September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since.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 › Enterprise · September 2026 Edition

Knowledge base and self-service for enterprise buyers

Asked as “knowledge base software”, and as “customer self-service help center tool”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
30%
Contested · Helpjuice 19%
30Zendesk Guide19Helpjuice16Confluence35others

30% 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 an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Zendesk Guide30%12%48endorsed leader
02Helpjuice19%21%14accepted challenger
03Confluence16%26%47criticized challenger
04Document3609%14%37accepted challenger
05Guru2%11%35accepted challenger
06Bloomfire2%4%23accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Notion0%55%38criticized challenger
08Slite0%33%18criticized challenger
09SharePoint0%33%12criticized challenger
07Freshdesk0%10%10accepted 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.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not enterprise.
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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Zendesk Guide30%
02Helpjuice19%
03Confluence16%
04Document3609%
05Guru2%
06Bloomfire2%
07Freshdesk0%
08Slite0%
09SharePoint0%
10Notion0%

What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.20, 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
55%
21 of 38 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Notion has no built-in content verification or stale content detection; wiki quality at 100 plus employees degrades predictably without a dedicated admin” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Confluence
26%
12 of 47 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“What to Avoid for Predictable Costs ... 1,000 users = $65K–$125K/year; costs grow linearly” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Zendesk Guide
12%
6 of 48 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Zendesk (as a standalone KB) — Avoid for large-scale internal knowledge” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Tettra
62%
5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“one source explicitly says to *avoid Tettra* if your enterprise knowledge is read mainly in Microsoft Teams” Perplexity Sonar, 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

22 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. 280 links across 127 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 · Zendesk11 answers · 13 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Slite9 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Bloomfire8 answers · 14 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Helpjuice8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Helply7 answers · 12 citations · 2 models
7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Monday.com7 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Gartner5 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · YouTube4 answers · 10 citations · 1 model
4 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
Zendesk Guide zendesk.com30%11321015,365,445$16,18163
Helpjuice helpjuice.com19%511,300753,8144
Atlassian atlassian.com
Confluence 16%
16%126165,0006,6174,724,388 company$5,906614
Document360 document360.com9%1021,3002015,294$64892
Plain plain.com7%890,50083,0951,3140
Pylon usepylon.com5%3640,5003,11829,726$16621
Guru getguru.com2%10460,50017,06579,46110
Bloomfire bloomfire.com2%331,00013127,2192
Helply helply.com2%521079,6260
Salesforce parent site
Salesforce Service Cloud 2%, Salesforce Knowledge 0%
2%223550,00060,632

