Original study
AI search citation statistics for MVP development, 2026
When a founder asks an AI assistant how to hire an MVP agency, which websites does the answer cite? We captured 2,273 answers to 69 buyer questions across six AI search products and counted every source link.
Published . Data window: 26 August to 8 October 2026. Measured with AnsEngine. Free to quote with a link to this page.
Key statistics
- 81.7% of AI answers to MVP and AI development buyer questions showed at least one source link (1,858 of 2,273 answers, 26 August to 8 October 2026).
- Those answers cited 2,635 different domains 11,885 times, an average of 4.5 citations per domain.
- Reddit was the most cited single domain, with 439 citations (3.7% of all citations).
- LinkedIn received 267 citations and YouTube received 259.
- List and roundup publishers received 1,469 citations (12.4%), spread across 503 domains.
- Agency and vendor websites received 2,136 citations (18.0%) across 64 domains.
- Clutch received 107 citations and was the only review directory in the top 40 domains.
- G2 received 23 citations and Wikipedia received 3, out of 11,885.
- News sites received 78 citations (0.7%).
- The second most cited domain in the study, houseofmvps.com, saw its company named in only 7.3% of answers, which shows that being cited and being recommended are different outcomes.
Which site types AI search cites for MVP agency questions
Every cited domain was assigned one type. The table shows where the 11,885 citations went.
| Site type | Citations | Share | Domains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other sites (blogs, vendors, docs, media) | 6,740 | 56.7% | 2,023 |
| Agency and vendor sites | 2,136 | 18.0% | 64 |
| List and roundup publishers | 1,469 | 12.4% | 503 |
| 439 | 3.7% | 1 | |
| houseofmvps.com (the publisher of this study) | 277 | 2.3% | 1 |
| 267 | 2.2% | 1 | |
| YouTube | 259 | 2.2% | 1 |
| Review directories (Clutch and similar) | 194 | 1.6% | 12 |
| News sites | 78 | 0.7% | 27 |
| G2 | 23 | 0.2% | 1 |
| Wikipedia | 3 | 0.0% | 1 |
The 40 most cited domains
Questions is the number of tracked questions in which the domain was cited at least once. Engines is the number of AI search products that cited it, out of six.
| # | Domain | Citations | Questions | Engines |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | reddit.com | 439 | 66 | 4 |
| 2 | houseofmvps.compublisher of this study | 277 | 29 | 5 |
| 3 | linkedin.com | 267 | 63 | 3 |
| 4 | youtube.com | 259 | 53 | 3 |
| 5 | speedmvps.com | 207 | 22 | 5 |
| 6 | medium.com | 126 | 40 | 4 |
| 7 | buildmvpfast.com | 119 | 25 | 4 |
| 8 | clutch.co | 107 | 15 | 6 |
| 9 | quora.com | 91 | 32 | 2 |
| 10 | helpware.com | 83 | 14 | 4 |
| 11 | openai.com | 82 | 13 | 4 |
| 12 | valtorian.com | 78 | 9 | 6 |
| 13 | mvpdevelopment.company | 71 | 16 | 5 |
| 14 | azumo.com | 61 | 5 | 6 |
| 15 | cieden.com | 56 | 9 | 5 |
| 16 | thoughtbot.com | 55 | 12 | 4 |
| 17 | hatchworks.com | 51 | 7 | 6 |
| 18 | 10clouds.com | 50 | 10 | 5 |
| 19 | salesforce.com | 49 | 9 | 5 |
| 20 | zapier.com | 48 | 11 | 5 |
| 21 | forcoda.com | 45 | 8 | 6 |
| 22 | teacode.io | 44 | 11 | 4 |
| 23 | raftlabs.com | 43 | 14 | 6 |
| 24 | greta.agency | 43 | 9 | 2 |
| 25 | sfailabs.com | 43 | 7 | 4 |
| 26 | google.com | 42 | 13 | 4 |
| 27 | infinitysky.ai | 41 | 10 | 5 |
| 28 | ventionteams.com | 40 | 6 | 5 |
| 29 | netguru.com | 38 | 13 | 5 |
| 30 | cabotsolutions.com | 37 | 8 | 3 |
| 31 | lowcode.agency | 36 | 17 | 4 |
| 32 | groovyweb.co | 35 | 5 | 3 |
| 33 | instagram.com | 34 | 19 | 2 |
| 34 | microsoft.com | 34 | 10 | 4 |
| 35 | buildmvpfa.st | 33 | 12 | 4 |
| 36 | altar.io | 33 | 11 | 3 |
| 37 | hireinsouth.com | 33 | 9 | 4 |
| 38 | purrweb.com | 33 | 9 | 5 |
| 39 | ibm.com | 33 | 6 | 4 |
| 40 | noota.io | 33 | 4 | 5 |
Download the data: full dataset (JSON) or top domains (CSV).
