October 2026 · run 19 Oct 2026
Agent toolkits and MCP servers: what AI engines recommend
Across 230 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude to 46 buyer questions, Apify was recommended most: in 15% of answers, 11 to 20% at 95%.
- Questions
- 46
- Answers
- 250
- Engines
- 6
- Run
- 19 Oct 2026
All chat engines
230 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude, pooled. 426 different brands recommended in all; these are the 10 recommended most.
| Brand | Share | 95% range | Share on its range, drawn | Avg. place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify | 15% | 11 to 20% | 3.8 | |
| n8n | 11% | 8 to 16% | 6.2 | |
| Apollo | 11% | 8 to 16% | 3.7 | |
| Zapier | 11% | 8 to 16% | 6.1 | |
| Supabase | 10% | 6 to 14% | 6.6 | |
| Bright Data | 9% | 6 to 14% | 2.6 | |
| Make | 9% | 6 to 14% | 6.5 | |
| HubSpot | 8% | 5 to 13% | 5.0 | |
| Railway | 7% | 5 to 12% | 3.2 | |
| People Data Labs | 7% | 4 to 11% | 2.8 |
By engine
Each engine's most recommended brands. The bar puts a brand's share (the dot) on its 95% range (the band), on one scale from 0 to 40% across this page. A brand tied with the last one listed may be left off.
ChatGPT
| Brand | Share | 95% range | Share on its range, drawn | Avg. place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo | 20% | 11 to 33% | 3.6 | |
| n8n | 13% | 6 to 26% | 6.3 | |
| People Data Labs | 11% | 5 to 23% | 2.6 | |
| Hunter | 11% | 5 to 23% | 2.8 | |
| Semrush | 11% | 5 to 23% | 3.0 | |
| HubSpot | 11% | 5 to 23% | 7.2 | |
| Bright Data | 9% | 3 to 20% | 2.8 | |
| Apify | 9% | 3 to 20% | 1.8 | |
| Zapier | 9% | 3 to 20% | 10.0 | |
| Supabase | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.2 |
Gemini
| Brand | Share | 95% range | Share on its range, drawn | Avg. place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify | 22% | 12 to 36% | 4.6 | |
| Supabase | 13% | 6 to 26% | 6.4 | |
| Railway | 13% | 6 to 26% | 4.8 | |
| Apollo | 11% | 5 to 23% | 5.0 | |
| Zapier | 11% | 5 to 23% | 9.8 | |
| HubSpot | 11% | 5 to 23% | 4.6 | |
| Exa | 9% | 3 to 20% | 5.8 | |
| Bright Data | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.0 | |
| n8n | 9% | 3 to 20% | 5.2 | |
| Make | 9% | 3 to 20% | 5.2 |
Google AI Mode
| Brand | Share | 95% range | Share on its range, drawn | Avg. place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify | 20% | 11 to 33% | 3.1 | |
| LangGraph | 13% | 6 to 26% | 6.3 | |
| Supabase | 13% | 6 to 26% | 8.5 | |
| n8n | 11% | 5 to 23% | 8.8 | |
| Make | 11% | 5 to 23% | 7.8 | |
| LangChain | 9% | 3 to 20% | 9.5 | |
| Bright Data | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.2 | |
| Apollo | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.8 | |
| OpenAI | 9% | 3 to 20% | 7.8 | |
| Railway | 9% | 3 to 20% | 4.0 |
Perplexity
| Brand | Share | 95% range | Share on its range, drawn | Avg. place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify | 15% | 8 to 28% | 5.7 | |
| n8n | 13% | 6 to 26% | 3.7 | |
| Bright Data | 11% | 5 to 23% | 1.4 | |
| Apollo | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.2 | |
| Supabase | 9% | 3 to 20% | 4.5 | |
| Zapier | 9% | 3 to 20% | 2.7 | |
| Exa | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.2 | |
| Ahrefs | 9% | 3 to 20% | 5.8 | |
| Firecrawl | 9% | 3 to 20% | 6.8 | |
| HubSpot | 9% | 3 to 20% | 5.0 |
Claude
| Brand | Share | 95% range | Share on its range, drawn | Avg. place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | 20% | 11 to 33% | 3.7 | |
