9 Best Profound Alternatives for 2026

The gap between a vendor’s headline engine count and what the entry tier actually tracks is often the first surprise an AEO buyer gets, and few tools illustrate it more sharply than Profound. Profound is among the most recognized names in the category, and the depth of its Enterprise plan, up to nine engines with SOC2, SSO and dedicated support, is genuinely hard to match. What sends buyers searching for alternatives is the shape of the ladder underneath: Starter at $99/mo tracks ChatGPT only, Growth at $399/mo adds Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, and DeepSeek all sit behind a custom-priced Enterprise contract that requires a sales conversation.

For a marketing team that needs multi-engine coverage today on a public price, that gap between $99 and “let’s talk” is where the comparison starts. The nine alternatives below all show their pricing on the page, most include three or more engines below $200/mo, and several put Claude on a real non-Enterprise tier. The free AI rank tracker covers ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini if a no-credit-card starting point is useful before reading further.

TL;DR — best Profound alternatives by use case

• Geoptie — multi-engine on the entry tier without a Growth-plan upgrade. Seven engines with any four selectable per brand on the $49 Starter, Claude among them, and no Enterprise-custom gate.
• AthenaHQ — best for brands that want 8 engines on a single self-serve plan and can absorb the higher floor.
• Otterly AI — best for solo SEOs and small teams that want to start tracking AI visibility for under $30 a month.

Those three cover most buyers. The full comparison, the engine-tier-gating framework, and the budget options are below.

Quick comparison table

All pricing is the monthly-billed rate. Annual discounts apply on most plans. Engine coverage often changes by tier — the engine you care about may not be unlocked on the entry plan.

How we evaluated

Each tool below was tested in May 2026 and re-verified first-party in September 2026 against the same criteria: how many engines unlock on the entry tier (vs across all tiers), the multi-engine ceiling on the top tier, whether multi-engine is reachable without a sales call, what the cheapest paid plan delivers, whether a free trial or free tier exists, single-country vs multi-region defaults, brand-mention vs URL-citation tracking, and refresh frequency. Geoptie is on the list and at the top; AthenaHQ is the pick when single-tier breadth matters more than entry price; Ahrefs Brand Radar carries the largest real-search-backed prompt dataset; Scrunch has the best AI-crawler analytics. If one of those fits the scenario better than the flat-priced multi-engine entry below, pick accordingly.

1. Geoptie (best for marketing teams that want multi-engine AI visibility on a flat entry-tier plan)

Engines on entry tier: 4 of 7, selectable per brand, from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Microsoft Copilot.

Geoptie is an AI search visibility platform built for marketing teams that want multi-engine answers without buying enterprise software to do it. It covers seven engines, with any four selectable per brand on every paid tier including the $49 per month Starter and no per-engine surcharge at any level. Selection is per brand, so two brands on one account can run different engine mixes. Compared with Profound’s $99/mo Starter (ChatGPT only) or $399/mo Growth (three engines, no Claude), the entry tier already shows a real multi-engine picture at a lower price, and Claude is one of the four you can pick on it.

Key features

• Any four of seven engines per brand on every paid tier, with daily tracking and no engine add-ons
• Citation tracking (your URL surfaced in an AI answer) and brand-mention tracking (your brand named in the answer text) in one dashboard
• Competitor share-of-voice across the same prompt set, plus sentiment scoring on every tracked answer
• Recommendations engine, content generation, and a content optimizer in the same subscription as the tracking
• Free AI rank tracker, ChatGPT rank tracker, Claude rank tracker, and Perplexity rank tracker, with no credit card and no time limit

Pricing

• Starter — $49/mo. 15 prompts, 2 brands, any four engines, daily tracking, citation + brand-mention, competitor comparison.
• Professional — $99/mo. 100 prompts, 10 brands, white-label client reporting.
• Enterprise — $399/mo. 400 prompts, unlimited brands.
• Unlimited seats on every plan, and annual billing is two months free.

Pros

• Cheapest way on this list to get Claude on a paid plan, with no upgrade and no sales call
• Predictable per-plan pricing with no credit pool to forecast
• Recommendations, content generation, and content optimization in the same subscription as the tracking

Cons

• Four engines per brand at a time out of the seven covered, so brands needing all seven at once will look elsewhere
• Meta AI, Grok, and DeepSeek are not tracked at all
• No free trial on the platform itself, though the standalone free tools run without an account
• Smaller historical dataset than Profound’s all-time archive

2. AthenaHQ (best for brands that want eight engines on one self-serve plan with agentic analysis)

Engines on entry tier: 8 — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, Grok.

