There are seven serious AI visibility platforms on the market right now. They range from $29/month (Otterly) to $499/month (Profound), and most small business owners pick the wrong one — or worse, buy any of them before they've done a single thing that would actually create the citations the tool is supposed to measure.

This is an honest comparison of every meaningful tool in the category, plus a direct answer to the question almost nobody asks first: do I need a tracking tool at all, or do I need someone to do the work?

The category split

Tracking Tools vs. Fix-It Services

The single most important distinction in this category — the one the market gets wrong on almost every comparison post — is the difference between observability and implementation.

Tracking tools tell you whether AI platforms are citing you. They run simulated queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot, log the responses, and show you a dashboard of your share of voice. They do not write your schema. They do not submit your sitemap to Bing. They do not claim your Yelp listing. They do not build a single citation. They watch.

The trap: Spending $499/mo to watch your invisibility is not a strategy. If you are at zero citations today, every dollar that goes to tracking is a dollar not going to the work that creates citations. Tools are the rear-view mirror — not the engine.

That doesn't make tracking tools bad. Once you've done the implementation, monitoring becomes essential — you want to know which queries trigger your name, which competitors are eating your share of voice, and whether last month's content push moved the needle. The question is just one of sequencing: implementation first, observation second.

With that framing, here's an honest look at every tool worth considering, organised by who actually benefits.

Tier 1

Self-Serve Tracking ($29-$60/mo)

For DIY operators who have already implemented schema and citations and now need to monitor what's working. These are the right tools for solo trades, lawyers, dentists and clinic owners tracking 5-20 high-intent queries.

  • Otterly.AI $29/mo
    4.9/5 on G2. Tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot citations with share-of-voice reporting and a weekly digest. The clear value pick for small business — accurate, fast, and priced like a Netflix subscription.
  • Peec AI $39/mo
    Very similar feature set to Otterly. Slightly weaker historical data and a less mature dashboard, but credible. Reasonable backup if Otterly somehow doesn't fit.
  • Mention $41-$149/mo
    Brand mention monitoring across the web — not citation-specific. Useful if you want a single tool that watches social, press and AI together, but you'll miss the deep LLM-level granularity Otterly and Peec provide.
  • SE Ranking $103/mo
    Traditional SEO platform with an AI tracking add-on. Worth it if you already need rank tracking, keyword research and competitor analysis. Overkill if AI visibility is your only need.
Verdict Otterly is the value pick for solo trades, lawyers, dentists and any small business tracking 5-20 queries. The other three are situational and only make sense if their non-AI features matter to you independently.
Tier 2

Agency / Mid-Market ($150-$499/mo)

This tier exists for marketing teams and agencies managing multiple brands, product lines, or client accounts. The added cost buys breadth — more LLMs tracked, larger query volumes, multi-brand dashboards, and richer competitive analysis.

  • AthenaHQ ~$249/mo
    Unified GEO command center tracking 8+ LLMs. Strong UX, good prompt management, designed for agencies running comparative analysis across multiple client accounts. The most defensible mid-tier pick.
  • Profound $499/mo
    Enterprise sentiment analysis and share-of-voice across LLMs. Built for marketing teams managing major brands. Powerful, but the weakest fit for small business — you pay for breadth you'll never use.
  • Scrunch AI ~$179/mo
    Strong for category analysis — understanding how AI describes your entire vertical, not just your brand. Good if you're a category leader trying to defend share or a challenger trying to enter the conversation.
Verdict Only worth it if you're a marketing agency tracking 5+ client accounts or a brand with multiple product lines. Solo operators get sharply diminishing returns above Otterly's $29/month tier — paying 10x more does not buy 10x the insight.
Tier 3

Enterprise ($1K+/mo)

The bolt-on tier. Two of the biggest SEO platforms have added AI visibility modules to their existing suites. They're decent if you already pay for the parent product. They're a poor primary purchase.

  • Semrush AI Toolkit $140-$500+/mo
    Bolted onto the Semrush platform. Decent AI mention tracking if you already pay for Semrush. Do not subscribe to Semrush solely for the AI toolkit — Otterly does the AI piece better, alone.
  • Ahrefs Brand Radar $129-$449+/mo
    Same logic as Semrush. Brand Radar is a useful add-on if Ahrefs is already part of your stack, weak as a standalone reason to buy Ahrefs.
  • Custom enterprise (Profound Enterprise, etc.) $2K-$15K/mo
    Multi-brand, multi-region, multi-language deployments with custom prompts and API access. Real value if you're an in-house enterprise team. Stop reading this guide and call sales.
Verdict Stop. If you're reading a comparison guide on the public internet, you are not the customer for this tier.
The honest part

What None of Them Do

Tracking tools do not write your schema. They do not submit your sitemap to Bing. They do not build directory citations. They do not create FAQ content. They do not get you reviews. They observe. To move from invisible to cited, you need implementation — not observation.

