AI Visibility in Software & B2B Tools: September 2026

When people ask AI about software, tech media get 70% of the citations. Review marketplaces get 18%. TechRadar and PCMag are cited four times more often than G2, Capterra and Software Advice combined. Vendors' own sites (HubSpot, Semrush, Zapier) get 9% of the niche, Gartner under 2%, Product Hunt almost nothing.

Nik

Co-founder at AskWatch.ai

Published
30 September 2026

Software & B2B Tools in AI search, September 2026, key numbers: 73% Tech media's share of Perplexity's software citations (TechRadar and PCMag); 32% Review marketplaces' share in Copilot, the engine where G2, Capterra and Software Advice do best; 3.8 pp Average citation turnover inside the niche, August to September (7.7 pp on the general panel); 0.4% Product Hunt's share of the niche: launching there does not get you cited.Download PNG

What the data says

Tech media own the niche in every engine. TechRadar leads in ChatGPT and Perplexity; PCMag leads in AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini and Copilot. Together they hold 70.3% of niche citations, averaged across engines.
Review marketplaces work in Copilot and almost nowhere else. G2, Capterra and Software Advice take 32.4% of Copilot's niche citations, but 12.8% in ChatGPT, 14.4% in Gemini and 15.8% in AI Overviews.
Vendor sites do best in Google. HubSpot, Semrush and Zapier together hold 13.4% of AI Overviews' and 12.7% of AI Mode's niche citations, against 5.8% in Copilot and 6.8% in ChatGPT.
The software niche is calm. Turnover inside the niche was 6.5 pp at most (Copilot) and 1.2 pp at least (Perplexity). Compare Health, where ChatGPT moved 16.3 pp in the same month.
ChatGPT has one tech-media source, not two. PCMag's ChatGPT share is zero (0.0%) while it leads four other engines; TechRadar takes 78% of ChatGPT's niche citations on its own. One engine, one missing source: this is the kind of gap a brand cannot see from Google Search Console.

The pecking order, engine by engine

Each engine's niche citations by kind of site, September 2026.

Software citations in AI search by kind of site, September 2026: ChatGPT tech media 78.1%, review marketplace 12.8%, vendor 6.8%, analyst 2.0%, launch platform 0.2%; AI Overviews tech media 68.5%, review marketplace 15.8%, vendor 13.4%, analyst 1.9%, launch platform 0.5%; AI Mode tech media 67.1%, review marketplace 17.6%, vendor 12.7%, analyst 2.2%, launch platform 0.4%; Perplexity tech media 73.4%, review marketplace 18.4%, vendor 7.5%, analyst 0.3%, launch platform 0.4%; Gemini tech media 75.7%, review marketplace 14.4%, vendor 7.9%, analyst 1.4%, launch platform 0.6%; Copilot tech media 59.3%, review marketplace 32.4%, vendor 5.8%, analyst 2.3%, launch platform 0.1%.Download PNG

Niche citations by kind of site, September 2026
	Tech media	Review marketplace	Vendor	Analyst	Launch platform	Leader
ChatGPT	78.1%	12.8%	6.8%	2.0%	0.2%	techradar.com
AI Overviews	68.5%	15.8%	13.4%	1.9%	0.5%	pcmag.com
AI Mode	67.1%	17.6%	12.7%	2.2%	0.4%	pcmag.com
Perplexity	73.4%	18.4%	7.5%	0.3%	0.4%	techradar.com
Gemini	75.7%	14.4%	7.9%	1.4%	0.6%	pcmag.com
Copilot	59.3%	32.4%	5.8%	2.3%	0.1%	pcmag.com

Kinds: tech media = TechRadar, PCMag · review marketplace = G2, Capterra, Software Advice · vendor = HubSpot, Semrush, Zapier · analyst = Gartner · launch platform = Product Hunt.

Software's citation leaderboard

Niche Visibility Score is a site's average share of niche citations across six engines. Change is September against August; leads is the number of engines where the site is #1 in the niche.