| Make | 17% | 9 to 31% | 5.2 | |
| Apify | 11% | 5 to 23% | 2.4 | |
| n8n | 11% | 5 to 23% | 7.0 | |
| AWS Lambda | 11% | 5 to 23% | 3.8 | |
| Bright Data | 9% | 3 to 20% | 2.8 | |
| Apollo | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.0 | |
| IFTTT | 9% | 3 to 20% | 3.2 | |
| Google Cloud Functions | 9% | 3 to 20% | 5.0 | |
| Coresignal | 7% | 2 to 18% | 3.3 |
Google AI Overviews
| Brand | Share | 95% range | Share on its range, drawn | Avg. place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | 15% | 5 to 36% | 4.3 | |
| Lindy | 10% | 3 to 30% | 2.5 | |
| Zapier | 10% | 3 to 30% | 2.5 | |
| Brand24 | 10% | 3 to 30% | 4.5 | |
| Semrush | 10% | 3 to 30% | 1.0 | |
| Devvit | 5% | 1 to 24% | 2.0 | |
| Creative Paperclay | 5% | 1 to 24% | 1.0 | |
| Crayola Model Magic | 5% | 1 to 24% | 2.0 | |
| Evans Ceramic Supply | 5% | 1 to 24% | 3.0 | |
| Apollo | 5% | 1 to 24% | 4.0 |
Google read the keyword “clay alternatives” as the craft material, which is why three of these brands make modeling clay.
- ai agent builder
- ai agent memory
- ai agent platform
- ai for seo
- ai marketing agent
- ai seo tools
- ai workflow automation
- api marketplace
- best mcp servers
- claude code memory
- claude scheduled tasks
- clay alternatives
- how to find someone's email address
- linkedin api
- linkedin scraper
- mcp gateway
- reddit api
- reddit monitoring
- social listening tools
- x api pricing
Pages the engines cite
The pages cited most, each with the number of answers citing it and their share of the engine's answers.
All chat engines
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access5 · 2%
- support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-claude-cowork5 · 2%
- peopledatalabs.com5 · 2%
- trigger.dev5 · 2%
- render.com5 · 2%
- scrapecreators.com/blog/best-social-media-scraping-apis4 · 2%
- linkedapi.io/guides/proxycurl-alternatives4 · 2%
- claude.com/resources/articles/introducing-routines-in-claude-code4 · 2%
- code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop-scheduled-tasks4 · 2%
- code.claude.com/docs/en/headless4 · 2%
ChatGPT
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/getting-access4 · 9%
- peopledatalabs.com4 · 9%
- github.com/xdevplatform/docs/blob/main/x-api/posts/search/quickstart/recent-search.mdx3 · 7%
- apollo.io3 · 7%
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/restricted-use-cases3 · 7%
- linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1341387/prohibition-of-scraping-software3 · 7%
- sheets.google.com3 · 7%
- claude.com/resources/articles/introducing-routines-in-claude-code3 · 7%
- temporal.io3 · 7%
- inngest.com3 · 7%
Gemini
- jetadmin.io/blog/best-ai-agent-orchestration-platforms3 · 7%
- dataimpulse.com/blog/best-proxies-for-linkedin2 · 4%
- usagebar.com/blog/how-to-do-cron-job-setup-on-claude-code2 · 4%
- code.claude.com/docs/en/scheduled-tasks2 · 4%
- devtoolsacademy.com/blog/best-ai-agent-orchestration-platforms2 · 4%
- northflank.com/blog/top-ai-agent-runtime-tools2 · 4%
- reddit.com/r/mcp/comments/1q5kv3d/tiktok_mcp_integrates_tiktok_video_analysis_into1 · 2%
- fetchlayer.dev/blog/reddit-mcp1 · 2%
- magnific.com/mcp1 · 2%
- reddit.com/r/mcp/comments/1td877j/i_built_an_mcp_server_that_lets_claude_run_an1 · 2%
Google AI Mode
- upsun.com/blog/best-platforms-for-running-ai-agents3 · 7%
- socialfetch.dev/blog/best-twitter-x-data-apis-20262 · 4%
- github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers2 · 4%
- code.claude.com/docs/en/agent-sdk/overview2 · 4%
- render.com2 · 4%
