Comparison · updated 17 October 2026

Profound alternatives: 8 tools compared (2026)

What to use now that Profound sells to brands through a demo, and which tools also do the work.
Check your AI visibility

The best Profound alternatives in October 2026 are Peec AI and Otterly.ai for tracking at a published price, Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit and Ahrefs Brand Radar if you already live in one of those suites, Rankscale for the longest engine list, AthenaHQ and Scrunch for optimization features inside the tracker, and Bottally if you want the articles that close your gaps written and published for you.

Every price below was checked on the vendor’s own site in October 2026. Where a vendor shows a price only after a demo, we say so instead of guessing. We make Bottally, so weigh our section on it accordingly; we have tried to be as plain about its limits as about anyone else’s.

Who Profound suits

Profound is built for large marketing teams. Its Enterprise plan tracks up to nine answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search) and adds Prompt Volumes, ChatGPT Shopping, analytics on AI-sourced traffic, API access, CSV and JSON exports, SSO/SAML with SOC 2 compliance, and a dedicated specialist with a 24-hour SLA. Its AI Marketer agents research and write content on a credit system. Profound says more than 2,500 brands use it.

If you have the budget and a team to run it, that depth is hard to match, and nothing on this list replaces all of it. The Profound AI alternatives below make sense when you need a published price, a smaller plan, or someone to do the writing.

What changed at Profound in September 2026

As recently as 14 September 2026, a Wayback Machine snapshot of Profound’s pricing page listed two self-serve plans for brands: Starter at $99 a month, billed yearly, tracking ChatGPT only across 50 prompts, and Growth at $399 a month across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews with 100 prompts.

Today the brands tab shows two options. Trial is free and runs 50 recommended prompts daily for seven days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews; you cannot customize the prompts. Enterprise has custom pricing and starts with a demo.

On 16 September 2026 Profound announced a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation, led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. The announcement does not mention pricing, and we found no Profound statement explaining the change, so we will not guess at the reasons. Agencies can still sign up on their own: the pricing page lists a self-serve Agency Growth plan with 400 credits a month per client workspace.

Why people look for Profound alternatives

No published price for brands

After the free trial, the next step is a sales demo. Teams that need a number before a call have to look elsewhere.

The trial is a sample

It runs a recommended prompt set you cannot edit, on three engines, for seven days.

The entry plan is gone

The $99 Starter and $399 Growth tiers were how startups and small businesses got in.

Tracking is half the job

A dashboard shows where you are missing. Someone still has to write the pages that change the answer, and Profound’s extra agent credits come with an Enterprise package.

Profound alternatives compared

Starting prices, the engines each plan tracks, and whether the tool also does the work. Prices checked October 2026.

ToolStarting price (Oct 2026)Engines trackedAlso does the work?Best for
Profound (for reference)Free 7-day trial, then custom Enterprise pricing through a demoTrial: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews. Enterprise: up to 9 enginesAI Marketer agents research and write content, priced in creditsEnterprise brands with a team to run it
Bottally$99/monthChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode (30 questions, checked weekly)Yes: researches, writes and publishes an article a day; opt-in backlink networkSmall teams that want the gaps closed, not just reported
Peec AI$95/month for 50 prompts ($80/month billed yearly)Choose 3 of ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini, Naver AI; more as add-onsGap analysis, recommended actions and agent actionsSEO teams that want clean daily tracking
Otterly.ai$29/month for 15 promptsChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot; AI Mode, Gemini, Claude as add-onsGEO audits and optimization recommendationsThe lowest entry price
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit$99/month per domain, billed annually (25 prompts)ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, PerplexityPrompt research, competitor analysis, AI-readiness site auditTeams already on Semrush
Ahrefs Brand Radar$199/month per platform, $699/month for all platformsAI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot; Claude for custom promptsMarket-wide research across 481M+ promptsCompetitor and market research
Rankscale$99/month (Pro, 1,200 credits); Essentials $204/yearChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Mistral and morePage audits and Scout recommendationsThe most engines per plan
AthenaHQFree tier (300 credits); Starter $295/monthFree: 5 engines. Starter: 11 models, adding AI Mode, Claude, Grok and moreContent optimization agent, on-page and off-page actionsOptimization help inside the tracker
Scrunch$250/month (Core, 125 prompts)ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot; up to 9 on EnterpriseSite audits, page optimizations, basic content generationHow AI crawlers and agents read your site

Prices checked October 2026 on each vendor’s pricing page, in US dollars. Plans, prompt limits and engine lists change often; check before you buy.

