What we asked, and how we counted
On 28 October 2026 we asked ChatGPT (with web search) and Google’s AI Overviews the same 20 help desk buying questions, in US English, using the AI visibility tracker in OpenSEO. That gave 40 answers. None of the questions named Supahelp. A third engine returned no answers in time, so it is left out.
We counted a vendor once per answer if its name appeared anywhere in it. We checked every price the answers gave for the big help desks against the vendor’s own pricing page the same day. We make Supahelp, and it was mentioned in none of the 40 answers.
| Topic | Questions |
|---|---|
| Best-of lists | What is the best help desk software for a small SaaS company? · Best help desk for a 3-person support team · Best AI customer support tools for startups in 2026 · Best help center software with AI answers · Best knowledge base software for SaaS |
| Alternatives | What are the best Zendesk alternatives for a small team? · Best Intercom alternatives with cheaper AI pricing · Best Freshdesk alternatives · Best Notion alternative for a public help center |
| Pricing | Cheapest help desk with unlimited agents · Help desk with flat pricing instead of per-agent pricing · How much does an AI support agent cost per resolution? · Intercom Fin vs Zendesk AI agent cost comparison |
| Comparisons | Zendesk vs Freshdesk vs Help Scout for a startup · Help Scout vs Intercom for B2B SaaS |
| AI support | Which AI support tool drafts replies from past tickets? · AI help desk that requires human approval before sending replies · Help desk software with an MCP server |
| Self-service | Best way to set up a help center for a SaaS product · Best customer support request form tool for SaaS |
What the 40 answers show
1. Four vendors appear in most answers
Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout and Freshdesk each appeared in more than half of the 40 answers. Zendesk led with 29. No other vendor appeared in more than eight.
| Vendor | ChatGPT | Google AI Overviews | Total of 40 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk | 15 | 14 | 29 |
| Intercom | 13 | 14 | 27 |
| Help Scout | 15 | 11 | 26 |
| Freshdesk | 12 | 10 | 22 |
| Zoho Desk | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| HubSpot | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Gorgias | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Supahelp (us) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2. Smaller tools only appear on specific questions
On broad questions like “best help desk for a small SaaS company”, both engines named the same four. Smaller tools showed up only when the question was narrow:
- Flat pricing and unlimited agents: Helpzen, HelpCanvas, erelo, PileDesk, Maxdesk, Jitbit, osTicket and FreeScout.
- Drafting replies from past tickets: ReplyScout, Cohere Assist, Teamwork Desk, eesel, Desk365 and Pluno, next to Freshdesk.
- Help desks with an MCP server: Freshdesk and Zendesk, plus open-source options such as Zammad.
Several of the small tools were cited from a single page whose title matched the question almost word for word. PileDesk’s pricing page, for example, is titled “Flat-Rate Ticketing System, No Per-Seat Fees”.
3. The two engines read different sources
ChatGPT mostly cited vendors’ own sites: intercom.com and helpscout.com in 13 answers each, zendesk.com in 11 and freshworks.com in 8. Google’s AI Overviews leaned on video and forums: youtube.com in 11 of its 20 answers and reddit.com in 10. The most-cited comparison site in both was getmacha.com, which publishes a separate page for many of these exact questions.
4. Three prices were out of date
Most prices in the answers matched the vendors’ pricing pages. Three did not:
| What the AI said | Engine | Vendor's pricing page |
|---|---|---|
| Freshdesk “$15/agent/mo” | Growth $19 per agent, billed annually | |
| Zendesk AI “~$1.20/resolution” on a commitment | $1.50 committed, $2.00 pay-as-you-go | |
| Intercom “$19/seat/month” as the price | ChatGPT | $19 is a 35% new-customer discount; the list price is $29 |
Two of the three look like older prices. The third is a real price, but a promotion presented as the standard one. One more looked wrong and wasn’t: Google put Intercom at “around $39–$74” a month, and $39 is Essential’s monthly-billing price.
5. One question got no vendor at all
Asked for an “AI help desk that requires human approval before sending replies”, Google explained the idea and named no product. ChatGPT named Zendesk and Intercom. We compare the options in AI help desks that require human approval.
What this means if you are choosing a help desk
- Treat the AI’s list as a starting point. Broad questions return the biggest names, which suit large teams best.
- Ask a narrower question. Name your team size, how you want to be billed, and the one feature you can’t do without. That is when smaller tools appear.
- Check every price yourself. Three of the prices we checked were wrong. Vendor pricing pages change often, and some show discounts first.
What this means if you sell software
For a small vendor, the broad “best help desk” answer is hard to break into. The narrow questions are not. The tools that got named had a page that answered one specific question plainly, with a price and a date on it. We are following that advice ourselves, starting with flat-rate help desks.
Limits of this study
This is one run of 20 questions on one day, in US English. AI answers change from one asking to the next, so a vendor that appeared once might not appear again. Counting name mentions treats a passing mention the same as a top recommendation. We will repeat the same questions and publish the changes here. This page was last updated on 29 October 2026.