Index › Partner and channel › September 2026 Edition

Channel partner and local marketing

Asked as “through-channel marketing platform”, and as “partner marketing and local marketing tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

JourneyBee

Contested

15% 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 business

Brevo11%ContestedStanding →Mid-market

JourneyBee15%ContestedThis page Enterprise

Impartner22%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

JourneyBee0%15accepted challenger

Channelscaler21%29accepted challenger

Unifyr26%35criticized challenger

Channeltivity6%16accepted challenger

PartnerStack18%11accepted challenger

ZINFI25%20criticized challenger

Mindmatrix16%19accepted challenger

Impartner45%29criticized challenger

Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Ansira20%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

JourneyBee vs Channelscaler JourneyBee vs Unifyr Channelscaler vs Unifyr

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 →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%

Key

JourneyBee15%

Channelscaler12%

Unifyr8%

Channeltivity6%

PartnerStack6%

ZINFI4%

Mindmatrix2%

Impartner2%

Ansira0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. 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 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.

Impartner

45%

13 of 29 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 5 hard negative

“Beware the enterprise trap — platforms like Impartner ($25K+/year) ... completely unsuitable for a limited budget” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

Unifyr

26%

9 of 35 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“**Unifyr** (formerly Zift) — Enterprise custom pricing” Kimi K2, budget prompt

Channelscaler

21%

6 of 29 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative

“Channelscaler ($50K+/year) are excellent but completely unsuitable for a limited budget” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

ZINFI

25%

5 of 20 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“**ZINFI** if you need modern UX or HubSpot-native integration” Kimi K2, 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

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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 191 links across 111 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.

improvado.io

vendor site · Improvado8 answers · 12 citations · 2 models

g2.com

5 answers · 8 citations · 3 models

zinfi.com

vendor site · ZINFI4 answers · 5 citations · 3 models

cometly.com

vendor site · Cometly4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

martal.ca

4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

technologyadvice.com

4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

twominutereports.com

4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

journeybee.io

vendor site · JourneyBee3 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

heysid.com

vendor site · Hey Sid3 answers · 4 citations · 2 models

callboxinc.com

3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models

digitalhill.com

3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models

sortment.com

3 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.

improvado.io/blog/cross-channel-marketing-platforms

8 answers · 2 models

g2.com/categories/through-channel-marketing

4 answers · 3 models

martal.ca/multi-channel-marketing-platform-lb

4 answers · 2 models

technologyadvice.com/blog/marketing/best-channel-marketing-software

4 answers · 2 models

twominutereports.com/blog/cross-channel-marketing-platforms

4 answers · 2 models

callboxinc.com/growth-hacking/multi-channel-marketing-tools

3 answers · 2 models

digitalhill.com/blog/top-channel-partner-marketing-agencies-software-compar…

3 answers · 2 models

sortment.com/blogs/omnichannel-marketing-tools

3 answers · 1 model

6sense.com/blog/best-b2b-marketing-automation-platforms

2 answers · 2 models

ansira.com/blog/through-channel-marketing-automation

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 through-channel marketing platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which partner marketing and local marketing tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top through-channel marketing platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best through-channel marketing platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a through-channel marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which through-channel marketing platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

Five alternatives

Channelscaler, PartnerStack, Structured, Unifyr, ZINFI

no first choiceHeldno first choiceKiflo PRM

Two alternatives

Mailchimp, Zoho's marketing suite

no first choicenothing named

GPT-5.4 miniHubSpot Marketing Hub

One alternative

Adobe Marketo Engage

PartnerStack, The Ansira PlatformChanged

One alternative

Impartner PRM

no first choiceImpartner

Three alternatives

Channelscaler, HubSpot, Unifyr

no first choicenothing named

Gemini 3.5 FlashChannelscaler

Three alternatives

Mindmatrix, ZINFI, xAmplify

against: Channeltivity, ImpartnerChanneltivity, MindmatrixChanged

Two alternatives

PartnerStack, Unifyr

Structured, Unifyr

Four alternatives

Impartner, Mindmatrix, SproutLoud, ZINFI

GoTu Grow by Extu

Three alternatives

Kiflo, SproutLoud, xAmplify

against: Impartner, Structured, Unifyrno first choiceagainst: Impartner, Mindmatrix, SproutLoud, Unifyr

