GTM AI Index
Index › Marketing › September 2026 Edition

Social media management

Asked as “social media management platform”, and as “social media scheduling and monitoring tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Sprout Social
Contested
37% of first choices, contested.
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 businessBuffer35%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketSprout Social37%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseSprinklr26%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

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. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Sprout Social37%14%56endorsed leader
02Buffer20%14%44accepted challenger
03Agorapulse15%0%36accepted challenger
04Oktopost9%5%19accepted challenger
05Metricool7%5%21accepted challenger
06Hootsuite2%25%55criticized challenger
07Sendible2%0%23accepted challenger
08SocialPilot2%9%23accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Sprinklr0%62%16criticized challenger
09Later0%12%24accepted challenger
10Zoho Social0%6%16accepted challenger
11Vista Social0%0%10accepted 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
Sprout Social vs BufferSprout Social vs AgorapulseBuffer vs Agorapulse

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% negative50%
Key
01Sprout Social37%
02Buffer20%
03Agorapulse15%
04Oktopost9%
05Metricool7%
06Hootsuite2%
07Sendible2%
08SocialPilot2%
09Later0%
10Zoho Social0%
11Vista Social0%
12Sprinklr0%

02What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2 and GLM 4.7 FlashX 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.
Hootsuite
25%
14 of 55 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Hootsuite: Highest risk score (34/100) due to a long history of pricing complaints, including aggressive auto-renewals, surprise charges after cancellation, and refund difficulties.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Sprinklr
62%
10 of 16 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Enterprise platform with complex, potentially exploitative pricing structures” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Sprout Social
14%
8 of 56 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Avoid Enterprise Schedulers: Platforms like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or HubSpot ... entry-level plans often start at $100–$250+ per month” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
Buffer
14%
6 of 44 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Buffer is too basic for team monitoring.” Grok 4.1 Fast, paraphrase 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. 204 links across 106 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.

sproutsocial.com
vendor site · Sprout Social10 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
buffer.com
vendor site · Buffer9 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
zapier.com
vendor site · Zapier8 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
hootsuite.com
vendor site · Hootsuite6 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
blog.hootsuite.com
vendor site · Hootsuite6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
planable.io
vendor site · Planable6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
linkedin.com
vendor site · LinkedIn5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
napoleoncat.com
5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
socialchamp.com
vendor site · Social Champ5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
learn.g2.com
4 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
efficient.app
4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
sprinklr.com
vendor site · Sprinklr4 answers · 4 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.

buffer.com/resources/best-social-media-management-tools
8 answers · 3 models
zapier.com/blog/best-social-media-management-tools
8 answers · 2 models
linkedin.com/pulse/best-social-media-management-tools-2026-10-platforms-com…
5 answers · 1 model
learn.g2.com/best-social-media-management-tools
4 answers · 2 models
napoleoncat.com/blog/social-media-management-tools
4 answers · 1 model
sprinklr.com/blog/social-media-management-tools
4 answers · 2 models
blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-management-tools
3 answers · 1 model
efficient.app/best/social-media-management
3 answers · 1 model
embedsocial.com/blog/best-social-media-management-tools
3 answers · 1 model
posteverywhere.ai/blog/best-social-media-management-tools
3 answers · 1 model

