10 Best Profound Alternatives for 2026

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How do the ten alternatives compare?

How we chose

This is a desk comparison of published pages, not a hands-on test. We read each vendor's own pricing or plans page and record the date beside every figure; the latest reads are in the table above. A tool made the list if it does three things: it tracks how AI engines answer a brand's buyer questions, it publishes a price you can pay without a sales call, and it names the engines it covers. That is the gap Profound leaves for brands, so platforms sold only through a demo are out.

Cituna is first because it is the tool High Street uses in its own client work, not because it wins the test below. On that test it scores six and would sit fourth. The other nine are ordered by one question: how many of the nine engines Profound Enterprise names (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search) does the entry paid plan cover? Ties go to the lower monthly price, then to month-to-month billing over annual. Scores: Rankscale 8, AthenaHQ 8, Ahrefs Brand Radar 7, SE Visible 5, Semrush 5, Otterly.AI 4, Promptwatch up to 4, Scrunch 4 and Peec AI 3. Grok is not in the test because Profound doesn't name it, so Cituna, Rankscale and AthenaHQ get no credit for it here.

We did not score answer accuracy. That needs the same questions run through every tool on the same day and checked by hand. For the whole market rather than the Profound gap, see our comparison of the best AI visibility tools.

Why do teams look for a Profound alternative?

From the vendor's own pages, not from reviews, five triggers stand out.

• No price between free and custom. Profound's page listed a $99 Starter and a $399 Growth plan for brands on 10 September 2026 (archived copy). By 25 September both were gone, and on 1 October the page still offered brands only the trial and Enterprise.
• The trial is a preview. It runs 50 prompts a day for seven days, picked by Profound for your industry, with no history or exports. You can't put your own buyer questions into it, so you can't test the questions you would actually pay to track.
• The engines sit behind the contract. Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Copilot are Enterprise engines, and Grok is not on any plan.
• No Search Console tie-in is listed. Nothing on the pricing page connects AI answers to the Google clicks and impressions you already measure.
• Agency costs add up per client. On 25 September 2026 the agencies tab listed $399 a month per full client workspace, plus a base fee it didn't show. Ten client workspaces would be $3,990 a month before that fee (our arithmetic).

What does Profound sell in 2026?

Profound is the baseline here, not a numbered entry. Its pricing page, read on 1 October 2026, offers brands two things.

• A free trial. 50 prompts run daily for seven days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, from a recommended set for your industry that you can't edit. There is no history or export. The page does not say whether a card is needed.
• Enterprise, custom price. Up to nine answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search). Our 25 and 28 September reads of the same page also listed all-time history, CSV and JSON exports, an API, unlimited seats, SSO/SAML and SOC 2.

Agencies see a separate tab with an Agency Growth plan priced per client workspace. The $399 figure we recorded on 25 September was not in the page's server HTML when we looked again on 28 September, so treat it as unconfirmed and ask Profound for a written quote.

The move to Enterprise-only follows the money. Profound announced a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation in September 2026, and its sales effort now points at large brands. That makes sense for Profound. It leaves smaller teams, and agencies with smaller clients, without a plan to buy.

What does Profound still do well?

Profound Enterprise names nine engines under one contract, and it is the only tool here that names Exa Search. It lists the paperwork large companies ask for: SSO/SAML, SOC 2 and unlimited seats. Our 28 September read also listed Agent Analytics, which reads AI crawler activity through CDN and hosting integrations, AI Marketer agents that run on credits, and support up to a dedicated specialist.

If your security team needs that paperwork, or you must track Exa Search, book the demo. The alternatives below are for everyone else.

1. Cituna: best for seven engines checked daily, with Search Console and the fix written

Cituna asks your buyers' questions every day on seven engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. For each answer it records whether you were named, which of your pages were cited and which competitors were recommended in your place. Where a rival wins, it writes the fix: schema, FAQ markup, an llms.txt entry or a page change. Its AutoSEO drafts articles for the questions your site doesn't answer yet (30 a month on Starter) and sends them to WordPress, Shopify, Sanity, a GitHub repo or any CMS by webhook, held as drafts until you approve them. Google Search Console joins the same prompts, and an MCP server lets you ask about the data from Claude or another MCP client.

Plans are flat and billed monthly: Starter $49 for one brand and 10 prompts, Pro $119 for three brands and 30 prompts, and Max $399 for ten brands and 90 prompts, every prompt checked daily on all seven engines. The 3-day trial needs a card; you aren't charged during it and can cancel anytime (read 22 October 2026).

Strength: Claude, Perplexity and AI Mode, which Profound keeps for Enterprise, plus Grok, which Profound doesn't name, checked daily on a plan you can buy today, with the fix written rather than only the gap reported.

