GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index Marketing Mobile apps › Small business September 2026 Edition

Mobile apps for small business buyers

Asked as “mobile app marketing platform”, and as “mobile app engagement and growth tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 54 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Clear leader
43% of first choices, clear leader.

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.

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
01OneSignal43%0%47endorsed leader
02AppsFlyer7%29%35criticized challenger
03Textedly6%0%11accepted challenger
04Adjust4%17%24accepted challenger
05Google App Campaigns4%9%11accepted challenger
06Customer.io4%10%10accepted challenger
07Branch2%8%25accepted challenger
08Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns2%27%11criticized challenger
09CleverTap2%45%29criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Braze0%72%32criticized challenger
11AppTweak0%40%10criticized challenger
10Firebase0%0%13accepted 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.

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
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01OneSignal43%
02AppsFlyer7%
03Textedly6%
04Adjust4%
05Google App Campaigns4%
06Customer.io4%
07Branch2%
08Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns2%
09CleverTap2%
10Firebase0%
11AppTweak0%
12Braze0%

02What they warned about

Four of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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.
Braze
72%
23 of 32 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“What to Avoid - **Braze, MoEngage, Iterable**: These are enterprise-grade platforms... overkill for small businesses” Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt
CleverTap
45%
13 of 29 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“avoiding heavier programmatic or enterprise platforms like **AppLovin, Liftoff, Braze, or CleverTap**” Perplexity Sonar, comparative prompt
AppsFlyer
29%
10 of 35 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“Enterprise sales teams at major MMPs are notorious for trying to lock small businesses and startups into rigid, multi-year contracts” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
AppLovin
62%
5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Platforms to Avoid on Small Budgets - **Programmatic DSPs** (AppLovin, ironSource) - require $15K+/month minimum” Mistral Small, budget 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

22 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. 207 links across 120 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.

9 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Guideflow8 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Dash7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 7 citations · 1 model
5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Gartner5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Adjust3 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
3 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
vendor site · AppsFlyer3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models

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.

