Finance AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Planning and analysis › Corporate performance ma › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Corporate performance management for small business buyers

Asked as “EPM software”, and as “corporate performance management platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 57 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Cube
Contested
16% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 41 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessCube16%ContestedThis pageMid-marketPlanful29%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseOneStream30%ContestedStanding →

01The 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
01Cube16%4%24accepted challenger
02Vena14%6%35accepted challenger
03Drivetrain12%0%14accepted challenger
04Workday Adaptive Planning11%42%33criticized challenger
05Datarails9%3%29accepted challenger
06Prophix4%0%12accepted challenger
07Jirav2%0%11accepted challenger
08Planful2%22%18accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09OneStream0%88%17criticized challenger
10Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM0%86%22criticized challenger
11Anaplan0%75%32criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Planful vs VenaPlanful vs ProphixVena vs Prophix

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Cube16%
02Vena14%
03Drivetrain12%
04Workday Adaptive Planning11%
05Datarails9%
06Prophix4%
07Jirav2%
08Planful2%
09OneStream0%
10Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM0%
11Anaplan0%

02What 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.
Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
86%
19 of 22 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 14 hard negative
“**Oracle EPM**: Comes with a steep learning curve and higher implementation costs, which may be challenging for smaller businesses” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Anaplan
75%
24 of 32 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“**Why to Avoid:** It is widely recognized as one of the most powerful but also the most expensive and complex EPM platforms available.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
OneStream
88%
15 of 17 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“licensing and implementation costs run high, which can be tough for smaller operations. If your needs are simpler, the cost and complexity will likely outweigh the benefits” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Workday Adaptive Planning
42%
14 of 33 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“priced/sized for enterprises (~$25k+/yr) and better suited to larger finance orgs” DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative prompt

03What they cite

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

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 912 links across 196 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

gbhackers.com
34 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
drivetrain.ai
vendor site · Drivetrain33 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
cyberpress.org
29 answers · 31 citations · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com
27 answers · 32 citations · 9 models
softwareconnect.com
25 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
cybersecuritynews.com
22 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
peoplegoal.com
vendor site · PeopleGoal22 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
thecfoclub.com
22 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
golimelight.com
21 answers · 28 citations · 9 models
cfoshortlist.com
20 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
forbes.com
19 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
softwaresuggest.com
18 answers · 18 citations · 8 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.

gbhackers.com/best-epm-tools-compared-2
34 answers · 10 models
drivetrain.ai/solutions/enterprise-performance-management-software
30 answers · 10 models
cyberpress.org/epm-tools-by-business-size-3
25 answers · 9 models
softwareconnect.com/roundups/best-epm-software
24 answers · 9 models
cybersecuritynews.com/best-endpoint-privilege-management-tools/amp
21 answers · 9 models
peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/epm-software
21 answers · 9 models
thecfoclub.com/tools/best-epm-software
21 answers · 8 models
forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-performance-management-software
19 answers · 8 models
peoplegoal.com/blog/epm-software
18 answers · 7 models
softwaresuggest.com/enterprise-performance-management-software
18 answers · 8 models

