Profound alternatives for developer-tool companies
Updated September 2026
Profound is the name most people reach for when they start worrying about how AI assistants describe their product, and it is priced for a marketing department rather than a four-person developer-tool company. This page lists the realistic alternatives and says where Profound is still the better buy. Every competitor fact below was read off that vendor's own site in September 2026.
Quick answer
MarketHQ is the only alternative here that joins AI-answer tracking to developer-community monitoring, gap analysis and an action plan; Profound is an AI-search visibility platform: Starter $99 a month, Growth $399, both shown billed yearly. If that is more than the job is worth, the field includes AthenaHQ, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI, Goodie AI, Evertune and Brand24. For a developer-tool company the deciding question is whether a tool also watches where developers actually talk.
Key points
- Profound's Starter plan tracks one answer engine, ChatGPT, and 50 unique prompts, as of September 2026.
- Rankscale.ai and Otterly.ai start well below Profound; Evertune and Goodie AI sit well above it.
- Only MarketHQ on this list also monitors Hacker News, GitHub, Reddit and Stack Overflow.
Why choose MarketHQ instead of Profound?
MarketHQ is built for teams that need to know which thread an assistant is reading, not just which engine is naming them.
Profound is the right choice when you need per-engine dashboard depth and 9,000 monthly responses across three answer engines. MarketHQ runs the weekly visibility check and also watches the Hacker News threads, GitHub issues and Stack Overflow answers the assistants are drawing from, with paid lanes for Reddit, X, LinkedIn and Product Hunt.
Profound delivers a dashboard of engine scores; MarketHQ sends a Slack daily digest, runs gap analysis with one move per gap, and includes API and MCP access on every paid plan. Choose Profound for per-engine depth; choose MarketHQ for the community intelligence behind the score.
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.
- 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
Each tool was checked on its own pricing and product pages in September 2026; entries are ordered by fit for a developer-tool team, not by price.
MarketHQ
Developer-market intelligence rather than a GEO dashboard. A weekly read on how AI assistants answer buying questions in your category, joined to the community threads behind those answers, then gap analysis and an action plan. Chat rather than charts. This is our own product, listed first because the page is ours.
- Best for
- Developer-tool teams that want the AI-answer question and the community feed in one place.
- 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.
- Sources covered
- Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters and RSS on every tier including free; the weekly AI-answer read and paid social and web lanes, including Reddit, are on paid plans.
- AI visibility
- Yes
AthenaHQ
The closest like-for-like swap, and the only one in the category with a free entry point. A Y Combinator company whose site says the team was built with experience from Google, DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic. Tracks 11 or more models and sells API access as a paid add-on rather than bundling it.
- Best for
- Teams that want to try AI-visibility tracking before committing a budget to it.
- Pricing
- Essential free with $25 of free credit, listed as 300 credits; Starter $295 a month with 3,600 credits monthly and 17% off annually; Enterprise custom. As of September 2026.
- Sources covered
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot on every plan; Starter adds AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Otterly.ai
The cheapest way into the category from a vendor that publishes every number. Search-prompt counts are the unit you buy, and extra engines are priced as add-ons instead of being bundled into a higher tier.
- Best for
- One brand, a short prompt list, and a budget that stops at about $30 a month.
- Pricing
- Lite $29 a month for 15 search prompts, Standard $189 for 100, Premium $489 for 400, Enterprise from $1,000; 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
Rankscale.ai
The widest published engine list at the bottom of the market. Credits and tracked answers are the metering unit, and search terms are listed as unlimited on the Pro plan, which is unusual at this price.
- Best for
- Buyers who want many engines checked and will do their own interpretation.
- Pricing
- Essentials starting at $20 a month, Pro $99, Growth $385, Enterprise $780, with 15% off yearly. Pro offers a 7-day free 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
Scrunch AI
Built around personas and page audits rather than raw prompt counts. It ships industry prompt sets alongside your own, so you start with a category view instead of a blank keyword list, and it monitors agent traffic to your site.