- youtube.com/watch?v=e4EnyPQ0Aps1 · 2%
- scrapecreators.com/blog/twitter-pay-per-use-api1 · 2%
- scrapebadger.com/blog/twitter-api-vs-scraping-apis-what-should-you-use-in-20261 · 2%
- redditapis.com/reddit-api-alternatives1 · 2%
- reddit.com/r/reddit4researchers/comments/1egr9wu/apply_to_join_the_reddit_for_researchers_beta_by1 · 2%
Perplexity
- code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop-scheduled-tasks3 · 7%
- clay.com/guides/best/data-enrichment-tools2 · 4%
- code.claude.com/docs/en/headless2 · 4%
- support.claude.com/en/articles/13854387-schedule-recurring-tasks-in-claude-cowork2 · 4%
- developers.cloudflare.com/agents/concepts/agentic-patterns/long-running-agents2 · 4%
- duet.so/blog/how-to-set-up-a-24-7-ai-agent2 · 4%
- blaxel.ai/blog/persistent-memory-ai-agents2 · 4%
- syften.com/blog/best-reddit-monitoring-tools2 · 4%
- okara.ai/blog/best-tools-for-reddit-keyword-monitoring2 · 4%
- academy.claude.com/tutorials/customize-claude-cowork2 · 4%
Claude
- scrapecreators.com/blog/best-social-media-scraping-apis2 · 4%
- linkedapi.io/guides/proxycurl-alternatives2 · 4%
- klue.com/topics/best-ai-competitor-analysis-tools2 · 4%
- socialcrawl.dev/blog/reddit-data-api-20261 · 2%
- medium.com/@idoavnir/reddit-is-winding-down-its-public-api-here-is-what-it-costs-you-in-2026-1dc42ff47e361 · 2%
- coldiq.com/blog/best-reddit-apis1 · 2%
- cm-alliance.com/cybersecurity-blog/top-5-social-media-api-for-data-collection-and-analytics-in-20261 · 2%
- pitchwall.co/blog/best-7-social-media-apis-for-developers-in-20261 · 2%
- xpoz.ai/blog/comparisons/best-unified-social-media-apis-20261 · 2%
- octolens.com/blog/best-social-media-apis1 · 2%
Google AI Overviews
- docs.x.com/x-api/introduction1 · 5%
- blotato.com/blog/twitter-api-pricing1 · 5%
- docs.x.com/x-api/getting-started/pricing1 · 5%
- docs.x.com/overview1 · 5%
- postproxy.dev/blog/x-api-pricing-20261 · 5%
- reddit.com/r/Superframeworks/comments/1u5j4c7/x_api_payperuse_the_full_beforeafter_economics1 · 5%
- mashable.com/tech/reddit-rss-feeds-public-api-shutdown-ai-scraping1 · 5%
- reddit.com/r/redditdev1 · 5%
- developers.reddit.com/docs/capabilities/server/reddit-api1 · 5%
- medium.com/@alex_79882/reddits-api-is-officially-dead-in-2026-here-s-what-i-use-instead-f88ee5b809c81 · 5%
The 46 questions
Each asked once on ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude on 19 Oct 2026, under the buyer scenario it comes from. Google AI Overviews were asked the search keywords listed with them above instead.
Live social data for my coding agent without scrapers or API plans
- No AII need to pull posts and comments from Reddit and X for a research project. Reddit wants me to apply for API access now and the X API is something like $200 a month for barely any reads. Is there a cheaper legit way to get this data?
- Names an AI clientI'm using Claude Code and I want it to search Reddit, X and TikTok for what people are saying about a product category. I don't want to maintain my own scrapers or buy three separate API plans. What's the cleanest way to wire that up?
- Best toolbest API for getting TikTok, Instagram and YouTube data (profiles, posts, comments) into an AI agent? a few thousand calls a month, and I really don't want to deal with proxies
- Problem firstmy python scraper for twitter broke again after they changed something and I've lost half a day on it. I just want a reliable way to get tweets and replies about a topic into my project. what do people do instead of scraping?
