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MarketHQ
Alternatives

AthenaHQ alternatives for AI visibility and brand monitoring

Updated October 2026

AthenaHQ is the easiest AI-visibility tool in the category to try, because the first tier costs nothing. The reason people go looking for an alternative is what happens next: the step from free to the Starter plan is $295 a month, and the meter is credits rather than anything you can predict. Every competitor fact below was read off that vendor's own site, most recently 1 October 2026.

Quick answer

MarketHQ joins weekly AI visibility on six engines to the news, blog, social and community posts behind the score, from $29 a month with an API and MCP on every paid plan; AthenaHQ lists a free Essential plan with $25 of credit, then Starter at $295. The field also includes Profound, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI, Goodie AI, Peec AI and Brand24, each tracking AI answers only.

Key points

  • MarketHQ checks six AI engines weekly on every paid plan from $29 a month and adds gap analysis and an action plan; AthenaHQ meters answer engines in credits.
  • MarketHQ includes API and MCP on every paid plan; AthenaHQ sells API access as a paid add-on.
  • Otterly.ai Lite at $29 and Rankscale.ai Essentials from $20 are the cheapest published paid plans here for engine scores only.

Why choose MarketHQ instead of AthenaHQ?

MarketHQ is built for teams that need to act on the AI-visibility gap, not just measure it.

AthenaHQ is easy to try: a free tier with five engines, then Starter at $295 with eleven models. MarketHQ checks six engines weekly on every paid plan from $29 and joins the score to the news, blog, social and community posts behind it, with labelled mentions, Reddit, X, LinkedIn, YouTube and Bluesky on paid plans.

AthenaHQ gives you a score; MarketHQ sends a Slack daily digest, runs gap analysis with one move per gap, answers questions about your evidence in chat, and includes API and MCP access on every paid plan. Countries to track run from 1 on Lite to 10 on Enterprise, with AI questions shared across them. Tiers differ by tracking capacity only.

Choose AthenaHQ if a free entry point with strong enterprise features is the priority. Choose MarketHQ if you need the source material next to the score.

What sources does MarketHQ cover?

Every plan: Hacker News, GitHub, RSS, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Perplexity, Broader web crawl, Bluesky.

Hacker NewsGitHubStack OverflowDev.toLobstersRSSRedditLinkedInXYouTubeBlueskyDocs & changelogs
  • Grouped Slack daily digest
  • Drafted replies from your own strengths
  • Gap analysis and action plans
  • Weekly AI-answer visibility (paid plans)
  • Chat over your own evidence
  • API and MCP on every paid plan
  • Flat capacity pricing, tiers differ by tracking volume only
  • 4-day trial on Lite and Startup, charged on day 4
  • Free one-time check, no account needed

Each tool was checked on its own pricing and product pages, most recently 1 October 2026; entries are ordered by fit, not by price. Peec AI's Pro and Advanced figures come from the calculator on Peec's pricing page rather than a static price.

  1. MarketHQ

    Market intelligence rather than a GEO dashboard. The weekly AI-answer check on six engines sits next to the news, blog, social and community posts that shaped those answers, and the output is a gap analysis with an action plan, delivered in chat. This is our own product, listed first because the page is ours.

    Best for
    Teams that want the AI-answer question and the rest of the web conversation in one place.
    Pricing
    Lite $29, Startup $99, Growth $199/mo. Lite and Startup start with a 4-day trial, charged on day 4. Growth is charged at signup. Tiers differ by tracking capacity only, and API and MCP access are on every paid plan.
    Sources covered
    Blogs, forums, RSS feeds you add, Bluesky, the weekly AI-answer read, labelled mentions and social and web sources, including Reddit, all on every paid plan.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  2. Profound

    The best-known name in the category and the closest thing to a category standard. It dropped its self-serve monthly plans around September 2026; entry is now a free trial, and it adds prompt-volume data on what people ask assistants in the first place.

    Best for
    Teams comfortable with a free trial and a sales conversation, who want depth on the answer-engine side.
    Pricing
    Free 7-day Trial (50 prompts a day, no dollar price beyond that); a credit-based Agency Growth plan and a custom Enterprise tier are not published as dollar figures. As of September 2026.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on the Trial; up to nine answer engines on Enterprise, per its own pricing page.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  3. Otterly.ai

    Buys you a fixed number of search prompts rather than a credit balance, so the bill does not move when the tool works harder. Extra engines are priced openly as add-ons instead of being folded into the next tier up.

