Three enterprise-leaning AI-visibility platforms — each with a different ceiling, different friction. None of them cover the SMB-to-mid lane with flat predictable pricing. Here's how they stack up + where Truffle slots in as the fourth option.
| Profound | Peec.ai | AthenaHQ | Truffle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $99/mo (sales-led) | €85–95/mo Starter | $270/mo Lite (annual) · $295 monthly | $69/mo Starter (flat) |
| Free trial | None — sales call required | 7-day, no card | None — 67% off first month | 7-day, full features, no card |
| AI surfaces | 1 (Starter) → 10+ (Enterprise) | 3 of 6 base + €30-140 add-ons | 8 platforms on all tiers | 6 standard on every tier |
| Pricing model | Tiered, sales-led | Tiered + per-model add-ons | Credit-based (3,600/mo + overage) | Flat tiers — no credits, no add-ons |
| Multi-brand | Workspaces +$399/mo each | 1 → 5 projects | 1 country (Self-Serve) | 2 → 15 brands |
| EU hosted | US (SOC 2 Type II) | EU | US | EU (Frankfurt) |
¹ Pricing per Profound, Peec.ai, AthenaHQ and Truffle public pricing pages, June 2026. Verify before purchasing.
These are the three names that come up when a mid-market or enterprise buyer evaluates AI-visibility tracking in 2026. Profound is the funded category leader with the Fortune 500 logo wall. Peec is the EU self-serve challenger with a transparent dashboard. AthenaHQ is the ex-Google-DeepMind-founded credit-metered platform with the broadest base tier coverage. Each has gravity in a different direction.
What most pages miss: all three force a budget commitment upfront — Profound wants a sales call before you see real data, Peec stacks per-model add-ons on top of the base subscription (€30–140/month each), AthenaHQ meters every AI response as a credit with $-1,250 overage blocks. For a buyer who wants to start at a known $69/mo, see real LLM coverage today, and not have to forecast prompt volume two quarters out, the right answer isn't one of these three.
That's where Truffle slots in: flat $69 / $189 / $399 tiers, 6 AI surfaces standard on every plan (Claude + Gemini + ChatGPT + Perplexity + Google AI Mode + AIO/SERPs), EU-hosted, multi-brand from the entry tier, and a real 7-day full-feature trial before you commit anything.
Profound is the highest-funded vendor in the AI-visibility category, with the deepest install base (Fortune 500 brands, regulated industries) and the only public Prompt Volumes panel data — real consumer-AI query data with demographic cuts. SOC 2 Type II + HIPAA compliance clears procurement at enterprise scale. The ChatGPT Shopping / conversational commerce module is a genuine first-mover capability.
What hurts most buyers: no self-serve signup and no free trial. Every evaluation begins with a sales call; most teams wait 1-3 weeks before they see usable data. The published pricing ladder is sharp — $99 Starter is ChatGPT-only, $399 Growth gets you 3 platforms (still no Claude or Gemini), full 10+ surface coverage lives on Enterprise at $2,000-$5,000+/month. Extra agency workspaces are $399/mo each. If you're not pre-budgeted at enterprise scale, Profound's gravity pulls you up the ladder fast.
Peec is the German-engineered counterweight to Profound's enterprise gravity. EU-hosted, clean intuitive UI (20-30 minute setup), unlimited user seats on every plan, dedicated agency features (pitch workspaces, multi-brand tracking, Looker Studio connector). For an EU marketing team that wants something running today, Peec is the most frictionless self-serve option in the category.
The catch: Peec is upfront that base plans include only 3 of their 6 supported LLMs — Claude, Gemini, Copilot and others are paid add-ons at €30-140/month each. The effective monthly cost of 'full coverage' on Peec Pro climbs from €205 to €265-345 once you stack 2-3 add-ons. No SOC 2 Type II (Peec admits this on their FAQ), API + SSO gated to Enterprise. Strong at monitoring, weak at execution-layer (no source-outreach tooling).
