Profound alternatives in 2026: 7 AI visibility tools with public pricing
Profound is built for enterprise and sells on custom pricing. These alternatives — Peec AI, Otterly, Semrush, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Rankscale, Writesonic and CiteCycle — publish their prices. Compared on engines, prompts and cost, checked October 2026.
In short
The main Profound alternatives with public pricing are Peec AI (from €85/month), Otterly.AI (from $29/month), Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit ($99/month billed annually), Ahrefs Brand Radar (from $199/month), Rankscale (from $17/month billed yearly), Writesonic (from $79/month billed annually) and CiteCycle (free plan; Pro $49.90/month). Profound itself offers a 7-day trial, then custom enterprise pricing.
Key takeaways
- Profound has a free 7-day trial and then only a custom-priced Enterprise plan — there is no public self-serve paid tier.
- Every alternative here publishes a price you can start on without a sales call.
- Peec AI is the closest like-for-like for prompt-level analytics; Otterly and Rankscale are the cheapest; Semrush and Ahrefs fit teams already on those suites.
- Profound's agent features (AI Marketer, agent analytics, ChatGPT Shopping) have partial equivalents elsewhere, but rarely on entry plans.
- Compare prompt allowance and which engines are on the plan, not the homepage engine list.
Profound is one of the best-known AI visibility platforms, and it is built for enterprise. As of 3 October 2026 its pricing page offers a free trial — 50 prompts run daily for 7 days, covering ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews — and then a single Enterprise plan at a custom price, covering "up to 9 answer engines". Alongside analytics, it now leads with an "AI Marketer" agent that researches, writes and reports, plus agent analytics, prompt volume data and ChatGPT Shopping on Enterprise.
That is a strong fit for large brands with procurement processes. It is a poor fit if you want to start on a card, on a monthly plan, or below an enterprise budget. The alternatives below all publish their prices. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on the same date; confirm before buying, because prices in this category move.
Disclosure: CiteCycle, which publishes this page, is one of the alternatives. It is described with the same fields as the others.
Profound alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Entry price (checked Oct 2026) | Prompts on entry plan | Engines (entry plan, where stated) | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peec AI | €85/mo | 50 | 3 of ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini, Naver | Free trial |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo ($25 billed annually) | 15 | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot | Free trial |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo per domain, billed annually | 25 | ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity | 7-day trial |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | From $199/mo | Prompt packages from $50/mo | AI Overviews, Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude, AI Mode | Free checker |
| Rankscale | $17/mo, yearly only | Credit-based | 9+ engines listed; per-plan coverage not stated | 7-day trial (Pro) |
| Writesonic | $79/mo, billed annually | 50 | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews | Free trial |
| CiteCycle | Free; Pro $49.90/mo | 2 free; 20 on Pro | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Google (AI Overviews on Pro) | Free plan + free checker |
The alternatives, by what you need
Closest like-for-like: Peec AI
Peec AI covers the same core job — prompt-level analytics across engines — with published self-serve plans: Starter €85/month (50 prompts), Pro €205/month (150) and Advanced €425/month (350), 15% off annually, priced in euros only. Self-serve plans let you pick three engines from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver, with more from €25/month each; Enterprise lists up to 13 models. It adds recommended actions, product-level visibility from a catalog upload, and separate agency pricing.
Lowest cost: Otterly.AI and Rankscale
Otterly.AI starts at $29/month ($25 billed annually) for 15 prompts across ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with Claude ($29), Gemini ($9) and AI Mode ($9) as add-ons. It includes GEO page audits and recommendations on every plan.
Rankscale starts at $17/month billed yearly. It runs on credits rather than prompts — Pro is $99/month for 1,200 credits, up to 4,800 AI answers — and lists the widest engine set of the budget tools, including Claude, AI Mode, DeepSeek and Mistral.
Already on an SEO suite: Semrush and Ahrefs
Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit is $99/month per domain billed annually, with 25 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, plus sentiment, prompt research and white-label reporting.
