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Otterly.ai alternatives for developer-tool companies

Updated September 2026

Otterly.ai is one of the cheapest ways to find out whether ChatGPT or Perplexity names your brand, and for many marketing teams it is enough. Teams leave for three reasons: they want more engines than the four included, they want more than 15 prompts without jumping to $189 a month, or they want the AI-answer question answered next to the conversations that shape it. Every fact below was read off the vendor's own site.

Quick answer

MarketHQ is the only alternative here that joins AI-answer tracking to developer-community monitoring, gap analysis and an action plan; Otterly.ai tracks four AI search engines from $29 a month and reports mentions, citations, sentiment and share of voice. If you need more engines, more prompts for less, page-level audits, or AI visibility joined to developer-community monitoring, the field also includes Rankscale.ai, Profound, AthenaHQ, Scrunch AI, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Goodie AI and Peec AI.

Key points

  • Otterly Lite is $29 a month for 15 prompts; the next tier up is $189.
  • Rankscale and AthenaHQ are the cheapest ways to track more engines.
  • Only MarketHQ on this list also monitors developer communities.

Why choose MarketHQ instead of Otterly.ai?

MarketHQ is built for teams that need to know what an AI answer means and what to do about it, not just whether they appear.

Otterly.ai is the right choice when the job is checking whether four AI engines name your brand daily at a flat price with no credit arithmetic. MarketHQ watches the same developer-native sources and adds paid lanes for Reddit, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, Bluesky and Product Hunt when you need them.

The output differs. Otterly delivers a score; MarketHQ sends a grouped Slack daily digest, runs gap analysis with an action plan, and checks weekly how AI assistants answer buying questions. API and MCP access are on every paid plan, and tiers differ by tracking capacity only.

Choose Otterly.ai if per-engine AI-answer tracking at a low flat rate is the whole job. Choose MarketHQ if you also need the Hacker News threads and GitHub issues behind those answers.

What sources does MarketHQ cover?

Free: Hacker News, GitHub, RSS, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters. Paid plans add Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Quora, Web, Perplexity, Product Hunt, Broader web crawl, Bluesky.

Hacker NewsGitHubStack OverflowDev.toLobstersRSSRedditLinkedInXYouTubeBlueskyProduct HuntQuoraDocs & 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
  • 7-day trial for $0.99 on paid plans
  • Free tier with no card and no end date

Checked on each vendor's own pricing pages in September 2026; ordered by fit, not price.

  1. MarketHQ

    The only tool here that treats AI visibility as one input. It checks weekly how assistants answer buying questions in your category, joins that to developer community conversations, and turns both into a gap analysis and an action plan.

    Best for
    Developer-tool companies that want the answer and the reason behind it.
    Pricing
    Free tier; Lite $29, Startup $99, Growth $199 a month; 7-day trial for $0.99 on paid plans. Tiers differ by tracking capacity only, and API and MCP access come with every paid plan from Lite up.
    Sources covered
    Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters and RSS on every tier; weekly AI-answer visibility, Reddit and other social and web lanes are paid.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  2. Rankscale.ai

    The widest engine list at the lowest entry price. It tracks brands, products and ads across the major assistants, auto-identifies competitors in the results, and audits pages for AI readiness and bot crawlability.

    Best for
    Teams that want breadth of engines without an enterprise contract.
    Pricing
    Essentials from $20 a month; Pro $99 with 1,200 credits and up to 4,800 tracked answers; Growth $385 with 5,500 credits and REST API; Enterprise $780. Pro has a 7-day free trial with no charge until day 7.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Claude, Grok and Microsoft Copilot.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  3. Profound

    The most-cited name in the category and the one most likely to be on a shortlist you did not write. Its entry plan tracks a single engine, which makes it narrower than its reputation suggests until you reach Growth.

    Best for
    Companies that want the category's default vendor and can spend at Growth level.
    Pricing
    Starter $99 a month billed yearly with 50 prompts and ChatGPT only; Growth $399 billed yearly with three answer engines and 100 prompts; Enterprise custom, up to nine engines. Growth offers a free trial.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT on Starter; ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews on Growth; Gemini, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Claude on Enterprise.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  4. AthenaHQ

    The only tool here with a genuinely free tier rather than a trial, and a credit model that makes the cost of a tracked answer explicit: one credit buys one AI response.

