# Ahrefs index and prompt evaluation Decide whether broad index research, a custom prompt panel or both justify your Ahrefs purchase. Record the question each dataset answers and the full cost of the configuration you need. Worksheet version 1.0 · 20 September 2026. Complete one record per candidate. Blank fields request your evidence; this pack does not report vendor account tests or executed pilots. Complete comparison: https://rankecho.io/compare/ahrefs-brand-radar-alternatives ## 1 Define the research and monitoring jobs Broad discovery and a repeatable buyer prompt panel require different evidence. State what you need to learn before selecting an index or a tracking package. **Decision and candidate** — Record the brand, evaluator, decision date, candidate plan and the Ahrefs products you already pay for. Name the budget owner. [Enter your response] **Questions for the index** — List the market, competitors, topics and locations to research. Save the filters and date range needed to reproduce a relevant index view. [Enter your response] **Questions for a fixed panel** — Link the exact buyer prompts and required platforms, locations and checking schedule. Define how to record failed or unavailable responses. [Enter your response] ## 2 Calculate the required checks Rechecked 20 September 2026: Basic custom prompts cost $50 monthly for 2,500 checks, with $0.020 overage. Claude uses eight checks per update. Confirm the total allowance and pay-as-you-go setting on the actual account. **Weighted usage** — Multiply prompts by locations and scheduled runs, then by the sum of platform weights. Keep Claude at eight and the ordinary supported platforms at one. State the number of scheduled runs explicitly. [Enter your response] **Complete quote** — Record index access, custom checks, any existing plan allowance, retained software, overages and tax. A single index and the all-platform bundle are different purchases; avoid charging for both unless the quote requires them. [Enter your response] **Limits and billing control** — Save the currency, term, allowance, overage setting and renewal date. Check what happens when prepaid checks run out and automatic overage is disabled. [Enter your response] | Illustrative Basic configuration | Calculation | Result | | --- | --- | --- | | 10 prompts and one location over 30 daily runs | 10 x 1 x 30 x (1 + 8) | 2,700 checks | | Allowance and overage | 2,700 - 2,500 | 200 extra checks | | Monthly total with overage enabled | $50 + 200 x $0.020 | $54 before other costs | ## 3 Compare the evidence you can retain Use an authorized demonstration or existing account. The example assumes one ordinary platform plus Claude and only 2,500 available checks; additional account allowances can change the total. **Index observation** — Save the query or topic filters, source panel, captured answer and export date. Record the stated refresh schedule and the research question the observation answers. [Enter your response] **Custom prompt observation** — Save the exact prompt, platform, location, run time, answer and citations. Record missing results separately from answers that omit the brand. [Enter your response] **Research to implementation** — Select one useful finding and name the page owner, writer, reviewer and publisher. Save the proposed change, sources and review decision. [Enter your response] **Evidence after a change** — Record the shipment date and subsequent observations under the same prompt settings. Keep index trends and the custom panel separate; neither alone proves that a page edit caused movement. [Enter your response] ## 4 Choose the smallest suitable purchase Use the requirements from page one to decide what to retain. A large database does not establish that every buyer question or market is represented. **Requirement results** — Mark index coverage, panel access, exports and implementation handoff pass, fail or untested. Link the supporting observations. [Enter your response] **Purchase decision** — Choose index only, custom prompts only, both, an existing included allowance or another workflow. Record the approved total and unresolved quote conditions. [Enter your response] **Transition and review** — Assign exports, prompt migration, permissions and renewal changes. Set a review date and state what evidence would reverse the decision. [Enter your response] ## Complete comparison guide A useful Ahrefs Brand Radar alternatives review starts by defining the unfinished job rather than assuming every tool is a monitor. Teams compare alternatives when they want a fixed prompt workflow rather than broad index research, need a different budget shape, or want implementation artifacts and shipment-linked follow-up in the same product. Do not model Ahrefs as $199 stacked for every engine: an all-model package and separate custom-prompt pricing exist. Below is the field reviewed September 1, 2026, with official-source review records and a consistent way to choose. Original guide update: 2026-09-06. Companion and scoped source recheck: 20 September 2026. The evidence records below retain their individual dates. Confirm current plan, billing commitment and workload in a written quote. Ahrefs rechecked 20 September 2026: a single index is $199 monthly, while all-platform access is $699 and includes 2,500 custom checks. Standalone custom prompt packages are $50, $100 and $250 for 2,500, 7,000 and 25,000 checks; overage rates differ. Lite, Standard and Advanced include 150, 300 and 600 checks. Claude is available for custom prompts and consumes eight checks per update. Verify