GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index Partner and channel Affiliate › Small business September 2026 Edition

Affiliate and partner management for small business buyers

Asked as “affiliate marketing platform”, and as “affiliate program management tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Contested
23% of first choices, contested.

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
01Tapfiliate23%0%37accepted challenger
02PartnerStack23%30%43criticized challenger
03Rewardful10%0%33accepted challenger
04FirstPromoter6%4%27accepted challenger
05Refersion2%3%31accepted challenger
06Post Affiliate Pro2%6%18accepted challenger
07LeadDyno2%11%19accepted challenger
08ShareASale2%21%24accepted challenger
09impact.com2%50%32criticized challenger
10CJ Affiliate2%60%15criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13ClickBank0%40%10criticized challenger
12Awin0%27%11criticized challenger
11Amazon Associates0%0%11accepted 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
C10
11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Tapfiliate23%
02PartnerStack23%
03Rewardful10%
04FirstPromoter6%
05Refersion2%
06Post Affiliate Pro2%
07LeadDyno2%
08ShareASale2%
09impact.com2%
10CJ Affiliate2%
11Amazon Associates0%
12Awin0%
13ClickBank0%

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, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, 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.
impact.com
50%
16 of 32 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Avoid for Now ... **Impact/CJ Affiliate**: $1,000+/month minimum — enterprise-focused” MiniMax M2.5, direct prompt
PartnerStack
30%
13 of 43 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“What to Avoid for a Small B2B Business | **PartnerStack** | Starts at $1,000+/month plus 3–15% revenue share” DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt
CJ Affiliate
60%
9 of 15 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Platforms to **Avoid or Approach with Extreme Caution**: **CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction)**: Frequent complaints ... delayed/unpaid commissions” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
ShareASale
21%
5 of 24 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Multiple users report arbitrary account suspensions, delayed payments, and commission withholding... Trustpilot Rating: 1.3/5” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative 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

17 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. 165 links across 89 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.

vendor site · Tapfiliate7 answers · 12 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Modash6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · ReferralCandy6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Post Affiliate Pro4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · LinkJolt4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
3 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Digistore243 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Mailmodo3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model