The Profound alternatives, one by one

1. Bottally: Tracking plus the work

Bottally is an AI marketing agent for SEO and AEO. It puts up to 30 of your buyer questions to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, and records whether each answer names you, cites you, or names a competitor instead.

Then it does the work a tracker leaves to you. Each week it researches keywords, audits your site, reads what your competitors publish, writes seven articles aimed at the gaps and publishes one a day to WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Shopify, Wix, Notion, Framer, Next.js or any webhook. Opt in to the backlink network and your articles link out to other members while theirs link back to you, with a credit ledger keeping it even.

Pro is $99 a month for one site, one article a day, 30 tracked questions, four engines and the backlink network. There is a free account, but nothing publishes and no engines are tracked on it; the free part is the tools.

Where it falls short: 30 questions on four engines, re-checked weekly, is a smaller sample than any dedicated tracker here. There is no Gemini, Copilot or Claude tracking, no prompt-volume data, no shopping data, no AI crawler traffic analytics and no SSO. If deep reporting is the job, Profound or one of the trackers below is the better tool. If the job is to stop being missing from the answer, Bottally does more of it for the money.

2. Peec AI: The closest swap for Profound’s old self-serve plans

Peec AI publishes its prices. Starter is $95 a month ($80 billed yearly) for 50 prompts tracked daily on three models you choose from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI, with unlimited users and one project. Pro is $245 for 150 prompts and two projects; Advanced is $495 for 350 prompts and five projects. Perplexity and further models are paid add-ons, and Enterprise covers up to 13 models.

Beyond visibility and share of voice it reports which sources AI retrieves, brand perception and objections, AI crawler hits and AI referral traffic, and its Act section ranks recommended actions. It suits SEO teams that want clean daily numbers. We go deeper in Peec AI alternatives.

3. Otterly.ai: The cheapest way in

Otterly’s Lite plan is $29 a month for 15 prompts tracked daily on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude as add-ons. Standard is $189 for 100 prompts and Premium $489 for 400. Yearly billing takes 15% off, and there is a free trial.

Every plan includes unlimited team members, citation tracking, sentiment and GEO audits of your pages with optimization recommendations. Fifteen prompts covers your core buying questions, not your whole market. A good first tracker on a small budget.

4. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: For teams already on Semrush

If you already pay for Semrush, its AI Visibility Toolkit keeps AI answers next to your keyword and backlink data. The Base plan is $99 per domain per month, billed annually, for 25 custom prompts, AI visibility reports for any domain, prompt research, competitor analysis and a site audit for AI readiness. Semrush lists ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity. Its combined SEO and AI plans go higher, with 50 prompts on Starter and 100 on Pro+.

Annual billing makes it a bigger upfront commitment than a monthly tracker, and 25 prompts is a tight set.

5. Ahrefs Brand Radar: Research at market scale

Brand Radar does more than track your own prompts. Ahrefs runs more than 481 million search-backed prompts through AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, so you can see any brand’s AI visibility without setting anything up. Its help centre lists $199 a month per platform or $699 a month for all platforms, including 2,500 custom-prompt checks. Paid Ahrefs plans from Lite include a small daily custom-prompt quota (five prompts on Lite), and Claude is available for custom prompts.

Ahrefs itself says the index works best once your brand already appears in AI answers. For a brand-new site, the custom prompts matter more than the index.

6. Rankscale: The widest engine list

Rankscale covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Mistral, Grok and more. It is credit-based: Pro is $99 a month for 1,200 credits, enough for up to 4,800 AI answers, with a 7-day free trial. Essentials is yearly only at $204 a year; Pro+ is $229, Growth $385 and Enterprise $780 a month.

