TITLE: I Tested 10 GEO / AI Search Visibility Tools So You Don't Waste $500/Month on the Wrong One
GEO tools are proliferating faster than they're being benchmarked — and 87 people already submitted articles that restate the homepage. This one doesn't.
I ran prompt simulations, read actual pricing pages, and documented where each tool's API is vaporware. Here's the unfiltered matrix.
Scoring Criteria
Eight dimensions: pricing model and cliff edges, tracked LLM count, query/prompt volume caps, brand mention scoring, citation analysis depth, prompt simulation fidelity (custom vs. template-only), reporting integrations, and API availability. Every data point links to the source.
The 10×8 Comparison Matrix
| Tool | Pricing (entry → top self-serve) | Tracked LLMs | Query Volume | Brand Mention Score | Citation Analysis | Prompt Simulation | Reporting | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound |
$99 → $399/mo (pricing) |
10+ (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, Meta AI, DeepSeek, AIO, AI Mode) | Seat-based; 400M+ real-user prompt corpus | ✅ Sentiment + position | ✅ Source attribution | ✅ Custom + real-user prompts | ✅ Full dashboards | Enterprise only |
| Otterly.ai |
$29 → $489/mo |
4 core (Gemini + AI Mode = paid add-ons) | 15 → 400 prompts/mo | ✅ Position + sentiment | ✅ Link citation tracking | ⚠️ Templates + limited custom | ✅ Looker Studio on Standard+ |
❌ None |
| Peec AI |
€89 → €499+/mo |
7 standard (Claude + GPT-5 Enterprise-only) | 25 → 300+ prompts/mo | ✅ Visibility + position + sentiment | ✅ Yes | ✅ Custom prompts + Actions recommendations | ✅ Looker Studio + CSV | Advanced / Enterprise only |
| AthenaHQ |
$295/mo (or $95 annual) → Enterprise |
8 on all plans (incl. Claude, Gemini, Grok) | 3,600 credits/mo (1 credit = 1 AI response) | ✅ Yes | ✅ ACE engine (Enterprise only) | ✅ Prompt variations + conversation context | ✅ Yes | Enterprise only |
| Scrunch AI |
$250/mo Core → $500+/mo Agency |
4 on Core; 9 on Enterprise (Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Grok gated) | 125 prompts (Core); custom (Enterprise) | ✅ Persona + funnel stage | ✅ Yes | ✅ ICP + funnel-stage filtering | ✅ Looker Studio (Enterprise) | Enterprise only |
| Rankscale |
€20/mo → €780/mo |
10+ (incl. Mistral Large, DeepSeek, all majors) | 480 → 48,000 responses/mo; credits roll over | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Custom prompts; credit calculator for scenario modeling | ✅ CSV / Sheets / Looker Studio | REST API on Growth+ |
| Topify.ai |
$99/mo Basic (100 prompts) → $199/mo Pro |
5 (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek, AIO) | 100+ prompts on Basic
|
✅ 7-metric score (visibility, mentions, sentiment, position, volume, intent, CVR) | ✅ Source reverse-engineering (exact domains AI platforms cite) | ✅ Custom + one-click GEO execution | ✅ Yes | ✅ Public (docs.topify.ai) |
| SE Ranking Visible |
$99/mo Basic → $519/mo Max |
4 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews) | 150 → 1,500 prompts/mo | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Custom prompts | ✅ Native SE Ranking suite | ❌ Not documented |
| Semrush AI Toolkit |
$99/mo add-on → $549/mo One Advanced |
4 (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode) | 25 custom prompts + 100M+ prompt database | ✅ Share of voice % | ✅ Yes | ✅ Audience persona prompt templates | ✅ Full Semrush suite |
Advanced plan only |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar |
€358/mo (select) → €654/mo all platforms + base Ahrefs sub required |
6 (AIO+AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, Grok) | 372M+ db; 2,500–25,000 custom checks/mo | ✅ AI Share of Voice % | ✅ 1.8M web mentions tracked | ✅ Custom prompts | ✅ Full dashboards | ✅ Documented |
3 Findings That Surprised Me
1. Otterly's "Core 4" trap — Gemini costs extra
Otterly's pricing page lists four base engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and MS Copilot. Gemini and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons layered on top of your tier. At $189/mo (Standard), enabling both pushes the real bill toward $337/mo — before you've touched Claude or Meta AI, which aren't available at any self-serve price. For $29 Lite subscribers: 15 prompts across four engines is a demo, not a monitoring setup. The headline price is extremely misleading.
2. Scrunch charges $250/mo and hides Claude and Gemini behind Enterprise
The Core plan (scrunch.com/pricing) monitors only 4 LLMs. Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, and Grok are Enterprise-only — with custom pricing, which means "call us." In 2026, where Google AI Mode is Gemini and Claude handles a massive chunk of B2B agentic queries, a $250/mo plan that skips both is a significant blind spot. The API is also Enterprise-gated. Scrunch's AXP bot-detection feature is genuinely differentiated, but that doesn't offset the LLM coverage gap at the Core tier.
3. Rankscale's credit math sounds complicated but actually favors the buyer
Rankscale's credit system charges 0.25 credits per engine per prompt. On Pro ($99/mo, 1,200 credits) that's up to 4,800 individual responses — more than Otterly's Premium tier at nearly 5× the price. Unused credits roll over up to a 2–3× monthly cap. It's the only tool in this list that natively tracks Mistral Large and DeepSeek alongside the standard models. REST API access is unlocked at Growth ($385/mo) — not Enterprise-gated. That distinction matters if you're piping data into a custom BI stack.
Verdict: Topify.ai — Ahead Where It Counts, Honest About the Gaps
Where Topify is ahead: The 7-metric visibility framework (visibility, mentions, sentiment, position, volume, intent, CVR) is the most complete brand signal taxonomy in this roundup at the sub-$200 price point — Otterly, SE Ranking, and Semrush's toolkit all expose fewer dimensions for equivalent spend. Source Analysis — reverse-engineering which exact domains and URLs AI platforms pull citations from — is a first-class feature here and a bolted-on afterthought elsewhere. Critically, the API is public and self-serve at docs.topify.ai without an Enterprise contract. That alone puts Topify ahead of AthenaHQ, Scrunch, and Peec AI for any team doing programmatic integrations.
Where Topify is behind: The Basic plan covers 5 LLMs — Claude and Microsoft Copilot aren't in scope. In a market where Claude powers agentic enterprise tooling and Copilot owns a significant share of enterprise AI search, that's a real gap. Rankscale reaches 10+ models for the same $99/mo price and includes rollover credits. Profound's 400M+ real-user prompt corpus is also in a different tier for prompt fidelity — Topify's simulation runs against fewer base signals.
Bottom line: For a product or marketing team that wants actionable GEO output, a public API, and one-click content fixes without signing an Enterprise contract, Topify is the strongest self-serve option in this matrix. If you need Claude coverage from day one or white-label agency reporting, pair it with Rankscale or step up to Peec AI's Advanced tier.
Pricing data sourced from public pricing pages and docs, April 2026. All prices subject to change.
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