Customer support and helpdesk
Asked as “customer support and helpdesk platform”, and as “helpdesk and customer support software”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 28 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing
Zendesk43% of first choices and a 27% negative rate: a criticized default. Zoho Desk matches Freshdesk on share with no negative labels at all.
First-choice share
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. Leader at 30% or more of first choices; criticized at 25% or more negative labels. Markers are keyed to the table below.
Negative label rate →
25% negative
30% first choices
Criticized challenger
Criticized default
Accepted challenger
Endorsed leader
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
090%First-choice share →60%
Full standing
| # | Product | First choices | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Zendesk | 43% | 27% | 30 | criticized default |
| 02 | Freshdesk | 21% | 12% | 26 | accepted challenger |
| 03 | Zoho Desk | 21% | 0% | 15 | accepted challenger |
| 04 | Jira Service Management | 4% | 27% | 15 | criticized challenger |
| 05 | HubSpot Service Hub | 0% | 7% | 27 | accepted challenger |
| 06 | Intercom | 0% | 19% | 27 | accepted challenger |
| 07 | Front | 0% | 0% | 11 | accepted challenger |
| 08 | Help Scout | 0% | 20% | 15 | accepted challenger |
| 09 | Salesforce Service Cloud | 0% | 45% | 20 | criticized challenger |
Warned against
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 Service Cloud45%
9 of 20 labels negative · 6 of 6 models
“**Zendesk** and **Salesforce Service Cloud** for smaller or less complex teams, because one B2B-focused source explicitly says to avoid them at this stage” Perplexity Sonar Pro, negative prompt
Zendesk27%
8 of 30 labels negative · 6 of 6 models
“caution around **Zendesk** and **Salesforce Service Cloud** for smaller teams, not because they are bad products overall, but because they can be **too complex**” Perplexity Sonar Pro, negative prompt
Intercom19%
5 of 27 labels negative · 4 of 6 models
“SLAs, HIPAA support, SSO, workload management and multibrand features are restricted to the top Expert plan.” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt
Kayako100%
2 of 2 labels negative · 2 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“legacy products like Kayako and Desk.com have historically stagnated or shut down” Claude Opus 5, negative prompt
Held under rewording
Whether each model's first choice on the direct prompt survived the paraphrase in this category, under the strict rule.
Claude Opus 5
Changed
Claude Opus 4.8
Held
GPT-6 Astra
Changed
GPT-5.6 Sol
Held
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Changed
Perplexity Sonar Pro
Changed
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat (simulated until 12 September 2026). Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
Claude Opus 5
0 of 4 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
1 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
0 of 5 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
1 of 4 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
2 of 4 flipped
What each model said, prompt by prompt
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. Bold is the first choice, grey the alternatives, red what the answer argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
| Prompt | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | GPT-6 Astra | GPT-5.6 Sol | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Perplexity Sonar Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct recommendation What is the best customer support and helpdesk platform for a mid-market B2B software company? | Zendesk HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Pylon | Freshdesk, Zendesk HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom | Pylon Intercom, Zendesk | Zendesk Freshdesk, Front, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom against: Salesforce Service Cloud | Zendesk Front, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Jira Service Management | Pylon Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Supportbench, Zendesk |
Paraphrase Which helpdesk and customer support software would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company? | Freshdesk HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Plain, Pylon +1 against: Zendesk | Freshdesk, Zendesk HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zoho Desk | Pylon, Zendesk Freshdesk, Intercom | Zendesk Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom against: Jira Service Management, Salesforce Service Cloud | Jira Service Management, Zendesk Front, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom | Zendesk Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, Plain |
Comparative What are the top customer support and helpdesk platforms and how do they differ? | no first choice Freshdesk, Gorgias, Help Scout, Hiver +5 against: Freshservice, Jira Service Management, ServiceNow | Zendesk Freshdesk, Gorgias, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub +3 | no first choice Freshservice, Jira Service Management | Zendesk Freshdesk, Gorgias, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub +4 | no first choice | Zendesk Freshdesk, Front, Help Scout, Hiver +4 |
Budget constrained What is the best customer support and helpdesk platform for a company with a limited budget? | Zoho Desk Chatwoot, Crisp, FreeScout, Freshdesk +5 against: Help Scout, Intercom, Zendesk | Zoho Desk Chatwoot, Help Scout, Zammad against: Freshdesk | Zoho Desk Help Scout against: Freshdesk | Zoho Desk Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Jira Service Management against: Help Scout | Zoho Desk FreeScout, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Jira Service Management +1 | Freshdesk, Zoho Desk HubSpot Service Hub, LiveAgent |
Scale constrained We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer support and helpdesk platform. What should we look at? | Freshdesk HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud | no first choice | Freshdesk, Zendesk Front, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud | Zendesk Freshdesk, Front, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom +2 | Zendesk Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Jira Service Management against: Salesforce Service Cloud | no first choice |
Negative framing Which customer support and helpdesk platforms should I avoid or be cautious about? | no first choice against: Desk.com, Intercom, Jira Service Management +3 | no first choice against: Freshdesk, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud +1 | no first choice against: Gorgias, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom +2 | no first choice against: Gorgias, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub +4 | no first choice Freshdesk, Front, Gorgias, Help Scout against: BMC FootPrints, Cherwell Service Management, Kayako +4 | no first choice against: Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
None awaiting human review.
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
Every prompt and answer
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, latency and cost. Full answer text is in the responses download on the Data page.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 13:49 | yes | 40 | 76 s | $0.44 |
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 13:50 | yes | 40 | 62 s | $0.24 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 13:51 | yes | 5 | 39 s | $0.54 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 13:52 | yes | 7 | 55 s | $0.25 |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 13:51 | no | 0 | 31 s | $0.03 |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 13:50 | yes | 20 | 10 s | $0.02 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 13:53 | yes | 39 | 63 s | $0.28 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 13:54 | no | 0 | 29 s | $0.07 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 13:56 | yes | 5 | 42 s | $0.39 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 13:57 | yes | 6 | 51 s | $0.19 |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 13:55 | no | 0 | 49 s | $0.03 |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 13:54 | yes | 20 | 10 s | $0.02 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 13:58 | yes | 39 | 65 s | $0.31 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 13:59 | yes | 33 | 66 s | $0.30 |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 14:01 | yes | 10 | 62 s | $0.53 |
| Comparative | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 14:02 | yes | 10 | 77 s | $0.30 |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 14:00 | no | 0 | 27 s | $0.03 |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 13:59 | yes | 19 | 14 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 14:03 | yes | 32 | 63 s | $0.26 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 16:12 | yes | 18 | 232 s | $0.30 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 14:10 | yes | 5 | 33 s | $0.33 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 14:11 | yes | 5 | 29 s | $0.17 |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 14:09 | yes | 8 | 42 s | $0.05 |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 14:09 | yes | 20 | 11 s | $0.01 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 14:12 | yes | 39 | 88 s | $0.42 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 14:13 | no | 0 | 27 s | $0.07 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 14:14 | yes | 6 | 41 s | $0.26 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 14:16 | yes | 7 | 80 s | $0.27 |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 14:14 | no | 0 | 38 s | $0.03 |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 14:13 | yes | 20 | 15 s | $0.02 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 14:17 | yes | 41 | 68 s | $0.34 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 14:18 | yes | 38 | 62 s | $0.29 |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 14:20 | yes | 5 | 47 s | $0.44 |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 14:21 | yes | 7 | 71 s | $0.34 |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 14:19 | yes | 11 | 56 s | $0.06 |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 14:18 | yes | 20 | 10 s | $0.01 |