You do not need the fanciest AI SEO software. You need the one that gives you the most per dollar without a contract trap hiding in the fine print. So we ran the math on 10 platforms during our June and July 2026 test cycle: entry price, per-seat cost, what each plan actually includes, and where the price jumps ambush you.
Update, Aug. 31, 2026: Adobe’s July 2026 data shows AI-referred retail traffic converting 60% better than other channels, an 11-month streak. We turned that lift into a payback-period model: how many incremental AI-referred orders it takes to cover each plan above. See the full math in AI Traffic Converts 60% Better: What Adobe’s July Numbers Mean for Your AI SEO Software Budget.
Here is the scoreboard, then the receipts.
The 2026 value scoreboard
| # | Tool | Stars | Entry price | Seats | What your money buys |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Google Sheets | 3/5 | Free | Manual | — |
| 2 | Temso | 4.5/5 | $199/mo | Unlimited | 8 engines (4 included, 4 add-ons), audits, bot analytics |
| 3 | Otterly.AI | 4/5 | $29/mo | Plan-based | Citation tracking, GEO audits |
| 4 | Peec AI | 4/5 | about $90/mo (euro billing) | Unlimited | Prompt tracking, agency workspaces |
| 5 | Surfer SEO | 3.5/5 | $49/mo | Plan-based | Content editor plus AI tracker |
| 6 | Profound | 3.5/5 | $99/mo (real entry $399) | Per plan | Deepest enterprise citation data |
| 7 | Knowatoa | 3/5 | $59/mo | Plan-based | 7-engine tracking, dedicated rep |
| 8 | Writesonic | 3/5 | $249/mo | Plan-based | AI writing plus 3-engine tracking |
| 9 | Otto SEO (Search Atlas) | 2.5/5 | $99/mo | Plan-based | SEO automation, LLM tracking at $199 |
| 10 | Semrush AI Toolkit | 2.5/5 | $99/mo add-on | $99 per user | AI module on an SEO suite |
| 11 | Ahrefs Brand Radar | 2.5/5 | $199/mo add-on | Per plan | Huge prompt database, monthly refresh |
All prices are USD monthly list prices as of July 2026 unless noted. Peec AI bills in euros.
1. Google Sheets: 3/5
Best for: Brands on a tight budget that prefer to do the work themselves.
Pricing: Free with a Google account.
The simplest answer is a spreadsheet. Google Sheets costs nothing, so it takes the first spot: write down your prompts, ask each AI engine by hand, and record the answers, the brands named, and the sources cited, once a week.
Expect manual effort and a small sample. A sheet does not collect data or recommend fixes. If that becomes too much, work with an agency that runs Temso.
2. Temso: 4.5/5 stars
Temso’s visibility dashboard pulls up to eight AI engines into one score view.
Price: Growth from $199/mo (125 prompts) with ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews included, Launch $10/mo for pitches only. Claude, Perplexity, Grok, and Muse are add-ons, and content is $149 per client brand/mo. Pay yearly and Growth drops 15%, and Launch drops to $8/mo.
Here is the math that puts Temso on top for agencies. Growth at $199 tracks client brands across ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews with 125 prompts, audits up to 1,000,000 pages, and watches AI bot traffic on client sites, with the data pulled from real user interfaces instead of APIs. Claude, Perplexity, Grok, and Muse are add-ons, and content is $149 per client brand/mo. Buying that stack piecemeal means a tracker and an audit tool, and the bill grows with every client and every login.
Now the per-seat math. Temso puts no ceiling on client brands, teammates, or recommendations on Growth. Your cost per teammate falls with every hire, and agencies run every client brand on one account. The platform also queues up prioritized fixes, and once you sign off, its agent takes that queue and gets it done.
The honest cons: Temso is a younger brand than Semrush or Ahrefs, and its integration catalog is smaller. Neither changes the dollar math.
