Top 39 CRM Software in AI Answers — September 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 66.7% of AI answer engine responses to 40 CRM recommendation prompts across 6 engines in September 2026, leading the second-place brand by 10.6 percentage points. The market is highly concentrated: the top 5 brands account for over two-thirds of all mentions, while 8 brands were never named at all. The measurement covered 39 tracked brands across 219 scored answers, with each prompt tested once per engine and any prompt naming a brand excluded from that brand's scoring to prevent bias. Among 1,668 total source citations, 56.8% pointed to third-party websites rather than vendors' own domains, with Google and Reddit together accounting for 355 citations. Google Gemini diverges sharply from other engines, naming HubSpot on only 14.3% of prompts versus 78.8% averaged across the other five.
- HubSpot led all brands at 66.7% named across 40 prompts, with a 10.6 percentage point margin over second-place Zoho CRM at 56%.
- The top 5 brands (HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Freshsales) were named in 49.6% to 66.7% of responses, while the bottom 31 ranked brands each appeared in under 3% of responses.
- Google Gemini named only 5 distinct brands across all 40 prompts, with HubSpot appearing on just 14.3% of its answers, compared to 75% to 84.2% across other engines.
- Among citations to vendors' own domains, HubSpot led at 21.2% of its mentions, followed by Salesforce at 24.6% and Pipedrive at 14.9%; however, third-party sources accounted for 56.8% of all citations overall.
- Eight brands tracked in the study—Apptivo, Close, Copper CRM, EspoCRM, Nimble, Pipeliner CRM, RankMonster, and Vtiger—received zero mentions across all 219 answers.
- Perplexity cited brands' own domains most frequently at 9% of answers, while Grok returned no citations to any source.
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 1 negative mention | 67% 94/141 | 78% cite 25% | 75% cite 0% | 14% cite 5% | 75% cite 55% | 84% cite 32% | 83% cite n/a | 1 | See the 47 they lost |
| 2 | Zoho CRM zoho.com 1 negative mention | 56% 79/141 | 70% cite 8% | 68% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 57% cite 13% | 61% cite 32% | 75% cite n/a | 1 | See the 62 they lost |
| 3 | Pipedrive pipedrive.com 1 negative mention | 55% 77/141 | 68% cite 8% | 65% cite 13% | 0% cite 5% | 60% cite 35% | 47% cite 13% | 55% cite n/a | 1 | See the 64 they lost |
| 4 | Salesforce salesforce.com | 50% 70/141 | 63% cite 20% | 57% cite 5% | 10% cite 29% | 50% cite 45% | 42% cite 26% | 65% cite n/a | 1 | See the 71 they lost |
| 5 | Freshsales freshworks.com | 30% 43/141 | 40% cite 13% | 40% cite 5% | 0% cite 5% | 28% cite 0% | 11% cite 5% | 30% cite n/a | 2 | See the 98 they lost |
| 6 | Microsoft Dynamics 365 dynamics.microsoft.com 1 negative mention | 23% 32/141 | 43% cite 0% | 25% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 13% cite 0% | 8% cite 0% | 28% cite n/a | 2 | See the 109 they lost |
| 7 | Monday CRM monday.com | 21% 29/141 | 15% cite 3% | 30% cite 25% | 5% cite 10% | 25% cite 68% | 16% cite 8% | 3% cite n/a | 5 | See the 112 they lost |
| 8 | Less Annoying CRM lessannoyingcrm.com | 8% 11/141 | 5% cite 3% | 5% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 15% cite 3% | 8% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | 1 | See the 130 they lost |
| 9 | Copper copper.com | 6% 9/141 | 13% cite 5% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 3% | 3% cite 3% | 13% cite n/a | 1 | See the 132 they lost |
| 10 | Insightly insightly.com | 6% 9/141 | 8% cite 3% | 13% cite 3% | 0% cite 10% | 3% cite 18% | 3% cite 5% | 0% cite n/a | 4 | See the 132 they lost |
| 11 | Airtable airtable.com | 5% 7/141 | 8% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | — | See the 134 they lost |
| 12 | Notion notion.so | 5% 7/141 | 10% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | — | See the 134 they lost |
| 13 | Follow Up Boss followupboss.com | 4% 6/141 | 5% cite 3% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | 1 | See the 135 they lost |
| 14 | Bitrix24 bitrix24.com 1 negative mention | 4% 5/141 | 8% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 10% | 8% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | 3 | See the 136 they lost |
| 15 | Capsule CRM capsulecrm.com | 4% 5/141 | 8% cite 3% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite n/a | 6 | See the 136 they lost |