Limit: no Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek or Exa Search, no sentiment score, and the trial is three days with a card, against Profound's seven.

Pick it if: you want the engines Profound holds back, Search Console beside them and a written fix for each gap, at a monthly price you can see. Cituna's pricing page

2. Rankscale: best for Profound's engine list on a credit budget

Rankscale bills in credits and lets you set the schedule prompt by prompt, from hourly to monthly. Its engine menu runs to 17 or more by its own count, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Grok (read 9 October 2026); DeepSeek was on the menu when we read it on 28 September. Pro is $99 a month for 1,200 credits, which Rankscale puts at about 4,800 answers, with a 7-day trial. The cheaper Essentials plan is now sold yearly only, at $204 a year. Pro+ at $229 adds the REST API, Growth at $385 adds white-label reports, and Rankscale lists MCP on every plan (read 17 October 2026).

A run costs 0.25 credits on ChatGPT and 2 on Claude, so 1,200 credits stretch a long way on cheap engines and a short way on Claude.

Strength: eight of Profound Enterprise's nine engines, plus Grok, without a sales call, and MCP from the first plan.

Limit: the bill depends on your engine mix and cadence, which makes a month hard to predict until you have run one. Search Console isn't stated.

Pick it if: you want Copilot, Claude and DeepSeek on one account and can manage a credit budget. Rankscale pricing and credit rates

3. AthenaHQ: best for eleven models at one published price

AthenaHQ's free Essential plan gives 300 credits (one credit is one AI response) on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, with unlimited members. Starter is $295 a month, 17% off billed annually, for 3,600 credits across eleven models: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral. Starter adds GA4 and Search Console integration and a content optimisation agent (read 1 October 2026). The API and extra credits are paid add-ons with no published price.

Strength: eight of Profound Enterprise's nine engines, plus Grok, Meta AI and Mistral, on the first paid tier, and a free plan that shows real data rather than a seven-day clock.

Limit: nothing sits between free and $295. Credits make the bill depend on how many models you switch on, Starter covered one language and one region on our 28 September read, and the published plans surface no MCP integration.

Pick it if: you liked Profound's breadth, need Copilot and Search Console together, and can spend $295. Our AthenaHQ alternatives guide lists cheaper routes. AthenaHQ plans and credits

4. Ahrefs Brand Radar: best for benchmarking a whole market

Brand Radar is sold two ways (read 2 October 2026). Custom Prompts run your own questions on Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude, daily, weekly or monthly per platform, from $50 a month for 2,500 checks; Growth is $100 for 7,000 and Scale $250 for 25,000. One check is one prompt on one platform in one location for one update, and a Claude update uses eight. The AI Visibility Index covers about 448 million prompts a month that Ahrefs runs itself, at $199 a month for one platform or $699 for all six it indexes. You can buy Brand Radar without a paid Ahrefs plan.

Strength: like Profound, it sells data on prompts it runs itself, here at a published price, and Custom Prompts cover Copilot and Claude from $50.

Limit: no Grok, the index's chatbot data refreshes monthly, and checks multiply with every extra location and every Claude update. No trial is listed; the pricing FAQ points to the limited Ahrefs Free plan.

Pick it if: you already pay for Ahrefs, or you need the whole category rather than only your own prompts. Our Brand Radar alternatives guide covers the trade-offs. Ahrefs Brand Radar pricing

5. SE Visible: best for many prompts per dollar

SE Visible is SE Ranking's stand-alone AI tracker. Basic is $99 a month for 200 prompts, about 30,000 AI answers a month and three projects; Core is $189 for 450 prompts and five projects; Plus is $355 for 1,000 prompts, with a demo booking instead of a trial. Every plan tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and AI Overviews, and the FAQ says Claude "will be added soon". There is a 10-day free trial, and annual billing saves 20% (read 22 October 2026).

Strength: 200 prompts you choose for $99, against 50 fixed prompts in Profound's trial.

Limit: no Claude yet, and no Copilot or Grok. Its markets are the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, in five languages, so no UAE and no Arabic. Search Console isn't mentioned.

Pick it if: your buyers are in one of those seven markets and prompt volume matters more than engine breadth. SE Visible plans

6. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: best for teams already on Semrush

The toolkit's Base plan is $99 a month per domain, billed annually, with 25 custom prompts a day for one domain. It reports mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity (read 9 October 2026), and Semrush's help article says the toolkit has no free trial. On our 28 September read, its overview reports covered 42 regions including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, prompt research showed volume and difficulty, each extra domain or location cost another $99 a month, and Search Console came through a $10 a month report add-on.

