# Gumshoe vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

Compare Gumshoe vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit features, pricing, and alternatives.

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

## Overview

Gumshoe and Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit both help teams track how AI platforms describe brands, cite sources, and surface competitors. Buyers often compare them when they need to turn AI search visibility data into content, technical SEO, and brand actions. The main differences fall into platform coverage, research method, workflow, and SEO data. Gumshoe centers on persona-based buyer conversations across 11 AI models, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit tracks brand presence across tools such as ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and AI Overviews, while connecting those findings to Semrush’s wider SEO data. Teams may also weigh how each tool handles competitor analysis, citation tracking, audience insights, content recommendations, and reporting. The right fit depends on whether your team needs simulated buyer research across AI models or AI visibility data within an existing Semrush SEO workflow.

## 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

### Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

Pick it if you want Semrush data behind the reporting, though it tracks 25 prompts per domain and does not write or publish.

- Entry price: $99/mo per domain
- Tracked prompts: 25; +50 for $60/mo
- Free trial: 0 - demo reports only

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Gumshoe | No. Founded in 2025 by Todd Sawicki, previously CEO of ad platform Zemanta, and Patrick O'Donnell, previously a co-founder of Urbanspoon. |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Yes. |
| 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 | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free plan available | No - one free sample audit | No - and no trial | 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 - free checker is one-off | 5 |
| Entry paid price | $99/mo | $99/mo per domain | $39/mo BYOK; $79/mo AI included |
| Annual billing discount | Not published - monthly only | Partial - $99 is the annual-billed rate | Yes - BYOK 2 months free; managed plans ~10% |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly, billed per project | Per domain + per user + prompt packs | 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 | No - separate query, prompt, page, export caps | Yes - AI credits, published rate card |
| In-app usage dashboard | Yes - usage tab per workspace | Partial - subscription limit counters | Yes - % used, reset date, pace warning |
| Agency / reseller tier | Partial - partner discount, no separate plan | No - $90/mo directory listing only | Yes - $149 BYOK Agency; $449+ AI included |
| Affiliate program | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Annual contract required | No | Partial - $99 rate is annual-billed | No |
| Free trial length | No trial - 1 free sample audit | 0 - demo reports only | n/a - free plan, no expiry |
| Paid plans pricing range | $99–$299/mo + custom | $99/mo + add-ons; enterprise custom | $39–$1,999/mo |

### Deployment, privacy & data ownership

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 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, Excel, Sheets, PDF; 10 exports/day | CSV, PDF, DOCX exports plus full local backup |
| SOC 2 certification | None published | Claimed on enterprise pages, not security page | Pending |
| ISO certification | None published | Not published - PCI DSS Level 1 only | No |
| Local backup and restore | No | No | Yes - export and import a backup file |

### Visibility & prompt tracking

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Engines tracked | 11 claimed; ~8 families, 6 per audit | 5 surfaces; 3–4 per report | 10; 5 of them also collected locally |
| Real consumer-surface capture | No - official APIs, interface spot-checks | Yes - clickstream and live queries, not LLM 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 | Partial - research reports only | Yes |
| Grok | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bing Copilot | Unclear - listed on one page only | No - separate enterprise product | Yes |
| DeepSeek | Yes | No | Yes |
| Meta AI | No | No | Yes |
| Tracked prompts included | 80/mo - 8 personas × 10 prompts | 25; +50 for $60/mo | No hard limit on any plan |
| Samples per prompt configurable | No - each prompt asked once per model | No - 1 run/day | Yes |
| Run cadence options | Monthly audit; weekly or daily snapshots | Daily; brand reports weekly | 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 checker | Yes |
| Prompt manager | Partial - generated from personas and topics | Yes - CSV/TXT import, tags | Yes |
| Branded vs non-branded classification | Not published | Partial - brand reports only | Yes |
| Prompt categories and topics | Yes - topics per prompt | Yes - tags + AI topic clusters | Yes |
| Per-prompt model selection | No - set per audit | No - one engine per campaign | Yes |
| Brand name variant support | Not published | Yes - context-aware name matching | Yes - secondary brand terms |
| Brand multi-domain support | Not published | No - $99/mo per extra domain | 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 - competitor research report | Yes |
| Perplexity | Yes | Partial - brand reports only | Yes |

