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September 2026 Edition, expanded tier · The six flagship models on every category, as published . The public index runs on the standard tier; this record is what the Expanded Edition Pack delivers on one category. The category page →
Index › GTM › Revenue operations › CRM · September 2026 Edition

CRM

Asked as “CRM”, and as “customer relationship management system”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 22 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing · first-choice share
45%
HubSpot CRM
Clear leader
45HubSpot CRM23HubSpot Sales Hub14Bigin by Zoho18others

45% of first choices, clear leader.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01HubSpot CRM45%15%27endorsed leadernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 45% now.
02Zoho CRM9%16%25accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 9% now.
03Salesforce Sales Cloud9%21%28accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 9% now.
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
06Pipedrive0%32%19criticized challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
05Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales0%12%16accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.
04Freshsales0%8%13accepted challengernewNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.

The floor is 12 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one can't be told apart from repeat variation, and both are shown. Each index measures its own floor from its own repeat, over its own categories, so the floor differs from one index to the next. How the floor is measured

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 head
HubSpot CRM vs Zoho CRMHubSpot CRM vs Salesforce Sales CloudZoho CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01HubSpot CRM45%
02Zoho CRM9%
03Salesforce Sales Cloud9%
04Freshsales0%
05Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales0%
06Pipedrive0%

What they warned about

Five of six models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-6 Astra 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.
Salesforce Sales Cloud
21%
6 of 28 labels negative · 6 of 6 models
“Salesforce is powerful but frequently criticized as expensive and complex — often overkill for small businesses.” Claude Opus 4.8, negative prompt
HubSpot CRM
15%
4 of 27 labels negative · 4 of 6 models
“the free tier is genuinely good, which is exactly the trap... Model your cost at 3x your current contact count before signing.” Claude Opus 5, negative prompt
Zoho CRM
16%
4 of 25 labels negative · 4 of 6 models
“the user interface can feel clunky, and native integrations can occasionally be buggy. More importantly, customer support can be slow” Gemini 3.1 Pro, negative prompt
Keap
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 6 models
“It is primarily an automation-heavy small-business platform. Pricing currently starts at $299/month” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt

What they cite

Six of the six models returned a source list in this edition: six return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

28 of 36 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 6 of 6 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 459 links across 236 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 36 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.

hubspot.com
vendor site · HubSpot15 answers · 18 citations · 5 models
salesforce.com
vendor site · Salesforce12 answers · 12 citations · 5 models
nutshell.com
vendor site · Nutshell10 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
monday.com
vendor site · Monday.com9 answers · 12 citations · 5 models
blog.salesflare.com
vendor site · Salesflare8 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
g2.com
6 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
techradar.com
6 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
forbes.com
6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
pipedrive.com
vendor site · Pipedrive6 answers · 7 citations · 4 models
sybill.ai
vendor site · Sybill6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
zoho.com
vendor site · Zoho5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
capterra.com
vendor site · Capterra5 answers · 6 citations · 3 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.

blog.salesflare.com/compare-salesforce-zoho-hubspot-pipedrive
4 answers · 2 models
brokenrubik.com/blog/crm-comparison-guide
4 answers · 2 models
creatio.com/glossary/b2b-crm
4 answers · 2 models
hubspot.com/pricing/sales?list_view=true
4 answers · 2 models
monday.com/blog/crm-and-sales/b2b-crm
4 answers · 2 models
monday.com/blog/crm-and-sales/crm-software
4 answers · 2 models
nutshell.com/blog/best-b2b-crm-software
4 answers · 2 models
zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing-calculator.html
4 answers · 1 model
blog.hubspot.com/sales/hubspot-sales-hub-pricing
3 answers · 2 models
blog.salesflare.com/best-b2b-crm
3 answers · 2 models

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 crm”, “crm”. 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
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot CRM 45%, HubSpot Sales Hub 23%		68%687368,0009,776
Zoho bigin.com
Bigin by Zoho 14%		14%74210331,9800
Zoho parent site
Zoho CRM 9%, Zoho One 0%		9%33149,500660
Salesforce parent site
Salesforce Sales Cloud 9%		9%318550,00060,632
Freshsales freshworks.com0%1381,60038111,586$14,486113
Microsoft parent site
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales 0%		0%1372,240,000403,136
Pipedrive pipedrive.com0%36049,500598418,149$55978
monday CRM monday.com0%378,100293691,961$1641195
Attio attio.com0%6
Close close.com0%120368,0001,940,083168,266$2,18818

