Two well-known AI-visibility platforms, compared on the facts each publishes: pricing, engines tracked, and features. An even-handed look at which fits — and where a done-for-you agency belongs in the picture instead.
Profound is enterprise-oriented — it tracks ten-plus AI engines but is sold through a demo with no public self-serve price. AthenaHQ is more accessible — a free Essential tier and a $295/month Starter plan tracking up to nine models, with transparent pricing. Pick Profound for large, procurement-gated teams; pick AthenaHQ to start self-serve. Both measure visibility; neither does the work to change it.
Profound and AthenaHQ solve the same problem — showing you how your brand appears inside AI answers — but they aim at different buyers. Below, every figure comes from each tool's own pricing page or a review that documents it, retrieved this session. Where a claim could not be verified, it is left out and noted at the end. This is a comparison of measurement platforms; the final section is honest about what neither one does.
The clearest difference is transparency itself.
| Plan | Profound | AthenaHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Free / entry | No public free tier; page is demo-led [1] [2] | Essential: free, $25 credit [4] |
| Entry paid | ~$99 Starter (third-party signal) [2] | Starter: $295/mo [4] |
| Mid tier | ~$399 Growth (third-party signal) [2] | Folded into Starter / Enterprise [4] |
| Enterprise | Custom quote via sales [2] | Custom pricing [4] |
Profound does not publish official pricing — its page routes to a demo, and the $99 and $399 numbers are historical or third-party signals rather than a guaranteed live checkout price [2]. AthenaHQ, by contrast, lists its tiers openly: a free Essential plan seeded with a $25 credit, a $295/month Starter, and custom Enterprise pricing [4].
| Capability | Profound | AthenaHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Engines tracked | 10+ on enterprise: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek, AI Overviews [3] | 5 on Essential (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude); up to 9 models on Starter (adds AI Mode, Copilot, Grok) [4] |
| Signature data | Prompt Volumes — panel data from opted-in consumers [3] | Prompt/response analysis + competitor insights [4] |
| Other features | Agent Analytics, Citation Tracking, Shopping Visibility [3] | API access, Shopify/Webflow integrations, CSV export, content optimization agent [4] |
| Enterprise extras | Sales-led onboarding; no public free trial [3] | ACE citation engine, SAML/OIDC SSO, audit logs, 2-hour SLA [4] |
| Best fit | Fortune 500 / procurement-gated teams [3] | Teams wanting self-serve, transparent pricing [4] |
Profound leans widest on engine coverage and offers a data set most tools do not — Prompt Volumes, panel data from opted-in consumers revealing real query patterns — alongside Agent Analytics, Citation Tracking, and Shopping Visibility [3]. It is built for enterprise-scale teams with analytics staff and a sales-led buying motion, not for a startup wanting to swipe a card today [3]. AthenaHQ trades some engine breadth for accessibility and workflow features — API access, Shopify and Webflow integrations, CSV export, and a content optimization agent on Starter, with SSO, audit logs, and a 2-hour SLA reserved for Enterprise [4].
If you are a large organization that needs the widest engine coverage, panel-level query data, and enterprise governance — and you have the budget and procurement patience — Profound is built for you. If you want to start today, see transparent pricing, or try before you commit, AthenaHQ's free Essential tier and $295 Starter make it the easier on-ramp. Neither is "better" in the abstract; they are aimed at different buyers, and the right pick follows your scale and how you buy software.
Here is the honest limit both share: they measure your AI visibility; they do not change it. A dashboard showing you are absent from ChatGPT answers does not write the content, earn the third-party citations, or fix the technical layer that would get you cited. That execution is a separate job. If you have in-house writers and SEO capacity, a tool plus your team can close the gap. If you would rather it be done for you, that is what a GEO agency is for.
Acromatico is not a tool and does not compete with Profound or AthenaHQ on features — we are a done-for-you GEO/AI-SEO agency, a service that does the execution these platforms measure. We work under a flat per-brand retainer from around $1,500/mo/brand, the published market floor [5]. To measure first at no cost, use our free AI Visibility tool or run a live AI Visibility Audit. For the tool-vs-agency trade-off in general, see our guide on GEO tools vs a GEO agency.
Profound is an enterprise-oriented AI-visibility platform sold through a demo with no public self-serve price, tracking ten-plus engines. AthenaHQ publishes transparent pricing, including a free Essential tier and a $295/month Starter plan tracking up to nine models. Profound targets large teams; AthenaHQ is easier to try self-serve.
Profound does not publish official pricing; its page is demo-led, and third-party signals cite roughly $99 Starter and $399 Growth with custom enterprise quotes. AthenaHQ publishes a free Essential tier with a $25 credit, a $295/month Starter plan, and custom Enterprise pricing.
Profound advertises ten-plus engines on enterprise plans, including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek, and AI Overviews. AthenaHQ tracks five engines on its free tier and up to nine models on its Starter plan.
Both tools measure your AI visibility; neither does the content, citation, and technical work that changes it. If you have in-house capacity, a tool may be enough. If you need it done for you, that is what a GEO agency like Acromatico provides — we are a service, not a tool.
Omitted for lack of a verifiable source: Profound's exact live self-serve prices and any specific Profound enterprise dollar figure (its page is demo-led); AthenaHQ's exact Enterprise dollar figure (listed only as custom). Figures reflect each tool's stated pricing at the time of compilation.
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