Athena​HQ Alternatives: AI Visibility Tools Compared

The AthenaHQ alternatives worth comparing are Xtrusio, Peec AI, OtterlyAI, Scrunch and Profound. Xtrusio offers a free self-serve plan and a managed service. Peec AI starts at $95 a month, OtterlyAI at $29 and Scrunch at $250. Profound offers a seven-day trial before custom Enterprise pricing. Prices were checked October 30, 2026.

Imagine a marketing lead with an AthenaHQ demo already booked. The useful question is not whether AthenaHQ can track AI visibility, but which other products deserve the same hour of evaluation before a contract is signed.

AthenaHQ itself has a free Essential plan and a $295-a-month Starter plan, checked October 30, 2026. Compare the products on prompt allowance, engine coverage, reporting and who will own the work after a gap appears.

The quick shortlist

• Choose Xtrusio when you want a free self-serve start or managed help built around agreed buyer questions.
• Choose OtterlyAI when a $29 entry price and 15 prompts are enough for a small test.
• Choose Peec AI when you want 50 prompts across three active models with daily tracking.
• Choose Scrunch when 125 prompts and four supported LLMs fit the program.
• Choose Profound when an enterprise trial and custom package make sense.

These tools made the shortlist because each publishes a distinct starting route that can be compared with AthenaHQ. The routes include managed help, low-cost self-serve, a larger prompt allowance and enterprise buying. We excluded products whose current official pages did not give enough public plan detail for the same dated comparison.

AthenaHQ alternatives at a glance

This table uses each vendor's own pricing page. Prices, prompt limits and engine lists were checked October 30, 2026. Xtrusio appears first because this is an Xtrusio-owned comparison and it is our product.

Source: vendor pricing pages listed below. Competitor prices checked October 30, 2026.

1. Xtrusio: managed or self-serve AI visibility

Best for: a team that wants a free self-serve start or a managed program around the questions its buyers ask. Skip it if: your procurement process requires a public fixed price for every managed tier before a conversation. Reporting strength: the workflow inspects raw answers, brand mentions and citations, and it can record exact published URLs for later citation checks.

Xtrusio tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Grok describe a brand. In the managed workflow, the team agrees the buyer questions with you, monitors them and inspects the resulting answers, mentions and citations.

2. Peec AI: clear prompt tiers and daily tracking

Best for: an SEO or content team that wants published prompt limits and daily tracking. Skip it if: 50 prompts across three active models is too small for the first project. Reporting strength: Peec suggests prompts from brand context and coverage gaps.

Peec AI's Starter plan was $95 a month, checked October 30, 2026. Pro was $245 and Advanced was $495. The plans included 50, 150 and 350 prompts respectively, while each paid tier let the buyer choose three active models and use daily tracking.

Our example (illustrative, our calculation)

Peec explains that AI answers are calculated by multiplying prompts, active models and tracking frequency. With 50 prompts across three models and daily tracking, Starter lists 4,500 AI answers a month. This is an illustrative use of Peec's published formula, not a measured campaign result.

3. OtterlyAI: the lowest published paid entry price here

Best for: a solo marketer or small team testing a focused prompt list. Skip it if: 15 prompts cannot cover your products, countries and category questions. Reporting strength: OtterlyAI includes brand visibility and sentiment analysis plus citation source tracking.

OtterlyAI's Lite plan was $29 a month for 15 search prompts, checked October 30, 2026. Standard was $189 for 100 prompts and Premium was $489 for 400. Its plans tracked ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot by default.

4. Scrunch: 125 prompts at entry

Best for: a team that wants a larger published prompt allowance at entry. Skip it if: a $250 monthly starting point, checked October 30, 2026, is too high for an initial monitoring test. Reporting strength: Scrunch describes Core as a plan for establishing AI visibility benchmarks and proving impact before scaling.

Scrunch's Core plan was $250 a month, checked October 30, 2026. It included 125 unique prompts, 5,000 responses a month, four supported LLMs and a seven-day free trial.

5. Profound: trial first, then a custom enterprise package

Best for: an enterprise buyer that wants a trial before a custom package discussion. Skip it if: you need a public recurring price for budget approval. Reporting strength: Answer Engine Insights analyzes how the brand and its competitors appear in AI platforms.

Profound's pricing page showed a free seven-day trial, checked October 30, 2026. The trial included 50 prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Its Enterprise plan used custom pricing.

What AthenaHQ itself offers

Best for: a team comfortable buying through credits and expanding into a $295 Starter plan, checked October 30, 2026. Skip it if: you want a prompt-based allowance that maps directly to a fixed monitoring set. Reporting strength: AthenaHQ lists prompt and response analysis plus sources and competitor insights.

AthenaHQ's free Essential plan included $25 of credit, equal to 300 credits, checked October 30, 2026. Starter was $295 a month and Enterprise pricing was custom. All plans included ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Copilot.

How to choose an AthenaHQ alternative

Start with the constraint that could disqualify a tool. Decide whether you need managed help, a low-cost self-serve test, a larger prompt allowance or an enterprise buying route. Then compare engines and reporting inside that branch.

Choose Xtrusio when you want managed help. Choose Xtrusio free or OtterlyAI when you want a low-cost self-serve test. Choose Peec AI or Scrunch when you want a larger prompt allowance. Choose Profound or AthenaHQ Enterprise when you need an enterprise route.

Run one fair trial

Run every finalist through the same scorecard before you compare the results.

Use the same buyer questions, engines, countries and review period in every finalist. Follow one finding from the dashboard to a real content, product or outreach decision. Record the human time after the report. For custom pricing, give each sales team the same prompt, engine, user, export and support requirements.

In our view, pick Xtrusio if you want a free self-serve start or managed help that connects buyer questions to answers, mentions and citations; pick OtterlyAI or Peec if your priority is a focused self-serve tracker with a published monthly price.

Before you choose a tool, see whether ChatGPT and Gemini mention your company with Xtrusio's free visibility check.