Perplexity SonarUnifyr

Three alternatives

Channeltivity, HubSpot Marketing Hub, JourneyBee

JourneyBeeChanged

Three alternatives

Channelscaler, Channeltivity, Partner Fleet

no first choiceBrevo

Two alternatives

Mailchimp, Unifyr

against: HubSpot Marketing Hubno first choicenothing named

Grok 4.1 FastChannelscaler

Four alternatives

Channeltivity, JourneyBee, Mindmatrix, Unifyr

against: Impartner, ZINFIChanneltivityChanged

Two alternatives

BrightLocal, Google Business Profile

against: Impartner, PartnerStack, YextAnsira

Six alternatives

BrandMuscle, Channeltivity, Magentrix PRM, SproutLoud, Unifyr, ZINFI Unified Partner Management

against: Impartner PRMxAmplify

Two alternatives

SwipeBuilder, ZINFI Unified Partner Management

against: ActiveCampaign, Brevo, HubSpot, Impartner PRM, Mindmatrix, Unifyrno first choiceagainst: Ansira, Unifyr, ZINFI

Mistral SmallJourneyBee, Unifyr

One alternative

Channelscaler

against: Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpotJourneyBeeChanged

Four alternatives

ActiveCampaign, ChannelSailer, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Tapfiliate

Insider

Seven alternatives

ActiveCampaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Omnisend, Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Brevo, Omnisend

Two alternatives

ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub

against: Channelscaler, Unifyrno first choiceagainst: ActiveCampaign, Cherrington Media LLC, Impartner, Klaviyo, Mavely, Mindmatrix PRM, Smartly, Structured Web, ZINFI

DeepSeek V4 FlashJourneyBee

Three alternatives

Channelscaler, Mindmatrix, Unifyr

against: ImpartnerBirdeye, PartnerStackChanged

Five alternatives

BrightLocal, Channelscaler, Crossbeam, Impartner PRM, Semrush Local

against: YextImpartner, Unifyr, ZINFI Technologies

Five alternatives

Ansira, BrandMuscle, Channelscaler, Salesforce PRM, SproutLoud

JourneyBee, PartnerPortal.io

Two alternatives

Kiflo, Mindmatrix

against: Channelscaler, Impartnerno first choiceagainst: Channelscaler, HubSpot, Impartner, Salesforce-based PRM/through-channel, Unifyr, WordsStream, ZINFI

Llama 4 MaverickHey Sid

Two alternatives

AdRoll ABM, HubSpot Marketing Hub

ChannelscalerChanged

One alternative

Ansira

no first choiceBrevo

Three alternatives

AdRoll, Choozle, Skai

no first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashChannelscaler

Two alternatives

Impartner, PartnerCenterOne

JourneyBee, Surefire LocalChanged

Two alternatives

Birdeye, Channelscaler

Impartner

Four alternatives

Channeltivity, HubSpot Partner Portal, Mapped Marketing, Unifyr

PartnerPortal.io

Two alternatives

Kiflo, PartnerStack

against: impact.comno first choiceagainst: Channelscaler, Hostaway, The Ansira Platform

Kimi K2Unifyr

Four alternatives

Channeltivity, JourneyBee, ZINFI, xAmplify

against: Channelscaler, Impartner, Salesforce PRMChannelscaler, SE RankingChanged

Two alternatives

Surefire Local, Tapfiliate

against: PartnerStackAnsira, Unifyr

Three alternatives

Impartner, Mindmatrix, ZINFI

xAmplify

Two alternatives

JourneyBee, ZINFI

against: Channelscaler, Impartner, StructuredWeb, UnifyrChannelscaler, ZINFI

One alternative

xAmplify

against: Impartner, Salesforce PRMagainst: Ansira, Impartner, Mindmatrix, Unifyr, ZINFI