- Asks for AIHow do I give my AI agent live social media data instead of it guessing from training data? I want it to check what people are posting on X and Reddit right now before it answers.
LinkedIn profile, company and jobs data for an agent after Proxycurl
- ComparisonProxycurl is gone and my enrichment pipeline depended on it. What are the best alternatives for getting LinkedIn profile and company data through an API? I need roughly 20k lookups a month.
- Best toolwhat's the best LinkedIn data API for developers right now? official LinkedIn API access is basically impossible to get approved for unless you're a big partner
- Names an AI clientIs there a LinkedIn MCP server I can plug into Claude Code or Cursor that returns profiles, company pages, job postings and recent posts, without running a headless browser logged into my own account? I'm scared of getting banned.
- How toHow do I scrape LinkedIn profiles and company pages at scale without getting my account banned? I'm building an agent that researches prospects before outreach.
- Problem firstthe LinkedIn scrapers we use break every couple of weeks and the cost per run is unpredictable. looking for something more stable for pulling company headcount, open jobs and recent posts into our lead research
Find and verify work emails and enrich a lead list from inside my agent
- Problem firstI burn through Clay credits just to find emails for a list of 500 people and half of them bounce. There has to be a cheaper way to enrich leads and verify emails before I send.
- How toHow do I find and verify work emails for a list of 300 founders (I have name and company domain) and get them into a spreadsheet, without paying for a $100+/month tool?
- Names an AI clientCan Claude Code or ChatGPT find business emails for a list of LinkedIn profiles and verify them? When I ask, it just guesses firstname@company.com patterns.
- ComparisonLooking for a Clay alternative for a solo GTM engineer. I mostly need email finding, company enrichment and an API I can call from my own scripts. Apollo is too limited and Clay gets expensive at scale. What would you pick?
- Asks for AIWhat's the best way to use an AI agent to build a lead list end to end: find the companies, find the right person at each, get a verified email, and save everything to a database, paying per use instead of a monthly seat?
Make my agent workflow run on a schedule while my laptop is closed
- Problem firstI built a Claude Code workflow that pulls my competitors' new posts and summarizes them, but I have to open my laptop and run it by hand every morning. How do I make it run by itself every day?
- Names an AI clientDo ChatGPT scheduled tasks or Claude scheduled tasks actually run when my computer is off? I want an agent that checks a few things every morning and posts a summary to Slack.
- How toHow do I run Claude Code on a cron schedule on a server, with the MCP tools and database it needs, without keeping my Mac awake? Looking for the simplest setup, not a full devops project.
- Comparisonn8n or something else for running AI agent workflows on a schedule? Mine are basically 'call an API, have an LLM process it, save results, notify me' and I'm tired of dragging nodes around.
- Best toolbest way to run recurring AI agent jobs (daily lead search, weekly report, webhook-triggered follow-ups) with state saved between runs? I don't want to babysit a VPS
Persistent memory and a real database for my agent between sessions
- Problem firstevery time I start a new Claude Code session I have to paste the same context about my business, my leads and past decisions. How do people give their agent a memory that actually persists?
- Comparisonmem0 vs letta vs just using Postgres for agent memory? I want my agent to remember customers, past runs and decisions across sessions, and I'd like to be able to query it with SQL too.
- Names an AI clientIs there an MCP server that gives Claude a real database it can create tables in and query, plus long-term memory, without me setting up Supabase or running my own Postgres?
- How toHow do I set up a database for my AI agent so it stores the leads it finds and doesn't research the same company twice?
- Asks for AIwhat's the best persistent memory and storage setup for an AI agent that runs daily jobs? it needs a list of what it already processed, files it generated, and notes it learned over time
Monitor competitors, Reddit and social for mentions and get a weekly digest
- Problem firstI keep finding out about Reddit threads where people complain about my competitor, or ask for exactly what I sell, a week too late. I don't have time to refresh Reddit all day.
- Best toolbest tool to monitor Reddit, X and LinkedIn for mentions of my competitors and for people describing a problem my product solves? small team, under $100 a month
- ComparisonF5Bot is too basic and Brand24 costs more than I can justify. What else can alert me when a keyword shows up on Reddit or X, ideally with an AI summary dropped into Slack?
