Original research · AI recommendations
Which help desk software does AI recommend to small businesses?
When a small business asks an AI assistant which help desk to buy, a few brands get most of the mentions. We asked Claude 25 real buyer questions and counted.
Data collected 1 November – 2 November 2026 · 75 answers · Claude with web search · run 3 of 3
- Named in answers
- 90.7%Help Scout, the most named
- Never named
- 13of 49 help desks tracked
- Brands per answer
- 6.8on average
- Searched the web
- 100%of answers
Key findings
- Help Scout was named in 91% of answers and placed in the top three 43 times (average position 2.9).
- Help Scout, Freshdesk and Zendesk together took 48% of the share of voice, weighted by position.
- 13 of the 49 help desks tracked were never named in any answer.
- A typical answer named 6.8 help desks, and Claude searched the web before answering in 100% of answers.
- Claude read bolddesk.com in 16% of answers but never named BoldDesk: being found is not the same as being recommended.
- Apart from the tracked help desks' own sites, it read featurebase.app (67%), eesel.ai (65%) and getmacha.com (57%) most often.
Which help desks get named
Share of all 75 answers that named each help desk, the 12 most named. 36 of 49 were named at least once.
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By kind of question
The three help desks named most often for each kind of buyer question.
| Question type | Questions | Most named |
|---|---|---|
| Shortlist | 6 | Help Scout (100%), Zendesk (100%), Freshdesk (94%) |
| Constraint | 10 | Help Scout (93%), Freshdesk (70%), Zendesk (60%) |
| Alternatives | 3 | Help Scout (100%), Freshdesk (100%), Intercom (100%) |
| Comparison | 3 | Zendesk (100%), Help Scout (56%), Freshdesk (33%) |
| Validation | 3 | Freshdesk (100%), Zoho Desk (100%), Help Scout (89%) |
What it read
Share of answers in which Claude retrieved a page from each site while searching. Sites marked brand belong to a help desk in the study.
Read, but not recommended
Help desks whose own site was read in more answers than named them: the engine looked at these brands more often than it recommended them.
| Brand | Site read | Named |
|---|---|---|
| Hiver | 54.7% | 30.7% |
| Kayako | 36% | 2.7% |
| Desk365 | 34.7% | 6.7% |
| Tidio | 33.3% | 25.3% |
| HelpDesk | 25.3% | 5.3% |
| Missive | 22.7% | 10.7% |
| Helply | 22.7% | 8% |
| SupportBee | 20% | 8% |
| HappyFox | 18.7% | 4% |
| BoldDesk | 16% | 0% |
| Keeping | 14.7% | 8% |
| Richpanel | 12% | 6.7% |
| Salesforce Service Cloud | 12% | 2.7% |
| Kustomer | 12% | 0% |
| Pylon | 10.7% | 6.7% |
| monday service | 8% | 4% |
| HelpCrunch | 8% | 2.7% |
| ProProfs Help Desk | 6.7% | 0% |
| Jitbit | 4% | 0% |
| Deskpro | 2.7% | 1.3% |
| Gladly | 2.7% | 0% |
All 49 help desks
Every brand tracked, including those never named. Each name opens that brand's own card. Download the data (CSV).
Show the full table
| Brand | Named | Avg. position | Top three | Share of voice | Site read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Help Scout | 90.7% | 2.9 | 43 | 19% | 28% |
| Freshdesk | 78.7% | 2.8 | 43 | 16.1% | 13.3% |
| Zendesk | 78.7% | 3.5 | 31 | 12.4% | 13.3% |
| Zoho Desk | 60% | 3 | 31 | 11.1% | 0% |
| Gorgias | 46.7% | 4.8 | 12 | 8.1% | 26.7% |
| Hiver | 30.7% | 4.3 | 10 | 4.5% | 54.7% |
| Intercom | 33.3% | 5.8 | 6 | 4.2% | 13.3% |
| Tidio | 25.3% | 4.9 | 7 | 3.5% | 33.3% |
| HubSpot Service Hub | 41.3% | 5.7 | 3 | 3.2% | 1.3% |
| LiveAgent | 10.7% | 3.9 | 3 | 1.8% | 9.3% |
| Front | 22.7% | 6.7 | 2 | 1.6% | 0% |
| Crisp | 12% | 4.8 | 3 | 1.2% | 0% |
| Re:amaze | 8% | 3.2 | 5 | 1.2% | 0% |
| Missive | 10.7% | 6.5 | 3 | 1.1% | 22.7% |
| Pylon | 6.7% | 4.8 | 3 | 1.1% | 10.7% |
| Plain | 5.3% | 3.3 | 3 | 1.1% | 4% |
| Jira Service Management | 16% | 7.7 | 0 | 0.9% | 0% |
| Keeping | 8% | 4.7 | 2 | 0.9% | 14.7% |
| Richpanel | 6.7% | 4.6 | 2 | 0.7% | 12% |
| Gmelius | 5.3% | 3.3 | 3 | 0.7% | 4% |
| FreeScout | 10.7% | 8.9 | 0 | 0.6% | 0% |
| eDesk | 6.7% | 5 | 1 | 0.6% | 4% |
| Desk365 | 6.7% | 5.2 | 0 | 0.6% | 34.7% |
| osTicket | 10.7% | 8.6 | 0 | 0.5% | 0% |
| HelpDesk | 5.3% | 7.5 | 1 | 0.5% | 25.3% |
| Helply | 8% | 10.2 | 1 | 0.4% | 22.7% |
| SupportBee | 8% | 9.2 | 0 | 0.4% | 20% |
| Zammad | 6.7% | 10.6 | 0 | 0.3% | 0% |
| Kayako | 2.7% | 3.5 | 1 | 0.3% | 36% |
| HappyFox | 4% | 9 | 0 | 0.2% | 18.7% |
| monday service | 4% | 11.3 | 0 | 0.2% | 8% |
| Salesforce Service Cloud | 2.7% | 6.5 | 0 | 0.2% | 12% |
