AI Indexes
HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Learning and development › September 2026 Edition

Coaching platforms

Asked as “employee coaching platform”, and as “digital coaching marketplace”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
20%
Contested · Exec 16%
20Growthspace16Exec11Torch54others

20% of first choices, contested.

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.

The 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
01Growthspace20%4%23accepted challenger
02Exec16%0%15accepted challenger
03Torch11%15%20accepted challenger
0415Five9%0%11accepted challenger
05Lattice9%9%11accepted challenger
06Boon Health5%6%16accepted challenger
07Simply.Coach5%0%10accepted challenger
08CoachHub4%30%40criticized challenger
09BetterUp4%52%40criticized challenger
10EZRA2%9%11accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Kajabi0%18%11accepted challenger
12CoachAccountable0%0%12accepted challenger
11Paperbell0%0%12accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

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
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Growthspace20%
02Exec16%
03Torch11%
0415Five9%
05Lattice9%
06Boon Health5%
07Simply.Coach5%
08CoachHub4%
09BetterUp4%
10EZRA2%
11Paperbell0%
12CoachAccountable0%
13Kajabi0%

What 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.
BetterUp
52%
21 of 40 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Platforms with Notable Issues **BetterUp** - Has significant negative reviews (55% negative labels in some analyses...)” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
CoachHub
30%
12 of 40 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“**CoachHub** - Employee concerns include: - Low salaries and pay transparency issues - Leadership concerns and "gaslighting" in business reviews” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Coaches Console
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“the clearest ones to avoid or scrutinize closely are **Profi**, **Coaches Console**” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Lurn
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Be especially careful with platforms tied to FTC enforcement actions or refund cases, such as Lurn, which the FTC said used unfounded income claims” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1037 links across 265 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

36 answers · 54 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Paperbell27 answers · 34 citations · 14 models
20 answers · 41 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Exec19 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
17 answers · 30 citations · 11 models
17 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Coachello16 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
16 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Easygenerator16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · LinkedIn15 answers · 17 citations · 7 models
15 answers · 15 citations · 11 models
12 answers · 16 citations · 10 models

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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best employee coaching platform”, “coaching platforms”, “employee coaching platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Growthspace growthspace.com20%533901144,7890
Exec exec.com16%4460,5001,84025,8110
Torch torch.io11%6690,50054,2464,01312
15Five 15five.com9%2966,6003232,36222
Lattice lattice.com9%66290,50013,900122,123$1,328120
Boon boon-health.com
Boon Health 5%
5%4714010839544
Simply.Coach simply.coach5%3432006,50077
CoachHub coachhub.com4%1481,9001835,04471
Together togetherplatform.com4%163165,0001,119,61037,95203
BetterUp betterup.com4%1489,9003541,159,87205

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (boon-health.com, coachello.ai, linkedin.com, paperbell.com, togetherplatform.com). The first result for “best employee coaching platform” is mentorcliq.com.

