When an AI answer engine recommends software, where does it get its information? We ranked every source behind 2,469 structured citations across 101 SaaS brands. Think of it as a domain leaderboard — but ordered by AI citation share, not Ahrefs DR. It surfaces the dimension a backlink database can't: what AI actually reads.
Data collected July 2026 · 101 brands · 2,469 structured citations · engine: Perplexity (sonar)
of all AI citations point to Reddit — the single largest source
point to YouTube, ahead of any dedicated review platform
of everything AI cites is third-party content, not the brand's own site
structured AI citations analyzed across 101 brands
Across 2,469 structured citations, Reddit (9.1%) and YouTube (8%) are the two biggest sources AI draws on — ahead of every dedicated review platform like G2 or Trustpilot. A backlink database would rank these hosts by link authority; this table ranks them by how much of what AI reads actually comes from each one.
| # | Source | Share of all citations | Cited for # of brands |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | reddit.com | 9.1% | 98 |
| 2 | youtube.com | 8% | 89 |
| 3 | g2.com | 3.9% | 73 |
| 4 | trustpilot.com | 3.7% | 73 |
| 5 | en.wikipedia.org | 2.5% | 55 |
| 6 | linkedin.com | 1.9% | 45 |
| 7 | glassdoor.com | 1.5% | 35 |
| 8 | merriam-webster.com | 1.3% | 31 |
| 9 | producthunt.com | 1.2% | 25 |
| 10 | instagram.com | 1.1% | 28 |
| 11 | facebook.com | 1.1% | 21 |
| 12 | github.com | 1.1% | 18 |
| 13 | capterra.com | 1.1% | 24 |
| 14 | play.google.com | 1% | 22 |
| 15 | apps.apple.com | 0.9% | 19 |
Only hosts cited across at least 5 different brands are listed, so no single brand's footprint can be reverse-engineered.
Which sources AI leans on changes with the question. On reviews and alternatives queries — the moments closest to a purchase — community and review platforms dominate even more heavily than they do overall.
We asked an AI answer engine (Perplexity (sonar)) about 101 SaaS brands in July 2026 — three query types per brand — and parsed every source it cited, 2,469 structured citations in total.
Each host's share is its portion of all citations; the brands column counts how many distinct brands that host was cited for. Both figures come straight from the aggregate run — no estimates, and no backlink or domain-rating data.
This ranking is one module of our broader AI visibility research, which also measures how often AI recommends SaaS brands across brand-name, reviews and alternatives queries.
They are the websites an AI answer engine draws on when it answers a question. When AI recommends software it cites specific hosts — Reddit, YouTube, G2 and others — and this page ranks them by how often they are cited across 2,469 structured citations.
Backlink databases rank domains by link authority (like Ahrefs DR), which says nothing about whether AI actually cites a page. This ranking measures the dimension that matters for AI visibility: how much of what AI reads comes from each source.
AI answer engines lean heavily on community discussion and video, where real users compare tools. In our data Reddit (9.1%) and YouTube (8%) together outweigh every dedicated review platform.
Yes. Every figure comes from 2,469 structured citations collected from a live AI answer engine across 101 SaaS brands. Only aggregate host shares are published — never per-brand results.
Run a free AI visibility audit and find out where AI does — and doesn't — see you.