Thunderdome B2B SaaS AI Visibility Index

← All categories

September 2026 snapshot · 72 AI answers Contested

Publishing & Newsletters: AI Visibility Ranking

Platforms for publishing content and running newsletters. Right now, Substack is the brand AI assistants recommend most, with a Visibility Score of 63 and the #1 spot in 39% of answers. Head-to-head: Substack vs Ghost →

These rankings are measured from what the three models know from training, not a live web search. When the models DO search the web, see which sources they cite. Methodology.

Three-way scramble at the top, Substack barely ahead.

Substack, Ghost, and Beehiiv are separated by fewer than 6 points and each appears in roughly 68% of answers, making this one of the tightest races in the index. Substack's edge comes mostly from being the first pick 39% of the time, but Ghost actually scores higher with Gemini (65) and Claude (63), so model choice shifts the leader. Kit and WordPress both fall 19 or more points behind the top three, and Kit's first-pick rate of 1.4% suggests AI models mention it as an afterthought rather than a recommendation.

AI-generated analysis of the September 2026 measurements.

# Brand Visibility Score Trend (3 mo) Mention rate Avg. position #1 pick rate Models
1 Substack
63
±4
Jul 2026: 60.7 · Aug 2026: 59.4 · Sep 2026: 62.5 flat 68% 1.8 39% ChatGPT #1 Claude #1 Gemini #3
2 Ghost
60
±5.3
Jul 2026: 63.1 · Aug 2026: 58.5 · Sep 2026: 60 flat 69% 2.4 24% ChatGPT #3 Claude #2 Gemini #1
3 Beehiiv
57
±3.2
Jul 2026: 57.8 · Aug 2026: 58.9 · Sep 2026: 56.9 flat 68% 2.6 17% ChatGPT #2 Claude #3 Gemini #2
4 Kit
38
±4.3
Jul 2026: 36.1 · Aug 2026: 33.8 · Sep 2026: 37.6 flat 56% 4.2 1% ChatGPT #4 Claude #5 Gemini #5
5 WordPress
38
±3.9
Jul 2026: 33.6 · Aug 2026: 30.3 · Sep 2026: 37.5 ▲ 7 46% 2.8 6% ChatGPT #5 Claude #4 Gemini #4
6 Mailchimp
19
±5.4
Jul 2026: 10.6 · Aug 2026: 11.7 · Sep 2026: 18.8 flat 33% 5.4 0% ChatGPT #6 Claude #6 Gemini #13
7 Buttondown
14
±2.2
Jul 2026: 15 · Aug 2026: 19.7 · Sep 2026: 13.5 ▼ 6 21% 4.5 0% ChatGPT #10 Claude #9 Gemini #6
8 Medium
11
±3.7
Jul 2026: 10.1 · Aug 2026: 12.1 · Sep 2026: 11 flat 19% 5.4 0% ChatGPT #12 Claude #7 Gemini #12
9 Adobe Experience Manager
10
±2.7
Jul 2026: 10.3 · Aug 2026: 8.9 · Sep 2026: 9.7 flat 10% 1.0 10% ChatGPT #8 Claude #11 Gemini #8
10 MailerLite
10
±1.6
Jul 2026: 5.6 · Aug 2026: 5.4 · Sep 2026: 9.6 ▲ 4 15% 4.7 1% ChatGPT #7 Claude #15 Gemini #9
11 Contentful
8
±1.8
Jul 2026: 8.9 · Aug 2026: 9.4 · Sep 2026: 8.3 flat 11% 3.5 0% ChatGPT #11 Claude #10 Gemini #10
12 LinkedIn
7
±3.5
Jul 2026: 7.6 · Aug 2026: 7.8 · Sep 2026: 6.8 flat 11% 4.9 0% ChatGPT #13 Claude #13 Gemini #7
13 Webflow
7
±1.7
Jul 2026: 9.2 · Aug 2026: 8.6 · Sep 2026: 6.5 flat 11% 5.1 0% ChatGPT #15 Claude #8 Gemini
14 HubSpot
5
±2.3
Jul 2026: 3.2 · Aug 2026: 3.8 · Sep 2026: 5 flat 14% 7.5 0% ChatGPT #14 Claude #14 Gemini #11
15 Sitecore
5
±2.5
Jul 2026: 4.2 · Aug 2026: 5.6 · Sep 2026: 5 flat 6% 2.0 0% ChatGPT #9 Claude #12 Gemini

The ± under each score is the reliability band: how much the number would move if we re-ran the identical measurement. It is tight because each prompt is sampled multiple times. It is not the same as how much the ranking depends on which prompts we ask — a separate, wider figure shown on hover.

Just below the cutoff: RankMath (4.4), Listmonk (4.3), Mailpoet (4), Optimizely (3.8), Brevo (3.3). 64 brands were scored in this category; the leaderboard shows the top 15.

Visibility Score: position-weighted presence across all measured answers, 0 to 100. A score of 100 means the brand was the first recommendation in every answer. Every point in a trend line is a live monthly measurement; there is no modeled or backfilled history. Full methodology.

Openness 38/100: the share of this category's recommendation weight not held by the leader.

Compare brands in Publishing & Newsletters head-to-head →  ·  Explore the prompt tree →

Get alerted on big movements

We rerun the index every month. Drop your email and pick what to watch in Publishing & Newsletters: the whole category or specific brands. Free, unsubscribe anytime.

Or watch specific brands:

Do the models agree?

Per-model Visibility Scores for the top 10. A long gray bar means the three assistants disagree about the brand. Hover a row for exact values.

ChatGPT Claude Gemini
0 25 50 75 100 Visibility Score · 0 = never mentioned, 100 = always the first recommendation Substack Ghost Beehiiv Kit WordPress Mailchimp Buttondown Medium Adobe Experience Manager MailerLite

Where they land in the answer

When a brand is mentioned, where does it appear? Box shows the middle 50% of positions, the thick line is the median, whiskers are the extremes. Hover a row for the detail.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Position in the answer · 1 = the first product recommended Substack Ghost Beehiiv Kit WordPress Mailchimp Buttondown Medium Adobe Experience Manager MailerLite

What each model recommends first

ChatGPT

gpt-5.4

1 Substack
63
2 Beehiiv
58
3 Ghost
52
4 Kit
51
5 WordPress
35

Claude

claude-sonnet-4-6

1 Substack
69
2 Ghost
63
3 Beehiiv
56
4 WordPress
35
5 Kit
30

Gemini

gemini-3-flash-preview

1 Ghost
65
2 Beehiiv
56
3 Substack
55
4 WordPress
42
5 Kit
32

The questions we asked

Each model answered every prompt 3 times in September 2026. Prompts are brand-neutral so no vendor gets seeded into the question.

  1. Best overall
    What's the best platform for a company blog and newsletter? See who wins it →
  2. Use-case fit
    We want to launch a paid newsletter with a clean reading experience. What should we use? See who wins it →
  3. Top tools in 2026
    What are the top newsletter and publishing platforms in 2026? See who wins it →
  4. Startup & small team
    Which newsletter platform is best for a creator just starting out? See who wins it →
  5. Enterprise pick
    Which publishing platform should a large enterprise standardize on, considering security, compliance, and scale? See who wins it →
  6. Feature-led ask
    I want my own domain, SEO control, and subscriber management. What do you recommend? See who wins it →
  7. If you could pick one
    If you could only pick one publishing platform, which one and why? See who wins it →
  8. Budget & alternatives
    What's the best alternative to the big newsletter platforms? See who wins it →