AthenaHQ is the credit-based platform from ex-Google-Search and DeepMind founders. The big structural win: 8 AI platforms on every plan (ChatGPT, AIO, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok) with no per-engine paywall. The Action Center surfaces task-driven optimisation workflow on top of visibility data. Enterprise tier ships the ACE Citation Engine for citation-probability modelling.
What hurts: credit-based billing makes monthly cost unpredictable — every AI response burns a credit and overages are sold in 1,250-credit blocks. Self-Serve is single-country only; multi-country lives on Enterprise. There's no real free trial — only 67% off the first month (~$97) which is a paid plan with a coupon, not a trial. No Reddit monitoring, no crawler analytics, ACE + API gated to Enterprise.
What we do differently: Truffle ships 6 AI surfaces (ChatGPT + Claude Haiku + Gemini + Perplexity + Google AI Mode + AIO/SERPs Top-10) standard on every paid tier from $69 — no per-engine paywall like Peec, no credit metering like AthenaHQ, no Enterprise call to unlock Claude/Gemini like Profound. Pricing is flat ($69 / $189 / $399), multi-brand workspaces start at the entry tier (2 brands at $69, 15 at $399 Pro/Agency). The Source Outreach tool surfaces which publishers + domains LLMs cite in your category with HTTP/render/Cloudflare-block health signals — closing the loop from 'what's missing' to 'what to ship next'.
Honest concession: we're smaller than Profound and newer than Peec, no SOC 2 Type II yet, no Prompt Volumes panel data. If procurement at your company requires SOC 2 today, Profound is the right answer. If you need real consumer-AI query data with demographics, also Profound. For everyone else — mid-market teams, multi-brand agencies, buyers who want predictable flat tier pricing with a real trial — we built Truffle for exactly that buyer.
| Feature | Profound | Peec.ai | AthenaHQ | Truffle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI surfaces (entry tier) | 1 (ChatGPT only) | 3 of 6 (rotation) | 8 (incl. Meta AI + Grok) | 6 (Claude + Gemini + AIO + ChatGPT + Perplexity + AI Mode/SERPs Top-10) |
| Pricing model | Tiered, sales-led | Tiered + per-model add-ons | Credit-based (3,600/mo) | Flat tiers — no credits, no add-ons |
| Entry price | $99/mo Starter | €85-95/mo Starter | $270 annual / $295 monthly | $69/mo Starter |
| Free trial | None | 7 days, no card | None — 67% off first month only | 7 days, full features, no card |
| Claude (Anthropic) | Enterprise only | Add-on (€30-140/mo) | Included in base | Claude Haiku from $69 |
| Google AI Mode | Enterprise | Add-on | Included in base | Included from $69 |
| Multi-brand workspaces | +$399/mo each | 1 → 5 projects | Self-Serve = 1 country | 2 → 15 brands |
| API access | Enterprise | Advanced (€425+) | Enterprise | Standard ($189) + Pro/Agency |
| Source Outreach | — | — | — | ✓ from Standard |
| Strategy Recommendations | Reporting-first | Citation + sentiment | Action Center (task workflows) | Prompt-level recs every plan |
| EU hosting | — (US, SOC 2) | ✓ | — (US) | ✓ (Hetzner Frankfurt) |
| SOC 2 Type II | ✓ | — | — (Enterprise only) | — (not yet) |
Three different pricing philosophies, three different sources of surprise. Profound is sales-led so you don't know your price until the call. Peec is transparent base + opaque add-ons. AthenaHQ is credit-metered so the cost moves with usage. Truffle is flat — same number every month at the tier you picked.