    Best for
    One brand, a short prompt list, and a budget that stops around $30 a month.
    Pricing
    Lite $29 a month for 15 search prompts, Standard $189 for 100, Premium $489 for 400, Enterprise custom starting from 1,000 search prompts (no dollar price published); 15% less billed annually. A free trial is offered for new users. As of September 2026.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot on every plan; Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  4. Rankscale.ai

    The nearest thing to AthenaHQ's engine breadth at a fraction of the price, with unlimited search terms on the Pro plan and credits counted in tracked answers rather than an opaque unit.

    Best for
    Buyers who want ten engines checked and will interpret the result themselves.
    Pricing
    Essentials starting at $20 a month, Pro $99, Growth $385, Enterprise $780, with 15% off yearly; a 7-day free Pro trial with no charge until day 7. As of September 2026.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Claude, Grok and Copilot.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  5. Scrunch AI

    Ships industry prompt sets alongside your own, so the starting view is the category rather than a blank list, and adds personas, page audits and monitoring of agent traffic hitting your site.

    Best for
    Teams that want a category benchmark and a page-level audit, not just a brand score.
    Pricing
    Starter $250 a month billed annually or $300 month-to-month; Growth $417 billed annually or $500 month-to-month; Enterprise custom. A 7-day free Starter trial needs no card. As of September 2026.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Meta.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  6. Goodie AI

    Prices the remediation, not only the measurement: optimisation actions a month and tracked pages are plan limits alongside prompts and models, and there is a separate ladder for agencies.

    Best for
    Teams that want the fixes produced for them rather than a list of gaps.
    Pricing
    Core $399 a month, Pro $999, Enterprise custom, with a 7-day free trial listed on Core and agency Growth at $275 a month. As of September 2026.
    Sources covered
    Five models on Core including ChatGPT, AI Overview, Perplexity, AI Mode and Copilot; eight on Pro; up to twelve on Enterprise.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  7. Peec AI

    Checks AI answers daily across a handful of models, with recommended actions, an MCP server and separate agency pricing for teams running several client projects.

    Best for
    Agencies and teams that want daily AI-answer tracking across multiple projects.
    Pricing
    Starter $95 a month (50 prompts, 3 models, 1 project); Pro $245 (150 prompts, 2 projects); Advanced $495 (350 prompts, 5 projects). API access is Enterprise only. As of October 2026.
    Sources covered
    AI-answer tracking only; no non-AI sources named.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  8. Brand24

    Media and social monitoring first, with AI Visibility sold beside it rather than as the product. The only tool here whose core job is press and consumer social rather than answer engines.

    Best for
    Companies whose first problem is press and social coverage, not AI answers.
    Pricing
    Individual $249 a month or $199 billed annually, Team $349 or $299, Pro $499 or $399, Business $699 or $599, Enterprise from $1,499 billed annually, with a 14-day free trial and no card. As of September 2026.
    Sources covered
    Facebook, Instagram, X, news, blogs, Reddit, LinkedIn, Medium, Quora, YouTube, TikTok, reviews, Twitch, newsletters and podcasts.
    AI visibility
    Yes

What does AthenaHQ cost once the free credit runs out?

$295 a month for the Starter plan, or 17% less paid annually, with 3,600 credits a month included and custom pricing above that.

The free Essential plan includes 300 credits across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, with prompt and response analysis, competitor insights and content recommendations. Starter adds Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral plus CSV export and a content optimisation agent. API access and extra credits are paid add-ons.

Credits are a usage meter, so broader questions cost more as you go. Most other vendors here meter in prompts or pages, which is easier to forecast.

Which AthenaHQ alternative can you try for nothing?

Rankscale.ai and Scrunch AI both list 7-day free trials, Otterly.ai and Goodie AI list a free trial without a flat free tier, and MarketHQ has no free plan but offers a 4-day free trial on Lite and Startup.

Nobody else in the answer-engine category publishes a standing free plan. If free-forever is the requirement, staying put is the answer. If you want a cheap paid plan, Rankscale Essentials starts at $20 a month and Otterly Lite is $29, roughly a tenth of Starter.

Check the trial terms. Rankscale's Pro trial states no charge until day 7 and Scrunch's Starter trial needs no card; Goodie AI's 7-day trial is attached to its $399 Core plan.

Which of these also reads the web, not just AI answers?

