Profound alternatives
What is the best alternative to Profound?
It depends on why you wanted Profound. For demand research there is still no real substitute: Prompt Volumes and Agent Analytics have no equivalent at any price, so take the Enterprise call. For everything else, these will sell to you today without a demo: Otterly.ai from $29/month, Peec AI from $95/month with unlimited users, Searchable from $125/month with all eight engines, and Sophyx from $99/month. Of the four, Sophyx is the one that also writes and publishes the fix.
Since September 2026, Profound no longer sells a self-serve plan. You get a free trial that runs 10 prompts once on ChatGPT, or an Enterprise contract priced through a demo. If you wanted to sign up with a card, you now need a different tool.
- Side by side on what differs
- Verified from public vendor pages on 19 September 2026
- Says when the other tool is the better pick
Public information only, dated so you can check it.
Sophyx vs Profound, side by side
| Dimension | Sophyx | Profound | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positioning | AI search run as a result, not a report. We find the answers that name a competitor, write the fix, and publish it live on your domain. | "the full stack marketing platform for the marketer of the future" | Comparable |
| Engines monitored | ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Google AI Overviews | Profound |
| Scope of the loop | Track → benchmark → fix → publish → measure, in one platform. The output is a shipped change, not a report. | Monitor, Create and Operate modules with an Agents action layer, plus Prompt Volumes and Shopping. The broadest data surface in the category. | Comparable |
| Where the fix gets shipped | From the AI assistant your team already uses. The assistant reads the gap, writes the page and the schema against your own brand data, and publishes it. | Publishes an Agents module and agent credits on every tier. Execution runs inside Profound; there is no published path that ends in a page live on your own site. | Comparable |
| MCP surface | mcp.sophyx.app reads prompt visibility and gaps, the brand knowledge graph, existing content, and the generated llms.txt, robots.txt and per-page JSON-LD. Writes exactly one thing: moving content to published. One address works in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini. | Read-only. 17 tools plus a glossary resource. Reporting only, no writes of any kind. | Sophyx |
| Published pricing | Published and self-serve: Pro USD 99/mo, Agency Lite USD 149/mo, Agency Pro USD 349/mo, Enterprise custom. Every tier includes a 7-day free trial, the MCP connector and a weekly working session with the Sophyx technical team. Engines are not gated by tier. Two months free on annual. The first analysis is free and needs no card. | No self-serve paid tier. Two options only: a free Trial (limited AI Marketer credits, 10 prompts run once, ChatGPT only, 1 language, 1 region, no history, no exports, no API) and Enterprise at custom pricing, sold by demo (up to 9 answer engines, tailored prompt plan, SSO/SAML, SOC 2). Verified on tryprofound.com/pricing, 19 September 2026. | Comparable |
| Who it fits | Sophyx is for any business that customers can find by asking AI, and for the agencies that run their marketing. | Enterprise marketing teams | Comparable |
Verified from public vendor pages on 19 September 2026. Vendors change fast. If something here is out of date, email info@sophyx.io and we will fix it.
What each one does well
Sophyx
- One place for the whole loop: measure visibility, diagnose the cause, generate the fix, publish it, and re-measure
- The fix ships from the assistant your team already uses, not from one more dashboard they have to open
- Diagnostic depth: explains why an engine skipped you and traces it to specific pages and sources
- Ships the technical artefacts too: JSON-LD, llms.txt, robots.txt, FAQ blocks
- Self-serve at USD 99 with no engine gating between tiers, at a point where Profound has withdrawn self-serve entirely and sells only a free 10-prompt trial or an Enterprise contract
- Every tier includes a weekly working session with the technical team, which none of the self-serve competitors publish
Profound
- Broad engine coverage, including Grok and DeepSeek
- Agent Analytics and Prompt Volumes give demand-side data most tools do not attempt
- Shopping module for product-level visibility
- Established enterprise brand recognition, and the deepest funding in the category
- The deepest data surface in the category, and the free Trial lets a buyer see it before any sales contact
When Profound is the better choice
In these cases, we would point you to Profound.
- You need prompt-volume demand data as a primary input, not just visibility measurement
- Product-level shopping visibility is a core requirement
- You are an enterprise with a procurement process that rewards category incumbency, and a demo-led purchase is not an obstacle
- You want SOC 2 and SSO on an enterprise contract today
Where Sophyx fits
We build Sophyx, which competes with the tools on this page. Read the table with that in mind. Sophyx finds the AI answers that name a competitor instead of you, writes the fix, and publishes it on your own website.
Sophyx measures an ~80% reduction in the time its own users spend moving from an AI visibility finding to a published fix, versus running the same loop across separate monitoring, content, and technical tools. This is our own measurement of our own users, not independent research.
Why these teams picked Sophyx
Named users, each linked to their own company.
I've been spending more time with Sophyx lately, and one thing I really like is that it does not just tell you “AI search matters.” It actually shows you where your brand stands. For years, SEO was mostly about ranking on Google. That still matters. But now businesses also need to ask: “Does AI understand my brand well enough to recommend it?” That is where tools like Sophyx become very useful. AI search is still early, but I think this is where a lot of visibility work is heading.
Testimonial 1 of 3: Mark O'Coin, SEO & AEO Strategist, Owner, Motif Design.
Sophyx vs Profound FAQ
- Profound no longer publishes a paid self-serve price. Its pricing page lists two options. A free Trial: limited AI Marketer credits, 10 prompts run one time, ChatGPT only, one language and one region, with no history, exports or API. And Enterprise at custom pricing, sold through a demo, with up to nine answer engines, SSO/SAML and SOC 2. Earlier in 2026 it published Starter at $99/month and Growth at $399/month. Those plans are gone. Checked on tryprofound.com/pricing on 19 September 2026.
- Profound has not said, and we will not guess. The pricing page shows a move from three published plans to a free trial plus an enterprise contract. Companies often do this when larger accounts suit them better. For a buyer the effect is the same: the way in is now a sales call instead of a credit card.
- Profound's own free tier runs 10 prompts once on ChatGPT. That is enough to see the tool, but too little to track anything. Sophyx runs a free AI visibility audit on your domain with no credit card. It tests real prompts on ChatGPT and on Gemini, including Google AI Overviews, re-checked every two weeks. Otterly.ai's cheapest paid plan is $29/month, the lowest published price in the category. None of these is a permanent free tracking plan. Anyone offering one is describing a trial.
- Profound lists eight and covers up to nine on Enterprise, so on raw engine count the alternatives do not beat it. Searchable includes all eight on both of its plans. Peec AI lets you choose three models per plan, and up to 13 on Enterprise. Sophyx tracks two, ChatGPT and Gemini (including Google AI Overviews), and includes both on its $99 entry plan. Engine count matters less than it looks: the engines that matter are the ones your buyers use.
- Prompt Volumes, which is data on what people ask AI engines, and Agent Analytics for traffic that comes from AI. Nothing in this comparison has the same data, including Sophyx. If you need that, these alternatives will not cover it.