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (gartner.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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer self-service help center tool would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade knowledge base tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best knowledge base software for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a knowledge base software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which knowledge base tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Four alternativesBloomfire, Confluence, SharePoint, Slite
against: Zendesk Guide
Zendesk GuideChanged
Two alternativesHelply, Salesforce Service Cloud
against: Intercom Articles
no first choiceConfluence
Three alternativesCrisp, Document360, Helpable
no first choiceagainst: Notion
GPT-5.4 miniConfluence
Three alternativesDocument360, Glean, Zendesk Guide
Zendesk GuideChanged
One alternativeSalesforce Help Center + Knowledge
no first choiceagainst: NotionConfluence
Two alternativesBookStack, Confluence Data Center
against: Document360
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashDocument360
Four alternativesConfluence, Guru, Shelf.io, Zendesk Guide
Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk GuideChanged
Two alternativesDocument360, ServiceNow Customer Service Management
no first choice
Six alternativesConfluence, Document360, Glean, Guru, Notion, Zendesk Guide
Helpjuice
Two alternativesBookStack, Outline
against: Confluence, Notion
Confluence
Two alternativesGuru, Notion
against: Glean
against: Coda, Google Drive, MediaWiki, Microsoft OneDrive, Notion, Slite
Perplexity SonarZendesk Guide
Three alternativesHelply, Plain, Pylon
Zendesk GuideHeld
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Kayako, Plain, Pylon
no first choiceHelpable, Helpjuice
One alternativeDocument360
no first choiceagainst: DokuWiki, Helpjuice, MediaWiki, Notion, Nuclino, OpenDocMan, Outline, Tettra, phpMyFAQ
Grok 4.20Confluence
Four alternativesGuru, Shelf, Zendesk Guide, eGain AI Knowledge Hub
against: Notion
Zendesk GuideChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Intercom Articles, ServiceNow Customer Service Management
no first choiceagainst: MediaWiki, XWikiConfluence
Two alternativesNotion, SharePoint
against: Bloomfire, Guru, Helpjuice, Slite, Tettra
no first choice
Five alternativesConfluence, Document360, Guru, Notion, Slite
against: BookStack, Confluence, Freshdesk, Notion, XWiki, Zendesk Guide
Mistral SmallPlain
Eight alternativesConfluence, Document360, Freshdesk, Guru, Help Scout Docs, Notion, Slite, Zendesk Guide
PlainHeld
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Helply, Pylon
against: Zendesk Guide
Slite
Seven alternativesBloomfire, Confluence, Document360, Guru, Notion, Zendesk Guide, eGain AI Knowledge Hub
Helpjuice
Two alternativesBloomfire, Confluence
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashConfluence, Document360, Guru
Four alternativesNotion, Plain, Pylon, Zendesk Guide
against: SharePoint
Zendesk GuideChanged
One alternativeIntercom Articles
against: Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow Customer Service Management
no first choiceagainst: Notion, SharePointHelpjuice
Three alternativesGitBook, ProProfs Knowledge Base, Zendesk Guide
against: Confluence, Document360, Notion
no first choiceagainst: Notion, Sliteagainst: Apple Notes, BookStack, Confluence, Evernote, Helpjuice, Notion, Nuclino, Outline, Tettra, Zendesk Guide
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceZendesk GuideChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Gladly, HubSpot Service Hub
no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceagainst: Confluence, Notion, Slite
Qwen 3.7 FlashPylon, Zendesk Guide
Three alternativesConfluence, Document360, Plain
against: Notion
Document360Changed
Three alternativesIntercom Articles, ServiceNow Customer Service Management, Zendesk Guide
no first choice
Seven alternativesBloomfire, Confluence, Copilot, Guru, SharePoint, Zendesk Guide, eGain AI Knowledge Hub
Helpjuice, Slab
Four alternativesBloomfire, Salesforce Service Cloud, SparrowDesk, Zendesk Guide
against: Confluence, Notion
no first choiceagainst: Coda, Confluence, Discord, DokuWiki, GitHub/GitLab Wikis, Google Sites, MediaWiki, Microsoft Teams, Notion, Redmine, Slack, Wiki.js, XWiki
Kimi K2Document360
Four alternativesConfluence, Guru, Notion, Zendesk Guide
Zendesk GuideChanged
Two alternativesFreshdesk, Salesforce Service Cloud
against: ServiceNow Knowledge Management
no first choiceBloomfire, Helpjuice
Two alternativesHelpDocs, KnowledgeOwl
against: Confluence, Document360, Guru, Notion, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceagainst: Confluence, Help Scout Docs, Notion, ProProfs, Salesforce Knowledge, ServiceNow Knowledge Management, SharePoint, Tettra
GLM 4.7 FlashXPylon, Zendesk Guide
Two alternativesDocument360, Helply
Zendesk GuideChanged
One alternativeSalesforce Service Cloud
Confluence
Eight alternativesBloomfire, Capacity, Document360, GitBook, Glean, Guru, Helpjuice, Notion
Helpjuice, Helply
Four alternativesBloomfire, Confluence, Notion, eesel AI
against: Document360, Guru, Shelf
no first choiceagainst: Confluence, Notion, SharePoint
MiniMax M2.5Plain
Four alternativesConfluence, Document360, Pylon, Zendesk Guide
Zendesk GuideChanged
One alternativeSalesforce Service Cloud
eGain AI Knowledge Hub
Eight alternativesConfluence, Document360, Guru, Notion, Nuclino, Salesforce Knowledge, ServiceNow Knowledge Management, Zendesk Guide
against: Slite
Helpjuice
Five alternativesBookStack, ClickHelp, Confluence Data Center, KnowledgeBase, KnowledgeOwl
against: Confluence, Notion, Slite, Zendesk Guide
no first choiceagainst: Notionagainst: BookStack, Confluence, Document360, Guru, Notion, Tettra
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 03:11yes87 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:42yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:17yes1925 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:47yes206 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)2026-09-15 02:09yes010 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:56yes013 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:47yes019 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:38yes01 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:00yes029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:28yes044 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:00yes030 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:13yes021 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:15yes89 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:06yes65 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:41yes925 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:55yes205 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 00:50yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:43yes08 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:50yes036 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:24yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:11no036 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:24yes041 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:41yes052 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:17yes020 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:58yes810 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:53yes310 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:01yes1827 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:24yes208 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 04:50yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:26yes011 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:37yes072 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:18yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:10yes029 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:59yes042 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:51yes024 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:20yes013 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:51yes128 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:24yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 22:54yes1624 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:21yes206 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 02:52yes09 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:21yes05 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:51yes061 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:57yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:29yes067 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:35yes036 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:54yes019 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:20yes040 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:01no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:43yes37 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:50yes1027 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:16yes2010 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 02:54yes018 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:11no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:43yes064 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:39yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:58yes040 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 05:06yes050 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:57yes0121 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:40yes014 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:49yes1812 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:29no06 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:26yes1426 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:42yes206 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 03:06yes011 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:05yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:26yes061 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:25yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:53no043 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:48yes056 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:39yes038 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:21yes028 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
Intercom read as Intercom Articles
ServiceNow read as ServiceNow Knowledge Management
ServiceNow Knowledge read as ServiceNow Knowledge Management
Zendesk read as Zendesk Guide
Zendesk (Guide) read as Zendesk Guide
Zendesk Knowledge / Guide read as Zendesk Guide
eGain read as eGain AI Knowledge Hub
Unresolved, counted raw
Apple Notes
Azure AI Search
Experience Cloud
Freshdesk Knowledge Base
Iternal
OpenDocMan
Plain.com
Redmine (Wiki module)
Salesforce Help Center + Knowledge
Shelf.io
Starmind
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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