Methodology · researched 12 September 2026

How we compare these tools, and how to check us.

By Advik Jain, Co-founder & CEO, Optivus Technologies · Published 12 September 2026 · Updated 12 September 2026

We sell one of the tools on these pages, so our comparisons have to be checkable rather than merely confident. This page is the rulebook. It says what we read, how each score is calculated from published facts, how the cost figures are built, and where our evidence runs out.

The single commitment underneath all of it: nothing on a comparison page is a number we felt was about right. Scores are computed by rule from sourced fields, costs are computed from the vendors’ own published prices, and anything a vendor does not publish is shown as not published rather than guessed at or scored as a zero.

Where the facts come from

Every fact about a tool other than Veritas comes from that vendor’s own pricing page, product pages, documentation or announcements. Each one is linked where it appears, with the date we read it.

We build Veritas and use it every day. We have not run paid accounts of every other tool on this page, so we describe what each vendor publishes rather than scores from tests we did not run. Where a capability was not described on a vendor’s pages, the table says exactly that, which is not the same as saying the product lacks it.

G2, Capterra and TrustRadius blocked our automated reads, so any rating shown is the figure the vendor publishes about itself, labelled as such.

Prices and plans change. We re-read every vendor page at least every 90 days and record what changed in the update log below.

How this market is actually split

These tools are usually listed as one category and priced as though they compete directly. They do not. They sit in distinct groups, and the group is generally a bigger decision than the tool, because it decides how much of the work stays with you.

Dedicated trackers

Measure AI answers and stop at recommendations or briefs. Cheapest way to see the problem; you write the fix elsewhere.

Profound, Otterly.AI, Scrunch, AthenaHQ, Peec AI

GEO platforms

Measure and then produce: drafts, rewrites, sometimes outreach and publishing. Priced per workspace or per brand.

Veritas, Writesonic, GEOforge

Content optimisers

Built around writing to a score, with AI tracking added. Strongest when the constraint is producing pages, not measuring them.

Frase, Surfer

SEO suites

Large classic SEO platforms with AI visibility added to an existing toolkit and an existing bill.

Semrush, Ahrefs Brand Radar, SE Ranking

AI writers

Brand voice and volume first. AI search features arrive late and usually on an enterprise plan.

Jasper

Managed services

People do the work using their own tooling. Priced per engagement.

Passionfruit

The scorecard, across every tool we track

Every score below is calculated, not assigned. Each criterion is a rule applied to the published facts in the reviews on this page, and the tools are ranked by the weighted result. Veritas is scored by the same rules as everything else and lands where they put it.

Tool	Weighted score	Criteria scored	Strongest criterion
SE Ranking	80	6 of 8	SEO beyond AI answers
Frase	74	7 of 8	Refresh frequency
Writesonic	70	5 of 8	What happens after a gap
Veritas Our product	68	8 of 8	What happens after a gap
Semrush	68	7 of 8	Refresh frequency
Scrunch	67	6 of 8	Engine coverage at the entry price
Surfer	61	8 of 8	Refresh frequency
Otterly.AI	61	7 of 8	Refresh frequency
AthenaHQ	57	5 of 8	Team and data access
Peec AI	55	5 of 8	Refresh frequency
GEOforge	51	5 of 8	What happens after a gap
Profound	48	6 of 8	What happens after a gap
Ahrefs Brand Radar	48	6 of 8	Refresh frequency

Not ranked, for want of published detail

Passionfruit, Jasper could be scored on fewer than 5 of the 8 criteria. A total built on two or three flattering criteria says more about the reweighting than about the product, so we leave these out of the ranking and let the reviews speak instead.

The rules, and what each is worth

Engine coverage at the entry price18% of the score
Engines included on the cheapest plan that tracks AI answers, out of the seven any tool in this set covers.
Refresh frequency12% of the score
Daily scores highest, then weekly, then fortnightly. A vendor that does not publish a cadence is not scored.
Prompts per dollar15% of the score
Tracked prompts divided by the monthly cost of the cheapest tracking plan, scaled against the best in this set.
What happens after a gap20% of the score
Nothing, recommendations, briefs, drafts, or drafts published to a CMS. Higher is more of the work done in the tool.
Drafts cite your own documents10% of the score
Whether the vendor describes per-claim citations back to documents you supply. Not described scores null, not zero.
SEO beyond AI answers10% of the score
Full covers keyword research, audits and backlinks; partial covers some; none covers none.
Team and data access8% of the score
Seats included on the entry plan, plus whether an API or MCP server lets the data leave the tool.
Trial and price transparency7% of the score
A free plan or card-free trial scores highest; prices published in the page score above prices that need a browser or a sales call.

