GTM AI Index
Index › Partner and channel › September 2026 Edition

Affiliate and partner management

Asked as “affiliate marketing platform”, and as “affiliate program management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 53 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
PartnerStack
Clear leader
42% 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 businessTapfiliate23%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketPartnerStack42%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseimpact.com44%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 mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01PartnerStack42%7%45endorsed leader
02impact.com11%21%43accepted challenger
03Tapfiliate11%5%22accepted challenger
04Trackdesk4%0%10accepted challenger
05Rewardful2%5%22accepted challenger
06Amazon Associates2%10%20accepted challenger
07Refersion2%29%17criticized challenger
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13ClickBank0%23%13accepted challenger
11CJ Affiliate0%16%19accepted challenger
10Awin0%10%20accepted challenger
08ShareASale0%7%27accepted challenger
09FirstPromoter0%0%17accepted challenger
12Rakuten Advertising0%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.
Head to head
PartnerStack vs impact.comPartnerStack vs Tapfiliateimpact.com vs Tapfiliate

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
C11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01PartnerStack42%
02impact.com11%
03Tapfiliate11%
04Trackdesk4%
05Rewardful2%
06Amazon Associates2%
07Refersion2%
08ShareASale0%
09FirstPromoter0%
10Awin0%
11CJ Affiliate0%
12Rakuten Advertising0%
13ClickBank0%

02What they warned about

Six of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2 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.
impact.com
21%
9 of 43 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Avoid joining massive networks like **Awin, CJ Affiliate, or Impact.com** early on” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
Refersion
29%
5 of 17 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid pricier ones like Refersion ($99+/month) unless scaling.” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
CJ Affiliate
16%
3 of 19 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid joining massive networks like **Awin, CJ Affiliate, or Impact.com** early on” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
PartnerStack
7%
3 of 45 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Enterprise platforms** (PartnerStack, Impact) - Start at $1,000+/month” 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

20 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 192 links across 109 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.

tapfiliate.com
vendor site · Tapfiliate7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
linkjolt.io
vendor site · LinkJolt6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
modash.io
vendor site · Modash6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
referralcandy.com
vendor site · ReferralCandy5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
funnelish.com
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
digistore24.com
vendor site · Digistore244 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
getresponse.com
vendor site · GetResponse4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
influencermarketinghub.com
3 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
reddit.com
vendor site · Reddit3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
track360.io
vendor site · Track3603 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
getreditus.com
3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
mailmodo.com
vendor site · Mailmodo3 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.

