# Profound plan and publishing evaluation

Compare quoted plan access, a real content handoff and the evidence retained after shipment. Record brand and agency offers separately so a trial or pitch workspace is not priced as an ongoing client service.

Worksheet version 1.0 · 17 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/rankecho-vs-profound

## 1 Define the comparison

Use the same five buyer prompts and one page for each candidate. Agree on what a successful evaluation must demonstrate.

**Buyer and decision** — Record brand or agency, candidate, evaluator, client count, decision date and required outcome.

[Enter your response]

**Shared inputs** — Link five exact prompts, the page, source material, location, language and required engines. Record permitted test access and the observation window.

[Enter your response]

**Must haves** — List required artifact, human approval, CMS support, history, exports, retention and budget. Mark every untested requirement explicitly.

[Enter your response]

## 2 Price the correct offering

The brand Trial is a one-time ChatGPT sample. It cannot establish ongoing daily performance. Obtain the paid scope needed for a repeat observation.

**Brand trial or paid quote** — Record trial limits, expiry and what can be tested. For Enterprise, record daily prompts, engines, AI Marketer credits, Projects, exports, API and the written price.

[Enter your response]

**Agency workspace budget** — Separate the agency fee, seven-day pitch workspaces and active client workspaces. The reviewed public example is $99 + 3 × $399 = $1,296/month for three clients, before extras and labor; confirm contract terms.

[Enter your response]

**Credits and limits** — Record included monthly credits, cost of the proposed workflow, retries, exhausted-credit behavior and overage approval. A credit is not an article.

[Enter your response]

**Comparable total cost** — Include integrations, onboarding, seats, review and publishing labor, add-ons, tax and commitment. For RankEcho, full-page writing needs a paid base plan and content add-on.

[Enter your response]

## 3 Demonstrate approval and publication

Request a demonstration on the quoted plan and intended CMS. Record observations rather than treating a product page as a completed account test.

**Research to approved change** — Save sources, recommendation, brief or draft and revisions. Name the reviewer and show that an incorrect claim in an unpublished draft is blocked or corrected.

[Enter your response]

**CMS permissions and rollback** — Record the integration, destination, approver, publisher, audit trail and rollback. Confirm which actions run automatically and which require a person.

[Enter your response]

**Delivered artifact and cost** — Save the actual output, final diff, credit usage and shipment timestamp. For RankEcho, identify the human who will publish the package.

[Enter your response]

| Checkpoint | Evidence to retain |
| --- | --- |
| Approval | Reviewer, decision, timestamp and version |
| Shipment | Destination, diff, publisher and rollback |
| Later observation | Same prompts, configuration, answers and dates |

## 4 Judge evidence and choose

Compare the same observable workflow and the same period. Keep plan limitations visible in the decision.

**Repeat observation** — Record baseline and later answer text, citations, engines, settings, counts and unavailable results. A one-time trial does not supply a before-and-after tracking history.

[Enter your response]

**Interpretation and limits** — Describe movement, concurrent changes and competing explanations. Distinguish citations, visits and conversions; do not label correlation as causal proof.

[Enter your response]

**Decision and exit** — Record pass, fail or untested for each requirement, selected plan, quote, sign off and next review. Assign retained exports, open work, renewal dates and offboarding.

[Enter your response]

## Complete comparison guide

Profound offers brands a one-time free Trial and custom Enterprise tracking, with a separate agency offering. Its Agents support research, content production and approved CMS publishing. RankEcho starts at $49 monthly and prepares human-reviewed fixes for manual shipment, then records same-prompt observations. Compare the quoted plan, publishing controls and retained evidence; neither workflow establishes causal impact from a before-and-after change alone.

Original guide update: 2026-09-06. Companion and scoped source recheck: 17 September 2026. The evidence records below retain their individual dates. Confirm current plan, billing commitment and workload in a written quote.

Profound pricing rechecked 17 September 2026. Brands: free Trial with 10 ChatGPT prompts run once, limited AI Marketer credits and no history, exports or API; Enterprise has custom daily tracking and pricing. Agencies: Agency Growth is $99/month plus $399/month per active client workspace, with 10 seven-day pitch workspaces monthly. Confirm commitment, additional workspaces, credits and plan-specific publishing controls. Earlier source records retain their original dates.

[Profound pricing](https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing) · [Profound Agents](https://www.tryprofound.com/features/agents) · [Profound Aim](https://www.tryprofound.com/features/aim)

## What is the short verdict?

Choose Profound when CMS-connected content automation, prompt-volume intelligence, enterprise controls or project collaboration meets your requirements on the quoted plan. Choose RankEcho when a smaller team wants an explicit Find, Fix, Prove handoff: a prompt-level diagnosis, a human-reviewed implementation package and a same-prompt observation record with the uncertainty stated.

