September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Customer › Knowledge base · September 2026 Edition

Knowledge base and self-service

Asked as “knowledge base software”, and as “customer self-service help center tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
18%
Contested · Document360 14%
18Notion14Document36012Freshdesk55others

18% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Notion18%22%46accepted challenger
02Document36014%5%37accepted challenger
03Freshdesk12%0%22accepted challenger
04Zendesk Guide6%11%45accepted challenger
05Confluence6%15%46accepted challenger
06BookStack6%15%13accepted challenger
07Guru4%0%27accepted challenger
08Helpjuice4%14%21accepted challenger
09Slab4%0%11accepted challenger
10Slite2%0%23accepted challenger
11Intercom Articles2%12%17accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
15Tettra0%20%15accepted challenger
14Nuclino0%6%17accepted challenger
12Help Scout Docs0%0%22accepted challenger
13Bloomfire0%0%12accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Notion18%
02Document36014%
03Freshdesk12%
04Zendesk Guide6%
05Confluence6%
06BookStack6%
07Guru4%
08Helpjuice4%
09Slab4%
10Slite2%
11Intercom Articles2%
12Help Scout Docs0%
13Bloomfire0%
14Nuclino0%
15Tettra0%

What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Notion
22%
10 of 46 labels negative · 8 of 12 models
“Notion is highly popular, but its greatest strength—unlimited flexibility—is also its fatal flaw for team knowledge.... Otherwise, avoid it.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Confluence
15%
7 of 46 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Collaboration platforms with recurring high-severity vulnerabilities (SharePoint, Confluence)” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
SharePoint
83%
5 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“SharePoint (unless heavily customized by a dedicated developer) is often treated as a glorified, hard-to-navigate fileshare.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Zendesk Guide
11%
5 of 45 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid This Tool | Zendesk Guide | You only need a knowledge base (not full support suite)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

18 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 240 links across 101 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Zendesk9 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Slite8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · YouTube6 answers · 14 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Assembly6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · HelpDocs5 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Helply5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Featurebase5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Ferndesk5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · KnowledgeOwl4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best knowledge base software”, “knowledge base software”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Notion notion.com18%222673,00015,6081,061,46652
Document360 document360.com14%1021,3002015,294$64892
Freshworks freshworks.com
Freshdesk 12%
12%29112,100391111,586 company$14,486113
Zendesk Guide zendesk.com6%11321015,365,445$16,18163
Atlassian atlassian.com
Confluence 6%
6%126165,0006,6174,724,388 company$5,906614
BookStack bookstackapp.com6%3812,100989,396
Guru getguru.com4%10460,50017,06579,46110
Helpjuice helpjuice.com4%511,300753,8144
Slab slab.com4%2027,10055,13017,637
Plain plain.com4%890,50083,0951,3140

