Top 39 CRM Software in AI Answers — October 2026
Which CRM platforms AI answer engines name when buyers ask what to use. One fixed prompt set, every brand scored on the same basis.
Summary
HubSpot was named in 71.4% of AI answer engine responses to CRM recommendation prompts in October 2026, leading the second-place Zoho CRM by 11.4 percentage points across 40 fixed prompts run against six engines (Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Grok). The market shows significant concentration: the top four brands account for 236 of 219 scored answers, while 33 brands scored below the 2.9% median. Of 1,653 total citations to sources, 65.6% pointed to third-party sites rather than vendors' own domains, with Salesforce.com, YouTube, and HubSpot.com as the most-cited sources. Google Gemini showed substantially different behavior, naming HubSpot in only 30% of responses versus 77.4% average across other engines. Six brands—Close, Copper CRM, Creatio, Nimble, Pipeliner CRM, and RankMonster—were never named in any response.
- HubSpot leads at 71.4% named, an 11.4 percentage point margin over second-place Zoho CRM at 60%.
- The top four brands (HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, Pipedrive) account for 236 of 219 total answers scored.
- Google Gemini names HubSpot in 30% of responses versus 77.4% average across the other five engines.
- 33 of 39 brands scored at or below the category median of 2.9% named.
- Of 1,653 total citations across 482 domains, 65.6% went to third-party sites; vendors' own domains received 34.4%.
- HubSpot's own domain was cited in 17.5% of answers where HubSpot was named; Salesforce cited its own domain at 18.1%.
- Six brands were never named: Close, Copper CRM, Creatio, Nimble, Pipeliner CRM, and RankMonster.
Every brand is scored against the same 40 prompts. A brand is never credited for a prompt that named it — that prompt is excluded from its numerator and its denominator alike. Engines that never mention a brand count toward the average rather than being dropped from it. 39 brands were measured; the 39 that AI engines actually named are ranked below.
| # | Brand | Blended(4 engines) | ChatGPT | Claude | Google Gemini | Perplexity | Google AI OverviewSERP feature | Grokno web search | Best rank | Brand report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HubSpot hubspot.com 4 negative mentions | 71% 100/140 | 83% cite 25% | 70% cite 0% | 30% cite 5% | 83% cite 40% | 72% cite 51% | 80% cite n/a | 1 | See the 40 they lost |
| 2 | Zoho CRM zoho.com 2 negative mentions | 60% 84/140 | 68% cite 18% | 65% cite 0% | 20% cite 0% | 68% cite 33% | 64% cite 28% | 73% cite n/a | 1 | See the 56 they lost |
| 3 | Salesforce salesforce.com | 54% 76/140 | 63% cite 13% | 57% cite 5% | 20% cite 10% | 60% cite 45% | 51% cite 56% | 65% cite n/a | 1 | See the 64 they lost |
| 4 | Pipedrive pipedrive.com 2 negative mentions | 50% 70/140 | 57% cite 5% | 53% cite 10% | 10% cite 0% | 60% cite 50% | 49% cite 36% | 68% cite n/a | 1 | See the 70 they lost |
| 5 | Freshsales freshworks.com 1 negative mention | 29% 40/140 | 33% cite 10% | 33% cite 3% | 5% cite 0% | 33% cite 10% | 8% cite 0% | 18% cite n/a | 1 | See the 100 they lost |
| 6 | Microsoft Dynamics 365 dynamics.microsoft.com | 21% 29/140 | 33% cite 0% | 25% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 13% cite 0% | 13% cite 5% | 28% cite n/a | 2 | See the 111 they lost |
| 7 | Monday CRM monday.com | 16% 23/140 | 15% cite 0% | 20% cite 15% | 10% cite 15% | 18% cite 50% | 21% cite 13% | 3% cite n/a | 1 | See the 117 they lost |
| 8 | Copper copper.com | 8% 11/140 | 18% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 5% | 5% cite 3% | 3% cite 3% | 10% cite n/a | 2 | See the 129 they lost |
| 9 | Airtable airtable.com | 6% 8/140 | 10% cite 0% | 8% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 5% | 0% cite 3% | 8% cite n/a | 2 | See the 132 they lost |
| 10 | Follow Up Boss followupboss.com | 5% 7/140 | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | 1 | See the 133 they lost |
| 11 | Less Annoying CRM lessannoyingcrm.com | 5% 7/140 | 3% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 10% cite 0% | 13% cite 8% | 3% cite n/a | — | See the 133 they lost |
| 12 | Streak streak.com | 5% 7/140 | 10% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 8% cite 5% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | 2 | See the 133 they lost |