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 13 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (forbes.com, hubspot.com, monday.com, pipedrive.com, salesforce.com, zoho.com). The first result for “best crm” is salesforce.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 CRM for a mid-market B2B software company?”Paraphrase“Which customer relationship management system would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company?”Comparative“What are the top CRMs and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best CRM for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a CRM. What should we look at?”Negative“Which CRMs should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Opus 5HubSpot CRM
One alternativeSalesforce Sales Cloud
against: Freshsales, PipedriveHubSpot CRMHeld
One alternativeSalesforce Sales Cloud
against: Pipedrive, Zoho CRMno first choice
Eight alternativesAttio, Bigin by Zoho, Freshsales, HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
Bigin by Zoho
Three alternativesHubSpot Sales Hub, Zoho CRM, Zoho One
against: Capsule CRM, EngageBay, Pipedriveno first choiceagainst: HubSpot CRM, Keap, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce Sales Cloud
Claude Opus 4.8HubSpot CRM
Two alternativesPipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud
HubSpot CRMHeld
Three alternativesPipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
no first choice
Six alternativesHubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM, monday CRM
HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM
Two alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive
no first choiceagainst: Salesforce Sales Cloud
GPT-6 AstraSalesforce Sales Cloud
One alternativeHubSpot CRM
HubSpot Sales HubChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud
no first choiceZoho CRM
Three alternativesBigin by Zoho, Freshsales, HubSpot CRM
no first choiceagainst: HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zendesk Sell, Zoho CRM
GPT-5.6 SolHubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
HubSpot Sales HubHeld
Four alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
no first choice
Seven alternativesFreshsales, HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM, monday CRM
Bigin by Zoho
Three alternativesFreshsales, HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM
against: Pipedriveno first choiceagainst: HubSpot CRM, Keap, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
Gemini 3.1 ProHubSpot CRM
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce Sales Cloud
HubSpot CRMHeld
Two alternativesPipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud
no first choiceHubSpot CRM
Five alternativesBigin by Zoho, EngageBay, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud
One alternativeMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Sales
against: Act!, Bitrix24, GoldMine, HubSpot CRM, Keap, Oracle Sales, SAP Sales Cloud, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
Perplexity Sonar ProHubSpot Sales Hub
Three alternativesCoevera, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales CloudHubSpot Sales HubHeld
Four alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
no first choiceBigin by Zoho, HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesLess Annoying CRM, Nutshell, Zoho CRM
no first choicenothing named
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.
Thirty-six rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-09 20:28yes2955 s
Direct recommendationClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-09 20:29no017 s
Direct recommendationGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-09 20:31yes328 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-09 20:32yes429 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-10 17:22no025 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-09 20:30yes205 s
ParaphraseClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-09 20:34yes2047 s
ParaphraseClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-09 20:35no017 s
ParaphraseGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-09 20:36yes423 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-09 20:37yes425 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-10 17:25no089 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-09 20:35yes203 s
ComparativeClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-09 20:39yes3453 s
ComparativeClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-09 20:41yes3749 s
ComparativeGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-09 20:44yes741 s
ComparativeGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-09 20:45yes936 s
ComparativeGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-10 17:26no020 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-09 20:42yes208 s
Budget constrainedClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-09 20:47yes3247 s
Budget constrainedClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-09 20:48yes3742 s
Budget constrainedGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-09 20:50yes420 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-09 20:51yes537 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-10 17:27no021 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-09 20:49yes196 s
Scale constrainedClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-09 20:53yes1876 s
Scale constrainedClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-09 20:54no022 s
Scale constrainedGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-09 20:56yes527 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-09 20:57yes243 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-10 17:28no024 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-09 20:54yes198 s
Negative framingClaude Opus 5claude-opus-52026-09-09 21:00yes2857 s
Negative framingClaude Opus 4.8claude-opus-4-82026-09-09 21:01yes4141 s
Negative framingGPT-6 Astragpt-6-astra2026-09-09 21:03yes532 s
Negative framingGPT-5.6 Solgpt-5.6-sol2026-09-09 21:04yes632 s
Negative framingGemini 3.1 Progemini-3.1-pro-preview2026-09-10 17:32yes7104 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonar Prosonar-pro2026-09-09 21:02yes206 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

ShowHide
Claude Opus 5
3 of 4 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
1 of 4 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
3 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
3 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
2 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
0 of 3 flipped

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
HubSpot read as HubSpot CRM
HubSpot (Sales Hub Enterprise) read as HubSpot CRM
Monday Sales CRM read as monday CRM
Oracle read as Oracle Sales
SAP read as SAP Sales Cloud
Salesforce read as Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce (Sales Cloud) read as Salesforce Sales Cloud
Zoho read as Zoho CRM
Unresolved, counted raw
None awaiting human review.
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in revenue operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← CPQCRM data quality →