Index › Customer › September 2026 Edition

Knowledge base and self-service

Asked as “knowledge base software”, and as “customer self-service help center tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Notion

Contested

18% 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 business

Notion38%ContestedStanding →Mid-market

Notion18%ContestedThis page Enterprise

Zendesk26%ContestedStanding →

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

Notion22%46accepted challenger

Document3605%37accepted challenger

Freshdesk0%22accepted challenger

Confluence14%44accepted challenger

Zendesk8%24accepted challenger

BookStack15%13accepted challenger

Guru0%27accepted challenger

Helpjuice14%21accepted challenger

Slab0%11accepted challenger

Slite0%23accepted challenger

Intercom7%15accepted challenger

Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Tettra20%15accepted challenger

Zendesk Guide16%19accepted challenger

Nuclino6%17accepted challenger

Help Scout0%17accepted challenger

Bloomfire0%12accepted 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

Notion vs Document360 Notion vs Freshdesk Document360 vs Freshdesk

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 →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%

Key

Notion18%

Document36014%

Freshdesk12%

Confluence6%

Zendesk6%

BookStack6%

Guru4%

Helpjuice4%

Slab4%

Slite2%

Intercom2%

Help Scout0%

Zendesk Guide0%

Bloomfire0%

Nuclino0%

Tettra0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, 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

22%

10 of 46 labels negative · 8 of 12 models

“Notion is highly popular, but its greatest strength—unlimited flexibility—is also its fatal flaw for team knowledge.... Otherwise, avoid it.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

Confluence

14%

6 of 44 labels negative · 6 of 12 models

“SharePoint and Confluence excel at document lifecycle management and collaboration, but their knowledge access features are basic and not purpose-built for customer experience delivery” Claude Haiku 4.5, comparative prompt

SharePoint

83%

5 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“SharePoint (unless heavily customized by a dedicated developer) is often treated as a glorified, hard-to-navigate fileshare.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

Zendesk Guide

16%

3 of 19 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“Avoid This Tool | Zendesk Guide | You only need a knowledge base (not full support suite)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, 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

18 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. 158 links across 76 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.

zendesk.com

vendor site · Zendesk9 answers · 11 citations · 3 models

slite.com

vendor site · Slite7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models

learn.g2.com

5 answers · 6 citations · 3 models

assembly.com

5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

peoplemanagingpeople.com

5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

featurebase.app

vendor site · Featurebase4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

ferndesk.com

vendor site · Ferndesk4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

helpdocs.io

vendor site · HelpDocs3 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

helply.com

vendor site · Helply3 answers · 5 citations · 1 model

knowledgeowl.com

vendor site · KnowledgeOwl3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

toolradar.com

3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

egain.com

vendor site · eGain3 answers · 3 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.

slite.com/learn/knowledge-base-softwares

6 answers · 2 models

zendesk.com/service/help-center/knowledge-base-software

6 answers · 3 models

assembly.com/blog/best-knowledge-base-software

5 answers · 2 models

peoplemanagingpeople.com/tools/best-knowledge-base-software

5 answers · 2 models

learn.g2.com/best-knowledge-base-software

4 answers · 3 models

egain.com/best-knowledge-base-software-2026

3 answers · 2 models

helpcenter.io/blog/best-knowledge-base-software-2026

3 answers · 1 model

helpscout.com/blog/knowledge-base-software

3 answers · 2 models

sparrowdesk.com/tools/best-knowledge-base-software

3 answers · 1 model

zendesk.com/service/help-center/free-knowledge-base-software

3 answers · 3 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 knowledge base software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer self-service help center tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top knowledge base tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best knowledge base software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a knowledge base software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which knowledge base tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

Five alternatives

Bloomfire, Document360, Lore, Stonly, Zendesk Guide

no first choiceHeldno first choiceagainst: Confluence, Salesforce Knowledge, SharePointConfluence