| 13 | Notion notion.so | 4% 6/140 | 10% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 10% cite n/a | — | See the 134 they lost |
| 14 | Folk folk.app | 4% 5/140 | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 5% | 0% cite 5% | 8% cite 18% | 0% cite 3% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 135 they lost |
| 15 | Insightly insightly.com | 4% 5/140 | 3% cite 3% | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite 20% | 3% cite 18% | 5% cite 3% | 3% cite n/a | 6 | See the 135 they lost |
| 16 | Odoo CRM odoo.com 1 negative mention | 4% 5/140 | 10% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 3% | 3% cite 3% | 8% cite n/a | — | See the 135 they lost |
| 17 | Wise Agent wiseagent.com | 4% 5/140 | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 5% | 5% cite 5% | 0% cite n/a | 2 | See the 135 they lost |
| 18 | ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com | 3% 4/140 | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 3% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 136 they lost |
| 19 | Attio attio.com | 3% 4/140 | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 3% | 5% cite 5% | 8% cite n/a | — | See the 136 they lost |
| 20 | Bitrix24 bitrix24.com 1 negative mention | 3% 4/140 | 8% cite 5% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 8% | 3% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | 1 | See the 136 they lost |
| 21 | Bloomerang bloomerang.com | 3% 4/140 | 5% cite 3% | 3% cite 3% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 3% | 3% cite 0% | 3% cite n/a | 2 | See the 136 they lost |
| 22 | Nutshell nutshell.com | 3% 4/140 | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 5% | 0% cite 5% | 5% cite 33% | 3% cite 3% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 136 they lost |
| 23 | SugarCRM sugarcrm.com | 3% 4/140 | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | 6 | See the 136 they lost |
| 24 | SuiteCRM suitecrm.com 1 negative mention | 3% 4/140 | 10% cite 3% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 5% | 8% cite n/a | — | See the 136 they lost |
| 25 | Zendesk Sell zendesk.com | 3% 4/140 | 3% cite 0% | 3% cite 3% | 0% cite 5% | 5% cite 10% | 0% cite 10% | 0% cite n/a | 5 | See the 136 they lost |
| 26 | Keap keap.com | 2% 3/140 | 3% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 137 they lost |
| 27 | Capsule CRM capsulecrm.com 1 negative mention | 1% 2/140 | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | — | See the 138 they lost |
| 28 | CiviCRM | 1% 2/140 | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 138 they lost |
| 29 | EspoCRM espocrm.com | 1% 2/140 | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 3% | 0% cite 5% | 8% cite n/a | — | See the 138 they lost |
| 30 | Salesflare salesflare.com | 1% 2/140 | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 138 they lost |
| 31 | Vtiger vtiger.com | 1% 2/140 | 3% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 10% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite 5% | 5% cite n/a | — | See the 138 they lost |
| 32 | Apptivo apptivo.com | 1% 1/140 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 139 they lost |
| 33 | DonorPerfect | 1% 1/140 | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 139 they lost |
| 34 | Close close.com | 0% 0/140 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 10% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 140 they lost |
| 35 | Copper CRM coppercrm.com | 0% 0/140 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 140 they lost |
| 36 | Creatio creatio.com | 0% 0/140 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 3% | 0% cite 15% | 0% cite 28% | 0% cite 8% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 140 they lost |
| 37 | Nimble nimble.com | 0% 0/140 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 10% | 0% cite 10% | 0% cite 15% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 140 they lost |
| 38 | Pipeliner CRM pipelinersales.com | 0% 0/140 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 140 they lost |
| 39 | RankMonster rankmonster.ai | 0% 0/140 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 140 they lost |
Mention = the brand is named in the answer text. Citation = the brand's domain appears in that answer's sources. Best rank counts only answers that used a numbered list or a ranked table; ordering inside prose is not treated as a rank.
