# The AI Recommendation Index — July 2026 snapshot

Which software brands does AI actually recommend for small-service-business jobs? 10 fixed buyer questions, run
through Claude, scored into a ranked leaderboard. Engines shipped in this snapshot: claude.

**Answers vary run to run.** This is a snapshot (n=1 per question), not a benchmark.

**Self-interest, disclosed:** SeldonFrame builds one of the tools these questions are about. SeldonFrame did not
appear in any of the 10 Claude answers in this snapshot — published as-is, not nudged.

## Leaderboard (overall)

| Rank | Brand | Score | Questions | Appeared in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | HubSpot | 14 | 4 | best CRM for a small plumbing business (#4); best CRM for a cleaning business (#4); best GoHighLevel alternative (#1); best free CRM for a one-person business (#1) |
| 2 | GoHighLevel | 11 | 4 | best CRM for a small plumbing business (#5); best CRM for a cleaning business (#5); best missed-call text-back software (#2); best all-in-one platform for a marketing agency serving local businesses (#1) |
| 3 | Housecall Pro | 10 | 3 | best CRM for a small plumbing business (#2); best CRM for a cleaning business (#2); best appointment booking software for a small service business (#4) |
| 4 | Jobber | 10 | 2 | best CRM for a small plumbing business (#1); best CRM for a cleaning business (#1) |
| 5 | Zoho CRM | 9 | 2 | best HubSpot alternative for a small business (#1); best free CRM for a one-person business (#2) |
| 6 | Air AI | 7 | 2 | best AI receptionist for a small business (#2); best voice AI for answering business calls (#3) |
| 7 | Podium | 7 | 2 | best missed-call text-back software (#1); best all-in-one platform for a marketing agency serving local businesses (#4) |
| 8 | Vendasta | 7 | 2 | best GoHighLevel alternative (#3); best all-in-one platform for a marketing agency serving local businesses (#2) |
| 9 | ActiveCampaign | 6 | 2 | best GoHighLevel alternative (#2); best HubSpot alternative for a small business (#4) |
| 10 | ServiceTitan | 6 | 2 | best CRM for a small plumbing business (#3); best CRM for a cleaning business (#3) |
| 11 | Bland AI | 5 | 1 | best voice AI for answering business calls (#1) |
| 12 | Calendly | 5 | 1 | best appointment booking software for a small service business (#1) |
| 13 | Smith.ai | 5 | 1 | best AI receptionist for a small business (#1) |
| 14 | Pipedrive | 4 | 1 | best HubSpot alternative for a small business (#2) |
| 15 | Square Appointments | 4 | 1 | best appointment booking software for a small service business (#2) |
| 16 | Synthflow | 4 | 1 | best voice AI for answering business calls (#2) |
| 17 | Acuity Scheduling | 3 | 1 | best appointment booking software for a small service business (#3) |
| 18 | Birdeye | 3 | 2 | best missed-call text-back software (#4); best all-in-one platform for a marketing agency serving local businesses (#5) |
| 19 | Bitrix24 | 3 | 1 | best free CRM for a one-person business (#3) |
| 20 | Close | 3 | 1 | best HubSpot alternative for a small business (#3) |
| 21 | Dialpad | 3 | 1 | best AI receptionist for a small business (#3) |
| 22 | Freshsales | 3 | 2 | best HubSpot alternative for a small business (#5); best free CRM for a one-person business (#4) |
| 23 | Goodcall | 3 | 2 | best AI receptionist for a small business (#4); best voice AI for answering business calls (#5) |
| 24 | Thryv | 3 | 1 | best all-in-one platform for a marketing agency serving local businesses (#3) |
| 25 | Weave | 3 | 1 | best missed-call text-back software (#3) |
| 26 | Keap | 2 | 1 | best GoHighLevel alternative (#4) |
| 27 | Retell AI | 2 | 1 | best voice AI for answering business calls (#4) |
| 28 | Capsule CRM | 1 | 1 | best free CRM for a one-person business (#5) |
| 29 | ClickFunnels | 1 | 1 | best GoHighLevel alternative (#5) |
| 30 | OpenPhone | 1 | 1 | best missed-call text-back software (#5) |
| 31 | Ruby | 1 | 1 | best AI receptionist for a small business (#5) |
| 32 | Setmore | 1 | 1 | best appointment booking software for a small service business (#5) |

Score = sum over appearances of (6 - rank): a #1 mention is worth 5 points, a #5 mention is worth 1 point. Brand
names are normalized before scoring (e.g. "GoHighLevel" / "HighLevel" / "GHL" collapse to one brand).

## The 10 fixed questions

1. best CRM for a small plumbing business
2. best CRM for a cleaning business
3. best appointment booking software for a small service business
4. best AI receptionist for a small business
5. best GoHighLevel alternative
6. best HubSpot alternative for a small business
7. best free CRM for a one-person business
8. best missed-call text-back software
9. best all-in-one platform for a marketing agency serving local businesses
10. best voice AI for answering business calls

## Methodology

- **Claude column:** each question run once through `claude-sonnet (claude CLI, --model sonnet)` with the suffix "Answer with a
  ranked list of up to 5 specific products and one line why each." n=1 per question — one sample, not averaged across runs.
- **Google AI Overviews column:** Attempted via DataForSEO SERP API on 2026-07-09; not shipped in v1 (Google did not render an AI Overview block for these queries at request time; the full 10-question batch also hit unreliable network connectivity mid-run). See docs/strategy/ai-reco-index/2026-07-09-raw.md for the full attempt log. v1 ships Claude-only — no column is fabricated to fill the gap.
- **Scoring:** score = sum over appearances of (6 - rank); rank 1 = 5 points, rank 5 = 1 point.
- Answers vary run to run. This is a snapshot, not a benchmark.

Full verbatim raw outputs for this snapshot: https://github.com/seldonframe (see
docs/strategy/ai-reco-index/2026-07-09-raw.md in the SeldonFrame repo) — every scored point traces back to a specific raw answer.

Snapshot date: 2026-07-09. Full interactive leaderboard with category/engine filters:
https://www.seldonframe.com/charts/ai-recommendation-index

Per-business version: https://www.seldonframe.com/tools/ai-visibility-checker