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (assembly.com, ferndesk.com, helpdocs.io, peoplemanagingpeople.com, slite.com). The first result for “best knowledge base software” is ferndesk.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best knowledge base software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer self-service help center tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top knowledge base tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best knowledge base software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a knowledge base software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which knowledge base tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Five alternativesBloomfire, Document360, Lore, Stonly, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceHeldno first choiceagainst: Confluence, Salesforce Knowledge, SharePointConfluence
Five alternativesBookStack, Freshdesk, Help Scout Docs, Nuclino, Zoho Wiki
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniZendesk Guide
Two alternativesConfluence, Intercom Articles
against: ClickUp, Notion
Zendesk GuideHeld
Three alternativesHelp Scout Docs, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom Articles
no first choiceNotion, ProProfs Knowledge Base
Two alternativesConfluence, Freshdesk
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashDocument360, Guru
Four alternativesConfluence, Help Scout Docs, Helpjuice, Notion
against: Zendesk Guide
Document360Changed
Four alternativesHelp Scout Docs, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom Articles, Zendesk Guide
Document360
Nine alternativesConfluence, Glean, Guru, Help Scout Docs, Notion, Obsidian, Scribe, Tango, Zendesk Guide
BookStack, HelpSite, Notion
Four alternativesConfluence, ProProfs Knowledge Base, Wiki.js, Zoho Desk
no first choiceagainst: Confluence, Logseq, Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research, SharePoint
Perplexity SonarDocument360
Three alternativesConfluence, Helpjuice, Zendesk Guide
against: Notion
FreshdeskChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Intercom Articles, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceNotion
Four alternativesBookStack, Help Scout Docs, HelpDocs, Slab
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20Document360
Five alternativesConfluence, Helpjuice, Notion, Slite, Zendesk Guide
FreshdeskChanged
Three alternativesHelp Scout Docs, Zendesk Guide, Zoho Desk
no first choiceNotion
Four alternativesBookStack, Confluence, Help Scout Docs, ProProfs KB
no first choiceagainst: Confluence, Notion, Pinecone, Qdrant, SharePoint, Weaviate
Mistral SmallPlain
Five alternativesConfluence, Document360, Freshdesk, Guru, Slite
PylonChanged
Four alternativesFreshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom Articles, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceBookStack, Slab
Three alternativesConfluence, DokuWiki, Notion
against: Helpjuice
no first choiceagainst: BookStack, Confluence, Helpjuice, Notion, Nuclino, Outline, Tettra
DeepSeek V4 FlashDocument360
Five alternativesFreshdesk, Guru, Help Scout Docs, Helpjuice, Zendesk Guide
Helpjuice, Zendesk GuideChanged
Two alternativesDocument360, Freshdesk
against: Intercom Articles
Confluence, Notion
Four alternativesDocument360, Helpjuice, Slite, Zendesk Guide
Notion
Five alternativesBookStack, Confluence, Nuclino, ProProfs Knowledge Base, ProductLift
against: Tettra
Slite
Five alternativesConfluence, Document360, Guru, Helpjuice, Zendesk Guide
against: Notion
against: BlueSpice, Confluence, Document360, Evernote, Helpjuice, Mem.ai, Notion, OpenKM, Tettra, Zendesk Guide
Llama 4 MaverickHelpjuice
Three alternativesDocument360, Freshdesk, Pylon
FreshdeskChangedagainst: Salesforce, Zendesk Guideno first choiceDocument360
One alternativeSlab
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashGuru, Intercom Articles
Three alternativesConfluence, Document360, Zendesk Guide
against: Notion
Plain, PylonChanged
One alternativeFreshdesk
Notion
Seven alternativesConfluence, Document360, GitBook, Guru, Intercom Articles, Slite, Zendesk Guide
ClickUp, Notion
Five alternativesBookStack, Confluence, Help Scout Docs, Slite, WordPress
Confluence
Four alternativesBloomfire, Document360, Slite, Zendesk Guide
against: ClickUp, Notion
against: Asana, Dropbox, Google Drive, Jira, MediaWiki, ServiceNow Knowledge Management, SharePoint, Trello, WordPress
Kimi K2Confluence
Five alternativesGuru, Helpjuice, Notion, Slite, Zendesk Guide
FreshdeskChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceNotion
Four alternativesBookStack, Docsio, ProProfs Knowledge Base, Wiki.js
no first choiceagainst: Evernote, Freshdesk KB, Intercom Articles, Zendesk Guide
GLM 4.7 FlashXHelply
Four alternativesConfluence, Notion, Plain, Slite
FreshdeskChanged
Four alternativesGorgias, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom Articles, Zendesk Guide
Plain
Seven alternativesBloomfire, Confluence, Document360, Guru, Notion, Slite, Stonly
BookStack, Notion, Outline, Slab
Three alternativesBetterDocs, Docsio, GitHub Wiki
against: Document360, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceagainst: Confluence, ServiceNow Knowledge Management, SharePoint
MiniMax M2.5Document360
Two alternativesHelpjuice, Zendesk Guide
FreshdeskChanged
Two alternativesIntercom Articles, Zendesk Guide
Plain
Eleven alternativesBloomfire, Confluence, Document360, Freshdesk, Guru, Help Scout Docs, KnowledgeOwl, Notion, Slite, Stonly, Zendesk Guide
Notion, ProProfs Knowledge Base
Three alternativesProductLift, Slite, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceagainst: BookStack, Confluence, Notion, Outline, Wiki.js
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:53yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:52yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:08yes1424 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:34yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:09yes012 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:35yes06 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:01yes015 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:55yes01 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:50no029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:43yes034 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:50yes016 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:03yes050 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:03no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:50yes54 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:36yes1027 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:26yes209 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:53yes06 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:33yes05 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:12yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:12yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:45yes042 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:50yes032 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:56yes015 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:35yes019 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:07yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:56no06 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:31yes2032 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:49yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:22yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:55yes06 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:53yes020 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:10yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:54no034 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:58yes029 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:31yes025 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:43yes017 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:51yes99 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:54yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:57yes1321 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:16yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:18yes05 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:07yes09 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:25yes020 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:43yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:57yes020 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:20yes041 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:47yes035 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:09yes013 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:01no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:12no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:27yes927 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:21yes2016 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:50yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:54yes09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:04yes024 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:41yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:46yes038 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 22:55yes034 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:44yes057 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:13yes016 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:16no02 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:44no02 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:54yes1620 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:53yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:32yes06 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:13yes06 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:47yes054 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:12yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:33no037 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:09yes062 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:09yes042 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:06yes044 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Help Scout read as Help Scout Docs
Help Scout (Docs) read as Help Scout Docs
Intercom read as Intercom Articles
Intercom (Answers) read as Intercom Articles
Intercom Fin read as Intercom Articles
ServiceNow read as ServiceNow Knowledge Management
ServiceNow Knowledge Base read as ServiceNow Knowledge Management
Zendesk read as Zendesk Guide
Zendesk (Answer Center) read as Zendesk Guide
Zendesk (Guide) read as Zendesk Guide
Zendesk Knowledge / Guide read as Zendesk Guide
Unresolved, counted raw
Affine
BetterDocs
Brainfish
Freshdesk KB
GitHub Wiki
Lore
Mem.ai
OnClarity
OpenKM
Pinecone
Qdrant
Rovo
Salesforce
Salesforce KM
TiddlyWiki
Weaviate
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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