This is not a knock on the tools. It's a clarification of what category they're in. Otterly, Profound, Peec, AthenaHQ, Scrunch — all of them — are analytics products. Buying one before you've built the underlying authority is like buying a Strava subscription before you own running shoes.

The work that actually creates AI citations is unglamorous: LocalBusiness schema in your <head>, NAP-consistent listings across 50+ directories, FAQPage markup on every service page, reviews flowing in monthly, fresh content answering the exact questions your customers ask. None of that ships from a dashboard.

Side-by-side

Tool-by-Tool Comparison Table

Tool Monthly cost Platforms tracked Best for Does the work?
Otterly.AI $29 ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot Solo trades, dentists, lawyers No — tracking only
Peec AI $39 4 major LLMs Small biz backup pick No — tracking only
Mention $41-$149 Web + social + AI mentions PR / brand teams No — monitoring only
SE Ranking $103 SEO + AI add-on SEO-led marketers No — tracking only
Scrunch AI ~$179 5-6 LLMs + category Category challengers No — tracking only
AthenaHQ ~$249 8+ LLMs Agencies, multi-brand No — tracking only
Profound $499 All major LLMs + sentiment Enterprise SOV No — tracking only
We Get Found $197-$1,497 All 7 LLMs Done-for-you, all verticals Yes — implementation
Buy this when

When Tools Make Sense

There are exactly three scenarios where a tracking tool is the right next purchase. Honest advice — these are the only three.

  • You've already done the implementation. Schema deployed, all major directories claimed, 150+ Google reviews, 10+ FAQs published, Bing index confirmed. Buy Otterly at $29/mo to monitor. This is the textbook fit.
  • You're an agency with 5+ active clients. Buy AthenaHQ at ~$249/mo, or build a workflow on top of Otterly with one seat per client. You need multi-brand dashboards and white-label reporting.
  • You're an enterprise with brand SOV concerns. Buy Profound. The sentiment analysis and share-of-voice rollups across LLMs are genuinely best-in-class at this tier, and the price is a rounding error against your marketing budget.
Don't buy this when

When Tools Don't Make Sense (The Trap)

  • You're at zero citations today. Tracking $0 every month doesn't move it to $1. The graph stays flat until someone does the underlying work.
  • You don't have LocalBusiness schema. Spending $29-$499 on tracking is like buying a fitness tracker before joining the gym. The number on the screen is real. It will not change because you bought the watch.
  • You're a small business spending >$200/mo on tracking. That money should go to the work. Directory submissions, schema deployment, FAQ content production, review generation. Every dollar there compounds. Every dollar in a $499/mo dashboard evaporates.

Buying a citation tracker before you have citations is like buying a Bloomberg terminal before you have a portfolio. The dashboard works perfectly. It just has nothing to display.

The alternative

The Done-For-You Alternative — What Implementation Actually Costs

If the conclusion from the previous two sections is "I don't have the underlying authority yet," the honest next step is to either build it yourself (we have a complete guide for that) or have someone do it. For context, here's what an implementation service costs versus assembling the work yourself.

Discovered $197/mo
Schema deployment + Google Business Profile optimisation + 10 directory citations + monthly citation monitoring across all 7 LLMs. The starter tier for businesses building their first AI footprint.
Get Found $597/mo
Everything in Discovered + 50 directory citations + FAQ content production + ongoing schema and content optimisation. The tier most established small businesses sit on.
Dominant $1,497/mo
Everything in Get Found + ongoing content production + multi-location optimisation + competitive displacement strategy. The tier for category leaders defending or challengers attacking.

The math worth pausing on: the Get Found tier at $597/mo replaces a tracking subscription plus the labour stack required to actually produce citations. Roughly:

What $597/mo replaces: Otterly tracking ($29) + 6-12 hours/week of your own time + a freelancer schema writer ($300) + a directory submission VA ($150) + content writer ($600) — roughly $1,100/mo of equivalent labour and tools, plus the calendar weeks of coordination overhead.

Common questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Two paths from here

Find out where you actually stand — then decide what to buy

Run the free AI Visibility Diagnostic first. It gives you roughly the same baseline data as Otterly's first week — citation status, schema audit, Bing index check — for $0. If you're already past diagnostic and ready for implementation, jump straight to the Get Found tier.

Run free diagnostic See Get Found pricing

Diagnostic takes 60 seconds  ·  No signup needed  ·  Free forever