The Gist 100Business softwareOctober 2026
Freshdesk alone is named in most answers to every question
Freshdesk is named in 85% of AI answers and never falls below 61% on any question. Zendesk is named first in 39% of answers but drops to 15% when buyers ask for an affordable help desk.
By Gist GEO team · October 2026
Share of AI answers about customer support software that name each brand
In October 2026, Gist asked ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews eight buying questions about customer support software, ten times each, and counted 292 answers. Freshdesk appears in 85% of them, Zendesk in 77%, Help Scout in 68%, Intercom in 58% and Zoho Desk in 53%. Those five are the only brands named in more than half of all answers. In total, 41 brands were named at least once.
The field breaks after those five. Zoho Desk is named in 53% of answers and Salesforce Service Cloud in 31%, a drop of 22 points. HubSpot Service Hub and Jira Service Management sit at 29% each, Gorgias at 24% and Hiver at 18%. A typical answer names 6.0 brands, so there is room beyond the five, but it is split into small shares across many names.
The pattern that matters is consistency. Freshdesk is named in at least 61% of answers to every question, and its low point is the one about platforms worth paying more for. Every other brand drops further somewhere: Help Scout to 29%, Zendesk to 15%, Intercom to 5% and Zoho Desk to 0%. Freshdesk turns up whatever the question, while the others are named when a question fits their niche, so the wording of a buyer's question changes who gets named.
Freshdesk is named in 85% of answers and Zendesk in 77%, a gap of 8 points. In first mentions the order reverses. Zendesk is the first brand named in 39% of answers and Freshdesk in 12%, a gap of 27 points. Help Scout, at 16%, has the next highest first-mention share. One visible difference is the sources: the answers cite Zendesk's own site in 45% of answers and Freshdesk's in 17%. For a brand that wants the opening mention, being named at all is only part of the job.
Zendesk is named in 92% of answers to the question about platforms worth paying more for and in 15% of answers to the affordable help desk question, a swing of 77 points. Intercom moves from 89% to 5% across the same pair, and Salesforce Service Cloud from 85% to 0%. Zoho Desk runs the other way, at 100% on affordable and 43% on worth paying more for. Freshdesk, at 90% and 61%, swings only 29 points. So the price tier the answers attach to a brand appears to shape which buyers hear its name.
Two questions use the words help desk with no price, size or use case attached. Jira Service Management is named in 100% of answers to the shortlist question and 84% of answers to the question about help desk platforms to consider. On the best support software question it drops to 8%, and on the worth-paying-more and easiest-to-set-up questions to 0%. The answers describe it as an internal IT desk for teams that already use Jira and Confluence. ServiceNow, at 53% and 67% on those two questions and 5% or less on every other, shows the same shape. For a vendor, an open help desk question means appearing beside IT service tools.
Claude names 8.0 brands per answer, against 5.9 for Perplexity, 4.9 for ChatGPT and 4.5 for Google AI Overviews. All four brands the assistants disagree on most, Salesforce Service Cloud, Help Scout, Intercom and Zoho Desk, are named most often by Claude. Claude names Salesforce Service Cloud in 56% of answers and ChatGPT in 8%. Perplexity and Claude name Hiver in 30% and 38% of answers, while ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews name it in 1% and 2%. For brands like these, the assistant a buyer asks changes the answer alongside the question.
Who each company is, and how it shows up in the answers
85% of AI answers
Freshdesk is help desk software from Freshworks that businesses use to track customer support requests arriving by email, phone, websites, forums and social media. Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy founded the company in Chennai, India, in 2010 under the name Freshdesk, and it became Freshworks in 2017.
Since 2010 · San Mateo · Part of Freshworks
Answers place it between a shared inbox and an enterprise suite, crediting ticketing, automations, SLAs and multichannel support, plus a knowledge base. Several call it the value pick for small and growing teams. It is named in 98% of answers to the small business question, and Claude names it in 99% of its answers.