Search terms are unlimited, scheduling runs from hourly to monthly, and every plan includes page audits and Scout recommendations. A good fit for analysts who are happy to budget in credits.

7. AthenaHQ: A free tier and optimization agents

AthenaHQ’s Essential tier is free, with 300 credits a month (one credit is one AI response) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot. Starter is $295 a month for 3,600 credits across 11 models, adding Google AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral, with unlimited prompts and competitors. Annual billing takes 17% off.

It goes further than most trackers on action: content recommendations, a content optimization agent, on-page and off-page actions, and Shopify and Webflow integrations. Best for teams that want guidance inside the tracker.

8. Scrunch: How AI reads your site

Scrunch’s Core plan is $250 a month for 125 unique prompts and 5,000 responses a month on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot, with five site audits and one page optimization a month, basic content generation and a 7-day free trial. Enterprise adds Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode and Grok, its Agent Experience Platform, API access and SSO.

Best for brands that care about how AI crawlers and agents read their pages, not only about mentions.

How to choose a Profound alternative

Six questions that sort the list quickly.

  1. 1

    Engines first

    If Google matters to your buyers, check that AI Overviews and AI Mode are on the plan you are buying, not an add-on.

  2. 2

    Count prompts honestly

    15 to 30 questions covers your core buying questions. Hundreds is market research.

  3. 3

    Pick a cadence

    Daily tracking shows volatility. Weekly is enough to see whether you are in the answer.

  4. 4

    Read the billing line

    Monthly, yearly-only, per prompt, per credit and per domain add up differently. Work out what a year costs.

  5. 5

    Ask who does the work

    A tracker tells you where you are missing. If nobody will write the pages, pick a tool that does, or budget for a writer.

  6. 6

    Enterprise needs

    SSO, audit logs, API access and many brands point to Profound, Peec Enterprise or Scrunch Enterprise.

A simple rule: if you will read the dashboard every day and have people to act on it, buy a tracker. If you want to show up in the answer and nobody has time to write, buy something that writes. Our roundup of the best AEO tools covers more trackers, and the guide on how to get cited by ChatGPT covers the work itself.

Check where you stand first

The AI visibility checker puts your buyer questions to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. It shows if you are named or cited, and who is named instead. The AI Overview checker does the same for your Google keywords. If the answer is mostly someone else, Bottally Pro writes and publishes the articles that go after those questions, for $99 a month.

Check your AI visibility

Profound alternatives FAQ

It depends on the job. Otterly.ai is the cheapest tracker at $29 a month. Peec AI is the closest like-for-like replacement for Profound's old self-serve plans at $95 a month. Semrush and Ahrefs suit teams already on those suites, Rankscale covers the most engines, and Bottally is the pick if you want the articles that close your gaps written and published for you at $99 a month.

Not for brands. As of October 2026, Profound's pricing page for brands shows a free 7-day trial and custom Enterprise pricing. A snapshot of the same page from 14 September 2026 still listed Starter at $99 a month and Growth at $399 a month, both billed yearly.

Profound does not publish an Enterprise price; you get one through a demo. The trial is free and runs 50 recommended prompts daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Agencies can still self-serve on an Agency Growth plan with 400 credits a month per client workspace.

AthenaHQ has a free tier with 300 credits a month. Ongoing tracking is paid everywhere on this list.

Rankscale lists the most on its standard plans, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Mistral and Grok. AthenaHQ Starter covers 11 models, and Peec AI Enterprise up to 13.

For a small team that mainly wants to get into AI answers, often yes: it tracks 30 buyer questions on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode and publishes an article a day aimed at the gaps. It does not replace Profound's enterprise analytics, such as prompt volumes, shopping data, AI traffic analytics, nine engines or SSO.

Weekly. Dedicated trackers such as Peec AI and Otterly.ai check daily. Weekly is enough to see whether you are in the answer; daily is better for measuring volatility.

Yes. Some teams keep a dedicated tracker for daily share of voice and use Bottally to write and publish the articles. The two do not conflict.

No. Nobody controls what ChatGPT or Google's AI says. These tools measure the answers, and some help you publish the pages that AI engines draw on. SEO and AEO compound over months.