Cited is not the same as recommended
We run this study, so our own domain is in it. That gives one case where both sides of the question can be measured: how often a site is cited, and how often the company behind it is named in the answer.
houseofmvps.com was cited 277 times, more than any other agency site. Yet across 2,262 answers to the 69 questions, HouseofMVPs was named in 166 (7.3%) and linked in 276 (12.2%).
The gap depends almost entirely on the kind of question.
| Question type | Questions | Answers | Publisher named | Never named |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best of questions (which agencies are best for X) | 12 | 449 | 19.4% | 4 of 12 |
| Category questions (cost, what an agency does, which agency can) | 26 | 913 | 7.4% | 19 of 26 |
| Comparison and alternative questions | 11 | 319 | 2.5% | 10 of 11 |
| How to questions | 20 | 581 | 0.5% | 19 of 20 |
On how to questions the answer is usually advice, and the sites it cites are treated as references, not as vendors. On best of questions the answer is a list of companies. A company that wants to be recommended needs to be present where the lists are built, which in this data means list publishers, Reddit threads and review directories.
Results by AI search product
| Product | Answers captured | Publisher named | Publisher linked |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 720 | 12.4% | 14.7% |
| Google AI Overviews | 603 | 4.8% | 10.9% |
| Google AI Mode | 528 | 3.2% | 4.4% |
| Perplexity | 224 | 10.3% | 32.6% |
| Gemini | 95 | 8.4% | 8.4% |
| Copilot | 92 | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Methodology
- Research question
- Which websites do AI search products cite when buyers ask about MVP, AI and internal tool development services?
- Sample
- 69 questions that do not name any company, written to cover how founders ask about hiring a development agency: 26 category, 12 best of, 11 alternative, 20 how to. The full list is in the dataset.
- Dates and repetitions
- Answers were captured repeatedly between 26 August to 8 October 2026, giving 2,273 answers. Each question was asked many times because a single AI answer is not a stable measurement.
- Environment
- Six products: ChatGPT (720), Google AI Overviews (603), Google AI Mode (528), Perplexity (224), Gemini (95), Copilot (92). Coverage is uneven. Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity were last measured in mid September, so they carry fewer answers.
- What was counted
- Every source link shown with an answer, grouped by domain. A company was counted as named when its name appeared in the answer text.
- Tool
- AnsEngine, an AI search measurement product built by the founder of HouseofMVPs. That is a relationship you should know about when weighing this study.
Limitations
- The questions were chosen by us to cover our own market. They are not a random sample of what buyers ask, and a different question set would give different domains.
- Site types were assigned automatically and will be wrong for some domains.
- Citations were counted, not weighted. A link at the top of an answer counts the same as one at the bottom.
- The per product figures for naming describe one company, ours. They show a pattern, not a rate that applies to anyone else.
- AI search products change often. These numbers describe six weeks in 2026.
- Totals differ slightly between tables. The source counts cover 2,273 answers and the naming counts cover 2,262, because they come from two different tables in the measurement tool.
How to cite this study
HouseofMVPs, "AI Search Citation Statistics for MVP Development", 9 October 2026, https://houseofmvps.com/research/ai-search-citations-mvp-development-2026
The data is released under CC BY 4.0. Quote any number with a link to this page. If you find an error, write to sales@houseofmvps.com and we will correct it with a dated note.
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