AI visibility tools, head to head
SE Ranking vs Waikay
Pricing, features and differences, researched August 2026.
SE Ranking and Waikay both help teams assess search visibility, but they focus on different parts of the work. SE Ranking combines rank tracking, keyword research, site audits, backlink research, content optimization, and reporting in one SEO platform. Waikay focuses on how AI models describe, compare, and cite brands. Teams often compare them when they need to decide whether a broad SEO toolkit or a dedicated AI visibility platform fits their goals. Agencies may also weigh SE Ranking’s white-label reporting and client management against Waikay’s entity checks and action plans for brand representation in AI results. The main differences fall under platform scope, search channels, reporting needs, and workflow. SE Ranking tracks traditional SEO performance alongside visibility in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Waikay centers on AI model responses across platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity, then checks claims, competitor positioning, citations, and recommended content or authority work.
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
Waikay
Pick it if you want an entity graph behind the analysis, and read the $24.95 tier as a way in rather than the plan you stay on.
- Entry price
- $24.95/mo
- Tracked prompts
- 120–880 by plan; extras purchasable
- Free trial
- None - free plan instead
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 | Waikay | Hi, Moose Our AEO tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing & cost model | |||
| Free plan available | No - 14-day trial | Yes - 3 one-time credits, no card | 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 | $24.95/mo | $39/mo BYOK; $79/mo AI included |
| Annual billing discount | Yes - 20% | Not published - monthly only | Yes - BYOK 2 months free; managed plans ~10% |
| Pricing model | Limit tiers + per-check add-on | Tiered plans + monthly 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 | Yes - credits | Yes - AI credits, published rate card |
| In-app usage dashboard | Partial - plan limit counters | Partial - per-prompt cost estimates | Yes - % used, reset date, pace warning |
| Agency / reseller tier | Add-on, +$69/mo | Partial - agency-oriented tier, no reseller program | Yes - $149 BYOK Agency; $449+ AI included |
| Affiliate program | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Annual contract required | No - but add-ons are annual only | No | No |
| Free trial length | 14 days; 10 days standalone | None - free plan instead | n/a - free plan, no expiry |
| Paid plans pricing range | $129–$279/mo + add-ons | $24.95–$449.95/mo + 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 | Not published - CSV/JSON while active | CSV, PDF, DOCX exports plus full local backup |
| SOC 2 certification | Not published | Not published | Pending |
| ISO certification | Not published | Not published - UK ICO registered | No |
| Local backup and restore | No | No - vendor-side only | Yes - export and import a backup file |
| Visibility & prompt tracking | |||
| Engines tracked | 5 - all on every plan | 6 | 10; 5 of them also collected locally |
| Real consumer-surface capture | Yes - UI queries, not APIs | Partial - 4 scraped, 4 via API | Yes - 5 engines read from the device, no API |
| ChatGPT | Yes | Yes - API and scraped | Yes |
| Claude | No | Yes - API only | Yes |
| Gemini | Yes | Yes - API and scraped | Yes |
| Google AI Mode | Yes | Yes - scraped | Yes |
| Google AI Overviews | Yes | Partial - AI Mode only | Yes |
| Grok | No | No | Yes |
| Bing Copilot | No | Yes - scraped | Yes |
| DeepSeek | No | No | Yes |
| Meta AI | No | No | Yes |
| Tracked prompts included | 100–250 daily; 1 check per engine | 120–880 by plan; extras purchasable | No hard limit on any plan |
| Samples per prompt configurable | No | Not published | Yes |
| Run cadence options | Daily; weekly in standalone tool | Daily, every 2 days, weekly | Multiple times a day, weekly, monthly, and on-demand |
| On-demand run now | Not published | Yes - report updates | Yes |
| Instant one-off check | Yes - free web tool, 5/day | No - project setup required | Yes |
| Prompt manager | Yes - groups, CSV import | Yes - topic groups, per-prompt config | Yes |
| Branded vs non-branded classification | Not published | Partial - knowledge vs commercial split | Yes |
| Prompt categories and topics | Yes - groups and topics | Yes - topic clusters and tags | Yes |
| Per-prompt model selection | Partial - engines set per prompt set | Yes - models and cadence per prompt | Yes |
| Brand name variant support | Partial - aliases in standalone tool | Partial - normalised to parent brand | Yes - secondary brand terms |
| Brand multi-domain support | Partial - one site per project | Not published - one URL per project | Yes - secondary owned domains |
| Suggested prompts from Google Search Console | No | No - no Search Console connection | Yes - real GSC questions |
| Suggested prompts from competitor gaps | Partial - topics and untracked AIO keywords | Yes | Yes |
| Perplexity | Yes | Yes - API only | Yes |
| Scoring & analysis | |||
| Mention detection | Yes - linked and unlinked | Yes | Yes |
| Citation detection | Yes | Yes | Yes - domain and page level |
| Sentiment scoring | Partial - standalone tool only | No - deliberately excluded | Yes |
| Average position / rank | Yes | Partial - competitor rank, not answer position | Yes |
| Share of Voice | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Mentions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share of Citations | Partial - source frequency by domain | Partial - citation counts, no share metric | Yes |