| 16 | Folk folk.app | 4% 5/141 | 3% cite 0% | 8% cite 5% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 8% | 0% cite 3% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 136 they lost |
| 17 | Streak streak.com 1 negative mention | 4% 5/141 | 10% cite 3% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 3% cite n/a | — | See the 136 they lost |
| 18 | SugarCRM sugarcrm.com | 4% 5/141 | 5% cite 0% | 8% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | 9 | See the 136 they lost |
| 19 | Wise Agent wiseagent.com | 4% 5/141 | 3% cite 0% | 5% cite 3% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 5% | 3% cite 3% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 136 they lost |
| 20 | ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com | 3% 4/141 | 5% cite 3% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 137 they lost |
| 21 | Bloomerang bloomerang.com | 3% 4/141 | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 3% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 3% | 3% cite 0% | 3% cite n/a | — | See the 137 they lost |
| 22 | Keap keap.com | 3% 4/141 | 3% cite 0% | 8% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 137 they lost |
| 23 | Nutshell nutshell.com | 3% 4/141 | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 13% | 0% cite 5% | 5% cite 28% | 0% cite 3% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 137 they lost |
| 24 | Odoo CRM odoo.com 1 negative mention | 3% 4/141 | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite n/a | — | See the 137 they lost |
| 25 | CiviCRM | 2% 3/141 | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite n/a | — | See the 138 they lost |
| 26 | Attio attio.com | 1% 2/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 5% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 8% cite n/a | 2 | See the 139 they lost |
| 27 | Creatio creatio.com | 1% 2/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 8% | 0% cite 14% | 5% cite 23% | 5% cite 5% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 139 they lost |
| 28 | DonorPerfect | 1% 2/141 | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 139 they lost |
| 29 | SuiteCRM suitecrm.com 1 negative mention | 1% 2/141 | 5% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite 3% | 5% cite 5% | 8% cite n/a | 9 | See the 139 they lost |
| 30 | Zendesk Sell zendesk.com | 1% 2/141 | 5% cite 3% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite 25% | 0% cite 11% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 139 they lost |
| 31 | Salesflare salesflare.com | 1% 1/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 3% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 140 they lost |
| 32 | Apptivo apptivo.com | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 141 they lost |
| 33 | Close close.com | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 141 they lost |
| 34 | Copper CRM coppercrm.com | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 141 they lost |
| 35 | EspoCRM espocrm.com 1 negative mention | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite 5% | 3% cite 5% | 8% cite n/a | — | See the 141 they lost |
| 36 | Nimble nimble.com | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 8% | 0% cite 19% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 141 they lost |
| 37 | Pipeliner CRM pipelinersales.com | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 141 they lost |
| 38 | RankMonster rankmonster.ai | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite n/a | — | See the 141 they lost |
| 39 | Vtiger vtiger.com | 0% 0/141 | 0% cite 0% | 0% cite 3% | 0% cite 5% | 0% cite 3% | 0% cite 3% | 5% cite n/a | — | See the 141 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 and Zoho CRM form the clear leadership tier, appearing in two-thirds and more than half of all responses respectively. HubSpot was named in 66.7% of answers, with particularly strong showing on Google AI Overview (84.2%) and Grok (82.5%), though Google Gemini named it in only 14.3% of prompts. HubSpot received one negative mention and was cited from its own domain in 21.2% of its appearances. Zoho CRM followed at 56%, named consistently across engines (ranging from 67.5% on Claude to 4.8% on Google Gemini), and also received one negative mention despite lower domain citation at 5%.
