The Profound alternative that also does traditional SEO.
Profound is one of the strongest AI-visibility trackers on the market — but it stops at AI. Outerank does the same GEO citation tracking (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews) for one-sixth the price and includes the full SEO stack: audits, keyword research, rank tracking, backlink tools and AI-written fixes.
Outerank
$89/mo (Pro)
Profound
$499/mo (Growth)
Save ~$410/mo — Profound is AI-search only; Outerank Pro also includes audits, keyword research, rank tracking and backlinks.
TL;DR
- Pro $89 vs Profound Growth $499 — 82% cheaper.
- Same AI-search coverage (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, Copilot).
- You also get audits, keyword research, rank tracking, backlinks — Profound has none of these.
- Honest: Profound has deeper enterprise-scale AI analytics if you need per-prompt drill-downs.
Why teams switch from Profound
You get AI-search AND traditional SEO
Profound only tracks AI mentions. To also do keyword research, audits, rank tracking or backlinks, you'll need Ahrefs or Semrush on top — pushing your monthly stack past $600. Outerank at $89 replaces both.
Cheaper for the same GEO job
Both track brand citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Copilot. Both give you sentiment, sources, and gap analysis. The pricing gap ($499 vs $89) buys you six months of Outerank Pro for one month of Profound.
AI-written fixes, not just tracking
Outerank flags where you're missing from AI answers AND writes the exact content updates to fix it (Expert tier). Profound tells you what's happening; Outerank tells you what to do next.
Outerank vs Profound — feature by feature
Honest read: where we win, where they still win, where it's a tie.
| Feature | Outerank | Profound | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $89 (Pro) | $499 (Growth) | Us |
| ChatGPT / Perplexity / Gemini / AIO citation tracking | Yes — included | Yes | Tie |
| Sentiment + source analysis | Yes | Yes | Tie |
| Traditional SEO site audit | Yes — 100+ checks | No | Us |
| Keyword research (real Google volume/KD) | 7B+ keyword index | No | Us |
| Rank tracking + GSC overlay | Yes | No | Us |
| Backlink tools (index + monitor + discover) | 2T+ link index | No | Us |
| AI-written fixes per issue | Yes (Expert) | Recommendations only | Us |
| Enterprise per-prompt drill-down | Basic | Best in class | Them |
| White-label client reports | Yes (Studio/Agency) | No | Us |
Where Profound still beats us today
Profound is built for enterprise brand teams that need per-prompt drill-downs across thousands of queries. If your job is answering "how many times did GPT-4 mention us vs Nike last Tuesday between 3-4pm CET" — Profound has the deeper telemetry. For everyone else, Outerank's coverage is functionally identical and comes with the rest of the SEO stack.
Pick Outerank if you want AI-search tracking AND full SEO in one $89/mo tool instead of paying $499 for Profound + $129 for Ahrefs = $628/mo.
Running an agency? See how our white-label SEO reports deliver monthly client reports at scale — 50 projects, full white-label, from $199/mo.
Common questions
Does Outerank track the same AI engines as Profound?
Yes: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. Both platforms cover the top 5 engines that matter today.
What's Profound's real strength?
Depth of enterprise reporting. Per-prompt drill-downs at scale, custom BI-style dashboards, and prompt-level share-of-voice for large brands. Real strength if you have a 10-person AI/SEO team; overkill for solo founders and agencies.
Can I run Outerank alongside Profound?
Yes — Outerank's API and GSC integration play nicely with any external analytics. But most customers replace both an SEO tool AND an AI-search tool with Outerank alone.
Is Outerank's AI-search data as reliable as Profound's?
Same underlying method (prompt panels, real API calls to each engine). Profound runs more prompts per project by default; Outerank lets you scale prompts via credits if you need enterprise volume.
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Free forever plan · 7-day trial on paid plans · cancel anytime. Switch from Profound in one weekend.