Every category where a model named Smile.io 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
Loyalty, advocacy and referrals	Marketing	24%	1 of 124	19%	36	accepted challenger
Referral and partner programs	Partner and channel	6%	5 of 107	11%	9	under 10 labels · led by PartnerStack at 19%
Ecommerce marketing	Marketing	0%	41 of 154	0%	3	under 10 labels · led by HubSpot Marketing Hub at 36%

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Smile.io yet. The next is due October 1, 2026. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated Smile.io across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.

Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	0	1	1	0	2
GPT-5.4 mini	1	0	2	0	3
Gemini 3.5 Flash	2	0	0	2	4
Perplexity Sonar	1	2	1	0	4
Grok 4.1 Fast	2	1	1	1	5
Mistral Small	1	2	2	0	5
DeepSeek V4 Flash	1	2	2	1	6
Llama 4 Maverick	1	1	2	0	4
Qwen 3.7 Flash	1	0	2	2	5
Kimi K2	2	1	0	1	4
GLM 4.7 FlashX	1	1	1	1	4
MiniMax M2.5	1	0	1	0	2

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

Direct7 labelsNone

Paraphrase0 labelsNone

Comparative33 labels7not counted in share

Budget-constrained38 labels29

Scale-constrained14 labels5

Negative23 labels4not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative115 labels in all, every segment counted; 34 of the 45 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.

“Smile.io (Best for $0 Budget) ... the only major loyalty platform with a permanently free plan that actually includes referrals” MiniMax M2.5 · Loyalty · budget prompt · first choice

“If your budget is $0: Go with Smile.io Free — it's the only major platform offering permanent free referral functionality.” Kimi K2 · Referrals · budget prompt · first choice

“Smile.io stands out as the best customer loyalty and referral platform for companies with a limited budget.” Grok 4.1 Fast · Loyalty · budget prompt · first choice

“The best customer loyalty and referral platform for a company with a limited budget is Smile.io” Llama 4 Maverick · Loyalty · budget 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.

“Billing complaints: Multiple merchants report being charged even after cancelling their free plan” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Loyalty · negative prompt · hard negative

“their refer-a-friend features are often basic and rigid... advanced features like API access and custom integrations are often gated behind incredibly expensive tiers” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Referrals · negative prompt · soft negative

“Billing disputes (charges post-cancel, free plan limits eroding, overcharges on order counts); support delays on refunds” Grok 4.1 Fast · Loyalty · negative prompt · soft negative

“various tiers of Smile.io) have been flagged by users for aggressive pricing behaviors” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Loyalty · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as Smile.io, over the 115 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Smile.io was named but was not.

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

ReferralCandy73 of 1157Not in the top three

LoyaltyLion56 of 1152Not in the top three

Yotpo49 of 1150Not in the top three

Referral Rock34 of 1153Compare →

Friendbuy33 of 1150Not in the top three

Extole28 of 1152Not in the top three

Referral Factory26 of 1152Not in the top three

Ambassador25 of 1151Not in the top three

Open Loyalty25 of 1151Not in the top three

GrowSurf23 of 1153Not in the top three

A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. 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 Smile.io. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 20 of the 115 answers that named Smile.io and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

openloyalty.io13

raftlabs.com8

voucherify.io8

whitelabel-loyalty.com8

gartner.com6

netguru.com6

bonusqr.com5

capterra.com5

99minds.io4

g2.com4

Sixty-seven of the sixty-seven domain citations in answers naming Smile.io came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

openloyalty.io/insider/best-loyalty-software-comparison-guide10

voucherify.io/blog/best-loyalty-management-software-review7

whitelabel-loyalty.com/blog/loyalty/best-loyalty-program-software-providers-ranked-and-rev7

netguru.com/blog/best-customer-loyalty-software-platforms6

raftlabs.com/blog/top-customer-loyalty-software6

gartner.com/reviews/market/loyalty-program-vendors5

openloyalty.io/insider/best-loyalty-management-software5

whitelabel-loyalty.com/blog/technology/best-customer-loyalty-platforms-for-businesses5

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Names read as Smile.io

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Smile.io; a claim can dispute any of them.

Smile.io Free 1

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 Smile.io'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 Smile.io, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at smile.io is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.

Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.