Profound Alternatives: 8 Tools Compared for 2026

The best Profound alternatives are Depra AI for brands selling in India, Otterly and Peec AI for a published price on a small US dollar budget, AthenaHQ for the most models on a self-serve plan, Scrunch for site audits next to monitoring, and the Semrush, SE Ranking and Ahrefs AI tools for teams already on those SEO suites (Otterly pricing (opens in a new tab), Peec AI plan details (opens in a new tab), AthenaHQ plans (opens in a new tab), Scrunch pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). The usual reason to look elsewhere is price: for brands, Profound's pricing page lists a free 7-day trial and an Enterprise plan priced on request, and shows no monthly price (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

Profound tracks how often AI answers name your brand when people ask buying questions. Each question you track is called a prompt. Google AI Overviews are the AI summaries Google shows above normal search results. Hinglish is Hindi-English typed in English letters, the way many Indians ask. All eight tools below do that core job. They differ on which AI engines they cover, which country the questions are asked from, which languages they support and what they cost. Depra AI publishes this page and sits on the list, so every competitor price links to the vendor page we read on 8 Oct 2026, and the Depra AI section lists what Depra AI does not track.

What do Profound's plans track?

For brands, Profound's pricing page lists two plans: a free Trial and Enterprise (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). The Trial runs 50 prompts daily for 7 days on three engines, ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, in 1 language and 1 region. Profound picks the prompt set, and you cannot edit it.

Enterprise is priced on request and sold through a demo. It tracks up to 9 engines, which the page lists as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search, with a tailored number of prompts and custom languages and regions. Both plans list unlimited seats. Perplexity, AI Mode, Copilot and Claude therefore need an Enterprise contract. When we first checked on 15 Sep 2026 the page listed a $99 Starter plan and a $399 Growth plan; neither is on it now. Profound's own pages disagree on its plans: the FAQ on its Answer Engine Insights page still says Starter plans include 50 monthly prompts and Growth plans allow 100 (Profound Answer Engine Insights (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). The same FAQ names Grok, not Exa Search, among the engines Profound queries.

Profound's Answer Engine Insights page (opens in a new tab) says it supports 30+ languages and 150+ regions (checked 8 Oct 2026). The free trial includes 1 language and 1 region. Neither page names India, Hindi or Hinglish.

Profound also sells things most tools on this page do not list: an AI Marketer and Agents for content work, paid in credits, Agent Analytics for AI-sourced traffic across your domains, and Prompt Volumes, its data on what people ask AI (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). If those matter more to you than a published price, ask Profound for an Enterprise quote. For a two-tool view, read Depra AI vs Profound.

Which Profound alternative fits your situation?

Start from where your buyers are and what you already pay for. The short version:

• Buyers in India, rupee budget: Depra AI, ₹1,999 a month plus GST for ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews in English, Hinglish, French and most other major languages, plus code-mixed questions.
• Lowest US dollar price: Otterly Lite, $29 a month for 4 engines and 15 prompts.
• 3 engines of your choice at a published price: Peec AI Starter, $95 a month for 50 prompts.
• Most models on a self-serve plan: AthenaHQ Starter, 11 models for $295 a month.
• Site audits next to monitoring: Scrunch Core, $250 a month with 5 site audits a month.
• Already on an SEO suite: the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit ($99 a month per domain, billed annually), the SE Ranking AI Search add-on ($89) or Ahrefs Brand Radar ($199) (Semrush AI pricing (opens in a new tab), SE Ranking pricing (opens in a new tab), Ahrefs pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

1. Depra AI: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews for brands in 40 markets

Depra AI asks the questions your buyers type to every AI engine you track from inside the country you pick, then stores every full answer. For each answer it records whether you were named, in what position, in what tone, and which websites were cited. It captures the answers real people see in ChatGPT (with web search on) and Gemini, plus the Google AI Overview for the same query. These run daily, and so does Perplexity (its Sonar model with live web search), on every plan.