AthenaHQ is the alternative for buyers who want everything Profound covers across its Growth and Enterprise tiers, on a single self-serve plan, without a sales conversation. The Self-Serve plan at $295 a month tracks all eight major engines and uses a credit-based model (3,600 credits per month, where one credit equals one AI response, plus $300 a month of included credit). The trade-off is the price floor and the credit-forecasting cost.

Key features

• 8 engines on a single self-serve plan (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, Grok)
• Citation tracking, brand-mention monitoring, sentiment analysis, competitor benchmarking
• “Ask Athena” agentic copilot for interactive analysis
• GA4, GSC, and Shopify integrations

Pricing

• Self-Serve — $295/mo (17% off annual). 3,600 credits/mo plus $300/mo of included credit, unlimited seats with role-based access.
• Enterprise — custom pricing, custom credit allocation, dedicated support.

Pros

• Eight engines including Claude on a single self-serve plan, with no engine-gating ladder
• Unlimited seats with role-based access control
• Strong competitor and sentiment analytics

Cons

• $295/mo is the highest published entry price in this list after Ahrefs Brand Radar
• Credit-based billing, so usage spikes push spend up unpredictably
• No free trial, though a 67% first-month promo brings month one to $95

3. Peec AI (best for marketing teams that want multi-engine flexibility on a single flat plan)

Engines on entry tier: 3, user-selected from a pool of seven, from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini, and Grok. Claude and GPT-5 Search require Enterprise.

Peec AI takes a pick-your-own approach: every paid tier lets you choose any 3 models from the supported list, at the same flat monthly rate. The Starter plan at $95 a month covers 50 prompts and one project. Peec includes unlimited user seats on all plans (a meaningful contrast with Profound’s per-tier seat caps), tracks up to three countries per project from the $245 Pro tier, and adds Looker Studio integration on the $495 Advanced tier.

Key features

• Choose any 3 models from the seven-model self-serve pool on every flat plan (Starter, Pro, Advanced)
• 50 prompts on Starter, scaling to 350 on Advanced
• Unlimited user seats on all paid plans
• Looker Studio integration and multi-country support on Advanced
• Customer base includes Breitling, Attio, Squarespace, Hugo Boss, ElevenLabs, and TUI Group

Pricing

• Starter — $95/mo. 50 prompts, choose 3 models, 1 project, unlimited users, daily tracking.
• Pro — $245/mo. 150 prompts, choose 3 models, 2 projects.
• Advanced — $495/mo. 350 prompts, choose 3 models, 5 projects, multi-country, Looker Studio integration.
• Enterprise — custom. Fully customisable prompts, choose from all models, API access, SSO.

Pros

• Pick-3-models flexibility, so you can swap which three you track without changing plan
• Unlimited user seats on every tier, which is agency-friendly
• Predictable flat monthly pricing, no credit pool, and extra models available as a per-model add-on
• 7-day free trial with no credit card, and multi-country tracking below Enterprise

Cons

• Claude is not in the self-serve pool at all, so Claude coverage needs Enterprise, the same gate as Profound
• Capped at 3 models per plan below Enterprise, and a fourth model costs $35 to $165/mo depending on tier
• $95 Starter only gets you 50 prompts, which is tight for larger teams

4. ZeroRank AI (best for marketing teams that want to turn AI visibility data into action)

Engines on entry tier: Up to 17 — including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Copilot, Grok, and DeepSeek.

ZeroRank is the Profound alternative for teams that want to improve AI visibility, not just monitor it. Every plan supports up to 17 AI platforms, without reserving engines such as Claude, Gemini, or Copilot for Enterprise. Beyond tracking mentions, rankings, citations, sentiment, and competitors, ZeroRank turns visibility gaps into prioritized on-page, off-page, technical, and content recommendations. Built-in content creation, optimization, and automated workflows then help teams implement those recommendations within the same platform.

Key features

• Visibility tracking across up to 17 AI platforms on every plan
• Brand mentions, average rank, citations, sentiment, AI Visibility Score, and competitor benchmarking
• Prioritized on-page, off-page, technical, and content recommendations
• AI-assisted content creation and optimization based on prompt and citation gaps
• Automated workflows and a native MCP integration for analyzing ZeroRank data through Claude or Cursor
• Google Analytics and Search Console integrations for connecting AI visibility with referral traffic and search performance

Pricing

• Starter — $89/mo ($76/mo billed annually). 50 prompts and up to 4,500 AI answers per month.
• Pro — $199/mo ($169/mo billed annually). 150 prompts and up to 13,500 AI answers per month.
• Enterprise — custom. Starts from 350 prompts and 31,500 AI answers per month.
• Free trial — 7 days.

