GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Customer › September 2026 Edition

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 company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Freshdesk
Clear leader
43% of first choices and a 27% negative rate: a criticized default. Zoho Desk matches Freshdesk on share with no negative labels at all.
ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

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.
Small businessFreshdesk36%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketFreshdesk44%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseZendesk53%Clear leaderStanding →

01The 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
01Freshdesk44%12%59endorsed leader
02Zoho Desk23%6%31accepted challenger
03Zendesk16%25%53accepted challenger
04HubSpot Service Hub2%6%32accepted challenger
05TeamSupport2%0%12accepted challenger
Show the nine products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13ServiceNow0%50%12criticized challenger
14Salesforce Service Cloud0%47%30criticized challenger
07Intercom0%25%44criticized challenger
10Jira Service Management0%12%16accepted challenger
09Gorgias0%10%20accepted challenger
12LiveAgent0%10%10accepted challenger
06Help Scout0%8%37accepted challenger
08Front0%0%18accepted challenger
11Hiver0%0%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 vendor page.
Head to head
Freshdesk vs Zoho DeskFreshdesk vs ZendeskZoho Desk vs Zendesk

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Freshdesk44%
02Zoho Desk23%
03Zendesk16%
04HubSpot Service Hub2%
05TeamSupport2%
06Help Scout0%
07Intercom0%
08Front0%
09Gorgias0%
10Jira Service Management0%
11Hiver0%
12LiveAgent0%
13ServiceNow0%
14Salesforce Service Cloud0%

02What they warned about

Seven of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small 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.
Zendesk
25%
13 of 53 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“**Verdict:** Avoid unless you're a large enterprise with dedicated admin resources and budget for the full suite.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Intercom
25%
11 of 44 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Avoid starting new implementations with: ... Intercom/Fin (until Salesforce integration clarifies)” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Salesforce Service Cloud
47%
14 of 30 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“smaller or earlier-stage teams should avoid it at this stage because the **implementation complexity isn't worth it**” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
ServiceNow
50%
6 of 12 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“ServiceNow's rigid, aging platform often requires forced upgrades, can exhibit performance issues, demands heavy maintenance” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 221 links across 106 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.

helpdesk.com
9 answers · 10 citations · 2 models
intercom.com
vendor site · Intercom7 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
freshworks.com
vendor site · Freshworks5 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
g2.com
5 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
kustomer.com
vendor site · Kustomer5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
zendesk.com
vendor site · Zendesk5 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
happyfox.com
vendor site · HappyFox5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
kayako.com
vendor site · Kayako5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
nextiva.com
vendor site · Nextiva5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
learn.g2.com
4 answers · 6 citations · 3 models
usepylon.com
4 answers · 6 citations · 1 model
desk365.io
vendor site · Desk3654 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.

helpdesk.com/blog/best-customer-service-software
6 answers · 2 models
intercom.com/learning-center/best-help-desk-software
6 answers · 3 models
bluetweak.com/blog/best-help-desk-software
4 answers · 1 model
freshworks.com/helpdesk/software
4 answers · 3 models
happyfox.com/helpdesk/use-cases/customer-service-software-solutions
4 answers · 2 models
helpdesk.com/learn/top-help-desk-softwares
4 answers · 2 models
kustomer.com/resources/blog/customer-self-service-platform
4 answers · 1 model
nextiva.com/blog/top-customer-support-tools.html
4 answers · 1 model
richpanel.com/learn/best-customer-service-software-2026
4 answers · 1 model
zapier.com/blog/best-customer-support-apps
4 answers · 2 models

