AI visibility tools, head to head
SE Ranking vs Profound
Pricing, features and differences, researched August 2026.
SE Ranking and Profound both help teams measure search visibility, but they focus on different parts of the work. SE Ranking combines core SEO tools, such as rank tracking, site audits, backlink research, and reporting, with AI search visibility tracking. Profound centers on how brands appear in AI search tools, including the prompts, citations, crawler activity, and referrals behind that visibility. Teams often compare them when they need to decide whether one platform can cover both traditional SEO and AI search work. Agencies may also weigh SE Ranking’s white-label reporting and client management against Profound’s AI-focused analytics and automated content workflows. The main differences fall under platform scope, AI search data, SEO research tools, agency features, content workflows, reporting, and pricing. The right fit depends on whether your team needs a broad SEO platform with AI visibility features or a platform built primarily for answer engine optimization.
At a glance
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
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, 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 | SE Ranking | Profound | Hi, Moose Our AEO tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing & cost model | |||
| Free plan available | No - 14-day trial | No - free one-off AEO Report only | Yes - free forever, no card |
| Free daily visibility runs, no cap | No - 5 free checks/day on their site | No | Yes - local runs unlimited on every plan |
| Engines free to run daily | 5 - free web tool only, no account data | 0 | 5 |
| Entry paid price | $129/mo suite; $99/mo standalone | $99/mo, billed yearly | $39/mo BYOK; $79/mo AI included |
| Annual billing discount | Yes - 20% | Yes - 2 months free | Yes - BYOK 2 months free; managed plans ~10% |
| Pricing model | Limit tiers + per-check add-on | 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 | Partial - 1 check = 1 prompt × 1 engine | Partial - credits meter Agents only | Yes - AI credits, published rate card |
| In-app usage dashboard | Partial - plan limit counters | Yes - credit admin panel | Yes - % used, reset date, pace warning |
| Agency / reseller tier | Add-on, +$69/mo | Yes - Agency Mode, 2 tiers | Yes - $149 BYOK Agency; $449+ AI included |
| Affiliate program | Yes | Partner program - referral commissions | Yes |
| Annual contract required | No - but add-ons are annual only | Yes on both self-serve tiers | No |
| Free trial length | 14 days; 10 days standalone | 7 days (Growth) | n/a - free plan, no expiry |
| Paid plans pricing range | $129–$279/mo + add-ons | $99–$399/mo + custom Enterprise | $39–$1,999/mo |
| Deployment, privacy & data ownership | |||
| Native desktop app | No - iOS/Android apps only | 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 | CSV + API anytime | CSV/JSON, Growth and up | CSV, PDF, DOCX exports plus full local backup |
| SOC 2 certification | Not published | SOC 2 Type II | Pending |
| ISO certification | Not published | Not published | No |
| Local backup and restore | No | No - vendor-side daily backups | Yes - export and import a backup file |
| Visibility & prompt tracking | |||
| Engines tracked | 5 - all on every plan | 9 total; 1 on Starter, 3 on Growth | 10; 5 of them also collected locally |
| Real consumer-surface capture | Yes - UI queries, not APIs | Yes - browser capture, not API | Yes - 5 engines read from the device, no API |
| ChatGPT | Yes | Yes - all plans | Yes |
| Claude | No | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Gemini | Yes | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Google AI Mode | Yes | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Google AI Overviews | Yes | Growth and up | Yes |
| Grok | No | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Bing Copilot | No | Enterprise only | Yes |
| DeepSeek | No | Enterprise only | Yes |
| Meta AI | No | No | Yes |
| Tracked prompts included | 100–250 daily; 1 check per engine | 50 / 100; custom on Enterprise | No hard limit on any plan |
| Samples per prompt configurable | No | No - response cap set by plan | Yes |
| Run cadence options | Daily; weekly in standalone tool | Daily only | Multiple times a day, weekly, monthly, and on-demand |
| On-demand run now | Not published | No | Yes |
| Instant one-off check | Yes - free web tool, 5/day | Free AEO Report, 3 engines | Yes |
| Prompt manager | Yes - groups, CSV import | Yes - edit, add, disable | Yes |
| Branded vs non-branded classification | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Prompt categories and topics | Yes - groups and topics | Yes - topics + content clusters | Yes |
| Per-prompt model selection | Partial - engines set per prompt set | No - set per config | Yes |
| Brand name variant support | Partial - aliases in standalone tool | Yes - asset configuration | Yes - secondary brand terms |
| Brand multi-domain support | Partial - one site per project | 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 - topics and untracked AIO keywords | Partial - from Prompt Volumes + brand config | Yes |
| Perplexity | Yes | Growth and up | Yes |
| Scoring & analysis | |||
| Mention detection | Yes - linked and unlinked | Yes | Yes |
| Citation detection | Yes | Yes - citation share + authority | Yes - domain and page level |
| Sentiment scoring | Partial - standalone tool only | Yes | Yes |
| Average position / rank | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Voice | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Mentions | Yes | Yes - "Visibility Score" | Yes |
| Share of Citations | Partial - source frequency by domain | Yes - "Citation Share" | Yes |
