GTM AI Index
Index Revenue operations CRM › Small business September 2026 Edition

CRM for small business buyers

Asked as “CRM”, and as “customer relationship management system”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 46 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Clear leader
50% of first choices, clear leader.

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.

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
01HubSpot CRM50%12%60endorsed leader
02Pipedrive22%6%54accepted challenger
03Zoho CRM11%15%55accepted challenger
04Salesflare9%0%20accepted challenger
05Bigin by Zoho4%0%13accepted challenger
06Less Annoying CRM2%5%19accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales0%82%11criticized challenger
10Salesforce Sales Cloud0%76%34criticized challenger
07Freshsales0%3%36accepted challenger
08EngageBay0%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.

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% negative70%
Key
01HubSpot CRM50%
02Pipedrive22%
03Zoho CRM11%
04Salesflare9%
05Bigin by Zoho4%
06Less Annoying CRM2%
07Freshsales0%
08EngageBay0%
09Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales0%
10Salesforce Sales Cloud0%

02What they warned about

Four 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, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 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
76%
26 of 34 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 7 hard negative
“**Why to avoid**: Despite being marketed as "small business friendly," it's consistently described as a "time-sucking nightmare" for SMBs” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
82%
9 of 11 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Why to avoid: Like Salesforce, Dynamics is incredibly powerful but highly rigid and complex.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
HubSpot CRM
12%
7 of 60 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“flag enterprise-tier HubSpot as something small businesses should avoid if they do not need large-company features” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Zoho CRM
15%
8 of 55 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“reviewers sometimes mention **pricing complexity, hidden fees, support quality, and setup/customization effort**—so they’re worth a careful trial” GPT-5.4 mini, 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

17 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. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 156 links across 78 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.

vendor site · Salesflare6 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Nutshell6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 1 model
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 1 model
vendor site · CloudTalk4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Reddit4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Zapier4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model

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.

