Key takeaways
- AthenaHQ lists a free tier and Starter at $295 a month. Profound lists a free 7-day trial and custom Enterprise pricing for brands.
- Profound removed its $99 and $399 brand plans in mid-September 2026. AthenaHQ’s own comparison page still quotes them.
- Profound says it captures answers daily from the front end. AthenaHQ’s collection method is not public.
- Both can check answers for wrong claims, but only from runs already collected.
How we checked this: Plans, prices, engines and features checked on AthenaHQ’s and Profound’s own pricing pages, docs and changelogs on October 11, 2026. Funding comes from press coverage. G2 blocks automated access, so ratings are attributed to where we saw them: AthenaHQ via G2’s AI page, Profound via its AWS Marketplace listing. Vendor claims are labelled as theirs. We did not test either product hands-on.
AnswerMentions sells its own AI visibility audit, which appears in some comparisons on this page. No vendor paid for placement or reviewed this article before publication.
AthenaHQ vs Profound: the verdict
Choose AthenaHQ if you want to buy on your own and start for free. Choose Profound if you are a large brand that buys through a demo and wants daily capture across up to nine engines. As of October 2026, AthenaHQ’s first paid plan is $295 a month. Profound’s brand price is not public.
AthenaHQ is the easier one to try. Its pricing page lists a free Essential tier and Starter at $295 a month. Profound’s pricing page offers brands a free 7-day trial and a custom Enterprise plan.
The funding gap shows who each tool is for. Profound raised a $180M Series D in September 2026 and says it serves over 1,000 enterprise brands. AthenaHQ, a Y Combinator W25 company, raised a $2.2M seed.
Our verdict: if you have a budget owner and a procurement process, shortlist both and get a written Profound quote. If not, start on AthenaHQ’s free tier. By our arithmetic, at one credit per response, its 300 credits cover one pass over about 60 prompts on five engines: a test, not monitoring.
Pricing and how you buy
AthenaHQ sells self-serve: a free Essential tier and Starter at $295 a month, billed monthly. Profound’s brand page shows only a free 7-day trial and custom Enterprise pricing, bought through a demo. As of October 2026, Profound’s $99 and $399 brand plans are gone, so older comparisons quote prices you cannot buy.
A September 1 archive of Profound’s pricing page still shows a $99 Starter and a $399 Growth plan. Both are missing from the live page, and competitor write-ups date the removal to mid-September. AthenaHQ’s comparison page, last checked September 9, still lists them.
AthenaHQ’s credits need a second look. The pricing page says one credit is one AI response. The comparison page says a response costs 1 or 5 credits depending on the model, without naming the models. Ask for a credit estimate before you commit.
| As of October 2026 | AthenaHQ | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Free entry | Essential: 300 credits, 5 engines | Trial: 7 days, 50 prompts, 3 engines |
| First paid plan | Starter: $295/month, 3,600 credits, 11 models | None public; Enterprise is a custom quote |
| Annual billing | 17% off | Not stated |
| Seats | Unlimited on every plan | Unlimited on Trial and Enterprise |
| Enterprise support | Dedicated Slack, 2-hour SLA | Email, Slack or a specialist with a 24-hour SLA |
Which has better citation tracking?
Profound has the deeper citation tooling on paper, but AthenaHQ covers the basics. Profound defines Citation Share and Citation Coverage separately and lets you open the raw runs behind a chart. AthenaHQ reports citations by domain and URL. Test both on your own prompts before you trust either.
Profound’s glossary separates Citation Share from Citation Coverage. Its September refresh added “View executions”, which shows the raw runs behind a data point. Ask about it: it lets you check a chart against the answers.
AthenaHQ’s sources guide breaks citations down by domain and URL with daily sparklines. Its citation-likelihood model, ACE, is Enterprise-only. AthenaHQ’s own study of 1,761 articles found the top decile cited 87.0% of the time and the bottom decile 38.6%, and it calls that a correlation, not proof.
Which is better for automated content workflows?
AthenaHQ is the more direct content tool at self-serve prices. Its Content Hub drafts articles and publishes to eight CMSs, and the base optimization agent sits on Starter. Profound’s AI Marketer, Agents and Sheets run on credits and target enterprise teams. If content volume is the real job, look at AirOps.