How 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.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best employee coaching platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which digital coaching marketplace would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top coaching platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best employee coaching platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an employee coaching platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which coaching platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Boon Health, Torch
Six alternativesAvoma, Coachello, Gong, Growthspace, Risely, Sounding Board
no first choiceChangedno first choice
Three alternativesEdthena, Gong, HubFit
15Five
One alternativeRocky.ai
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniLattice
Four alternativesCoachHub, Culture Amp, Torch, Valence
GrowthspaceChanged
Three alternativesBravely, Skillsoft Coaching, Tandem
Paperbell
Two alternativesCoachAccountable, Kajabi
against: Acuity Scheduling, Calendly
Simply.Coach
One alternativeStaffCircle
against: Cloverleaf
no first choiceagainst: Lurn
Gemini 3.5 FlashGrowthspace, Jiminny
Three alternativesAvoma, Boon Health, Cloverleaf
against: BetterUp, Gong
GrowthspaceChanged
Three alternativesBoon Health, CoachHub, MySalesCoach
against: BetterUp
BetterUp, Coachful
Nine alternativesBoon Health, CoachAccountable, CoachHub, Delenta, EZRA, Exec, Growthspace, Paperbell, Quenza
PushFar
Six alternativesBoon Health, EasyCoach, LeggUP, MentorStack, Mentorloop, Rocky.ai
against: BetterUp, Chronus, CoachHub, MentorcliQ
no first choice
Six alternativesBetterUp, CoachHub, Coachello, Growthspace, SkillCycle, Torch
against: Bark, BetterUp, CoachHub, Noomii, Torch
Perplexity SonarTorch
Three alternativesBetterworks, Cloverleaf, Lattice
against: BetterUp
CoachHubChanged
Three alternativesBetterUp, Boon Health, EZRA
no first choice
Seven alternativesCircle, Coachful, Coaching.com, GroupApp, Mighty Networks, Paperbell, Satori
Together
Two alternativesProProfs Training Maker, TalentLMS
no first choiceagainst: Coaches Console, Profi
Grok 4.1 FastLattice
Six alternatives15Five, Betterworks, CoachHub, Jiminny, Leapsome, Showpad Coach
against: BetterUp
GrowthspaceChanged
Three alternativesCoachHub, EZRA, Torch
against: BetterUp
no first choiceagainst: KajabiCoaching Loft
One alternativeCoachVantage
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, GoSkills, TalentLMS
no first choiceagainst: Begonia Rose Co, Stayly Academy, Strength In Harmony, Tony Robbins
Mistral SmallGrowthspace
Two alternativesCoachello, Motivosity
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
Exec, GrowthspaceChangedLearnWorlds
Three alternativesCoachful, GroupApp, Mighty Networks
against: Kajabi
Exec, Together
Two alternativesMarlee, TaskHuman
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, Coach.me, CoachHub, Coaches Console, Coaching Lobby, Lurn, Profi
DeepSeek V4 FlashGrowthspace, Lattice
One alternativeBetterworks
against: BetterUp
Boon HealthChanged
Four alternativesBetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Exec
against: Growthspace
Paperbell
Nine alternativesBetterUp, Circle, CoachAccountable, CoachHub, Coachful, Delenta, Exec, Kajabi, Mighty Networks
against: Skool
Exec
Two alternativesCoaching Loft, Mesh
against: BetterUp, Boon Health, CoachHub
BetterUp
Six alternativesBoon Health, CoachHub, Coachello, Exec, Torch, Valence
against: BetterUp, Coach.me, Coaching Department / Apply Knowledge, Nudge Coach, Practice, Profi, QuickCoach
Llama 4 MaverickTorch
Three alternativesGrowthspace, Lattice, Motivosity
Exec, GrowthspaceChangedno first choiceBoon Health, Exec
One alternativeProProfs Training Maker
no first choiceagainst: Coaches Console
Qwen 3.7 FlashLattice
Two alternativesGrowthspace, Motivosity
Exec, GrowthspaceChanged
One alternativeTorch
Simply.Coach
Three alternativesCoachVantage, Kajabi, Paperbell
15Five
Five alternativesEffy AI, Small Improvements, Trakstar, Workleap, Zoho People
against: CoachHub, Speexx
no first choiceagainst: Lifetalk, The Life Coach School
Kimi K215Five, Lattice
Three alternativesBetterworks, CoachHub, Growthspace
against: BetterUp
EZRAChanged
Three alternativesCoachHub, MentorcliQ, Torch
against: BetterUp, Sounding Board, Valence
BetterUp, CoachHub
Three alternativesKajabi, Paperbell, Simply.Coach
Marlee, Rocky.ai
One alternativeRisely
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
no first choiceagainst: Coaching Department/Apply Knowledge, Lurn, MOBE, Position Gurus, Tony Robbins / Robbins Research International, Top Shelf Ecommerce
GLM 4.7 FlashXBetterUp
Two alternativesCoachHub, Growthspace
Exec, GrowthspaceChanged
One alternativeBoon Health
Kajabi
Ten alternativesCircle, CoachAccountable, CoachHub, Mighty Networks, Noomii, Nudge Coach, Paperbell, Skool, Teachable, Thinkific
Manageable
Three alternativesCoachAccountable, LifeCoachHub, UpCoach
against: Lattice
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub
MiniMax M2.5no first choice
Three alternativesBetterUp, CoachHub, Growthspace
Exec, GrowthspaceChanged
One alternativeCoachHub
Coachful
Seven alternativesCircle, GroupApp, Kajabi, Mighty Networks, Practice Better, Teachable, UpCoach
Simply.Coach, TalentLMS
Two alternatives15Five, TaskHuman
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Torch
no first choiceagainst: Begonia Rose Co LLC, Coach.me, Coachingly.ai
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The 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-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:28yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 07:43yes04 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:18yes2329 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:17yes184 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:22yes249 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:06yes116 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:29yes2226 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:53yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:30yes525 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:47yes1921 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:46yes2256 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:57yes514 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 12:02no03 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:33yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:38yes824 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:46yes183 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:17yes196 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:58yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:52yes2225 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:39yes51 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:46yes938 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 07:52yes2017 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:47yes2319 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:10yes1336 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:17yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:14yes89 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:15yes2128 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:55yes195 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:03yes229 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:24yes107 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 12:03yes1940 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:56yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:49yes1032 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:43yes1016 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:19yes1924 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:13yes1123 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:56yes96 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:18yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:41yes1623 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:56yes203 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:58yes246 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:53yes108 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:20yes2224 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:05yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:40yes1357 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:03yes2022 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:54yes2346 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:29yes2127 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:03no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:31no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:55yes726 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:18yes185 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:16yes169 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:39no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:49yes2060 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:07yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:59no036 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:15yes1432 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:14yes1518 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:09yes937 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:05no02 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 12:06yes66 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:48yes1626 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:35yes194 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:12yes247 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:28yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:19yes2241 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 07:49yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:23yes1050 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:44yes2425 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 12:06yes24146 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:25yes1018 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

ShowHide
Claude Haiku 4.5
3 of 3 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
4 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
3 of 4 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
1 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.1 Fast
4 of 5 flipped
Mistral Small
4 of 4 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
4 of 5 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
2 of 3 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
4 of 4 flipped
Kimi K2
4 of 4 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
4 of 4 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
4 of 4 flipped

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Boon read as Boon Health
Boon (Boon Health) read as Boon Health
Unresolved, counted raw
15Five's $4/user/month Engage plan
Alma / helloalma.com
Bark
Begonia Rose Co
Begonia Rose Co LLC
Bunch
CoachRx
Coaches.me
Coaching Department/Apply Knowledge
Edthena
Everfit
HoneyBook or Dubsado
HubFit
Laika
Life Coach Hub
LifeCoachHub
Lifetalk
Manageable
Mindvalley Coaching
Outlier
Position Gurus
QuickCoach
Showpad Coach
Simpl
Skillsoft Coaching
The Life Coach School
Tony Robbins (Robbins Research International)
Tony Robbins / Robbins Research International
Top Shelf Ecommerce
TrainHeroic
thecoachme.com / coach.me
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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