the account allowance and billing configuration before adding costs. [Ahrefs pricing](https://ahrefs.com/pricing) · [Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar) · [Ahrefs custom prompt allowances](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/13192745-how-to-set-up-custom-prompts-to-track-brand-visibility-in-ai-assistants) · [Ahrefs platform and check rules](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/11064852-what-is-brand-radar-and-how-to-use-it) · [Profound brand pricing](https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing) ## What Ahrefs Brand Radar offers Ahrefs Brand Radar combines a large pre-collected search and AI-answer index with custom prompt tracking. It connects mentions, citations, share of voice, cited pages, source research, query fanout, and web or social demand inside the Ahrefs data environment. Brand Radar is broader than mention tracking and its pre-collected index is a genuine research advantage. Its index data and a user-controlled prompt battery answer different questions, so compare them separately and spot-check any platform's observations against the prompts that matter to you. ## Why teams evaluate alternatives Teams compare alternatives when they want a fixed prompt workflow rather than broad index research, need a different budget shape, or want implementation artifacts and shipment-linked follow-up in the same product. Do not model Ahrefs as $199 stacked for every engine: an all-model package and separate custom-prompt pricing exist. That is not a judgment that Ahrefs Brand Radar is a bad tool. It means the right alternative depends on the data, implementation artifact, post-ship observation, reporting layer, and price meter your workflow actually needs. ## Alternatives at a glance (reviewed September 1, 2026) The field, one line each. Pricing changes; confirm current rates on each vendor's pricing page before deciding. - RankEcho - Find, Fix, and Prove around the same prompts: a free 12-prompt audit, reviewable implementation packages, and shipment-linked observations; $49, $149, or $399 per month within plan capacities. - Gauge - daily six-platform tracking, Action Center, article production, and CMS publishing; Growth is $599 per month. - Otterly.AI - seven-engine research, audits, briefs, and recommendations; monthly plans start at $29. - Peec AI - six-model analytics, Actions, and agency workflows; brand plans start at $95 per month. - Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit - prompt research, tracking, citation gaps, and AI site audit; $99 per month per domain billed annually. - AgencyAnalytics - 85+ integration client reporting plus an AI Tracker beta; $25/client monthly or $20/client monthly annually, with AI credits separate. - Profound - answer-engine insights and content Agents; brand pricing rechecked 20 September 2026 shows a free Trial with 10 ChatGPT prompts run once and custom Enterprise with daily tracking. Request the separate agency offer when evaluating client work. ## Where RankEcho fits RankEcho organizes the work around Find, Fix, and Prove. Find: a 12-prompt audit. Free audits check Perplexity and Gemini once per prompt. Paid and trialing accounts add ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews when configured for the account, for up to 5 engines. Fix: a reviewable package with an answer block, schema, content brief, crawler guidance, and an offsite source plan. Prove: the exact prompt observed again after a shipped date, with timing, movement, and a correlation note - never a causal or guaranteed-citation claim. Paid plans add branded or co-branded client rooms, portal seats, digests, pitch pages, and prompt portfolios; full de-badging and configured sending-domain features are Agency-plan capabilities. RankEcho is $49, $149, or $399 per month with a 7-day trial. There is no separate per-engine or per-seat surcharge within each plan's included configuration and capacity; domain, observation, and seat limits still apply (reviewed September 1, 2026). The free audit is one way to judge fit before paying: it samples the documented free-engine scope, reports the observed prompt outcomes, and identifies gaps an implementation package could target. ## How to choose well Evaluate every candidate on the same five questions rather than feature lists. - Coverage: which engines, and is multi-engine included or priced per engine? - Measurement: fixed prompts you control, or opaque sampling? - Execution: does it produce a shippable change, or advice? - Post-ship evidence: will it observe the same prompt again, retain the answer, and avoid a causal claim? - Budget shape: which domains, users, engines, prompts, sources, or credits meter year-one cost? ## Is RankEcho a good Ahrefs Brand Radar alternative? It can be if you need reviewable implementation artifacts plus same-prompt observations tied to a shipped date. If another product's research, publishing, monitoring, or reporting workflow is the better fit, compare coverage, artifacts, plan limits, and price directly. ## What is the cheapest way to start? Run RankEcho's free 12-prompt audit - no card required - or start on a low-cost monitoring tier elsewhere. Either way, test with your own buyer-intent prompts before paying. ## Does RankEcho guarantee AI citations? No. AI answers vary, so RankEcho reports before-and-after observations on the same prompts with repeat counts and limitations instead of making guaranteed ranking, citation, or causal claims. ## Which engines does RankEcho cover? Free audits check Perplexity and Gemini once per