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 affiliate marketing platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which affiliate program management tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top affiliate marketing platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best affiliate marketing platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an affiliate marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which affiliate marketing platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5LeadDyno, Tapfiliate
Two alternativesRefersion, impact.com
PartnerStack, RewardfulChanged
One alternativeReditus
Refersion, Trackdesk
Four alternativesAwin, FirstPromoter, Rewardful, TinyAffiliate
CJ Affiliate, ShareASale
One alternativeAmazon Associates
no first choiceagainst: ClickBank
GPT-5.4 miniPartnerStack
Two alternativesPost Affiliate Pro, Trackdesk
against: impact.com
PartnerStackHeld
Two alternativesPost Affiliate Pro, Rewardful
impact.com
Five alternativesCJ Affiliate, Everflow, PartnerStack, Refersion, ShareASale
against: Partnerize, TUNE
UpPromote
Three alternativesRewardful, Tapfiliate, Tolt
against: FirstPromoter
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashFirstPromoter
Three alternativesDub Partners, Reditus, Rewardful
against: CJ Affiliate, PartnerStack, ShareASale
RewardfulChanged
Four alternativesKiflo, PartnerPortal.io, Reditus, Tapfiliate
against: PartnerStack, impact.com
Dub Partners
Six alternativesFirstPromoter, GoAffPro, Refersion, Rewardful, Tolt, Trackdesk
against: PartnerStack
GoAffPro, PromoteKit, SliceWP
Three alternativesAffiliateWP, LinkJolt, UpPromote
FirstPromoter, PartnerStack
Four alternativesGoAffPro, Refersion, Rewardful, UpPromote
against: impact.com
against: CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, JVZoo, Rakuten Advertising, Skimlinks, Sovrn Commerce, WarriorPlus, impact.com
Perplexity SonarPartnerStack
Four alternativesPost Affiliate Pro, Reditus, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
PartnerStackHeld
Two alternativesLeadDyno, Tapfiliate
Tapfiliate
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, LeadDyno, Post Affiliate Pro, Refersion, Rewardful
Tapfiliate
Five alternativesAffiliatly, FirstPromoter, Post Affiliate Pro, Rewardful, UpPromote
no first choiceagainst: ClickBank, MaxBounty, RedHotPie affiliate program, ShareASale
Grok 4.1 FastTapfiliate
Two alternativesLinkJolt, Rewardful
against: PartnerStack
Post Affiliate ProChanged
Two alternativesTapfiliate, Trackdesk
against: PartnerStack
Awin, LeadDyno, Rewardful, ShareASale
Four alternativesAmazon Associates, PartnerStack, Refersion, Tapfiliate
against: CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Advertising, impact.com
GoAffPro
Three alternativesAffiliateWP, Trackdesk, UpPromote
against: Shopify Collabs
Tapfiliate, Trackdesk
Four alternativesAwin, Post Affiliate Pro, Refersion, ShareASale
against: impact.com
against: Awin, CJ Affiliate, FlexOffers, ShareASale
Mistral SmallPartnerStack
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, Tapfiliate, Tolt
against: CJ Affiliate, Rakuten
TapfiliateChanged
Two alternativesLeadDyno, PartnerStack
Awin, FlexOffers
Six alternativesAmazon Associates, ClickBank, LeadDyno, PartnerStack, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
against: Partnerize, impact.com
GoAffPro
Three alternativesAffonso, LinkJolt, PromoteKit
against: PartnerStack, impact.com
no first choiceagainst: 1GreatCPA, 1st Class CPA, AdNow, AdPump, Adcash, Affiliatecube CPA, BitFree, COPEAC, Clickky, Datify, EWA, Edu-Cash, Edu-Money, EpcEra, EssayPartner, EssayPro, Evoleads, Feed Flare, Imagetwist, Leadnetwork, LeadsGate, Mobionetwork, Mobipium, NativeAds, Nextadnet, Nutriprofits, Partners-Profits, PrivateCPA, Rx-Aff, Targeleon, Trafficnomads, WP-Script
DeepSeek V4 FlashRewardful
Four alternativesFirstPromoter, Reditus, Refersion, Tolt
against: PartnerStack
RewardfulHeld
Two alternativesFirstPromoter, Tapfiliate
against: LeadDyno, PartnerStack, impact.com
Tapfiliate
Five alternativesLeadDyno, Partnero, Post Affiliate Pro, Refersion, Rewardful
against: CJ, impact.com
GoAffPro
Seven alternativesAffiliateWP, Affonso, Rewardful, SliceWP, Tolt, UpPromote, WP Affiliate Manager
against: Shopify Collabs
Rewardful, Tapfiliate
Three alternativesPartnerStack, Post Affiliate Pro, Refersion
against: Everflow, impact.com
against: 1xBet Partners, Alpha Affiliates, Builderall, Chilli Partners, Duelbits, FlexOffers, Gloss Partners, Horus Casino Affiliates, LiveGood, MOBE, MarketChair, Videoslots Affiliates, iBuumerang, iWild Partners
Llama 4 MaverickPartnerStack
Two alternativesReferral Factory, ShareASale
PartnerStackHeld
One alternativeRefersion
no first choiceFirstPromoter
Three alternativesLeadDyno, Refersion, Tapfiliate
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashPartnerStack
Two alternativesRefersion, Tapfiliate
Reditus, TapfiliateChanged
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, LeadDyno, Rewardful
against: PartnerStack
Refersion
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, Rewardful, ShareASale, Tapfiliate, UpPromote
against: PartnerStack
Tapfiliate
Three alternativesFirstPromoter, LinkJolt, Shopify Collabs
against: PartnerStack, Referral Rock, impact.com
Refersion
Four alternativesFirstPromoter, LeadDyno, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
nothing named
Kimi K2Reditus
One alternativePartnerStack
against: Awin, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, impact.com
TapfiliateChanged
Two alternativesFirstPromoter, Rewardful
against: LeadDyno, PartnerStack, Refersion
Tapfiliate
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, LeadDyno, Post Affiliate Pro, Refersion, Rewardful
LinkJolt, Shopify Collabs
Five alternativesAfflytics, LeadDyno, Post Affiliate Pro, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
no first choice
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, LeadDyno, Refersion, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
against: AffiliateNetwork.com, Awin, CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, The Affiliati Network
GLM 4.7 FlashXPartnerStack
Four alternativesPost Affiliate Pro, Refersion, Tapfiliate, impact.com
TapfiliateChanged
Two alternativesPartnerStack, Post Affiliate Pro
against: impact.com
Refersion, Tapfiliate
Three alternativesLeadDyno, PartnerStack, ShareASale
against: impact.com
LinkJolt
Four alternativesAffiliateWP, Refersion, Rewardful, Tapfiliate
no first choiceagainst: CJ Affiliate, ClickBank, ShareASale, Ultra Affiliates
MiniMax M2.5Tapfiliate
Two alternativesFirstPromoter, ShareASale
against: CJ Affiliate, PartnerStack, impact.com
PartnerStackChanged
One alternativeKiflo
against: Post Affiliate Pro
no first choice
Eight alternativesFirstPromoter, LeadDyno, PartnerStack, Post Affiliate Pro, Refersion, Rewardful, ShareASale, Tapfiliate
Tapfiliate
Three alternativesAffonso, Amazon Associates, FirstPromoter
impact.com, refVenue Pronothing 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
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:01no011 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:00yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:21yes1825 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:02yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:17yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:38yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:42yes017 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 05:02yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:06yes032 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:09yes031 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:55yes047 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:55yes021 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:58yes107 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:43yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:03yes1317 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:44yes194 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:56yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:04yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:07yes024 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:36yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:46yes050 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:54yes038 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:08yes0143 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:51yes019 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:23yes79 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:54no06 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:21yes1826 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:01yes2011 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:45yes09 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:28yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:26yes016 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:31yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:19yes043 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:32yes032 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:35yes018 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:36yes013 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 05:05no05 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:59no04 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:17yes2521 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:44yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:49yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:58yes06 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:42yes019 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:54yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:06yes021 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:56yes043 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:02yes017 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:58yes019 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:47no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:30no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:21no013 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:47yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:52yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:51no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:11yes032 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:40yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:43yes045 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:50yes033 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:16no024 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:44yes017 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:34yes2112 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:03yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:36yes1826 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:21yes186 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:06yes09 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:17yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:08yes041 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:04yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:12no032 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:23yes040 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:58yes018 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:05yes018 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
1GreatCPA
1st Class CPA
1xBet Partners
AdPump
AffiliateNetwork.com
Affiliatecube CPA
Afflytics
BitFree
COPEAC
Chilli Partners
ClickDealer
Datify
EWA
Edu-Cash
Edu-Money
EpcEra
EssayPartner
EssayPro
Evoleads
Feed Flare
Gloss Partners
Horus Casino Affiliates
Imagetwist
Impact Radius
Mobionetwork
Mobipium
NativeAds
Nextadnet
OSI Affiliate
Optimise Media
Partners-Profits
PrivateCPA
Sovrn Commerce (formerly VigLink)
Targeleon
The Affiliati Network
TinyAffiliate
Ultra Affiliates
Videoslots Affiliates
WP-Script
iWild Partners
refVenue Pro
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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