funnelish.com/blog/best-affiliate-marketing-platforms
5 answers · 2 models
linkjolt.io/blog/best-affiliate-marketing-platforms
5 answers · 2 models
modash.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-platforms
4 answers · 2 models
referralcandy.com/blog/best-affiliate-program-software-in-2026-ranked-by-fe…
4 answers · 2 models
tapfiliate.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-platforms-for-growing-brands-cck
4 answers · 2 models
influencermarketinghub.com/affiliate-marketing-websites
3 answers · 1 model
mailmodo.com/guides/affiliate-marketing-platforms
3 answers · 2 models
modash.io/blog/affiliate-management-software-tools
3 answers · 2 models
tapfiliate.com/blog/best-b2b-affiliate-programs-gp
3 answers · 2 models
digistore24.com/en/blog/avoid-affiliate-scams
2 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 affiliate marketing platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which affiliate program management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top affiliate marketing platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best affiliate marketing platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an affiliate marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which affiliate marketing platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5PartnerStack
Two alternativesShareASale, impact.com
PartnerStackHeld
Two alternativesReditus, Rewardful
against: impact.comno first choiceGoAffPro, Trackdesk
Four alternativesFirstPromoter, Refersion, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniPartnerStack
Two alternativesEverflow, TUNE
PartnerStackHeld
Two alternativesEverflow, impact.com
no first choiceagainst: ShareASaleRewardful, Tapfiliate
Two alternativesFirstPromoter, Post Affiliate Pro
no first choiceagainst: Awin, Mavely, The Super Affiliate Network
Gemini 3.5 FlashPartnerStack
Two alternativesFirstPromoter, Reditus
against: impact.comPartnerStackHeld
Three alternativesEverflow, FirstPromoter, Reditus
against: impact.comPartnerStack, impact.com
Four alternativesAmazon Associates, Awin, CJ Affiliate, ShareASale
against: ClickBankGoAffPro
Five alternativesAffiliateWP, FirstPromoter, Rewardful, Trackdesk, UpPromote
against: Awin, CJ Affiliate, Refersion, Social Snowball, impact.comPartnerStack, impact.com
Two alternativesEverflow, Partnerize
against: Rewardfulagainst: ClickBank, JVZoo, Legendary Marketer, WarriorPlus
Perplexity Sonarimpact.com
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, PartnerStack, Trackdesk
PartnerStackChanged
Three alternativesReferral Factory, Rewardful, impact.com
no first choiceGoAffPro
Four alternativesAmazon Associates, LinkJolt, Rewardful, ShareASale
no first choiceagainst: MaxBounty, RedHotPie affiliate program
Grok 4.1 FastPartnerStack
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, Rewardful, impact.com
Post Affiliate ProChanged
Two alternativesTapfiliate, Trackdesk
against: Everflow, LeadDyno, PartnerStack, Refersion, impact.comno first choice
Five alternativesAmazon Associates, CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, ShareASale, impact.com
GoAffPro
Four alternativesEndorsely, LeadDyno, Trackdesk, UpPromote
against: Amazon Associates, Refersion, ShareASaleno first choiceagainst: Actionpay, AdBlueMedia, AdTrustMedia, CJ Affiliate, Leadnetwork, LeadsGate, Nutriprofits, Payclick, Rx-Aff, TradeTracker, impact.com
Mistral SmallPartnerStack
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, Rewardful, impact.com
PartnerStackHeld
Two alternativesRewardful, Tapfiliate
no first choiceLinkJolt
Four alternativesLeadDyno, Refersion, Rewardful, Trackdesk
against: Amazon Associates, PartnerStack, impact.comno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashPartnerStack
Four alternativesFirstPromoter, Reditus, Rewardful, impact.com
PartnerStackHeld
Four alternativesFirstPromoter, Post Affiliate Pro, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
against: impact.comno first choice
Seven alternativesAmazon Associates, Awin, CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, PartnerStack, Refersion, impact.com
against: FlexOffersGoAffPro, LinkJolt
Five alternativesAffiliateWP, FirstPromoter, Rewardful, Shopify Collabs, Trackdesk
against: PartnerStack, Refersion, TUNE, impact.comimpact.com
Three alternativesEverflow, PartnerStack, ShareASale
against: CJ Affiliate, Partnerize, Refersion, Tapfiliateagainst: Alpha Affiliates, Builderall, Duelbits, FlashDash Casino, LiveGood, MarketChair, Megapari Partners, Neo Partners / Slotneo, Pruvit, iBuumerang
Llama 4 MaverickPartnerStack
Two alternativesAwin, ShareASale
TrackdeskChanged
Three alternativesPartnerStack, Reditus, Referral Factory
no first choiceRefersion
Two alternativesAmazon Associates, ShareASale
no first choiceagainst: MaxBounty
Qwen 3.7 FlashPartnerStack
Two alternativesPost Affiliate Pro, impact.com
PartnerStack, TapfiliateChanged
One alternativeimpact.com
no first choice
Seven alternativesAmazon Associates, Awin, CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, PartnerStack, Rakuten Advertising, impact.com
ReferralCandy, Tapfiliate
Two alternativesFriendbuy, UpPromote
against: StrackrPartnerStack, impact.com
Two alternativesPost Affiliate Pro, Refersion
against: Arbonne, CrazyForDeals, GlobalWizardry, Herbalife, My Affiliate Empire, Varjo, Wealthy Affiliate
Kimi K2PartnerStack
One alternativeimpact.com
TapfiliateChanged
Two alternativesPartnerStack, Post Affiliate Pro
impact.com
One alternativePartnerStack
GoAffPro, UpPromote
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, Shopify Collabs, Tapfiliate, Trackdesk, WP Affiliate Manager
Everflow, PartnerStack, Tapfiliate, impact.comagainst: JVZoo, WarriorPlus
GLM 4.7 FlashXPartnerStack
One alternativeimpact.com
PartnerStackHeld
Two alternativesEverflow, impact.com
Amazon Associates, PartnerStack, ShareASaleAmazon Associates
Four alternativesAwin, CJ Affiliate, GoAffPro, Refersion
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5PartnerStack, impact.com
Two alternativesModash, ShareASale
TapfiliateChanged
One alternativePartnerStack
no first choice
Thirteen alternativesAmazon Associates, Awin, CJ, ClickBank, Digistore24, LinkJolt, Modash, PartnerStack, Rakuten Advertising, Rewardful, Skimlinks, Social Snowball, impact.com
Referral Rocket, Shopify Collabs
Four alternativesAffonso, LeadDyno, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
no first choiceagainst: ClickBank
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 04:40yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:59yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:28yes1624 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:40yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:56yes07 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:39yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:46yes039 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:00yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:24yes053 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:12yes025 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:07yes074 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:12yes022 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:45yes87 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:53yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:37yes1623 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:55yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:39yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:23yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:41yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:36yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:20yes023 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:47yes048 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:06yes021 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:39yes012 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:18yes1511 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:37yes76 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:36yes2130 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:06yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:31yes04 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:45yes015 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:42yes029 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:31yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:54yes031 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:28yes045 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:26yes068 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:18yes014 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:23yes107 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:03no04 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:52yes1522 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:09yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:56yes05 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:11yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:35yes013 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:18yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:16yes035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:11yes023 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:40yes043 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:43yes014 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:42no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:19no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:55no015 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:38yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:03yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:11no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:42yes055 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:34yes01 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:33no040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:31yes038 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:04yes017 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:46yes018 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:18yes168 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:42yes25 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:43yes1422 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:36yes185 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 22:52yes07 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:15yes06 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 05:06yes033 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:11yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:08no035 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:02yes047 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:51yes016 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:42no08 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
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
Actionpay
AdBlueMedia (adbluemedia.com, formerly CPABuild)
AdTrustMedia (adtrust.media)
Arbonne
AvantLink
Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate)
CrazyForDeals
FlashDash Casino (Wollstonecraft Partners B.V.)
FluentAffiliate
GlobalWizardry
Herbalife
Megapari Partners
My Affiliate Empire
Neo Partners / Slotneo
Payclick
Pruvit
Push Lap Growth
The Super Affiliate Network
ThimPress
TradeTracker (tradetracker.com)
Varjo
Wealthy Affiliate
eBay Partner Network
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in partner and channel

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