Affiliate and partner management
Asked as “affiliate marketing platform”, and as “affiliate program management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 53 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
01The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Show the six products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
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
10C11
12
13Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01PartnerStack42%
PartnerStack42%02impact.com11%
impact.com11%03Tapfiliate11%
Tapfiliate11%04Trackdesk4%
Trackdesk4%05Rewardful2%
Rewardful2%06Amazon Associates2%
Amazon Associates2%07Refersion2%
Refersion2%08ShareASale0%
ShareASale0%09FirstPromoter0%
FirstPromoter0%10Awin0%
Awin0%11CJ Affiliate0%
12Rakuten Advertising0%
Rakuten Advertising0%13ClickBank0%
ClickBank0%02What they warned about
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.com21%
9 of 43 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 4 hard negative
“Avoid joining massive networks like **Awin, CJ Affiliate, or Impact.com** early on” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
Refersion29%
5 of 17 labels negative · 3 of 6 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 6 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid joining massive networks like **Awin, CJ Affiliate, or Impact.com** early on” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
PartnerStack7%
3 of 45 labels negative · 3 of 6 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 six in this edition.
Sites the answers cite
20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 6 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 2 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.
vendor site · Tapfiliate7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · LinkJolt6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Modash6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ReferralCandy5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Digistore244 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · GetResponse4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Reddit3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Track3603 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
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.
5 answers · 2 models
5 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
3 answers · 1 model
3 answers · 2 models
3 answers · 2 models
3 answers · 2 models
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 Opus 5no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Claude Opus 4.8no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-6 Astrano first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.6 Solno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.1 Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Perplexity Sonar Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
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
Zero rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|
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.