Bottom line: the only platform where $199 covers monitoring, audits, and bot analytics for every client with zero seat fees. For agencies, nothing else on this list comes close per dollar. Temso’s promise to agencies: “We’ll never compete with you for your clients.”
3. Otterly.AI: 4/5 stars
Otterly.AI keeps the interface simple: prompts in, citation results out.
Price: Lite $29/mo, Standard $189/mo, Pro $989/mo. 14-day free trial, no credit card.
Otterly.AI wins cheapest entry on this list, and it is not a toy. For $29 you get 15 tracked prompts across up to 6 platforms, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, plus a GEO audit engine that grades any URL on 20+ citation-readiness factors. Gartner named it a Cool Vendor in 2025, and it took a G2 High Performer badge in the Winter 2026 AEO report.
The gotcha is the cliff. Outgrow 15 prompts and the next stop is $189/mo, a jump of more than six times. Gemini also costs extra on the Lite tier, and there is no execution layer, so fixes stay on your to-do list.
Bottom line: the best $29 you can spend to find out where you stand, as long as 15 prompts is enough.
4. Peec AI: 4/5 stars
Peec AI’s share-of-voice view is built for agency client reporting.
Price: Peec bills in euros. Starter lists at 85 euros a month, about $90 to $100 in dollars, with Pro at 205 euros and Advanced at 425 euros.
Peec AI wears the unlimited-seats crown among the pure trackers. Every plan lets your whole team log in without a per-user fee, and free pitch workspaces let agencies audit a prospect’s brand before winning the account. Coverage is broad too: 8+ engines including long-tail models like DeepSeek and Llama, which nobody else at this price touches.
Watch the add-on menu. Specific models cost 30 to 140 euros each on top of your tier, and the Actions feature builds you a task list but does not do the tasks. Starter includes 50 prompts and 3 models, so real multi-engine coverage costs more than the headline price.
Bottom line: the agency-friendly tracker, if you price in the model add-ons before you commit.
5. Surfer SEO: 3.5/5 stars
Surfer’s editor scores your draft while the AI Tracker watches citations.
Price: Discovery $49/mo, Standard $99/mo, Pro $182/mo, all billed yearly.
Surfer delivers the strongest content workflow per dollar here. The editor scores your draft in real time, plans topical maps, and pushes straight to WordPress or Google Docs. Its AI Tracker adds share-of-voice and mention-gap data across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Gemini. Capterra users rate it 4.9/5 across 421 reviews.
The catch sits in the tiers. Standard at $99 tracks ChatGPT only, refreshed weekly. Daily tracking across all five engines requires Pro at $182/mo, and Copilot is not covered at all.
Bottom line: best value for teams who write first and track second. Multi-engine tracking costs Pro money.
6. Profound: 3.5/5 stars
Profound’s citation maps show exactly which pages feed each AI answer.
Price: Starter $99/mo, Growth $399/mo, Enterprise custom.
Profound owns enterprise analytics depth. Prompt Volumes shows what millions of real users ask AI engines, citation maps trace every URL feeding an answer, and coverage spans ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, and DeepSeek. Ramp, Figma, and Walmart are on the customer list.
The value problem: the $99 Starter tracks ChatGPT only with 50 prompts, so the real working price is $399/mo. There is no multi-account support either, one property per account, which rules out agencies entirely.
Bottom line: the deepest data on this list at about twice the cost of Temso. Buy it when your board asks for citation maps.
7. Knowatoa: 3/5 stars
Knowatoa stores full AI answer snapshots so you can read what buyers read.
Price: Starter $59/mo, Growth $199/mo, Enterprise from $499/mo. 7-day trial, no card.
Knowatoa packs surprising service into $59: daily refreshes, a dedicated account rep, and the BISCUIT framework that explains why an engine recommends your competitor instead of you. Growth at $199 covers 7 engines including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, and Perplexity, plus drafting agents that write content for your approval.
The limits are the question caps: 30 on Starter and 100 on Growth, which pinch fast if you monitor several brands. There are also no public G2 or Capterra reviews yet.
