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September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Coaching platforms › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Coaching platforms for small business buyers

Asked as “employee coaching platform”, and as “digital coaching marketplace”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 57 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
11%
Contested · CoachHub 7%
1115Five07CoachHub07Coaching.com75others

11% 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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
0115Five11%0%14accepted challenger
02CoachHub7%69%42criticized challenger
03Risely5%0%10accepted challenger
04Simply.Coach4%0%21accepted challenger
05CoachAccountable4%0%19accepted challenger
06Delenta4%0%11accepted challenger
07Paperbell2%12%16accepted challenger
08BetterUp2%79%38criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10EZRA0%93%15criticized challenger
09Torch0%81%16criticized 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
0115Five11%
02CoachHub7%
03Risely5%
04Simply.Coach4%
05CoachAccountable4%
06Delenta4%
07Paperbell2%
08BetterUp2%
09Torch0%
10EZRA0%

What they warned about

One 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, 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
79%
30 of 38 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“Often criticized for enterprise-level pricing ... making it unaffordable for most small businesses. Some versions have even shut down, indicating instability.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
CoachHub
69%
29 of 42 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“Another enterprise-focused platform with similar high pricing, making it less accessible for small businesses.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
EZRA
93%
14 of 15 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Known for high costs and enterprise orientation, not ideal for small business budgets.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Torch
81%
13 of 16 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Also targeted at larger enterprises, with pricing that is generally out of reach for small businesses.” Mistral Small, 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

79 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. 1128 links across 261 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

38 answers · 67 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Coachful25 answers · 38 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Paperbell21 answers · 25 citations · 12 models
20 answers · 32 citations · 11 models
19 answers · 29 citations · 11 models
19 answers · 21 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G217 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
vendor site · MentorcliQ17 answers · 17 citations · 10 models
16 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
16 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
16 answers · 18 citations · 10 models
15 answers · 20 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
15Five 15five.com11%2966,6003232,36222
Coaching.com coaching.com7%1118,1000840,427
CoachHub coachhub.com7%1481,9001835,04471
Risely risely.me5%25210227,9106,577
Boon boon-health.com
Boon Health 5%
5%4714010839544
Simply.Coach simply.coach4%3432006,50077
CoachAccountable coachaccountable.com4%321,300111,4440
Delenta delenta.com4%1632033371
TalentLMS talentlms.com4%3488,10010382,431$1,179119
Cloverleaf cloverleaf.me4%95

