When asked for the best CAD software, 6 AI assistants named 9 brands between them this month. AutoCAD was named most often, followed by Fusion 360 and SolidWorks. One brand was named by every assistant that answered: AutoCAD.
Who named whom
| Brand | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Claude | Grok | DeepSeek | Cohere | Named by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AutoCAD | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 6 of 6 |
| Fusion 360 | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 of 6 |
| SolidWorks | ✓ | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5 of 6 |
| FreeCAD | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | · | 4 of 6 |
| AutoCAD LT | · | ✓ | ✓ | · | ✓ | · | 3 of 6 |
| Onshape | · | · | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | · | 3 of 6 |
| SketchUp | ✓ | · | ✓ | · | ✓ | · | 3 of 6 |
| DraftSight | · | ✓ | · | · | ✓ | · | 2 of 6 |
| Tinkercad | ✓ | · | ✓ | · | · | · | 2 of 6 |
Share of voice
What each assistant said
ChatGPT
Named 6 brands, in this order: AutoCAD, SketchUp, Fusion 360, SolidWorks, FreeCAD, Tinkercad.
The best CAD software for a small business depends on the specific needs and budget of the business.
Perplexity
Named 4 brands, in this order: AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, FreeCAD, DraftSight.
The best CAD software for a small business depends on what you need most, but AutoCAD LT is the safest default choice if you want an affordable, professional, industry-standard 2D CAD tool.
Claude
Named 7 brands, in this order: AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, Fusion 360, SolidWorks, SketchUp, Onshape, FreeCAD.
The "best" option depends on your industry and needs, but here are strong choices:
Grok
Named 4 brands, in this order: Fusion 360, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Onshape.
DeepSeek
Named 8 brands, in this order: Fusion 360, SolidWorks, Onshape, SketchUp, AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, DraftSight, FreeCAD.
There's no single "best" CAD software — it depends on what your small business designs, your budget, and whether you need 2D drafting, 3D modeling, or both.
Cohere
Named 3 brands, in this order: AutoCAD, Fusion 360, SolidWorks.
Choosing the best CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software for a small business depends on several factors, including the industry, specific design needs, budget, and ease of use.
The questions asked
- What is the best CAD software for a small business?
Asked between 2026-09-26 and 2026-09-26. Not answering this month: Gemini, Mistral.
Track what AI assistants say about every client, with white-label reports your clients can read.
See the GEO suiteHow this was measured
Each month we ask every assistant the same plain buyer questions, worded the way a person shopping for this kind of product would ask them, with no brand suggested in the question except where the question itself names the market leader to find alternatives to. Each assistant answers in a fresh session with no earlier conversation, so an answer reflects what the assistant says to anyone who asks, not what it was steered towards.
From each answer we keep the product and company names it recommends. A name counts only when it appears in the answer as a proper name, is not a heading such as "Best for" or "Pricing", and is confirmed by a second assistant naming it too, by a website the answer cites, or by being the market leader named in the question. Share of voice is each brand's share of all brand mentions in the category this month. Assistants that could not answer this month are listed as not answering, never counted as naming nobody.
Cite this page
https://mentionfox.com/ai-recommends/cad-software