Top tools in 2026 · Prompt 3 of 8 · July 2026

A real buyer question from the July 2026 snapshot, asked 3× to each of the three models. 9 answers recorded.

“What are the top newsletter and publishing platforms in 2026?”

ChatGPT answered 3× this snapshot

…depending on what you're trying to do. Newsletter-first (email is the core product) Substack – Still the dominant “writer platform.” Biggest built-in network for discovery, strong paid subscription culture, but limited customization and you don’t fully control your audience relationship the way some creators want. Beehiiv – The fastest-growing serious competitor. Better analytics, automation, and monetization tools…

Named across its answers: 1. Substack2. Beehiiv3. Kit4. Ghost5. Medium

Verbatim excerpt from one collected ChatGPT answer; formatting flattened, words untouched.

Substack dominates with a perfect 9-of-9 mention rate and an average position of 1.3, while Beehiiv matches its presence at 9-of-9 but trails as the first pick only 3 times. Brands like Adobe Experience Manager, Webflow, Contentful, and MailerLite hold category ranks but receive zero mentions here, meaning AI-driven buyer discovery is narrowing consideration sets faster than traditional rankings reflect.

AI-generated read of the July 2026 measurements.

Who wins this question

Owned Consensus

All three models name Substack, Beehiiv, Kit, Ghost and LinkedIn on this question.

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini mentioned · first · avg. pos

Substack 111111222 9/9 · 6× first · #1.3

Beehiiv 222222111 9/9 · 3× first · #1.7

Ghost 444333433 9/9 · never first · #3.4

Kit 333444344 9/9 · never first · #3.6

LinkedIn 11666655 7/9 · never first · #6.4

Medium 875575 6/9 · never first · #6.2

Buttondown 91066 4/9 · never first · #7.8

WordPress 55 2/9 · never first · #5

Mailchimp 105 2/9 · never first · #7.5

Patreon 87 2/9 · never first · #7.5

Kajabi 128 2/9 · never first · #10

Paragraph 5 1/9 · never first · #5

Each square is one collected answer; the number is the brand's position in that answer. Lime = the very first recommendation. Unlinked brands were named by the models here but sit outside this category's published top 15 overall. Showing the top 12 of 16 brands named at least once. Never mentioned here: Adobe Experience Manager, Webflow, Contentful, MailerLite, SharePoint, Sitecore.