| Chatwoot | 2.7% | 6.5 | 0 | 0.2% | 0% |
| HelpCrunch | 2.7% | 5.5 | 0 | 0.2% | 8% |
| Deskpro | 1.3% | 4 | 0 | 0.1% | 2.7% |
| tawk.to | 1.3% | 4 | 0 | 0.1% | 0% |
| Gladly | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 2.7% |
| LiveChat | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Kustomer | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 12% |
| Dixa | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Trengo | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| BoldDesk | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 16% |
| HESK | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| UVdesk | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Helpwise | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| ProProfs Help Desk | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 6.7% |
| Helpshift | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Jitbit | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 4% |
| TeamSupport | 0% | — | 0 | 0% | 0% |
Method
Brands. 49 help desks sold to small businesses, compiled from G2 and Capterra listings and buyer's guides and the top search results for “help desk software for small business”. A brand counts as named when the answer uses its name or domain. Names that are everyday words (Intercom, HubSpot Service Hub, Front) count only when used as a name.
Questions. 25 questions written the way buyers ask them, across 5 kinds: shortlists, constraints, alternatives, comparisons and validation. Each was asked on its own, with no system prompt and web search on, through the official API.
Measures. Named is the share of answers naming the brand. Average position is where it first appears among the brands an answer names. Share of voice weights each mention by position (first counts 1, second ½, third ⅓). Site read is the share of answers in which the engine retrieved a page from the brand's own domain.
Limits. This is one engine and 3 runs. Answers vary from day to day, so the study repeats every question on 3 days. So far, the help desks named for the same question overlapped by 71% between runs on average. It shows what the engine said, not why: read the differences as correlation, not cause. CoScale.DM is not a CRM vendor and has no commercial tie to any brand here.
The 25 questions
- What's the best help desk software for a small business? shortlist
- Which customer support tool should a 5-person support team use? shortlist
- What are the top help desk tools for small businesses in 2026? shortlist
- Best ticketing system for a small company that's outgrowing a shared Gmail inbox shortlist
- What customer service software do most small online businesses use? shortlist
- Best free help desk software for a small business constraint
- Best shared inbox tool for a small team answering customer emails constraint
- Best help desk for a small Shopify store constraint
- Best help desk with live chat for a small business website constraint
- Best customer support software with an AI chatbot that answers questions from our help docs constraint
- Best help desk with a built-in knowledge base for a small company constraint
- Best help desk for a small business that handles a lot of phone calls constraint
- Best help desk that works inside Gmail for a small team constraint
- Cheapest good help desk for a small team, ideally under $20 per agent per month constraint
- Best customer support tool for a small B2B SaaS startup constraint
- What are the best alternatives to Zendesk for a small business? alternatives
- Intercom is getting too expensive. What support tool should a small company switch to? alternatives
- Alternatives to Freshdesk for a small support team alternatives
- Zendesk vs Freshdesk for a small business comparison
- Help Scout vs Zendesk for a small team comparison
- Gorgias vs Zendesk for a small ecommerce store comparison
- Is Freshdesk's free plan good enough for a small business? validation
- Is Zendesk worth it for a small business? validation
- Is Zoho Desk good for small businesses? validation
- I run a 15-person online store selling home goods and my 3 support people answer everything from one Gmail inbox, plus Instagram DMs and the occasional phone call. What help desk would you recommend and why? shortlist
Where does your brand stand?
We run the same check for one brand against its rivals, across the engines your buyers use, and fix what keeps it out of the answers.