Peec AI alternatives, from free trackers to full market intelligence
Updated October 2026
Peec AI is a focused, well-built AI-visibility tool: daily checks across a handful of models, recommended actions, an MCP server for agents, and agency pricing for teams running it across several clients. People look for an alternative for two reasons you can confirm on its own site: the entry price is $95 a month, and it names no source outside AI answers themselves. Every fact below was read off each vendor's own site.
Quick answer
MarketHQ is the only alternative here that joins AI-answer tracking to Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social, starting free then $29 a month; Peec AI starts at $95 for daily, multi-model AI-answer tracking alone. If price or daily cadence is the deciding factor, Otterly.ai and Rankscale.ai are the cheapest published options, and AthenaHQ has a genuinely free tier.
Key points
- MarketHQ starts at $29/month and also tracks Reddit, news, blogs and social; Peec AI starts at $95/month for AI-answer tracking alone.
- AthenaHQ's Essential plan is free; Otterly.ai and Rankscale.ai are the cheapest paid plans here after that, from $20-$29/month.
- Peec AI, Promptwatch and Otterly check daily; MarketHQ checks weekly.
Why choose MarketHQ over Peec AI?
Peec AI is built for the AI-answer question alone. MarketHQ answers the same question and also reads the web conversation behind it, for less than a third of Peec's entry price.
Peec AI's daily, multi-model checks and recommended actions are real strengths, and if the AI-answer question is your whole job, it's a reasonable place to spend $95 a month. What its own site doesn't name is Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs or social: the places an AI answer is often summarizing from in the first place.
MarketHQ checks six AI assistants weekly and tracks Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters, news, blogs and social lanes (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky, Product Hunt) on paid plans, starting at $29 a month with a free tier below that, and turns gaps across all of it into one action plan.
What sources does MarketHQ cover?
Free: Hacker News, GitHub, RSS, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters. Paid plans add Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Perplexity, Product Hunt, Broader web crawl, Bluesky.
- 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 Lite and Startup
- Free tier with no card and no end date
Each tool was checked on its own pricing and product pages; Peec AI, Promptwatch, Profound, AthenaHQ and Brand24 were re-checked 1 October 2026, the rest in late September 2026. Entries are ordered with MarketHQ first because this is our page; the rest are not ranked.
MarketHQ
AI-answer tracking joined to the communities, news, blogs and social posts those answers are often built from, against the same competitors, with gap analysis and an action plan. Our own product, listed first because this is our page.
- Best for
- Teams that want the AI answer and the web conversation behind it in one workspace.
- Pricing
- Free tier; Lite $29, Startup $99, Growth $199 a month; 7-day trial for $0.99 on Lite and Startup. Tiers differ by tracking capacity only.
- Sources covered
- Hacker News, GitHub, Reddit, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters, news, blogs and social (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky, Product Hunt), plus a weekly check of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and DeepSeek.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Promptwatch
Checks AI answers daily and adds two features rare in this category: crawler-log visibility and conversion tracking, alongside an explicit Content Gap Analysis.
- Best for
- Teams that want crawler and conversion data tied to AI-answer tracking.
- Pricing
- Essential $95 a month, 7-day free trial. Pricing above Essential is not shown on the page.
- Sources covered
- AI-answer tracking, crawler logs and conversion data; no non-AI sources named.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Profound
The best-known name in the category, with prompt-volume research and up to nine tracked engines at the top end. No self-serve monthly plan as of September 2026.
- Best for
- Teams with budget for a custom deal who want engine depth and prompt-volume data.
- Pricing
- Free 7-day trial (50 prompts a day, 3 engines); beyond that a credit-based Agency Growth plan or custom Enterprise, neither with a published dollar price.
- Sources covered
- ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on the trial; up to nine engines on Enterprise.
- AI visibility
- Yes
AthenaHQ
The only tool on this list with a standing free tier rather than a trial, metered in credits: one credit per AI response.
- Best for
- Trying AI-visibility tracking before committing a budget.
- Pricing
- Essential free with $25 of credit (300 credits); Starter $295 a month with 3,600 credits and 17% off annually; Enterprise custom.
- Sources covered
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot free; Starter adds AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Otterly.ai
The cheapest paid tool here that publishes every number, metering usage in search prompts rather than credits, with daily tracking on every plan.
- Best for
- One brand, a short prompt list, a budget around $29 a month.
- Pricing
- Lite $29 a month for 15 search prompts, Standard $189 for 100, Premium $489 for 400; Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons; 15% off annually.
- Sources covered
- ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot on every plan.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Rankscale.ai
The widest published engine list at the lowest entry price, with unlimited search terms on its Pro plan.
- Best for
- Buyers who want many engines checked and will interpret the result themselves.
- Pricing
- Essentials from $20 a month, Pro $99, Growth $385, Enterprise $780, with a 7-day free Pro trial.
- Sources covered
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Claude, Grok and Copilot.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Scrunch AI
Built around personas and page audits, shipping industry prompt sets alongside your own for a category-wide view.
- Best for
- Marketing teams running AI visibility as a programme across several buyer types.
- Pricing
- Starter $250 a month billed annually ($300 month-to-month); Growth $417 or $500; Enterprise custom.