| Narrative drift detection | No | Partial - sentiment + keyword themes | Yes - scored against a brand truth profile |
| Feature-parity / accuracy scoring | No | Yes - FactCheck vs ground truth | Yes |
| Untracked brand extraction | Yes | Yes | Yes - with sentiment and average rank |
| Cited source categorization | Yes - media, blogs, forums | 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 | 5–15 domains | Per configuration, not published | 15 |
| Visibility gap analysis | Yes - sources citing rivals, not you | Yes - Opportunities, Growth and up | Yes |
| ChatGPT fan-out capture | No | 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 | No | Partial - log-based, not robots check | Yes - retrieval, live fetch and training |
| Reporting & exports | |||
| Executive dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI-written narrative summary | Partial - templated insight cards | Partial - Aim, Enterprise only | Yes |
| Data export | Yes - CSV, API, Looker Studio | Yes - CSV, JSON, API, Looker | Yes - CSV |
| Branded PDF report | Yes - +$69/mo add-on | No | Yes |
| Scheduled email reports | Yes | Partial - Slack/Teams alerts | Yes - paid, per-user opt-in |
| Action log with export | Partial - task manager only | Partial - Aim project tracking | Yes - CSV on paid managed plans |
| Historical data retention | 6 months; all time at $279 | 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) | |||
| Covers full loop: track → fix → verify → deploy | Partial - no page-level AI audit step | Yes - via Agents + Aim | Yes |
| Page-level AEO audit | No - technical SEO audit only | No - no scored page audit | Yes |
| Scored categories | 0 for AI readiness | 0 | 9 |
| Retrieval-readiness scoring | No | No | Yes - deterministic dense retrieval |
| Evidence tiers on recommendations | No | No | Yes - proven, directional, best-practice |
| Element-level rewrite suggestions | No - editor-level guidance | No - full-page rewrite only | Yes - element, character budget, before and after |
| Second-model QA pass | No - human review | 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 | n/a - no AI page audit | n/a | Live URL, pasted text, file, WordPress, Webflow, Grav |
| Baseline vs verification re-runs | Partial - trend charts only | Partial - Aim impact tracking | Yes - compares against the baseline |
| Recommendation status tracking | Partial - task manager | Yes - Aim projects and tasks | Yes - planned, staged, completed |
| Visibility data sets page priority | Partial - page and source reports | Yes | Yes - defend, recover, convert, earn |
| Search Console sets page priority | Partial - GSC data in platform | Partial - GSC integration | Yes - protect, balanced or expand |
| Branded audit PDF | n/a - no AI page audit | No | Yes |
| CMS integration & publishing | |||
| WordPress | Yes - publishes articles | 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 | Log ingestion only, no publishing | On roadmap |
| Surgical element-level edits to live page | No - whole article only | No - publishes whole content | Yes |
| Preview before applying | Partial - set status on export | 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 | Manual export only | Yes - human-in-the-loop | Yes - always, including scheduled runs |
| Agentic capability | |||
| Truly agentic (agent chooses its own steps) | No | Yes - Aim, Enterprise only | Yes - plans and executes against the live web |
| Fixed-workflow automation only | Only via Make, n8n, Zapier | 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 - scheduled crawls and reports only | 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 - cached answer copies | Partial - cited data in briefs | Yes - screenshots and captured proof |
| Searchable job history | No | Yes - run history | Yes |
| Chat & assistant | |||
| Agentic chat with mid-answer tool calls | No - data exposed to outside assistants via MCP | 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 | No | Yes - web scrape node | Yes |
| Semantic search over your own site | No | Partial - knowledge base, sitemap | Yes - on-device index |
| Topic coverage check | Partial - prompt and source gap reports | 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 | |||
| Research-backed briefs | Yes - SERP-driven | Yes - Aim execution briefs | Yes |
| Live SERP / PAA research | Yes | Partial - DataForSEO, Perplexity nodes | Yes - plus related searches and AI search snapshots |
| Full draft generation | Yes - 25–50 articles/mo | Yes | Yes |
| Brand voice grounding | Partial - 10 tone presets | Yes - Brand Kit | Yes |
| Brand truth profile | No - brand name and aliases only | Partial - Brand Kit + FactCheck | Yes |
| Internal linking placement | No | Not published | Yes |
| Featured image generation | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| FAQ generation with schema export | Partial - FAQ text, no schema | 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 | Yes - article list | Yes - Documents | Yes |
| Export formats | WordPress, Google Docs; CSV data | CSV, JSON; CMS publish | Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, TXT |
| Revise artifacts in place | Yes - editor | Yes - Documents editor | Yes |
| Deploy directly to CMS | Partial - WordPress only | Yes - 10 CMS connectors | 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 - crawler and sitemap | Partial - sitemap read by Aim | Yes |
| Scheduled full-site crawl | Yes - 250k–2M pages/mo | No - reads AI bot logs, not your site | Yes - weekly or on demand |
| Monitored page management | Yes | No | Yes |
| Batched change digests | Partial - page change alerts, $279 | No | Yes |
| On-device semantic index | No | No | Yes |
