# BrandLight vs Profound

Compare BrandLight vs Profound features, pricing, and alternatives.

- Canonical page: https://himoose.com/versus/brandlight-vs-profound/
- Researched: August 2026
- Compared across 20 categories
- Hi, Moose is the publisher of this comparison and is included as a third option throughout.

## Overview

BrandLight and Profound both help enterprise teams track and improve brand visibility in AI search. Teams often compare them when they need to understand how tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude describe their brand, cite their content, and influence discovery. The comparison usually comes down to the data each platform collects and the actions it supports. BrandLight centers on AI search visibility, query and source analysis, attribution, AI ads, and [agentic](https://himoose.com/seo-ai-agent/) commerce. Profound combines visibility and citation tracking with consumer prompt data, crawler and referral analytics, and automated content workflows. Other differences fall under audience and use case. Both serve large brands and agencies, while BrandLight explicitly targets Fortune 500 brands, CMOs, and agencies that need to shape AI-driven discovery. Profound focuses on answer engine optimization work across measurement, analysis, and content improvement.

## At a glance

### BrandLight

Pick it if a demo-led purchase suits you, since the price, the prompt volume and the full engine list are all unpublished.

- Entry price: Not published - demo only
- Tracked prompts: Not published - custom
- Free trial: None - paid pilot reported

### Profound

Pick it if you are buying for a large team, and check the prompt allowance first, because the entry plan tracks 50.

- Entry price: $99/mo, billed yearly
- Tracked prompts: 50 / 100; custom on Enterprise
- Free trial: 7 days (Growth)

### Hi, Moose (our AEO tool)

Pick it if you want the fix shipped rather than scored: an agent that publishes the change, audio repurposing no other tool here offers at any price, and a built-in model so the AI can cost you nothing.

- Entry price: $39/mo BYOK; $79/mo AI included
- Tracked prompts: No hard limit on any plan
- Free trial: n/a - free plan, no expiry

## Founders have SEO backgrounds?

A tool built by people who have done the work makes different choices.

| Tool | Answer |
| --- | --- |
| BrandLight | No. Founder Imri Marcus, is a serial entrepreneur with prior exits in media and AI. |
| Profound | No. James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs, a design engineer who previously worked on maps and location services at Uber; neither founder came from a search or marketing background. |
| Hi, Moose | Yes. Founder Sam Morris has 15+ years in SEO and software engineering. |

## Full comparison

Values are quoted as published. Where a vendor does not publish a number, the cell says "Not published".

### Pricing & cost model

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free plan available | No | No - free one-off AEO Report only | Yes - free forever, no card |
| Free daily visibility runs, no cap | No | No | Yes - local runs unlimited on every plan |
| Engines free to run daily | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Entry paid price | Not published - demo only | $99/mo, billed yearly | $39/mo BYOK; $79/mo AI included |
| Annual billing discount | Not published | Yes - 2 months free | Yes - BYOK 2 months free; managed plans ~10% |
| Pricing model | Custom contract, per module | Per prompt + Agent credits | Flat plan with monthly AI credit balance, or BYOK |
| Bring your own API key | No | No | Yes - OpenRouter |
| Can run with $0 AI cost to vendor | No | No | Yes |
| Usage metered in one transparent unit | No | Partial - credits meter Agents only | Yes - AI credits, published rate card |
| In-app usage dashboard | Not published | Yes - credit admin panel | Yes - % used, reset date, pace warning |
| Agency / reseller tier | Partner program, not a tier | Yes - Agency Mode, 2 tiers | Yes - $149 BYOK Agency; $449+ AI included |
| Affiliate program | No | Partner program - referral commissions | Yes |
| Annual contract required | Not published - enterprise terms | Yes on both self-serve tiers | No |
| Free trial length | None - paid pilot reported | 7 days (Growth) | n/a - free plan, no expiry |
| Paid plans pricing range | Not published | $99–$399/mo + custom Enterprise | $39–$1,999/mo |

### Deployment, privacy & data ownership

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Native desktop app | No | No | Yes - Windows and macOS |
| Browser-based app | Yes | Yes | No |
| Local-first data storage | No - cloud SaaS | No - cloud SaaS | Yes - local database on the device |
| Works offline | No | No | Partial - local models and stored data; engine checks need the web |
| On-device AI Inference | No | No | Yes |
| Local model sizes offered | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Data export on cancellation | Not published | CSV/JSON, Growth and up | CSV, PDF, DOCX exports plus full local backup |
| SOC 2 certification | SOC 2 Type II | SOC 2 Type II | Pending |
| ISO certification | Not published - GDPR stated | Not published | No |
| Local backup and restore | No | No - vendor-side daily backups | Yes - export and import a backup file |