AthenaHQ’s Content Hub drafts articles and revises them with Athena AI. The advanced agent is Enterprise-only. Profound now leads with an AI Marketer, and agent runs consume credits. No price per credit is published.
AthenaHQ is a visibility tracker that adds content actions. AirOps is a content-operations platform with insights attached, built around bulk Grids and human review.
How reliable is each tool's data?
Treat both as directional: neither publishes an independent accuracy test that we found. Profound at least documents its method, capturing answers from the consumer front end once a day. AthenaHQ’s collection method is not public, and its schedules run weekly. Ask each vendor for a week of raw answers on your own prompts.
Profound says it queries the front end that normal users see rather than model APIs, and runs every tracked prompt daily on each platform. It publishes no sample counts or confidence figures, so the match with what customers see is its claim, not a test.
AthenaHQ’s prompt scheduling docs describe weekly runs with a repeat interval of one to four weeks. G2’s AI page shows AthenaHQ at 4.9 from 46 reviews, and Profound’s AWS Marketplace listing shows 4.5 from 1,124 G2 reviews. See AthenaHQ reviews for complaints.
Spotting misinformation about your brand
Both tools can flag wrong claims, but only from answers they have already collected. AthenaHQ’s Oracle compares answers with your Knowledge Base, on Enterprise only. Profound’s FactCheck feeds an Accuracy Score. We found no documented live false-claim alert at either vendor.
AthenaHQ’s Oracle surfaces confirmed inaccuracies, contradictions with your Knowledge Base and disagreements between models. Oracle, the Knowledge Base and claim review are Enterprise-only on the pricing page, which also lists real-time sentiment on Starter.
Profound’s glossary defines the Accuracy Score as accurate claims divided by verifiable claims. If you only need to know what AI says about you today, a free AI visibility audit that asks AI the questions your buyers ask and shows which brands get named instead of you is the lighter first step.
Who should choose which
Choose Profound if you are a large brand with an analyst, a procurement process and a need for daily capture. Choose AthenaHQ if you want a public price, a free start and content actions in one tool. Skip both if you only need a one-time answer about how AI treats your brand.
Skip Profound if you need a public price before a sales call. Skip AthenaHQ if you need daily runs or a documented capture method. For more options, see our AthenaHQ competitors guide, or Profound vs Peec AI.
Read the Profound review and the pricing pages for AthenaHQ and Profound before any call. If AI keeps citing a source you cannot find, our missing source map shows how to trace it.
- Pick AthenaHQ for a free start, unlimited seats and content actions at $295 a month.
- Pick Profound for up to nine engines, all-time history, API and SSO, if you can run a sales cycle.
- Skip both if you want a one-time report with a prioritized fix plan rather than a platform subscription.
Reader questions
Frequently asked questions
Is AthenaHQ cheaper than Profound?
At the entry point, yes. As of October 2026 AthenaHQ lists a free Essential tier and Starter at $295 a month, while Profound shows brands only a free 7-day trial and custom Enterprise pricing. Its $99 and $399 brand plans were removed in mid-September 2026. Without a Profound quote, a like-for-like total cost is not public.
Which is better for enterprise AEO?
Profound is built for it. Its pricing page lists custom Enterprise packages with up to nine engines tracked daily, all-time history, API access, SSO and SOC 2. AthenaHQ also sells Enterprise, with a 2-hour SLA and SAML SSO, but aims Starter at small businesses. Ask both for a written quote and a week of raw answers.
Does Profound or AthenaHQ offer a free plan or trial?
AthenaHQ has a free Essential tier with 300 credits and five engines, and it advertises no time-limited trial. Profound offers brands a free 7-day trial: 50 prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with no exports or API. Both are enough to test, not to monitor.
Which tracks more AI engines?
On paper, AthenaHQ. Starter lists 11 models plus more on request, and the free tier lists five. Profound Enterprise lists up to nine engines, and its trial three. Profound’s own pages disagree on whether Grok and Meta AI are included, so get the engine list in writing before you sign.