Strength: AI answers sit next to the keyword and backlink data a Semrush team already uses, and the Gulf is on its region list.

Limit: 25 prompts, per-domain pricing that grows with every client, and no Claude, Grok or Copilot among the engines it names.

Pick it if: your SEO already runs in Semrush and one domain at a time is how you work. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit pricing

7. Otterly.AI: best for Copilot on a small budget

Otterly's Lite plan is $29 a month, or $25 billed annually: 15 prompts checked daily on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with unlimited team members (read 7 October 2026). On Lite, Gemini and Google AI Mode are $9 add-ons and Claude is $29, so Lite with all three comes to $76 a month; Grok isn't sold at any price. Standard, at $189, raises the count to 100 prompts and adds the API and MCP, and Premium is $489 (read 1 October 2026). A free trial is offered, but the page states neither its length nor whether a card is needed.

Strength: Copilot on every plan, which Profound lists only on Enterprise, at the lowest fixed price on this page.

Limit: 15 prompts on Lite, add-on fees that rise with the plan, no Grok and no Search Console listed.

Pick it if: your buyers live in Microsoft 365 and you want to start small. Our Otterly alternatives guide adds up its add-on costs. Otterly.AI pricing and add-ons

8. Promptwatch: best for four engines you choose, with MCP and API

Promptwatch's Essential plan is $95 a month for 50 prompts and 6,000 responses, checked daily on four models you pick from OpenAI, Perplexity, Google, Claude, Gemini, Meta, DeepSeek and Grok. MCP and API access come on Essential, its integrations list includes Google Search Console, and there is a 7-day free trial (read 1 October 2026). Professional, at $245, raises the count to 150 prompts and adds Agent Analytics, its AI crawler view, and AEO articles; Business, at $579, is sold through a demo (plan contents re-read 8 October 2026).

Strength: you can put Claude or Grok among your four without an Enterprise contract, with MCP, API and Search Console on the first plan.

Limit: four models at a time and one project on Essential. Crawler analytics and articles start at $245, and Copilot isn't on its model list.

Pick it if: you know which four engines your buyers use and want to wire the data into your own tools. Promptwatch pricing

9. Scrunch: best for Copilot plus site audits for one brand

Scrunch Core is $250 a month for 125 prompts and 5,000 responses a month on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot (read 1 October 2026). It includes one brand workspace, five user licences, one country, one language, five tracked competitors, five site audits and one page optimisation a month, sentiment, and AI agent and bot traffic, with a 7-day free trial. Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode, Grok, the API, SAML single sign-on and the Agent Experience Platform, which serves AI agents an optimised version of your pages, are on a custom Enterprise plan.

Strength: Copilot, audits and bot traffic on a published entry plan, and a route to an enterprise contract if you outgrow it.

Limit: without Gemini, Core covers only two of the three engines in Profound's own trial. Responses are metered: one full run of 125 prompts on four engines uses 500 of the 5,000, so ask how often each prompt refreshes. Search Console isn't in its integrations list.

Pick it if: you need Copilot and more prompts than Otterly Lite, for one brand in one market. Our Scrunch alternatives guide has the plan-by-plan detail. Scrunch pricing

10. Peec AI: best for benchmarking on three engines you pick

Peec AI's Starter is $95 a month, or $80 billed annually, for 50 prompts checked daily on three models you choose from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI, with unlimited users and an MCP server on paid plans. Pro ($245) and Advanced ($495) raise the count to 150 and 350 prompts, and Advanced adds multi-country tracking and Looker Studio (read 1 October 2026). It reports visibility, position, sentiment and share of voice against the competitors you name. A free trial is offered, length and card terms not stated (read 9 October 2026). Peec's prices load in the browser; the page's server HTML showed none when we read it on 28 September.

Strength: clean competitor benchmarking with sentiment and a login for everyone on the team.

Limit: three engines per plan unless you pay for more, Claude and Grok only on Enterprise, the same contract step Profound asks for, and no Search Console listed.

Pick it if: a marketing team wants share-of-voice dashboards and knows its three engines. Our Peec AI alternatives guide compares it in depth. Peec AI pricing

Which Profound alternative is best for agencies?

An agency pays per client, so look at brands, seats and reports before the sticker price. Cituna Pro covers three brands for $119 a month with five seats, and Max covers ten brands for $399 with fifteen seats, every brand on all seven engines daily. Rankscale's Growth plan adds white-label reports at $385. Otterly.AI Standard ($189) has unlimited workspaces, and Peec AI and AthenaHQ give every plan unlimited users. Against Profound's per-workspace Agency Growth pricing, a flat multi-brand plan is easier to put in a client proposal. Our guide to AI visibility tools for agencies prices a ten-client roster tool by tool.