### Visibility & prompt tracking

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Engines tracked | 6 named; full list not published | 9 total; 1 on Starter, 3 on Growth | 10; 5 of them also collected locally |
| Real consumer-surface capture | Not published | Yes - browser capture, not API | Yes - 5 engines read from the device, no API |
| ChatGPT | Yes | Yes - all plans | Yes |
| Claude | Yes | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Gemini | Yes | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Google AI Mode | Not published | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Google AI Overviews | Yes | Growth and up | Yes |
| Grok | Yes | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Bing Copilot | Yes | Enterprise only | Yes |
| DeepSeek | No | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Meta AI | No | No | Yes |
| Tracked prompts included | Not published - custom | 50 / 100; custom on Enterprise | No hard limit on any plan |
| Samples per prompt configurable | Not published | No - response cap set by plan | Yes |
| Run cadence options | Not published | Daily only | Multiple times a day, weekly, monthly, and on-demand |
| On-demand run now | Not published | No | Yes |
| Instant one-off check | No | Free AEO Report, 3 engines | Yes |
| Prompt manager | Yes - vendor-assisted setup | Yes - edit, add, disable | Yes |
| Branded vs non-branded classification | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Prompt categories and topics | Yes - topics, personas, regions | Yes - topics + content clusters | Yes |
| Per-prompt model selection | Not published | No - set per config | Yes |
| Brand name variant support | Yes - brands and sub-brands | Yes - asset configuration | Yes - secondary brand terms |
| Brand multi-domain support | Yes - uncapped | Yes - unlimited domains | Yes - secondary owned domains |
| Suggested prompts from Google Search Console | No | No - GSC is reporting only | Yes - real GSC questions |
| Suggested prompts from competitor gaps | Partial - topic suggestions | Partial - from Prompt Volumes + brand config | Yes |
| Perplexity | Yes | Growth and up | Yes |

### Scoring & analysis

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mention detection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Citation detection | Yes - domain and page level | Yes - citation share + authority | Yes - domain and page level |
| Sentiment scoring | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Average position / rank | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Voice | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Mentions | Yes - 0–100 visibility score | Yes - "Visibility Score" | Yes |
| Share of Citations | Partial - source influence share | Yes - "Citation Share" | Yes |
| Narrative drift detection | Partial - sentiment and bias score | Partial - sentiment + keyword themes | Yes - scored against a brand truth profile |
| Feature-parity / accuracy scoring | No - no ground-truth check | Yes - FactCheck vs ground truth | Yes |
| Untracked brand extraction | Partial - competitor ranking tables | Yes | Yes - with sentiment and average rank |
| Cited source categorization | Yes - media, social, review, partner | Partial - domain ranking, not typed | Yes - 8 source types |
| Topic-level breakdown | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Engine-level breakdown | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Competitor tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes - or promote any brand seen in results |
| Competitors included | Not published | Per configuration, not published | 15 |
| Visibility gap analysis | Yes - category coverage map | Yes - Opportunities, Growth and up | Yes |
| ChatGPT fan-out capture | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| AI Mode grounding queries capture | No | No | Yes - the live grounding searches |
| Bing Index probe | No | No | Yes |
| AI crawler access check | Yes - robots plus server logs | Partial - log-based, not robots check | Yes - retrieval, live fetch and training |

### Reporting & exports

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Executive dashboard | Yes - cross-brand and region | Yes | Yes |
| AI-written narrative summary | Partial - priority insight cards | Partial - Aim, Enterprise only | Yes |
| Data export | Not published | Yes - CSV, JSON, API, Looker | Yes - CSV |
| Branded PDF report | No | No | Yes |
| Scheduled email reports | Not published | Partial - Slack/Teams alerts | Yes - paid, per-user opt-in |
| Action log with export | No | Partial - Aim project tracking | Yes - CSV on paid managed plans |
| Historical data retention | Not published | All time | No cap - stored on device,. Paid plans offer 400 day backup on-cloud; audio analytics 180–365 days |

