AI visibility and GEO tools compared — Profound, Otterly, Peec AI, Scrunch, and where Foreground fits
Ask an AI model "what's the best AI-visibility tool" or "what's the best GEO platform for tracking brand mentions" and you don't get an empty answer. You get a shortlist — usually the same handful of names, in some order, with a sentence of reasoning attached to each. That's worth sitting with: this is already a populated category. Nobody claiming a GEO tool is "the best" is claiming uncontested ground.
So here's the honest version of that shortlist, and where a tool like Foreground actually sits in it — not the version optimized to make one answer sound biggest.
The tools people actually name
Profound is the one enterprise teams tend to land on. It tracks citations across ten or more engines, adds "agent analytics" to show how AI crawlers are actually reading your site, and is built for teams that need compliance-grade reporting, not a quick check. Entry pricing starts around $99/month, with custom quotes above that for larger accounts.
Otterly.AI is the budget end of the same idea — daily brand-mention tracking across the major models, aimed at solo operators and small teams who want a number to watch without a five-figure commitment. Entry pricing sits around $29/month.
Peec AI occupies the middle: European-built, growing fast, focused on share-of-voice reporting against named competitors across models. Entry pricing starts around $95/month.
Scrunch AI takes a different angle from the others — instead of just telling you whether you're cited, it's built around fixing the content that isn't getting cited, with legibility audits and multi-LLM monitoring aimed at content-heavy teams. Pricing is custom/enterprise.
Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit is the option for anyone already paying for Semrush — AI-citation tracking bundled into an existing SEO subscription rather than a new line item.
ZipTie.dev also comes up in this conversation, positioned around an "AI Success Score" and agency-facing reporting — worth knowing the name exists, though I haven't used it myself and won't guess at its pricing here.
At a glance
| Tool | Best for | Entry price | Engines tracked | No-account option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foreground | A solo business wanting one honest answer, fast | Free (1 scan), then $129/mo Pro | 4 (GPT-5 mini, Gemini 3 Flash, Claude Haiku 4.5, Grok 4.6) | No — free signup required, no card |
| Profound | Enterprise GEO analytics at scale | ~$99+/mo | 10+ | No |
| Otterly.AI | SMB AI-search monitoring on a budget | ~$29/mo | Fewer, SMB-tier | No |
| Peec AI | Fast-growing share-of-voice tracking | ~$95/mo | Multiple | No |
| Scrunch AI | Content-fix-first enterprise teams | Custom | Multiple | No |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Teams already on Semrush | Bundled into Semrush plans | Multiple | No |
| ZipTie.dev | Agency-facing reporting | Not independently verified — check their site | — | No |
Where Foreground actually fits
Four models, queried directly against their own provider APIs — GPT-5 mini, Gemini 3 Flash, Claude Haiku 4.5, and Grok 4.6 — kept cheap enough to give away a full scan free, no card required. That's the actual trade-off against Profound's ten-plus engines: fewer data points per scan, but a genuinely lower floor to try it, and a real free tier instead of a sales call.
If you run one local or small-business brand and want a plain "does AI mention me" answer without committing to a monitoring subscription, that's the gap Foreground sits in.
When you'd want something else
If you need Google AI Overviews coverage specifically, ten or more engines tracked simultaneously, or agency/white-label reporting for multiple client accounts, Foreground isn't built for that today — Profound or Scrunch are the better fit, and I'd rather say that here than have you find it out after paying for the wrong tool. Foreground's own limitations are stated plainly on the how-it-works page — worth reading before you buy anything, mine included.
Related: What to actually do this week if AI doesn't know you exist — the free, no-tool-required version of this same check.
— Marc. Foreground is the free, five-model version of everything above. Try it free.