AI visibility tools, head to head
Gumshoe vs SE Ranking
Pricing, features and differences, researched August 2026.
Gumshoe and SE Ranking both help teams measure search visibility and turn findings into SEO work. The comparison matters for agencies, marketers, and brands that need to track traditional Google results alongside visibility in AI search tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The main differences fall under AI visibility research, SEO tool coverage, workflow depth, reporting, and intended use. Gumshoe centers on persona-based AI buyer conversations across 11 models, then connects mentions, citations, competitors, content, and technical findings to recommended actions. SE Ranking offers AI visibility tracking as part of a broader SEO platform that includes rank tracking, keyword research, site audits, backlink research, content optimization, and agency reporting. Teams that need detailed insight into how AI models describe or recommend a brand may focus on Gumshoe’s conversation simulations and AI-specific analysis. Teams that want one platform for ongoing SEO operations, client management, and white-label reports may place more weight on SE Ranking’s wider toolset.
At a glance
Gumshoe
Pick it if persona-generated prompts suit how you work, keeping in mind the entry plan is 80 prompts a month and there is no trial.
- Entry price
- $99/mo
- Tracked prompts
- 80/mo - 8 personas × 10 prompts
- Free trial
- No trial - 1 free sample audit
SE Ranking
Pick it if you want rank tracking and AI answers on one bill, keeping in mind the AI side runs one check per engine.
- Entry price
- $129/mo suite; $99/mo standalone
- Tracked prompts
- 100–250 daily; 1 check per engine
- Free trial
- 14 days; 10 days standalone
Hi, MooseOur 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
The row SEOs read first
Founders have SEO backgrounds?
A tool built by people who have done the work makes different choices.
Full comparison
202 rows across 20 categories. Values are quoted as published; where a vendor does not publish a number, the cell says so.
| Feature | Gumshoe | SE Ranking | Hi, Moose Our AEO tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing & cost model | |||
| Free plan available | No - one free sample audit | No - 14-day trial | Yes - free forever, no card |
| Free daily visibility runs, no cap | No | No - 5 free checks/day on their site | Yes - local runs unlimited on every plan |
| Engines free to run daily | 0 | 5 - free web tool only, no account data | 5 |
| Entry paid price | $99/mo | $129/mo suite; $99/mo standalone | $39/mo BYOK; $79/mo AI included |
| Annual billing discount | Not published - monthly only | Yes - 20% | Yes - BYOK 2 months free; managed plans ~10% |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly, billed per project | Limit tiers + per-check add-on | 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 - separate audit, URL and content caps | Partial - 1 check = 1 prompt × 1 engine | Yes - AI credits, published rate card |
| In-app usage dashboard | Yes - usage tab per workspace | Partial - plan limit counters | Yes - % used, reset date, pace warning |
| Agency / reseller tier | Partial - partner discount, no separate plan | Add-on, +$69/mo | Yes - $149 BYOK Agency; $449+ AI included |
| Affiliate program | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Annual contract required | No | No - but add-ons are annual only | No |
| Free trial length | No trial - 1 free sample audit | 14 days; 10 days standalone | n/a - free plan, no expiry |
| Paid plans pricing range | $99–$299/mo + custom | $129–$279/mo + add-ons | $39–$1,999/mo |
| Deployment, privacy & data ownership | |||
| Native desktop app | No | No - iOS/Android apps only | 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 | CSV, JSON and API anytime | CSV + API anytime | CSV, PDF, DOCX exports plus full local backup |
| SOC 2 certification | None published | Not published | Pending |
| ISO certification | None published | Not published | No |
| Local backup and restore | No | No | Yes - export and import a backup file |
| Visibility & prompt tracking | |||
| Engines tracked | 11 claimed; ~8 families, 6 per audit | 5 - all on every plan | 10; 5 of them also collected locally |