### Taking action (the AEO loop)

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Covers full loop: track → fix → verify → deploy | No - no fix or deploy step | Yes - via Agents + Aim | Yes |
| Page-level AEO audit | No - site-level health score | No - no scored page audit | Yes |
| Scored categories | 0 per page; 4 site-level issue types | 0 | 9 |
| Retrieval-readiness scoring | No | No | Yes - deterministic dense retrieval |
| Evidence tiers on recommendations | No - priority ranking only | No | Yes - proven, directional, best-practice |
| Element-level rewrite suggestions | No - structure and tone scoring | No - full-page rewrite only | Yes - element, character budget, before and after |
| Second-model QA pass | No | No - human approval step | Yes - pass, revised or needs human review |
| Static crawler-view snapshot | No | No | Yes - full-page screenshot, JavaScript off |
| Audit input sources | Site crawl and server logs | n/a | Live URL, pasted text, file, WordPress, Webflow, Grav |
| Baseline vs verification re-runs | Partial - issues-over-time chart | Partial - Aim impact tracking | Yes - compares against the baseline |
| Recommendation status tracking | Not published | Yes - Aim projects and tasks | Yes - planned, staged, completed |
| Visibility data sets page priority | Yes | Yes | Yes - defend, recover, convert, earn |
| Search Console sets page priority | No | Partial - GSC integration | Yes - protect, balanced or expand |
| Branded audit PDF | n/a - no AI page audit | No | Yes |

### CMS integration & publishing

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WordPress | No | Yes - publish via Agents | Yes - official plugin, production and staging |
| Webflow | No | Yes | Yes - OAuth MCP, pages and collection items |
| Framer | No | Yes | On roadmap |
| Grav | No | No | Yes - official plugin |
| Shopify | No - retailer listings read only | Log ingestion only, no publishing | On roadmap |
| Surgical element-level edits to live page | No | No - publishes whole content | Yes |
| Preview before applying | No | Yes - approval step | Yes |
| Staging environment support | No | No | Yes - WordPress, with promote to production |
| One-click rollback | No | No | Yes - WordPress |
| Patch history per site | No | No | Yes - WordPress |
| Visual placement picker | No | No | Yes - pick the spot on the rendered page |
| Push Schema JSON-LD into page | No | Not published | Yes - FAQPage schema |
| Publish approval gate | n/a - never publishes | Yes - human-in-the-loop | Yes - always, including scheduled runs |

### Agentic capability

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Truly agentic (agent chooses its own steps) | No | Yes - Aim, Enterprise only | Yes - plans and executes against the live web |
| Fixed-workflow automation only | No workflow builder either | Agents are node-graph workflows | No - workflows exist alongside the agent |
| Agents can run on local model at zero cost | No | No - credit-metered | Yes |
| Multi-agent panel | No | No - Aim spawns sub-agents | Yes - two extra agents, paid plans |
| Live browser view | No | No | Yes |
| Take control mid-run | No | No | Yes |
| Steer agent while running | No | Partial - chat with Aim | Yes - talk to any agent mid-job |
| Background execution | No | Yes - Aim runs continuously | Yes - with notify on completion |
| Approval gate before real-world actions | n/a - takes no actions | Yes - before publishing | Yes |
| Long-running deep work jobs | No | Partial - Aim projects | Yes |
| Scheduled agent jobs | No | Yes - scheduled Agent runs | Yes - daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly |
| Agent produces saved artifacts | No | Yes - Documents and Sheets | Yes - briefs, drafts, FAQs, audits |
| Evidence capture | Partial - stored AI answers | Partial - cited data in briefs | Yes - screenshots and captured proof |
| Searchable job history | No | Yes - run history | Yes |

### Chat & assistant

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Agentic chat with mid-answer tool calls | No | Yes - Aim, Enterprise only | Yes |
| Model picker per conversation | No | No | Yes |
| LLM models available | n/a | Not disclosed; 16 in Agent research | 27 hosted + 3 local; any model on BYOK |
| Chat memory across conversations | No | Partial - project context | Yes - semantic search over past chats |
| Live web search | No | Yes - Exa, Firecrawl, Perplexity nodes | Yes |
| Fetch and read URLs | Partial - crawls your own domains | Yes - web scrape node | Yes |
| Semantic search over your own site | No | Partial - knowledge base, sitemap | Yes - on-device index |
| Topic coverage check | Partial - category coverage map | Yes - content gap vs sitemap | Yes - covered, partial or not covered |
| File attachments | No | Partial - Google Drive, knowledge base | Yes - txt, md, doc, docx, pdf, images |
| In-app screenshot capture | No | No | Yes - screen or window, with crop |
| Custom specialists with own tool access | No | Yes - Skills + custom Agents | Yes - plus 6 presets |
| Image generation | No | Not published | Yes |