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 CRM for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which customer relationship management system would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top CRMs for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best CRM for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a CRM. What should we look at?”Negative“Which CRMs should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceagainst: Salesforce Sales CloudHubSpot CRM, PipedriveChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
no first choiceHubSpot CRM, Zoho CRMagainst: Waveno first choiceagainst: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce Sales Cloud
GPT-5.4 miniHubSpot CRM
Three alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Starter / Sales Cloud
PipedriveChanged
Two alternativesSalesforce Starter Suite, Zoho Bigin
HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM
One alternativeZoho CRM
no first choiceagainst: LocaliQ, Zoho CRM
Gemini 3.5 FlashPipedrive
Five alternativesCopper, HubSpot CRM, NetHunt CRM, Nutshell, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRMChanged
Three alternativesCopper, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
Pipedrive
Four alternativesBigin by Zoho, HubSpot CRM, Less Annoying CRM, Monday Sales CRM
HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesBigin by Zoho, Freshsales, Less Annoying CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
Pipedrive
Five alternativesClickUp, Copper, HubSpot CRM, Monday.com, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
against: HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Oracle NetSuite CRM, SAP Customer Experience, Salesforce Sales Cloud, SugarCRM, Zoho CRM
Perplexity SonarSalesflare
Five alternativesHubSpot CRM, HubSpot Sales Hub, Nutshell, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
PipedriveChanged
Three alternativesHubSpot CRM, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM
Five alternativesBigin by Zoho, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, monday CRM
HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesBigin by Zoho, Less Annoying CRM, Zoho CRM
no first choiceagainst: HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce Sales Cloud
Grok 4.1 FastHubSpot CRM
Four alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
HubSpot CRMHeld
Four alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
HubSpot CRM
Five alternativesBigin by Zoho, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Salesforce Starter Suite, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM
Four alternativesBigin by Zoho, Capsule CRM, Freshsales, Pipedrive
no first choiceagainst: HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, NetSuite, Oracle CX, SAP Sales Cloud, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
Mistral SmallPipedrive
Three alternativesFreshsales, HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM
SalesflareChanged
Three alternativesEngageBay, HubSpot CRM, HubSpot Sales Hub
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesflare
Six alternativesBigin by Zoho, Freshsales, HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Salesforce Starter Suite, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM
Four alternativesEngageBay, Less Annoying CRM, Zoho CRM Free Edition, monday CRM
no first choiceagainst: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce Sales Cloudagainst: Close, Freshsales, HubSpot CRM, Insightly, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM, monday CRM
DeepSeek V4 FlashSalesflare
Four alternativesHubSpot CRM, HubSpot Sales Hub, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
HubSpot CRMChanged
Two alternativesPipedrive, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM
Four alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
Zoho CRM
Five alternativesBigin by Zoho, EngageBay, Freshsales, HubSpot CRM, Less Annoying CRM
no first choiceagainst: HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, SugarCRM, Zoho CRM
Llama 4 MaverickHubSpot CRM
Four alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRMHeld
Three alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
no first choiceBigin by Zoho
One alternativeHubSpot's free plan
no first choiceagainst: Salesforce Sales Cloud
Qwen 3.7 FlashHubSpot CRM, Pipedrive
One alternativeZoho CRM
HubSpot CRMChanged
Three alternativesClose, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM
Three alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
HubSpot CRM
Two alternativesLess Annoying CRM, Zoho Bigin
Close, Pipedrive
Three alternativesFreshsales, HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
against: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Oracle CX, SAP Sales Cloud, Salesforce Sales Cloud
Kimi K2HubSpot CRM, Salesflare
Three alternativesFreshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
PipedriveChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot CRM, Salesflare
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
HubSpot CRM
Five alternativesBigin by Zoho, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
against: Keap
Zoho CRM
Three alternativesBitrix24, EngageBay, HubSpot CRM
Pipedrive
Three alternativesFreshsales, HubSpot Sales Starter, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
against: HubSpot CRM, Keap, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Oracle CX, SAP Sales Cloud, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
GLM 4.7 FlashXHubSpot CRM
Two alternativesPipedrive, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRMHeld
Four alternativesMonday.com, Pipedrive, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM
Salesflare
Five alternativesActiveCampaign, EngageBay, Freshsales, HubSpot CRM, Salesforce Starter Suite
against: Pipedrive
HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM
Two alternativesLess Annoying CRM, Pipedrive
no first choiceagainst: HubSpot Sales Hub, Insightly, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
MiniMax M2.5HubSpot CRM
Two alternativesPipedrive, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRMHeld
Four alternativesCopper, Freshsales, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive
Three alternativesLess Annoying CRM, Salesflare, Zoho CRM
against: Salesforce Sales Cloud
Bigin by Zoho, Less Annoying CRM
Three alternativesFreshsales, Monday.com, Pipedrive
no first choice
Six alternativesCopper, Freshsales, HubSpot CRM, Less Annoying CRM, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Salesforce Sales Cloud
against: ActiveCampaign, Capsule CRM, HubSpot CRM, Less Annoying CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud, monday CRM
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-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:04no06 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:54no03 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:09yes1319 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:02yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:08yes06 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:27yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:22yes027 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:03yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:55yes016 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:57yes023 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:15yes066 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:05no06 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:59no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:19yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:37yes1218 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:51yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:54yes05 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:57yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:57yes011 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:26yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:05no027 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:25yes027 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:53no022 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:10no07 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:49yes89 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:04yes47 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:32yes1821 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:00yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:00yes06 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:47yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:32yes013 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:30yes01 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:10yes035 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:54yes030 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:25yes047 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:37yes015 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:09no04 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:50yes23 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:17yes1018 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:06yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 02:23yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:12yes08 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:03yes023 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:13yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:55yes020 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:45yes027 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:03yes049 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:17yes010 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:00no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:03no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:08no015 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:48yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 05:06yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:15no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:49yes016 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:14yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:52yes029 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:13yes064 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:19yes082 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:15no011 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:40yes1510 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:53yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:10yes822 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:19yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:20yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:16yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:37yes027 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:57yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:17yes038 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:39yes054 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:59yes056 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:57yes031 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
Freshworks read as Freshsales
HubSpot read as HubSpot CRM
SAP read as SAP Sales Cloud
Salesforce read as Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce (Starter) read as Salesforce Sales Cloud
Zoho read as Zoho CRM
Zoho (incl. Bigin) read as Zoho CRM
Unresolved, counted raw
Day.ai
Freshsales Sprout Plan
Freshsales/Freshworks CRM
Freshworks CRM
HubSpot's free plan
Salesforce Starter / Sales Cloud
Salesforce Starter Suite
Zoho CRM Free Edition
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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