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (boon-health.com, mentorcliq.com, paperbell.com, simply.coach). 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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which digital coaching marketplace would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top coaching platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best employee coaching platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an employee coaching platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which coaching platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.515Five, Lattice
Two alternativesBetterUp, Boon Health
ProfiChanged
Two alternativesGong, Mindtickle
Delenta, Paperbell
Three alternativesCoachVantage, HoneyBook, Simply.Coach
EdApp, TalentLMS
Three alternatives15Five, GoSkills, Rocky.ai
no first choiceagainst: Ivy Capital, Trillion Dollar Growth
GPT-5.4 miniCloverleaf
Three alternativesCoachVantage, Simply.Coach, UpCoach
Simply.CoachChanged
Three alternativesCoachHub, Coaching Quest, Vibly
Coachful
Five alternativesAxiom Workspace, Backbone AI, Planner.coach, Profi, UpCoach
Frontline Coach
Two alternativesHuckleberry, StaffCircle
no first choiceagainst: Mindbody, NPE, Smart Coach, Tom Ferry
Gemini 3.5 FlashBoon Health
Five alternativesBravely, Claap, Growthspace, Jiminny, Second Nature
against: BetterUp, Gong
MySalesCoachChanged
Five alternativesCoaching.com Marketplace, GrowthMentor, Growthspace, Paperbell, Simply.Coach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA
Growthspace, Simply.Coach
Five alternativesBoon Health, CoachAccountable, Coachello, Delenta, Paperbell
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
Mentornity
Seven alternatives15Five, Cloverleaf, EasyCoach, Lattice, MentorStack, Mentorloop, SideCoach
against: BetterUp, Chronus, CoachHub, Together
Exec
Six alternatives15Five, Boon Health, Growthspace, Lattice, Leapsome, Marlee
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, GoHighLevel, Kajabi, Keap, Trainerize
Perplexity SonarCoachHub
Two alternativesRisely, SkillCycle
Coaching.comChanged
Two alternativesMighty Networks, Yo!Coach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
CoachAccountable, UpCoach
Three alternativesGroupApp, Mighty Networks, Practice
against: Paperbell
Risely, TaskHumanagainst: Bravely, SkillCycleno first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Torch
Grok 4.1 FastCoachAccountable
Three alternatives15Five, CoachVantage, Simply.Coach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, Torch
GrowthMentorChanged
Two alternativesClarity.fm, Upwork
against: CoachHub
CoachAccountable, Paperbell, Simply.Coach, UpCoach15Five
Five alternativesADPList, CoachAccountable, Coaching Loft, MicroMentor, Simply.Coach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA
Motivosity
Six alternativesBetterworks, CoachAccountable, Culture Amp, Lattice, PerformYard, Simply.Coach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Guidance Living, Lurn, Position Gurus/Top Shelf Ecommerce, Torch, Yo!Coach
Mistral SmallMesh, Trakstar
One alternativeSkillCycle
CoachHubChanged
Two alternativesBetterUp, Noomii
CoachVantage, Simply.Coach
Two alternativesCircle, Paperbell
TaskHuman, Together
Two alternativesMarlee, Talkspace
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Torch
DeepSeek V4 Flash15Five
Four alternativesCoachHub, Leapsome, Peoplebox, Workleap Officevibe
Boon HealthChanged
Three alternativesExec, Growthspace, Risely
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
Risely, Torch
Three alternativesCoachAccountable, Paperbell, Simply.Coach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
ThriveSparrow
Three alternatives15Five, Peoplebox, Teamflect
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
Cloverleaf, Marlee
Three alternatives15Five, Culture Amp, Lattice
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Torch
against: Coaching.com, Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, Yo!Coach
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceTalentLMS
Two alternativesDelenta, Paperbell
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Torch
Qwen 3.7 FlashMesh
Four alternativesBoon Health, Lingo Live, Mentora, TalentLMS
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
CoachHub, Coaching.comChanged
Three alternativesLinkedIn Services, Noomii, Topmate.io
CoachAccountable, Paperbell
Five alternativesBetterUp, CoachHub, CoachVantage, Coachful, Sounding Board
Edify.ai, Risely
Five alternativesCoachAccountable, Growthspace, TaskHuman, Torch, Valence Health / Nadia
against: BetterUp
no first choiceagainst: Cornerstone, Workdayagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Profi, Torch
Kimi K215Five, Risely
Two alternativesCulture Amp, Lattice
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, Speexx
GrowthMentorChanged
Two alternativesClarity.fm, MentorCruise
CoachVantage, Risely
Four alternativesCoachHub, Marlee, Rocky.ai, Torch
against: BetterUp
Delenta, Waggle
Two alternativesMentorCity, Mentorink
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, MentorcliQ, Mesh, Together, Torch
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Lurn, Torch
GLM 4.7 FlashXno first choiceDelenta, PaperbellChanged
Four alternativesCoachHub, Noomii, Sharpist, Thumbtack
CoachAccountable, Simply.Coach
Six alternativesFreshLearn, Mighty Networks, Paperbell, Practice Better, Satori, UpCoach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub
PeopleGoal
Three alternativesBambooHR, Simply.Coach, TalentLMS
no first choiceagainst: Coachfully, Coachingly.ai, Speexx, TrueCoach, Vagaro
MiniMax M2.5BetterUp, CoachHub
Three alternativesMesh, Motivosity, SkillCycle
Coaching.com, LelandChanged
One alternativeMentorCruise
Delenta
Four alternativesCoachAccountable, Coachful, Simply.Coach, UpCoach
against: Paperbell
Quenza, Simply.Coach
Three alternativesCoachAccountable, CoachVantage, Delenta
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Profi, Torch
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 11:45yes177 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:04yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:34yes1224 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:53yes174 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 11:32yes2315 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:28yes116 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:32yes2331 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:42yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:56yes1679 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:38yes2429 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:43yes21100 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:13yes1281 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:14yes199 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:26yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:45yes1627 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:13yes276 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:11yes219 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:29yes137 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:55yes2126 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:10yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:58yes1288 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 12:06yes2030 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:28yes1517 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:54yes1228 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:01yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 10:29yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:27yes1624 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:02yes195 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:01yes227 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 09:09yes58 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:11yes2437 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:40yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:48yes1066 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:01yes1420 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:44yes1538 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:42yes1421 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 07:40yes96 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:52yes36 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:32yes1727 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:15yes183 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:59yes236 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:58yes1026 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:22yes2232 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:14yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:11yes1779 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:00yes2129 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:16yes2430 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:44yes1728 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:47no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:35no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:05yes1325 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:04yes205 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:20yes1910 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 12:05no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:35yes1934 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:11yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:26no029 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 09:01yes1417 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:55yes1419 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:52no09 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:45yes1611 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 12:05yes37 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:00yes2031 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:43yes204 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:06yes2010 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 12:03yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:16yes2248 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:20yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:03yes1054 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:32yes2221 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 08:55yes2051 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:17yes1125 s

Normalization in this category

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

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Category-scoped readings
Boon read as Boon Health
Unresolved, counted raw
Apply Knowledge
Axiom Workspace
Backbone AI
Business Coach Directory
Claap
CoachNow
Coachfully
Coaching Department
Coaching Quest
Coaching.com Marketplace
Edify.ai
Frontline Coach
Gabbi LLC / Glo With Gabbi
GoHighLevel
Guidance Living
Huckleberry
Ivy Capital
Leland
Lingo Live
NPE
Navryn
Planner.coach
Position Gurus/Top Shelf Ecommerce
Quo
Sharpist
SideCoach
SourceForge coaching tools
Spoke
Tom Ferry
Topmate.io
Trillion Dollar Growth
Upduo
Valence Health / Nadia
Vibly
Waggle
tldv.io
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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