For years, software companies have worked to appear on major review platforms such as G2, Capterra and Gartner.
That made sense when buyers began their research on Google.
But more and more buyers now ask AI assistants which software to buy. We wanted to know which websites sit behind those answers.
The results challenged our assumptions.
Five specialist sites were cited more than the big review platforms
For 12 weeks, Envoyra tracked the sources Perplexity cited when answering real B2B software buying questions. Each Perplexity answer lists the websites it drew on. We call those citations.
We ranked every website by how often it was cited. The most-cited group was mostly user-generated platforms such as Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn; software companies' own websites; G2; and five independent specialist publications.
We did not hand-pick those five to make a point. They were every independent editorial publisher in the most-cited group.
Venture Harbour: cited in every one of the 12 weeks.
InsiderOne: cited in every one of the 12 weeks.
EmailTooltester: cited in every one of the 12 weeks.
Sequenzy: cited in every one of the 12 weeks.
EmailVendorSelection: cited in every one of the 12 weeks.
Together, these five publications were cited far more often than G2, Capterra and Gartner combined. Venture Harbour alone was cited more often than G2.
This does not mean review platforms have stopped mattering
G2 was cited in all 12 weeks, and often. The data does not support walking away from established review platforms.
It shows something more useful.
A publisher did not need to be large or famous to be cited again and again in AI buying answers.
Independent publications with deep coverage of one category held their own against some of the largest platforms and software companies on the internet.
The sources behind AI answers also reached far beyond these top websites.
The long tail is longer than most brands realize
No single website dominated. Even the most-cited site accounted for only a small slice of all citations. A large share of websites were cited only once.
Perplexity built its answers from a broad, scattered network of sources. Some showed up week after week. Hundreds showed up only once.
These sources look less like a fixed leaderboard and more like a network that shifts with the category, the question and the buyer's situation.
The question to ask now
Being listed on a major review platform is still useful. But it does not show the full picture of how a brand gets named when buyers ask AI.
Brands now need to ask: which websites keep showing up when AI answers buying questions in our category?
The answer may include a major review platform. It may also include a specialist publication the marketing team has never considered.
Without measuring the actual citations, a brand is guessing.
Method
This analysis covers 12 complete weekly scans from May 31 through August 23, 2026. We left out the incomplete June 21 run and early test runs.
The data covers B2B software buyer questions asked through Perplexity. Perplexity's answers listed the websites they drew on, so we could record and analyse them.
We ranked websites by how often they were cited. The five featured publishers are every independent editorial publication in the most-cited group. User-generated platforms, software companies' own websites and review platforms were grouped separately.
How often a website is cited shows which sources appeared next to the answers. On its own, it does not prove that a source caused an AI assistant to recommend a brand.
Envoyra monitors the sources and brands that show up when buyers ask AI what to buy.