Five alternatives

BookStack, Freshdesk, Help Scout, Nuclino, Zoho Wiki

no first choicenothing named

GPT-5.4 miniZendesk

Two alternatives

Confluence, Intercom

against: ClickUp, NotionZendeskHeld

Three alternatives

Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom

no first choiceNotion, ProProfs Knowledge Base

Two alternatives

Confluence, Freshdesk

no first choicenothing named

Gemini 3.5 FlashDocument360, Guru

Four alternatives

Confluence, Help Scout Docs, Helpjuice, Notion

against: Zendesk GuideDocument360Changed

Four alternatives

Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zendesk Guide

Document360

Nine alternatives

Confluence, Glean, Guru, Help Scout, Notion, Obsidian, Scribe, Tango, Zendesk Guide

BookStack, HelpSite, Notion

Four alternatives

Confluence, ProProfs Knowledge Base, Wiki.js, Zoho Desk

no first choiceagainst: Confluence, Logseq, Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research, SharePoint

Perplexity SonarDocument360

Three alternatives

Confluence, Helpjuice, Zendesk Guide

against: NotionFreshdeskChanged

Three alternatives

HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zendesk

no first choiceNotion

Four alternatives

BookStack, Help Scout, HelpDocs, Slab

no first choicenothing named

Grok 4.1 FastDocument360

Five alternatives

Confluence, Helpjuice, Notion, Slite, Zendesk Guide

FreshdeskChanged

Three alternatives

Help Scout, Zendesk, Zoho Desk

no first choiceNotion

Four alternatives

BookStack, Confluence, Help Scout, ProProfs KB

no first choiceagainst: Confluence, Notion, Pinecone, Qdrant, SharePoint, Weaviate

Mistral SmallPlain

Five alternatives

Confluence, Document360, Freshdesk, Guru, Slite

PylonChanged

Four alternatives

Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zendesk

no first choiceBookStack, Slab

Three alternatives

Confluence, DokuWiki, Notion

against: Helpjuiceno first choiceagainst: BookStack, Confluence, Helpjuice, Notion, Nuclino, Outline, Tettra

DeepSeek V4 FlashDocument360

Five alternatives

Freshdesk, Guru, Help Scout, Helpjuice, Zendesk

Helpjuice, ZendeskChanged

Two alternatives

Document360, Freshdesk

against: IntercomConfluence, Notion

Four alternatives

Document360, Helpjuice, Slite, Zendesk Guide

Notion

Five alternatives

BookStack, Confluence, Nuclino, ProProfs Knowledge Base, ProductLift

against: TettraSlite

Five alternatives

Confluence, Document360, Guru, Helpjuice, Zendesk

against: Notionagainst: BlueSpice, Confluence, Document360, Evernote, Helpjuice, Mem.ai, Notion, OpenKM, Tettra, Zendesk Guide

Llama 4 MaverickHelpjuice

Three alternatives

Document360, Freshdesk, Pylon

FreshdeskChangedagainst: Salesforce, Zendeskno first choiceDocument360

One alternative

Slab

no first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashGuru, Intercom

Three alternatives

Atlassian Confluence, Document360, Zendesk

against: NotionPlain, PylonChanged

One alternative

Freshdesk

Notion

Seven alternatives

Confluence, Document360, GitBook, Guru, Intercom, Slite, Zendesk Guide

ClickUp, Notion

Five alternatives

BookStack, Confluence, Help Scout Docs, Slite, WordPress + Heroic KB Plugin

Confluence

Four alternatives

Bloomfire, Document360, Slite, Zendesk

against: ClickUp, Notionagainst: Asana, Dropbox, Google Drive, Jira, MediaWiki, ServiceNow, SharePoint, Trello, WordPress

