise-level budgets and needs.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Adobe Marketo Engage
100%
15 of 15 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 14 hard negative
“too advanced, with a dated UI, poor usability for non-experts, and implementation needing consultants—unsuitable for small teams” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
100%
9 of 9 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Enterprise-focused with massive complexity, steep learning curve, and high implementation costs; ... call it "overkill" for non-enterprise” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

21 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 173 links across 96 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

ventureharbour.com
7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
drip.com
vendor site · Drip6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
bloomreach.com
vendor site · Bloomreach5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
simular.ai
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
toolradar.com
4 answers · 8 citations · 1 model
hubspot.com
vendor site · HubSpot4 answers · 6 citations · 1 model
insiderone.com
4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
activecampaign.com
vendor site · ActiveCampaign4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
getresponse.com
vendor site · GetResponse4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
jotform.com
vendor site · Jotform4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
emailtooltester.com
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
fitsmallbusiness.com
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

ventureharbour.com/marketing-automation-software
7 answers · 2 models
drip.com/blog/best-marketing-automation-platforms
6 answers · 2 models
bloomreach.com/en/blog/best-marketing-automation-software
5 answers · 2 models
simular.ai/alternatives/top-best-ai-marketing-automation-alternatives-for-smbs
5 answers · 2 models
insiderone.com/best-marketing-automation-tools-smbs-enterprises
4 answers · 2 models
jotform.com/blog/small-business-marketing-automation
4 answers · 2 models
toolradar.com/guides/best-marketing-automation-software
4 answers · 1 model
emailtooltester.com/en/blog/best-b2b-marketing-automation-platform
3 answers · 1 model
fitsmallbusiness.com/best-marketing-automation-software
3 answers · 1 model
getresponse.com/blog/small-business-marketing-automation-software
3 answers · 2 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best marketing automation platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which marketing automation and campaign management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top marketing automation platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best marketing automation platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a marketing automation platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which marketing automation platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
One alternativeSalesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
One alternativeActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Five alternativesBrevo, Customer.io, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend
ActiveCampaign, MailerLite
Three alternativesBrevo, Drip, Mailchimp
no first choiceagainst: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
GPT-5.4 miniActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
One alternativeSalesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Zoho Marketing Automation
HubSpot Marketing Hub
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Constant Contact, MailerLite
against: MailchimpActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
One alternativeZoho Marketing Automation
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Two alternativesBrevo, GoHighLevel
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account EngagementHubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, GoHighLevel
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account EngagementActiveCampaign
Four alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, Omnisend
against: MailchimpBrevo
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Omnisend
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub, KlaviyoActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Four alternativesCustomer.io, Drip, Klaviyo, Ortto
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloudagainst: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Perplexity SonarActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaignHeld
Two alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaign
Five alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap, Mailchimp, MailerLite
Brevo
One alternativeActiveCampaign
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimpno first choiceagainst: Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Iterable, Mailchimp, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Grok 4.1 FastActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
against: MailchimpActiveCampaignHeld
Three alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
ActiveCampaign
Five alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend
Brevo
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Sender
against: MailchimpActiveCampaign
Four alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Omnisend
against: ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Constant Contact, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Mistral SmallActiveCampaign
Three alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Ortto
ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing HubChangedActiveCampaign
Four alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
Brevo
One alternativeActiveCampaign
against: Mailchimpno first choice
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
against: Adobe Marketo Engageagainst: ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
DeepSeek V4 FlashActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBrevo, Customer.io
against: HubSpot Marketing HubActiveCampaignHeld
One alternativeBrevo
against: HubSpot Marketing HubActiveCampaign
Three alternativesBrevo, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
against: HubSpot Marketing HubBrevo, Sender
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, EmailOctopus, Klaviyo, Omnisend
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub, MailchimpActiveCampaign
One alternativeHubSpot Marketing Hub
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, Salesforce Marketing Cloudagainst: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Zoho Marketing Automation
Llama 4 MaverickActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing HubChangedHubSpot Marketing Hub
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
MailerLite
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaign, Customer.io
Two alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Apollo.io, Birdeye, ChatGPT, Copy.ai, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Jasper, Lusher, Mailchimp, Pipedrive, Podium, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Writesonic, ZoomInfo
Qwen 3.7 FlashActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaignHeld
One alternativeBrevo
against: HubSpot Marketing HubActiveCampaign
Five alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Kit, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
Brevo
Two alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, MailerLite
against: MailchimpHubSpot Marketing Hub
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Customer.io, Keap
against: Salesforce Marketing Cloudagainst: ActiveCampaign, GoHighLevel, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Pipedrive, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, WordStream
Kimi K2HubSpot Marketing Hub
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account EngagementActiveCampaignChanged
One alternativeBrevo
against: HubSpot Marketing HubActiveCampaign
Four alternativesBrevo, Kit, Mailchimp, Omnisend
against: HubSpot Marketing HubBrevo
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, OttoKit, Pabbly, Zoho Marketing+
ActiveCampaign
Four alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, MailerLite
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, Mailchimp, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloudagainst: Act-On, Adobe Marketo Engage, Customer.io, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Iterable, Ortto, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
GLM 4.7 FlashXActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Two alternativesBrevo, GetResponse
ActiveCampaignChanged
Two alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub
ActiveCampaign
Six alternativesBrevo, Kit, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend, Ortto
ActiveCampaign, Brevo
One alternativeMailerLite
against: MailchimpActiveCampaign
Three alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, GetResponse, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
MiniMax M2.5ActiveCampaign
Two alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Keap
ActiveCampaign
Five alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Keap, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
Mailchimp
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Kit
no first choiceagainst: Adobe Marketo Engage, Birdeye, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Podium, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:37no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:40yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:20yes818 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:57yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:26yes07 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:26yes05 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:52yes013 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:05yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:17yes025 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:48yes027 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:14yes069 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:00yes010 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:51yes77 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:16yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:57yes718 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:50yes1818 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:33yes05 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:03no03 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 22:56yes014 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:56yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 05:07yes029 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:07yes027 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:57yes0128 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:37no08 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:46yes810 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:27yes714 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:43yes1525 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:40yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:22yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:51yes09 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:58yes023 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:23yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:04yes029 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:46yes036 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:42yes072 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:50yes011 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:29yes77 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:05yes44 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:26yes1720 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:58yes195 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:20yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:56yes08 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:56yes09 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:37yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:00yes022 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:45yes015 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:22yes028 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:45no08 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:24no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:18no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:34yes1225 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:26yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:32yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:34no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:38yes023 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:04yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:42no034 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:34yes086 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:08yes013 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:58no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:30yes148 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:54yes35 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:44yes619 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:46yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:08yes09 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:17yes08 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 22:58yes053 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:35yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:05yes040 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:23yes032 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:11yes014 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:50yes019 s

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 + CRM) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub Paid Tiers) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub Professional or Starter) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub Starter) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Professional/Enterprise tiers) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
Salesforce read as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Zoho read as Zoho Marketing Automation
Unresolved, counted raw
Lusher
Sendinblue
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in marketing

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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