Weights add up to 100. Where a vendor publishes nothing to score against a criterion, that criterion is dropped and the rest are reweighted for that tool, because a missing figure is not the same as a missing feature. A tool scoreable on fewer than 5 criteria is reported but not ranked. Two criteria are relative to the best tool in this set, so a score is a ranking within this page, not an absolute grade. Last recalculated 12 September 2026.

What a year costs

The cheapest published plan that fits each team, over twelve months, with seat fees and required add-ons. Where no published plan fits, the note says why instead of guessing.

Tool	One marketer, one brand1 seat, 50 tracked prompts, 1 brand	Team of five, one brand5 seats, 100 tracked prompts, 1 brand	Agency, three brands10 seats, 300 tracked prompts, 3 brands
Frase	$588lowest	$2,244lowest	$5,328lowest
Surfer	$984	$3,588	No published fit¹
Profound	$1,188	No published fit¹	No published fit¹
Otterly.AI	$2,268	$2,268	$5,868
Semrush	$2,388	$5,748	No published fit¹
SE Ranking	$2,616	No published fit²	No published fit¹
Scrunch	$3,600	$4,200	$5,700
VeritasOurs	$3,780	No published fit¹	No published fit¹
Ahrefs Brand Radar	$17,988off scale	No published fit¹	No published fit¹
AthenaHQ	No published plan fits any of these setups³
GEOforge	No published fit¹	No published fit¹	No published fit¹
Jasper	No published plan fits any of these setups⁴
Passionfruit	No published plan fits any of these setups⁵
Peec AI	No published plan fits any of these setups⁶
Writesonic	No published plan fits any of these setups⁷

1No published plan tracks the prompts this setup needs; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
2No published plan covers the people this setup needs and the vendor does not publish a per-seat price.
3Metered in credits, where one credit is one AI response, so prompt counts are not directly comparable.
4Priced per seat; AI visibility features are on the custom-priced Business plan.
5Priced per engagement after a call and audit, so there is no published price to compare.
6Prices render only in the browser and are not in the page HTML, so we cannot quote them.
7The vendor does not publish how many prompts each plan tracks, so we cannot say which plan meets this setup.

Bars share one scale across the whole table, so cost growth shows as well as rank. A figure far above the rest is marked off scale.

How each figure was worked outPlan, seats and add-ons behind every number

One marketer, one brand

Frase: Starter at $49 a month, over twelve months
Surfer: AI Search Analytics at $82 a month, over twelve months
Profound: Starter at $99 a month, over twelve months
Otterly.AI: Standard at $189 a month, over twelve months
Semrush: Starter at $199 a month, over twelve months
SE Ranking: Core at $129 a month, AI Search Toolkit at $89 a month, required for AI tracking, over twelve months
Scrunch: Starter at $300 a month, over twelve months
Veritas: Marketing Suite at $315 a month converted from rupees, over twelve months
Ahrefs Brand Radar: Enterprise at $1,499 a month, over twelve months
AthenaHQ: Metered in credits, where one credit is one AI response, so prompt counts are not directly comparable.
GEOforge: No published plan tracks 50 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Jasper: Priced per seat; AI visibility features are on the custom-priced Business plan.
Passionfruit: Priced per engagement after a call and audit, so there is no published price to compare.
Peec AI: Prices render only in the browser and are not in the page HTML, so we cannot quote them.
Writesonic: The vendor does not publish how many prompts each plan tracks, so we cannot say which plan meets this setup.

Team of five, one brand

Frase: Professional at $129 a month, 2 extra seats at $29 each, over twelve months
Surfer: Peace of Mind at $299 a month, over twelve months
Profound: No published plan tracks 100 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Otterly.AI: Standard at $189 a month, over twelve months
Semrush: Pro+ at $299 a month, 4 extra seats at $45 each, over twelve months
SE Ranking: No published plan covers 5 people and the vendor does not publish a per-seat price.
Scrunch: Starter at $300 a month, 2 extra seats at $25 each, over twelve months
Veritas: No published plan tracks 100 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Ahrefs Brand Radar: No published plan tracks 100 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
AthenaHQ: Metered in credits, where one credit is one AI response, so prompt counts are not directly comparable.
GEOforge: No published plan tracks 100 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Jasper: Priced per seat; AI visibility features are on the custom-priced Business plan.
Passionfruit: Priced per engagement after a call and audit, so there is no published price to compare.
Peec AI: Prices render only in the browser and are not in the page HTML, so we cannot quote them.
Writesonic: The vendor does not publish how many prompts each plan tracks, so we cannot say which plan meets this setup.