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How the CRM Software field performed
HubSpot dominates the AI-recommended CRM category at 71.4%, named across all six engines with consistency—lowest at 30% on Google Gemini, highest at 82.5% on ChatGPT and Perplexity. Zoho CRM ranks second at 60%, appearing across all engines but also most concentrated on Google Gemini at 20%. Salesforce follows at 54.3%, with citation from its own domain at 18.1%, the second-highest self-citation rate in the top tier. Pipedrive reaches 50%, also appearing on all engines with Google Gemini again showing the weakest adoption at 10%. These four brands form the clear leadership tier, each appearing in roughly half or more of all responses.
The second tier includes Freshsales at 28.6%, which shows sharp engine divergence—32.5% on Claude and ChatGPT but only 5% on Google Gemini and 7.7% on Google AI Overview. Microsoft Dynamics 365 sits at 20.7% with notably weak self-citation (0%) despite 25% on Claude and 32.5% on ChatGPT. Monday CRM reaches 16.4%, unusual in achieving 20% self-citation despite lower overall naming, suggesting it appears in curated source lists. These three brands occupy the space between the dominant leaders and the fragmented tail.
From rank 8 through 25, the field fragments significantly. Copper at 7.9%, Airtable at 5.7%, and a cluster of 5% brands (Follow Up Boss, Less Annoying CRM, Streak) each appear sporadically across engines with minimal self-citation. Notion at 4.3%, Folk at 3.6%, Insightly at 3.6%, Odoo CRM at 3.6%, Wise Agent at 3.6%, and a group of 2.9% brands including ActiveCampaign, Attio, Bitrix24, Bloomerang, Nutshell, SugarCRM, SuiteCRM, and Zendesk Sell represent the established middle—each named in at least one engine but appearing rarely across the set. Nutshell and Zendesk Sell achieve notable self-citation rates (10.6% and 4.4% respectively) despite low overall naming.
The long tail spans ranks 26 through 33, where Keap (2.1%), Capsule CRM (1.4%), CiviCRM (1.4%), EspoCRM (1.4%), Salesflare (1.4%), Vtiger (1.4%), Apptivo (0.7%), and DonorPerfect (0.7%) appear with single-digit counts across all six engines. Most show zero or near-zero self-citation; Vtiger achieves 3.8% despite 1.4% naming.
Six brands achieved zero naming: Close, Copper CRM, Creatio, Nimble, Pipeliner CRM, and RankMonster. Three of these—Creatio (11.3%), Nimble (8.8%), and Close (2.5%)—received notable self-citations despite never being named by any engine, indicating they appear as sources in answer text but are not themselves recommended as solutions.
How the engines differ
The six engines differ sharply in breadth and concentration. ChatGPT and Perplexity each name 29 and 22 distinct brands respectively, while Google Gemini names only 10—the narrowest set. Claude names 25 distinct brands, Google AI Overview names 20, and Grok names 21. On HubSpot specifically, Google Gemini's 30% stands isolated; the other five engines range from 70% (Claude) to 82.5% (ChatGPT and Perplexity). This divergence suggests Google Gemini applies different ranking or filtering criteria to its CRM recommendations.
Citation behavior varies significantly by engine. Perplexity cites a brand's own domain in 10.3% of answers—roughly 7x the rate of Claude (1.5%), ChatGPT (2.1%), and Google Gemini (2.7%). Google AI Overview cites at 6.7%. Grok returns no citations at all, citing zero brands from their own domains. Across all engines, 482 distinct domains received citations, yet 65.6% of the 1,653 total citations went to third-party sites (YouTube, Forbes, TechRadar, G2, PCMag, Zapier) rather than vendor sites, indicating AI answers rely heavily on independent reviews and roundups rather than vendor content.
The most-cited sources mix vendor and third-party heavily. Salesforce.com leads with 62 citations across 28 prompts; YouTube has 56 citations across 27; HubSpot.com has 55 across 28. Pipedrive.com (49 citations), Forbes.com (42), Monday.com (42), and Zoho.com (37) follow, then Zapier.com at 33 citations, blog.hubspot.com at 30, and TechRadar at 30. G2.com and PCMag represent third-party aggregators with 27 citations each, indicating that even where vendors are cited, independent comparison sites shape the conversation.
Questions about this data
Which CRM is recommended most by AI answer engines?
HubSpot was named in 71.4% of 219 scored answers across six major AI engines in October 2026. This represents the single strongest position in the category, with a lead of 11.4 percentage points over second-place Zoho CRM at 60%.
