GTM AI Index
Index › Customer › Helpdesk › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Customer support and helpdesk for small business buyers

Asked as “customer support and helpdesk platform”, and as “helpdesk and customer support software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Freshdesk
Contested
36% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 73 categories →

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%ContestedThis pageMid-marketFreshdesk44%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseZendesk53%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 small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Freshdesk36%3%64endorsed leader
02Zoho Desk26%2%52accepted challenger
03Help Scout24%4%56accepted challenger
04HubSpot Service Hub4%9%35accepted challenger
05Zendesk2%65%46criticized challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Intercom0%55%31criticized challenger
09Gorgias0%32%19criticized challenger
08Tidio0%7%15accepted challenger
07Front0%0%16accepted challenger
06Hiver0%0%15accepted 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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Freshdesk36%
02Zoho Desk26%
03Help Scout24%
04HubSpot Service Hub4%
05Zendesk2%
06Hiver0%
07Front0%
08Tidio0%
09Gorgias0%
10Intercom0%

02What 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, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, 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.
Zendesk
65%
30 of 46 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“genuinely over-tooled and overpriced for a small or simple team. Only consider it for enterprise-level volume and complexity.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Intercom
55%
17 of 31 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Best suited for SaaS/digital-product companies at scale, not resource-constrained small businesses. Predictable budgeting is essentially impossible.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Salesforce Service Cloud
100%
9 of 9 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“Generally way over-tooled and expensive for small businesses (Enterprise at $175/user/month)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Kustomer
100%
4 of 4 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Recommended against for small businesses in favor of simpler tools; one source says to avoid it at this stage” Perplexity Sonar, 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. 195 links across 85 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.

hiverhq.com
vendor site · Hiver7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
capterra.com
vendor site · Capterra6 answers · 9 citations · 3 models
helpdesk.com
6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
freshworks.com
vendor site · Freshworks6 answers · 7 citations · 3 models
featurebase.app
vendor site · Featurebase6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
intercom.com
vendor site · Intercom6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
monday.com
vendor site · Monday.com5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
plain.com
vendor site · Plain4 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
learn.g2.com
4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
cloudtalk.io
vendor site · CloudTalk4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
gladly.ai
vendor site · Gladly4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
happyfox.com
vendor site · HappyFox4 answers · 4 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.

