Sales engagement platforms
Asked as “sales engagement platform”, and as “sales engagement tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 27 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing
Salesloft48% of first choices and a 30% negative rate: a criticized default. Every model recommends it, and every model lists its problems.
First-choice share
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. Leader at 30% or more of first choices; criticized at 25% or more negative labels. Markers are keyed to the table below.
Negative label rate →
25% negative
30% first choices
Criticized challenger
Criticized default
Accepted challenger
Endorsed leader
01
02
03
04
050%First-choice share →60%
Full standing
| # | Product | First choices | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Salesloft | 48% | 30% | 33 | criticized default |
| 02 | Apollo.io | 26% | 15% | 33 | accepted challenger |
| 03 | Outreach | 19% | 38% | 32 | criticized challenger |
| 04 | HubSpot Sales Hub | 0% | 0% | 26 | accepted challenger |
| 05 | Groove | 0% | 30% | 10 | criticized challenger |
Warned against
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.
Outreach38%
12 of 32 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 3 hard negative
“Avoid **Outreach** and **Salesloft** if budget is the main constraint” Perplexity Sonar Pro, budget prompt
Salesloft30%
10 of 33 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid **Outreach** and **Salesloft** if budget is the main constraint” Perplexity Sonar Pro, budget prompt
Apollo.io15%
5 of 33 labels negative · 5 of 6 models
“Apollo has drawn frequent criticism here) make it easy to sign up but harder to downgrade or cancel, with auto-renewing annual contracts” Claude Opus 4.8, negative prompt
Groove30%
3 of 10 labels negative · 3 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“flags **Groove, ToutApp, and Mixmax** as acquired and shut down, so they should be avoided” Perplexity Sonar Pro, negative prompt
Held under rewording
Whether each model's first choice on the direct prompt survived the paraphrase in this category, under the strict rule.
Claude Opus 5
Held
Claude Opus 4.8
Held
GPT-6 Astra
Changed
GPT-5.6 Sol
Held
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Changed
Perplexity Sonar Pro
Changed
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat (simulated until 12 September 2026). Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
Claude Opus 5
0 of 5 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
0 of 4 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
2 of 5 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
0 of 5 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
0 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
1 of 3 flipped
What each model said, prompt by prompt
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. Bold is the first choice, grey the alternatives, red what the answer argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
| Prompt | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | GPT-6 Astra | GPT-5.6 Sol | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Perplexity Sonar Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct recommendation What is the best sales engagement platform for a mid-market B2B software company? | Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Outreach | Salesloft Apollo.io, Outreach | Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach | Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach | Apollo.io Gong Engage, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach, Salesloft | Amplemarket Apollo.io, Salesloft |
Paraphrase Which sales engagement tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company? | Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub against: Outreach | Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Outreach | Outreach Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesloft | Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub against: Outreach | Apollo.io, Salesloft Amplemarket, HubSpot Sales Hub against: Outreach | Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Outreach |
Comparative What are the top sales engagement platforms and how do they differ? | Apollo.io, Outreach, Salesloft HubSpot Sales Hub, Klenty, Mixmax against: Instantly, Smartlead | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub, Mixmax, Revenue.io | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, Gong Engage, HubSpot Sales Hub, Reply.io +1 | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, Gong Engage, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub +4 | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, HubSpot Sales Hub | no first choice |
Budget constrained What is the best sales engagement platform for a company with a limited budget? | Apollo.io Bigin by Zoho, Instantly, Klenty, Reply.io +1 against: Outreach, Salesloft | Klenty Mixmax, Reply.io, Salesmate against: Outreach, Salesloft | Apollo.io HubSpot Sales Hub, Saleshandy | Apollo.io Instantly, Saleshandy against: Reply.io | Apollo.io HubSpot Sales Hub, Instantly, Lemlist, Mixmax +2 against: Groove, Outreach, Salesloft | Apollo.io HubSpot Sales Hub, Lemlist, Mixmax, SmartReach.io +1 against: Outreach, Salesloft |
Scale constrained We are a 500 person company evaluating a sales engagement platform. What should we look at? | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, Gong Engage, HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagement against: Groove | no first choice | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, Gong Engage, HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagement | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, Gong Engage, HubSpot Sales Hub, Salesforce Sales Engagement | Outreach, Salesloft Apollo.io, Groove, HubSpot Sales Hub | no first choice |
Negative framing Which sales engagement platforms should I avoid or be cautious about? | no first choice against: Apollo.io, Salesloft, ZoomInfo | no first choice against: Apollo.io, Outreach, Salesloft +1 | no first choice against: Apollo.io, Outreach, Salesforce Sales Engagement +1 | no first choice against: Apollo.io, Instantly, Outreach +3 | no first choice against: Apollo.io, Gong Engage, Outreach +1 | no first choice against: Groove, Mixmax, Outreach +2 |
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
HubSpot read as HubSpot Sales Hub
Salesforce read as Salesforce Sales Engagement
Unresolved, counted raw
None awaiting human review.
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
Every prompt and answer
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, latency and cost. Full answer text is in the responses download on the Data page.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 12:05 | yes | 22 | 53 s | $0.24 |
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 12:09 | yes | 35 | 237 s | $0.27 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 12:10 | yes | 6 | 43 s | $0.45 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 12:11 | yes | 5 | 56 s | $0.22 |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 12:10 | yes | 9 | 43 s | $0.06 |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 12:09 | yes | 20 | 7 s | $0.01 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 12:12 | yes | 37 | 55 s | $0.29 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 12:13 | no | 0 | 18 s | $0.05 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 12:14 | yes | 6 | 34 s | $0.38 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 12:15 | yes | 5 | 39 s | $0.17 |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 12:13 | yes | 9 | 41 s | $0.05 |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 12:13 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 12:16 | yes | 28 | 65 s | $0.34 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 12:17 | yes | 36 | 52 s | $0.25 |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 12:18 | yes | 7 | 52 s | $0.52 |
| Comparative | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 12:20 | yes | 10 | 92 s | $0.34 |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 12:17 | yes | 7 | 32 s | $0.05 |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 12:17 | yes | 20 | 10 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 12:21 | yes | 32 | 53 s | $0.27 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 12:22 | yes | 19 | 56 s | $0.28 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 12:23 | yes | 4 | 32 s | $0.35 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 12:24 | yes | 2 | 37 s | $0.19 |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 12:23 | yes | 6 | 31 s | $0.04 |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 12:22 | yes | 20 | 6 s | $0.01 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 12:25 | yes | 29 | 77 s | $0.29 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 12:26 | no | 0 | 28 s | $0.07 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 12:27 | yes | 5 | 40 s | $0.40 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 12:28 | yes | 8 | 74 s | $0.22 |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 12:26 | no | 0 | 31 s | $0.03 |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 12:26 | yes | 19 | 8 s | $0.02 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 12:30 | yes | 42 | 76 s | $0.44 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 12:31 | yes | 44 | 71 s | $0.34 |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 12:32 | yes | 6 | 40 s | $0.38 |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 12:34 | yes | 9 | 111 s | $0.43 |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 12:32 | yes | 28 | 38 s | $0.05 |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 12:31 | yes | 20 | 9 s | $0.01 |