Neither product can guarantee that an engine will cite a page. Profound's own material describes citation feedback and project impact measurement; RankEcho labels its re-tests as observed movement, not proof that one change caused the result.


## How do the current plans compare?

Pricing rechecked 17 September 2026. The brand cards now show a free Trial and custom Enterprise, while Agency Growth starts at $99/month plus $399/month per active client workspace. Pitch workspaces are time-limited. RankEcho publishes monthly Solo, Growth and Agency prices and prepares artifacts for a customer to review and ship. Confirm billing commitments, credit use and the complete workload in a written quote.

| Decision point | Profound | RankEcho |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Published offer and billing basis | Brands: free Trial or custom Enterprise. Agencies: $99/month base plus $399/month per client workspace; Agency Enterprise is custom | Solo $49/mo; Growth $149/mo; Agency $399/mo |
| Tracked-engine scope | Brand Trial: ChatGPT once; Enterprise: custom daily panel, up to 9 engines. Agency Growth client workspaces: ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews daily | Free: Perplexity and Gemini; paid/trial: up to 5 configured engines |
| Prompts and execution allowance | Brand Trial: 10 unique prompts run once and limited AI Marketer credits. Brand Enterprise: custom. Agency Growth: 10 seven-day pitch workspaces/month; each paid client workspace has 100 prompts and 400 Agent credits/month | Plan prompt limits plus generated fix packages; no direct CMS publishing |
| Content execution | Agents research, draft, optimize, and publish approved content through CMS integrations | Produces grounded answer, schema where relevant, FAQ, crawler, brief, and source-plan artifacts for human shipment |
| Post-change evidence | Agents track citation uptake; Enterprise Aim records project activity and impact metrics | Re-tests the same prompt configuration and preserves baseline, shipped-fix record, and later observations; correlation, not causation |


## What does Profound do beyond monitoring?

Profound Agents use citation and prompt data to research opportunities, build briefs and drafts, optimize content, and publish approved work through CMS integrations. The product documentation says Agents track whether outputs earn citations and use those patterns in later work.

Profound's Aim documentation describes turning opportunities into Projects, preparing Agents and recording execution and impact metrics. The current brand pricing matrix describes Projects as shared team spaces: unavailable on Trial and included in Enterprise. The agency matrix is separate; confirm the required project workflow, permissions and reporting in the agency quote.


## Where does RankEcho differ?

RankEcho exposes a smaller, self-serve workflow. 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. It classifies observed gaps, prepares a reviewable implementation bundle, and re-runs the same prompt configuration after a human records shipment. It does not edit or publish a customer's site.

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.

The Proof Loop retains the baseline, engine configuration, shipment note, and later observations, then reports correlation with controls. That design is useful for client or stakeholder evidence, but it does not isolate every variable or turn a before/after change into causal proof.


## How should a team test both products?

Use the same five buyer-intent prompts and one real page. Record which engines each quoted plan includes, how many observations are collected, what fix artifact is produced, who must publish it and what dated evidence remains afterwards. A one-time brand Trial cannot establish an ongoing tracking history. Ask Profound to demonstrate Agents and any required Projects on the quoted plan; ask RankEcho to show the package and exact re-test record.

Also test the boundaries. A vendor page proves what is publicly documented, not what an account will do for your data, CMS, region, or prompt set. Confirm credits, overages, integrations, export access, trial terms, and current engine availability before buying.


## Is Profound only an AI visibility monitor?

No. Profound documents Agents that research, draft, optimize and publish approved content, then track whether it earns citations. Its brand Enterprise pricing includes Projects; verify the required workflow and credits on the quoted brand or agency plan.

## Can Profound publish content to a CMS?

Yes. Profound says Agents can publish approved content through CMS integrations with a human approval step. Confirm the exact integration and Agent-credit cost for your quoted plan.

## Which Profound plans include Projects?

The brand pricing matrix rechecked 17 September 2026 lists Projects as unavailable on Trial and included in Enterprise. Agency plans have a separate matrix; confirm the specific Projects workflow in the agency quote.

## Does RankEcho publish fixes to my site?

No. RankEcho prepares a reviewable implementation package for a human to edit and ship. That boundary is deliberate and should be included in any comparison with CMS-connected automation.

## How does RankEcho report impact?

It re-runs the same prompt configuration after a shipment record and compares later observations with the baseline. The result is correlation with controls, not causal proof or a citation guarantee.

## Preserved dated evidence

- [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

- [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)
- [AI visibility monitoring vs. optimization](https://rankecho.io/compare/ai-visibility-monitoring-vs-optimization)

## 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.