GLM 4.7 FlashXUnifyr

Four alternatives

Channelscaler, Channeltivity, Impartner, Mindmatrix

Birdeye, BrightLocal, ChanneltivityChanged

Four alternatives

Google Business Profile, Kiflo, PartnerStack, monday CRM

no first choiceBrevo, Ryze AI

Two alternatives

MailerLite, Tallium Marketing

no first choiceagainst: Adobe Marketo Engage, Zoho CRM/Marketing

MiniMax M2.5JourneyBee

Four alternatives

Channeltivity, Mindmatrix, Unifyr, ZINFI Unified Partner Management

PartnerStack, impact.comChanged

Four alternatives

Birdeye, Bridge, Everflow, Google Business Profile

Impartner, Unifyr

Four alternatives

Ansira, JourneyBee, Mindmatrix, ZINFI Unified Partner Management

ZINFI

Three alternatives

ActiveCampaign, Brevo, xAmplify

no 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

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-14 23:20	yes	14	8 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 03:47	yes	5	7 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 01:09	yes	25	28 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-14 23:20	yes	20	4 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 04:50	yes	0	9 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 01:20	yes	0	8 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-15 00:57	yes	0	62 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-14 23:13	yes	0	2 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 00:52	yes	0	40 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:00	yes	0	32 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 02:57	yes	0	147 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-14 23:04	yes	0	26 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:24	no	0	3 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 01:21	yes	3	9 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 03:04	yes	18	21 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 04:45	yes	20	4 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 03:25	yes	0	6 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 01:21	yes	0	5 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-14 22:59	yes	0	19 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 01:07	yes	0	2 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 05:04	yes	0	36 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 00:09	yes	0	36 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-14 23:04	yes	0	33 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 04:07	yes	0	15 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-14 23:59	yes	15	11 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 02:23	yes	3	7 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-14 23:14	yes	28	23 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 03:19	yes	16	9 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:27	yes	0	10 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 00:32	yes	0	7 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-14 23:17	yes	0	16 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 04:02	yes	0	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 00:47	no	0	32 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 02:24	yes	0	34 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 03:02	yes	0	66 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 03:00	yes	0	26 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 04:23	yes	15	8 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-14 23:31	no	0	3 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:12	yes	18	22 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 04:15	yes	20	5 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:04	yes	0	8 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 04:32	yes	0	8 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-15 01:51	yes	0	57 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 02:34	yes	0	1 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-14 23:23	yes	0	42 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 03:00	yes	0	67 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 02:10	yes	0	88 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-14 23:24	yes	0	22 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 03:16	no	0	5 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 04:44	no	0	11 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 01:10	yes	11	29 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 03:28	yes	20	10 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 04:30	yes	0	7 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 01:50	yes	0	7 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 00:42	yes	0	30 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 00:32	yes	0	19 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-14 23:10	no	0	27 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:08	yes	0	43 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-14 23:56	yes	0	33 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 05:02	yes	0	19 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 02:37	yes	16	7 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 01:59	yes	4	5 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 01:32	yes	21	23 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 04:48	yes	20	6 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:57	yes	0	7 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 04:41	yes	0	11 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-14 23:54	yes	0	28 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 04:46	yes	0	2 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 01:54	yes	0	68 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-14 23:25	yes	0	48 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 01:44	yes	0	17 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 03:33	yes	0	19 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

Ansira Incent

ChannelSailer (formerly Allbound)

Cherrington Media LLC

Ephesoft

GoTu Grow by Extu

Hostaway

HubSpot Partner Directory

HubSpot Partner Portal (Native)

Mapped Marketing

Marketo + Partner plugins

PartnerCenterOne

PartnerPath

Salesforce

Salesforce Partner Commerce

Salesforce-based PRM/through-channel

Structured Web

Tallium Marketing

Warmflow

WordsStream

Zoho CRM/Marketing

Zoho's marketing suite

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Channel partner and local marketing

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in partner and channel