featurebase.app/blog/best-help-desk-software-for-small-business
6 answers · 2 models
intercom.com/learning-center/best-help-desk-software
6 answers · 2 models
helpdesk.com/blog/best-customer-service-software
5 answers · 1 model
monday.com/blog/service/small-business-help-desk-software
5 answers · 2 models
capterra.com/resources/best-help-desk-software-small-business
4 answers · 2 models
cloudtalk.io/blog/the-most-comprehensive-comparison-of-helpdesk-software-fo…
4 answers · 1 model
gladly.ai/blog/best-customer-support-platforms-small-business
4 answers · 2 models
happyfox.com/helpdesk/use-cases/customer-service-software-solutions
4 answers · 2 models
learn.g2.com/best-customer-service-software-for-small-business
4 answers · 2 models
plain.com/blog/customer-support-software
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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which helpdesk and customer support software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top customer support and helpdesk platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best customer support and helpdesk platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a customer support and helpdesk platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which customer support and helpdesk platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Help Scout
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Plain, TeamSupport
TeamSupportChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Pylon, Zoho Desk
Hiver
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Intercom, Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk
Two alternativesFreshdesk, Hiver
no first choiceagainst: LiveChat, Zendesk
GPT-5.4 miniHelp Scout
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Intercom, Zendesk
ZendeskChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub
against: IntercomHelp Scout
Five alternativesFreshdesk, Gorgias, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zendesk
Freshdesk
Four alternativesCrisp, LiveAgent, Tidio, Zoho Desk
against: HelpDesk by LiveChatno first choiceagainst: Zendesk
Gemini 3.5 FlashHelp Scout, Pylon
Five alternativesFreshdesk, Front, HubSpot Service Hub, Plain, Zoho Desk
Help ScoutChanged
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Front, HubSpot Service Hub
against: ZendeskHelp Scout
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Front, Gorgias, Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk
Five alternativesDesk365, FreeScout, Freshdesk, Hiver, HubSpot Service Hub
against: ZendeskHelp Scout
Eight alternativesFreshdesk, Freshservice, Front, Gorgias, Halp, HubSpot Service Hub, Jira Service Management, Suptask
against: Intercom, Zendeskagainst: HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Jira Service Management, Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow, Zendesk
Perplexity SonarHelp Scout
Four alternativesFreshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Pylon, SupportBee
Freshdesk, Help ScoutChanged
Two alternativesPylon, Zoho Desk
against: ZendeskHelp Scout
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Hiver, Zoho Desk
against: Intercom, ZendeskZoho Desk
One alternativeFreshdesk
against: Help Scout, Spiceworks Help Deskno first choiceagainst: Kustomer, Salesforce Service Cloud, Sprinklr, Zendesk
Grok 4.1 FastFreshdesk
Three alternativesHelp Scout, HelpDesk by LiveChat, Zoho Desk
against: Intercom, ZendeskFreshdeskHeld
Two alternativesHelp Scout, Zoho Desk
against: Intercom, TeamSupport, ZendeskFreshdesk, Zoho Desk
Three alternativesGorgias, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub
against: ZendeskZoho Desk
Six alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Helply, HubSpot Service Hub, LiveAgent, Spiceworks Help Desk
against: ZendeskFreshdesk, Zoho Desk
Two alternativesHappyFox, HubSpot Service Hub
against: HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Kustomer, Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceTitan, Zendesk
Mistral SmallFreshdesk
Three alternativesHelp Scout, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
TeamSupportChanged
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
Help Scout
Seven alternativesFreshdesk, Front, Hiver, HubSpot Service Hub, SupportBee, Tidio, Zoho Desk
HubSpot Service Hub, Zoho Desk
Four alternativesFreshdesk, FyneDesk, Gorgias, Hiver
no first choice
Seven alternativesFreshdesk, Gorgias, HappyFox, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
against: Freshdesk, Gorgias, Intercom, Kustomer, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
DeepSeek V4 FlashFreshdesk
Two alternativesHelp Scout, Zoho Desk
against: Intercom, ZendeskFreshdeskHeld
Four alternativesHelp Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, TeamSupport, Zoho Desk
against: Gorgias, HelplyFreshdesk, Help Scout
Five alternativesFront, Gorgias, Hiver, Tidio, Zoho Desk
against: Intercom, ZendeskZoho Desk
One alternativeFreshdesk
Freshdesk, Zoho Desk
Three alternativesHelp Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom
against: Gorgias, Zendeskagainst: Gorgias, Help Scout, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk
Llama 4 MaverickPylon
Three alternativesHelp Scout, Intercom, Kayako
no first choiceChangedHelp Scout
Two alternativesFreshdesk, Zoho Desk
against: Intercom, ZendeskZoho Desk
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Hiver
Freshdesk
Four alternativesDesk365, Intercom, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
against: Gorgias, Intercom, Zendesk
Qwen 3.7 FlashFreshdesk
Three alternativesHelp Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Zoho Desk
Freshdesk, Help ScoutChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zoho Desk
against: ZendeskHelp Scout
Two alternativesFreshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Jira Service Management, Zoho Desk, tawk.to
Help Scout
Three alternativesFreshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk
against: Intercomagainst: HelpDesk by LiveChat, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk
Kimi K2Freshdesk
Two alternativesHelp Scout, Zoho Desk
against: ZendeskHelp ScoutChanged
Two alternativesFreshdesk, TeamSupport
Zoho Desk
Four alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, HelpDesk by LiveChat, Mojo Helpdesk
Freshdesk, Zoho Desk
Three alternativesFreeScout, HubSpot Service Hub, Zammad
no first choiceagainst: Salesforce Service Cloudagainst: Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Kayako, Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow, Zendesk
GLM 4.7 FlashXFreshdesk, Help Scout
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Zoho Desk
against: ZendeskFreshdeskChanged
Three alternativesHelp Scout, Intercom, Zendesk
Help Scout
Nine alternativesFreshdesk, Front, Gorgias, Hiver, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, SupportBee, Tidio, Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk
Five alternativesFreshdesk, Groove, Help Scout, Helply, Mojo Helpdesk
no first choiceagainst: Intercom, Kayako, Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow, Zendesk
MiniMax M2.5Freshdesk
Two alternativesHubSpot Service Hub, Zoho Desk
Help Scout, Zoho DeskChanged
Two alternativesFreshdesk, TeamSupport
against: ZendeskHelp Scout
Six alternativesCrisp, Freshdesk, Hiver, HubSpot Service Hub, Tidio, Zoho Desk
against: ZendeskZoho Desk
Three alternativesFreshdesk, Help Scout, Spiceworks Help Desk
Freshdesk
Four alternativesHelp Scout, Intercom, Zendesk, Zoho Desk
against: Gorgias, Intercom, Kustomer, Tidio, Zendesk
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 00:21yes77 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:39yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:30yes1522 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:36yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:54yes010 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:39yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:58yes018 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 05:07yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:10yes060 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:43yes026 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:45yes0129 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:16yes014 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:13yes710 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:59yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:26yes520 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:37yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:42yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:54yes09 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:41yes046 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:47yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:11no043 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:17yes028 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:59yes037 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:55yes015 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:39yes1310 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:33yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:09yes2321 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:18yes179 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:02yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:48yes07 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:10yes047 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:59yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:32yes034 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:38yes022 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:21yes060 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:59yes010 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:13yes67 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:07yes14 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:44yes1321 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:08yes208 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:57yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:22yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:19yes013 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:31yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:58no036 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:35yes051 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:27yes073 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:46yes08 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:49no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 05:05no012 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:11yes1323 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:15yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:47yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:30no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:02yes029 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:50yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:47no035 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:10no031 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:47yes022 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:02yes012 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:18yes2913 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:15yes48 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:34yes1828 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:28yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:47yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:35yes014 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 04:33yes047 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:52yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:19yes029 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:48yes081 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:20yes0121 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:48yes030 s

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
HubSpot read as HubSpot Service Hub
Unresolved, counted raw
FyneDesk
Halp
HelpWise
Keeping
OpenSupports
ServiceTitan
Suptask
UVdesk
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 →