| Narrative drift detection | No | Partial - claims refresh each report update | Yes - scored against a brand truth profile |
| Feature-parity / accuracy scoring | No | Yes - claim-level check and flag | Yes |
| Untracked brand extraction | Yes | Yes - competitors auto-detected | Yes - with sentiment and average rank |
| Cited source categorization | Yes - media, blogs, forums | Yes - knowledge vs commercial | 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 | 2 in reports; auto-detected in prompts | 15 |
| Visibility gap analysis | Yes - sources citing rivals, not you | Yes | Yes |
| ChatGPT fan-out capture | No | No - fan-out used to generate prompts | Yes |
| AI Mode grounding queries capture | No | Not published | Yes - the live grounding searches |
| Bing Index probe | No | No | Yes |
| AI crawler access check | No | Partial - vendor rates it as limited | Yes - retrieval, live fetch and training |
| Reporting & exports | |||
| Executive dashboard | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI-written narrative summary | Partial - templated insight cards | Not published | Yes |
| Data export | Yes - CSV, API, Looker Studio | Yes - CSV, JSON, API | Yes - CSV |
| Branded PDF report | Yes - +$69/mo add-on | Partial - PDF/PNG export, no custom branding | Yes |
| Scheduled email reports | Yes | Not published | Yes - paid, per-user opt-in |
| Action log with export | Partial - task manager only | Partial - claim review status, no export | Yes - CSV on paid managed plans |
| Historical data retention | 6 months; all time at $279 | Not published | 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 | Partial - no publishing step | Yes |
| Page-level AEO audit | No - technical SEO audit only | No | Yes |
| Scored categories | 0 for AI readiness | 0 | 9 |
| Retrieval-readiness scoring | No | No | Yes - deterministic dense retrieval |
| Evidence tiers on recommendations | No | Partial - ranked by impact and effort | Yes - proven, directional, best-practice |
| Element-level rewrite suggestions | No - editor-level guidance | Partial - issue list, not rewrites | Yes - element, character budget, before and after |
| Second-model QA pass | No - human review | Partial - manual paste into Claude or Gemini | 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 | Site pages crawled, LLM responses | Live URL, pasted text, file, WordPress, Webflow, Grav |
| Baseline vs verification re-runs | Partial - trend charts only | Partial - score history via report updates | Yes - compares against the baseline |
| Recommendation status tracking | Partial - task manager | No - claim review only | Yes - planned, staged, completed |
| Visibility data sets page priority | Partial - page and source reports | Partial - topic-level, not page-level | Yes - defend, recover, convert, earn |
| Search Console sets page priority | Partial - GSC data in platform | No | Yes - protect, balanced or expand |
| Branded audit PDF | n/a - no AI page audit | No - unbranded share URL | Yes |
| CMS integration & publishing | |||
| WordPress | Yes - publishes articles | No | 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 - whole article only | No | Yes |
| Preview before applying | Partial - set status on export | 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 | No - entity files via paid service | Yes - FAQPage schema |
| Publish approval gate | Manual export only | No | Yes - always, including scheduled runs |
| Agentic capability | |||
| Truly agentic (agent chooses its own steps) | No | No - vendor states no agents | Yes - plans and executes against the live web |
| Fixed-workflow automation only | Only via Make, n8n, Zapier | Yes - scheduled runs only | 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 | No | No - scheduled tracking only | Yes - with notify on completion |
| Approval gate before real-world actions | n/a - takes no actions | No - takes no external actions | Yes |
| Long-running deep work jobs | No | Partial - deeper crawl run takes 5–6 min | Yes |
| Scheduled agent jobs | No - scheduled crawls and reports only | No | Yes - daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly |
| Agent produces saved artifacts | No | Partial - saved reports and plans | Yes - briefs, drafts, FAQs, audits |
| Evidence capture | Partial - cached answer copies | Yes - full responses and citations | Yes - screenshots and captured proof |
| Searchable job history | No | Partial - report history only | Yes |
| Chat & assistant | |||
| Agentic chat with mid-answer tool calls | No - data exposed to outside assistants via MCP | No - external assistants only, via MCP | Yes |
| Model picker per conversation | No | No | Yes |
| LLM models available | n/a | 0 | 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 | No | No | Yes |
| Semantic search over your own site | No | No | Yes - on-device index |
| Topic coverage check | Partial - prompt and source gap reports | Yes - topic breadth scoring | 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 - SERP-driven | No - vendor states it does not generate content | Yes |
| Live SERP / PAA research | Yes | No | Yes - plus related searches and AI search snapshots |
| Full draft generation | Yes - 25–50 articles/mo | No | Yes |
| Brand voice grounding | Partial - 10 tone presets | No | Yes |
| Brand truth profile | No - brand name and aliases only | Partial - checked and flagged claim list | Yes |
| Internal linking placement | No | No - sister product only | Yes |
| Featured image generation | Not published | No | Yes |
| FAQ generation with schema export | Partial - FAQ text, no schema | No | Yes - HTML and JSON-LD |