### Scoring & analysis

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mention detection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Citation detection | Yes - URL and domain | Yes - domain and page level | Yes - domain and page level |
| Sentiment scoring | Yes - $299 plan | Partial - brand reports only, weekly | Yes |
| Average position / rank | Yes - rank per answer | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Voice | Yes - visibility percentage | Partial - brand reports only | Yes |
| Share of Mentions | Yes - leaderboard mention counts | Yes - 0–100 visibility score | Yes |
| Share of Citations | Partial - source counts, no share metric | Partial - citation share by domain | Yes |
| Narrative drift detection | Partial - theme and sentiment over runs | Partial - weekly snapshots, manual compare | Yes - scored against a brand truth profile |
| Feature-parity / accuracy scoring | No | Partial - feature sentiment, no ground truth | Yes |
| Untracked brand extraction | Yes - every brand in the answers | Yes | Yes - with sentiment and average rank |
| Cited source categorization | Yes - $299 plan | Yes - own, competitor, social, knowledge base, other | Yes - 8 source types |
| Topic-level breakdown | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Engine-level breakdown | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Competitor tracking | Yes | Yes - auto-identified, editable | Yes - or promote any brand seen in results |
| Competitors included | Up to 30 | 9 in brand reports | 15 |
| Visibility gap analysis | Yes - persona, topic and competitor | Yes - topic and citation gaps | 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 | Yes - 8 bots, robots.txt, 100 pages | Yes - retrieval, live fetch and training |

### Reporting & exports

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Executive dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI-written narrative summary | Not published | Yes - in brand reports | Yes |
| Data export | Yes - CSV, JSON, API, share links | Yes - CSV, Excel, Sheets, PDF; 10/day | Yes - CSV |
| Branded PDF report | No | Add-on, $20/mo | Yes |
| Scheduled email reports | Partial - run-complete emails | Yes - daily, weekly or monthly | Yes - paid, per-user opt-in |
| Action log with export | No | No | Yes - CSV on paid managed plans |
| Historical data retention | Not published | Weekly snapshots; no cap published | No cap - stored on device,. Paid plans offer 400 day backup on-cloud; audio analytics 180–365 days |

### Taking action (the AEO loop)

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Covers full loop: track → fix → verify → deploy | Partial - no deploy step | No - no fix or deploy step | Yes |
| Page-level AEO audit | Yes - 10–50 URLs/mo by plan | No - site-level score, 100 pages | Yes |
| Scored categories | 6 named categories | 0 - single composite score | 9 |
| Retrieval-readiness scoring | Partial - topics grouped by retrieval issue | No | Yes - deterministic dense retrieval |
| Evidence tiers on recommendations | No - priority ranking only | No - severity only | Yes - proven, directional, best-practice |
| Element-level rewrite suggestions | Partial - page-level content plans | No | 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 | Partial - crawl as an AI bot, no screenshot | Yes - full-page screenshot, JavaScript off |
| Audit input sources | Entered URLs + site crawl | Site crawl only, 100 pages | Live URL, pasted text, file, WordPress, Webflow, Grav |
| Baseline vs verification re-runs | Yes - score history per page | Partial - crawl comparison, not AI | Yes - compares against the baseline |
| Recommendation status tracking | Not published | No | Yes - planned, staged, completed |
| Visibility data sets page priority | Yes - audit gaps drive recommendations | Partial - cited pages report | Yes - defend, recover, convert, earn |
| Search Console sets page priority | No | No | Yes - protect, balanced or expand |
| Branded audit PDF | No | Add-on, $20/mo | Yes |

### CMS integration & publishing

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WordPress | No | No - separate content product | 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 | Yes |
| Preview before applying | No | No | 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 | n/a - never publishes | Yes - always, including scheduled runs |

### Agentic capability

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 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 | No workflow builder either | 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 exports only | Yes - daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly |
| Agent produces saved artifacts | No | No | Yes - briefs, drafts, FAQs, audits |
| Evidence capture | Partial - full audit transcripts kept | Yes - stored AI answers and snapshots | Yes - screenshots and captured proof |
| Searchable job history | Partial - audit run history | No | Yes |

### Chat & assistant

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Agentic chat with mid-answer tool calls | No | No - recommendation cards, not chat | 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 | Partial - crawls a URL you enter | 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 - topic and citation 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 - separate content product | Yes |

### Content generation

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Research-backed briefs | Yes - content plans from audit gaps | No - separate content product | Yes |
| Live SERP / PAA research | No | No - AI topic and question data only | Yes - plus related searches and AI search snapshots |
| Full draft generation | Yes | No | Yes |
| Brand voice grounding | Partial - brand voice style toggle | No | Yes |
| Brand truth profile | Not published | No - brand name and domain only | Yes |
| Internal linking placement | Not published | No | Yes |
| Featured image generation | No | No | Yes |
| FAQ generation with schema export | Partial - FAQ format, no schema export | No | 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 | No | Yes |
| Export formats | Not published | CSV, Excel, Sheets, PDF | Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, TXT |
| Revise artifacts in place | Not published | No | Yes |
| Deploy directly to CMS | No - manual publish | No | Yes |

