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

Referral and partner programs

Asked as “referral program software”, and as “partner ecosystem and referral tracking 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
PartnerStack
Contested
19% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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 businessReferral Rock17%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketPartnerStack19%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseAmbassador18%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
01PartnerStack19%10%21accepted challenger
02Referral Rock15%3%34accepted challenger
03ReferralCandy10%10%31accepted challenger
04Ambassador8%9%22accepted challenger
05Viral Loops4%20%20accepted challenger
06FirstPromoter2%6%16accepted challenger
07Referral Factory2%15%13accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Talkable0%17%12accepted challenger
09Friendbuy0%15%26accepted challenger
10Extole0%12%16accepted challenger
08GrowSurf0%11%27accepted 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 Referral RockPartnerStack vs ReferralCandyReferral Rock vs ReferralCandy

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01PartnerStack19%
02Referral Rock15%
03ReferralCandy10%
04Ambassador8%
05Viral Loops4%
06FirstPromoter2%
07Referral Factory2%
08GrowSurf0%
09Friendbuy0%
10Extole0%
11Talkable0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, 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.
Friendbuy
15%
4 of 26 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“here are the tools you should avoid or scrutinize closely: ### 1. Friendbuy ... frequently flagged for "contractual friction."” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Viral Loops
20%
4 of 20 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Multiple reports of billing issues ... 1-star reviews highlight "deceptive practices" and "waste of money."[” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Ambassador
9%
2 of 22 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Some 1-star reviews describe it as "HORRIBLE" with poor handling of migrations.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Extole
12%
2 of 16 labels negative · 2 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“High Barrier to Entry ... Users describe the dashboard as "clunky" and non-intuitive.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, 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

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. 188 links across 94 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.

referralcandy.com
vendor site · ReferralCandy6 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
tremendous.com
vendor site · Tremendous6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
extole.com
vendor site · Extole5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
referral-factory.com
5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
capterra.com
vendor site · Capterra4 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
customergauge.com
vendor site · CustomerGauge4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
linkjolt.io
vendor site · LinkJolt4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
openloyalty.io
vendor site · Open Loyalty4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
introw.io
vendor site · Introw3 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
growthmarketingpro.com
3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
influencermarketinghub.com
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
logicalcommander.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.

