Profound Alternatives in 2026: 8 AEO Platforms Compared by Price and Fit

OnlyAEO publishes this page and OnlyAEO is our product. Prices were checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 30 October 2026.

Every alternative below has a "skip it if" line, OnlyAEO included. Where Profound is the better choice, we say so in its own section.

Why do people look for a Profound alternative?

Most people look for a Profound alternative because they cannot see what it will cost. Profound's pricing page shows two plans: a free Trial and an Enterprise plan priced as "Custom".

Here is what the page says on 30 October 2026:

• Trial: free for 7 days, 50 prompts run daily, 1 language, 1 region and 3 engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
• Enterprise: custom price, custom prompts and up to 9 answer engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search.
• A self-serve plan with no price: the FAQ mentions an Agency Growth plan with 400 credits per client workspace, but the page gives no figure for it.

So there is no published step between a 7-day trial on 3 engines and a custom enterprise contract. Teams that need a number for a budget request, or that want Perplexity or Claude tracked without a sales process, start looking elsewhere.

Profound is not tracking-only. Its pricing page lists an AI Marketer that researches, writes and reports. The question for most buyers is price and fit, not whether Profound can act.

What are the best Profound alternatives in 2026?

The table lists the cheapest paid plan for each tool, as shown on its own pricing page on 30 October 2026. "Engines" means the engines on that entry plan, not the vendor's top tier.

Prices are shown with a dollar sign on each page. Otterly says it bills in USD or EUR depending on your location. Peec shows no currency code. Prices change, so confirm on the vendor page before you buy.

How does each Profound alternative compare?

Each entry gives the facts from the vendor's own pricing page, then the case for skipping it.

AthenaHQ: best for broad engine coverage at a public price

• Price: Starter is $295/month, with 3,600 credits, where 1 credit is 1 AI response. The page shows 17% off for annual billing but no annual figure.
• Free plan: Essential is free, with 300 credits and $25 of free credit.
• Engines on Starter: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral.
• Creates content: partly. Starter lists a content optimisation agent and on-page and off-page actions. Full article writing is not stated.
• Where it beats Profound: a public price and more engines on the entry plan than Profound's trial.
• Skip it if: you want a fixed monthly cost, because usage is counted in credits and extra credits are a paid add-on.

Scrunch: best if you want Claude and Perplexity tracked from the first plan

• Price: Starter is $300/month, or $250/month billed annually, with 350 custom prompts, 1,000 industry prompts and 3 seats.
• Trial: 7 days, no credit card.
• Engines on Starter: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Meta.
• Creates content: partly. Its AXP builds an AI-friendly version of your site, and page audits suggest fixes.
• Where it beats Profound: Claude and Perplexity on a plan you can buy without a sales call.
• Skip it if: your budget is under $250 a month, or you need new articles written.

Peec AI: best for marketing teams that want daily analytics

• Price: Starter is $95/month, with 50 prompts, daily runs and unlimited team users. Pro is $245/month and Advanced $495/month.
• Engines: every plan below Enterprise lets you run 3 active models, chosen from ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI.
• Creates content: no. It gives recommendations and helps you edit existing pages.
• Where it beats Profound: a published price at three levels, and unlimited seats on every plan.
• Skip it if: you need Claude, Perplexity, Grok or DeepSeek, which the page lists only on Enterprise. Our Peec AI alternatives guide covers this in more depth.

Goodie: best for a full suite with strategist support

• Price: Core is $295/month, with 110 prompts, 1 brand and unlimited seats. Pro is $999/month.
• Trial: 7 days on Core.
• Engines on Core: ChatGPT, AI Overview, Perplexity, AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot.
• Creates content: yes. Goodie lists a Content Studio and an AEO content writer, and Core includes MCP plus 50 optimisations a month and AEO strategist support.
• Where it beats Profound: a published entry price, plus strategist support on that plan.
• Skip it if: you need Gemini on the entry plan (it starts on Pro) or Claude (Enterprise).

Semrush AI Visibility: best if your SEO already runs in Semrush

• Price: Base is $99/month per domain, billed annually. No monthly price is shown.
• Includes: 25 custom prompts with daily AI rankings, for 1 brand domain.
• Engines: mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity.
• Creates content: no, not on this plan.
• Where it beats Profound: a low, published price and Perplexity on the entry plan.
• Skip it if: you want to pay month to month, need more than 25 prompts, or want content written.

Ahrefs Brand Radar: best for researching any brand's AI visibility

• Price: the AI Visibility Index add-on starts at $199/month, with about 83 prompts a day and 2,500+ checks a month. Custom prompt packages start at $50/month.
• Engines: AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, with Claude available. Claude uses 8 checks per update.
• Creates content: no.
• Where it beats Profound: a published price and the option to look up brands you do not own.
• Skip it if: you need content created or a team to act on the data.