| Real consumer-surface capture | No - official APIs, interface spot-checks | Yes - UI queries, not APIs | Yes - 5 engines read from the device, no API |
| ChatGPT | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Claude | Yes | No | Yes |
| Gemini | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google AI Mode | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Google AI Overviews | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Grok | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bing Copilot | Unclear - listed on one page only | No | Yes |
| DeepSeek | Yes | No | Yes |
| Meta AI | No | No | Yes |
| Tracked prompts included | 80/mo - 8 personas × 10 prompts | 100–250 daily; 1 check per engine | No hard limit on any plan |
| Samples per prompt configurable | No - each prompt asked once per model | No | Yes |
| Run cadence options | Monthly audit; weekly or daily snapshots | Daily; weekly in standalone tool | Multiple times a day, weekly, monthly, and on-demand |
| On-demand run now | Partial - within plan audit limits | Not published | Yes |
| Instant one-off check | No - free tools not launched | Yes - free web tool, 5/day | Yes |
| Prompt manager | Partial - generated from personas and topics | Yes - groups, CSV import | Yes |
| Branded vs non-branded classification | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Prompt categories and topics | Yes - topics per prompt | Yes - groups and topics | Yes |
| Per-prompt model selection | No - set per audit | Partial - engines set per prompt set | Yes |
| Brand name variant support | Not published | Partial - aliases in standalone tool | Yes - secondary brand terms |
| Brand multi-domain support | Not published | Partial - one site per project | Yes - secondary owned domains |
| Suggested prompts from Google Search Console | No | No | Yes - real GSC questions |
| Suggested prompts from competitor gaps | Partial - persona and topic gaps | Partial - topics and untracked AIO keywords | Yes |
| Perplexity | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Scoring & analysis | |||
| Mention detection | Yes | Yes - linked and unlinked | Yes |
| Citation detection | Yes - URL and domain | Yes | Yes - domain and page level |
| Sentiment scoring | Yes - $299 plan | Partial - standalone tool only | Yes |
| Average position / rank | Yes - rank per answer | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Voice | Yes - visibility percentage | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Mentions | Yes - leaderboard mention counts | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Citations | Partial - source counts, no share metric | Partial - source frequency by domain | Yes |
| Narrative drift detection | Partial - theme and sentiment over runs | No | Yes - scored against a brand truth profile |
| Feature-parity / accuracy scoring | No | No | Yes |
| Untracked brand extraction | Yes - every brand in the answers | Yes | Yes - with sentiment and average rank |
| Cited source categorization | Yes - $299 plan | Yes - media, blogs, forums | 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 | Up to 30 | 5–15 domains | 15 |
| Visibility gap analysis | Yes - persona, topic and competitor | Yes - sources citing rivals, not you | Yes |
| ChatGPT fan-out capture | No | No | Yes |
| AI Mode grounding queries capture | No | No | Yes - the live grounding searches |
| Bing Index probe | No | No | Yes |
| AI crawler access check | Yes - per URL | No | Yes - retrieval, live fetch and training |
| Reporting & exports | |||
| Executive dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI-written narrative summary | Not published | Partial - templated insight cards | Yes |
| Data export | Yes - CSV, JSON, API, share links | Yes - CSV, API, Looker Studio | Yes - CSV |
| Branded PDF report | No | Yes - +$69/mo add-on | Yes |
| Scheduled email reports | Partial - run-complete emails | Yes | Yes - paid, per-user opt-in |
| Action log with export | No | Partial - task manager only | Yes - CSV on paid managed plans |
| Historical data retention | Not published | 6 months; all time at $279 | No cap - stored on device,. Paid plans offer 400 day backup on-cloud; audio analytics 180–365 days |
