HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
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. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Boon Health
Contested
28% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 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 businessBoon Health28%ContestedThis pageMid-marketGrowthspace26%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseBetterUp49%Clear leaderStanding →

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
01Boon Health28%4%28accepted challenger
02Risely17%0%25accepted challenger
03CoachHub9%57%37criticized challenger
04Exec4%8%12accepted challenger
05BetterUp2%76%34criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09UpCoach0%10%10accepted challenger
06Simply.Coach0%0%12accepted challenger
08Growthspace0%0%11accepted challenger
07Coachello0%0%10accepted 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
Growthspace vs Boon HealthGrowthspace vs ExecBoon Health vs Exec

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Boon Health28%
02Risely17%
03CoachHub9%
04Exec4%
05BetterUp2%
06Simply.Coach0%
07Coachello0%
08Growthspace0%
09UpCoach0%

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, 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
76%
26 of 34 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“What to Avoid on a Tight Budget - **BetterUp, CoachHub, Torch, EZRA** — these enterprise platforms typically run **$300–$1,000+ per employee per year**” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
CoachHub
57%
21 of 37 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Skip massive enterprise networks like BetterUp or CoachHub, which typically cost $3,000–$5,000+ per user per year” Gemini 3.5 Flash, direct prompt
Lurn
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken action against companies like Lurn for making such false promises” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Profi
60%
3 of 5 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Shut down on December 31, 2025... These platforms are not recommended” Llama 4 Maverick, negative 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

66 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. 934 links across 238 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

boon-health.com
37 answers · 48 citations · 9 models
coachstackhub.ai
32 answers · 36 citations · 9 models
360learning.com
vendor site · 360Learning26 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
coachilly.com
20 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
coachhub.com
vendor site · CoachHub17 answers · 21 citations · 10 models
paperbell.com
vendor site · Paperbell16 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
worldmetrics.org
16 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
togetherplatform.com
15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
circle.so
vendor site · Circle14 answers · 14 citations · 8 models
g2.com
13 answers · 22 citations · 6 models
simply.coach
12 answers · 14 citations · 7 models
getapp.com
11 answers · 15 citations · 6 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.