Most cited software sites in AI search, September 2026, by Niche Visibility Score: 1. techradar.com 38.5%, 2. pcmag.com 31.9%, 3. g2.com 10.5%, 4. capterra.com 5.4%, 5. zapier.com 4.9%, 6. softwareadvice.com 2.6%, 7. semrush.com 2.1%, 8. hubspot.com 2.0%, 9. gartner.com 1.7%, 10. producthunt.com 0.4%.Download PNG

Software sites by Niche Visibility Score, September 2026
Site	Kind	Score Sep	Aug	Jul	Δ pp	Leads
1. techradar.com	Tech media	38.5%	39.9%	41.4%	−1.4	2
2. pcmag.com	Tech media	31.9%	32.5%	33.4%	−0.7	4
3. g2.com	Review marketplace	10.5%	10.0%	8.8%	+0.5
4. capterra.com	Review marketplace	5.4%	4.9%	4.1%	+0.5
5. zapier.com	Vendor	4.9%	4.5%	4.5%	+0.4
6. softwareadvice.com	Review marketplace	2.6%	2.6%	2.5%	0.0
7. semrush.com	Vendor	2.1%	1.9%	1.8%	+0.2
8. hubspot.com	Vendor	2.0%	1.8%	1.7%	+0.2
9. gartner.com	Analyst	1.7%	1.6%	1.4%	+0.1
10. producthunt.com	Launch platform	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0

The full grid: every site, every engine

Each cell is a site's share of one engine's niche citations, September 2026. Two dark rows, one blank cell: PCMag in ChatGPT.

Each software site's share of AI citations by engine, September 2026: techradar.com ChatGPT 78.1%, AI Overviews 26.3%, AI Mode 23.6%, Perplexity 47.1%, Gemini 31.4%, Copilot 24.4%; pcmag.com ChatGPT 0.0%, AI Overviews 42.2%, AI Mode 43.5%, Perplexity 26.3%, Gemini 44.2%, Copilot 34.9%; g2.com ChatGPT 6.9%, AI Overviews 8.7%, AI Mode 9.8%, Perplexity 9.1%, Gemini 7.5%, Copilot 21.3%; capterra.com ChatGPT 4.1%, AI Overviews 4.7%, AI Mode 5.4%, Perplexity 6.0%, Gemini 4.4%, Copilot 8.0%; zapier.com ChatGPT 2.2%, AI Overviews 8.5%, AI Mode 7.5%, Perplexity 4.0%, Gemini 5.9%, Copilot 1.2%; softwareadvice.com ChatGPT 1.8%, AI Overviews 2.4%, AI Mode 2.4%, Perplexity 3.3%, Gemini 2.5%, Copilot 3.1%; semrush.com ChatGPT 2.2%, AI Overviews 2.9%, AI Mode 2.6%, Perplexity 1.5%, Gemini 1.5%, Copilot 2.2%; hubspot.com ChatGPT 2.4%, AI Overviews 2.0%, AI Mode 2.6%, Perplexity 2.0%, Gemini 0.5%, Copilot 2.4%; gartner.com ChatGPT 2.0%, AI Overviews 1.9%, AI Mode 2.2%, Perplexity 0.3%, Gemini 1.4%, Copilot 2.3%; producthunt.com ChatGPT 0.2%, AI Overviews 0.5%, AI Mode 0.4%, Perplexity 0.4%, Gemini 0.6%, Copilot 0.1%.Download PNG

Each site's share of each engine's niche citations, September 2026
	ChatGPT	AI Overviews	AI Mode	Perplexity	Gemini	Copilot
techradar.com	78.1%	26.3%	23.6%	47.1%	31.4%	24.4%
pcmag.com	0.0%	42.2%	43.5%	26.3%	44.2%	34.9%
g2.com	6.9%	8.7%	9.8%	9.1%	7.5%	21.3%
capterra.com	4.1%	4.7%	5.4%	6.0%	4.4%	8.0%
zapier.com	2.2%	8.5%	7.5%	4.0%	5.9%	1.2%
softwareadvice.com	1.8%	2.4%	2.4%	3.3%	2.5%	3.1%
semrush.com	2.2%	2.9%	2.6%	1.5%	1.5%	2.2%
hubspot.com	2.4%	2.0%	2.6%	2.0%	0.5%	2.4%
gartner.com	2.0%	1.9%	2.2%	0.3%	1.4%	2.3%
producthunt.com	0.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%

A quiet market (for now)

Citation turnover inside the niche: percentage points of share that moved between the 10 sites, month over month.

