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Programmatic and display advertising · October 2026 Edition

The Trade Desk vs Basis

Three of fourteen models named The Trade Desk first on the direct prompt; zero named Basis. The Trade Desk was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and Basis by ten and The Trade Desk carries 59 labels and Basis 16, so the shares are not directly comparable.

The Trade Desk

criticized challenger

By Trade Desk, Ventura, United States, founded 2009. Named in nine categories this edition.

Basis

accepted challenger

By BASIS International, Albuquerque, founded 1985. Named in five categories this edition.

First-choice share10%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.

Negative rate41%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.

Rank in category#2#7A position in a field of 13; printed, not drawn.

Labels5916A count; the two differ.

The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, The Trade Desk reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.StackAdapt was named alongside these two in eleven of the fourteen direct answers. StackAdapt vs The Trade Desk · StackAdapt vs Basis · The Trade Desk vs Choozle

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen 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 programmatic and display advertising page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.

The Trade DeskFirst choices, of fourteen modelsBasis

Direct308 against The Trade Desk

Paraphrase106 against The Trade Desk

Comparative100

Budget-constrained006 against The Trade Desk

Scale-constrained211 against The Trade Desk

Negative203 against The Trade Desk

Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, The Trade Desk and Basis were named in the same answer forty-five times, of the 350 answers naming The Trade Desk and the 58 naming Basis. In those answers Basis took the first choice one time and The Trade Desk sixteen.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where The Trade Desk and Basis stood in it.

Model	Direct	Paraphrase	Comparative	Budget-constrained	Scale-constrained	Negative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B

The Trade Desk

Basis

first choice

named as an alternative

argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, The Trade Desk on the left and Basis on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where The Trade Desk and Basis stood in it.

The Trade Desk first, Basis not the choice

3 of 14 modelsBasis was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.

GPT-5.4 miniThe Trade Desk alternatives: Demandbase

Qwen 3.7 FlashThe Trade Desk alternatives: 6sense, Demandbase, Google Display & Video 360, Spotware

MiniMax M2.5Google Marketing Platform, The Trade Desk alternatives: LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Media.net

Neither was the first choice, one was named

4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.

Claude Haiku 4.5StackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Basis, Demandbase, LinkedIn Campaign Manager

DeepSeek V4 FlashStackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Basis, Demandbase

Kimi K2StackAdapt alternatives: 6sense, Basis, Demandbase, LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Muse Glimmer 30BStackAdapt alternatives: 6sense, AdRoll ABM, Basis, Demandbase, Simpli.fi

Neither was named

7 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.

Gemini 3.5 FlashStackAdapt alternatives: AdLib, AdRoll ABM, Demandbase, LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Perplexity SonarStackAdapt alternatives: Demandbase

Grok 4.1 FastStackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Demandbase, Google Display & Video 360, LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Mistral SmallStackAdapt alternatives: 6sense, Demandbase, LiveRamp RampID

Llama 4 MaverickStackAdapt

GLM 4.7 FlashXStackAdapt alternatives: AdRoll ABM, Hey Sid

GPT-6 LunaStackAdapt alternatives: 6sense, Demandbase, LinkedIn Campaign Manager

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

The Trade Desk leads by two points.

The Trade Desk#12 of 15

Basis#– of 15

The full small business standing →

Mid-marketThe figures above

The Trade Desk leads by nine points.

The Trade Desk#2 of 13

Basis#7 of 13

The full mid-market standing →

Enterprise

The Trade Desk leads by thirty-nine points.

The Trade Desk#1 of 10

Basis#9 of 10

The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about The Trade Desk

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

“Enterprise DSPs like The Trade Desk ($50K+/month) ... aren't practical for small budgets” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative

“$20K–$50K/month minimum, better for large-scale consumer campaigns” Kimi K2 · paraphrase prompt · hard negative

“mid-market companies usually cannot afford the $25,000–$50,000 monthly minimums required for a direct seat on enterprise demand-side platforms (DSPs) like *The Trade Desk*” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · soft negative

“If you need open-web reach and CTV without being locked into a single vendor, The Trade Desk is a strong independent option.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice

“generally considered to offer better safety controls, more transparency, and stronger fraud prevention mechanisms” MiniMax M2.5 · negative prompt · first choice

“Prioritize platforms like Google DV360, The Trade Desk, MediaMath, or Amazon DSP, but test via demos or pilots.” Grok 4.1 Fast · scale prompt · first choice

What the models said about Basis

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

“Basis Technologies (formerly Centro): Excellent workflow automation tools, great for regional or mid-market companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice

Also compared

StackAdapt vs The Trade Desk StackAdapt vs Basis The Trade Desk vs Choozle The Trade Desk vs Demandbase The Trade Desk vs Amazon DSP The Trade Desk vs Meta Ads The Trade Desk vs Google Display & Video 360 Choozle vs Basis Demandbase vs Basis Amazon DSP vs Basis Meta Ads vs Basis Basis vs Google Display & Video 360 All twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full programmatic standing

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