- Names an AI clientCan I get Claude (Cowork or Claude Code) to check Reddit and X every Monday for what people are saying about three competitors and send me a one-page digest? What would I need to connect to make that work?
- Asks for AIHow can I use an AI agent to track competitor activity like new LinkedIn posts, job openings, pricing page changes and launch announcements, and get a weekly brief?
Replace a pile of API subscriptions with one key for my agent
- Problem firstI'm paying for six different APIs (a scraper, a SERP API, an email finder, a social data API and a couple more) for my AI agent and juggling six keys and six invoices. Is there one place that bundles these with per-call pricing?
- ComparisonComposio vs Zapier MCP vs Smithery for giving an AI agent access to data and tools. I need data sources like LinkedIn, X and Reddit, not just app integrations like Gmail and Slack. Which fits?
- Best toolWhat's the best MCP server or gateway for a developer who wants one API key for web search, scraping, social data and lead enrichment, charged per successful call?
Run SEO and AI-visibility research from my agent instead of a $130 suite
- Problem firstAhrefs and Semrush are $130+ a month each and I use maybe 5% of them. I mostly need keyword volumes, SERP results and backlinks for a few sites. What do other solo founders do?
- Best toolbest SERP API and keyword data API for an AI agent to use? cheap, pay as you go. I don't need a dashboard, I need JSON my agent can reason over.
- Asks for AIHow can I use AI to find keyword gaps against competitors, write the pages, and check whether ChatGPT and Perplexity mention my brand? I want it to run weekly without me.
Deploy an agent that runs on a cron and webhooks with its own tools and database
- Names an AI clientI have a working agent built with the Claude Agent SDK on my laptop. Now it needs to run in the cloud on a schedule and respond to webhooks from Stripe and my CRM, with a database and some data APIs. I don't want to build all that infrastructure myself. What are my options?
- Best toolbest platform to host and deploy AI agents that need to run on a cron and on incoming webhooks? I'm a solo dev building agents for a few small business clients and need a database, secrets and logs included.
- ComparisonClaude Managed Agents vs building my own agent runtime on Railway vs an agent platform like Lindy or Relevance AI. I build agents for clients and need custom tools and scheduled runs. Pros and cons?
- Problem firstour agent runs fine on my machine but I keep having to babysit it: restarting it, rotating API keys, wiring up a queue and a database. what do people use so an agent just runs on its own in the background?
- How toHow do I deploy an AI agent that wakes up on a webhook, uses a few data tools (LinkedIn, Reddit, web scraping), saves results to a database and emails me a summary? Step by step please, no Kubernetes.
The right MCP servers and connectors to make Claude, ChatGPT or OpenClaw do sales and marketing work
- Best toolWhat are the best MCP servers for sales and marketing? I want Claude to research leads, check what's being said about us online and pull SEO data, not just connect to Gmail and Notion.
- Names an AI clientI'm a marketer using Claude Cowork. Which connectors or plugins should I add so it can actually research competitors, find leads and pull social data instead of only working with my files?
- Names an AI clientWhich OpenClaw skills or MCP tools are worth installing for lead generation and market research? I've got OpenClaw running and want it doing real marketing work, not just chatting.
- How tohow do I use Claude Code for marketing? I'm a founder, not a developer. I want it to find potential customers, research competitors and draft outreach. What do I connect to make it useful?
- Asks for AIWhat's the best way to turn ChatGPT into an AI marketing agent that can pull live data (social, SEO, company info) and run tasks on its own? Do I need ChatGPT connectors or an MCP server?
How these numbers are counted
- Share
- Share of an engine's answers in this category that recommend the brand; range is the 95% Wilson interval.
- Left out
- Questions that named one of our products, and a few that named one of our data suppliers; AI assistants and platforms (Gmail, Slack, LinkedIn and similar) are not counted as recommendations.
- Google AI Overviews
- Google AI Overviews were queried with search keywords, not the questions.
We don't test or rate these tools. A brand's share says how often the engines recommended it, not how good it is. The full method.