Bottom line: the most hand-holding per dollar under $60. The caps decide whether it scales with you.
8. Writesonic: 3/5 stars
Writesonic bolts GEO tracking onto its established AI writing suite.
Price: Basic $249/mo, Growth $499/mo, Enterprise custom.
Writesonic pairs a proven AI writer, rated 4.7/5 across 2,113 G2 reviews, with brand tracking so you can act on gaps without switching tools. That is a real convenience.
The value math turns against it fast. $249/mo buys tracking on just 3 engines with 100 prompts and no sentiment analysis. The Action Center, the feature that turns data into a to-do list, is locked behind Enterprise. Temso’s Growth plan costs $199 and includes all of that plus audits and bot analytics.
Bottom line: pay for it if the writer is the product you want. As AI SEO software, you get less for more.
9. Otto SEO (Search Atlas): 2.5/5 stars
Otto SEO deploys fixes through a site pixel once you approve them.
Price: Starter $99/mo standard, Growth $199/mo, Pro $399/mo.
Otto’s pitch is automation: the agent deploys technical fixes, content updates, and link work through a pixel on your site, pending your approval. Bundling that with ads automation and local SEO at $199 is genuine consolidation value for agencies.
The gotchas stack up, though. LLM visibility tracking only arrives at the $199 Growth tier, users report slow load times and crashes in G2 and Capterra reviews, and the Trustpilot score sits at 3.5/5 across 172 reviews with recurring billing complaints.
Bottom line: big automation promise, uneven delivery. Read the reviews before you enter card details.
10. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: 2.5/5 stars
Semrush presents AI visibility in the same UX as its keyword tools.
Price: $99/mo add-on on top of a Semrush plan from $139.95/mo. All-in from about $239/mo.
If your team already lives in Semrush, the toolkit slots AI tracking beside your keyword and audit data, and the prompt research feels instantly familiar. The platform holds a 4.5/5 G2 rating across 3,911 reviews.
As a value buy it stumbles. Coverage stops at 3 to 4 engines, every extra user costs $99/mo, an extra domain costs $99/mo, and 50 extra prompts cost $60/mo. Cancellation requires a manual form instead of a self-serve click. A three-person team pays roughly $437/mo all-in, more than double Temso’s Growth plan for narrower coverage.
Bottom line: a fair add-on for existing Semrush accounts. A bad first purchase for AI search.
11. Ahrefs Brand Radar: 2.5/5 stars
Brand Radar searches a 405M-prompt database with zero setup.
Price: $199/mo for one AI platform or $699/mo for the bundle, both add-ons on a paid Ahrefs plan from $129/mo. Full coverage can pass $800/mo.
The database is the draw: 405M+ search-backed prompts across 6 platforms, searchable instantly with no setup. For competitive research, nothing here matches its scale.
For monitoring, the value collapses. AI chatbot data refreshes monthly, not daily, there is no execution layer, and the all-in cost for full coverage lands near four times Temso’s Growth price for a tool that only watches.
Bottom line: a research library priced like a full platform. Great data, painful invoice.
Which one should you buy?
- Most value for agencies: Temso. One $199 subscription replaces a tracker and an audit tool for every client, with unlimited seats. Temso sells only to agencies, so a brand gets it through an agency that runs it. See how it stacks up in our Temso vs Otterly.AI comparison.
- Smallest possible budget: Otterly.AI at $29/mo, until you outgrow 15 prompts.
- Agency reporting on many clients: Peec AI for seats and workspaces, or Temso for unlimited client projects plus execution.
- Enterprise data depth: Profound, if $399/mo clears your budget. The Profound vs Temso breakdown runs the numbers.
The full scored table with every sub-rating lives at /rankings/ai-seo-software.
Bottom line: in 2026 the smart money buys breadth without seat fees. For agencies, that is Temso at $199, with Otterly.AI as the budget scout and Profound as the enterprise splurge.