The difference between an entry-level AI visibility tool and an enterprise one is not the logo or the price tag. It comes down to six things: whether it covers all six AI platforms people actually use, whether it queries them in grounded mode rather than reading the model's memorised training data, whether it repeats the same questions over time rather than taking one snapshot, whether it reports each platform separately, whether it tracks the citations behind an answer and not just the brand mentions, and whether anyone interprets the result for you. Miss any one of those and the number on the dashboard is not telling you what you think it is telling you.
This is a buyer's guide, not a ranking. Ask the questions below of any vendor, ourselves included, before you sign anything.
What to ask a vendor, and why it matters
| Criterion | What to ask a vendor | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage of all six platforms | Which platforms does it check: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, or a subset of those? | In SearchIntel's study of 100 UK buying questions across 10 industries, only 5.3% of recommended brands were named by all six platforms, and the average recommended brand appeared on just 2.26 of the six. A tool checking two or three platforms is reading a different, incomplete picture. |
| Grounded mode | Does it query each platform in grounded, live web-search mode, or does it read the model's static training data? | A model answering from memory cannot cite what it is reading right now. The same study's citation analysis, 6,119 citations behind those 100 questions, only exists because the platforms were queried in grounded mode. A non-grounded check reflects training data, not what a customer sees today. |
| Repeat runs over time | Does it re-run the same questions on a schedule and track how the answer changes, or is it a single check? | Even the two most aligned platforms in the study, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, agreed on only 43.7% of the brands named for the same questions; the two flagship chatbots, ChatGPT and Claude, agreed on just 22.2%. A single run on a single day is a thin read of a signal that moves this much even between platforms that share an index. |
| Per-platform reporting | Does it report each platform's results separately, or blend them into one overall score? | Mean brand agreement across all platform pairs in the study was 31.9%. A blended score averages away real differences and hides which specific platform you are winning or losing on. |
| Citation tracking | Does it show which sources the AI is citing behind an answer, or only whether your brand was mentioned? | The study's 6,119 citations are what make it possible to see why an answer looks the way it does. A tool that counts mentions but not sources can tell you a number changed; it cannot tell you what to do about it. |
| Interpretation | Does someone explain what the results mean and what to change, or do you get a login and a chart? | The figures above describe a pattern, not a fix. Deciding what to change once you know only 5.3% of brands are named everywhere is a judgement call, not a dashboard feature. |
Figures from SearchIntel Research, Study 01: 100 UK buying questions across 10 industries, six AI platforms, June 2026.
Who's selling AI visibility tools
A handful of vendors compete in this category, including Profound, Peec AI, Otterly.ai and AthenaHQ, spanning small-business tools up to enterprise platforms. Pricing, plan tiers and exact platform coverage change often and vary by contract, so treat any comparison table, including ones on other sites, as a starting point rather than a current price list. Check the specifics directly with each vendor using the criteria above: which platforms, grounded or not, one-off or repeated, per-platform or blended, citations or mentions only, and who interprets the result.
Does it check Perplexity and Google AI Mode?
Perplexity and Google AI Mode are two of the platforms buyers ask about most, and it is worth checking whether a tool covers them at all, since some entry-level tools stop at ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. SearchIntel's scanner covers six platforms, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. The free check covers five of those, the four large language models plus Google AI Mode; it does not include Google AI Overviews.
Where a tool ends and a service begins
Every vendor above, and every criterion in the table, describes a dashboard. It shows you where you stand across the platforms it covers. None of it does the harder part that follows: deciding what to change, writing the content an AI will actually cite, building the third-party citations that move the needle, and reporting the result to a board. That is where a tool ends and a service begins.
SearchIntel sits deliberately on the other side of that line: a free AI brand check to start, then, where it makes sense, the strategy and execution run as a service rather than a login. For the platforms it covers and how the measurement works, see AI visibility monitoring. For the wider picture, see what AI search visibility means and our AI citation strategy.
Which AI visibility tool is best for a small business?
For a small business the answer is usually to measure before you buy. Run a free check on the five surfaces it covers, look at which platforms name you and which do not, and only then decide whether a monthly dashboard or a one-off review fits the size of the gap. A subscription that covers two platforms once a month tells a small brand less than a single well-run reading across all six, so the criteria in the table above apply at any size; the difference is how often you need them re-run.
How to choose
- You need coverage across all six platforms, repeated over time, reported per platform: use the criteria table above with any enterprise-tier vendor, ours included.
- You are checking whether there is a problem worth tracking at all: start with a single check rather than a subscription.
- You want the data plus someone to interpret it and act on it: that is a service, not a tool. See AI visibility monitoring or start with a free check.