Against Profound, the difference is a published price: every Depra AI plan lists its price and includes ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, where Profound's only paid plan for brands is priced on request (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Depra AI Starter is ₹1,999 a month for 16 prompt slots, 1 project and 3 competitors. Growth is ₹7,499 (70 prompt slots, 2 projects, 5 competitors), Scale ₹12,499 (120 prompt slots shared across 5 projects) and Enterprise ₹25,000, invoiced. Prices exclude 18% GST and come with a GST invoice. Starter, Growth and Scale start with 7 days free, no card needed. Enterprise trials are opened by the Depra AI team. Your first free scan runs before the trial. See Depra AI pricing.

For India, Depra AI suggests 5 topics with 8 buying questions each, none containing your brand name, and writes Hinglish versions of them. On Growth and above, your report shows English and Hinglish visibility side by side. A gap view lists the websites that recommend your competitors but never mention you. Depra AI covers 40 markets, up to 10 per project, at country level.

Beyond ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, which are on every plan, Google AI Mode, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Meta AI are Enterprise add-ons. Depra AI has no alerts, general REST API, counts of full questions or AI referral traffic data. Its MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP apps is read-only. Where available, prompt volume uses measured DataForSEO keyword demand as a proxy for a prompt. More on Hinglish AI visibility tracking.

• Pick it if your buyers are in India, you want Hinglish answers measured next to English ones, and you budget in rupees with a GST invoice.
• Skip it if you need Google AI Mode, Claude or Copilot without an Enterprise plan, or data on how many people ask each question.

Language changes AI answers. In 480 answers asked from inside India in August 2026, Gemini cited sources in 90.0% of English answers and in 41.3% of Hinglish answers (October 2026 re-run: 73.4% and 56.3%).

2. Peec AI: three engines of your choice from $95 a month

Peec AI reports visibility, position, sentiment and share of voice in AI answers for marketing teams and agencies. Share of voice is your share of all brand mentions in the answers you track. Every self-serve plan lets you choose 3 of 6 models. Peec AI pages disagree on the six: the plan table on the pricing page lists ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Naver AI, with Perplexity in the Enterprise column, while the AI instructions page and the add-on section of the same pricing page name Perplexity in place of Naver AI. More models are a paid add-on (Peec AI pricing (opens in a new tab), Peec AI instructions page (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

Price: Starter $95 a month for 50 prompts, 1 project and 1 country. Pro is $245 for 150 prompts and 3 countries, and Advanced $495 for 350 prompts and 3 countries. All three list unlimited users and daily tracking, and annual billing takes 15% off (Peec AI pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026, monthly billing).

Against Profound: Peec AI Starter covers 50 prompts on 3 engines, the same counts as Profound's free trial (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026), at a published $95 a month and with no 7-day limit. Read Depra AI vs Peec AI or the full list of Peec AI alternatives.

• Pick it if you want Gemini or AI Mode on a small plan, unlimited users, and a choice of which 3 engines to watch.
• Skip it if you need more than 3 engines without add-ons, more than 1 country on Starter, or Hinglish, which the pricing page does not mention.

3. Otterly: the cheapest plan priced in US dollars

Otterly monitors brand mentions and cited links in AI search. Lite includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with daily tracking and unlimited team members. Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons. Otterly pages disagree on the country count: the pricing page says 50+, while the help centre says 70+ and names India. India is on the country list (opens in a new tab) with all seven engines available.

Price: Lite $29 a month for 15 prompts, Standard $189 for 100 prompts, Premium $489 for 400 prompts, and Enterprise priced on request from 1,000 prompts. Annual billing takes 15% off, and the pricing page offers a free trial for new users (Otterly pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Otterly pages disagree on the length of the free, no-card trial: the help centre and the homepage FAQ say 7 days, while the signup section of the homepage says 14 days. Sources: Otterly free trial page (opens in a new tab) and Otterly homepage (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026.