prompt. Paid and trialing accounts add ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews when configured for the account, for up to 5 engines. Google AI Overviews is reported only when an overview is shown and retrievable; otherwise that cell is marked skipped/unavailable rather than counted as a citation miss. RankEcho does not currently run Microsoft Copilot checks. ## Preserved dated evidence - [Gauge pricing](https://www.withgauge.com/pricing/) — checked 2026-09-01. Gauge lists Growth at $599 per month with a one-week trial, 600 prompts across six core platforms daily, 18 articles per month, and Webflow, Framer, Sanity, and GitHub publishing integrations; Enterprise is custom. Growth allowances, integrations, trial, and Enterprise pricing Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Gauge AI visibility](https://www.withgauge.com/ai-visibility/) — checked 2026-09-01. Gauge documents daily AI-answer visibility tracking, prioritized recommendations, Ask Gauge, and an integrated content workflow. AI visibility and action workflow Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Gauge AI visibility](https://www.withgauge.com/ai-visibility/) — checked 2026-09-01. The reviewed official Gauge pricing and AI-visibility pages do not document a shipment-linked same-prompt evidence ledger. Growth pricing and AI-visibility documentation Negative documentation review across the official pricing and AI-visibility pages in this evidence set; absence from public documentation is not proof that a capability is impossible. Confidence: Medium - [Otterly.AI pricing](https://otterly.ai/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. Otterly.AI lists monthly Lite, Standard, and Premium prices of $29, $189, and $489. Monthly public plans Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Otterly.AI features](https://otterly.ai/features) — checked 2026-09-01. Otterly.AI documents seven engines overall plus prompt research, content audits, briefs, and prioritized GEO recommendations. Public feature set Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Otterly.AI Content Creator](https://geo.otterly.ai/geo/ai-content-creator/) — checked 2026-09-01. Otterly.AI documents an AI Content Creator that can produce a content brief or a full piece of content with user-selected settings and instructions. AI Content Creator public documentation Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Otterly.AI Marketplace](https://otterly.ai/marketplace/) — checked 2026-09-01. Otterly.AI publishes a marketplace of optional GEO workflows and services that can extend execution beyond the core software. Public Marketplace workflow catalog Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Otterly.AI features](https://otterly.ai/features) — checked 2026-09-01. The reviewed official Otterly.AI features and pricing pages do not document direct CMS publishing or a shipment-linked same-prompt evidence ledger. Public features and pricing documentation Negative documentation review across the official features and pricing pages in this evidence set; absence from public documentation is not proof that a capability is impossible. Confidence: Medium - [Peec AI pricing](https://peec.ai/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. Peec prices brand plans by prompt and model allowances; the reviewed public tiers show Starter, Pro, and Advanced at $95, $245, and $495 per month. Brand plans; localized prices can vary Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Peec Actions](https://peec.ai/product-actions) — checked 2026-09-01. Peec Actions prioritizes owned and earned opportunities, while Peec states that customers create or update the content themselves. Actions workflow Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Peec for agencies](https://peec.ai/for-agencies) — checked 2026-09-01. Peec documents agency workspaces, pitch projects, reporting integrations, and multi-brand workflows. Agency workflow Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Semrush AI pricing](https://www.semrush.com/pricing/ai/) — checked 2026-09-01. Semrush lists the AI Visibility Toolkit at $99 per month per domain billed annually; additional domains and users are priced separately. AI Visibility Toolkit public pricing Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit documentation](https://www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-visibility-toolkit) — checked 2026-09-01. Semrush documents 25 daily tracked prompts, prompt research, competitor and sentiment reporting, citation gaps, and an AI Search Site Audit; the Toolkit has no free trial. Toolkit documentation Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Ahrefs pricing](https://ahrefs.com/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. Ahrefs lists Brand Radar from $199 per month and custom-prompt packages starting at $50. Brand Radar public USD pricing Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar) — checked 2026-09-01. Ahrefs lists an all-model Brand Radar package at $699 and documents pre-collected indexes, custom prompts, AI-generated prompt suggestions, mentions, citations, share of voice, cited pages, source research, and query fanout. Brand Radar product capabilities Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [AgencyAnalytics pricing](https://agencyanalytics.com/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. AgencyAnalytics lists one plan at $25 per client monthly or $20 per client per month billed annually, with annual AI Tracker pricing of $20.83 per month per 250 credits. Base plan and annual AI Tracker