Otterly.AI: best for the lowest-cost start

• Price: Lite is $29/month, or $25/month billed annually, with 15 prompts. Standard is $189/month and Premium $489/month.
• Engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude are paid add-ons.
• Creates content: no. It gives audits and recommendations.
• Where it beats Profound: the lowest published price here, and a free trial.
• Skip it if: you need more than 15 prompts, or Claude and Gemini without paying extra. Our Otterly.AI alternatives guide compares the options at that end of the market.

OnlyAEO: best if you want the content created, and a team to run it if you choose

OnlyAEO is an AEO platform. It finds the questions buyers ask AI, tracks which brands the answers name and which sources they cite, and creates the content that changes them. You can run it yourself, or our team runs it for you.

• Price: not public yet. Price on a short call.
• Engines: the platform tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek and Grok. The work is meant to help across all major assistants, including Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot, but the platform does not track those.
• Creates content: yes. Fact-checked, answer-first articles on your site, YouTube videos, and, on the Authority plan, mentions on third-party sites, reviews, listings and directories.
• Checks on every piece: facts against sources, voice, tested links, an independent quality score of 85 or more, and your approval. By default nothing goes live until you approve it.
• Also included: a context graph that holds one record of your company, LLM Attribution that logs 170+ AI crawlers and AI-referred visits, and an MCP server so Claude or ChatGPT can add ideas, start articles, read drafts and request edits (drafts only). OnlyAEO is SOC 2 Type II compliant.
• Languages: English plus Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali and other Indian and global languages.
• Result: FastTrackr AI went from 0.1% to 26.7% AI visibility, and from #338 to #3 of 458 wealth-tech brands, in about 100 days. A New York edibles retailer went from 1.5% to 25%. Neither is a forecast for your brand.
• Where Profound is better: Profound tracks up to 9 engines on Enterprise against our 5, and has a free trial. OnlyAEO has no free plan, no public self-serve price yet, and fewer third-party reviews as a younger company.
• Skip it if: you only want a low-cost tracker, or you have an in-house content team that only needs the data.

The full side-by-side is in OnlyAEO vs Profound.

When is Profound still the right choice?

Profound is still the right choice when breadth of tracking matters more than a published price. These cases favour it:

• You need many engines tracked in one place. Enterprise covers up to 9, including Exa Search, Copilot, DeepSeek and Claude. Of the tools above, only AthenaHQ names more on its entry plan.
• You want to test before talking to anyone. The free trial runs 50 prompts daily for 7 days, with unlimited seats.
• You want agents that also act. The AI Marketer researches, writes and reports, so Profound is not just a tracker.
• You run several client brands. The FAQ mentions an Agency Growth plan with 400 credits per client workspace. Ask Profound for its price.
• Your procurement team expects a custom enterprise contract anyway. A custom price is less of a problem when every vendor goes through procurement.

How do I choose between these Profound alternatives?

Start with who will act on the data, then budget, then engines.

1. Decide who does the work. If your team has time each week to write and publish, a tracker such as Peec AI, Semrush or Otterly.AI may be enough. If not, pick a platform that creates content.
2. Set a monthly budget. The published entry prices above run from $25 a month (Otterly.AI, billed annually) to $300 a month (Scrunch, month to month).
3. List the engines your buyers use. If Claude or Perplexity matters, check the entry plan, not the top tier.
4. Run the same buyer questions on every shortlisted tool. Compare what each one reports, several times per engine.

For a wider ranking of the whole market, read What is the best AEO platform in 2026?.

Questions buyers ask about Profound alternatives

How much does Profound cost in 2026?

Profound does not publish a paid price. On 30 October 2026 its pricing page showed a free 7-day Trial with 50 prompts on 3 engines, and an Enterprise plan priced as Custom. Its FAQ mentions a self-serve Agency Growth plan but gives no figure.

What is a cheaper alternative to Profound?

Otterly.AI Lite is the cheapest published plan here at $29 a month, or $25 a month billed annually. Peec AI Starter costs $95 a month and Semrush AI Visibility costs $99 a month per domain, billed annually.

Which Profound alternative tracks the most AI engines?

AthenaHQ names 11 models on its $295 a month Starter plan, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek. Scrunch Starter covers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Meta.

Is there a Profound alternative that also writes the content?

Yes. OnlyAEO creates fact-checked articles, YouTube videos and, on its Authority plan, third-party mentions, and our team can run it for you. Goodie includes optimisations and strategist support on Core. Peec AI, Semrush and Otterly.AI do not write content on their entry plans.

Does OnlyAEO track as many engines as Profound?

No. The OnlyAEO platform tracks 5 engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek and Grok. Profound Enterprise tracks up to 9. OnlyAEO's content is meant to help across all major assistants, including Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.