How different are the AI engines in what CRM they recommend?
Google Gemini shows the most divergent behavior, naming HubSpot in only 30% of prompts compared to 77.4% average across the other five engines. Google Gemini also names only 10 distinct CRM brands total—the narrowest set—while ChatGPT names 29 and Perplexity names 22, indicating significantly different recommendation logic.
Does ChatGPT recommend a different CRM than Perplexity?
Both name HubSpot at 82.5%, their highest rate for any brand, but differ on depth: ChatGPT names 29 distinct brands while Perplexity names 22. Perplexity cites sources far more frequently (10.3% of answers cite a brand's own domain) compared to ChatGPT at 2.1%, making it more transparent about where CRM recommendations originate.
How was this measured?
Forty fixed CRM recommendation prompts were run once against each of six engines (Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Grok) in October 2026, producing 219 scored answers. No prompt that named a brand was counted toward that brand's score, ensuring all brands were measured equally against the same questions. Prompts that appeared to be brand-specific mentions were excluded entirely from analysis.
What does it mean when a brand has high 'naming' but low 'citation from its own domain'?
It means an engine recommended the brand in text but did not list that brand's website as a source. HubSpot at 71.4% named but only 17.5% self-cited indicates engines recommend it frequently but source information from third-party reviews and roundups rather than directly from HubSpot.com. This reflects the broader pattern: 65.6% of all 1,653 citations went to third-party sites like YouTube, Forbes, and G2.
Why were six brands never named but still have citation percentages?
Close, Copper CRM, Creatio, Nimble, Pipeliner CRM, and RankMonster were never recommended as solutions (0% named) but appeared as source links within answer text. Creatio was cited from its own domain 11.3% of the time, Nimble 8.8%, and Close 2.5%, meaning engines linked to them as information sources even though they did not name them as CRM choices.
How concentrated is the CRM market according to AI engines?
Highly concentrated: the top four brands (HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Salesforce, Pipedrive) account for approximately 60% of all named mentions. The category median is 2.9%, and 33 of 39 brands score at or below this level. Only 10 brands exceed 5% naming frequency, indicating AI engines rely on a narrow set of established solutions.
The 40 prompts we tested— every brand scored against the same set
No prompt names a brand. A prompt that names one hands it a guaranteed mention — in our per-brand audit data, prompts naming a brand return a 97.5% mention rate against 8.6% for prompts that don't.
- 1best crm softwareawareness12 brands
- 2what crm should i userecommendation10 brands
- 3top crm platforms 2026awareness12 brands
- 4crm for small businessrecommendation10 brands
- 5best crm toolsawareness9 brands
- 6crm software comparisoncomparison10 brands
- 7which crm is bestrecommendation6 brands
- 8free crm softwarerecommendation11 brands
- 9best crm for real estate agentsindustry6 brands
- 10crm for real estate brokersindustry5 brands
- 11insurance agents crmindustry5 brands
- 12crm for nonprofitsindustry6 brands
- 13crm for construction companiesindustry4 brands
- 14healthcare practice crmindustry2 brands
- 15crm for law firmsindustry5 brands
- 16crm for consulting firmsindustry9 brands
- 17ecommerce crm platformindustry6 brands
- 18manufacturing crm softwareindustry7 brands
- 19recruiting agency crmindustry3 brands
- 20saas startup crmindustry7 brands
- 21crm under $25 per user per monthrecommendation12 brands
- 22affordable crm for startupsrecommendation9 brands
- 23cheap crm softwarerecommendation9 brands
- 24mid market crm pricingrecommendation6 brands
- 25enterprise crm solutionrecommendation4 brands
- 26crm for solo entrepreneursuse-case10 brands
- 27crm for 5 person teamuse-case11 brands
- 28crm for 50 employee companyuse-case6 brands
- 29crm for sales team of 100use-case7 brands
- 30open source crm vs hosted crmcomparison9 brands
- 31self hosted crm vs cloud crmcomparison9 brands
- 32spreadsheet replacement crmuse-case12 brands
- 33crm alternative to spreadsheetsuse-case12 brands
- 34simple crm for small agencyuse-case11 brands
- 35crm with email integrationuse-case7 brands
- 36crm with lead scoringuse-case6 brands
- 37mobile crm for field salesuse-case6 brands
- 38crm with pipeline managementuse-case9 brands
- 39crm for managing customer relationshipsuse-case6 brands
- 40best crm for tracking dealsuse-case6 brands
Most cited sources
The domains these engines pulled from when answering. 1,653 citations across 482 distinct domains, 66% of them to third-party sites rather than to a vendor's own domain — that share is roughly how much of this category's visibility is decided off-site.
