ToolScout
Original research ยท September 2026

Software Trends Index

A monthly snapshot of what ToolScout can verify from its own catalog, editorial system and observed Google Search Console visibility.

Scope: ToolScout first-party observations. This is not a measure of global market share, vendor revenue or industry-wide popularity. The labels below are deliberately narrow so these observations are not mistaken for global software-market statistics.
92current tools passing strict source gates
17verified catalog categories represented
2,215observed GSC impressions in the current source window
31ToolScout intents with observed GSC signals

Highest observed search visibility

These are ToolScout pages with the most Google Search Console impressions in the source data used for this edition. Impressions measure search-result visibility. They do not measure market share, product popularity or visits.

#ToolScout guideImpressionsClicksAverage position
1Best SEO Tools for Agencies535077.0
2Best Funnel Builder127077.1
3Best Project Management Tools67040.0
4Best CRM for Sales Teams50075.5
5Best Free Project Management Tools47055.4
6Best Free CRM Tools42073.1
7Best Keyword Research Tools42074.3
8Best Forms for Small Business404.5
9Best Product Analytics Tools4020.3
10Best Productivity Tools for Teams4038.0

Most frequently shortlisted in current ToolScout guides

This table counts how often a verified tool appears in current ToolScout shortlists after category, structured capability, hard-attribute, relevance and source-trust gates. It is an editorial coverage metric, not a popularity ranking.

#ToolCategoryEligible guide appearancesFactual review date
1Asanabusiness42026-09-01
2Closecrm42026-09-01
3Freshsalescrm42026-09-01
4HubSpotcrm42026-08-29
5Ahrefsseo32026-08-29
6Attiocrm32026-09-01
7Semrushseo32026-08-28
8Surferseo32026-09-01
9Basecampbusiness22026-09-01
10ClickUpbusiness22026-08-29
11Cursordeveloper22026-09-01
12Filloutforms22026-09-01

Verified catalog coverage

Only tools passing the strict source and freshness requirements for this edition are counted here.

CategoryVerified current tools
business13
marketing11
crm9
developer7
seo7
analytics6
support6
automation5
forms5
social5
website5
ai-writing3
ecommerce3
sales3
design2
ai-research1
content1

Methodology and limits

Excluded from named analysis: 9 catalog record(s) that did not pass all strict source gates at publication time. This exclusion is intentional.

Open the public JSON dataset