Profound alternatives: 6 AI visibility tools compared on price and engine coverage

The main alternatives to Profound are Otterly.ai from $29/mo, Sauce from $49/mo, Peec AI, AthenaHQ with a free tier then $295/mo, Scrunch, and Plug at $0 in early access. Most people search for alternatives because Profound's $99/mo Starter tier tracks ChatGPT only and caps at 50 prompts, while its nine-engine coverage sits at Enterprise. Prices verified 18 August 2026.

Disclosure before anything else: Plug is one of the six alternatives listed here, and we build it. Everything below about Profound and the other five comes from their own published pages, fetched on 18 August 2026 and date-stamped because this category re-prices constantly.

This is not an argument that you should leave Profound. For a large share of buyers it is the right tool, and the last section says exactly when. It is an argument that you should know what each tier buys before you sign an annual contract, and that the question deciding most of these tools is not engine count. It is whether you only need to discover where your brand shows up, which every suite here does, or to track the specific off-site placements you commissioned and see which creator earned each citation, which only two of the six do. If that second job is yours, the shortlist narrows fast, and it narrows away from Profound.

Why people look for Profound alternatives

Three reasons show up repeatedly, and only one of them is about the product being bad at its job.

1. The entry tier tracks one engine. Profound's published pricing lists Starter at $99/month, billed yearly, with ChatGPT tracking only and 50 prompts. That is a clear, honest listing on their part. It surprises people anyway, because the homepage advertises coverage of Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek and Google AI Overviews, and the natural assumption is that $99 buys some meaningful slice of that.

It buys one. Three engines costs $399/month on the Growth tier. The full nine is Enterprise, custom-priced.

2. Annual billing at the entry point. Starter and Growth are both billed yearly, and Starter's annual price includes two months free. If you want to run a quarter's experiment before committing, the published self-serve path asks for a year.

3. Prompt metering. Starter is 50 prompts, Growth is 100. A real buyer-question list grows past 100 quickly once you split by persona, use case and competitor, and the meter is what stops it.

None of that makes Profound a bad product. It makes it an enterprise product with a self-serve on-ramp, and if you are not the enterprise buyer it was priced for, the on-ramp is narrower than it looks.

TL;DR: Profound and six alternatives at a glance

Verified from each vendor's own live pages, 18 August 2026. "Not published" means exactly that, and "Not stated" means the capability is not described on their pages, which is not the same as the product being unable to do it.

Two additions worth a line each. VerseOdin publishes Starter Monitoring at $799/month for six engines, with a 14-day no-card trial: relevant because it is the only verified alternative priced above Profound's Growth tier, so it is where you land if breadth matters more than budget. Siftly classifies every citation by source (your own content, media coverage, social platforms, competitor sites), which is the most useful reporting model in this table if your question is owned-versus-earned, though it publishes no pricing.

The row that decides most switches is "engines at entry price", not "max engines". Compare what you would actually pay for, since which engines you track changes what your numbers mean: ChatGPT cites a mean of 6.88 sources per answer, Google AI Overviews 12.06 and Perplexity 16.35. Tracking ChatGPT alone gives you the most selective engine in the set and the smallest sample.

What Profound is genuinely good at

Worth stating properly, because an alternatives page that pretends the incumbent is worthless is not useful to anyone making a real decision. Positioned as "Optimize Your Brand's Visibility in AI Search", Profound has the widest verified engine list here and the only tier in this comparison that publishes formal security credentials.

Key features

• Engine coverage up to nine: Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek and Google AI Overviews
• Enterprise controls: multiple tracked companies, dedicated Slack support, SSO/SAML and SOC2
• A free AEO report tool for a first look without a sales call
• Agents credits: 100 per month on Starter, 400 on Growth
• Metered by prompt: 50 at Starter, 100 at Growth

Pros

• The widest verified engine list in this comparison, including Grok and DeepSeek, which most competitors do not touch
• The only vendor here publishing SOC2 and SSO/SAML
• A published ladder, so you can see the shape of the spend before a call

Cons

• The $99 Starter tier tracks ChatGPT alone, against nine engines advertised
• Three engines costs $399/mo, four times the entry price
• Creator attribution, URL seeding and off-site scope are not stated

Pricing

• Starter, $99/mo billed yearly: ChatGPT only, 50 prompts, 100 Agents credits
• Growth, $399/mo billed yearly: 3 engines, 100 prompts, 400 Agents credits
• Enterprise, custom: up to 9 engines, multiple companies, SSO/SAML, SOC2
• No perpetual free tier, though Growth offers a free trial

If your blocker is a security questionnaire, or you genuinely need Grok and DeepSeek coverage, stop reading. None of the six below match that combination as of today, and switching would cost you capability.

