AI Tools and Software Sentiment Report: Week of February 9, 2026
February 9, 2026
This edition of our weekly sentiment report covers aggregated public online discussion for the tools and software we track, with mentions analyzed for February 2, 2026 through February 9, 2026. The numbers here summarize the tone of community chatter collected from public sources, not any verdict on how well these products actually work. Every score reflects what people were saying online during the period, nothing more.
Across the period running from February 2, 2026 through February 9, 2026, we analyzed 2,824 relevant mentions. Out of 2,218 products tracked, 58 cleared the minimum of 10 relevant mentions needed to appear in the rankings. That leaves a long tail of products with too little discussion to score reliably, which is normal for any given week. Below we walk through the leaderboard, category movement, the biggest movers, a spotlight on this period's leader, and the praise and complaint themes shaping the conversation.
Lovable led all ranked products this period with a Pulse Score of 71, based on 17 mentions. Behind it, Surfshark and Obsidian tied at 61, drawn from 32 mentions and 44 mentions respectively. Claude Code and Mistral rounded out the top five at 60 each, with Claude Code carrying by far the heaviest discussion load of the group at 121 mentions and Mistral at 63 mentions.
The spread at the top is narrow. Only 11 points separate the leader from fifth place, which tells you the leading products are clustered in roughly the same band of positive-leaning sentiment rather than one product running away from the field. Mention volumes vary widely, too. Lovable's lead rests on a thin sample of 17 mentions, while Claude Code's score of 60 reflects a much larger and noisier conversation. Both are worth reading in that context.
Category View
At the category level, security stood out with the clearest upward move, rising from 52 to 61 across the period, the largest gain of any tracked category. Finance also climbed notably, going from 35 to 42, and business moved up from 43 to 49. On the other side, most categories barely budged. Coding nudged up from 47 to 49, ai-chat held flat at 52, crm held flat at 42, and communication held flat at 39. Several categories drifted down by a point or two, including cloud-storage from 47 to 46, design from 49 to 47, marketing from 54 to 52, e-commerce from 49 to 47, and software from 37 to 36. The takeaway is a generally steady mood, with security's jump as the standout shift, and finance and business as secondary climbers worth keeping an eye on.
Biggest Movers
Zilliz (riser, plus 13, from 23 to 36, based on 16 mentions). Zilliz posted the largest gain of any ranked product, moving from 23 to 36. The improvement comes off a low base, and the discussion remains weighted toward problems rather than praise. Its complaint themes this period were led by Bugs with 15 mentions, Reliability with 13 mentions, and Missing features with 4 mentions, while praise was thin at Strong features with 2 mentions, Good integrations with 1 mention, and Performance with 1 mention. The score rose, but the theme mix suggests sentiment is climbing from a difficult starting point rather than turning broadly positive.
Coinbase (riser, plus 11, from 39 to 50, based on 19 mentions). Coinbase improved from 39 to 50, settling right at the midpoint. Its praise chatter leaned on Strong features with 20 mentions, Easy to use with 17 mentions, and New releases with 10 mentions, which points to discussion around what the product offers and ships. The complaint side stayed present though, with Bugs at 9 mentions, Poor support at 8 mentions, and Missing features at 8 mentions, so the move up reflects a more balanced conversation rather than an uncontested win.
Surfshark (riser, plus 9, from 52 to 61, based on 32 mentions). Surfshark climbed from 52 to 61 and tied for second on the leaderboard. The praise mix was led by Fair pricing with 29 mentions, comfortably its most-discussed positive theme, followed by Strong features with 11 mentions and Easy to use with 7 mentions. Complaints were comparatively light, with Compared to rivals at 3 mentions, Missing features at 2 mentions, and Pricing too high at 2 mentions. The weight of pricing praise against minimal pricing complaints lines up cleanly with the upward move and helps explain security's strong category-level gain.
Claude Code (faller, minus 7, from 67 to 60, based on 121 mentions). Claude Code recorded the steepest decline of any ranked product, slipping from 67 to 60. It still carries a large and largely favorable conversation, with praise led by Strong features at 249 mentions, AI quality at 124 mentions, and Easy to use at 113 mentions. The drag shows up in its complaint themes, where Bugs drew 72 mentions, Reliability 39 mentions, and Missing features 34 mentions. With this much volume, the dip looks like rising friction around stability rather than a collapse in goodwill.
Airtable (faller, minus 7, from 47 to 40, based on 62 mentions). Airtable fell from 47 to 40. Its praise themes were Strong features with 13 mentions, Good integrations with 10 mentions, and Easy to use with 8 mentions, a steady but modest base of positives. The complaint side was led by Bugs with 12 mentions, Compared to rivals with 6 mentions, and Pricing too high with 5 mentions. The combination of bug chatter and unfavorable comparisons tracks with the slide.
Trello (faller, minus 6, from 52 to 46, based on 13 mentions). Trello declined from 52 to 46 on a thin sample of 13 mentions. Praise centered on Easy to use with 13 mentions, Strong features with 8 mentions, and Great collaboration with 4 mentions. Complaints were led by Missing features with 6 mentions, Compared to rivals with 4 mentions, and UI frustrations with 4 mentions. On a small sample like this, a handful of feature-gap and comparison comments can move the weekly read meaningfully, so the drop is best read with that caveat.
