Buyers look past Profound for three reasons: price, which engines actually get measured, and whether you can read the real AI answer behind a score. In our own September 2026 check of 100 buyer questions, Profound was named most (94 of 300 answers), with six other tools also showing up.
The two complaints that come up most are price and engine coverage. Profound publishes no monthly price: the pricing page offers a 7-day free trial with 50 prompts a day on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, then plans by quote, and Claude appears only among the engines of the higher tiers (tryprofound.com/pricing, September 2026). A third, quieter complaint is evidence: Profound reports composite scores and agent-run credits rather than a plain, per-answer record you can open and read.
Bottom line: if you need Claude today, or you want to see the answer behind the number without an enterprise contract, Profound's own pricing page is the reason people start looking elsewhere.
Our full ranking, the 10 best AI visibility tools in 2026, covers ten vendors in depth. Here are the seven a Profound buyer compares most often, side by side:
| Tool | Engines measured | How answers are shown | Free tier | Starting price | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on the trial; Claude and others on higher tiers | Composite scores; agent-run credits | No ongoing free plan (one-time trial) | see vendor pricing page | Enterprise teams wanting agent-level analytics |
| Peec AI | 3 models per plan (ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and more to pick from); an extra model from 25 euros a month | Visibility % + cited sources per prompt | Free trial only | 85 euros/mo (Starter, 50 prompts) | Teams that want to build a large, custom prompt set |
| Otterly.AI | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot on Lite; Claude/Gemini paid add-ons | Mentions + cited sources | Free trial only | $29/mo | Solo marketers, smallest budget |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity, no Claude | Share of voice + sentiment | No standalone free tier | $99/mo add-on (or $199/mo bundled) | SEO teams already paying for Semrush |
| Scrunch AI | 4 AI models on Core; 9 on Enterprise | Visibility + AI-readiness score, site audits | 7-day free trial | $250/mo | Enterprise content teams wanting fixes bundled in |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Sold per engine index; up to 6 for $699/mo | Mentions / share of voice | No (comes with free Ahrefs account) | ~$199/mo per index (add-on to a plan from $129/mo) | Teams that want AI share of voice next to Ahrefs SEO data |
| Reflexa | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity | Raw AI answer + sources attached to every finding | Yes, first check free, no card, ~3 min | $49/mo | Teams that want a measurement they can defend, not a black-box score |
Proof: Trakkr, Profound pricing breakdown · Get Ryze, Peec AI pricing · That Marketing Buddy, Otterly.AI pricing · Trakkr, Semrush AI Toolkit pricing · Trakkr, Scrunch AI pricing · Connor Kimball, Ahrefs Brand Radar pricing, all read September 2026. Vendors change plans often; check the vendor's own page before buying.
Note: engines listed are each vendor's own published tier limits, not a claim about what they technically can query, a higher tier usually unlocks more.
Reflexa is the one in this group that attaches the complete AI answer and its sources to every finding, per engine. Otterly.AI and Peec AI go a step further than a bare percentage by showing which sources an engine cited for a given prompt, which is useful, but neither publishes a full answer-by-answer log the way Reflexa's public AI Visibility Index does. Profound, Semrush AI Toolkit, Scrunch AI and Ahrefs Brand Radar each report a score, a percentage or a share-of-voice figure as the primary output.
Why it matters: you cannot fix an answer you cannot read. A score tells you that you are losing; the raw answer tells you which sentence, which competitor and which source cost you the mention.
The three differ by depth, prompt style and who already pays for the parent product. Profound goes deepest on enterprise-grade analytics and agent-traffic tracking, at enterprise prices. Peec AI is built around a large, fully custom prompt set, which suits a team that already knows the exact questions it wants tracked. Semrush AI Toolkit is an add-on: it makes the most sense if you already pay for Semrush and want AI mentions next to your existing rankings, but it does not measure Claude and its unit of analysis is still closer to a keyword than a buyer's question.
Pick by workflow: Profound for an analytics team, Peec AI for a team that writes its own prompts, Semrush AI Toolkit for a team that lives in Semrush already.
We asked ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity 100 real buyer questions about AI visibility tools in September 2026 and counted the names in all 300 answers. This is the same kind of measurement these tools sell, run on their own category:
| Tool | Answers naming it (of 300) |
|---|---|
| Profound | 94 |
| Semrush | 67 |
| Otterly.AI | 49 |
| Peec AI | 49 |
| Ahrefs | 39 |
| SE Ranking | 21 |
| Scrunch AI | 19 |
Proof: Reflexa AI Visibility Index, September 2026 (100 buyer questions about AI visibility tools, 3 engines, 300 observed answers, counted by name).
Read it as rank, not market share: 94 of 300 is under a third of answers, not a majority, Profound leads a crowded field rather than dominating it.
You can shortlist a Profound alternative without buying anything yet:
Reflexa's free first check and HubSpot's AEO Grader are the two genuinely free options. Reflexa's free check covers ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity with the raw answer as evidence; HubSpot's grader is a one-time snapshot across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
At the entry tier Peec AI publishes a price and Profound does not. Peec AI's Starter plan is 85 euros a month for 50 prompts across three models, with 15 percent off on annual billing (peec.ai/pricing, September 2026). Profound's pricing page lists a 7-day free trial and plans by quote, with no public monthly price (tryprofound.com/pricing, September 2026).
No. Semrush's AI Toolkit measures ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, but not Claude (semrush.com/pricing/ai, September 2026).
Reflexa attaches the full raw AI answer and its sources to every finding, for ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. Otterly.AI and Peec AI show which sources an engine cited alongside a prompt, but neither publishes a complete answer-by-answer evidence log the way Reflexa does.
Otterly.AI's Lite plan at $29/month is the cheapest paid option (otterly.ai/pricing, September 2026). Reflexa's first check is free with no card required and takes about three minutes.
The free check runs your real buyer questions across ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, evidence attached, no card needed.