HANDS-ON · JULY 2026 · SCREENSHOTS BEHIND EVERY NUMBER
GEO tool comparison: what the trials actually show
We signed up for four AI-visibility tools on the same day, walked every onboarding with a real brand, and logged every screen. This table only contains what we saw — "—" means the tool never showed it, not that we didn't look.
Disclosure: we build GEO tools ourselves (the free checker and
Monitor). Our row sits in the same table under the same columns —
judge it with the same skepticism. None of the links below are affiliate links today; if
that ever changes, it will say so here.
| Tool | Entry price | Tracked prompts | AI engines | Trial | Exports | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LLMrefsllmrefs.comUnlimited domains & seats | €79/mo (one plan) | 500▲ best | 5 named + more (8 icons) | 7 days, free preview scan before paywall▲ best | CSV + API | Full review → |
| Otterly.AIotterly.aiBest client-facing exports | not shown in-app | 15 on trial | 6 (incl. AI Mode & Gemini)▲ best | 7 days, report in ~8 min | White-label PDF (A4 + 16:9), API keys▲ best | Full review → |
| Profoundtryprofound.comNo free tier | $99/mo Starter · $399/mo Growth | 50 / 100 | 1 (ChatGPT) / 3 | None on Starter; 7 days on Growth | — (paywall before dashboard) | Full review → |
| Scrunch AIscrunchai.comRetest planned | — | — | — | Onboarding blocked our test brand | — | Full review → |
| GEO Playbooks Monitorgeoplaybooks.comThat's us — see disclosure | $20/mo Lite · $149/3mo full▲ best | SOV sampling on full plan | Perplexity, GPT-4o, Gemini | Free 5-signal checker, no signup | PDF (print), Markdown, AI fix-it prompt | Product page → |
EUR converted only for bar length (≈$1.09/€); labels keep the original currency.
* Monitor Lite tracks no prompts by design — it re-checks the 5 site signals monthly; prompt sampling is the full plan's job.
What the same-day tests taught us
- Nobody tracks Claude. Across all engine lists we saw — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot — Claude never appears.
- Price per tracked prompt spreads more than tenfold: from roughly €0.16 (LLMrefs, 500 prompts at €79) to about $1.98 (Profound Starter, 50 prompts at $99, one engine).
- Only one vendor shows you data before asking for money. LLMrefs runs a live sample scan pre-paywall; Profound shows nothing before payment; Otterly needs a trial signup; Scrunch blocked us entirely.
- Weekly vs daily matters. LLMrefs refreshes weekly; Profound claims daily runs. If you ship fixes often, cadence is a real feature.
Start with the part that's free
Before paying anyone — us included — check whether AI engines can read your site at all.
Run the free 5-signal check →