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best EPM software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which corporate performance management platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top EPM platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best EPM software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a EPM software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which EPM platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice15FiveChanged
Three alternativesBambooHR, PerformYard, Small Improvements
Vena
Five alternativesDatarails, Jedox, Planful, Prophix, Workday Adaptive Planning
Prophix
Two alternativesDatarails, Vena
against: Anaplan, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Planfulno first choiceagainst: OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, SAP Enterprise Performance Management
GPT-5.4 miniWorkday Adaptive Planning
One alternativeJedox
against: Oracle Fusion Cloud EPMCubeChanged
Three alternativesDatarails, Planful, Vena
against: Workday Adaptive PlanningVena, Workday Adaptive Planning
Four alternativesBoard, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Pigment
against: AnaplanOracle Cloud EPM Planning in the Standard subscription
One alternativeKepion EPM
against: Oracle Fusion Cloud EPMno first choiceagainst: OneStream, Oracle Hyperion Planning, Workday Adaptive Planning
Gemini 3.5 FlashCube, Datarails
Five alternativesClockwork, Fathom, Jirav, Mosaic, Parallel
against: Anaplan, Oracle Hyperion, SAP Business Planning and ConsolidationCube, MosaicChanged
Three alternativesCausal, Clockwork, Fathom
Cube, Runway
Five alternativesAleph, Clockwork, Datarails, Jirav, Mosaic
against: Anaplan, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Workday Adaptive PlanningFathom, Syft Analytics
Three alternativesClockwork, Cube, LiveFlow
against: Anaplan, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Workday Adaptive PlanningClockwork, Fathom
Six alternativesCausal, Cube, Datarails, Jirav, LiveFlow, Mosaic
against: Anaplan, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Workday Adaptive Planningagainst: Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, Workday Adaptive Planning
Perplexity SonarWorkday Adaptive Planning
Two alternativesDatarails, Vena
BambooHRChanged
Three alternatives15Five, Lattice, Profit.co
Vena
Four alternativesDatarails, Effy AI, PeopleGoal, Pigment
against: Workday Adaptive PlanningDatarails, PeopleGoal
One alternativeVena
against: Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planningno first choiceagainst: Anaplan, CCH Tagetik, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, SAP/Tagetik-class suites
Grok 4.1 FastCube, Drivetrain, Vena
Two alternativesPlanful, Workday Adaptive Planning
against: Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPMVenaChanged
One alternativeDrivetrain
against: Anaplan, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, WorkdayDatarails, Vena
Three alternativesPlanful, Prophix, Workday Adaptive Planning
against: Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPMJirav
Three alternativesBudgyt, Causal, Cube
against: 15Five, Anaplan, Effy AI, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Workday Adaptive PlanningCube, Venaagainst: Anaplan, EPM Live, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Workday Adaptive Planning
Mistral SmallDrivetrain, Workday Adaptive Planning
Two alternativesPigment, Vena
Drivetrain, VenaChanged
One alternativeThriveSparrow
Datarails
Four alternativesCube, Jedox, Prophix, Workday Adaptive Planning
Datarails
Two alternativesEffy AI, Zoho People
Cube, Prophix, Vena, Workday Adaptive Planningagainst: Anaplan, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, SAP Analytics Cloudagainst: Oracle Hyperion, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation
DeepSeek V4 FlashPlanful, Workday Adaptive Planning
Two alternativesJedox, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting
DrivetrainChanged
Four alternativesCentage, Cube, Datarails, Vena
against: Anaplan, OneStream, PlanfulCube, Jirav
Four alternativesDatarails, Jedox, Prophix, Vena
against: Anaplan, Betterworks, OneStream, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, Workday Adaptive PlanningLiveFlow
One alternativeExcel/Google Sheets + connectors
against: Cubeno first choice
Three alternativesCube, Datarails, Vena
against: Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashDatarails, Vena
One alternativeWorkday Adaptive Planning
against: AnaplanFathomChanged
Four alternativesDatarails, Float, Jirav, Vena
Cube
Three alternativesDrivetrain, Jirav, Vena
Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Four alternativesEffy AI, Limelight, Small Improvements, Zoho Projects
against: Anaplan, Oracle Hyperion, Venano first choiceagainst: Anaplan, Datarails, Oracle Hyperion, Planful, SAP Ariba, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, SAP SuccessFactors, Vena, Workday Adaptive Planning
Kimi K2Cube, Datarails
Three alternativesProphix, Vena, Workday Adaptive Planning
Drivetrain, VenaChanged
Three alternativesMosaic, PlanGuru, Prophix
against: Anaplan, OneStreamDatarails, Vena
Four alternativesCentage, Limelight, Planful, Prophix
Cube, EPM Live, Small Improvements
Two alternativesJedox, Zoho People
no first choiceagainst: Anaplan, IBM Planning Analytics, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Oracle Hyperion, Pigment, Workday Adaptive Planning
GLM 4.7 FlashXCube
Three alternativesBudgyt, PlanGuru, Vena
DrivetrainChanged
One alternativeVena
against: Anaplan, Planful, XebraDatarails
Three alternativesPlanful, Prophix, Vena
PlanGuru
Three alternativesBudgyt, Effy AI, PerformYard
no first choiceagainst: Betterworks, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation
MiniMax M2.5Workday Adaptive Planning
Four alternativesAnaplan, Datarails, Planful, SAP Analytics Cloud
Drivetrain, VenaChanged
One alternativeThriveSparrow
no first choiceAssessTeam, Zoho People
Two alternativesEffy AI, ThriveSparrow
no first choiceagainst: OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, SAP Enterprise Performance Management, Workday Adaptive Planning
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The 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-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:11no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:37yes47 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes1146 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:17yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:57yes2521 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:07yes109 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:24yes1015 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:43yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:43no026 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:36yes1834 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:06yes2235 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:25yes1440 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:54yes159 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:54no03 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:08yes921 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:07yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:27yes3222 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:08yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:46yes2628 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:05yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:42no030 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:46yes2234 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:08yes28178 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:11yes737 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:39yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:02yes410 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:21yes2028 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:08yes2015 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:59yes3417 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:24yes108 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:54yes2728 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:46yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:02yes24125 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:48yes1435 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:56yes2267 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:35yes1265 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:18yes1712 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:01yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:17yes1462 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:42yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:56yes3123 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:57yes96 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:59yes1821 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:54yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:01yes17116 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:11yes1940 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:52yes18309 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:47yes1236 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:09no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:06no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:35yes822 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:29yes1812 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:17yes1512 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:50no013 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:43yes1524 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:11yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:29yes533 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:50yes1631 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:17no022 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:43yes535 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:42yes3314 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:52yes77 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:20yes2648 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:51yes177 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:22yes3217 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:15yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:40yes2829 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:39yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:23yes537 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:11yes2940 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:47yes20171 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:02yes1536 s

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
Adaptive Insights read as Workday Adaptive Planning
Adaptive Insights (Workday) read as Workday Adaptive Planning
Adaptive Insights (by Workday) read as Workday Adaptive Planning
BPC read as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation
Clockwork.ai read as Clockwork
Host Analytics read as Planful
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
Oracle Cloud EPM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
Oracle Cloud EPM (including Fusion EPM and Hyperion legacy) read as Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
Oracle EPM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
Oracle EPM (Hyperion, EPM Cloud, Planning) read as Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
Oracle EPM Cloud read as Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
Oracle EPM Enterprise read as Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
Planview read as Planview Enterprise One
Prophix One read as Prophix
SAP BPC read as SAP Business Planning and Consolidation
Vena Solutions read as Vena
Unresolved, counted raw
AssessTeam
CaptivateIQ
Corrly
Everstage
Excel-based + Power BI
Excel/Google Sheets + connectors
Kepion EPM
Leapsome
Oracle Cloud EPM Planning in the Standard subscription
Oracle Hyperion Planning
Osirium
Profit.co
Prophesee
SAP BusinessObjects Edge
SAP/Tagetik-class suites
Salesforce Sales Performance Management
Scout
Teamflect
ThreatLocker
Vulki
Xebra
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in planning and analysis

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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