Published by Gist GEO · About our content
Salesforce reports that IDC ranks it the number one CRM provider for the 13th consecutive year, with a 20.0% market share in 2025. Market share is a share of vendor revenue, which makes Salesforce the biggest CRM vendor on IDC’s count. A Gist score is the share of AI answers that name a brand. The two measure different things. On the Gist measure, HubSpot leads CRM software with a score of 99 and Salesforce scores 83.
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews name HubSpot in 294 of the 296 CRM answers Gist counted. They name HubSpot first in 49% of answers and Salesforce first in 26%, so HubSpot comes first about twice as often. The gap is widest on the affordable small-business question, where HubSpot scores 100 and Salesforce scores 5.
The gap sits in four questions
Share of AI answers to each CRM question that name the brand, percent
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
- Best affordable CRM for small business
- Easiest CRM to adopt
- Best CRM for a startup sales team
- Best CRM for a mid-size B2B company
- Best CRM software
- CRM platforms to consider
- CRMs worth paying more for
- Three CRMs to shortlist
Source: The Gist 100, October 2026.
The gap sits in four questions
HubSpot and Salesforce score 100 on four of the eight CRM questions. HubSpot scores higher on the other four and Salesforce on none.
Score by question: HubSpot, Salesforce and the gap in points
| Question | HubSpot | Salesforce | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best affordable CRM for small business | 100 | 5 | 95 |
| Easiest CRM to adopt | 100 | 76 | 24 |
| Best CRM for a startup sales team | 95 | 83 | 12 |
| Best CRM for a mid-size B2B company | 100 | 95 | 5 |
| Best CRM software | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| CRM platforms to consider | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| CRMs worth paying more for | 100 | 100 | 0 |
| Three CRMs to shortlist | 100 | 100 | 0 |
The affordable question has the widest gap by far, 95 points. The counts do not say why Salesforce scores 5 on it. One Google AI Overviews answer to the best-CRM question sorts the field this way: Salesforce for large enterprises, HubSpot for inbound marketing and beginners, Zoho CRM as the affordable pick.
The gap shows in every assistant. It runs from 11 points in Claude (HubSpot 100, Salesforce 89) to 30 points in Google AI Overviews (100 and 70). ChatGPT (100 and 88) and Perplexity (98 and 86) each show 12. Google AI Overviews returned 56 CRM answers, against 80 from each of the other three, so its figures rest on a smaller base.
The first brand an answer names is HubSpot in 49% of answers, Salesforce in 26%, Pipedrive in 15% and Zoho CRM in 10%. Most answers name both companies, since Salesforce appears in 84% of the answers that name HubSpot.
What the answers credit and cite
In six excerpts from answers to the two general questions, several credit HubSpot with ease of use and with joining sales, marketing and service in one system. Most describe it as a fit for small and mid-size businesses or growing companies. Three tie it to inbound marketing, and three note that cost rises as a company scales up. Claude also points to a free tier. The excerpts do not show why an assistant names HubSpot first.
The two companies’ own sites draw about the same share of citations, hubspot.com in 26% of answers and salesforce.com in 27%. By assistant they differ. ChatGPT cites hubspot.com in 84% of its answers and salesforce.com in 57%. Perplexity cites each in 12%. Salesforce’s site draws more citations in Google AI Overviews (18% against 7%) and in Claude (20% against 1%). Claude still scores 100 for HubSpot.
The page the answers cite most is a pricing page, hubspot.com/pricing/sales, in 35 answers, all of them from ChatGPT. A blog post on Sales Hub pricing follows with 12, and a blog guide to evaluating CRM software with 10. Product pages draw fewer, 6 for the startups page and 5 each for the CRM and Sales pages.
The lead stays in CRM
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah founded HubSpot in June 2006. Its products include Marketing Hub, Sales Hub and Service Hub. HubSpot scores 10 or more in five categories and leads one of them.
In email marketing platforms it ranks 6th with a score of 50 and comes first in 12% of answers. In customer support software the ranking lists HubSpot Service Hub, which ranks 7th with a score of 29 and comes first in 3%. Both make the published top ten. In website builders, where the ranking lists HubSpot Content Hub, and in email management software, HubSpot scores 10 and ranks 11th and 13th. Neither makes the top ten.
In CRM the four assistants score HubSpot from 98 to 100. In email marketing platforms the four scores run from 35 to 64, and in customer support software from 14 to 46. HubSpot’s lead in one category does not carry over at the same level to the others.
What to do with this
- Test each question a buyer asks, and note which brand comes first. Salesforce scores 100 on four of the eight CRM questions and 5 on the affordable question. HubSpot comes first in 49% of answers and Salesforce in 26%.
- Find which of your pages the answers cite. HubSpot’s most-cited page is a pricing page, cited in 35 answers, while its CRM, Sales and startups pages draw 5 or 6 each. Keep pricing pages and evaluation guides current and plain.
- Score each category on its own. HubSpot scores 99 in CRM software and 29 for Service Hub in customer support software. Measure each product where buyers ask about it.
Counted from the answers behind the October 2026 Gist 100. How it is made.
Sources
- The Gist 100: how it is made. Gist GEO
- HubSpot. Wikipedia
- Salesforce Ranked #1 CRM Provider for 13th Consecutive Year. Salesforce, Jun 4, 2026
Questions marketers ask
Do AI answers name HubSpot or Salesforce more often for CRM software?
HubSpot. It scores 99 against Salesforce’s 83, and assistants name it first in 49% of answers against 26% for Salesforce. Salesforce scores 100 on four of the eight questions and 5 on the affordable small-business question.
Does HubSpot’s CRM lead carry over to its other categories?
Not at the same level. HubSpot scores 50 in email marketing platforms, 29 for Service Hub in customer support software, and 10 in both website builders and email management software. Of the five categories where it scores 10 or more, it leads one.