◆ This week in business ◆
Independent reporting on the software and services running modern business.
The Lead Story · SaaS & Software
OpenAI dominated the enterprise AI conversation for two years. Anthropic has, in 2025 and into 2026, quietly out-executed in the segments that matter most for procurement-serious enterprise buyers. We tested both at three regulated-industry deployments. The result was not what we expected.
Growth & Marketing
We were sharply critical of HubSpot Sales Hub Pro in early 2025. The company has spent the year shipping AI features and adjusting pricing. We re-tested the product and the verdict has improved meaningfully — but not enough to fully reverse the original call.
Business Services
Globally distributed teams have become the default at venture-backed companies, and the procurement question of how to handle international employment has become harder, not easier. We tested Rippling Global and Deel at three globally-distributed teams.
Productivity Tools
May 2, 2026 · ★ 4.7
SaaS & Software
Apr 29, 2026 · ★ 4.5
Growth & Marketing
Apr 24, 2026 · ★ 3.9
SaaS & Software
Apr 18, 2026 · ★ 4.4
Business Services
Apr 10, 2026 · ★ 3.5
We were sharply critical of HubSpot Sales Hub Pro in early 2025. The company has spent the year shipping AI features and adjusting pricing. We re-tested the product and the verdict has improved meaningfully — but not enough to fully reverse the original call.
Globally distributed teams have become the default at venture-backed companies, and the procurement question of how to handle international employment has become harder, not easier. We tested Rippling Global and Deel at three globally-distributed teams.
We have written about Granola three times in the last 24 months. Each time the conclusion has been more bullish than the last. We tested the current product at the executive teams of three growth-stage companies. The case has only gotten stronger.
Gusto launched an Enterprise tier in late 2024 aimed at companies between 200 and 1,000 employees. Eighteen months later, we tested whether the product earns a place in the procurement conversation alongside Rippling, ADP, and Workday.
Two years on from our first comparison and twelve months on from the Granola-vs-Otter follow-up, we re-tested the four products serious executives are actually considering in 2026: Granola, Otter, Fireflies, and the newer entrant Fathom. The category has consolidated meaningfully.
Atlassian's late-2025 re-org concentrated more product investment behind Jira and aligned the broader portfolio around it. Linear has continued to compound. We re-tested where the comparison stands and the answer has shifted in ways neither vendor will publicly acknowledge.
Partner-data tooling is the most-recently-mature category in the revenue-operations stack. Common Room has expanded into the space; Crossbeam remains the incumbent. We tested both at three partner-led organizations.
Cloudflare has spent the last year quietly absorbing pieces of the IT-infrastructure stack that had previously belonged to specialized vendors. We tested the platform against the discrete-vendor alternative at a 320-employee company and the case is more credible than expected.
◆ The Weekly Briefing ◆
A short, opinionated newsletter for executives and operators evaluating the software and services running modern business — new reviews, the contrarian take of the week, and the data we didn't have room to print.
The Weekly Briefing
Free. Unsubscribe with one click. Never sponsored.
Four desks. Each one staffed by editors who use these tools every week — not by analysts who've only seen the demo.
Desk 01
Long-form reviews of the platforms running modern teams.
Desk 02
Docs, notes, and async tools tested under real workloads.
Desk 03
Payroll, HR, accounting, and the back office, vetted.
Desk 04
CRM, sales tooling, and the systems that compound revenue.
Top of the Quarter
The buying conversation in 2026: less about feature parity, more about who survives a procurement review.
Latest Dispatches
SaaS & Software
Anthropic for Enterprise: The Quiet Win Over OpenAIMarcus Hollander
Growth & Marketing
HubSpot's Big AI Push: Where the Sales Cloud Stands NowJames Caldwell-Pierce
Business Services
Rippling vs. Deel for the Globally Distributed Team in 2026Priya Ramaswamy
Productivity Tools
Granola at the Year Mark: Still the Best Note-Taker for Executives?Eleanor Whitmore
SaaS & Software
Linear vs. Jira After the Atlassian Re-OrgMarcus Hollander
From the Desk
BusinessWeekly Pro is an independent editorial team covering the software and services that run modern business. We accept no payment for placement, disclose every affiliate relationship, and write for the executives and operators who actually have to make the call.
Our editors come out of operating roles — finance, ops, growth, IT — and write the reviews we wished we'd had when we were on the buying side of the table.
— The Editors, BusinessWeekly Pro
We accept no payment for placement. Recommendations follow the research, not the rate card.
Every review is grounded in hands-on testing or rigorous primary sourcing — vendors don't preview.
Picks are refreshed as products change. We note when something falls out, and why.