| Taking action (the AEO loop) | |||
| Covers full loop: track → fix → verify → deploy | Partial - no deploy step | Partial - no page-level AI audit step | Yes |
| Page-level AEO audit | Yes - 10–50 URLs/mo by plan | No - technical SEO audit only | Yes |
| Scored categories | 6 named categories | 0 for AI readiness | 9 |
| Retrieval-readiness scoring | Partial - topics grouped by retrieval issue | No | Yes - deterministic dense retrieval |
| Evidence tiers on recommendations | No - priority ranking only | No | Yes - proven, directional, best-practice |
| Element-level rewrite suggestions | Partial - page-level content plans | No - editor-level guidance | Yes - element, character budget, before and after |
| Second-model QA pass | No | No - human review | Yes - pass, revised or needs human review |
| Static crawler-view snapshot | Not published | No | Yes - full-page screenshot, JavaScript off |
| Audit input sources | Entered URLs + site crawl | n/a - no AI page audit | Live URL, pasted text, file, WordPress, Webflow, Grav |
| Baseline vs verification re-runs | Yes - score history per page | Partial - trend charts only | Yes - compares against the baseline |
| Recommendation status tracking | Not published | Partial - task manager | Yes - planned, staged, completed |
| Visibility data sets page priority | Yes - audit gaps drive recommendations | Partial - page and source reports | Yes - defend, recover, convert, earn |
| Search Console sets page priority | No | Partial - GSC data in platform | Yes - protect, balanced or expand |
| Branded audit PDF | No | n/a - no AI page audit | Yes |
| CMS integration & publishing | |||
| WordPress | No | Yes - publishes articles | Yes - official plugin, production and staging |
| Webflow | No | No | Yes - OAuth MCP, pages and collection items |
| Framer | No | No | On roadmap |
| Grav | No | No | Yes - official plugin |
| Shopify | No | No | On roadmap |
| Surgical element-level edits to live page | No | No - whole article only | Yes |
| Preview before applying | No | Partial - set status on export | 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 - flags gaps only | No | Yes - FAQPage schema |
| Publish approval gate | n/a - never publishes | Manual export only | Yes - always, including scheduled runs |
| Agentic capability | |||
| Truly agentic (agent chooses its own steps) | No | No | Yes - plans and executes against the live web |
| Fixed-workflow automation only | Yes - scheduled audits only | Only via Make, n8n, Zapier | No - workflows exist alongside the agent |
| Agents can run on local model at zero cost | No | No | Yes |
| Multi-agent panel | No | No | Yes - two extra agents, paid plans |
| Live browser view | No | No | Yes |
| Take control mid-run | No | No | Yes |
| Steer agent while running | No | No | Yes - talk to any agent mid-job |
| Background execution | Partial - audits run server-side | No | Yes - with notify on completion |
| Approval gate before real-world actions | n/a - no real-world actions | n/a - takes no actions | Yes |
| Long-running deep work jobs | No | No | Yes |
| Scheduled agent jobs | No - scheduled audits, not agents | No - scheduled crawls and reports only | Yes - daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly |
| Agent produces saved artifacts | No | No | Yes - briefs, drafts, FAQs, audits |
| Evidence capture | Partial - full audit transcripts kept | Partial - cached answer copies | Yes - screenshots and captured proof |
| Searchable job history | Partial - audit run history | No | Yes |
| Chat & assistant | |||
| Agentic chat with mid-answer tool calls | No | No - data exposed to outside assistants via MCP | Yes |
| Model picker per conversation | No | No | Yes |
| LLM models available | n/a | n/a | 27 hosted + 3 local; any model on BYOK |
| Chat memory across conversations | No | No | Yes - semantic search over past chats |
| Live web search | No | No | Yes |
| Fetch and read URLs | Partial - audits URLs you enter | No | Yes |
| Semantic search over your own site | No - crawl feeds content audit only | No | Yes - on-device index |
| Topic coverage check | Yes - $299 plan | Partial - prompt and source gap reports | Yes - covered, partial or not covered |