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best customer support and helpdesk platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which helpdesk and customer support software would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top customer support and helpdesk platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer support and helpdesk platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a customer support and helpdesk platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which customer support and helpdesk platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Freshdesk
Four alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, TeamSupport, Zendesk
TeamSupportChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, ProProfs Desk, Zendesk Service
no first choice
Three alternativesFreshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk
Zoho Desk
Four alternativesGroove, LiveAgent, ProProfs Help Desk, osTicket
no first choiceagainst: HappyFox, HelpDesk by LiveChat, ServiceNow
GPT-5.4 miniZendesk
Four alternativesFreshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud
ZendeskHeld
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Intercom, TeamSupport
Zendesk
Seven alternativesFreshdesk, Gorgias, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk
Two alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout
against: Zendeskno first choiceagainst: Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk
Gemini 3.5 FlashPylon
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Front, HubSpot Service Hub
against: ZendeskFreshdesk, PylonChanged
Four alternativesFront, HubSpot Service Hub, Plain, TeamSupport
against: Salesforce Service Cloudno first choice
Seven alternativesFreshdesk, Gorgias, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Jira Service Management, Zendesk
Zoho Desk
Eight alternativesCrisp, Drag App, FreeScout, Hiver, HubSpot Service Hub, Jira Service Management, Microsoft Lists + Power Automate, osTicket
against: Help ScoutZendesk
Six alternativesFreshdesk, Freshservice, Front, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Jira Service Management
against: Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNowagainst: HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Jira Service Management, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Zendesk AI
Perplexity SonarZendesk
One alternativeFreshdesk
FreshdeskChanged
Three alternativesHelp Scout, Intercom, Zendesk
Zendesk
Eight alternativesFreshdesk, Front, Gorgias, Help Scout, Hiver, Intercom, Kustomer, Salesforce Service Cloud
Freshdesk
Two alternativesHelp Scout, Zoho Desk
against: HESK, HubSpot Service Hubno first choiceagainst: Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk
Grok 4.1 FastFreshdesk
Two alternativesTeamSupport, Zendesk
against: Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNowFreshdeskHeld
Six alternativesHelp Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, TeamSupport, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
no first choiceZoho Desk
Five alternativesFreeScout, Hiver, HubSpot Service Hub, Spiceworks Help Desk, osTicket
against: Freshdeskno first choice
Five alternativesFreshdesk, HappyFox, Intercom, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
against: Freshdesk, Intercom, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
Mistral SmallPlain
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Front, Intercom, Zendesk
SupportbenchChanged
Six alternativesDeskpro, Freshdesk, Front, Help Scout, TeamSupport, Zendesk
against: IntercomZendesk
Seven alternativesFreshdesk, Front, Gorgias, Help Scout, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zoho Desk
Freshdesk, Zoho Desk
Three alternativesHelpScout, Hiver, LiveAgent
no first choiceagainst: Freshdesk, Intercom, Zendesk
DeepSeek V4 FlashFreshdesk
Three alternativesFront, Intercom, Zendesk
FreshdeskHeld
Five alternativesIntercom, Pylon, Supportbench, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
Freshdesk, Intercom, Zendesk
Six alternativesGorgias, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Jira Service Management, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk
Five alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, LiveAgent, Tidio
against: Intercom, Kustomer, Salesforce Service Cloud, ZendeskFreshdesk, Zendesk
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Kustomer
against: Gorgias, Salesforce Service Cloudagainst: BMC Remedy / BMC Helix, Freshdesk, Intercom, LiveAgent, Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow, Zendesk
Llama 4 MaverickFreshdesk
Three alternativesHelp Scout, TeamSupport, Zendesk
FreshdeskHeld
One alternativeTidio
no first choiceZoho Desk
Four alternativesCrisp, Help Scout, Tidio, osTicket
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashFreshdesk
Three alternativesPlain, TeamSupport, Zendesk
FreshdeskHeld
Two alternativesIntercom, Zendesk
against: Salesforce Service CloudZendesk
Five alternativesFreshdesk, Gorgias, Help Scout, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud
HubSpot Service Hub
Five alternativesChatwoot, Front, Gorgias, Hiver, Zoho Desk
Zendesk
Five alternativesFortsune / Gorgias, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, Jira Service Management
against: Salesforce Service Cloudagainst: Freshdesk, Gorgias, Groove, HappyFox, Help Scout, Intercom, Jira Service Management, Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow
Kimi K2Freshdesk
Four alternativesFront, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Plain
against: ZendeskFreshdeskHeld
Four alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Plain, TeamSupport, Zendesk
no first choiceZoho Desk
Five alternativesFreshdesk, Groove, Help Scout, Helply, Spiceworks Help Desk
no first choiceagainst: Desk.com, Groove, Help Scout, Intercom, Kayako, Tidio, Zendesk
GLM 4.7 FlashXFreshdesk
Two alternativesIntercom, Zendesk
FreshdeskHeld
Three alternativesHelp Scout, Intercom, Zendesk
Zendesk
Seven alternativesFreshdesk, Gorgias, Hiver, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk
Five alternativesFreshdesk, HESK, Help Scout, LiveAgent, Tidio
no first choiceagainst: EY's Third-Party Help-Desk Platform, Freshdesk, HaloITSM, Ivanti Neurons for ITSM, Jira, Salesforce Service Cloud, SolarWinds Web Help Desk, Zendesk
MiniMax M2.5Pylon
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Intercom, Zendesk
ZendeskChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, TeamSupport
Freshdesk
Eight alternativesFeaturebase, Gorgias, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Jira Service Management, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
against: ServiceNowFreshdesk, Zoho Desk
One alternativeHelp Scout
no first choiceagainst: Freshdesk, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:59yes1611 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:07yes57 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:13yes1728 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:32yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:40yes09 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:44yes08 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:54yes024 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:56yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:06yes024 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:31yes055 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:33yes027 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:44yes020 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:45yes89 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:53yes55 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:47yes1723 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:51yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:34yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:58yes010 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 01:26yes042 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:24yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:18yes029 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:43yes038 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:48yes020 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:43yes012 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:01yes1815 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:38yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 22:53yes1225 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:17yes2011 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:45yes06 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:22yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:21yes018 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:09yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:00yes032 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:55yes031 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:02yes023 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:16yes018 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:02yes109 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:28yes44 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:15yes1425 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:34yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:54yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:30yes05 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:40yes043 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:09yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:27yes017 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:00yes024 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:04yes039 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:17yes011 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:02no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:30no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:45yes1125 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:32yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:28yes010 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:42no010 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:36yes028 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 05:01yes04 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:53no039 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:04yes036 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:48no011 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:30yes011 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:43yes2511 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:19yes48 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:54yes626 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:24yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:42yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:33yes010 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:03yes080 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:03yes01 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:38yes096 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:45yes063 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:17yes019 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:22yes032 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.

Claude Haiku 4.5
3 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
1 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
3 of 5 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
3 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.1 Fast
1 of 4 flipped
Mistral Small
5 of 5 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
5 of 6 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
1 of 3 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
4 of 6 flipped
Kimi K2
6 of 6 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
3 of 5 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
4 of 4 flipped

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
Freshworks read as Freshdesk
HubSpot read as HubSpot Service Hub
Salesforce read as Salesforce Service Cloud
Unresolved, counted raw
BMC Remedy / BMC Helix
Deskpro
Drag App
EY's Third-Party Help-Desk Platform
Fortsune / Gorgias
Intercom with Fin AI
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Microsoft Lists + Power Automate
ProProfs Desk
ProProfs Help Desk
Zendesk Service
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in customer

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← Customer successDigital adoption →