Citation turnover inside the software niche by AI engine: ChatGPT 4.6 then 3.8 pp, AI Overviews 2.3 then 2.3 pp, AI Mode 2.4 then 5.9 pp, Perplexity 2.9 then 1.2 pp, Gemini 2.3 then 2.8 pp, Copilot 4.9 then 6.5 pp; general panel average 7.7 pp.Download PNG

Citation turnover inside the niche, percentage points
	ChatGPT	AI Overviews	AI Mode	Perplexity	Gemini	Copilot
Jul to Aug	4.6 pp	2.3 pp	2.4 pp	2.9 pp	2.3 pp	4.9 pp
Aug to Sep	3.8 pp	2.3 pp	5.9 pp	1.2 pp	2.8 pp	6.5 pp

The dashed line is the average turnover across the six engines on the general panel of the AI Visibility Index, Aug to Sep: 7.7 pp.

Same question, six different lists

The number of sites two engines share in their top-5 lists, September 2026.

Software sites shared between the top-5 lists of two AI engines, September 2026: ChatGPT and AI Overviews 3, ChatGPT and AI Mode 3, ChatGPT and Perplexity 3, ChatGPT and Gemini 3, ChatGPT and Copilot 3, AI Overviews and AI Mode 5, AI Overviews and Perplexity 5, AI Overviews and Gemini 5, AI Overviews and Copilot 4, AI Mode and Perplexity 5, AI Mode and Gemini 5, AI Mode and Copilot 4, Perplexity and Gemini 5, Perplexity and Copilot 4, Gemini and Copilot 4.Download PNG

Shared sites between engines' top-5 lists
	ChatGPT	AI Overviews	AI Mode	Perplexity	Gemini	Copilot
ChatGPT	—	3	3	3	3	3
AI Overviews	3	—	5	5	5	4
AI Mode	3	5	—	5	5	4
Perplexity	3	5	5	—	5	4
Gemini	3	5	5	5	—	4
Copilot	3	4	4	4	4	—

Three sites, most of the answer

Share of each AI engine's software citations taken by its top three sites, September 2026: ChatGPT 89.1%, AI Overviews 77.2%, AI Mode 76.9%, Perplexity 82.5%, Gemini 83.2%, Copilot 80.6%.Download PNG

Share of niche citations taken by each engine's top three sites
	ChatGPT	AI Overviews	AI Mode	Perplexity	Gemini	Copilot
Top three sites	89.1%	77.2%	76.9%	82.5%	83.2%	80.6%

ChatGPT is the most concentrated engine in the niche: three sites take 89.1% of its citations, TechRadar alone 78.1%. AI Overviews and AI Mode are the least concentrated, at about 77%.

Playbook for a software brand

1
Get reviewed by TechRadar or PCMag before you chase G2 badges. Tech media are the #1 niche source in all six engines; G2 is #3 at best.
2
Split your effort by engine. If your buyers use Copilot, G2 and Capterra listings pull real weight (32% of citations). In ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews those listings carry 13–16%, so a marketplace badge alone will not get you cited there.
3
Your own site is worth most in Google's AI answers. Vendor domains take 13% of AI Overviews' and AI Mode's niche citations, double their share in ChatGPT or Copilot. Comparison pages and "X vs Y" articles on your own domain are the cheapest citation you can earn there.

Press kit

If you only read three lines

Tech media (TechRadar, PCMag) receive 70% of AI citations about software; review marketplaces (G2, Capterra, Software Advice) receive 18%.
PCMag is the #1 software source in four of six engines and close to absent in ChatGPT (0.0%).
Product Hunt accounts for 0.4% of software citations across six engines.

Quotable

“Every SaaS founder chases the G2 badge. The engines don't read badges; they read TechRadar.”
Nik, Co-founder at AskWatch.ai

“PCMag leads four engines and is invisible in ChatGPT. That gap is the whole reason to measure per engine instead of per 'AI'.”
Nik, Co-founder at AskWatch.ai

“In Google's AI answers, a vendor's own comparison page is cited almost as often as a marketplace review. That is the cheapest visibility a software brand can buy with content.”
Nik, Co-founder at AskWatch.ai

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