    Best for
    Trying AI-visibility tracking properly before paying anything.
    Pricing
    Essential is free with $25 of credit, or 300 credits. Starter is $295 a month with 3,600 credits and 11 models; Enterprise is custom. Annual billing takes 17% off. API access is a paid add-on.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot on the free tier; 11 models including Claude, Grok, DeepSeek and Mistral on Starter.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  5. Scrunch AI

    Built around personas and prompt libraries rather than a keyword list, which suits a team running AI visibility as a programme with several buyer types rather than checking one brand name.

    Best for
    Marketing teams with several personas and a real budget.
    Pricing
    Starter $250 a month billed annually or $300 month-to-month; Growth $417 or $500; Enterprise custom. Annual billing is 17% off. A 7-day free trial of Starter needs no credit card.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Meta.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  6. Ahrefs Brand Radar

    AI visibility bolted onto an SEO suite you may already pay for, which makes it the cheapest addition rather than the cheapest tool. It also covers YouTube and Reddit visibility alongside AI answers.

    Best for
    Teams already running Ahrefs who want one fewer subscription.
    Pricing
    Custom Prompts start at $50 a month and are included with paid Ahrefs plans from Lite up; the AI Visibility Index is listed at $199 a month. A free "Check AI Visibility" preview is offered.
    Sources covered
    AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude, plus YouTube and Reddit.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  7. Goodie AI

    Priced and packaged for an agency or a commerce brand rather than a startup: optimisation actions are metered per month alongside prompts, and the agency plans sell pitch workspaces.

    Best for
    Agencies running AI visibility for several clients at once.
    Pricing
    Core $399 a month with 5 models, 100 prompts and 10 optimisation actions; Pro $999 with 8 models and 250 prompts; Enterprise custom with up to 12 models. Agency Growth is $350 with MCP server access. Core lists a 7-day free trial.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, AI Mode and Copilot on Core; Gemini, Alexa and Sparky added on Pro; Claude, Meta AI, DeepSeek and Grok on Enterprise.
    AI visibility
    Yes

  8. Peec AI

    A European AI-search visibility tool positioned at agencies and brands, tracking the major assistants. It is the one entry here whose numbers we could not confirm, so treat the shape as verified and the price as not.

    Best for
    Teams shortlisting European vendors who will request a quote anyway.
    Pricing
    Four tiers, Starter, Pro, Advanced and Enterprise, with monthly and annual options. The prices render dynamically and we could not read them from the page, so we quote no figure.
    Sources covered
    ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, per its own pricing page.
    AI visibility
    Yes

What does Otterly.ai actually do?

It monitors AI search engines for your brand and reports whether you are mentioned, whether your site is cited, how that compares with competitors, and what the sentiment looks like.

Every plan includes four engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are add-ons. Tracking runs daily, team members are unlimited, and more than 50 countries are supported. Lite is $29 a month for 15 search prompts, Standard $189 for 100, Premium $489 for 400, Enterprise custom from $1,000. Annual billing takes 15% off, API and MCP access start at Standard, and the trial runs 7 days with no card.

The constraint most teams hit first is the prompt count. Fifteen prompts covers a brand name and a handful of category questions. Going to 100 means $189 a month, and extra prompts are $99 for another 100.

Which alternative tracks the most AI engines for the least money?

Rankscale.ai, whose Essentials tier starts at $20 a month and whose engine list runs to ten named assistants on every plan.

AthenaHQ's Essential tier is free: $25 of credit, or 300 credits, one credit per AI response across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot. Enough to find out whether you have a visibility problem before spending anything.

Above those, price climbs quickly: Scrunch Starter $250 a month billed annually, Goodie Core $399, Profound Growth $399 billed yearly. Ahrefs Brand Radar is the cheapest addition if you already pay for Ahrefs.

Which alternative also watches where the answers come from?

MarketHQ. Every other tool on this list reads the answer; only this one also watches the conversations the answer is built from.

Assistants do not invent recommendations. They assemble them from what is written in public, and for developer tools a lot of that is Hacker News threads, GitHub issues, Stack Overflow answers and Reddit arguments. A pure visibility tracker tells you the score. It does not tell you which thread moved it.

