The most visible customer support tools in Europe, October 2026

October 2026 · 105 questions asked from 7 countries · ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode · 420 answers read

Leader

Zendesk

53Heralded Score, range 49–59

Where engines disagree most

HubSpot Service Hub

1/4engines put it in their top three

Top three on Google AI Overviews, not on Google AI Mode, Gemini and ChatGPT

Brands

Search is not measured for this board yet, so it ranks on AI answers.

Rank Brand Rank change Heralded Score All AI Score trend Mentioned Recommended By engine Mentioned by Change
– TeamSupport US Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
1% 0% First reading
– Thena US Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– Tiledesk IT Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– TOPdesk NL Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– uHelp Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– Unthread US Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– Userbot IT Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– UVdesk IN Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– VIER DE Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading
– Vivocha IT Unranked Too few answers Not measured
–
  • : Unranked
0% 0% None First reading

“=” marks brands whose score ranges overlap, so the test cannot separate them. Every brand named in at least three answers is ranked. AI gives each brand’s score and rank from the engines’ answers; Search is not measured for this board yet. By engine has one dot per engine (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Google AI Mode), darker the more often it names the brand.

Most cited sources

Rank Source Type Cited in Engines Pages cited Brands its pages mention
11 wiley.com Reference 1.4% 1 of 4 4 Not read
12 xurrent.com Vendor site 2.1% 1 of 4 1 10
13 linkedin.com Social 1.7% 1 of 4 7 Not read
14 tajo.io Vendor site 1.4% 1 of 4 8 Not read
15 apogea.fr Consultancy 1.4% 3 of 4 2 9
16 ibm.com Vendor site 1.7% 3 of 4 4 Not read
17 sciencedirect.com Reference 1.2% 1 of 4 4 Not read
18 serif.ai Vendor site 1.7% 2 of 4 2 Not read
19 cloudtalk.io Vendor site 1.4% 3 of 4 6 Not read
20 initdesk.com Vendor site 1.4% 2 of 4 1 5

Questions asked

QuestionLanguageMost recommended
best customer support tools for small support teams English Freshdesk, Help Scout and Intercom, tied
customer support software for teams answering customer questions English Freshdesk and Zendesk, tied
how can a support team resolve customer questions faster English No brand recommended
how to keep customer support requests from getting lost English Front, HubSpot Service Hub and Zendesk, tied
shared inbox vs help desk software for support teams English Freshdesk, Front, Help Scout, Hiver and Zendesk, tied
What’s the best customer support software for support teams? English Freshdesk and Intercom, tied
What customer support tools are best for small teams? English Freshdesk, Help Scout and Intercom, tied
How can a support team respond to customers faster? English Zendesk
How can I manage customer requests without missing any messages? English Zendesk
Should a small team offer customer support by email or chat? English No brand recommended

Each engine's top three

Method

Each leaderboard ranks brands on two sides. AI is how ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode answer the board's buyer questions. Search is Google's top 10 results for the keywords behind those questions. All combines the two, where Search is measured.

For the AI side, each month Heralded asks every engine the same buyer questions, twice each, and reads every answer. An answer counts 0 for a brand it leaves out, 50 for a brand it names and 100 for a brand it recommends, and the Heralded Score is built from those. A brand named in at least three answers gets a score and a place.

How the leaderboards are measured