Spotlight: Lovable
Lovable, a coding product, took the top Pulse Score this period at 71, based on 17 mentions. Its weekly series shows a steady, gentle climb: 68 on January 26, 2026, then 70 on February 2, 2026, then 71 on February 9, 2026. That is a consistent upward drift across three readings rather than a single spike, which is notable even on a modest sample.
The theme breakdown helps explain the positive tone. Lovable's most-discussed praise theme was Polished UI with 8 mentions, followed by Strong features with 5 mentions and New releases with 3 mentions. Complaints were minimal and evenly spread, with Downtime, Reliability, and Privacy concerns each drawing 1 mention. With so few negatives surfacing, the conversation skewed favorable, which is consistent with the leading score.
The honest caveat is sample size. At 17 mentions, Lovable's read rests on a thin base, and scores built on small samples can move more sharply week to week than those built on hundreds of mentions. The smooth three-week trend is encouraging as a signal of stable positive chatter, but it deserves to be watched as volume develops rather than treated as settled.
Themes Driving the Conversation
On the praise side, Strong features dominated with 1,803 mentions, far ahead of any other positive theme. AI quality followed at 995 mentions, Easy to use at 757 mentions, Good integrations at 361 mentions, and Compared to rivals at 231 mentions. Strong features showed up as a leading praise driver for many of the heaviest-discussed products, including Claude Code at 249 mentions, Claude at 229 mentions, and ChatGPT at 183 mentions. AI quality chatter was concentrated in the conversational and model products, with Claude at 234 mentions, ChatGPT at 159 mentions, and Gemini at 149 mentions all leaning on it.
On the complaint side, Bugs led decisively with 1,897 mentions, ahead of Reliability at 1,199 mentions, Missing features at 446 mentions, AI quality at 409 mentions, and Compared to rivals at 265 mentions. Bug and reliability chatter clustered heavily in infrastructure and developer products. Stripe drew 188 mentions on Bugs and 158 on Reliability, Vercel drew 170 on Bugs and 151 on Reliability, and ElevenLabs drew 118 on Bugs and 74 on Reliability. Notably, AI quality appears on both lists, praised for some products and raised as a complaint for others, including Claude at 110 mentions and ChatGPT at 109 mentions, a reminder that the same dimension can cut both ways depending on the product and the user.
Watchlist
A large number of tracked products did not clear the 10-mention threshold this period and so are not ranked. This is a matter of discussion volume, not a judgment on quality. Products fall below the line simply because there were not enough relevant public mentions in the window to produce a stable read.
Several came close. ActiveCampaign, Calendly, HubSpot, and Veo each landed at 9 relevant mentions, just under the cutoff. Slightly further back, Leonardo AI, HeyGen, and Jasper each recorded 8 relevant mentions, and Asana also sat at 8 mentions. A cluster of products registered 7 relevant mentions, including QuillBot, Sudowrite, Ahrefs, Kling, Loom, and SingleStore. Others surfaced only lightly, such as Babbel, Tresorit, and Livestorm at 6 relevant mentions each. Many more products logged zero relevant mentions for the period. None of these should be read as negative signals. They simply did not generate enough chatter on the sources we monitor to be scored this week.
What To Watch Next Week
First, watch whether security holds its gain. The category jumped from 52 to 61, the largest category move of the period, and Surfshark's climb from 52 to 61 on the strength of Fair pricing chatter at 29 mentions was a big part of that. Whether that pricing-driven goodwill persists is worth monitoring.
Second, keep an eye on Claude Code's stability narrative. It remains a top-five product at 60 despite the steepest fall of the period, and its complaint themes were led by Bugs at 72 mentions and Reliability at 39 mentions. Whether that friction eases or deepens will shape its trajectory given its heavy 121-mention volume.
Third, watch the low-base risers, Zilliz and Coinbase. Zilliz climbed from 23 to 36 but still carried more complaint chatter than praise, with Bugs at 15 mentions and Reliability at 13 mentions. Coinbase reached 50 with praise around Strong features and New releases. Whether either can build on these moves or simply revert is an open question worth tracking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which product had the highest Pulse Score this period?
Lovable, a coding product, had the highest Pulse Score at 71, based on 17 mentions analyzed during the period.
Which product moved the most this period?
Among risers, Zilliz moved the most, climbing from 23 to 36 for a gain of 13 points based on 16 mentions. Among fallers, Claude Code dropped the most, from 67 to 60, a decline of 7 points based on 121 mentions.
What was the overall category mood this period?
The mood was mostly steady, with security standing out by rising from 52 to 61. Finance climbed from 35 to 42 and business from 43 to 49, while categories like ai-chat held flat at 52 and communication held flat at 39.
How many mentions were analyzed this period?
We analyzed 2,824 relevant mentions across 58 eligible products, drawn from a total of 2,218 products tracked.
About This Data
Pulse Scores summarize the tone of public online discussion on a 0-100 scale and reflect community sentiment. They are not a verdict on a product's quality and not a recommendation. We report on complete calendar weeks only, and products with fewer than 10 relevant mentions in the period are excluded from rankings to avoid unstable reads on thin samples.
Public discussion is collected from Hacker News, Stack Exchange, GitHub, Bluesky, the Apple App Store, and YouTube. Automated sentiment analysis can misread sarcasm, jokes, or niche context, mention volumes vary widely between products, and scores can move from week to week. If your company would like to respond to anything reported here, please reach out. For more on how scores are calculated, see our methodology.