Otterly.ai: the clearest published price

From $29/mo. The only vendor in this set with a fully public, granular ladder, and the one where you can model your annual cost without talking to anyone.

Key features

• Four engines tracked: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and MS Copilot
• Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini available as paid add-ons
• Unlimited team members on every tier
• Daily tracking on all tiers
• GEO URL audits: 1,000, 5,000 or 10,000 per month by tier

Pros

• The most transparent pricing in this comparison, published in full
• Unlimited seats at every tier, which most vendors charge for
• 15% discount on annual billing, published rather than negotiated

Cons

• 15 prompts at $29/mo is a small query set for a real buyer-question list
• Gemini and Claude are add-ons, so the base price is four engines rather than seven
• Creator attribution and off-site scope are not mentioned on the pricing page

Pricing

• Lite, $29/mo: 15 prompts
• Standard, $189/mo: 100 prompts
• Premium, $489/mo: 400 prompts
• Enterprise, from $1,000/mo
• Annual billing at 15% off: $25, $160 and $422 per month

Pick it over Profound when you want four engines rather than one at the bottom of the ladder, and you want to model your annual cost without talking to sales. Watch out for the add-on list: if Gemini matters to you, it is not in the sticker price.

AthenaHQ: the free tier that isn't a countdown

Free, then $295/mo. The Essential tier is free with $25 of credit (300 credits), a genuine free tier rather than a trial that expires. Positioning is "Become the Brand AI Trusts", and it sells citation source analysis.

Key features

• 5 engines free: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot; Starter adds AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek and Meta AI, for 10 models in total
• Citation source analysis and link building
• Brand mention tracking across those engines
• Metered by credit

Pros

• The only perpetual free tier verified in this set
• Five engines on the free tier, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews included
• No credit card and no contract needed to see real data

Cons

• The free tier is credit-capped, so it is a sample rather than a running programme
• The step from free to $295/mo is steep with nothing in between
• Creator attribution and URL seeding are not stated

Pricing

• Essential: free, with $25 of credit (300 credits)
• Starter: $295/mo
• Enterprise: custom

Pick it over Profound when you need to see real data before you can write a business case, or when you want broad engine coverage on the Starter tier without the Enterprise conversation. Watch out for the credit meter: the free tier is a sample, not a running programme, and the jump to $295/mo is steep relative to Otterly's ladder.

Peec AI: the most explicit about off-site sources

"AI search analytics for marketing teams". Peec is the vendor most openly built around sources you do not own: its own copy names LinkedIn, a subreddit, NYT articles and G2 as places brands turn up. If the reason you are shopping is that your citations are coming from other people's pages, Peec is taking that seriously in public.

Key features

• Six engines named: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, AI Mode and AI Overviews
• Daily tracking at the entry tier
• Off-site source discovery stated on their own pages, naming LinkedIn, subreddits, NYT articles and G2
• Higher tiers add Looker, API, MCP and SSO

Pros

• The clearest public statement in this set that it surfaces pages you do not own
• Daily tracking at the entry tier
• Six engines named rather than a vague "leading LLMs"

Cons

• No prices published on the pricing page as of 18 August 2026, so budgeting needs a sales conversation
• Annual billing only across all four tiers
• Creator attribution and URL seeding are not stated

Pricing

• Four tiers: Starter, Pro, Advanced and Enterprise, on annual billing
• No prices published on the pricing page as of 18 August 2026
• Free trial offered, which is a trial rather than a free tier

Pick it over Profound when third-party source discovery is the job and you want six engines without tier-gating them one at a time. Watch out for pricing opacity: no prices were published on the pricing page as of 18 August 2026, so this is a sales-call purchase, same as Profound Enterprise.

