# MarketHQ vs Profound: a published monthly price, or a free trial then a sales call? Updated October 2026 Profound is the best-known name in AI-visibility tracking, with real depth: prompt-volume data on what people actually ask assistants, and coverage of up to nine answer engines on its top tier. As of September 2026 it no longer sells a self-serve monthly plan: the entry point is a free 7-day trial, then a credit-based agency plan or a custom Enterprise quote, neither with a published dollar figure. MarketHQ publishes a price for every tier, starting at $29 a month, and adds Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social to the same AI-answer question. Every Profound fact below is cited to tryprofound.com. ## Quick answer MarketHQ publishes every price, from free to $199 a month, checks six AI assistants weekly, and also tracks Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social. Profound no longer sells a self-serve monthly plan: it's a free 7-day trial, then a custom Enterprise tier covering up to nine engines, priced by quote. Choose Profound for engine depth if a sales call doesn't deter you; choose MarketHQ for a published price and the web conversation included. - MarketHQ has a published price at every tier, from free to $199/month; Profound has no self-serve monthly price at all, as of October 2026. - Profound's free trial covers 3 engines for 7 days; its Enterprise tier covers up to nine engines, priced by quote. - MarketHQ also tracks Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social; Profound's own site names no non-AI sources. - Both produce recommended next steps for the gaps they find (Profound calls it "Opportunities"); this isn't unique to either tool. ## Why choose MarketHQ instead of Profound? MarketHQ tells you a real price before you sign up, and tracks the web conversation Profound's own site doesn't name. Profound is built for teams that want deep per-engine data and are comfortable trialing for a week before a sales conversation decides the real price. That's a reasonable trade for a team with the budget and the patience, but it isn't a price you can compare against anything until you've had the call. MarketHQ is priced and published at every tier, from a free workspace through Growth at $199 a month. It checks six AI assistants weekly, and also tracks Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters, news, blogs and social lanes (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky, Product Hunt) on paid plans, with gap analysis and an action plan across all of it. Choose Profound if nine-engine depth and prompt-volume research justify a sales process. Choose MarketHQ if you want a number you can see today and the web conversation included. ## 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 ## Profound values read from tryprofound.com/pricing, checked 30 September 2026. | Feature | MarketHQ | Profound | | --- | --- | --- | | Self-serve monthly price | Free, then Lite $29, Startup $99, Growth $199/month | None; no self-serve paid tier exists | | Entry point | Free tier, no card, no end date | Free 7-day trial, 50 prompts a day, unlimited seats | | Beyond the trial | Published monthly plans | Credit-based Agency Growth (400 credits/client/month) or custom Enterprise; neither has a published dollar price | | AI engines tracked | Six on paid plans: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek, checked weekly | 3 on the free trial (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews); up to 9 on Enterprise | | Non-AI sources (Reddit, news, blogs, social) | Yes: Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters, news, blogs, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky, Product Hunt | Not named on Profound's own site | | Gap analysis / recommended actions | Yes, across AI answers and the web | Yes ("Opportunities") | | API access | On every paid plan from Lite up | Enterprise only | | Best fit | Teams that want a published price and the web conversation included | Teams with budget for a custom deal who want nine-engine depth and prompt-volume data | ## What does Profound actually cost? As of September 2026, Profound publishes no self-serve monthly price. It's a free 7-day trial, then a credit-based Agency Growth plan or a custom Enterprise tier. Profound dropped its old $99 and $399 self-serve plans around September 2026. The free trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews at 50 prompts a day with unlimited seats. Beyond the trial, Agency Growth is sold on credits (400 a month per client workspace) and Enterprise is a custom quote covering up to nine answer engines, SSO/SAML, SOC 2 and full data export. So the comparison isn't a number against $29. It's a week-long trial and a sales conversation against a price you can read today. ## How many AI engines does each tool check? Profound's trial covers three engines; its Enterprise tier covers up to nine. MarketHQ covers six on every paid plan. Profound's free trial tracks ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Its site names Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Microsoft Copilot and DeepSeek as additional engines available on Enterprise, for up to nine in total, priced by quote. MarketHQ checks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and DeepSeek weekly, on every paid plan, at a published price. We don't track Google AI Overviews today. ## Does Profound track Reddit, news or social posts? Not as far as its own site states. Profound's pages describe answer-engine tracking, prompt-volume data and an AI Marketer assistant, not community or social monitoring. That gap matters because an assistant's answer is frequently built from exactly those sources. Profound's "Opportunities" feature surfaces where to improve your AI-answer standing; it doesn't show you the Reddit thread or news article a competitor is winning from. MarketHQ tracks both in one workspace: AI answers and the Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Lobsters, news, blog and social activity behind them, against the same competitor list. ## Which should you choose: MarketHQ or Profound? Choose Profound for engine depth and prompt-volume research if a sales process doesn't deter you; choose MarketHQ for a published price and the web conversation included. Both produce a list of what to fix for the gaps they find; that part isn't unique to either tool. - Choose MarketHQ if you want a price you can see today, starting free. - Choose MarketHQ if Reddit, news, blogs and social tracked next to the AI-answer check matters to you. - Choose Profound if nine-engine depth, prompt-volume research and enterprise compliance features are requirements worth a custom deal. ## Where does Profound win? Profound wins on answer-engine depth and prompt-volume data at the high end. Choose MarketHQ when a published price and the web conversation matter more than nine-engine coverage. Profound's Prompt Volumes module and up to nine tracked engines on Enterprise are real strengths for a team running AI-answer optimization as a funded channel with headcount behind it, and its SSO/SOC 2 features fit enterprise procurement. MarketHQ wins when you want one workspace with a published price, a weekly AI-answer check across six assistants, and Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social tracked for the same competitors, from free to $199 a month. - Choose Profound if prompt-volume data on what people ask assistants is the goal. - Choose Profound if up to nine tracked engines on a custom Enterprise plan is the requirement. - Choose Profound if enterprise SSO/SAML and SOC 2 compliance are procurement requirements. ## FAQ ### How much does Profound cost? As of September 2026, Profound has no self-serve monthly price. It offers a free 7-day trial (50 prompts a day across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews), then a credit-based Agency Growth plan or a custom Enterprise tier, neither with a published dollar figure. ### Does Profound have a free plan? MarketHQ has a free tier with no card and no end date. Profound offers a free 7-day trial instead of an ongoing free tier. ### Does Profound track Reddit, news or social media? MarketHQ tracks Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, news, blogs and social alongside its weekly AI-answer check. Profound's own site names answer-engine tracking and prompt-volume data, not community or social sources. ### Which AI engines does Profound track? The free trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Its Enterprise tier extends to up to nine engines, including Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Microsoft Copilot and DeepSeek, priced by quote. ## Related - [MarketHQ vs Peec AI](https://markethq.ai/compare/markethq-vs-peec) — the comparison against a published-price AI-visibility tool - [MarketHQ vs Otterly.ai](https://markethq.ai/compare/markethq-vs-otterly) — the comparison at the cheap end of the AI-visibility category - [Profound alternatives](https://markethq.ai/alternatives/profound-alternatives) — the wider field of AI-visibility tools - [All comparisons](https://markethq.ai/compare) — every head-to-head we verified - [Pricing](https://markethq.ai/pricing) — what the four MarketHQ tiers cost ## Sources - Profound pricing: https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing (verified 2026-09-30) - Profound home page: https://www.tryprofound.com/ (verified 2026-09-30)