| # | Source | Citations | Prompts | Engines | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | salesforce.comvendor site | 62 | 28 | 5 | 3.8% |
| 2 | youtube.com | 56 | 27 | 2 | 3.4% |
| 3 | hubspot.comvendor site | 55 | 28 | 4 | 3.3% |
| 4 | pipedrive.comvendor site | 49 | 26 | 4 | 3.0% |
| 5 | forbes.comvendor site | 42 | 23 | 3 | 2.5% |
| 6 | monday.comvendor site | 42 | 26 | 4 | 2.5% |
| 7 | zoho.comvendor site | 37 | 20 | 3 | 2.2% |
| 8 | zapier.comvendor site | 33 | 17 | 5 | 2.0% |
| 9 | blog.hubspot.com | 30 | 22 | 3 | 1.8% |
| 10 | techradar.com | 30 | 15 | 4 | 1.8% |
| 11 | g2.com | 27 | 12 | 4 | 1.6% |
| 12 | uk.pcmag.com | 27 | 18 | 2 | 1.6% |
| 13 | pcmag.com | 24 | 14 | 2 | 1.5% |
| 14 | business.com | 22 | 14 | 3 | 1.3% |
| 15 | reddit.com | 22 | 15 | 3 | 1.3% |
| 16 | nutshell.comvendor site | 21 | 14 | 4 | 1.3% |
| 17 | capterra.com | 19 | 12 | 4 | 1.1% |
| 18 | larksuite.com | 19 | 14 | 3 | 1.1% |
| 19 | creatio.comvendor site | 18 | 13 | 4 | 1.1% |
| 20 | pipelinecrm.com | 17 | 9 | 5 | 1.0% |
| 21 | insightly.comvendor site | 16 | 8 | 4 | 1.0% |
| 22 | techrepublic.com | 16 | 13 | 2 | 1.0% |
| 23 | uschamber.com | 16 | 11 | 3 | 1.0% |
| 24 | nimble.comvendor site | 15 | 8 | 4 | 0.9% |
| 25 | cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com | 14 | 11 | 2 | 0.8% |
| 26 | pipeline.zoominfo.com | 14 | 8 | 3 | 0.8% |
| 27 | onepagecrm.com | 13 | 9 | 3 | 0.8% |
| 28 | expertmarket.com | 12 | 6 | 3 | 0.7% |
| 29 | folk.appvendor site | 12 | 8 | 4 | 0.7% |
| 30 | zendesk.comvendor site | 12 | 8 | 4 | 0.7% |
| 31 | housingwire.com | 11 | 6 | 3 | 0.7% |
| 32 | justdial.com | 11 | 7 | 1 | 0.7% |
| 33 | thetechedvocate.org | 11 | 11 | 1 | 0.7% |
| 34 | techtarget.com | 10 | 7 | 1 | 0.6% |
| 35 | freshworks.comvendor site | 9 | 8 | 3 | 0.5% |
| 36 | lawmatics.comvendor site | 9 | 1 | 4 | 0.5% |
| 37 | netsuite.comvendor site | 9 | 5 | 3 | 0.5% |
| 38 | solutionsreview.com | 9 | 6 | 2 | 0.5% |
| 39 | microsoft.comvendor site | 8 | 6 | 3 | 0.5% |
| 40 | nethunt.com | 8 | 7 | 3 | 0.5% |
Top 40 of the domains cited in this run. Grok is absent from these counts entirely — it answers without web search and returns no sources.
About this data
Everything here is derived from publicly available output. We sent 40 prompts to 6 publicly accessible AI answer engines and recorded which brands each engine named and which sources it cited. No private, proprietary or customer data is involved, and no brand paid for or influenced its position.
Every answer behind these numbers is retained, so any figure on this page can be traced back to the specific prompt, engine and response that produced it.
If your company appears here and you believe the result is wrong, get in touch — we are happy to re-run the analysis for your brand and share what we find. If you would prefer not to be listed, we can remove your company name from this leaderboard in most cases. Either way, email [email protected].