Against Profound: Lite is a paid plan at a published $29 a month, with 4 engines and 15 prompts. Profound's free trial runs 50 prompts on 3 engines and ends after 7 days (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Full comparison: Depra AI vs Otterly.

• Pick it if you want the lowest US dollar price on this page, Copilot tracked, or India as a location on a small plan.
• Skip it if 15 prompts is too few for your categories, or you need Hinglish, which the pricing page does not mention.

4. Scrunch: monitoring plus site audits

Scrunch pairs AI monitoring with site audits and a view of AI bot traffic. Core lists 4 models: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot. Enterprise lists 9, adding Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode and Grok.

Price: Core is $250 a month for 125 prompts, 1 brand workspace, 5 user licences, 5 competitors and 5 site audits a month, in 1 country and 1 language. Core has a 7-day free trial. Enterprise is priced on request (Scrunch pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

Against Profound: Core publishes its price, $250 a month for 4 engines and 125 prompts. Scrunch Enterprise lists 9 engines, against up to 9 on Profound Enterprise, and both are priced on request (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Full comparison: Depra AI vs Scrunch.

• Pick it if you want Copilot tracked, 5 seats, and site audits in the same tool as your AI visibility numbers.
• Skip it if you need Gemini or Claude without an Enterprise contract, more than 1 country, or Hinglish, which the pricing page does not list.

5. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: for teams already on Semrush

Semrush sells the AI Visibility Toolkit on its own or inside Semrush One plans. The pricing page says it reports mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity. Semrush pages disagree on AI Overviews for your own prompts: the data sources page says Prompt Tracking covers Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini and ChatGPT Search, while the Prompt Tracking guide lists ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode and Gemini. The Semrush toolkit help page lists India among the regions its database reports cover, and says Prompt Tracking supports 220+ countries and territories. Sources: data sources (opens in a new tab), Prompt Tracking guide (opens in a new tab) and toolkit help page (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026. Prompt Research shows topic-level volume, difficulty and intent.

Price: $99 a month per domain, billed annually, with 25 custom prompts tracked daily (Semrush AI pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). 50 more prompts cost $60 a month (toolkit help page (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). The Semrush toolkit help page says the AI Visibility Toolkit has no free trial, and the toolkit plan on the AI pricing page has a Subscribe button only. Semrush lists its 7-day free trial for Semrush One and other toolkits (Semrush subscriptions help (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Semrush One Starter is $199 a month, or $165.17 a month billed annually. It bundles SEO and AI tools with 50 prompts (Semrush One pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Side by side: Depra AI vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit.

Against Profound: a published $99 a month per domain, billed annually, with 25 prompts on 3 engines for your own questions, per its Prompt Tracking guide: ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode and Gemini. Profound's free trial runs 50 prompts on 3 engines for 7 days (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

• Pick it if you already pay for Semrush and want AI answers next to keyword rankings, plus data on which AI topics people search.
• Skip it if you need your own questions tracked on Perplexity, or need Hinglish, which the toolkit pages do not mention.

6. SE Ranking: AI answers inside an SEO platform

SE Ranking is an SEO platform with an AI Search add-on. The add-on lists Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and ChatGPT for tracking and competitor research, starting at 200 prompts.

Price: Core is $129 a month on monthly billing ($103.20 billed annually) with 100 prompts tracked daily. Growth is $279 with 250 prompts. The AI Search add-on costs $89 a month, or $71.20 billed annually. The 14-day free trial needs no credit card and includes 20 AI prompts a day (SE Ranking pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). The pricing page does not say which engines Core's own prompts run on without the add-on.

Against Profound: Core plus the add-on is a published $218 a month for 4 listed engines and a full SEO suite, with a 14-day trial against 7 days on Profound (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

• Pick it if you want rank tracking, site audits and AI answers on one bill, and a 14-day trial with no card.
• Skip it if you only need AI visibility, or you need Copilot, which the pricing page does not list.

7. Ahrefs Brand Radar: research any brand without writing prompts

Brand Radar measures how often AI answers mention or cite a brand across 462M+ prompts that Ahrefs runs through Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. You can look up any brand with no setup, then add custom prompts for questions the database does not cover. Claude is available as an extra.