add-on Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [AgencyAnalytics pricing](https://agencyanalytics.com/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. AgencyAnalytics documents 85-plus integrations, unlimited data sources, reports, dashboards, staff users, and client users, plus white-label portals, custom domain and email controls, and scheduled reports. Current base-plan reporting capabilities Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [AgencyAnalytics AI Tracker](https://agencyanalytics.com/features/ai-tracker) — checked 2026-09-01. AgencyAnalytics AI Tracker beta documents ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini, with citations in white-label reports. AI Tracker open beta Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [AgencyAnalytics AI Tracker configuration](https://help.agencyanalytics.com/en/articles/14692294-configuring-the-ai-tracker-add-on) — checked 2026-09-01. AgencyAnalytics documents dated per-prompt response history, before-and-after comparisons, weekly AI Tracker checks, $25 per 250 credits on monthly billing, and a 14-day 250-credit trial. AI Tracker beta cadence, monthly billing, and trial Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [AgencyAnalytics AI widgets](https://help.agencyanalytics.com/en/articles/12877937-ai-widgets) — checked 2026-09-01. AgencyAnalytics documents AI Tracker widgets with annotations that let agencies mark events and changes on AI visibility charts. AI Tracker widget and annotation workflow Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [AgencyAnalytics AI Tracker](https://agencyanalytics.com/features/ai-tracker) — checked 2026-09-01. The reviewed AgencyAnalytics pricing, AI Tracker, and configuration pages document AI visibility tracking and reporting, not generation of implementation artifacts or a workflow linking a recorded shipment date to a controlled same-prompt re-test. Base plan and AI Tracker public documentation Negative documentation review across the official pricing, feature, and configuration pages in this evidence set; absence from public documentation is not proof that a capability is impossible. Confidence: Medium - [Profound Answer Engine Insights](https://www.tryprofound.com/features/answer-engine-insights) — checked 2026-09-01. Profound documents Answer Engine Insights for daily visibility, citations, sources, sentiment, competitors, Query Fanout, and FactCheck workflows that identify and address inaccurate AI answers. Answer Engine Insights and FactCheck public workflow Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Profound pricing](https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. Profound lists Starter at $99 per month billed annually with ChatGPT, 50 prompts, 100 Agent credits, and one seat; Growth is $399 per month billed annually with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, 100 prompts, 400 Agent credits, and three seats. Starter and Growth annual billing, engine scope, prompts, Agent credits, and seats Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Profound Agents](https://www.tryprofound.com/features/agents) — checked 2026-09-01. Profound documents Agents that research cited sources, generate briefs and complete drafts, optimize content, and publish approved work through CMS integrations; its documentation says the loop tracks whether outputs earn citations. Agents research, creation, approval, publishing, and citation-feedback workflow Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Profound Aim](https://www.tryprofound.com/features/aim) — checked 2026-09-01. Profound documents Aim Projects that turn opportunities into task plans, hand work to Agents, record project activity, and show visibility and citation movement; the current pricing matrix lists Projects as Enterprise-only. Aim project planning, execution, and impact measurement; availability cross-checked on pricing Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [Profound pricing](https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. Profound lists Enterprise at custom pricing with up to nine answer engines, tailored prompt tracking, Projects powered by Aim, API access, SSO, and dedicated support. Enterprise public plan matrix Official public documentation review; no account-level hands-on test. Confidence: High - [RankEcho pricing](https://rankecho.io/pricing) — checked 2026-09-01. RankEcho lists Solo, Growth, and Agency at $49, $149, and $399 per month with a seven-day trial and no per-engine or per-seat fees. Current public plans Official RankEcho pricing page reviewed for published plan names, prices, and limits. Confidence: High - [How RankEcho works](https://rankecho.io/how-it-works) — checked 2026-09-01. RankEcho documents a Find, Fix, Prove workflow with generated implementation artifacts and same-prompt post-ship observations bounded as correlation, not causation. Current public workflow Public RankEcho product documentation reviewed for the Find, Fix, and Prove workflow. Confidence: High ## Related reading - [RankEcho vs Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://rankecho.io/compare/rankecho-vs-ahrefs-brand-radar) - [Profound alternative: when RankEcho fits and when it does not](https://rankecho.io/learn/profound-alternative) - [Why RankEcho is different](https://rankecho.io/why-rankecho) ## Product next step Inspect a reviewed change at https://rankecho.io/sample-fix and the Fix Engine at https://rankecho.io/product/fix-engine. Full-page writing is separate and requires a paid base plan plus a content add-on: https://rankecho.io/pricing/content.