The AI visibility category grew up fast: Gartner now publishes a Market Guide for Answer Engine Visibility Tools and at least eight funded platforms compete for the budget. This comparison is honest about where each tool fits — including where ours does not.
Disclosure: this is the AnswerScope blog. We build for the SMB and agency segment — so for enterprise needs we plainly recommend the enterprise tools below.
The market in one view
$155M
raised by Profound, the enterprise leader (700+ enterprise customers)
Public reporting, 2026
$295–545/mo
AthenaHQ self-serve tiers (YC-backed, mid-market)
Published pricing, 2026
$0–99/mo
AnswerScope — the SMB/agency tier of the market
Enterprise: Profound
Profound is the category's best-funded player, serving brands like Target and Walmart. Deep measurement across many engines, agent analytics, security compliance, enterprise support. Entry tier around $99/month covers one engine and limited prompts; real capability lives in custom-priced enterprise contracts. Choose it if you are an enterprise with a martech budget and procurement process. Skip it if you need full multi-engine coverage on an SMB budget.
Mid-market: AthenaHQ, Scrunch, Peec, Otterly
AthenaHQ (Y Combinator-backed, built by ex-Google/DeepMind engineers) leans toward execution with task-style recommendations — self-serve from $295/month. Scrunch (~$100/month) and Peec/Otterly serve similar mid-market teams with different engine mixes and reporting depth. Choose these if you are a funded startup or mid-market marketing team with a few hundred dollars of monthly budget for this category.
SMB & agencies: AnswerScope
AnswerScope covers the segment the funded players ignore: small businesses, indie SaaS, D2C brands, and the agencies that serve them. Free plan (5 prompts, 2 engines, weekly scans, full site audit + fix pack), Pro at $29/month (50 prompts, ChatGPT + Gemini + Perplexity + Claude, daily scans, email reports, CSV), Agency at $99/month (10 brands, white-label printable reports). Two honest differences from the enterprise tools: scoring is deterministic pattern-matching (explainable, but no LLM-judged sentiment analysis), and there is no enterprise SSO/compliance layer.
SEO suites bolting on AI tracking
Semrush, SE Ranking, and other SEO suites have added AI visibility modules. If you already pay for the suite, try the module first — the data is thinner than dedicated tools but the marginal cost is zero. The trade-off is depth: prompt-level tracking, share of voice, and fix generation are usually shallower than category-native products.
How to choose in five minutes
- Enterprise budget, procurement, many stakeholders → Profound (or Peec for EU-heavy teams).
- Funded startup / mid-market, $300+/mo budget → AthenaHQ or Scrunch.
- SMB, indie SaaS, D2C, or agency with client brands → AnswerScope ($0 to validate, $29–99 to operate).
- Already paying for an SEO suite → try its AI module, upgrade to a dedicated tool when depth runs out.
- Whatever you pick: run its free tier against the same 10 prompts and compare the answers you get.
Key takeaways
- The category is real: Gartner guide, 8+ funded platforms, enterprise contracts at Walmart/Target scale.
- Pricing tiers map cleanly: Profound (enterprise) → AthenaHQ/Scrunch (mid-market, $100–545/mo) → AnswerScope (SMB/agency, $0–99/mo).
- SMBs mostly need an audit + fix first, then affordable ongoing monitoring — not an enterprise contract.
- Test any tool with your own 10 buyer prompts before paying.
Start at the free tier
See your AI visibility before you spend anything
Free scan, free plan, no card. Upgrade only when the daily data earns it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI visibility tool in 2026?
It depends on segment: Profound leads for enterprises ($155M raised, 700+ enterprise customers), AthenaHQ and Scrunch serve mid-market teams from about $100–295/month, and AnswerScope covers SMBs and agencies from $0 to $99/month with all four major engines on paid plans.
Is there a free AI visibility checker?
Yes — AnswerScope offers a free public scanner (site AI-readiness audit plus a live AI answer test, no signup) and a free ongoing plan with 5 tracked prompts on 2 engines scanned weekly.
Which engines should an AI visibility tool track?
At minimum ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity; Claude matters in developer and B2B categories. Citation behavior differs sharply between engines, so single-engine tools give a misleading picture.
Do SEO suites like Semrush replace dedicated AI visibility tools?
For a first look, their AI modules are fine and marginally free if you already subscribe. Dedicated tools go deeper on prompt-level tracking, share of voice, citations, and fix generation.