Scrunch: shortest commitment to evaluate

"Monitor and improve your brand's visibility in AI search". Honest caveat: Scrunch is the hardest tool here to assess from the outside. Pricing is not published on the homepage, and the scope of its citation mapping across owned versus third-party domains is not stated. We include it because buyers meet it in the market and leaving it out would make this list less useful, not more.

Key features

• Five engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Copilot
• Citation and source mapping, described as "which sites AI cites"
• 7-day free trial

Pros

• Five engines named explicitly
• A trial you can start without a sales call

Cons

• No pricing published on the homepage
• Whether its citation mapping separates owned from third-party domains is not stated
• Creator attribution and URL seeding are not stated

Pricing

• Not published on the homepage
• 7-day free trial

Pick it over Profound when you want a week-long hands-on evaluation before any commitment. Watch out for having to ask both the price and the off-site-scope questions on the call, because neither is answerable from the site.

Sauce: the off-site specialist with the fullest toolkit

From $49/mo. Positioned as "Track How Your Off-Site Content Performs in AI Search", from Fan Out. A different kind of alternative to the suites: rather than discovering brand presence, it tracks off-site content you nominate across 14 named platforms and maps each piece to the person behind it. On feature count it is the fullest off-site tool here.

Key features

• 14 named platforms: Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, G2, Capterra, Software Advice, GetApp, TrustRadius, Trustpilot, Quora, Substack, beehiiv and Kit
• Creator attribution on every tier, including the $49 Starter
• Citation data broken down by post, by person, by platform and by engine
• Search Console and analytics import, connecting citations to branded search lift and AI referral traffic
• Near-miss queries turned into content briefs, plus weekly digests
• Fan-out query variants and transcript upload on Pro and Team
• Creator leaderboards and multi-brand workspaces

Pros

• The fullest off-site toolkit in this list by a clear margin
• Creator attribution at the cheapest tier rather than gated upward
• The only tool here that connects citations to branded search lift
• Multi-brand workspaces, which matter if you run an agency

Cons

• 5 checks a month at Starter is a weekly spot check rather than monitoring
• ChatGPT is not included until the $99 Pro tier
• Unlimited checks do not start until $299/mo
• No free tier, only a 7-day Pro trial

Pricing

• Starter, $49/mo: 3 engines, 5 checks/month, 25 seed queries and 25 tracked URLs per cluster, 1 brand
• Pro, $99/mo: 6 engines adding ChatGPT, AI Mode and Bing Copilot, 15 checks/month, 50 seed queries per cluster, unlimited tracked URLs, up to 3 brands
• Team, $299/mo: unlimited checks, 100 seed queries per cluster, 5 brands, seats and roles
• Full-service agency programme from $10k/mo
• 7-day Pro trial, no free tier

Pick it over Profound when your problem is that your citations come from creators and communities rather than your own site, and you want the reporting layer that ties that back to search lift. Watch out for the check meter: Starter runs five checks a month, which is a weekly spot check rather than monitoring, and ChatGPT is not included until Pro at $99. Their features page and pricing page also disagree on Starter's engine count; we have used the pricing page.

Plug: for off-site placements at daily frequency

Ours, and the one built for the job the suites do not describe. You paste the specific off-site links you care about, tag the creator behind each, and enter your buyer questions. You get back which placements were cited, on which engine, and which creator earned each one, checked every single day. No prompt meter and no check meter: unlimited tracked posts and unlimited buyer queries, at $0 during early access, no credit card. That is a different instrument from a discovery suite metered at 50 prompts, and for an off-site programme it is the one that answers the question you actually have, which of the placements I paid for worked.

The same honesty this post demands of Profound, turned on ourselves: five engines are listed (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot) and three run today (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode), with Perplexity and Copilot in build. Count what runs, not what is listed. Alongside the checks you get trend tracking, drop alerts, stakeholder reports and CSV export.

