# OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Perplexity agree on the leader in 24 of 33 software categories

Source: Memetik Research, https://www.memetik.ai/research/ai-providers-agree-on-leader-24-of-33-categories. Published 2026-09-02. Data: Memetik Index 2026-09.

Across ten current models, the four providers named the same most-frequent vendor in 24 categories. Where they split, it is usually one provider's one model.

## Key findings

1. All four providers (three OpenAI models, three Anthropic, two Google, two Perplexity) named the same most-frequent vendor in 24 of 33 categories.
2. All ten individual models agreed in 21 of 33. In 18 categories the leader was named in every one of the 50 answers.
3. OpenAI was the odd provider out in 3 categories: GitHub Copilot over Cursor (coding agents), AWS RDS over Supabase (databases), Zapier over Lindy (agent builders).
4. Within providers, one model often breaks ranks: Claude Sonnet 5 named Hostinger and AWS where the other nine named Wix and Vercel; GPT-5.6 Sol named Claude Code and Modal where Terra and Luna named Cursor and Hugging Face.
5. The nine disagreements sit in the newest categories: agent builders, coding agents, image generation, web search APIs, browser agents, inference hosting.

## Chart: AI coding agents, answer share

Cursor                 ████████████████████ 98%
Claude Code            ████████████████████ 98%
GitHub Copilot         ████████████████████ 98%
Codex                  ████████████████░░░░ 78%
Cline                  ████████████░░░░░░░░ 60%
Aider                  ██████████░░░░░░░░░░ 52%
Windsurf               ████████░░░░░░░░░░░░ 42%
Devin                  ███████░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 34%

## Chart: Databases for startups, answer share

Supabase               ████████████████████ 98%
AWS RDS                ██████████████████░░ 92%
Neon                   ██████████████████░░ 90%
Google Cloud SQL       █████████████░░░░░░░ 66%
PlanetScale            █████████████░░░░░░░ 64%
MongoDB                █████████████░░░░░░░ 64%
Turso                  ██████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 32%
Firebase               █████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 24%

**Ten models from four providers agree on the most-named vendor in 24 of 33 categories.** In 18 of those, the leader appeared in all 50 answers. Where the providers split, it is rarely a clean OpenAI-versus-Anthropic divide: it is usually one model within one provider breaking from the other nine.

## Where do the providers disagree?

"Most named" per provider is the vendor that appeared in the largest number of that provider's answers (15 for OpenAI and Anthropic, 10 for Google and Perplexity).

| Category | OpenAI | Anthropic | Google | Perplexity |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AI coding agents | GitHub Copilot | Cursor | Cursor | Cursor |
| Databases for startups | AWS RDS | Supabase | Supabase | Supabase |
| AI agent builders | Zapier | Lindy | n8n | Lindy |
| AI image generation | Adobe Firefly | Midjourney | Adobe Firefly | Adobe Firefly |
| Web search APIs for AI | Exa | Firecrawl | Exa | Exa |
| Browser automation | Playwright | Stagehand | Playwright | Browser Use |
| AI website builders | Wix | Wix | Hostinger | Wix |
| Creator monetization | Podia | Podia | Kajabi | Podia |
| AI music generation | Suno | Suno | Suno | Soundraw |

## Which individual models break from their provider?

Twelve categories had at least one dissenting model. The dissents cluster on a few models:

- **Claude Sonnet 5** alone named Hostinger (website builders), AWS (hosting) and GPT Image (image generation) where the other nine models named Wix, Vercel and Adobe Firefly or Midjourney.
- **GPT-5.6 Sol** alone named Claude Code (coding agents), Modal (inference hosting) and n8n (agent builders).
- **Claude Fable 5** alone named Stagehand (browser agents) and Soundraw (music).
- **Sonar Pro** alone named CapCut (clipping). **Sonar Reasoning Pro** alone named Browser Use (browser agents).
- **Gemini 3.5 Flash** alone named Payhip (creator monetization) and joined Terra on Zapier (agent builders).

## Where does everyone agree?

Twenty-one categories, and in eighteen of them the leader was named in every answer: HeyGen, CodeRabbit, Apollo, Veo, ElevenLabs, Kajabi, Linktree, OpenAI, LangSmith, Substack, Zapier, Circle, Amplitude, Stripe Billing, HubSpot, Gusto, Resend and Lovable. When a category has a default, ten models from four labs know it.

## What the disagreements have in common

The nine provider-level splits are in the categories that did not exist or were being reset two years ago: agent builders, coding agents, browser agents, AI image generation, web search APIs for LLMs, inference hosting. Where the category is old, the models read the same web and reach the same name. Where it is new, the sources are thinner and which pages each model retrieved decides the answer.

## What this means for a vendor

A vendor that leads across providers but trails in one model has a retrieval gap, not an awareness gap. The fix is specific: the pages that one model reads. A vendor that leads in one provider only has a bigger problem, and the per-provider table on its category page shows exactly where.

## Limitations

"Most named" per provider rests on 10 or 15 answers; per model on 5. Ties were broken by order in the vendor list. API models with web search are close to but not identical to the consumer chat products. One edition.

## Method and limits

Five fixed buyer prompts per category, sent once each to 10 current models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Perplexity with web search enabled. Answer share is the fraction of 50 answers naming a vendor. Full method: https://www.memetik.ai/method. Memetik is a Searchmaxxed publication. Licence: CC BY 4.0.