Thunderdome B2B SaaS AI Visibility Index

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The B2B SaaS AI visibility index

When buyers ask ChatGPT , Claude , or Gemini what software to buy, these are the brands the models actually recommend. Measured every month from real AI answers, published free and ungated.

Browse the rankings Where the models disagree →

A real buyer question from the August 2026 snapshot.

“What's the best CRM for a B2B SaaS startup?”

ChatGPT answered 3× this snapshot

HubSpot is usually the safest pick. It’s easy to set up, has a solid free tier, and won’t slow you down. You can grow into its paid tiers without rebuilding everything. Close is great if…

Named across its answers: 1. HubSpot 2. Salesforce 3. Close · see all 9 answers →

39 software categories 312 buyer-intent prompts 2,808 real AI answers analyzed 3 models tracked: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Brand spotlight · August 2026

Substack is winning the closest race in the index

In Publishing & Newsletters, Substack leads Beehiiv by just under a point: the tightest fight in the index this month. Substack is mentioned in 64% of 72 answers and picked first 39% of the time. One good month could flip this category.

See the full Publishing & Newsletters ranking →
Substack #1 of 15
59 / 100
2026-07: 60.7 · 2026-08: 59.4
Jul 2026Aug 2026
ChatGPT
63
Claude
65
Gemini
51

Rankings by category

Every category is scored from 72 fresh AI answers to 8 buyer questions. Click through for the full leaderboard, per-model breakdowns, and the exact prompts we asked.

Go-to-marketProduct & analyticsBuild & communicatePeople & learningFinance & operationsCommerce & logisticsMore categories
Go-to-market
Product & analytics
Build & communicate
People & learning
Finance & operations
Commerce & logistics
More categories

What the August 2026 data says

Most dominant brand

Retool posts the single highest score in the index (95) in No-Code & Internal Tool Builders, appearing in 100% of answers.

Tightest race

Publishing & Newsletters is the closest fight: Substack (59) leads Beehiiv (59) by under a point.

Why it matters

AI assistants have become the first stop in software research. If the models never say your name, you are invisible at the exact moment buyers form their shortlist.

Head-to-head comparisons

Every tracked matchup, scored across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini — who each model prefers, and the fight question by question.

Apollo.io vs OutreachApollo.io vs SalesloftAsana vs NotionBetterUp vs CoachHubCircuit vs Route4MeCircuit vs OptimoRouteCulture Amp vs LatticeDescript vs RunwayDocebo vs TalentLMSDocuSign vs PandaDocFivetran vs AirbyteGhost vs SubstackGitHub vs GitLabHackerRank vs CoderPadHotjar vs Microsoft ClarityHubSpot vs SalesforceHubSpot vs ActiveCampaignInventory Planner vs StockyJira vs AsanaKlaviyo vs MailchimpLattice vs 15FiveManhattan Associates vs ShipHeroMatterport vs KuulaMixpanel vs PostHogMosaic vs AnaplanNotion vs ConfluencePagerDuty vs OpsgeniePagerDuty vs Incident.ioPower BI vs LookerProfound vs SemrushReplit vs LovableRetool vs AppsmithRippling vs GustoScreaming Frog vs AhrefsSemrush vs AccuRankerServiceNow vs Jira Service ManagementStripe vs PaddleSubstack vs BeehiivTwilio vs VonageUpwork vs ToptalWebflow vs WordPressZendesk vs IntercomZoom vs Microsoft TeamsZylo vs Vendr