Kimi K2Confluence

Five alternatives

Guru, Helpjuice, Notion, Slite, Zendesk Guide

FreshdeskChanged

Two alternatives

HubSpot Service Hub, Zendesk

no first choiceNotion

Four alternatives

BookStack, Docsio, ProProfs Knowledge Base, Wiki.js

no first choiceagainst: Evernote, Freshdesk KB, Intercom Articles, Zendesk Guide

GLM 4.7 FlashXHelply

Four alternatives

Confluence, Notion, Plain, Slite

FreshdeskChanged

Four alternatives

Gorgias, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, Zendesk

Plain

Seven alternatives

Bloomfire, Confluence, Document360, Guru, Notion, Slite, Stonly

BookStack, Notion, Outline, Slab

Three alternatives

BetterDocs, Docsio, GitHub Wiki

against: Document360, Zendeskno first choiceagainst: Atlassian Confluence, ServiceNow Knowledge Base, SharePoint

MiniMax M2.5Document360

Two alternatives

Helpjuice, Zendesk Guide/Knowledge

FreshdeskChanged

Two alternatives

Intercom, Zendesk

Plain

Eleven alternatives

Bloomfire, Confluence, Document360, Freshdesk, Guru, Help Scout, KnowledgeOwl, Notion, Slite, Stonly, Zendesk

Notion, ProProfs Knowledge Base

Three alternatives

ProductLift, Slite, Zendesk Guide

no first choiceagainst: BookStack, Confluence, Notion, Outline, Wiki.js

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.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:53	yes	9	7 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-14 22:52	yes	3	5 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-14 23:08	yes	14	24 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 02:34	yes	20	5 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-14 23:09	yes	0	12 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-14 23:35	yes	0	6 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-14 23:01	yes	0	15 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 00:55	yes	0	1 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 00:50	no	0	29 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:43	yes	0	34 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 03:50	yes	0	16 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 01:03	yes	0	50 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 02:03	no	0	5 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 02:50	yes	5	4 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 01:36	yes	10	27 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 04:26	yes	20	9 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:53	yes	0	6 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 01:33	yes	0	5 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 02:12	yes	0	18 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 03:12	yes	0	1 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 01:45	yes	0	42 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 02:50	yes	0	32 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-14 22:56	yes	0	15 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 03:35	yes	0	19 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-14 23:07	yes	9	8 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-14 23:56	no	0	6 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 03:31	yes	20	32 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 00:49	yes	20	7 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 01:22	yes	0	7 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-14 22:55	yes	0	6 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-14 23:53	yes	0	20 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 01:10	yes	0	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 04:54	no	0	34 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 04:58	yes	0	29 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 04:31	yes	0	25 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 03:43	yes	0	17 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 04:51	yes	9	9 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-14 23:54	yes	3	4 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:57	yes	13	21 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 01:16	yes	20	5 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 00:18	yes	0	5 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 01:07	yes	0	9 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-14 23:25	yes	0	20 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 03:43	yes	0	1 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-14 22:57	yes	0	20 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 01:20	yes	0	41 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 03:47	yes	0	35 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-14 23:09	yes	0	13 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 00:01	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 03:12	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 01:27	yes	9	27 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 03:21	yes	20	16 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 03:50	yes	0	7 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-14 22:54	yes	0	9 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-15 02:04	yes	0	24 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 01:41	yes	0	3 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 04:46	yes	0	38 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-14 22:55	yes	0	34 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 04:44	yes	0	57 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-15 02:13	yes	0	16 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-15 03:16	no	0	2 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-15 01:44	no	0	2 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-15 00:54	yes	16	20 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-15 00:53	yes	20	7 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-15 00:32	yes	0	6 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-15 03:13	yes	0	6 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-15 00:47	yes	0	54 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-15 02:12	yes	0	2 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-15 00:33	no	0	37 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-15 03:09	yes	0	62 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-15 01:09	yes	0	42 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-14 23:06	yes	0	44 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

None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.

Unresolved, counted raw

Affine

BetterDocs

Brainfish

Freshdesk KB

GitHub Wiki

Logseq

Lore

Mem.ai

OnClarity

OpenKM

Pinecone

Qdrant

Roam Research

Rovo

Salesforce

Salesforce KM

ServiceNow Knowledge Base

Stack Overflow for Teams

TiddlyWiki

Weaviate

WordPress + Heroic KB Plugin

Zendesk Guide/Knowledge

Zoho Wiki

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

Knowledge base and self-service

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in customer