Pros

• Up to 17 AI platforms are available on every plan — no Profound-style Enterprise gate for Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or Grok
• Goes beyond reporting with prioritized recommendations, content workflows, and automation
• Lower starting price than Profound while including broader engine access
• Unlimited seats make it practical for growing marketing teams and agencies

Cons

• Usage is based on AI answer runs, so teams tracking many prompts across many platforms need to manage their allowance
• Claude Sonnet 4.6 consumes 20 answer runs per response, making frequent Claude tracking more expensive

5. Scrunch AI (best for technical teams that want AI-crawler diagnostics alongside visibility tracking)

Engines on entry tier: 4 — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO, Copilot. Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode, and Grok require Enterprise (9 LLMs total).

Scrunch is the AI-crawler-analytics pick. The Core plan at $250 a month covers four major AI platforms — the same four Otterly covers, at a higher price — and adds something Profound doesn’t expose: when you upgrade to Enterprise, Scrunch’s Agent Experience Platform (AXP) layer ships a structured version of your site to AI crawlers. Like Profound, Scrunch keeps Claude on the Enterprise tier — so if Claude visibility is the reason you’re shopping Profound, Scrunch isn’t the direct swap.

Key features

• 4 LLMs on Core (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO, Copilot); 9 LLMs on Enterprise (adds Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, AI Mode, Grok)
• 125 unique prompts and 5 site audits per month on Core
• 1 brand workspace, 5 user licenses on Core
• AXP (Agent Experience Platform) for crawler delivery — Enterprise only
• 7-day free trial on Core

Pricing

• Core — $250/mo. 125 unique prompts, 5 site audits/mo, 1 brand workspace, 5 user licenses, 4 LLMs.
• Enterprise — custom. Expanded model coverage (9 LLMs), AXP, API access, SSO, dedicated account team.

Pros

• 7-day free trial — direct contrast with Profound’s sales-gate
• Unique Agent Experience Platform layer (Enterprise) — not in Profound
• 5 user licenses on Core is generous for the entry tier

Cons

• Core covers 4 LLMs (same as Otterly), not the 6+ some competing posts claim — Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, AI Mode, and Grok are Enterprise-only
• Same Claude-Enterprise gate as Profound
• $250 Core is higher than alternatives with the same 4-engine list (Otterly at $29)

6. Otterly AI (best for solo SEOs and small teams that want to start tracking AI visibility for under $30/mo)

Engines on entry tier: 4 — ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot. Claude is a paid add-on, not base coverage on any tier.

Otterly is the budget entry. The Lite plan at $29/mo covers four engines with 15 search prompts — roughly $370/mo cheaper than Profound Growth, and it shows four engines on the entry tier instead of Profound Starter’s one. Otterly’s Gartner Cool Vendor 2025 nod adds credibility for SMB buyers. The trade-off is engine breadth: Claude, Gemini and AI Mode are all paid add-ons rather than base coverage, and the Claude add-on runs from $29/mo on Lite to $439/mo on Premium.

Key features

• $29 entry tier — the cheapest paid AEO tracker in the category
• Four engines on all plans (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot)
• Public API on Standard and Premium
• Google Looker Studio connector for reporting

Pricing

• Lite — $29/mo ($25/mo billed annually). 15 prompts.
• Standard — $189/mo ($160/mo annual). 100 prompts, public API.
• Premium — $489/mo ($422/mo annual). 400 prompts.
• Enterprise — from $1,000/mo. SSO, custom prompt tracking, dedicated CSM.
• AI Mode and Gemini add-ons $9 to $149/mo; Claude add-on $29 to $439/mo, depending on tier.

Pros

• Cheapest paid entry on the list — $370/mo cheaper than Profound Growth
• Gartner Cool Vendor 2025 credibility for SMBs
• Public API on the mid-tier — rare at this price band

Cons

• Claude is a paid add-on rather than base coverage, reaching $439/mo on Premium
• Gemini and AI Mode also cost extra
• 15 prompts on Lite is small for a real evaluation, and Lite has one workspace with no API, MCP or Looker connector

7. AirOps (best for content + SEO teams that want execution workflows alongside visibility tracking)

Engines on entry tier: 1 (ChatGPT) on Solo; multi-engine (ChatGPT, Google, Perplexity, Google AI Studio) on Pro.

