# Otterly.ai alternatives that also watch the rest of the web Updated October 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. ## Quick answer MarketHQ checks six AI engines weekly on every paid plan from $29, then turns the gaps into gap analysis and an action plan, with chat, an API and MCP on paid plans. Otterly.ai tracks four AI engines from $29 a month and reports mentions, citations, sentiment and share of voice. The field also includes Rankscale.ai, Profound, AthenaHQ, Scrunch AI, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Goodie AI and Peec AI. - MarketHQ joins weekly AI visibility to gap analysis and an action plan; Otterly Lite is $29 for 15 prompts, then $189. - MarketHQ starts at $29; Rankscale and AthenaHQ are cheaper for tracking more AI engines alone. - MarketHQ countries run from 1 on Lite to 10 on Enterprise, with AI questions shared across them; Otterly.ai lists support for 50+ countries. ## 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 checks six engines weekly on every paid plan from $29 and adds the web conversation: news, blogs and social, with Reddit, X and LinkedIn on paid plans. The output differs. Otterly delivers a score; MarketHQ runs gap analysis with an action plan, sends a grouped Slack daily digest, and answers questions about your evidence in chat. 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 want to know what to do about the gaps. ## 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. - 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 ## List Checked on each vendor's own pricing pages in September 2026; ordered by fit, not price. Peec's Pro and Advanced figures use its pricing-page calculator. 1. MarketHQ The only tool here that treats AI visibility as one input. It checks six engines weekly on every paid plan from $29, joins that to news, blog and social conversations, and turns both into a gap analysis and an action plan. - Best for: Teams that want the AI answer, the reason behind it and what to do next, not just the score. - 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 come with every paid plan from Lite up. - Sources covered: News, blogs, forums, RSS, public communities such as Hacker News and GitHub, weekly AI-answer visibility, Reddit and other social sources — all on every paid plan from Lite. - 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 Checks AI answers daily across a handful of models, with recommended actions, an MCP server, and separate agency pricing for teams running several client brands. - 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 ## 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. 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. ## 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. ## 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 assemble recommendations from what is written in public: a Reddit thread, a news article, a Hacker News thread or a GitHub issue. A pure visibility tracker tells you the score, not 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 every 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. 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, Goodie meters optimisation actions. Compare tracked answers a month. ## Where does Otterly.ai win? Otterly.ai tracks four engines at $29 flat with no seat limits; MarketHQ adds gap analysis, an action plan and the web conversations 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 Lite is $29 with weekly AI visibility on six engines, news, blogs, Reddit and a daily Slack digest. Gap analysis, an action plan and API and MCP access come with every paid plan. - 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 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. ## FAQ ### 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 no free plan; AI-answer visibility starts on paid plans from $29. AthenaHQ's Essential is 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 Lite is $29 with weekly AI visibility, gap analysis and an action plan. AthenaHQ is free to start, and Rankscale.ai Essentials starts at $20. Agency and enterprise tools begin at $250 or above. ### Do any of these monitor Reddit or Hacker News? MarketHQ does: Reddit on paid plans, and Hacker News and GitHub among its public communities. 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 - [Free GEO audit](https://markethq.ai/tools/geo-audit) — a free AI-answer visibility snapshot before you pick a paid tracker - [LLM mention checker](https://markethq.ai/tools/llm-mention-checker) — quick read on whether LLMs mention you today - [Rankscale alternatives](https://markethq.ai/alternatives/rankscale-alternatives) — the same field seen from the cheapest tracker in it - [MarketHQ vs OpenScout](https://markethq.ai/compare/markethq-vs-openscout) — what happens when AI-answer tracking is joined to community monitoring - [Gap analysis for developer tools](https://markethq.ai/use-cases/gap-analysis-for-developer-tools) — what to do once you know an assistant is not naming you - [All alternatives](https://markethq.ai/alternatives) — every field we have verified ## 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 2026-10-01)