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 mobile app marketing platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which mobile app engagement and growth tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top mobile app marketing platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best mobile app marketing platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a mobile app marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which mobile app marketing platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5OneSignal, Textedly
One alternativeCleverTap
IntercomChanged
One alternativeUserpilot
Textedly
Four alternativesAppsFlyer, CleverTap, OneSignal, Textline
Textedly, Textla
One alternativeKumulos
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniOneSignal
Two alternativesBraze, CleverTap
OneSignalHeld
One alternativeAirship
Adjust, AppsFlyer, Firebase, Google Analytics 4
Four alternativesBranch, Braze, OneSignal, Singular
AppsFlyer Zero
One alternativeAirbridge Core
against: Adjust, Branch
no first choiceagainst: AppsFlyer, Braze, CleverTap, Insider, Salesforce Marketing Cloud / Agentforce Marketing, The Trade Desk
Gemini 3.5 FlashCustomer.io, OneSignal
Five alternativesAppTweak, Apple Search Ads, AppsFlyer, Branch, LinkedIn Campaign Manager
against: Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns, TikTok Ads
Customer.ioChanged
Three alternativesIntercom, OneSignal, Pendo
against: Appcues
Adjust, AppsFlyer
Nine alternativesAmplitude, AppDrift, AppTweak, Appfigures, Branch, Courier, Google Analytics 4, Mixpanel, OneSignal
against: Braze, CleverTap, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Sensor Tower
Applyra
Nine alternativesAppFollow, Canva, CapCut, Firebase Cloud Messaging, Google Analytics 4, Kochava, Mixpanel, OneSignal, Tenjin
against: Adjust, AppTweak, AppsFlyer, Braze, Sensor Tower
Adjust, OneSignal
Five alternativesBranch, CleverTap, Customer.io, MoEngage, Tenjin
against: AppsFlyer, Braze
against: Adjust, AppsFlyer, DV360, Digital Turbine, Singular, The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP
Perplexity SonarOneSignal
One alternativeAdobe Marketo Engage
OneSignalHeld
One alternativeHubSpot Marketing Hub
against: MoEngage
AppsFlyer, Branch
Six alternativesAppFollow, AppTweak, Firebase, Google App Campaigns, Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns, OneSignal
against: AppLovin, Braze, CleverTap, Liftoff
OneSignal
One alternativeTextedly
against: Google App Campaigns, Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns
no first choiceagainst: Apple Search Ads, Google Ads, Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns, TikTok Ads
Grok 4.1 FastBranch
Two alternativesAdjust, AppsFlyer
against: Airbridge, Dreamdata, Tenjin
OneSignalChangedagainst: Braze, CleverTap, Customer.io, IterableAppsFlyer, Tenjin
Three alternativesAdjust, Branch, OneSignal
Apple Search Ads, Google App Campaigns
Four alternativesApp Store Connect / Google Play Console, Firebase, Google Analytics 4, OneSignal
against: AppLovin, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, Unity
AppsFlyer, CleverTap
Four alternativesAdjust, Branch, Braze, OneSignal
against: Salesforce Marketing Cloud
against: Appodeal, Braze, Iterable, Liftoff, Moloco, TikTok Ads, Vibes, ironSource
Mistral SmallAppsFlyer, OneSignal
Five alternativesAdjust, CleverTap, Google Analytics 4, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Qonversion
against: Braze
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Demandbase, Userpilot
OneSignal
Six alternativesApp Radar, AppsFlyer, Attentive, CleverTap, Pushwoosh, Textedly
against: Braze
Indie App Santa
Five alternativesApple Search Ads, Google App Campaigns, Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns, Reddit for Business, TikTok Ads
against: AppLovin, ironSource
OneSignal
Three alternativesAirship, CleverTap, Textedly
against: Braze
nothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashOneSignal
Two alternativesCustomer.io, Vero
against: Braze, CleverTap, Iterable
OneSignalHeld
Two alternativesCustomer.io, Vero
against: Braze, CleverTap
App Radar, OneSignal
Seven alternativesAdjust, App Store Connect, AppFollow, Appfigures, AppsFlyer, Google Play Console, Pushwoosh
against: AppTweak, Braze, CleverTap, Iterable, MoEngage, Sensor Tower
OneSignal
Four alternativesApp Radar, Appfigures, Firebase Analytics, Google Analytics 4
against: Adjust, AppTweak, AppsFlyer, Braze, CleverTap, Sensor Tower, data.ai
AppsFlyer, OneSignal
Four alternativesAirbridge, Branch, MoEngage, Tenjin
against: Airship, Braze, Kochava
against: AdColony, AppLovin, Braze, CleverTap, Google Ads, InMobi, Insider, Marketing 360, Tapjoy, Unity Ads, Yelp Advertising, ironSource
Llama 4 MaverickOneSignal
Three alternativesGoogle App Campaigns, Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns, Textedly
Beam EngageChanged
Three alternativesCleverTap, MoEngage, OneSignal
no first choiceGoogle App Campaigns, Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns
Two alternativesOneSignal, Textedly
no first choiceagainst: Braze, CleverTap, Vibes
Qwen 3.7 FlashAppsFlyer
Five alternativesBranch, Firebase, OneSignal, Tenjin, data.ai
OneSignalChanged
Three alternativesBranch, Firebase, HubSpot
Singular
Two alternativesBranch, OneSignal
against: AppsFlyer
AppFollow, Mobile Action
Four alternativesASO Rocket, Apple Search Ads, Firebase, Meta Ads
against: AppsFlyer, TUNE
Adjust
Two alternativesBranch, TikTok Ads
against: AppsFlyer
nothing named
Kimi K2OneSignal
Four alternativesCleverTap, Customer.io, SendPulse, Textedly
OneSignalHeld
Three alternativesCustomer.io, HubSpot, Intercom
against: Braze, Iterable, MoEngage, Pendo
App Radar, OneSignal
Four alternativesAppFollow, AppTweak, Appfigures, CleverTap
against: Braze, Sensor Tower
AppFollow
Six alternativesASOTools, AppsFlyer, Firebase, Google Analytics 4, Mailchimp, OneSignal
no first choiceagainst: AppFollow, AppTweak, AppsFlyer, BuyAppDownloads.com, Fiverr "app marketing" gigs, Marketing 360, Sensor Tower, Yelp Ads
GLM 4.7 FlashXApp Radar, LinkedIn Ads Platform
Three alternativesAppTweak, Google Analytics 4, MobileAction
Firebase Analytics, OneSignalChanged
One alternativeMixpanel
OneSignal
Six alternativesApp Radar, AppLovin Ads, Appfigures, AppsFlyer, Klaviyo, ReferralCandy
against: Branch
AppDrift Free Plan
Five alternativesASOTools, App Store Connect / Google Play Console, Appfigures, Google Trends, Meta Ads
no first choiceagainst: AdColony, Braze, CleverTap, Criteo, Smaato, The Trade Desk, Vibes, Vungle
MiniMax M2.5OneSignal, Textedly
Two alternativesBraze, CleverTap
OneSignalChanged
Three alternativesAmplitude, Firebase, Mixpanel
against: Braze
OneSignal
Three alternativesFirebase, Google App Campaigns, Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns
against: CleverTap
OneSignal
Five alternativesFirebase Cloud Messaging, PushEngage, Pushwoosh, SendPulse, Webpushr
against: Airship, AppLovin, Braze, Liftoff
no first choiceagainst: Adobe Marketo Engage, AppsFlyer, Attentive, Braze, CleverTap, Insider, Passworks, Swrve, Vibes
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 00:18yes87 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:59yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:20yes1221 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:46yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:29yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:20yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:02yes022 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:31yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:22yes050 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:14yes024 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:32yes083 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:36yes034 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:49yes139 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:34yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:37yes2430 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:51yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:27yes06 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:04no05 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:27yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:23yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:34no034 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:32yes034 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:00yes040 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:38no012 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:11yes1110 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:06yes56 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:52yes2531 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:06yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:34yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:55yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:35yes019 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:36yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:40yes059 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:33yes041 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:28yes077 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:37yes021 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:44yes67 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:34yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:46yes2121 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:20yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:55yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:20yes011 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:31yes018 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:09yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:12no047 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:50yes028 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:00yes0112 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:51yes019 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:31no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:53no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:15yes1120 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:47yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:51yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:33yes010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:01yes051 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:32yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:39no030 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:05yes029 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:11yes018 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:41yes012 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 05:07yes3213 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:26yes25 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:26yes1827 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:46yes205 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 22:51yes012 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:03yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:20yes069 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:16yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:38no032 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:14yes048 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:05yes042 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:33yes019 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
Meta read as Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns
TikTok read as TikTok Ads
Unresolved, counted raw
ASO Rocket
ASO Score
Airbridge Core
AppAdvice
AppDrift
AppDrift / Applyra
AppDrift Free Plan
AppLovin Ads
AppTweak Free Keyword Tool
AppVector.io
Appfigures Free Tier
Apple
Apple App Store Connect
Applyra
Appodeal
Appomate
Beam Engage
BuyAppDownloads.com
Didoo AI
Digital Turbine
Fiverr "app marketing" gigs
Google
Indie App Santa
Jampp
LinkedIn Ads Platform
MobiLoud
Qonversion
RankMyApp
Reddit for Business
Salesforce Marketing Cloud / Agentforce Marketing
Taptica
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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