The second tier—Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Freshsales—operates at substantially lower frequency but remains mainstream. Pipedrive was named in 54.6% of responses with strong citation of its own domain (14.9%), though it generated one negative mention and registered 0% on Google Gemini. Salesforce appeared in 49.6% of answers with the highest domain citation rate at 24.6%, showing relatively balanced coverage across engines. Freshsales, at 30.5%, drops notably lower and received zero mentions from Google Gemini, appearing primarily on Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 (22.7%), Monday CRM (20.6%), and Less Annoying CRM (7.8%) represent a middle segment with widening gaps. Microsoft Dynamics 365 was never named by Google Gemini, received one negative mention, and has zero citations to its own domain despite 42.5% mention on ChatGPT. Monday CRM shows an unusual pattern: named in only 2.5% of Grok responses yet appearing in 30% of Claude answers; it has the highest domain citation rate at 26.1%. Less Annoying CRM remains stable across engines at 5% to 15%, with minimal domain presence.
A broad set of 15 brands clusters tightly between 1.4% and 6.4% named: Copper, Insightly, Airtable, Notion, Follow Up Boss, Bitrix24, Capsule CRM, Folk, Streak, SugarCRM, Wise Agent, ActiveCampaign, Bloomerang, Keap, and Nutshell. Copper and Insightly each appear in 6.4% of answers. Airtable and Notion, despite being general-purpose tools, each reach 5% mentions. Bitrix24 received one negative mention. Nutshell shows strong domain citation at 11.2% despite only 2.8% naming frequency. Most others in this group are sparsely cited from their own domains.
Below 2.8%, the field fragments into individual mentions: Odoo CRM, CiviCRM, Attio, Creatio, DonorPerfect, SuiteCRM, Zendesk Sell, and Salesflare each appear in under 2.1% of responses. Creatio and Zendesk Sell show disproportionately high domain citation (11.1% and 9.3% respectively) relative to their mention rates. Odoo CRM and SuiteCRM each received one negative mention. Eight brands—Apptivo, Close, Copper CRM, EspoCRM, Nimble, Pipeliner CRM, RankMonster, and Vtiger—were never named across any of the 219 answers, though Nimble, EspoCRM, and Vtiger each appeared in citations to their own domains despite zero mentions.
How the engines differ
The six engines vary dramatically in breadth and concentration. ChatGPT and Perplexity named the most distinct brands at 27 and 25 respectively, while Google Gemini named only 5 brands across all 40 prompts. Claude named 23 distinct brands and Google AI Overview 21; Grok named 22. All five engines that returned citations cited at rates between 2.4% and 9%, with Perplexity leading at 9% of answers, while Grok returned zero citations to any source despite naming 22 brands.
HubSpot dominance is universal but not absolute: it appeared in 75% to 84.2% of responses from Claude, Google AI Overview, Grok, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, but only 14.3% on Google Gemini. This 64.5 percentage point spread is the largest divergence observed. Google Gemini's concentration is extreme—it named HubSpot on 14.3% of prompts, Zoho on 4.8%, and all other brands on 0% to 2.5%, making it the least diverse recommender. Google AI Overview and Google Gemini, despite both being Google products, behave differently: Google AI Overview named HubSpot at 84.2% while Google Gemini reached only 14.3%.
Citation patterns reveal different engine architectures. Perplexity cited brands' own domains in 9% of answers on average, compared to 2.4% for Claude, 2.5% for ChatGPT, 4.3% for Google AI Overview, and 3.1% for Google Gemini. The most-cited sources across all engines were google.com (282 citations), reddit.com (73), and monday.com (52), with vendors' own sites appearing frequently but accounting for only 56.8% of all citations. Grok's zero-citation design means its recommendations came without source attribution.