Key features

• Five engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and Copilot, of which three are live today (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode); Perplexity and Copilot are in build
• Daily checks
• Unlimited tracked posts and unlimited buyer queries
• Creator attribution on every post you nominate
• Trend tracking, drop alerts, stakeholder reports and CSV export

Pros

• Daily checks against unlimited queries, the highest frequency in this comparison
• ChatGPT included at the entry tier rather than gated upward
• No meter of any kind: no prompt, credit or check limits
• No credit card required

Cons

• Perplexity and Copilot are still in build, so three of the five run today
• No Claude, Gemini, Grok or DeepSeek coverage at all
• No Search Console import, content briefs, leaderboards or multi-brand workspaces, all of which Sauce has
• The $0 is an early-access period, not a permanent tier, with no end date set

Pricing

• Early access: $0, with unlimited tracked posts, unlimited buyer queries and daily checks
• Will convert to paid on a date we have not announced, with notice before anything changes

Pick it over Profound when you are running an off-site programme with named creators or commissioned placements and the question is "which of these worked", or when unlimited queries and daily frequency matter more than engine count, which for most teams shopping this list they do. Watch out for the narrower engine list: no Claude, Gemini, Grok or DeepSeek. Sauce, above, carries a fuller off-site toolkit if you need Search Console import, content briefs, leaderboards or multi-brand workspaces. And the $0 is temporary: early access is a starting phase and will become paid on a date we have not set, with notice before it changes, so plan as if a price arrives, because it will.

The alternatives split into two kinds

Worth naming, because it decides which comparison you should even be running.

Four of the six are broad suites, like Profound itself: Otterly.ai, AthenaHQ, Peec AI and Scrunch. They discover where your brand shows up across AI answers. If that is the job, compare them to Profound on engine coverage, prompt allowance and price, and stop there.

Two are off-site tools: Sauce and Plug. They track content you nominate, on platforms you do not own, and attribute each citation to the person behind it. Creator-level attribution is not described on the public pages of Profound, Otterly.ai, AthenaHQ, Peec AI or Scrunch as of 18 August 2026.

That matters only if you pay or brief creators. If you do, it matters a lot, because "reddit.com earned 22 citations" cannot tell you who to commission again and "this creator's posts earned 14 across two engines" can. That argument is in briefing creators for citations, not impressions.

If you land in that second group, your real choice is Sauce or Plug, not Profound at all. The honest split between them: Sauce has more features (Search Console import, AI referral traffic, content briefs, leaderboards, transcript-to-query, multi-brand, 14 enumerated platforms), and Plug checks more often for less (daily at $0, with ChatGPT included, against five checks a month at $49 on Sauce's Starter tier).

And a sixth option that is not on this list, because it is not really an alternative to Profound. Scribble Network also attributes citations to individual creators, showing per-creator counts by handle. But it sells a programme rather than a dashboard: your citation gaps become bounty briefs, a 50,000-creator network competes to fill them, and payouts are tied to citation performance. Its Custom tier publishes at $1,500+ per month, and every customer named on its site is a Web3 or crypto brand. If your problem is that you have no creators to measure in the first place, that is a different purchase worth knowing about. If you are shopping for a Profound replacement, it is not the one.

We are describing what these vendors publish, not auditing their products. If a suite ships creator attribution, this section gets rewritten rather than quietly edited.

Four questions to ask before you switch

1. How many engines do I get at the price I will actually pay? Run this on Profound and on whatever you are moving to. It reorders the shortlist more than any other question.
2. How many buyer questions do I need? Write the list before you look at tiers. Fifty prompts sounds generous until you split by persona and competitor. If your list is 150, Profound Starter and Otterly Lite are both out on arithmetic alone.
3. Do I need discovery or seeding? Discovery tells you what is happening. Seeding tells you whether the placements you commissioned worked. Most tools here do the first.
4. What is my exit? Annual billing at the entry tier means a year. Check whether you can export your data, and whether CSV export is included or gated.

The wider field, including tools that are not direct Profound alternatives, is in best AI citation tracking tools, and the full vendor-neutral version of these questions, with the ten to send in an email, is in how to choose an AI visibility tool.

When to stay on Profound

Three cases, stated plainly.

• Procurement needs SOC2 and SSO/SAML. Nothing on this list matches Profound's published enterprise controls.
• You need DeepSeek. No alternative here covers it, and of the six only AthenaHQ matches Profound on Grok.
• You track multiple companies. That is an Enterprise feature and it is not standard elsewhere.

Switching costs you history. If none of the three reasons at the top of this post are actually your problem, the honest answer is to renegotiate your tier rather than migrate your data.