| File attachments | No | No | 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 | No | Yes - plus 6 presets |
| Image generation | No | No | Yes |
| Content generation | |||
| Research-backed briefs | Yes - content plans from audit gaps | Yes - SERP-driven | Yes |
| Live SERP / PAA research | No | Yes | Yes - plus related searches and AI search snapshots |
| Full draft generation | Yes | Yes - 25–50 articles/mo | Yes |
| Brand voice grounding | Partial - brand voice style toggle | Partial - 10 tone presets | Yes |
| Brand truth profile | Not published | No - brand name and aliases only | Yes |
| Internal linking placement | Not published | No | Yes |
| Featured image generation | No | Not published | Yes |
| FAQ generation with schema export | Partial - FAQ format, no schema export | Partial - FAQ text, no schema | Yes - HTML and JSON-LD |
| Key points extraction | No - key points are a manual input | No | Yes - pushable into the live pag |
| AI-tell removal pass | No | No | Yes - paid, toggleable |
| Artifact library | Partial - generated pieces stored per project | Yes - article list | Yes |
| Export formats | Not published | WordPress, Google Docs; CSV data | Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, TXT |
| Revise artifacts in place | Not published | Yes - editor | Yes |
| Deploy directly to CMS | No - manual publish | Partial - WordPress only | Yes |
| Content repurposing / audio | |||
| 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 | |||
| Automatic site discovery | Yes - crawls the site for content gaps | Yes - crawler and sitemap | Yes |
| Scheduled full-site crawl | Partial - monthly, $299 plan | Yes - 250k–2M pages/mo | Yes - weekly or on demand |
| Monitored page management | Yes - audited page list with scores | Yes | Yes |
| Batched change digests | No | Partial - page change alerts, $279 | Yes |
| On-device semantic index | No | No | Yes |
| Page freshness tracking | Partial - audit score history per page | Partial - page change monitoring | Yes |
| Entity & knowledge graph | |||
| Site-wide entity graph | No | No | Yes |
| Inferred relationships | Partial - brand and attribute co-mentions | No | Yes |
| Salience scoring | Partial - theme frequency counts | No | Yes |
| Graph readable by AI agent | No | No | Yes |
| Graph export | No | No | Yes - CSV and PDF |
| Automation & workflows | |||
| Visibility-threshold triggers | No | No - external tools only | Yes - mentions or citations, all or one topic |
| Pre-built recovery recipe | No | No | Yes - detect, locate, audit, stage a fix |
| Conditional branching | No | No - only in Make or n8n | Partial - branches on whether a matching page exists |
| Scheduled content cadence | No | No | Yes - daily to monthly |
| Workflow reports | No | No | Yes - posted to the inbox |
| Alerts & inbox | |||
| Unified project inbox | No | No | Yes |
| Native OS notifications | No | No - mobile app push only | Yes - Windows and macOS |
| Customized notifications with severity thresholds | No | No | Yes - per project |
| Email digest | Partial - audit-complete emails | Yes - scheduled reports | Yes |
| Teams & workspaces | |||
| Seats included | Unlimited - no per-seat fee | 1 / 3 | Unlimited on paid managed; 10 BYOK Premium, 25 BYOK Agency |
| Cost per additional seat | $0 | From $16/mo | $0 on paid managed plans, +$7 per seat for BYOK plans |
| Shared allowance across team | Yes - allowance sits on the project | Yes | Yes |
| Per-member usage visibility | Partial - usage tab, not per member | Not published | Yes |
| Multi-project workspaces | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Projects included | Unlimited; each billed its own plan | 10 / 30; 3–10 standalone | 1 free, 3–10 managed, 25–unlimited agency; +$10 each |
| Archive and restore projects | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Per-project API keys | Not published | No - account-level | Yes - rotatable |
| SSO / SAML | Not published | Not published - Enterprise | Roadmap |
| Agency & white-label | |||
| White-label PDF reports | No - stated as roadmap | Yes - +$69/mo add-on | Yes - visibility report and audit |
| Custom logo, color and link | No | Yes - plus custom domain | Yes |