Price: the AI Visibility Index starts at $199 a month for a single platform, or $699 a month for all platforms with 2,500 custom prompt checks a month. One check is one prompt on one platform in one location. Custom prompts are included in Ahrefs paid plans, 5 on the $129 Lite plan, and custom prompt packages start at $50 a month (Brand Radar (opens in a new tab) and Ahrefs pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). The pricing FAQ says Ahrefs does not run discounts and points site owners to the Ahrefs Free account (Ahrefs pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

Against Profound: a published price, from $199 a month for one platform to $699 a month for all 6, and a ready-made prompt database.

• Pick it if your team works in Ahrefs, or you want to see which brands AI names in a category before you write any prompts.
• Skip it if you need a published country list that includes India, a free trial, or Hinglish. The pages we checked show none of the three.

8. AthenaHQ: the most models on a self-serve plan

AthenaHQ combines AI visibility tracking with on-page and off-page actions and a content optimisation agent. Its free Essential plan includes $25 of credit (300 credits) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot. Starter lists 11 models: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral.

Price: Starter is $295 a month on monthly billing, with 3,600 credits a month, where 1 credit is 1 AI response. Annual billing takes 17% off. Starter covers a single region and language; multiple regions need Enterprise. API access and extra credits are paid add-ons (AthenaHQ plans (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

Credits are shared across models, so running every prompt on all 11 models spends 11 credits a run. At that rate 3,600 credits cover about 10 prompts a day for 30 days (10 × 11 × 30 = 3,300 credits).

• Pick it if you want Claude, Grok, DeepSeek or Meta AI without an enterprise contract, or a free plan to test with.
• Skip it if you track many prompts daily across all models, need more than one region, or need Hinglish, which the plans page does not mention.

What does each tool cost per AI engine?

Per AI engine, the plans below cost from about $5.23 a month (Depra AI Starter) to $116.50 (Ahrefs Brand Radar, all platforms). To get each figure, divide the plan's published monthly price by the number of AI engines it tracks. Profound is left out, because its only paid plan for brands has no published price (Profound pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Among the US dollar plans, Otterly Lite is the lowest at $7.25 and the Ahrefs Brand Radar index on all platforms the highest (Otterly pricing (opens in a new tab), Ahrefs Brand Radar (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026). Depra AI Starter, ₹1,999 across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, comes to ₹499.75 per engine before GST, about $5.23 at ₹95.55 to the dollar.

Engines are only half the bill, because a cheap plan with few prompts covers fewer questions. Dividing again by prompts gives the monthly price of one question tracked on one engine: Peec AI Starter $95 ÷ (50 × 3) = $0.63, Otterly Lite $29 ÷ (15 × 4) = $0.48, and Depra AI Starter, 16 prompt slots on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews for ₹1,999, comes to ₹31.23, about $0.33 (Peec AI plan details (opens in a new tab), Otterly pricing (opens in a new tab), checked 8 Oct 2026).

How did we compare these tools?

We read each vendor's public pricing page, product page or help page on 15 Sep 2026, loaded in a browser so script-rendered prices showed, and again on 7 Oct 2026 and 8 Oct 2026, and linked the page next to each price. Prices are in the currency the vendor publishes, before tax, on monthly billing where the page offers it. Semrush shows annual billing, so its figure is an annual price expressed per month. Where a page had changed, as Profound's plans had, we rewrote the facts from it. Where a vendor's own pages disagree, as with Otterly's trial length, we say so. Where a page did not state a fact, the table says "Not published".

We did not test the competitor tools hands-on, so this page compares published plans and coverage and says nothing about answer quality. Engine counts are what each vendor lists, and vendors capture answers in different ways. Tools are ordered by fit for brands selling in India, which puts Depra AI first. For a shortlist that does not start from Profound, see the best AI visibility tools, or browse all Depra AI comparisons.