- Best for
- Marketing teams that want a category benchmark, not just their own brand.
- Pricing
- Core at $250 a month; Enterprise custom. A 7-day free trial is listed. As of September 2026.
- Sources covered
- Core: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot. Enterprise adds Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode and Grok.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Goodie AI
Sells the work as well as the measurement: optimisation actions and tracked pages are plan limits alongside prompts, and there is a separate agency ladder.
- 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; a 7-day free trial is listed on Core. Agency Growth is $350 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
Evertune
The enterprise end. One published plan, a very large prompt allowance, and a bundle of production work — AI-optimised articles, retargeting, affiliate partnerships — wrapped around the tracking.
- Best for
- Brands running answer-engine work as a funded channel with headcount behind it.
- Pricing
- Pro $800 a month; Enterprise custom. No free tier or trial is listed on its pricing page. As of September 2026.
- Sources covered
- The Pro plan states 100,000 prompts tracked across 11 AI models; the models are not named on the pricing page.
- AI visibility
- Yes
Brand24
The reverse of a GEO tool: media and social monitoring first, with AI Visibility sold separately. Worth knowing if you also need mainstream press coverage.
- Best for
- Companies whose first problem is press and social, 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. A 14-day free trial needs 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 Profound actually cost?
Profound publishes two self-serve prices: Starter at $99 a month and Growth at $399 a month, both shown billed yearly with two months free, plus a custom Enterprise tier.
The plan shape matters more than the headline. Starter tracks a single answer engine, ChatGPT, with 50 unique prompts, 1,500 monthly responses, 100 agent credits and one seat, and lists no data export and no API. Growth raises that to three answer engines, 100 unique prompts, 9,000 monthly responses, 400 agent credits, three seats and CSV and JSON export. SSO, SAML and API access appear only on Enterprise, which is also where the wider engine list lives: Gemini, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Claude.
So the real comparison is not $99 against $29. It is one engine and 50 prompts against whatever the cheaper tools give you, and for most teams the second engine is the one that changes the answer.
Which Profound alternative is cheapest?
Rankscale.ai, which lists Essentials starting at $20 a month, with Otterly.ai Lite at $29 the next rung up.
Both publish their numbers in full, which is not universal in this category. Rankscale Pro at $99 a month lists 1,200 credits, up to 4,800 tracked answers, ten brand dashboards, fifty page audits and unlimited search terms across ten named engines. Otterly meters search prompts instead: 15 on Lite, 100 on Standard at $189, 400 on Premium at $489, with Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini sold as add-ons rather than included.
AthenaHQ is the other way to spend nothing at first: its Essential plan is free with $25 of credit, listed as 300 credits, which is enough to find out whether the answers about your category are wrong.
Do any of these watch developer communities as well as AI answers?
One does. MarketHQ covers Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters and RSS on its free tier, and adds Reddit plus a weekly AI-answer check on paid plans; the rest of this list tracks answer engines only.
Profound's own site does not name Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub or Stack Overflow as monitored sources, and neither do AthenaHQ, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI, Goodie AI or Evertune. Brand24 lists Reddit among a mostly consumer-social set.
The gap matters because the two questions feed each other. An assistant that recommends a competitor is usually repeating what it read in a thread, an issue or an answer. Seeing the answer without the thread tells you that you lost; seeing both tells you where. That is the pairing MarketHQ is built around.
- Answer-engine tracking only: Profound, AthenaHQ, Otterly.ai, Rankscale.ai, Scrunch AI, Goodie AI, Evertune.
- Consumer-social plus an AI Visibility add-on: Brand24.
- Developer communities plus AI answers: MarketHQ.
Where does Profound beat the alternatives?
Profound wins on answer-engine depth and prompt-volume data. Choose MarketHQ when you need the developer evidence behind the score plus a clear next step.
