Best Profound Alternatives in 2026

AI visibility platforms with transparent pricing and a European footprint

Gabriel Toledano15 min readUpdated September 30, 2026

Profound is the enterprise reference for AI visibility, with the widest engine coverage on the market (9 platforms) and Fortune 500 customers. Two self-serve tiers are published, Starter at $99/month and Growth at $399/month, both billed annually. The detail that matters, Starter tracks ChatGPT alone, Growth tracks three engines, and all 9 platforms stay behind an Enterprise quote. It is also a US platform that processes data outside the EU. For teams that want a free plan to start or a GDPR-compliant solution hosted in Europe, here are the best Profound alternatives in 2026. Hikoo leads as the complete European alternative.

Quick Comparison

RankToolScore
#1Hikoo9.6
#2Peec AI8.3
#3Otterly.ai8.2
#4Ahrefs Brand Radar7.8
#5Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit7.5
#1

Hikoo

Freemium, €69/mo
9.6/10

Hikoo offers a transparent European alternative to Profound's enterprise model. Public pricing, a permanent Free plan and European hosting come with agents (Site agent, Reporting agent, Content agent) covering audit, monitoring, action plan and competitive analysis across up to 9 AI engines.

Key Features

  • European solution with data hosted in Europe and GDPR compliance by design (vs US players)
  • The Site agent audits each page and scores it 0 to 100, detecting missing content types (FAQ, comparisons, glossary) that AI engines look for
  • The Reporting agent runs continuous mention monitoring, with theme clustering and geographic performance by country, and exposes through Source Intelligence the sites cited by AI (review sites, forums, blogs, media)
  • The Content agent ranks recommendations by estimated impact on AI visibility and surfaces gaps where competitors rank
  • Permanent Free plan at 0 EUR with 10 prompts, 100 URL audits/month and ChatGPT
  • European player with hosting and GDPR compliance by design, an edge over US platforms
  • Permanent Free plan (10 prompts, 100 audits, ChatGPT) to validate value without commitment
  • Four agents covering the full cycle, from audit and monitoring to action and competitive analysis
  • The Content agent prioritizes by estimated impact, so you know what to do post-audit
  • Engine coverage gated by plan (Monitoring 2 engines, Growth 4, Agent 9), while Google AI Overviews and AI Mode can be added to any subscription
  • No native Looker Studio connector advertised on the site (vs Otterly/Peec)

Verdict The best Profound alternative for teams that want multi-engine coverage without a quote, with a permanent Free plan, month-to-month billing, hosting and GDPR compliance by design, and four agents covering audit, monitoring, action and competitive analysis.

Best for European teams and agencies that want to drive their AI visibility without sending data outside the EU
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#2

Peec AI

From €85/mo
8.3/10

More affordable and transparent than Profound, Peec AI shows public pricing from EUR 85 to 425/month and European hosting (Germany). It tracks the brand across 7 catalog engines with unlimited users, but caps each plan at 3 models, with full coverage requiring add-ons.

Key Features

  • Six standard engines (ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini), eleven with the Enterprise models
  • Select 3 models per plan, each extra model at EUR 30, 70 or 140/month depending on tier
  • Daily tracking and unlimited users on every plan
  • Source Identification to detect mention origin (review sites, social, news)
  • Sentiment analysis, competitive benchmarking, CSV export, API access, Looker Studio on Advanced
  • European vendor (Germany), data processed in the EU
  • Clear public pricing (EUR 85 to EUR 425/month), uncommon in this category
  • Unlimited users on every plan, atypical in the market
  • Source Identification that traces where mentions come from
  • Capped at 3 models per plan, covering all 6 standard engines costs EUR 90 to EUR 420/month in add-ons depending on tier
  • Claude is absent from the brand plans, it arrives with the agency and Enterprise offers
  • Starter plan limited to 50 prompts and 1 project
  • Analytics-oriented, with no prioritized action plan like the one from Hikoo's Content agent

Verdict More accessible than Profound, Peec AI shows European public pricing and 6 standard engines, without the enterprise entry ticket.

Best for European marketing teams who want multi-country analytics
#3

Otterly.ai

From $29/mo
8.2/10

At the opposite end of Profound, Otterly.ai targets tight budgets with a $29/month entry point. An Austrian vendor, it runs daily monitoring across 4 native engines (Gemini and Google AI Mode as add-ons), without Profound's enterprise coverage or agents.