Which Profound alternative is best on a small budget?

Under $100 a month there are four real options. Otterly.AI Lite at $29 covers four engines, Copilot included, on 15 prompts. Cituna Starter at $49 covers seven engines, Claude and Grok included, on 10 prompts, with Search Console and a written fix. Ahrefs Brand Radar's Custom Prompts start at $50, metered in checks. Peec AI and Promptwatch start at $95 for 50 prompts on three or four engines you pick. AthenaHQ's Essential plan is free, if 300 credits on five engines is enough. Count your buyer questions and the engines your buyers use, then price that, not the entry plan.

Which Profound alternative is best for enterprise teams?

If you are leaving Profound for something of the same size, not something cheaper, two published platforms sell an Enterprise tier above a self-serve start. AthenaHQ's Enterprise plan listed custom credits, the API, multiple regions and languages, SAML/OIDC SSO and audit logs on our 28 September read. Scrunch Enterprise adds Claude, Gemini, AI Mode and Grok to Copilot, with SAML single sign-on and its Agent Experience Platform. Cituna's Max plan covers ten brands and 90 prompts daily on seven engines, with a custom Enterprise plan for bespoke prompt pools and invoiced billing. Ask each one for its security documents before you shortlist.

Which Profound alternative is best for a SaaS team?

Software buyers lean on ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity when they research vendors, and SaaS teams usually want the data inside their own tools. Cituna checks all three daily and ships an MCP server: 22 read tools from Starter and 9 write tools on Pro, such as running a scan or queueing an article, hosted at mcp.cituna.com or run locally with an API key. Promptwatch puts MCP and the API on its $95 plan, with Claude as one of your four models. Rankscale lists MCP on every plan. If your product is sold through Microsoft, add a Copilot tracker such as Otterly.AI.

Which Profound alternative suits brands in the UAE and the Gulf?

No tool on this list is built for the Gulf, so check two settings: the market the tool asks from, and the language of the question. Semrush named the UAE and Saudi Arabia on its region list on our 28 September read. Otterly.AI lists more than 50 countries on every plan. SE Visible's seven markets leave the UAE out, and Scrunch Core and AthenaHQ Starter each allow one market. None of the ten says it tracks prompts in Arabic. Before you pay, set the market to the UAE, run three buyer questions in Arabic and three in English, and compare what the tool records with what you see on your own phone. Our Arabic AI visibility guide explains why the two can differ.

Which alternatives do AI engines name?

Buyers now ask the engines themselves. In our Cituna scan of 22 buyer questions across seven engines on 28 September 2026, the question "best Profound alternative" drew these names: Peec AI, Otterly.AI and Semrush in five of seven answers each, AthenaHQ in four, and Scrunch, Ahrefs Brand Radar and SE Ranking in two. Gemini read "Profound" as a streetwear brand, and Claude asked what Profound is used for, so neither named a tool.

Across all 22 questions, Profound itself appeared in 68 of 153 answers. That tells you which names buyers hear, not which tool is better, which is why every entry above is built from the vendor's own page.

Which tools did we leave off?

SE Ranking Core ($129 a month, or $103.20 billed annually) tracks 100 prompts daily on five LLMs with MCP, API credits and Search Console, and has a 14-day trial with no card (read 1 October 2026). It scores five on our test; we list SE Visible, its AI-only product, instead, and cover the suite in the best AI visibility tools. LLMrefs ($79 a month, 500 prompts on eleven engines, read 1 October 2026) would score eight, but it refreshes weekly, and most teams leaving Profound want daily data. Semrush Enterprise AIO and Cognizo are sold through a demo.

How do I switch from Profound?

1. Write down what you track. The trial has no exports, so copy its 50 prompts by hand. Enterprise lists CSV and JSON exports: export prompts and history before your contract ends.
2. List the engines your buyers use. If Copilot matters, shortlist AthenaHQ, Rankscale, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Otterly.AI, Peec AI or Scrunch. If Claude and Grok matter, look at Cituna, Rankscale, AthenaHQ or Promptwatch.
3. Match the market. Set the same country and language in the new tool, or the answers won't compare.
4. Run both for one to two weeks. Use the same prompts on the same engines, and compare mentions, citations and which competitors are named.
5. Reconnect your reporting. Link Search Console, the API or MCP, and rebuild any client dashboards.
6. Then cancel. Profound doesn't publish its Enterprise terms, so check your notice period with the account team.

Not sure how much to spend? Our guide to what AI visibility tools cost sets out the price bands, and AI visibility tools with a free trial compares what each trial lets you test.

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