tremendous.com/blog/referral-marketing-tools
6 answers · 2 models
customergauge.com/blog/b2b-referral-software
4 answers · 2 models
extole.com/blog/retail-referral-software
4 answers · 2 models
growthmarketingpro.com/referral-program-software
3 answers · 2 models
influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-posting-scheduling-tools/top-referr…
3 answers · 1 model
introw.io/blog/best-referral-management-software
3 answers · 2 models
linkjolt.io/blog/best-referral-marketing-software
3 answers · 2 models
logicalcommander.com/post/best-referral-program-software-1
3 answers · 1 model
moosend.com/blog/referral-marketing-software
3 answers · 1 model
referral-factory.com/
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 referral program software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which partner ecosystem and referral tracking tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top referral program tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best referral program software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a referral program software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which referral program tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Cello
Four alternativesFriendbuy, Influitive, Partnero, Referral Rock
PartnerStackChanged
Three alternativesChanneltivity, Introw, Kiflo PRM
no first choiceVyper
Two alternativesBlossu, GrowSurf
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniReferral Rock
Two alternativesFriendbuy, Referral Factory
PartnerStack, impact.comChangedno first choiceReferralCandyagainst: Talkableno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashReferral Rock
Three alternativesGrowSurf, PartnerStack, impact.com Advocate
KifloChanged
Three alternativesIntrow, PartnerPortal.io, PartnerStack
against: CrossbeamFirstPromoter
Six alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, Rewardful, Viral Loops
against: PartnerStackGoAffPro, Referralful
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, LaunchList, ReferralCandy, Rewardful, Viral Loops
against: PartnerStackno first choiceagainst: ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Yotpo Loyalty
Perplexity SonarAmbassador
Three alternativesCustomerGauge, GrowSurf, Referral Rock
PartnerStackChanged
Two alternativesCrossbeam, Unifyr
Extole, Friendbuy, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, Viral Loops
Three alternativesReferral Rock, Talkable, Yotpo Loyalty and Referrals
Referral Factory
Four alternativesFirstPromoter, InviteReferrals, Smile.io, Viral Loops
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastReferral Rock
Three alternativesAmbassador, GrowSurf, Influitive
Kiflo PRMChanged
Three alternativesCrossbeam, PartnerPortal.io, PartnerStack
GrowSurf, ReferralCandy
Six alternativesExtole, Friendbuy, Referral Factory, Referral Rock, Talkable, Viral Loops
Smile.io
Three alternativesInviteReferrals, ReferralCandy, SparkLoop
against: GrowSurfno first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Birdeye Referrals, GrowSurf, Viral Loops
Mistral SmallReferral Rock
Three alternativesAmbassador, Cello, GrowSurf
PartnerStackChanged
Three alternativesCello, Everflow, FirstPromoter
no first choice
Eight alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, SaaSquatch, Smile.io, Viral Loops, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
ReferralCandy, Smile.io
Three alternativesGrowSurf, OSI Affiliate Software, Viral Loops
no first choiceagainst: Brandbassador, SC Conjured Referral Program
DeepSeek V4 FlashReferral Rock
Two alternativesAmbassador, GrowSurf
against: Friendbuy, Lootly, ReferralCandy, Talkable, Viral Loops, YotpoPartnerStackChanged
Four alternativesCrossbeam, Kiflo, PartnerTap, impact.com
GrowSurf, ReferralCandy
Seven alternativesExtole, Friendbuy, LoyaltyLion, Referral Rock, Smile.io, Talkable, Viral Loops
Viral Loops
Five alternativesFirstPromoter, ReferralCandy, Refgrow, Rewardful, WinWinKit
no first choiceagainst: Ambassador, Genius Referrals, ReferPro, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy, Viral Loops
Llama 4 Maverickno first choicePartnerStackChangedno first choiceReferralCandy
Three alternativesReferral Rock, Smile.io, Tapfiliate
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCello
Three alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock
Ambassador, JourneyBeeChanged
Two alternativesCustomerGauge, PartnerPortal.io
against: DealHub, Impartnerno first choice
Five alternativesAmbassador, Extole, Open Loyalty, Referral Factory, ReferralCandy
ReferralCandy, ReferralHero
Two alternativesFirstPromoter, InviteReferrals
against: GrowSurf, Referral RockReferralHero, Sprout Social, TalentLyft, Workboardagainst: BambooHR, SAP SuccessFactors, Taleo, Workday, Zoho Peopleagainst: Ambassador.io, Extole, Friendbuy, Yotpo
Kimi K2Referral Rock
Three alternativesAmbassador, GrowSurf, Influitive
Everflow, PartnerStackChanged
Four alternativesAmbassador, FirstPromoter, Referral Rock, Rewardful
against: impact.comno first choice
Eight alternativesAmbassador, Extole, Friendbuy, GrowSurf, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, Talkable, Viral Loops
ReferralCandy, Smile.io
Four alternativesGrowSurf DIY, InviteBox, Referral Factory, Referral Rock
no first choiceagainst: Copy Paste Profit System, Extole, FirstPromoter, Friendbuy, Referral Factory, Refersion, Viral Loops
GLM 4.7 FlashXAmbassador, PartnerStack
Three alternativesGrowSurf, Referral Rock, impact.com
PartnerStackChanged
Three alternativesCrossbeam + Cosell Signals, Everflow, PartnerTap
against: WorkSpanno first choice
Eleven alternativesAffise, Extole, Friendbuy, InviteReferrals, Open Loyalty, Referral Factory, Referral Rock, ReferralCandy, Smile.io, Viral Loops, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals
Viral Loops
Three alternativesLoyally.ai, ReferralCandy, Rewardful
no first choiceagainst: Birdeye, EmployeeReferrals, Genius Referrals, Get The Referral, Refersion
MiniMax M2.5Referral Rock
Two alternativesMention Me, impact.com
against: FriendbuyAmbassador, JourneyBeeChanged
Three alternativesImpact Partnership Cloud, Kiflo, PartnerStack
Extole, ReferralCandy, Viral Loops
Four alternativesFriendbuy, GrowSurf, PartnerStack, Talkable
FirstPromoter
Three alternativesGrowSurf, InviteReferrals, Shopjar
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.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:19yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:14yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:30yes1422 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:54yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:16yes010 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:49yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:25yes023 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:13yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:14yes029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:42yes039 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:59yes017 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:25yes019 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:53yes1710 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:18yes27 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:04yes1327 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:04yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:23yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:53yes09 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:24yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:17yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:22yes029 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:15yes047 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:40yes013 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:43yes014 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:44yes811 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:01yes710 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:34yes1624 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:39yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:22yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:53yes06 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:58yes020 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:00yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:15yes021 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:34yes055 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:54yes016 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:33yes021 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:26yes76 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:51yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:21yes2824 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:30yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:02yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:47yes06 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:47yes027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:33yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:19yes030 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:33yes023 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:24yes029 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:09yes012 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:12no015 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:43no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:36yes1623 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:44yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:11yes06 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:02yes011 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:56yes021 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:14yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:56no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:57yes046 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:58yes056 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:43yes013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:37yes87 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:43yes45 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:41yes1823 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:42yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:47yes07 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:40yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:07yes054 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:11yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:58yes048 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:20yes026 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:30yes033 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:01yes014 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
Ambassador.io
Copy Paste Profit System
Crossbeam + Cosell Signals
Draftboard
EasyAffiliate
EmployeeReferrals
Erinf
GrowSurf DIY
LaunchList
LinkJilt
OSI Affiliate Software
Real Links
ReferPro
SparkLoop
TalentLyft
Tango Card
WP Referral
WinWinKit
Workboard
Yotpo Loyalty and Referrals
Zoho People
impact.com Advocacy
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.
← PRMABM →