MarketHQ runs the weekly visibility check and community monitoring together, then produces a gap analysis: the buying questions where assistants do not name you, what buyers keep asking for, and what to do about it.

Does a developer-tool company need a dedicated AI-visibility tool?

Often not, and it is worth saying so before you buy one.

If your category is small, the useful prompt list is short. Breadth across engines, countries and personas matters to a consumer brand and rarely to a database company with four competitors.

A dedicated tool makes sense when there are multiple personas, several markets, or a content team that needs page-level audits and reporting.

What should you check before switching?

Three things: which engines are included rather than add-ons, how prompts are counted, and whether the free option is a tier or a trial.

Engine lists are where marketing and pricing tables disagree most. Otterly includes four and sells three as add-ons; Profound's $99 Starter tracks ChatGPT only; AthenaHQ's free tier covers five, its $295 Starter eleven.

Counting methods differ: Otterly counts search prompts, Rankscale and AthenaHQ count credits against answers, Goodie meters optimisation actions separately. Compare tracked answers a month, not the tier name.

Where does Otterly.ai win?

Otterly.ai tracks four engines at $29 flat with no seat limits; MarketHQ adds the developer communities those answers come from.

Four engines on every plan including the $29 one, daily tracking, unlimited team members and 50+ countries, nothing gated behind a seat count. If the job is knowing whether assistants name your brand, Otterly does it cleanly at this price.

MarketHQ starts free; Lite is $29 with Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow and a daily Slack digest added to the weekly AI-answer check. Gap analysis, an action plan and API and MCP access come with every paid tier. For a developer-tool company, the communities shaping those AI answers matter as much as the score.

  • Choose Otterly.ai if four AI engines on a $29 flat-rate plan is all you need.
  • Choose Otterly.ai if unlimited team members and daily tracking matter more than community monitoring.
  • Choose Otterly.ai if a 7-day trial with no credit card is the entry barrier that matters.

What does this cost for a small developer-tool team?

Less than the tier names suggest, if your prompt list is honest. The numbers here are illustrative, not measured.

Illustrative: you sell an observability agent and the questions that matter are "best open-source tracing tool", "cheapest APM for a small team", three competitor comparisons and your brand name. Six prompts, weekly.

Otterly Lite covers that at $29 for 15 prompts and four engines. AthenaHQ's 300 free credits also cover it. Rankscale Essentials from $20 covers it across ten engines. MarketHQ Lite at $29 also tells you which Hacker News thread the assistants are reading, which is the part you can act on.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Otterly.ai cost?

Otterly lists Lite at $29 a month for 15 prompts, Standard $189 for 100, Premium $489 for 400, and Enterprise custom from $1,000. Annual billing takes 15% off. Extra prompts are $99 for another 100 on Standard and Premium, as listed in September 2026.

Which AI engines does Otterly.ai include?

Four on every plan: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are sold separately as add-ons. Rankscale names ten engines on every plan, and AthenaHQ lists eleven models on its Starter tier.

Is there a free AI-visibility tool?

MarketHQ has a free tier; AI-answer visibility starts on paid plans. AthenaHQ's Essential is also free with 300 credits across five engines. Ahrefs offers a free AI Visibility preview. Otterly, Rankscale and Scrunch offer trials rather than free tiers.

What is the cheapest Otterly alternative?

MarketHQ is free to start; Lite is $29 with community monitoring and AI-answer visibility. Rankscale.ai Essentials starts at $20. AthenaHQ is free to start. Agency and enterprise tools begin at $250 or above.

Do any of these monitor Reddit or Hacker News?

MarketHQ does. Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters and RSS are on every tier; Reddit is a paid lane. Ahrefs Brand Radar reports Reddit and YouTube visibility as part of its brand tracking. The rest of this list reads AI answers only and monitors no communities.

Related

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Sources

  • Otterly.ai pricing: https://otterly.ai/pricing/ (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Otterly.ai home page: https://otterly.ai/ (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Rankscale pricing: https://rankscale.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Rankscale home page: https://rankscale.ai/ (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Profound pricing: https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
  • AthenaHQ pricing: https://www.athenahq.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Scrunch AI pricing: https://scrunch.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Ahrefs Brand Radar: https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Goodie AI pricing: https://higoodie.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
  • Peec AI pricing: https://peec.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)