Agency, three brands

Frase: Scale at $299 a month, 5 extra seats at $29 each, over twelve months
Surfer: No published plan tracks 300 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Profound: No published plan tracks 300 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Otterly.AI: Premium at $489 a month, over twelve months
Semrush: No published plan tracks 300 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
SE Ranking: No published plan tracks 300 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Scrunch: Starter at $300 a month, 7 extra seats at $25 each, over twelve months
Veritas: No published plan tracks 300 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Ahrefs Brand Radar: No published plan tracks 300 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
AthenaHQ: Metered in credits, where one credit is one AI response, so prompt counts are not directly comparable.
GEOforge: No published plan tracks 300 prompts; larger volumes are arranged with the vendor.
Jasper: Priced per seat; AI visibility features are on the custom-priced Business plan.
Passionfruit: Priced per engagement after a call and audit, so there is no published price to compare.
Peec AI: Prices render only in the browser and are not in the page HTML, so we cannot quote them.
Writesonic: The vendor does not publish how many prompts each plan tracks, so we cannot say which plan meets this setup.

Standard monthly rates, without annual discounts unless a vendor publishes only a yearly price. Taxes, overage and negotiated terms are excluded. Indian rupee figures are converted at 95.2 INR to the US dollar, a rate we maintain by hand and review periodically. It is an approximation, not a live rate, and Veritas bills in rupees.

Engine coverage, across every tool we track

On the cheapest plan that tracks AI answers. Most vendors list more engines than that plan includes, so this is what you get at the price shown, not the brochure maximum.

Tool and plan	ChatGPT	Claude	Gemini	Perplexity	AI Overviews	AI Mode	Copilot
VeritasOurs Content + SEO Premium	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not on this plan	Not on this plan
Semrush Starter	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	unclear	unclear
Frase Starter	Included	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	unclear	unclear	Not on this plan
Profound Starter	Included	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	Not on this plan
Jasper Business (custom price)	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear
Surfer AI Search Analytics	Included	unclear	Included	unclear	Included	unclear	unclear
Writesonic Starter	Included	Not on this plan	Included	Not on this plan	Included	Not on this plan	Not on this plan
Otterly.AI Lite	Included	add-on	add-on	Included	Included	add-on	Included
Scrunch Starter	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not on this plan
AthenaHQ Essential (free)	Included	Not on this plan	Included	Included	Included	Not on this plan	Included
GEOforge Create	Included	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	Not on this plan	Included	Included	Not on this plan
Ahrefs Brand Radar Lite	pick	pick	pick	pick	pick	pick	pick
SE Ranking Core with the AI Search Toolkit	Included	Not on this plan	Included	Included	Included	Included	Not on this plan
Peec AI Starter	pick	pick	pick	pick	pick	pick	pick
Passionfruit Managed engagement	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear	unclear

A tick is included. Add-on means an extra monthly fee. Pick means you choose a limited number of platforms. Unclear means the vendor’s wording does not say.

What each plan includes, with sourcesThe plan behind each row, and what changes on higher plans

Veritas, Content + SEO Premium. The entry plan, Content + SEO Pro, tracks no AI answers. source, 12 Sept 2026
Semrush, Starter. The pricing page names Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini “and more”; Claude and AI Overviews are from its AI Visibility feature pages. source, 11 Sept 2026
Frase, Starter. Starter tracks “ChatGPT and Google AI”. Perplexity is added on Professional, Claude and Gemini on Scale. source, 15 Sept 2026
Profound, Starter. Starter tracks ChatGPT only. Growth tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and Enterprise up to nine engines. source, 11 Sept 2026
Jasper, Business (custom price). Jasper places its AI visibility features on the custom-priced Business plan and does not publish which AI engines they cover. source, 11 Sept 2026
Surfer, AI Search Analytics. The cheapest plan with tracking. Pro and Peace of Mind name ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini; Standard tracks ChatGPT only, weekly. source, 15 Sept 2026
Writesonic, Starter. Every self-serve plan tracks these three. Perplexity and the other platforms are on Enterprise. source, 11 Sept 2026
Otterly.AI, Lite. Claude, AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons on every plan. source, 11 Sept 2026
Scrunch, Starter. Every plan also tracks Meta AI. source, 11 Sept 2026
AthenaHQ, Essential (free). Starter at $295 adds AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral. source, 15 Sept 2026
GEOforge, Create. SignalForge monitors ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, per its homepage; the pricing page lists three engines on Create and Dominate. source, 12 Sept 2026
Ahrefs Brand Radar, Lite. Lite includes 150 checks a month, and one prompt on one platform uses one check. That covers the 5 included prompts on one platform daily; more platforms means fewer prompts. source, 15 Sept 2026
SE Ranking, Core with the AI Search Toolkit. AI tracking is the AI Search Toolkit add-on at $89 a month on top of the plan. source, 15 Sept 2026
Peec AI, Starter. Every plan tracks three models chosen from up to thirteen. source, 11 Sept 2026
Passionfruit, Managed engagement. Passionfruit is a managed service; which AI engines it tracks is set per engagement and is not published. source, 12 Sept 2026

What happens after a tool finds a gap

This decides more than the engine list does. A tracker tells you where you are missing; whether it also writes the fix decides how much work stays with your team.