boon-health.com/learn/resources/best-enterprise-coaching-platforms
36 answers · 9 models
coachstackhub.ai/compare/business-coaching-platforms
31 answers · 9 models
360learning.com/blog/online-coaching-platforms
26 answers · 10 models
coachhub.com/
16 answers · 10 models
togetherplatform.com/blog/best-online-platforms-for-employee-coaching
15 answers · 9 models
circle.so/blog/best-coaching-platforms
14 answers · 8 models
coachilly.com/coaching-software-review-2026
14 answers · 9 models
worldmetrics.org/best/employee-coaching-software
12 answers · 6 models
delenta.com/blog/coaching-support-platforms
10 answers · 8 models
exec.com/learn/best-leadership-coaching-platforms
10 answers · 6 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 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 4.5no first choiceCoachHubChanged
Two alternativesCoaching.com, LifeCoachHub
Simply.Coach
Three alternativesCoachVantage, Paperbell, UpCoach
TalentLMS
Two alternativesGoogle Classroom, Moodle
against: BetterUp, CoachHubno first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub
GPT-5.4 miniCloverleaf
Two alternativesBetterUp, Tandem
CoachHubChanged
One alternativeClarity.fm
CoachAccountable, Simply.Coach
Three alternativesAcuity Scheduling, Practice, Satori
against: HoneyBookStaffCircle
One alternativeSimply.Coach
against: Trainualno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRisely
Five alternatives15Five, Boon Health, Gong, Highspot, Lattice
against: BetterUp, CoachHubMySalesCoachChanged
Eight alternativesBoon Health, Coaching.com, Delenta, GroupApp, GrowthMentor, Growthspace, MentorCruise, Simply.Coach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRABravely, Simply.Coach
Six alternativesBoon Health, CoachAccountable, CoachHub, Growthspace, Paperbell, Profi
Rocky.ai
Three alternativesCoachello, Effy AI, Udex 360 Feedback
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRABoon Health, Cloverleaf, Exec, Risely
Three alternativesCoachello, Fingerprint for Success, Together
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, Torchagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, UpCoach
Perplexity SonarBoon Health
Two alternativesExec, Risely
against: BetterUpMicroMentor, Yo!CoachChanged
Three alternativesCoaching.com, Profi, UpCoach
Delenta
Five alternativesCoachAccountable, CoachVantage, Paperbell, Simply.Coach, UpCoach
Peoplebox, Valence
One alternativeBravely
against: BetterUp, CoachHubno first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, Coaches Console, Coaching Lobby, Profi
Grok 4.1 FastRisely
Two alternativesBoon Health, Peoplebox
against: Coachful, TogetherGrowthMentorChanged
One alternativeMentorCruise
against: BetterUp, Clarity.fm, CoachHub, NoomiiCoachAccountable
Four alternativesCoachVantage, Paperbell, Risely, Simply.Coach
against: BetterUp, Boon Health, CoachHub15Five
Three alternativesCoachVantage, Effy AI, TalentLMS
no first choiceagainst: Lurn, NPE, LLC, Private Label Mastery, Stayly and Stayly Academy, Tony Robbins/Results Coaching
Mistral SmallBoon Health
One alternativeRisely
BetterUpChanged
Two alternativesBoon Health, CoachHub
Boon Health, Coachello, Risely
Two alternativesExec, Growthspace
Boon Health, Riselyno first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, Lurn
DeepSeek V4 FlashBoon Health
Four alternativesCoachello, Exec, Growthspace, Risely
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, TorchBoon HealthHeld
Two alternativesExec, Risely
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRASimply.Coach
Five alternativesCoachAccountable, Delenta, GroupApp, Paperbell, UpCoach
against: BetterUp, CoachHub15Five
Four alternatives360Learning, Effy AI, Risely, Zoho People
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, EZRA, Lattice, TorchBoon Health, Risely
Two alternativesExec, Growthspace
against: BetterUp, CoachHubagainst: Everfit, Kajabi, Skool, Teachable, Trainerize, TrueCoach
Llama 4 MaverickBoon Health, Riselyno first choiceChanged
Four alternativesCoachHub, Coaching.com, Setmycoach, Yo!Coach
no first choiceBoon Health
Three alternativesMarlee, Risely, Rocky.ai
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, Coaches Console, Coaching Lobby, Profi
Qwen 3.7 FlashCoachHub
Three alternatives15Five, Gong, MentorcliQ
Catalant, ExecChanged
Two alternativesCoachHub, Noomii
UpCoach
Two alternativesCircle, GroupApp
against: Mighty NetworksRisely
Seven alternatives15Five, Boon Health, CoachHub, Connecteam, Growthspace, PeopleGoal, ProProfs Training Maker
against: BetterUp, EZRAno first choiceagainst: BetterUp, Latticeagainst: BetterUp, Clarity.fm, Coaching.com, LinkedIn Audio Calls
Kimi K2Boon Health
Three alternativesCoachello, Risely, Valence
against: BetterUp, CoachHub, ExecGrowthMentorChanged
Three alternativesClarity.fm, CoachHub, MentorCruise
Simply.Coach
Five alternativesBoon Health, Circle, CoachVantage, Paperbell, UpCoach
15Five
Two alternativesBoon Health, Lattice
no first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub, Lurn, Practice
GLM 4.7 FlashXRisely
Two alternatives15Five, Boon Health
Boon HealthChanged
Two alternativesCoachMarket, Risely
CoachVantage, Simply.Coach
Four alternatives360Learning, CoachAccountable, Practice Better, Thinkific
against: Kajabi, TeachableImperative
Five alternativesMesh, PeopleGoal, Risely, Teamspective, UpCoach
against: BetterUp, Bravely, CoachHubno first choiceagainst: BetterUp, CoachHub
MiniMax M2.5Boon Health, Peoplebox
Three alternativesCoachello, Risely, Valence
CoachHub, Coaching.comChanged
Two alternativesSetmycoach, Yo!Coach
Boon Health, Risely
Four alternativesCoachello, Delenta, Simply.Coach, Valence
Boon Health
Two alternativesGoSkills, Risely
no first choiceagainst: Coaching.com, Profi, Trainerize
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 18:07no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:33yes37 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:56yes1552 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:56yes196 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:05yes3728 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:59yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:50yes1318 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:43yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:15no027 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:09yes1125 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:11yes2160 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:52yes515 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:24yes169 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:35yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:48yes1326 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:34yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:25yes3916 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:00yes77 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:43yes2227 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:11yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:32yes1276 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:21yes2931 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:18yes11184 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:05yes838 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:18yes97 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:09yes49 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:01yes1852 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:50yes1910 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:29yes3215 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:49yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:46yes2726 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:48yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:14yes1045 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:22yes1027 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:20yes25414 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:39yes822 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:16yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:48yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:28yes1427 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:49yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:25yes4721 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:33yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:13yes2935 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:04yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:46yes1431 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:48yes1840 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:58yes3489 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:56yes511 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:16no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:04no04 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:52yes748 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:06yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:18yes1511 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:16no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:43yes1926 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:22yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:05yes1039 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:54yes1926 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:23yes1445 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:02no013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:06yes179 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:40yes36 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:06yes2360 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:27yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:56yes3417 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:44yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:54yes2865 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:55yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:50yes2086 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:27yes2651 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:41yes2475 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:35yes1736 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
Boon read as Boon Health
Clarity read as Clarity.fm
Unresolved, counted raw
CoachMarket
Coachful
Coachilly
Enable Leaders
Everfit
Fingerprint for Success (F4S)
Grow
LifeCoachHub
LinkedIn Audio Calls
MySalesCoach
NPE, LLC
Private Label Mastery
Reflekt
SBA-affiliated mentoring/consulting
Stayly and Stayly Academy
System.io
Tony Robbins/Results Coaching
Trainery
TrueCoach
Udex 360 Feedback
Vistage
Zugata
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in learning and development

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← Talent intelligenceCompliance training →