AirOps positions itself as the tool that closes the gap between insight and action. Profound shows where your visibility drops; AirOps adds content-production workflows to actually fix them. Both Solo and Pro tiers start free per the pricing page, with paid limits on tracked prompts and tasks. The Solo plan covers ChatGPT only with 100 tracked prompts; Pro unlocks Multi-Engine Insights with 250 tracked prompts and unlimited team seats.

Key features

• Start-for-free on both Solo and Pro tiers (paid limits scale with usage)
• Solo: 100 tracked prompts, ChatGPT Insights only, 1 Brand Kit + 3 Knowledge Bases, 20,000 content-production tasks
• Pro: 250 tracked prompts, Multi-Engine Insights, 1 Brand Kit + 5 Knowledge Bases, 75,000 tasks, CMS/SEO/AEO/Social/PM integrations, unlimited team seats
• Bulk-execution Grids for refreshing hundreds of pages at once
• Enterprise: custom prompts, multi-region/persona/language tracking, custom agent builds

Pricing

• Solo — start for free. 100 tracked prompts, ChatGPT only, single-user access.
• Pro — start for free. 250 tracked prompts, multi-engine, unlimited team seats.
• Enterprise — custom. Unlimited knowledge bases, dedicated account manager.

Pros

• Genuine start-for-free on both Solo and Pro — no Profound-style sales-call gate
• Action layer (content production) on top of measurement
• Unlimited team seats on Pro

Cons

• Engine coverage on Pro is narrower than Profound Enterprise (no Claude, no Gemini, no Meta AI, no Grok)
• Pro paid limits aren’t published on the public pricing page
• Less specialized as a pure visibility tracker

8. Ahrefs Brand Radar (best for established SEO teams already in the Ahrefs ecosystem)

Engines on entry tier: 6 — AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini. Grok is added on the $699 All platforms tier. No Claude on either tier.

Ahrefs Brand Radar is the alternative for teams already running Ahrefs for traditional SEO. Brand Radar tracks six AI platforms on its entry tier and pairs them with a 470 million-plus monthly organic prompt database, the largest in the category. Pricing is high but flat: $398/mo for Select platforms or $699/mo for All platforms with full prompt access. Claude isn’t on the engine list — the same gap as Profound’s self-serve product, so this isn’t the swap for teams whose Profound complaint was Claude access.

Key features

• 470M+ monthly organic prompts, the largest real-search-backed dataset in the category
• Tight integration with the rest of the Ahrefs SEO suite
• Six AI platforms covered
• YouTube, TikTok, Reddit tracking (beta) on the All-platforms tier

Pricing

• Select platforms — $398/mo.
• All platforms — $699/mo. Adds Grok, 2,500/mo custom-prompt checks, beta YouTube/TikTok/Reddit tracking.
• Custom-prompt tracking is now bundled into every paid Ahrefs plan, from 150 checks/mo on Lite at $129. The $398 and $699 tiers buy the 470M+ prompt index.

Pros

• Largest real-search prompt dataset of any tool here
• Flat per-plan, no engine ladder once you’re on the tier
• Strongest fit for teams already standardized on Ahrefs

Cons

• No Claude coverage at any tier, a wider gap than Profound, which at least sells it on Enterprise
• $398 is the highest entry price in this list
• $398 buys the prompt index rather than prompt tracking, which now comes with any paid Ahrefs plan

9. Semrush (best for SEO teams that want AI visibility inside their existing Semrush workflow)

Engines on entry tier: 4 on the $99 AI Visibility plan — ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, and Perplexity. No Claude on any tier.

Semrush is the most natural fit for teams already on Semrush, and it sells AI visibility two ways. The standalone AI Visibility plan is $99 a month per domain and covers 25 custom prompts with daily rankings across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity. Bundling it with the SEO suite starts at $199, where the prompt quota rises to 50 a day and climbs to 200 on the $549 Advanced plan.

Key features

• AI Visibility Score benchmarked daily against a competitor median, worldwide and by region
• Brand sentiment and narrative intelligence across 68,000+ location-language combinations, refreshed weekly

Pricing

• AI Visibility — Base — $99/mo per domain. 25 custom prompts with daily AI rankings, 1 domain for Brand Performance, AI competitor analysis and prompt research, site audit for AI readiness.
• SEO — $139.95/mo. SEO only. AI search tracking, AI sentiment and custom prompt monitoring are all excluded on this plan.
• Starter (SEO + AI Search) — $199/mo. 50 prompts tracked daily, AI brand performance for 1 domain, 300 AI visibility reports per day, AI-ready Site Audit, MCP access.
• Seats are a $45/mo add-on rather than a multiplier on the plan price. Annual billing saves up to 17%. Free trial on the SEO, Starter and Pro+ plans.