Questions about this data
Which CRM is recommended most by AI answer engines?
HubSpot was named in 66.7% of AI answer engine responses across 6 engines tested in September 2026, making it the most frequently recommended CRM. Zoho CRM came second at 56%, followed by Pipedrive at 54.6%. The measurement covered 40 fixed prompts run once against each engine, producing 219 scored answers.
How much more often is HubSpot recommended than the second-place brand?
HubSpot leads Zoho CRM by 10.6 percentage points (66.7% versus 56%). This margin is larger than the gap between Zoho and Pipedrive (56% versus 54.6%), making HubSpot's lead the most significant in the ranking.
Does ChatGPT recommend a different CRM than Perplexity?
ChatGPT and Perplexity show similar top preferences but differ in breadth. Both named HubSpot at 75% and 75% respectively, but ChatGPT named 27 distinct brands across all prompts while Perplexity named 25 distinct brands. Perplexity cited brands' own domains more often (9% of answers) than ChatGPT (2.5%).
Why does Google Gemini recommend different CRMs than other AI engines?
Google Gemini named only 5 distinct brands across 40 prompts, compared to 21 to 27 brands for other engines. It named HubSpot in only 14.3% of responses versus 75% to 84.2% for other engines, and gave 0% mentions to Pipedrive, Freshsales, and most other mid-tier brands. This extreme concentration suggests different training data, ranking logic, or response design.
How was this ranking measured?
The measurement tested 40 fixed recommendation prompts once against each of 6 AI answer engines (Claude, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Grok) in September 2026, producing 219 scored answers. Any prompt that named a brand was excluded from that brand's score to prevent bias. All 39 tracked brands were measured against the same prompts.
Are AI engines citing the brands' own websites or third-party sources?
Of 1,668 total citations across 457 distinct domains, 56.8% went to third-party sites rather than vendors' own domains. The most-cited sources were Google.com (282 citations), Reddit.com (73), and Monday.com (52). HubSpot's own domain was cited in 21.2% of its appearances, Salesforce in 24.6%, and Pipedrive in 14.9%.
Which CRM brands were never mentioned by any AI engine?
Eight brands received zero mentions across all 219 answers: Apptivo, Close, Copper CRM, EspoCRM, Nimble, Pipeliner CRM, RankMonster, and Vtiger. This does not mean these brands lack quality or citations from third-party sources—it means they did not appear in the AI engines' unprompted responses to the 40 test prompts.
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 softwareawareness7 brands
- 2what crm should i userecommendation10 brands
- 3top crm platforms 2026awareness11 brands
- 4crm for small businessrecommendation9 brands
- 5best crm toolsawareness13 brands
- 6crm software comparisoncomparison11 brands
- 7which crm is bestrecommendation8 brands
- 8free crm softwarerecommendation7 brands
- 9best crm for real estate agentsindustry6 brands
- 10crm for real estate brokersindustry5 brands
- 11insurance agents crmindustry6 brands
- 12crm for nonprofitsindustry7 brands
- 13crm for construction companiesindustry4 brands
- 14healthcare practice crmindustry2 brands
- 15crm for law firmsindustry4 brands
- 16crm for consulting firmsindustry9 brands
- 17ecommerce crm platformindustry6 brands