### Content generation

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Research-backed briefs | Partial - topic and structure guidance | Yes - Aim execution briefs | Yes |
| Live SERP / PAA research | No | Partial - DataForSEO, Perplexity nodes | Yes - plus related searches and AI search snapshots |
| Full draft generation | Not published - direction, not drafts | Yes | Yes |
| Brand voice grounding | No | Yes - Brand Kit | Yes |
| Brand truth profile | Partial - brand facts and bias score | Partial - Brand Kit + FactCheck | Yes |
| Internal linking placement | No | Not published | Yes |
| Featured image generation | No | Not published | Yes |
| FAQ generation with schema export | No | Yes - AEO FAQ template | Yes - HTML and JSON-LD |
| Key points extraction | No | Not published | Yes - pushable into the live pag |
| AI-tell removal pass | No | No | Yes - paid, toggleable |
| Artifact library | No | Yes - Documents | Yes |
| Export formats | Not published | CSV, JSON; CMS publish | Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, TXT |
| Revise artifacts in place | No | Yes - Documents editor | Yes |
| Deploy directly to CMS | No | Yes - 10 CMS connectors | Yes |

### Content repurposing / audio

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Turn any page into audio | No | No | Yes - URL, pasted text or file |
| Two-voice conversation format | No | No | Yes |
| Voices | 0 | 0 | 30 |
| Languages | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Length options | n/a | n/a | Short, standard, deep dive |
| Embeddable audio player | No | No | Yes |
| Player theming and layout | No | No | Yes - theme, layout, accent, title, transcript |
| White-label audio attribution | No | No | Yes - agency plans |
| Attribution backlink to agency | No | No | Yes - real link in page HTML |
| Listening analytics | No | No | Yes - plays, completion, listen time |
| BYOK audio generation | No | No | Yes |

### Site crawl & monitoring

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Automatic site discovery | Yes - multi-domain | Partial - sitemap read by Aim | Yes |
| Scheduled full-site crawl | Yes - plus AI bot logs | No - reads AI bot logs, not your site | Yes - weekly or on demand |
| Monitored page management | Partial - domain level | No | Yes |
| Batched change digests | No | No | Yes |
| On-device semantic index | No | No | Yes |
| Page freshness tracking | Partial - crawl frequency | Partial - content decay signals | Yes |

### Entity & knowledge graph

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Site-wide entity graph | No | No | Yes |
| Inferred relationships | No | No | Yes |
| Salience scoring | No | No | Yes |
| Graph readable by AI agent | No | No | Yes |
| Graph export | No | No | Yes - CSV and PDF |

### Automation & workflows

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Visibility-threshold triggers | Not published | Partial - Aim surfaces, doesn't fire | Yes - mentions or citations, all or one topic |
| Pre-built recovery recipe | No | Yes - Content Refresh template | Yes - detect, locate, audit, stage a fix |
| Conditional branching | No | Yes - node-graph builder | Partial - branches on whether a matching page exists |
| Scheduled content cadence | No | Yes - scheduled Agent runs | Yes - daily to monthly |
| Workflow reports | No | Yes - run logs + Aim reports | Yes - posted to the inbox |

### Alerts & inbox

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Unified project inbox | Partial - recommendations panel | Partial - Aim opportunity feed | Yes |
| Native OS notifications | No | No - web only | Yes - Windows and macOS |
| Customized notifications with severity thresholds | Partial - priority labels only | Not published | Yes - per project |
| Email digest | Not published | Partial - Slack/Teams integrations | Yes |

### Teams & workspaces

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Seats included | Not published | 1 / 3 / custom | Unlimited on paid managed; 10 BYOK Premium, 25 BYOK Agency |
| Cost per additional seat | Not published | Not published - upgrade tier | $0 on paid managed plans, +$7 per seat for BYOK plans |
| Shared allowance across team | n/a - no metered allowance | Yes - shared credit pool | Yes |
| Per-member usage visibility | Not published | Partial - admin usage panel | Yes |
| Multi-project workspaces | Yes - brands and regions | Enterprise / Agency Mode only | Yes |
| Projects included | Custom | 1 workspace; multi on Enterprise | 1 free, 3–10 managed, 25–unlimited agency; +$10 each |
| Archive and restore projects | Not published | Agency Mode only | Yes |
| Per-project API keys | Not published | No - org-level, Enterprise | Yes - rotatable |
| SSO / SAML | Not published | Enterprise only | Roadmap |