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 social media management platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which social media scheduling and monitoring tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top social media management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best social media management platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a social media management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which social media management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Sprout Social
Two alternativesHootsuite, Oktopost
DemandBird, PlanableChanged
Three alternativesHootsuite, Oktopost, Sprout Social
no first choiceSocialPilot
Three alternativesMeta Business Suite, Social Champ, SocialBu
no first choiceagainst: Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sprinklr
GPT-5.4 miniAgorapulse
Two alternativesHootsuite, Sprout Social
against: BufferAgorapulseHeld
Three alternativesBrandwatch, Hootsuite, Sprout Social
no first choice
Six alternativesBuffer, Hootsuite, HubSpot Social, Later, SocialPilot, Sprout Social
Buffer
One alternativeZoho Social
against: Hootsuite, Sprout Socialno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashOktopost
Four alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, HubSpot Social, Sprout Social
against: SprinklrOktopostHeld
Two alternativesAgorapulse, Sprout Social
Buffer, Sprout Social
Three alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, Later
Buffer, Metricool
Four alternativesPlanable, Publer Professional, SocialBee, Zoho Social
against: Hootsuite, HubSpot Social, Sprout SocialSprout Social
Two alternativesBrandwatch, Hootsuite
against: Sprinklragainst: Hootsuite, Meltwater, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Workplace from Meta
Perplexity SonarSprout Social
Five alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, Oktopost, Sendible, SocialPilot
against: SprinklrSprout SocialHeld
Three alternativesAgorapulse, Buffer, Oktopost
no first choice
Nine alternativesAgorapulse, Buffer, Hootsuite, Iconosquare, Later, Metricool, Planable, Sendible, Sprout Social
Buffer
Two alternativesVista Social, Zoho Social
no first choiceagainst: Crowdfire, Hootsuite
Grok 4.1 FastSprout Social
Seven alternativesAgorapulse, Buffer, Hootsuite, HubSpot Social, Oktopost, Sendible, SocialPilot
AgorapulseChanged
Three alternativesHootsuite, SocialPilot, Sprout Social
against: Buffer, Oktopostno first choiceBuffer
Four alternativesMetricool, Publer Professional, Social Champ, Zoho Social
against: SocialPilotAgorapulse, Hootsuite, Sprout Social
Three alternativesSendible, SocialPilot, Sprinklr
against: Crowdfire, Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, Metricool
Mistral SmallSprout Social
Two alternativesAgorapulse, Oktopost
OktopostChanged
Two alternativesBuffer, DemandBird
Hootsuite, Sprout Social
Six alternativesBuffer, Later, Metricool, Ordinal, Typefully, Vista Social
Buffer, Metricool
Three alternativesLater, PostEverywhere, SocialBee
no first choiceagainst: CoSchedule, Crowdfire, Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, Sprinklr
DeepSeek V4 FlashSprout Social
Two alternativesAgorapulse, Oktopost
Agorapulse, Sprout SocialChanged
Five alternativesBrand24, Loomly, Mention, Oktopost, Planable
Hootsuite, Sprout Social
Eight alternativesAgorapulse, Buffer, Later, Metricool, Publer Professional, SocialBee, SocialPilot, Sprinklr
Buffer
Four alternativesLater, Metricool, Postoria, Zoho Social
against: Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Sprout SocialSprout Social
Three alternativesAgorapulse, Emplifi, Hootsuite
against: Khoros, Sprinklragainst: Buffer, CoSchedule, Crowdfire, Hootsuite, Later, MeetEdgar, Sprinklr, Sprout Social
Llama 4 MaverickSprout Social
One alternativeOktopost
SendibleChanged
Four alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Zoho Social
no first choice
Ten alternativesAgorapulse, Buffer, Hootsuite, Iconosquare, Metricool, Ordinal, Sendible, Sprout Social, Typefully, Vista Social
Publer Professional
Two alternativesBuffer, Later
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashSprout Social
Two alternativesHootsuite, Sendible
Sprout SocialHeld
Two alternativesOktopost, Sendible
Buffer, Hootsuite
Six alternativesAgorapulse, Later, Metricool, Sendible, Sprout Social, Vista Social
Metricool
Three alternativesBuffer, Later, Meta Business Suite
against: HootsuiteSprout Social
Three alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, Planable
against: Bufferagainst: Adobe Express, Canva, Hootsuite, InstaBoost, Sprout Social
Kimi K2Oktopost
Three alternativesHootsuite, SocialPilot, Sprout Social
AgorapulseChanged
Three alternativesMetricool, Sprout Social, Vista Social
no first choice
Seven alternativesAgorapulse, Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Metricool, SocialPilot, Sprout Social
Buffer
Four alternativesLater, Metricool, SocialPilot, Zoho Social
no first choice
Six alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, Khoros, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Vista Social
against: Hootsuite, Later, MeetEdgar, Planoly, Salesforce Social Studio, SocialBee, Sprout Social
GLM 4.7 FlashXSprout Social
Two alternativesHootsuite, Oktopost
AgorapulseChanged
One alternativeSprout Social
against: Buffer, Hootsuite, SocialPilotBuffer, Hootsuite, Sprout Social
Five alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, SocialPilot, Tailwind, Vista Social, Zoho Social
Buffer
Three alternativesLater, SocialPilot, Zoho Social
no first choiceagainst: Brandwatch, Khoros, Sked Social, SociaMonials, Sprinklr Social
MiniMax M2.5Sprout Social
Three alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, SocialPilot
Sprout SocialHeld
Four alternativesAgorapulse, Hootsuite, HubSpot Social Media Tools, Mention
Sprout Social
Four alternativesAgorapulse, Buffer, Hootsuite, Later
Buffer
Three alternativesMetricool, Sendible, SocialBee
no first choiceagainst: Crowdfire, Hootsuite, MeetEdgar, Planoly, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Zoho Social
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 03:57yes77 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:47yes54 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:03yes1525 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:54yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:21yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:18yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:23yes019 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:48yes01 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:22yes049 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:10yes031 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:49yes077 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:39yes018 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:49yes87 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:20yes44 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:01yes1821 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:22yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:32yes014 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:06yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:14yes024 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:11yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:55yes031 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:12yes043 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:37yes091 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:04no012 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:08yes1515 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:21yes45 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:17yes921 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:10yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:21yes010 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:08yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:05yes032 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:11yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:35yes020 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:44yes046 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:38yes055 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:58yes012 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:56yes76 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:13yes33 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:23yes2117 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:55yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:32yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:12yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:00yes038 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:26yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:14no035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:08yes014 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:12yes016 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:22yes010 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:34no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:53no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:44yes721 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:43yes206 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 22:54yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:59yes09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:15yes050 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:38yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:33yes044 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:50yes044 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:50yes018 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:45no09 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:24yes2612 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:07yes59 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 22:56yes1923 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:55yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:22yes06 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:13yes06 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:33yes031 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:11yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:49no043 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:17yes058 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:04yes051 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 05:04yes011 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 Social
Unresolved, counted raw
Facebook Creator Studio
HipSocial
HubSpot Social Media Tools
InstaBoost
Postoria
Salesforce
SchedPilot
SociaMonials
TweetDeck
Workplace from Meta
Zendesk + Social Apps / Salesforce Social Studio alternatives
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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