77% of AI answers
Zendesk sells customer service software that businesses use to handle support requests, plus products for sales and other customer communications. Morten Primdahl, Alexander Aghassipour and Mikkel Svane founded it in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007, and an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira acquired it in 2022. Its ticketing system brings requests from email, chat and social media into one place.
Founded 2007 · San Francisco
Larger and scaling teams are the audience the answers describe, with omnichannel ticketing, automation, reporting and AI agents on offer and a note that setup takes admin time. It is named in 100% of answers to the best support software and SaaS questions, and ChatGPT and Claude each name it in 89% of their answers.
68% of AI answers
Help Scout makes help desk and knowledge base software that companies use to manage customer support. Nick Francis, Jared McDaniel and Denny Swindle founded it in 2011 and launched it during the Techstars Boston accelerator program. The team works fully remotely, from cities around the world.
Founded 2011
Small teams that work mostly in email are the audience, and the answers credit a shared inbox, a knowledge base and light administration. It is named in 94% of answers to the easiest-to-set-up question and 81% of those about small business, and Claude names it in 84% of its answers.
58% of AI answers
Customer messaging and support platform, with an AI agent called Fin.
Chat, in-app messaging and the Fin AI agent anchor the answers about it, which place it with product-led software companies. It is named in 97% of answers to the SaaS question and 83% of those about the best support software, and Perplexity and Claude name it in 68% and 70% of their answers.
53% of AI answers
The help desk app in the Zoho suite.
Budget is the word the answers attach to it, along with teams that also run other Zoho products and support across email, social, messaging and phone. It is named in 100% of answers to the affordable question and 98% of those about small business, and in 0% of those about SaaS companies.
31% of AI answers
Salesforce’s customer service product.
Enterprises whose customer data already lives in Salesforce are the audience, with self-service, AI and omnichannel case management credited. It reaches 85% on the question about platforms worth paying more for and 50% on the best support software question. Claude names it most often of the four assistants.
29% of AI answers
HubSpot’s customer service software, tied to its CRM.
Teams already running HubSpot's CRM get the recommendation, with service, marketing and sales history kept in one place. It reaches 54% on the SaaS question, and Google AI Overviews names it in 40% of its answers against 14% for Perplexity.
29% of AI answers
Atlassian’s service desk, built on Jira and widely used by IT teams.
Internal IT desks are the use the answers describe, for teams that already use Jira and Confluence, with incident, asset and change workflows credited. It is named in 100% of answers when buyers ask which three help desks to shortlist and in 35% of those about affordable help desks, but in 2% of those about small business.
24% of AI answers
Customer support software built for online stores.
Online stores are the audience, and the answers credit order data, refunds and shipping steps inside the support tool, plus revenue attribution. ChatGPT and Claude name it in 39% and 40% of answers, while Perplexity names it in 2%. It reaches 58% on the best support software question.
18% of AI answers
Help desk and shared inbox that works inside Gmail.
A help desk that runs inside Gmail is the draw, turning a shared inbox into ticketing for B2B teams, with AI included across plans. It is named in 50% of answers to the best support software question and 42% of those about small business. Perplexity and Claude, the two assistants that cite its own site, name it most often.
