Profound Alternatives (2026)
All third-party figures read from public pricing pages and verified 2026-08-09. Where a fact could not be verified, the table says so.
Profound is the best-known name in answer-engine visibility, and at the enterprise end it earns that: up to 9 engines tracked, SOC 2 and SSO/SAML, and heavy monitoring volume. The most common reason teams look for an alternative is the price ladder underneath that: the $99/mo Starter tracks ChatGPT only, and multi-engine coverage starts at $399/mo billed yearly.
Below are the five alternatives we can stand behind with verified numbers, each read from its public pricing page on August 9, 2026. One of them is our own product, held to the same standard as the rest.
If procurement requires SOC 2 and SSO, if you need more than 8 engines tracked, or if you want 9,000 tracked responses a month with dedicated Slack support, Profound's Enterprise tier is built for exactly that and none of the alternatives below fully matches it.
The alternatives at a glance
| Platform | Entry price | Engines at entry | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI-Advisors (that's us) | $49/mo | 3 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) | 5-module breadth: monitoring plus audits, analytics, and ChatGPT Ads tooling |
| Otterly | $29/mo | 4 (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot) | Cheapest entry in the category |
| Peec AI | $80/mo (billed annually) | Choose 3 of 6 (ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini) | Unlimited users on every tier |
| Scrunch | $250/mo (billed annually) | 7 surfaces (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Meta) | Persona-based tracking plus industry prompt libraries |
| AthenaHQ | Free (paid from $295/mo) | 5 free / 9 on Starter (adds AI Mode, Copilot, Grok) | A genuinely free entry tier |
The alternatives, in detail
AI-Advisorsour product, held to the same standard
$49/mo Starter (3 engines, 50 prompts) · $99/mo Growth (4 engines, 100 prompts) · custom Enterprise · 14-day trial
Best for: Mid-market B2B teams that want measurement and remediation on one self-serve plan under $100/mo.
- Five modules on every plan: visibility monitoring, a 29-check AEO audit engine (all checks published), AI crawler and referral analytics, ChatGPT Ads tooling with a Google Ads converter, and automation.
- The lowest multi-engine entry price in this list: 3 engines at $49/mo, 4 at $99/mo.
- An MCP server from the Growth tier, so Claude or Cursor can query visibility, citations, audits, and traffic directly.
Worth knowing: A younger product than the enterprise incumbents, and top-end prompt volume (100 pooled outside Enterprise) sits below Otterly Premium's 400 or Scrunch's 700.
Otterly
$29/mo Lite (15 prompts, 4 engines) · $189/mo Standard (100 prompts) · $489/mo Premium (400 prompts) · free trial
Best for: Teams that want the lowest-cost way to start tracking a small prompt set.
- The category's cheapest entry: $29/mo ($25 annual) with 4 engines including Microsoft Copilot on the base tier.
- Developer plumbing from $189: API access, MCP access, and a Looker Studio connector.
- Prompt volume scales to 400 on Premium, with $99/mo packs of 100 beyond that.
Worth knowing: 15 prompts at entry is tight for most brands, and extra volume is priced per pack.
Peec AI
$80/mo Starter (50 prompts) · $205/mo Pro (150) · $420/mo Advanced (350), billed annually · custom Enterprise
Best for: Agencies running several client projects with many hands in the account.
- Unlimited users on every listed tier, rare in this category.
- A six-engine menu including Google AI Mode, with three selectable on standard tiers.
- Multi-project structure up to 5 projects on Advanced; reports 3,000+ brands and agencies use it (its own figure).
Worth knowing: Listed prices are annual billing (its Save badges show monthly billing costs $180 to $900 more per year), and non-Enterprise tiers cap you at 3 engines at a time.
Scrunch
$250/mo billed annually ($300 monthly) Starter · $417/$500 Growth · custom Enterprise · 7-day trial
Best for: Teams that want managed prompt volume and persona-level views of AI answers.
- Volume at entry: 350 custom plus 1,000 industry prompts on Starter, with personas built in.
- Seven tracked surfaces including Meta on every tier.
- An enterprise path with SAML/OIDC and a data API.
Worth knowing: Entry price is roughly 5x the category's low end, and page audits are capped small (5 on Starter).
AthenaHQ
Free Essential (300 credits, 5 models) · $295/mo Starter (3,600 credits, 9 models) · custom Enterprise
Best for: Teams that want to start free and get broad model coverage when they pay.
- A real free tier: 300 credits across 5 models with unlimited members.
- 9 models on the $295 Starter, including Grok.
- Credit-based pricing (1 credit = 1 AI response) that flexes with usage.
Worth knowing: The jump from free to $295/mo is the steepest first step in this list, and API access is a paid add-on.
How this list was built
How this list was built: every price and plan fact was read from the vendors' public pricing pages on August 9, 2026 (Peec's prices, which render in-browser only, were verified by a human check the same day), with verbatim quotes kept in an internal source map. AI-Advisors is our product and is included in the list; its entry is held to the same verified-facts standard, its weaknesses are stated, and every vendor's genuine strengths are conceded. Where a fact could not be verified from public sources, we say so instead of guessing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Profound?
It depends on what pushed you to look. For a mid-market team that wants multi-engine coverage plus auditing and ads tooling under $100/mo, AI-Advisors covers 3 engines at $49 and 4 at $99. For the lowest possible entry, Otterly starts at $29/mo with 4 engines. Agencies with many users lean Peec AI (unlimited seats). Teams wanting persona-based tracking at volume lean Scrunch, and AthenaHQ is the one with a genuinely free tier. All prices verified August 9, 2026.
Is there a cheaper Profound alternative with more engine coverage?
Yes, at the entry tier. Profound's $99/mo Starter tracks ChatGPT only. At or below that price point, AI-Advisors tracks 3 engines at $49/mo, Otterly tracks 4 engines at $29/mo, and Peec AI offers a choose-3-of-6 menu at $80/mo billed annually. Profound's own multi-engine coverage starts at $399/mo.
What does Profound offer that its alternatives do not?
Per its public pricing page: up to 9 answer engines on Enterprise (the widest in this comparison), SOC 2 compliance and SSO/SAML as listed features, 9,000 tracked responses per month on Growth, and dedicated Slack support. If those are requirements rather than nice-to-haves, the alternatives compete on price and breadth, not on matching that enterprise profile.
Is AI-Advisors a good Profound alternative?
For mid-market B2B teams, that is the segment it is built for: 3 to 4 engines at $49 to $99/mo plus a 29-check AEO audit engine, AI crawler analytics, ChatGPT Ads tooling, and an MCP server, on a 14-day self-serve trial. It is a younger product than Profound and does not match Profound's enterprise compliance profile or 9-engine ceiling; teams with those requirements should stay upmarket.