Key Features

  • Daily tracking on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot
  • Lite at $29/month with 15 prompts and 1,000 GEO URL audits/month
  • Standard at $189/month with 100 prompts, 5,000 audits and Google Looker Studio connector
  • Premium at $489/month with 400 prompts and 10,000 audits
  • Add-ons with extra 100 prompts ($99/month) and Google AI Mode/Gemini ($9 to $149/month)
  • European vendor (Austria), reassuring on the GDPR side
  • Lite plan at $29/month, lowest market entry point
  • Looker Studio connector from the Standard plan
  • Daily tracking (vs weekly on several competitors)
  • Google AI Mode and Gemini as paid add-ons (up to $149/month on Premium)
  • Lite plan caps at 15 prompts, enough only for baseline validation
  • No Claude, Grok, Meta AI or DeepSeek in native coverage
  • Monitoring only, with no page audit module or prioritized action plan

Verdict At the opposite end of Profound's enterprise stance, Otterly offers a European entry point at $29/month for SMBs that mainly want monitoring.

Best for SMBs and startups with limited budget focused on monitoring
#4

Ahrefs Brand Radar

From €47/mo
7.8/10

Without Profound's enterprise ticket, Ahrefs Brand Radar grafts AI tracking onto the Ahrefs suite. Its strength is data, over 464 million prompts indexed monthly including 308.5 million on AI Overviews, across six engines with YouTube, TikTok and Reddit coverage, from €47/month for Custom Prompts.

Key Features

  • Tracking across 6 engines (AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini)
  • Database of 464M+ monthly indexed prompts, 308.5M of them on AI Overviews
  • AI Share of Voice that measures the percentage of AI chats mentioning your brand
  • Real captured AI answers (not synthetic prompts)
  • YouTube, TikTok and Reddit coverage
  • Largest indexed prompt database on the market (464M+/month)
  • Real captured AI answers, no synthetic prompts
  • YouTube, TikTok and Reddit tracked (uncommon among competitors)
  • Two separately billed pieces, Custom Prompts from EUR 47/month and the AI Visibility Index at EUR 179/month
  • Access assumes a paid Ahrefs subscription, which inflates the bill for GEO-only teams
  • No sentiment analysis or optimization recommendations

Verdict Without Profound's enterprise ticket, Ahrefs Brand Radar adds AI tracking to the Ahrefs suite, with one of the largest real-prompt databases.

Best for Ahrefs users who want to unify SEO and GEO
#5

Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

From $99/mo
7.5/10

Far more modest than Profound on engines, the $99/month Semrush add-on stays useful for teams already on Semrush. It covers Google AI Mode and ChatGPT, with six reports including an AI Search Site Audit, to bring together classic SEO and AI visibility.

Key Features

  • AI Visibility Score that benchmarks AI search presence
  • Prompt Research with volumes, difficulty and intent per prompt
  • Prompt Tracking on Google AI Mode and ChatGPT, 25 prompts included
  • Brand Performance with Share of Voice, sentiment and key narratives
  • AI Search Site Audit that checks technical issues blocking AI bots
  • Semrush stack already deployed by many teams
  • AI Search Site Audit that detects crawler blockers
  • Joint coverage of traditional SEO + AI in a single suite
  • $99/month add-on on top of the Semrush subscription (costs add up quickly)
  • 25 prompts included only, add-on at $60/month for 50 more
  • Native coverage limited to Google AI Mode and ChatGPT

Verdict Narrower than Profound on engines, the Semrush add-on stays handy for teams that want to centralize SEO and AI visibility for $99/month.

Best for Semrush users who want to centralize everything

Methodology

We evaluated each Profound alternative on feature depth, ease of use, value for money and support, with special weight on pricing transparency, the presence of a free plan and European footprint. Profound targets enterprise; our alternatives also serve SMBs, agencies and teams that refuse to transfer data outside the EU.

Conclusion

Profound keeps the edge on engine coverage and its Fortune 500 anchor. Its self-serve entry stays narrow, ChatGPT alone at $99/month on an annual commitment, and data processing outside the EU is still a problem for European teams. Hikoo stands out as the most complete alternative, with a free plan, GDPR compliance and a prioritized action plan. Peec AI and Otterly remain good European options. See also our comparisons of the best alternatives to Peec AI, Otterly and HubSpot.

See also

FAQ

  • Does Profound publish its pricing?

    Yes for two tiers, Starter at $99/month and Growth at $399/month, though both enforce annual billing and Starter is limited to ChatGPT. Everything else goes through an Enterprise quote. Alternatives like Hikoo (Free 0 EUR then EUR 69 to 499/month) or Peec AI (EUR 85 to 425/month) publish their whole grid and bill monthly.

  • Which Profound alternative is GDPR-compliant?

    Hikoo (France), Peec AI (Germany) and Otterly (Austria) are European vendors. Hikoo goes further with GDPR compliance by design and hosting in Europe, whereas Profound, a US platform, processes data outside the EU.

  • Is Profound suitable for SMBs?

    Profound is built for enterprise and is not suited to SMBs or solo teams. For those profiles, Hikoo (Free plan), Otterly ($29/month) or Frase ($49/month) are far more accessible entry points.

About the author

Gabriel ToledanoGabriel ToledanoCo-founder of Hikoo, AEO and GEO expert
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