| Page freshness tracking | Partial - page change monitoring | Partial - content decay signals | Yes |
| Entity & knowledge graph | |||
| 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 | |||
| Visibility-threshold triggers | No - external tools only | 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 - only in Make or n8n | 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 | |||
| Unified project inbox | No | Partial - Aim opportunity feed | Yes |
| Native OS notifications | No - mobile app push only | No - web only | Yes - Windows and macOS |
| Customized notifications with severity thresholds | No | Not published | Yes - per project |
| Email digest | Yes - scheduled reports | Partial - Slack/Teams integrations | Yes |
| Teams & workspaces | |||
| Seats included | 1 / 3 | 1 / 3 / custom | Unlimited on paid managed; 10 BYOK Premium, 25 BYOK Agency |
| Cost per additional seat | From $16/mo | Not published - upgrade tier | $0 on paid managed plans, +$7 per seat for BYOK plans |
| Shared allowance across team | Yes | Yes - shared credit pool | Yes |
| Per-member usage visibility | Not published | Partial - admin usage panel | Yes |
| Multi-project workspaces | Yes | Enterprise / Agency Mode only | Yes |
| Projects included | 10 / 30; 3–10 standalone | 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 | No - account-level | No - org-level, Enterprise | Yes - rotatable |
| SSO / SAML | Not published - Enterprise | Enterprise only | Roadmap |
| Agency & white-label | |||
| White-label PDF reports | Yes - +$69/mo add-on | No | Yes - visibility report and audit |
| Custom logo, color and link | Yes - plus custom domain | No | Yes |
| White-label audio player | No | No | Yes - custom attribution text and link |
| Client-facing backlink | No | No | Yes |
| Dedicated agency tier | No - add-on, not a tier | Yes - Agency Growth + Enterprise | Yes - four tiers |
| Client sub-accounts | Yes - 10 client seats | Yes - client + pitch workspaces | No - clients are projects, no client logins |
| Integrations | |||
| Google Search Console | Yes | Yes | Yes - OAuth, credentials stay on device |
| Google Analytics | Yes - GA4, plus Matomo | Yes - plus Adobe Analytics | Roadmap |
| MCP connector support | Yes - own server, all plans | Yes - hosted server + Claude connector | Partial - Webflow connects over MCP |
| Public API | Yes - credits on all plans | Enterprise only | No - project keys for own plugins only |
| Slack | No - only via Make or Zapier | Yes - plus Microsoft Teams | No |
| Zapier | Partial - lead capture only | No - 40+ native connectors | No |
| Custom connection support | Yes - API, n8n, Make | Yes - custom log drain + API nodes | Yes - request a connection, paid plans |
| Platform & support | |||
| UI languages | 10 | 1 (English); tracks 30+ | 6 |
| Troubleshooting and recovery tools | No | No - status page only | Yes |
| In-app help agent | Partial - live chat with support | Yes - Aim assistant | Yes |
| Done-for-you service available | No - partner agency catalog | Partner agency directory | Yes |
| Team | |||
| Founders have SEO backgrounds | Yes. | 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
SE Ranking suits teams that need a broad browser-based SEO suite, public API access, and established agency features such as client sub-accounts. Profound fits enterprise teams that need SOC 2 Type II certification, Slack or Teams alerts, extensive CMS connectors, or its Agency Mode. Both tools track AI search visibility, but their lower tiers limit some engines, prompts, credits, or workflows.
Hi, Moose gives small teams and agencies a different cost model. Its free plan has no expiry or card requirement, and every plan allows unlimited local daily visibility runs across five engines. Paid plans start at $39 per month with BYOK or $79 per month with AI included. Teams can also use an OpenRouter key, run local models, and avoid AI costs charged by the vendor. The in-app dashboard shows AI credit use, reset dates, and pace warnings.
The desktop app also keeps project data in a local database on the user’s device. It supports Windows and macOS, local backup and restore, on-device AI inference, and exports in CSV, PDF, DOCX, and other formats. That model will not suit teams that need a browser-only tool or a public API, but it gives users direct control over stored project data.
For AI search work, Hi, Moose tracks 10 engines, including Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Grok, Bing Copilot, DeepSeek, and Meta AI. It supports per-prompt model selection, configurable samples, on-demand checks, multiple run schedules, Google Search Console prompt suggestions, and competitor-gap suggestions. It also captures ChatGPT fan-out queries and live AI Mode grounding searches, which SE Ranking and Profound do not list.
Hi, Moose also covers the work after a visibility report. It runs page-level AEO audits across nine scored categories, labels recommendation evidence as proven, directional, or best-practice, and compares verification runs with the baseline. Users can stage element-level edits, review them before publishing, and publish through WordPress, Webflow, or Grav. WordPress users can use staging support, one-click rollback, patch history, and visual placement selection.
For teams that want enterprise compliance, browser access, a public API, or broad third-party integrations, SE Ranking or Profound may be the better fit. For SMBs and agencies that want to track AI visibility, diagnose page-level issues, prepare fixes, and keep cost and data control clear, Hi, Moose offers the more complete option at its entry tiers.
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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