Small business▲+4Since September 2026: 11% → 15%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
15%from 11% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 7 pointsRank 3 of 117, unchanged
3 categories · RankedReferral Factory
138Judge labels
17First choices
16Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
3Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10-05.2, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
15% in Loyalty for small business buyers
Rank 6 of 110 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
1 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 15% of its 13 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Referral Factory →By buyer segmentStrongest at small business.
Small business3 of 120
15%39 labels
accepted challenger
Mid-market6 of 110
4%13 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise24 of 104
0%8 labels
under the label threshold
In loyalty · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Referral Factory for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loyalty, advocacy and referrals | Marketing | 4% | 6 of 110 | 15% | 13 | accepted challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 5% → 5%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Referral and partner programs | Partner and channel | 4% | 9 of 112 | 12% | 17 | accepted challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 2% → 2%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Affiliate and partner management | Partner and channel | 0% | 51 of 94 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by PartnerStack at 49% | goneNot named this edition; 0% in September 2026. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Referral Factory held within the floor in all three categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Loyalty · by segment
Mid-market=heldSince September 2026: 5% → 5%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
5%from 5% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 6 → 4 of 106
Enterprise▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 17 → 20 of 99
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loyalty | 5% | 5% | =heldSince September 2026: 5% → 5%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 6 of 110, unchanged |
| Referrals | 2% | 2% | =heldSince September 2026: 2% → 2%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 12 → 9 of 112 |
| Affiliate | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 28 → 51 of 94 |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Referral Factory across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Referral Factory across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct25 labels5
Paraphrase14 labels8
Comparative34 labels9not counted in share
Budget-constrained26 labels3
Scale-constrained16 labels1
Negative23 labels2not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative138 labels in all, every segment counted; 17 of the 28 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Use Referral Factory or Friendbuy if you want a customer referral program that is relatively easy to launch and optimize.” Perplexity Sonar · Referrals · comparative prompt · first choice
“"Referral Factory offers the most affordable referral program software in the industry."” Muse Glimmer 30B · Referrals · budget prompt · first choice
“I'd usually recommend Referral Factory as the first place to look.” GPT-5.4 mini · Loyalty · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“the best choice is usually Referral Factory” GPT-5.4 mini · Loyalty · direct prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Common reasons to avoid / be cautious” Muse Glimmer 30B · Loyalty · negative prompt · hard negative
“Referral Factory lacks support for Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce, and using your own domain requires an additional cost.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Referrals · negative prompt · soft negative
“Users report slow technical support, time-consuming setup, and limited integration options.” Mistral Small · Loyalty · negative prompt · soft negative
“May be too expensive for ultra-early-stage startups with zero initial capital.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Referrals · budget prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Referral Factory, over the 138 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Referral Factory was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Referral Factory, over the 138 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Referral Factory was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Referral Factory. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 137 of the 138 answers that named Referral Factory and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
openloyalty.io87
growsurf.com62
moosend.com59
referral-factory.comYour site54
tremendous.com51
thecmo.com45
referralrock.com35
g2.com33
cello.so32
voucherify.io32
436 of the 490 domain citations in answers naming Referral Factory came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
referral-factory.com ranks 7 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, Referral Factory takes 4% of first choices and Smile.io takes 26%.ShowHide
Search and answers
referral-factory.com ranks 7 on Google for the category's searches. In the answers, Referral Factory takes 4% of first choices and Smile.io takes 26%.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimatesPosition for “customer loyalty and referral platform”
–
not in the top ten
Position for “best customer loyalty and referral platform”
7
- Searches for its name, Google
- 480 a month (“referral factory”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 2 a month
- Organic visits to its site
- about 5,115 a month
- Searches its site ranks for
- 1,055 · 131 in the top three
- Sites linking to it
- 2,718
- Paid Google search
- No ads found in the estimate; that does not mean it runs none
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
4%
rank 6 of 110 in loyalty
Segment leader
26%
Smile.io
- First choices
- 17 across its categories
- Named in
- 138 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 137 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
What it publishes
ShowHide
What it publishes
ShowHideAddresses on referral-factory.com
681
subdomains included
Content
189
counted in the table below
Documentation
373
Product · Integration
0 · 11
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glossary or explainer | 162 | 15 | 2026-08-10 | Referrals | |
| Blog | 8 | 0 | 2026-06-04 | ||
| Case study | 7 | 2 | 2026-08-17 | ||
| Comparison | 5 | 2 | 2026-08-17 | ||
| Template or tool | 5 | 0 | 2026-04-25 | ||
| Webinar or virtual event | 1 | undated | |||
| Report or ebook | 1 | 0 | 2024-08-30 |
Most recent
- 2026-08-17Ikhokha fintech referral program case study case study
- 2026-08-17Build vs buy referral program comparison
- 2026-08-10Are referral programs legal in financial services glossary or explainer
- 2026-08-10How to track referrals when theres no checkout glossary or explainer
- 2026-08-10Financial services referral rewards glossary or explainer
- 2026-08-10Customer acquisition cost financial services paid vs referral comparison
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page referral-factory.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.
Follow Referral Factory
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Referral Factory is its own company.ShowHide
The company
Referral Factory is its own company.
ShowHideIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- referral marketing software for mid-market companies, enterprise teams and multi-location businesses that need to launch, manage and scale customer referral programs
- For
- mid-market companies, enterprise teams and multi-location businesses
- Price stated
- See how it works free for 15 days. referral-factory.com
- Starting price
- 200 referral-factory.com/pricing
- Free plan or trial
- free for 15 days referral-factory.com
- Integrations claimed
- 50 referral-factory.com · 7 referral-factory.com/case-studies pages disagree
- Certifications
- SOC 2ISO 27001GDPR complianceSOC 2 Type II
- Hosting
- EU data hostingNetherlands
- Customers named
- UK MoneymanNationwideMedCertsUserlyticsIrrigreenTraderflow
What Referral Factory's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: referral-factory.com, referral-factory.com/pricing, trust.referral-factory.com, referral-factory.com/case-studies, referral-factory.com/integrations. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Referral Factory's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Referral Factory, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Referral Factory by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Referral Factory is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Referral Factory, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.