MarketHQ. None of the other tools here name Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub or Stack Overflow as a monitored source.

AthenaHQ comes closest to a technical story: it's a Y Combinator company and its site says the team was built with experience from Google, DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic. But what it doesn't do, and what none of Profound, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI, Goodie AI or Peec AI does either, is read Reddit, news, blogs or developer communities.

That gap matters because an assistant recommending a competitor is usually repeating something it read, in a post, a review or an article. MarketHQ covers blogs, forums, Bluesky, labelled mentions, X, Reddit, LinkedIn and the weekly AI-answer check, all from Lite at $29 a month, so the reason sits next to the result.

  • Answer engines only: AthenaHQ, Profound, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI, Goodie AI, Peec AI.
  • Consumer social and press, with AI Visibility beside it: Brand24.
  • AI answers plus Reddit, news, blogs and public communities together: MarketHQ.

Where does AthenaHQ beat the alternatives?

AthenaHQ wins on a standing free credit tier and engine breadth. Choose MarketHQ when you need the web evidence behind the score and an action plan, not just the score.

Its free Essential plan with 300 credits across five engines is a real way to try answer-engine tracking before paying. Starter then covers eleven or more models; enterprise adds SSO and audit logging.

MarketHQ wins for any company that wants the web conversation alongside the score: the weekly AI-answer check sits next to news, blog, social and Reddit mentions, with a Slack digest, gap analysis, an action plan, and API plus MCP on every paid plan from Lite at $29.

  • Choose AthenaHQ if a standing free credit balance is how you want to try the category.
  • Choose AthenaHQ if eleven or more models from the entry paid plan is a hard requirement.
  • Choose AthenaHQ if SSO, audit logging and multi-region support are required before you can buy.

What happens when the free credit runs out?

You choose between $295 a month and a much smaller plan somewhere else. The numbers below are illustrative, not measured.

Illustrative: you sell project-management software, you spent AthenaHQ's 300 free credits confirming that two of your eight buying questions name a competitor instead of you, and now you want that checked every week.

On AthenaHQ that is Starter at $295 a month, with API access an add-on if you want the numbers in your own reporting. On Otterly Lite the eight fit inside fifteen search prompts for $29 across four engines. On Rankscale Pro at $99 search terms are unlimited across ten engines. On MarketHQ Lite at $29 the weekly check runs and the post behind the competitor's answer arrives in the same digest, with API and MCP access included rather than sold on top.

Frequently asked questions

Is AthenaHQ free?

MarketHQ has no free plan. You can run a free check without an account: a one-time look at what people say about you. AthenaHQ offers a free Essential plan with $25 of credit (300 credits) across five engines; Starter is $295 a month beyond that.

What is the cheapest AthenaHQ alternative?

MarketHQ: no free plan, but Lite at $29 a month, with a 4-day trial, six AI engines checked weekly, Slack digest, gap analysis, an action plan and API plus MCP included. Rankscale Essentials starts at $20 if you only need engine scores; Otterly Lite is $29 for fifteen prompts.

Does AthenaHQ include API access?

Not in the plan price: API access and extra credits are paid add-ons on Starter. MarketHQ includes an API and an MCP endpoint on every paid plan from Lite up. Goodie AI and Profound list API on enterprise tiers.

Which AI engines does AthenaHQ track?

Every plan covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot. From Starter it adds AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral, with more models available on request, as listed in September 2026.

Do any of these tools monitor Reddit or GitHub?

MarketHQ covers Reddit on paid plans, with Hacker News and GitHub in its wider source list. AthenaHQ, Profound, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI, Goodie AI and Peec AI name answer engines, not developer communities. Brand24 lists Reddit among mostly consumer-social sources.

Related

Start trackingSee pricing

Sources

  • AthenaHQ pricing: https://www.athenahq.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
  • AthenaHQ home page: https://www.athenahq.ai/ (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Profound pricing: https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
  • Profound home page: https://www.tryprofound.com/ (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Otterly.ai pricing: https://otterly.ai/pricing/ (verified 2026-09-30)
  • Rankscale.ai pricing: https://rankscale.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
  • Scrunch AI pricing: https://www.scrunch.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
  • Goodie AI pricing: https://higoodie.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
  • Peec AI pricing: https://peec.ai/pricing (verified 2026-10-01)
  • Brand24 pricing: https://brand24.com/pricing/ (verified 2026-09-30)