| White-label audio player | No | No | Yes - custom attribution text and link |
| Client-facing backlink | No | No | Yes |
| Dedicated agency tier | No - partner discount on same plans | No - add-on, not a tier | Yes - four tiers |
| Client sub-accounts | Yes - client workspaces, viewer role | Yes - 10 client seats | No - clients are projects, no client logins |
| Integrations | |||
| Google Search Console | No | Yes | Yes - OAuth, credentials stay on device |
| Google Analytics | No | Yes - GA4, plus Matomo | Roadmap |
| MCP connector support | Not published | Yes - own server, all plans | Partial - Webflow connects over MCP |
| Public API | Yes - read-only | Yes - credits on all plans | No - project keys for own plugins only |
| Slack | No | No - only via Make or Zapier | No |
| Zapier | No | Partial - lead capture only | No |
| Custom connection support | API and exports only | Yes - API, n8n, Make | Yes - request a connection, paid plans |
| Platform & support | |||
| UI languages | 1 (English) | 10 | 6 |
| Troubleshooting and recovery tools | Not published | No | Yes |
| In-app help agent | Yes - AI chat with human handoff | Partial - live chat with support | Yes |
| Done-for-you service available | No - agency partner network | No - partner agency catalog | Yes |
| Team | |||
| Founders have SEO backgrounds | No. Founded in 2025 by Todd Sawicki, previously CEO of ad platform Zemanta, and Patrick O'Donnell, previously a co-founder of Urbanspoon. | Yes. | Yes. Founder Sam Morris has 15+ years in SEO and software engineering. |
Which one to pick
Gumshoe fits teams that want persona-based AI visibility audits and unlimited seats without per-seat fees. SE Ranking suits teams that need a browser-based SEO suite, broad rank tracking, backlink tools, Google Analytics support, public API access, or client sub-accounts. Its white-label tools and scheduled reports may also suit agencies that already work in SE Ranking.
Hi, Moose fits buyers who need AI search visibility tracking and a way to act on the findings in one product. It tracks 10 engines, including Claude, Grok, Bing Copilot, DeepSeek, and Meta AI. It also captures consumer-facing results from five engines locally, supports multiple daily or on-demand runs, and does not set a hard limit on tracked prompts. Google Search Console can suggest real questions, while competitor gaps can suggest prompts to track next.
The price model also gives small teams more control. Hi, Moose offers a free plan with no card, a $39 per month BYOK plan, and a $79 per month AI-included plan. Users can connect an OpenRouter key and run with no AI cost to Hi, Moose. The app shows AI credit use, reset dates, and pace warnings. Gumshoe starts at $99 per month, while SE Ranking’s suite starts at $129 per month.
Hi, Moose also keeps project data on the user’s device through its Windows and macOS desktop app. It supports local backups and restores, three local model sizes, and on-device AI inference. That setup will not suit teams that need a browser app, but it gives teams direct control over stored data and lets some work continue offline.
For teams that need to move from tracking to page changes, Hi, Moose covers the full track, fix, verify, and deploy loop. Its page-level AEO audit scores nine categories, labels recommendation evidence as proven, directional, or best-practice, and can compare verification runs against a baseline. WordPress, Webflow, and Grav connections support reviewable edits, while WordPress adds staging support, rollback, and patch history. Every publishing action requires approval.
Gumshoe and SE Ranking both cover important parts of AI visibility and SEO work. Hi, Moose makes the stronger alternative for SMBs and agencies that want broader AI engine coverage, local-first data control, transparent AI costs, and evidence-based changes they can review before publishing.
Sources and research date
Researched August 2026
Every value comes from vendor pricing pages, public docs or a live account. Where a vendor does not publish a number, the cell says not published instead of an estimate. Plans change often. If a row is wrong, tell us and we will date the correction.
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