Prompt Volumes and Answer Engine Insights are built for teams running answer-engine optimisation as a channel. Growth's sampling volume and Enterprise SSO are real advantages at that scale.
MarketHQ wins for developer-tool companies: weekly AI-answer checks sit next to Hacker News, GitHub and Stack Overflow mentions, a Slack digest, gap analysis with an action plan, and API plus MCP from Lite at $29. Free tier needs no card.
- Choose Profound if prompt-volume data on what millions of people ask assistants is the goal.
- Choose Profound if thousands of monthly responses across engines with CSV export is the requirement.
- Choose Profound if enterprise SSO and a dedicated answer-engine suite are procurement requirements.
What does the same month look like on each tool?
Roughly the same measurement, very different amounts of work left over. The numbers below are illustrative, not measured.
Illustrative: you sell a managed queue service and you want to know how assistants answer twelve buying questions, including "best managed queue for Postgres" and two competitor comparisons.
On Profound Starter, twelve prompts fit the fifty-prompt allowance, but you watch ChatGPT alone until you move to Growth at $399. On Otterly Lite the twelve fit inside fifteen prompts across four engines for $29. On Rankscale Pro at $99 search terms are unlimited across ten engines. On MarketHQ the same questions are checked weekly, and the Hacker News and GitHub threads that shaped those answers arrive in the same digest, with the gap written up as something to do.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Profound cost?
Profound lists Starter at $99 a month and Growth at $399 a month, both shown billed yearly with two months free, plus a custom Enterprise tier, as of September 2026. Starter covers one answer engine and 50 unique prompts; Growth covers three engines and 100 prompts.
Does Profound have a free plan?
No free plan is listed as of September 2026. MarketHQ has a free tier with no card. AthenaHQ publishes a free Essential tier with $25 of credit. Rankscale and Scrunch list 7-day free trials.
What is the cheapest Profound alternative?
MarketHQ: free tier, then Lite at $29 with developer-community monitoring, Slack digest, gap analysis and API plus MCP. Rankscale Essentials starts at $20 for engine scores only. Otterly Lite is $29 for fifteen prompts.
Do these tools monitor Reddit, Hacker News or GitHub?
MarketHQ does: Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters and RSS free, plus Reddit and a weekly AI-answer check on paid plans. Profound and the other answer-engine tools name engines, not developer communities. Brand24 lists Reddit among consumer sources.
Which AI engines does Profound track?
Starter tracks ChatGPT only. Growth tracks three answer engines. Profound's site names Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek and Google AI Overviews across the platform, with the wider list attached to Enterprise, as listed in September 2026.
Can I get API access on a cheap plan?
Not from Profound: its pricing page lists API access on Enterprise only. AthenaHQ sells API access as a paid add-on, and Goodie AI lists it on Enterprise. MarketHQ includes an API and an MCP endpoint on every paid plan from Lite up; free workspaces do not get them.
Related
- AthenaHQ alternatives — the same field judged from the other cheap entry point in the category
- Otterly.ai alternatives — if the $29 end of the market is where you are actually shopping
- Best AI visibility tools for developer-tool companies — the whole category ranked for a developer-tool buyer
- Gap analysis for developer tools — what to do once you know which answers name someone else
- All alternatives — every field we have verified
- Pricing — what the four MarketHQ tiers cost
Sources
- Profound pricing: https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
- Profound home page: https://www.tryprofound.com/ (verified 2026-09-14)
- AthenaHQ pricing: https://www.athenahq.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
- AthenaHQ home page: https://www.athenahq.ai/ (verified 2026-09-14)
- Otterly.ai pricing: https://otterly.ai/pricing/ (verified 2026-09-14)
- Rankscale.ai pricing: https://rankscale.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
- Scrunch AI pricing: https://www.scrunch.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
- Goodie AI pricing: https://higoodie.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
- Evertune pricing: https://www.evertune.ai/pricing (verified 2026-09-14)
- Brand24 pricing: https://brand24.com/pricing/ (verified 2026-09-14)