- 18manufacturing crm softwareindustry5 brands
- 19recruiting agency crmindustry2 brands
- 20saas startup crmindustry6 brands
- 21crm under $25 per user per monthrecommendation9 brands
- 22affordable crm for startupsrecommendation8 brands
- 23cheap crm softwarerecommendation9 brands
- 24mid market crm pricingrecommendation8 brands
- 25enterprise crm solutionrecommendation5 brands
- 26crm for solo entrepreneursuse-case10 brands
- 27crm for 5 person teamuse-case10 brands
- 28crm for 50 employee companyuse-case7 brands
- 29crm for sales team of 100use-case7 brands
- 30open source crm vs hosted crmcomparison10 brands
- 31self hosted crm vs cloud crmcomparison8 brands
- 32spreadsheet replacement crmuse-case9 brands
- 33crm alternative to spreadsheetsuse-case13 brands
- 34simple crm for small agencyuse-case12 brands
- 35crm with email integrationuse-case9 brands
- 36crm with lead scoringuse-case6 brands
- 37mobile crm for field salesuse-case7 brands
- 38crm with pipeline managementuse-case8 brands
- 39crm for managing customer relationshipsuse-case9 brands
- 40best crm for tracking dealsuse-case8 brands
Most cited sources
The domains these engines pulled from when answering. 1,668 citations across 457 distinct domains, 57% 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 | google.comvendor site | 282 | 19 | 1 | 16.9% |
| 2 | reddit.com | 73 | 34 | 3 | 4.4% |
| 3 | monday.comvendor site | 52 | 28 | 5 | 3.1% |
| 4 | salesforce.comvendor site | 49 | 26 | 5 | 2.9% |
| 5 | hubspot.comvendor site | 47 | 27 | 4 | 2.8% |
| 6 | zapier.comvendor site | 35 | 17 | 4 | 2.1% |
| 7 | pipedrive.comvendor site | 28 | 20 | 5 | 1.7% |
| 8 | onepagecrm.com | 24 | 10 | 4 | 1.4% |
| 9 | nutshell.comvendor site | 21 | 12 | 4 | 1.3% |
| 10 | pipelinecrm.com | 21 | 8 | 4 | 1.3% |
| 11 | creatio.comvendor site | 20 | 11 | 4 | 1.2% |
| 12 | techradar.com | 20 | 12 | 4 | 1.2% |
| 13 | zendesk.comvendor site | 20 | 13 | 5 | 1.2% |
| 14 | zoho.comvendor site | 20 | 17 | 3 | 1.2% |
| 15 | g2.com | 17 | 10 | 4 | 1.0% |
| 16 | forbes.comvendor site | 16 | 14 | 2 | 1.0% |
| 17 | pcmag.com | 16 | 13 | 3 | 1.0% |
| 18 | insightly.comvendor site | 15 | 9 | 5 | 0.9% |
| 19 | larksuite.com | 15 | 14 | 3 | 0.9% |
| 20 | crm.org | 14 | 11 | 4 | 0.8% |
| 21 | youtube.com | 14 | 14 | 1 | 0.8% |
| 22 | solutionsreview.com | 13 | 9 | 3 | 0.8% |
| 23 | netsuite.comvendor site | 12 | 6 | 3 | 0.7% |
| 24 | expertmarket.com | 11 | 3 | 3 | 0.7% |
| 25 | nimble.comvendor site | 11 | 6 | 4 | 0.7% |
| 26 | uschamber.com | 11 | 8 | 3 | 0.7% |
| 27 | blog.hubspot.com | 10 | 8 | 3 | 0.6% |
| 28 | business.com | 10 | 9 | 3 | 0.6% |
| 29 | capterra.com | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0.6% |
| 30 | freshworks.comvendor site | 10 | 9 | 4 | 0.6% |
| 31 | bigcontacts.com | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0.5% |
| 32 | breakcold.com | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0.5% |
| 33 | croclub.com | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0.5% |
| 34 | fluidcrm.io | 8 | 5 | 4 | 0.5% |
| 35 | guideflow.com | 8 | 8 | 1 | 0.5% |
| 36 | zeeg.me | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0.5% |
| 37 | cloudtalk.io | 7 | 7 | 3 | 0.4% |
| 38 | folk.appvendor site | 7 | 6 | 3 | 0.4% |
| 39 | microsoft.comvendor site | 7 | 4 | 4 | 0.4% |
| 40 | agilecrm.com | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0.4% |
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].