- Sources covered
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Meta.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Brand24
Media and social monitoring first, with AI Visibility sold as an add-on below its top tier rather than the product itself.
- Best for
- Companies whose first problem is press and social coverage, not AI answers.
- Pricing
- Individual $249 a month or $199 billed annually, up to Business $699/$599; Enterprise from $1,499; AI Visibility is an add-on below Enterprise.
- Sources covered
- Facebook, Instagram, X, news, blogs, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, reviews and more.
- AI visibility
- Yes
What does Peec AI actually cost?
Starter is $95 a month, Pro $245, Advanced $495, checked on peec.ai/pricing on 1 October 2026.
Starter covers 50 prompts across 3 AI models, checked daily, for one project with unlimited users. API access is Enterprise only, and Peec AI also sells separate agency pricing outside the published ladder.
None of Peec AI's tiers list Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs or social among monitored sources; its coverage is AI-answer tracking only.
Which Peec AI alternative is cheapest?
AthenaHQ's Essential plan is free; Rankscale.ai starts at $20 a month and Otterly.ai and MarketHQ both start at $29.
AthenaHQ's $25 of free credit (300 credits) is enough to find out whether you have a visibility problem before spending anything. Rankscale Essentials and Otterly Lite are the cheapest paid plans that publish every number, both well under Peec's $95 Starter.
MarketHQ is the only one of those three that also tracks Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social at $29 a month, rather than AI answers alone.
Which alternative also reads the web, not just AI answers?
MarketHQ. Every other tool on this list tracks AI answers only.
Peec AI, Promptwatch, Profound, AthenaHQ, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai and Scrunch AI all check what assistants say and stop there. Brand24 goes the other way: social and press first, AI Visibility as an add-on.
An assistant's answer is frequently built from a Reddit thread, a news article or a blog post comparing products. MarketHQ reads the answer and the conversation behind it in the same workspace, against the same competitors.
- AI answers only: Peec AI, Promptwatch, Profound, AthenaHQ, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI.
- Social and press first, AI Visibility as an add-on: Brand24.
- AI answers plus Reddit, news, blogs and social together: MarketHQ.
Where does Peec AI still win?
Peec AI wins on daily cadence, multi-project pricing and agency contracts. Choose MarketHQ when the web conversation behind the answer matters as much as the answer itself.
If an AI answer about your category can shift within a day, or you're running several client projects that each need their own workspace, Peec AI's daily checks and project model are built for exactly that, and its Enterprise API and agency pricing suit a larger operation.
MarketHQ wins for teams that want one workspace checking AI answers weekly and reading Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social for the same competitors, starting free then $29 a month.
- Choose Peec AI if you need AI-answer checks run daily, not weekly.
- Choose Peec AI if you run multiple client projects or need Enterprise-tier API access.
- Choose Peec AI if agency pricing across several client brands is part of the requirement.
What does the same month look like on each tool?
Roughly the same measurement, very different amounts of context left over. The numbers below are illustrative, not measured.
Illustrative: you track twelve buying questions for your category, including two direct competitor comparisons. On Peec AI Starter that's within the 50-prompt allowance, checked daily, for $95. On AthenaHQ's free tier the same twelve fit inside 300 credits.
On MarketHQ Lite at $29, the same questions are checked weekly across six assistants, and the Hacker News thread or news article that shaped a competitor's answer arrives in the same digest.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Peec AI cost?
Starter is $95 a month (50 prompts, 3 models, daily, 1 project), Pro is $245 (150 prompts, 2 projects), Advanced is $495 (350 prompts, 5 projects), checked on peec.ai/pricing on 1 October 2026. API access is Enterprise only.
What is the cheapest Peec AI alternative?
MarketHQ is free to start, then Lite at $29 a month with Reddit, news, blogs and social added. AthenaHQ's Essential plan is also free, with 300 credits for AI-answer tracking alone. Rankscale.ai Essentials starts at $20.
Which Peec AI alternative also tracks Reddit or news?
MarketHQ. It tracks Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social alongside a weekly AI-answer check. The rest of this list, including Peec AI itself, tracks AI answers only.
Does any alternative check AI answers as often as Peec AI?
Promptwatch and Otterly.ai both check daily, like Peec AI. MarketHQ checks weekly, which trades cadence for also tracking Reddit, news, blogs and social in the same workspace.
Related
- MarketHQ vs Peec AI — the direct head-to-head with pricing and source coverage side by side
- Promptwatch alternatives — the same field read from a tool with crawler and conversion tracking
- Profound alternatives — the field read from the category's best-known vendor
- All alternatives — every field we have verified
- Pricing — what the four MarketHQ tiers cost
Sources
- Peec AI pricing: https://peec.ai/pricing (verified 2026-10-01)
- Promptwatch pricing: https://www.promptwatch.com/pricing (verified 2026-10-01)
- Profound pricing: https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
- AthenaHQ pricing: https://www.athenahq.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
- Otterly.ai pricing: https://otterly.ai/pricing/ (verified 2026-09-30)
- Rankscale.ai pricing: https://rankscale.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
- Scrunch pricing: https://scrunch.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-30)
- Brand24 pricing: https://brand24.com/prices/ (verified 2026-10-01)