| Tier | Profound | Peec.ai | AthenaHQ | Truffle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry / self-serve | $99/mo (ChatGPT-only) | €85-95/mo (3 of 6 LLMs, 1 project) | $270/mo annual / $295 monthly (3,600 credits) | $69/mo (2 brands, 25 prompts, 6 surfaces) |
| Working tier | $399/mo Growth (3 platforms, 100 prompts) | €205/mo Pro + add-ons → €265-345 effective | $295 + overage blocks | $189/mo Standard (5 brands, 100 prompts, Source Outreach) |
| Agency / scale | Enterprise $2,000-$5,000+/mo | €425/mo Advanced (5 projects, API) | Enterprise custom (ACE, multi-country) | $399/mo Pro/Agency (15 brands, unlimited seats, API) |
| Free trial | None | 7 days, no card | None — first-month discount only | 7 days, full feature set |
Effective-cost reality check: at the working tier ($189-$399 band), Truffle gives you 5-15 brands, all 6 surfaces, Source Outreach + Strategy Recs, and a real trial. Profound at $399 is 3 platforms + sales-call. Peec at €205+€60+€60 is single project + 3 LLMs base + 2 add-ons. AthenaHQ at $295 + overage is single country + credit math.
¹ Pricing per Profound, Peec.ai, AthenaHQ and Truffle public pricing pages, June 2026. Verify before purchasing.
| Use case | Winner |
|---|---|
| Fortune 500 / regulated industry | Profound |
| EU brand, single brand, clean self-serve | Peec.ai |
| Stable usage, broad engine coverage | AthenaHQ |
| Mid-market wanting flat pricing | Truffle |
| Multi-brand agency portfolio | Truffle |
| Procurement needs SOC 2 today | Profound |
Yes, we make Truffle. Treat this comparison as honest market analysis from a player, not a neutral G2 review. Here's what we'd actually pick in four specific scenarios — including the cases where we'd send a buyer to a competitor.
— Olesya Franiel, CEO, ZDS International · SEO & GEO Agency · Barcelona & Dortmund
Search volume reflects what marketers currently search — and Profound/Peec/AthenaHQ are the three names with the most marketing spend, longest install base, and oldest comparison content in 2026. We're newer and smaller. We wrote this page specifically because the buyer asking that question deserves a fourth option they haven't found yet — that's the whole reason for a 'we make Truffle' note in the verdict section, not a hidden insertion.
It depends on prompt-volume stability. The Self-Serve plan ships 3,600 credits/month and bills overages in 1,250-credit blocks at roughly $-0.08/credit. If your team's monthly prompt count is steady (e.g. 100 prompts × 6 surfaces × 30 days = 18,000 credits/mo), you'll budget for 5× the base plan. If volume swings month-to-month (e.g. campaign launches, seasonal spikes), the cost moves with it.
Yes. Peec's base plans (Starter through Advanced) include 3 of 6 supported LLMs — typically ChatGPT, Perplexity, and one Google product (AIO or AI Mode). Claude and Gemini (and additional Google) are paid add-ons at €30-140/month each. Effective cost of full 6-LLM coverage on Peec Pro climbs from €205 base to €265-345.
Truffle: 7 days, full feature set, no card. Peec: 7 days, no card (Starter + Pro brands). Profound: no trial. AthenaHQ: no trial — 67% off the first month brings entry to ~$97, but that's a paid plan with a coupon, credit card required.
Truffle for cost-efficiency (15 brands at $399/mo, unlimited seats, API). Peec for clean UI and dedicated agency features (pitch workspaces, multi-brand tracking, Looker Studio connector). Profound supports agencies but extra workspaces are +$399/mo each. AthenaHQ Self-Serve is single-country, which often disqualifies agencies serving multi-market clients.
Peec (EU, German-engineered) and Truffle (Hetzner Frankfurt, GDPR-ready) are the only EU-hosted options. Profound and AthenaHQ are US-hosted (Profound has SOC 2 Type II as compensating control; AthenaHQ has Self-Serve in US-only single-country mode). For GDPR-strict buyers, Peec or Truffle.
The fastest way to know which of these four fits is to run the one with a real full-feature trial — Truffle, 7 days, no card, no sales call. If Profound, Peec or AthenaHQ ends up the better fit after, we'll happily point you there.
Newcomer AI-Visibility Tracker — known from