Drafts and publishes content: Frase, GEOforge, Passionfruit, Profound, Veritas (ours), Writesonic
Drafts content: Jasper, SE Ranking, Semrush, Surfer
Writes briefs and audits: Otterly.AI
Recommends fixes: AthenaHQ, Peec AI, Scrunch
Not described: Ahrefs Brand Radar

Placed by what each product does on any plan, as its own pages describe it. The capability may need a higher plan than the cheapest one; each full review says which. Not described means we found no description either way.

What we could not verify

This is the rulebook, so the edge of the evidence is shown in full here. Every gap below is shown on the comparison pages as not published rather than estimated.

What each vendor does not publish

Where a figure below is missing, the charts say so rather than estimate it.

Veritas: Veritas does not publish security certifications, so this page claims none. Ask us directly if your procurement needs them.
Semrush: Semrush’s security page does not mention SOC 2.
Semrush sells a standalone AI Visibility Toolkit at $99 a month but does not publish how many prompts it tracks, so it is not in the yearly costs.
Semrush’s pricing page does not make clear whether the $139 SEO plan includes any AI search features.
Frase: Frase does not say whether “Google AI” on its plans means AI Overviews, AI Mode or both.
Frase Starter includes one seat with no published price for more, so it is not costed for teams.
Profound: Profound does not publish how often it refreshes results.
Profound does not say which plans include its Agents, or how Agent use is billed.
Jasper: Jasper does not say which type of SOC 2 report it holds.
Jasper does not publish Business plan pricing, which AI engines it tracks there, or how many prompts, so it is not in the yearly costs.
Surfer: Surfer does not publish how many seats each plan includes.
Surfer’s AI Search Analytics plan names ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews “and other AI models” without listing the rest.
Writesonic: Writesonic does not publish prompt allowances, so it cannot be costed for a set number of prompts.
Writesonic does not publish how often it refreshes results.
Otterly.AI: Otterly.AI offers a trial from its homepage but does not state the terms on its pricing page.
Scrunch: Scrunch does not publish how often it refreshes results.
We found no public security or trust page for Scrunch.
Sitecore has not said whether Scrunch will keep being sold on its own after the acquisition.
AthenaHQ: AthenaHQ bills in credits, one per AI response, so its plans cannot be costed for a set number of prompts.
AthenaHQ does not publish how often it refreshes results.
GEOforge: GEOforge does not publish how many seats each plan includes.
GEOforge does not publish how often it refreshes results.
We found no public security or trust page for GEOforge.
Ahrefs Brand Radar: Ahrefs does not publish how many prompts its $50 prompt package adds, so the package is not in the yearly costs.
We found no security or trust page on Ahrefs’ site.
This review covers Ahrefs Brand Radar only, not Ahrefs’ content tools.
SE Ranking: SE Ranking does not publish how often its AI tracking refreshes.
We found no security or trust page on SE Ranking’s site.
Peec AI: Peec AI’s prices appear only after its pricing page loads in a browser, so we could not record them and they are not compared here.
Peec AI’s funding figures come from press reports, not from Peec AI itself.
Passionfruit: Passionfruit does not publish prices. It quotes after a call and an audit, so it is scored on capability only.

What would change our verdict

A vendor publishing a figure we currently mark as not published, which would bring a dropped criterion back into its score.
A price change, a plan restructure or an acquisition, which changes the cost model and usually the verdict with it.
Hands-on testing of these products by us, which would let us judge output quality and support rather than published capability.
A correction from a vendor or a reader, which we apply and record in the update log on the affected page.

What this method cannot tell you

It scores what vendors publish, which is narrower than what they deliver. We have not run paid accounts of every tool for a quarter, so nothing here measures answer quality, data accuracy, support responsiveness or how a product behaves once your data is in it. A tool that documents itself poorly will score below a tool that documents itself well, even where the first is better.

Two criteria are scored relative to the strongest tool in the set being compared, so a score is a position within one page rather than a grade that transfers between pages. Read the criterion rules next to the table before treating any total as a verdict on its own.

Veritas is our product. It appears on this page because it competes in this category, and we have tried to state its limits as plainly as anyone else’s. If anything here is wrong or out of date, write to support@getveritas.io and we will correct it and note the change in the log.

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