The three brands named most for each question Gist asked
| Question | Named most | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| What's the best customer support software right now? | Zendesk 100% | Intercom 83% | Freshdesk (Freshworks) 75% |
| Which help desk platforms do you recommend? | Zendesk 97% | Freshdesk (Freshworks) 94% | Help Scout 84% |
| What's the best affordable help desk software? | Zoho Desk 100% | Freshdesk (Freshworks) 90% | Spiceworks 65% |
| Which customer support platforms are worth paying more for? | Zendesk 92% | Intercom 89% | Salesforce Service Cloud 85% |
| What's the best help desk for a small business? | Freshdesk (Freshworks) 98% | Zoho Desk 98% | Help Scout 81% |
| What's the best customer support platform for a SaaS company? | Zendesk 100% | Intercom 97% | Freshdesk (Freshworks) 82% |
| We're replacing our help desk. Which three should we shortlist? | Jira Service Management (Atlassian) 100% | Freshdesk (Freshworks) 96% | Zendesk 92% |
| Which customer support software is easiest to set up? | Freshdesk (Freshworks) 94% | Help Scout 94% | Zendesk 66% |
Share of each assistant’s answers that name the brand
| Brand | All four | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Google AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshdesk (Freshworks) | 85% | 78% | 88% | 99% | 77% |
| Zendesk | 77% | 89% | 69% | 89% | 62% |
| Help Scout | 68% | 78% | 69% | 84% | 40% |
| Intercom | 58% | 64% | 68% | 70% | 31% |
| Zoho Desk | 53% | 31% | 57% | 70% | 52% |
| Salesforce Service Cloud | 31% | 8% | 26% | 56% | 35% |
| HubSpot Service Hub | 29% | 16% | 14% | 46% | 40% |
| Jira Service Management (Atlassian) | 29% | 36% | 25% | 31% | 23% |
| Gorgias | 24% | 39% | 2% | 40% | 15% |
| Hiver | 18% | 1% | 30% | 38% | 2% |
The websites AI cites most on customer support software, by share of answers
Brand sites make up most of the most-cited pages. zendesk.com appears in 45% of answers, intercom.com in 36%, HelpDesk in 32% and helpscout.com in 23%. Review sites appear less often, with G2 at 22% and Capterra at 17%, though Perplexity cites G2 in 62% of its answers. ChatGPT leans on zendesk.com at 62%. Google AI Overviews turns to Alloy Software at 40% and The CX Lead, a publisher, at 27%. Claude cites HelpDesk and bluetweak.com at 59% each.
Three moves the numbers point to
Earn a presence on G2, which Perplexity cites in 62% of its answers, and on The CX Lead, which Claude cites in 55% and Google AI Overviews in 27%. Each site is cited by a different set of assistants.
Build a clear setup story for the easiest-to-set-up question, where Help Scout and Freshdesk are each named in 94% of answers and Zendesk in 66%, a drop of 28 points. HubSpot Service Hub, at 46%, is the highest of the rest.
Check how Claude describes your brand, since it names 8.0 brands per answer against 4.5 on Google AI Overviews. Zoho Desk, for one, is named in 70% of Claude answers and 31% of ChatGPT answers.
Analysis · 4 min read
HubSpot scores 99 in CRM software and 29 for its Service Hub in customer support software. Zoho has a top-ten product in seven categories and leads none. Five of 13 companies with products in several categories lead one, and none leads two. A lead stays in its category.
99 vs 29HubSpot’s CRM score against its Service Hub score
Case study · 4 min read
The largest CRM vendor by market share is not the brand the answers name most. HubSpot scores 99 and Salesforce 83. Assistants name HubSpot first in 49% of answers and Salesforce first in 26%. The gap sits in four of eight questions, and the lead stays in CRM.
99 vs 83Share of CRM answers naming HubSpot vs Salesforce
Analysis · 4 min read
In 8 of 32 categories, the most-named brand is not named first most often. Gmail scores 96 in email management but is first in 8 percent of answers. Fathom is first in 52 percent of notetaker answers, Fireflies.ai in 10. These counts measure how often a brand appears and how often it is named first.
96 vs 8Gmail’s score versus its first-mention share
Gist asks a fixed set of eight buying questions in each category. None of them names a brand. Each question is put to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews ten times, with web search on.
A brand’s score is the share of answers that name it, averaged across the assistants so that each one counts equally. Stores and review sites named in passing are not ranked. Brands named in fewer than one answer in ten are left off.
Measured October 5 to October 6, 2026.
No. It shows which brands AI assistants name when asked, not which products are best. Being named often usually reflects how much has been written about a brand, and where.
The page shows the 10 most-named brands. The free scan checks your own brand on a topic you choose.
Yes. AI answers shift as assistants are updated and as new pages are published. The date at the top shows when this ranking was measured.
See which brands appear in AI recommendations for your category, and where your brand stands among them.
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