Ahrefs Brand Radar starts at $199/month and stands out for its prompt database: you can research any brand's AI mentions, not just track your own questions. It lists Claude and AI Mode alongside the main engines.
Want content and actions, like Profound's agent: Writesonic
Writesonic is the closest match to Profound's "track, then write" direction at a published price: Starter is $79/month billed annually with 50 prompts and 15 AI articles a month, plus an Action Center for on-page and off-page actions. Self-serve plans cover ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews; Perplexity and Claude are enterprise-only. AthenaHQ (free plan, then $295/month) and Scrunch ($250/month) also pair tracking with optimization features — see the full comparison.
Small team, weekly plan: CiteCycle
CiteCycle (ours) runs the questions your customers ask every week across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google, with Google AI Overviews on Pro. It tracks mentions and citations separately and turns each gap into a ranked weekly action — pages to refresh, lists to get on, drafts to publish. There is a free plan (1 brand, 2 questions) and Pro at $49.90/month or $499/year (3 brands, 20 questions, 30 drafts a month). It runs weekly rather than daily and does not track Perplexity, Copilot or AI Mode.
Profound vs Peec AI
The comparison people search for most comes down to buying model and scope:
- Pricing: Profound is a 7-day trial, then custom Enterprise pricing. Peec AI publishes three self-serve tiers from €85/month, plus Enterprise.
- Engines: Profound's trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, and Enterprise up to nine engines. Peec's self-serve plans cover three engines of your choice, and Enterprise up to 13.
- Beyond tracking: Profound leads with an AI Marketer agent that writes and reports, plus agent analytics. Peec offers recommended actions, agent actions and claim fact-checking.
- Who it suits: Profound suits enterprises that want one vendor for analytics and agentic content. Peec suits teams and agencies that want self-serve analytics they can expand engine by engine.
Before you switch
Run the same handful of questions through a free check first — CiteCycle's checker, HubSpot's AI Search Grader or Ahrefs' free checker — so you know your baseline. Then trial the one or two tools that fit your budget against those same questions. A tool that tracks fifteen prompts and a tool that tracks 150 will paint different pictures of the same market, and the prompt list matters more than the dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
- Why look for a Profound alternative?
- Usually price and buying process. As of October 2026 Profound offers a 7-day free trial and then Enterprise at a custom price, with no published self-serve plan. Teams that want to start on a card, on a monthly plan, or below enterprise budgets look at tools that publish their pricing.
- What is the closest alternative to Profound?
- For prompt-level analytics across several engines, Peec AI is the most similar, with plans from €85/month for 50 prompts and an enterprise tier listing up to 13 models. For Profound's content and agent features, Writesonic and AthenaHQ are the closer comparisons.
- Profound vs Peec AI: what is the difference?
- Profound is enterprise-first, sells on custom pricing and now leads with an AI Marketer agent that writes and reports. Peec AI publishes self-serve plans in euros (Starter €85, Pro €205, Advanced €425 a month), lets you pick three engines on those plans, and adds recommended actions and agency pricing.
- What is the cheapest alternative to Profound?
- Rankscale's Essentials plan at $17/month billed yearly and Otterly.AI's Lite plan at $29/month were the lowest paid entry points checked in October 2026. CiteCycle has a free plan with 2 questions and Pro at $49.90/month.
- Does any alternative track Claude?
- Yes, but often not on the entry plan. Ahrefs Brand Radar lists Claude; Otterly sells it as a $29 add-on; Rankscale and AthenaHQ's Starter list it; CiteCycle includes it on its free and Pro plans. Peec AI, Writesonic and Scrunch list Claude on enterprise tiers.
Questions this page answers
- What are the best alternatives to Profound?
- Profound vs Peec AI
- How much does Profound cost?
- Cheaper alternative to Profound AI
- AI visibility tools with public pricing
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