| Key points extraction | No | No | Yes - pushable into the live pag |
| AI-tell removal pass | No | No | Yes - paid, toggleable |
| Artifact library | Yes - article list | No | Yes |
| Export formats | WordPress, Google Docs; CSV data | CSV, JSON, PDF, PNG | Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, TXT |
| Revise artifacts in place | Yes - editor | No | Yes |
| Deploy directly to CMS | Partial - WordPress only | No | 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 | Yes - top pages crawled at setup | Yes |
| Scheduled full-site crawl | Yes - 250k–2M pages/mo | No - crawl runs per report | 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 | No | Yes |
| Entity & knowledge graph | |||
| Site-wide entity graph | No | Yes - built from crawled pages | Yes |
| Inferred relationships | No | Yes | Yes |
| Salience scoring | No | Partial - association strength heatmap | Yes |
| Graph readable by AI agent | No | Partial - entity files via paid service | Yes |
| Graph export | No | Partial - JSON via paid service | Yes - CSV and PDF |
| Automation & workflows | |||
| Visibility-threshold triggers | No - external tools only | No | Yes - mentions or citations, all or one topic |
| Pre-built recovery recipe | No | Partial - prioritised plan, executed manually | Yes - detect, locate, audit, stage a fix |
| Conditional branching | No - only in Make or n8n | No | 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 - 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 | Not published | Yes |
| Teams & workspaces | |||
| Seats included | 1 / 3 | 1 / 2 / unlimited by plan | Unlimited on paid managed; 10 BYOK Premium, 25 BYOK Agency |
| Cost per additional seat | From $16/mo | Not published - upgrade required | $0 on paid managed plans, +$7 per seat for BYOK plans |
| Shared allowance across team | Yes | Yes - credits pooled per account | Yes |
| Per-member usage visibility | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Multi-project workspaces | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Projects included | 10 / 30; 3–10 standalone | Unlimited from $69.95 | 1 free, 3–10 managed, 25–unlimited agency; +$10 each |
| Archive and restore projects | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Per-project API keys | No - account-level | No - one account key | Yes - rotatable |
| SSO / SAML | Not published - Enterprise | Not published | 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 | Partial - agency-oriented tier, no separate program | Yes - four tiers |
| Client sub-accounts | Yes - 10 client seats | Partial - unlimited seats and projects, no client roles | No - clients are projects, no client logins |
| Integrations | |||
| Google Search Console | Yes | No | Yes - OAuth, credentials stay on device |
| Google Analytics | Yes - GA4, plus Matomo | No | Roadmap |
| MCP connector support | Yes - own server, all plans | Yes - read-only, 5 tools | Partial - Webflow connects over MCP |
| Public API | Yes - credits on all plans | Yes - $69.95 and above | No - project keys for own plugins only |
| Slack | No - only via Make or Zapier | No | No |
| Zapier | Partial - lead capture only | Partial - via API, no native app | No |
| Custom connection support | Yes - API, n8n, Make | Partial - JSON API only | Yes - request a connection, paid plans |
| Platform & support | |||
| UI languages | 10 | Not published - analyses 13–47 languages | 6 |
| Troubleshooting and recovery tools | No | Partial - crawler whitelisting docs | Yes |
| In-app help agent | Partial - live chat with support | No - live chat with staff | Yes |
| Done-for-you service available | No - partner agency catalog | Yes - entity map managed service | Yes |
| Team | |||
| Founders have SEO backgrounds | Yes. | Yes. | Yes. Founder Sam Morris has 15+ years in SEO and software engineering. |
Which one to pick
SE Ranking fits teams that need a browser-based SEO suite, a public API, Google Analytics data, or client sub-accounts. Its broader traditional SEO toolkit may suit agencies that already rely on rank tracking, backlink research, and white-label reporting.
Waikay may suit teams that want lower entry pricing or an entity-first view of how AI systems describe their brand. It also offers claim-level checks, competitor analysis, and a free plan with three one-time credits.
Hi, Moose fits teams that need to track AI visibility and act on what they find in one product. It tracks 10 engines, including Claude, Grok, Bing Copilot, DeepSeek, and Meta AI, while SE Ranking tracks five and Waikay tracks six. Hi, Moose also supports unlimited local visibility runs on every plan, with no hard prompt limit.
The platform extends from tracking into page-level AEO audits, rewrite suggestions, verification reruns, and approved CMS publishing. It supports WordPress, Webflow, and Grav, with WordPress staging, rollback, patch history, and element-level edits. SE Ranking can publish to WordPress, but it does not offer a page-level AI audit. Waikay identifies and prioritizes actions, but it does not publish changes.
Hi, Moose also gives teams more control over cost and data. Its free plan never expires, its BYOK plan starts at $39 per month, and users can connect an OpenRouter key. The desktop app stores data locally, supports local backups, and can run local models. Teams that prefer a cloud-only tool, a public API, or a conventional all-in-one SEO suite may choose SE Ranking or Waikay. For SMBs and agencies focused on AI search visibility, Hi, Moose offers a wider set of tracking, audit, approval, and deployment tools without requiring enterprise pricing.
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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