When Perplexity picks the shortlist, who does it name?
The Perplexity edition of the AI Visibility Index ranks which B2B SaaS vendors Perplexity cites and recommends in the DACH market — measured as citation share across CRM, HR & Payroll and Marketing Automation.
What Perplexity sees, in one number.
Perplexity is the citation-first answer engine — every recommendation is footnoted to a visible source. Vendors with strong, citable third-party evidence (trade media, comparisons, docs) win here even when they're smaller.
One engine, in full depth — how Perplexity recommends in DACH B2B SaaS
the same versioned buyer-intent battery as the master index
CRM, HR & Payroll, and Marketing Automation
published, versioned and dated so movement is provable
Who Perplexity recommends in DACH B2B SaaS.
| Rank | Vendor | Citation share | Trend | Cited as |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | HubSpot | 30% | ↑ | Top pick |
| 02 | Salesforce | 28% | — | Recommended |
| 03 | Pipedrive | 15% | ↑ | Named |
| 04 | Microsoft Dynamics 365 | 11% | — | Compared |
| 05 | CentralStationCRM | 6% | ↑ | Mentioned |
| Rank | Vendor | Citation share | Trend | Cited as |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Personio | 32% | — | Top pick |
| 02 | DATEV | 24% | ↑ | Recommended |
| 03 | SAP SuccessFactors | 15% | ↓ | Named |
| 04 | rexx systems | 11% | ↑ | Compared |
| 05 | HeavenHR | 5% | — | Mentioned |
| Rank | Vendor | Citation share | Trend | Cited as |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | HubSpot | 33% | ↑ | Top pick |
| 02 | Salesforce Marketing Cloud | 18% | — | Recommended |
| 03 | Brevo | 14% | ↑ | Named |
| 04 | Evalanche (SC-Networks) | 8% | ↑ | Compared |
| 05 | CleverReach | 6% | — | Mentioned |
How the other assistants build the shortlist.
Every engine recommends differently. Compare this edition with the others, or see the combined master index.
ChatGPT
The world's default assistant — 1 Billion+ users forming shortlists every month.
ChatGPT edition →Claude
The careful reasoner — considered, source-aware recommendations buyers trust.
Claude edition →Gemini
Google's assistant — tied into Search and AI Overviews across the web.
Gemini edition →Master index
All four engines in one ranking — the full AI Visibility Index.
See the full index →How the Perplexity ranking is built.
Every prompt in the battery is run against Perplexity; we count each brand mention and weight it by position and recommendation strength.
Prompt battery
For each category we lock a versioned set of 120+ real buyer-intent prompts — the questions a DACH buyer actually asks before a shortlist. The battery is identical across engines so editions stay comparable.
Query Perplexity
Each prompt is run against Perplexity from a neutral DACH context, capturing which vendors are named, cited and recommended in the generated answer.
Score citation share
Every mention is weighted by position and recommendation strength. A vendor's citation share is its weighted slice of all named recommendations in its category — not ad spend, not classic SEO rank.
Track over editions
Because the battery and date are versioned, every change is comparable quarter over quarter. The trend column shows direction since the previous edition.
Publish openly
Each edition is published in full so it can be cited by Perplexity itself.
Not a vibe. A measured, repeatable number.
Perplexity-specific
Perplexity is the citation-first answer engine — every recommendation is footnoted to a visible source. Vendors with strong, citable third-party evidence (trade media, comparisons, docs) win here even when they're smaller.
Citation share, not ad spend
We measure how often Perplexity names and recommends a vendor — the surface where buyers now form a shortlist — not who buys the most keywords or backlinks.
DACH-native prompts
The prompt battery is built for the German-speaking market: GDPR, German SMB structures, German-language queries and local vendors.
Versioned and provable
Each edition ships with its prompt set and date. Movement is reproducible — the same rigour we bring to client citation tracking.
How does Perplexity name your company? Find out.
Drop your link. We run your free AI Visibility check overnight and show you your citation share in Perplexity — and exactly what would move you up the leaderboard.
Questions about the Perplexity edition.
What is the Perplexity edition of the AI Visibility Index?
It ranks which B2B SaaS vendors Perplexity names and recommends most often in the DACH market — measured as citation share across CRM, HR & Payroll and Marketing Automation, on the same versioned prompt battery as the master index.
How is citation share measured in Perplexity?
We run a fixed prompt battery against Perplexity, count every brand mention and weight it by position and recommendation strength. We measure AI recommendations — not ad spend or classic search ranking.
How is Perplexity different from the other engines?
Perplexity is the citation-first answer engine — every recommendation is footnoted to a visible source. Vendors with strong, citable third-party evidence (trade media, comparisons, docs) win here even when they're smaller.
How often does the edition appear?
Quarterly, dated and versioned together with its prompt battery, so movements between editions are reproducible.
How do I find out where my company stands in Perplexity?
Run a free AI Visibility check. Drop your link and we show you how Perplexity names you today — your citation share versus the category leaders — and what we would build first.