Pros

• AI visibility in the same subscription as the SEO suite, so there is no second vendor to onboard
• Sentiment and narrative granularity nothing else here matches, across 68,000+ location-language combinations
• A $99 per-domain AI Visibility plan for teams that want the tracking without the SEO suite, plus a free trial on the bundled plans

Cons

• No Claude at any price, a wider gap than Profound’s Enterprise gate
• 25 prompts on the $99 plan, and 50 a day at $199, is modest next to purpose-built trackers at a third of the price
• The $99 plan is per domain, so a second brand doubles the bill.

How to choose the right Profound alternative

• Multi-engine coverage at the lowest flat entry price: Geoptie — any four of seven engines per brand on the $49/mo Starter, Claude included, no upgrade required.
• Eight engines on one self-serve plan: AthenaHQ ($295 Self-Serve, credit-metered).
• Pick-3-models flexibility on a single flat plan: Peec AI ($95 Starter, seven-model pool, Claude not in it).
• AI-crawler diagnostics (AXP): Scrunch AI — Claude still requires Enterprise, like Profound.
• Cheapest paid entry under $30/mo: Otterly AI — Claude is a paid add-on rather than base coverage.
• Execution workflows alongside tracking: AirOps (free start on Solo and Pro).
• Largest real-search-backed prompt dataset: Ahrefs Brand Radar.
• SEO teams already standardized on Semrush: Semrush — from $99/mo per domain, with eyes open on the total absence of Claude.
• Free AI visibility tracking with no credit card and no time limit: geoptie.com/geo-rank-tracker.
• Overall best value: Geoptie.

FAQ

What are the best Profound alternatives in 2026?

Geoptie, AthenaHQ, Peec AI, ZeroRank AI, Scrunch AI, Otterly AI, AirOps, Ahrefs Brand Radar, and Semrush. Geoptie is the best value for multi-engine coverage on a flat entry-tier plan; AthenaHQ has the broadest single-tier engine count; Otterly is the cheapest paid entry.

Why is Profound Starter ChatGPT-only?

Profound’s tier structure puts Perplexity and Google AI Overviews behind the $399/mo Growth plan, and the remaining engines, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok and DeepSeek, behind Enterprise-custom. The $99/mo Starter delivers one engine because Profound monetizes multi-engine coverage as an upgrade. Most alternatives on this list include multiple engines on the entry tier.

Does Profound have a free trial?

Profound lists a “Try for free” CTA on the Growth tier, but real onboarding for paid Growth and Enterprise plans routes through sales. There is no self-serve free trial of the multi-engine product. Peec AI and Scrunch both offer 7-day trials, Otterly runs 14 days, AirOps has a genuine free tier, and Geoptie’s free AI rank tracker has no credit card and no time limit.

Is AthenaHQ better than Profound?

For single-tier engine breadth, yes. AthenaHQ Self-Serve at $295/mo unlocks all 8 engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, Grok) without an upgrade or a sales conversation, while Profound’s equivalent multi-engine coverage requires Enterprise. The trade-off is AthenaHQ’s credit-based billing model, which scales spend with usage.

Does Profound track Claude?

Only on Enterprise. Profound tracks Claude as part of its Enterprise tier’s engine list, not on Starter or Growth, which means a sales conversation and a custom contract. Scrunch and Peec AI follow the same Claude-on-Enterprise pattern; Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush don’t track Claude at any price, and Otterly sells it as a paid add-on. Among the alternatives in this list, Geoptie ($49 Starter) and AthenaHQ ($295 Self-Serve) include Claude on the entry plan without an Enterprise upgrade.

What AI engines does Profound track?

Up to nine on the current pricing page. The split: Starter = 1 (ChatGPT), Growth = 3 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews), Enterprise = up to nine, which is where Claude sits.

Which Profound alternatives include multi-engine on the entry tier?

Geoptie (any 4 of 7 on the $49 Starter, Claude included), AthenaHQ (8 engines on $295 Self-Serve), Otterly AI (4 base engines on $29 Lite, Claude as an add-on), Scrunch AI (4 engines on $250 Core, no Claude), Ahrefs Brand Radar (6 engines on $398 Select, no Claude), and Semrush (4 surfaces on the $99 AI Visibility plan, no Claude). Peec AI lets you pick any 3 from a seven-model pool on the $95 Starter, Claude not among them. AirOps includes 1 engine on Solo and 4 on Pro.