### Agency & white-label

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| White-label PDF reports | No | No | Yes - visibility report and audit |
| Custom logo, color and link | No | No | Yes |
| White-label audio player | No | No | Yes - custom attribution text and link |
| Client-facing backlink | No | No | Yes |
| Dedicated agency tier | No - co-sell partner program | Yes - Agency Growth + Enterprise | Yes - four tiers |
| Client sub-accounts | Partial - multi-brand workspaces | Yes - client + pitch workspaces | No - clients are projects, no client logins |

### Integrations

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Google Search Console | Not published | Yes | Yes - OAuth, credentials stay on device |
| Google Analytics | Not published | Yes - plus Adobe Analytics | Roadmap |
| MCP connector support | No | Yes - hosted server + Claude connector | Partial - Webflow connects over MCP |
| Public API | Not published | Enterprise only | No - project keys for own plugins only |
| Slack | No | Yes - plus Microsoft Teams | No |
| Zapier | No | No - 40+ native connectors | No |
| Custom connection support | Partial - server log ingestion | Yes - custom log drain + API nodes | Yes - request a connection, paid plans |

### Platform & support

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| UI languages | 1 (English); tracks many | 1 (English); tracks 30+ | 6 |
| Troubleshooting and recovery tools | No | No - status page only | Yes |
| In-app help agent | No | Yes - Aim assistant | Yes |
| Done-for-you service available | Yes - assigned AI strategist | Partner agency directory | Yes |

### Team

| Feature | BrandLight | Profound | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Founders have SEO backgrounds | No. Founder Imri Marcus, is a serial entrepreneur with prior exits in media and AI. | No. James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs, a design engineer who previously worked on maps and location services at Uber; neither founder came from a search or marketing background. | Yes. Founder Sam Morris has 15+ years in SEO and software engineering. |


## Which one to pick

BrandLight fits enterprise teams that need SOC 2 Type II certification, Fortune 500-focused support, and a cloud platform for cross-brand visibility work. Profound fits teams that need browser access, Slack or Teams alerts, a public API, and enterprise agent workflows. Both tools also offer cloud-based collaboration that may suit distributed organizations.

Hi, Moose fits small and mid-sized businesses, independent SEO teams, and agencies that want to track AI visibility and act on the findings without an annual contract. Its [free-forever plan](https://himoose.com/pricing/) requires no card. Paid plans start at $39 per month with your own OpenRouter key, or $79 per month with AI included. Every plan includes unlimited local daily visibility runs across five engines, while the platform tracks 10 engines in total.

The desktop model also gives Hi, Moose a different data and cost setup. It stores data in a local database, supports local backups, and offers [on-device AI](https://himoose.com/local-ai/) models. Teams can run with $0 AI cost paid to Hi, Moose when they use local models or bring their own key. The in-app dashboard shows AI credit use, reset dates, and pace warnings.

Hi, Moose also covers the work after tracking. It captures Google AI Mode grounding queries, runs page-level AEO audits across nine scored categories, and labels recommendations as proven, directional, or best-practice. Teams can compare verification runs against a baseline, prepare element-level changes, and approve edits before publishing. Its [WordPress](https://himoose.com/publishing/) integration supports staging, production promotion, rollback, patch history, and targeted edits. It also supports Webflow and Grav.

Agencies can use branded PDF visibility reports and audit reports, white-label [audio](https://himoose.com/listen/) players, and agency plans from $149 per month with BYOK. Hi, Moose does not yet offer client logins, SOC 2 certification, a public API, Slack, or Zapier. Buyers who need those controls or integrations should weigh BrandLight or Profound. For teams that need broad AI search tracking, local control, transparent usage, and a track-to-fix workflow at published prices, Hi, Moose provides the more complete fit.

## About Hi, Moose

Hi, Moose is a desktop AEO tool for small and mid sized businesses and the agencies that serve them. It tracks how a brand appears across AI answer engines, audits the pages behind those answers, writes the fix and publishes it to WordPress, Webflow or Grav. It runs a local AI model on the user's own machine, so prompts, answers and history stay on disk, and paid managed plans add cloud backup.

- Site: https://himoose.com/
- Pricing: https://himoose.com/pricing/
- All 190 comparisons: https://himoose.com/versus/

## Sources

- https://brandlight.ai
- https://tryprofound.com
- https://docs.tryprofound.com
- https://mcp.tryprofound.com