### Content repurposing / audio

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | 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 | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Automatic site discovery | Yes - crawls the site for content gaps | Yes - crawler and sitemap | Yes |
| Scheduled full-site crawl | Partial - monthly, $299 plan | Partial - AI checks capped at 100 pages | Yes - weekly or on demand |
| Monitored page management | Yes - audited page list with scores | Partial - one crawl campaign, 100 pages | Yes |
| Batched change digests | No | Partial - crawl comparison alerts | Yes |
| On-device semantic index | No | No | Yes |
| Page freshness tracking | Partial - audit score history per page | Partial - crawl-to-crawl changes | Yes |

### Entity & knowledge graph

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Site-wide entity graph | No | No | Yes |
| Inferred relationships | Partial - brand and attribute co-mentions | No - brand and sub-brand matching only | 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

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Visibility-threshold triggers | No | No | 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 | Partial - branches on whether a matching page exists |
| Scheduled content cadence | No | No | Yes - daily to monthly |
| Workflow reports | No | No - scheduled exports only | Yes - posted to the inbox |

### Alerts & inbox

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Unified project inbox | No | Partial - recommendation cards on dashboard | 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 exports | Yes |

### Teams & workspaces

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Seats included | Unlimited - no per-seat fee | 1 | Unlimited on paid managed; 10 BYOK Premium, 25 BYOK Agency |
| Cost per additional seat | $0 | $99/mo per user | $0 on paid managed plans, +$7 per seat for BYOK plans |
| Shared allowance across team | Yes - allowance sits on the project | Partial - brand slots pool, access does not | Yes |
| Per-member usage visibility | Partial - usage tab, not per member | Partial - limit allocation per user | Yes |
| Multi-project workspaces | Yes | No - 1 folder | Yes |
| Projects included | Unlimited; each billed its own plan | 1 folder, 1 brand domain | 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 | Enterprise only | Roadmap |

### Agency & white-label

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| White-label PDF reports | No - stated as roadmap | Add-on, $20/mo | Yes - visibility report and audit |
| Custom logo, color and link | No | Add-on, $20/mo | 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 - $90/mo directory listing | Yes - four tiers |
| Client sub-accounts | Yes - client workspaces, viewer role | No - client portal discontinued | No - clients are projects, no client logins |

### Integrations

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Google Search Console | No | Partial - via $10/mo report add-on | Yes - OAuth, credentials stay on device |
| Google Analytics | No | Partial - via $10/mo report add-on | Roadmap |
| MCP connector support | Not published | No - needs an SEO or bundled plan | Partial - Webflow connects over MCP |
| Public API | Yes - read-only | No - separate SEO plan | No - project keys for own plugins only |
| Slack | No | No | No |
| Zapier | No | No | No |
| Custom connection support | API and exports only | Partial - report integrations on $20/mo add-on | Yes - request a connection, paid plans |

### Platform & support

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| UI languages | 1 (English) | 14 | 6 |
| Troubleshooting and recovery tools | Not published | No | Yes |
| In-app help agent | Yes - AI chat with human handoff | Partial - recommendation cards, live chat | Yes |
| Done-for-you service available | No - agency partner network | No - partner agency directory | Yes |

### Team

| Feature | Gumshoe | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Hi, Moose |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 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 and Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit both give teams useful AI visibility data. Gumshoe may suit teams that want persona-based audits, unlimited seats, and a read-only API. Semrush may suit teams already using its wider SEO platform, or teams that need 14 UI languages and established enterprise options.

Hi, Moose fits buyers who need to track, diagnose, fix, verify, and publish from one tool. It tracks 10 AI engines, including Claude, Grok, Bing Copilot, DeepSeek, Meta AI, and Google AI Mode. It also captures ChatGPT fan-out, AI Mode grounding queries, and Bing Index signals. Teams can turn those findings into page-level audits, element-level changes, and CMS patches for [WordPress](https://himoose.com/publishing/), Webflow, or Grav. Every publish action requires approval.

Cost and control also differ. Hi, Moose offers a [free-forever plan](https://himoose.com/pricing/) with no card, five engines available for free daily runs, and unlimited local runs on every plan. Paid plans start at $39 per month with an OpenRouter key, or $79 per month with AI included. Its local-first [desktop app](https://himoose.com/downloads/) stores data on the device, supports local models, and lets users create full local backups. The other tools run as cloud services and start at $99 per month.

For agencies and SMB teams, Hi, Moose also includes dedicated agency tiers, [white-label](https://himoose.com/for-agencies/) visibility and audit reports, unlimited seats on paid managed plans, and client-ready [audio](https://himoose.com/listen/) players. Buyers who only need reporting may prefer Gumshoe or Semrush. Buyers who need evidence-based AEO work through deployment, with lower entry pricing and local data control, have a broader fit with Hi, Moose.

## 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://gumshoe.ai
- https://support.gumshoe.ai
- https://semrush.com