Searchly vs Profound
Searchly's $99 Starter plan tracks Perplexity alongside ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews and includes the REST API, MCP server and CSV exports. Profound's free 7-day trial leaves out Perplexity, exports and the API, and brands then need a custom Enterprise contract with no public price.
Compared from Profound's own pricing and documentation, checked Oct 21, 2026. How we compare
Our verdict
Our pick: Searchly
Searchly is the better choice for most teams. Its $99 Starter plan includes the REST API, MCP server, AI shopping and CSV exports, which brands on Profound get only on a custom Enterprise contract with no public price. Starter also includes the Agent and, once you connect your sources, shows AI crawler logs, GA4 AI visits and Search Console clicks beside the answers for each page.
| Searchly | Profound | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $99 a month (Starter) | Free 7-day trial, then a custom contract |
| 50 prompts, 3 engines, daily | $99 a month | Quote required |
| Engines on the entry plan | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity | Up to 9 on Enterprise; 3 on the trial |
| Site data on the entry plan | AI crawler logs once you connect a source, GA4 AI visits and Search Console | Enterprise: crawler logs (also in the trial) and Google or Adobe Analytics; Search Console not documented |
| Free trial | 14 days on Pro | 7 days, free |
strengths
Where Searchly comes out ahead.
From each company's own pricing pages and documentation, checked Oct 21, 2026. Each point links to its source.
Where Searchly is stronger
- Published prices: Starter $99, Pro $239 and Business $499 a month, with a 14-day Pro trial. Brands on Profound get a free 7-day trial with no exports, API or all-time history, then an Enterprise quote. Source
- The Agent and Opportunities on every plan: ask the Agent about your AI visibility in plain language and it reads your Searchly data, opens the right page and proposes new prompts or competitors you confirm, while Opportunities ranks your next steps from the evidence. Brands on Profound get its AI Marketer on Enterprise, and the 7-day trial comes with limited credits for it. Source
- The REST API and MCP server on every plan, Starter included. Profound's docs mark both "Available on: the Enterprise plan". Source
- AI crawler logs, GA4 AI visits and Search Console clicks beside the answers for each page, on the $99 Starter plan once you connect your sources. Profound runs Agent Analytics in its 7-day trial and then on Enterprise, and its public docs do not document Search Console. Source
- AI shopping on every plan, Starter included: the products ChatGPT shows for your prompts, whose they are and where they rank, with each one's price, rating and retailer. Profound keeps Shopping Analysis for Enterprise. Source
Where Profound focuses
capabilities
Feature by feature, with sources.
The same capabilities, in the same words, for both tools. A tag beside the status names the plan or the limit, and each note links to the page it came from. Not documented means we could not find it in Profound's public pages.
| Capability |  Searchly |  ProfoundFree trial, then sales |
|---|---|---|
| TrackingWhat is tracked, how often and for how many brands. | ||
| AI enginesIncluded means five or more named engines on a published plan, counting paid add-ons. | Included3 included, 2 add-ons ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity on every plan; Gemini and Claude as paid add-ons (Starter +$50 and +$100 a month, Pro +$150 and +$300, Business +$250 and +$500, Custom included); Copilot, DeepSeek, Google AI Mode and Grok coming soon. Source | Sales plan onlyUp to 9 engines Up to 9 on Enterprise: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search; the free trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Source |
| Tracking cadenceIncluded means a daily run is available on a published plan. | Included Each tracked prompt runs once a day on every engine in the plan. Source | Sales plan onlyDaily Daily on Enterprise and during the free trial. Source |
| Prompt suggestions and researchSuggested prompts or a prompt database; the note says whether volume data is shown. | IncludedNo volume data Buyer prompts suggested from your site and topics, tracked only after you accept them, or typed, pasted or uploaded as CSV and tracked at once; no search volume or difficulty. Source | Sales plan onlyConversation panel Prompt Volumes from a panel of real conversations: custom on Enterprise, 5 searches on the free trial. Source |
| Competitor benchmarkingCompetitors measured on the same answers. | Included Benchmark the competitors you choose on visibility, share of voice, position and citations. Source | Sales plan only Brand and competitor visibility in Answer Engine Insights. Source |
| Several projects or brandsTwo or more projects, brands or workspaces on one published plan. | Included2 on Pro, 3 on Business 1 project on Starter, up to 2 on Pro and up to 3 on Business, sharing one prompt budget; more on Custom. Source | Sales plan only Projects and unlimited Agent Analytics domains; agencies buy client workspaces at $399 a month each. Source |
| Answer evidenceWhat you can open and take away from each answer. | ||
| Full answer textThe full answer behind each result, exportable or available through an API. | IncludedAPI fallbacks labelled Open the answer behind every score with its date and citations; API fallback answers are labelled and kept out of headline metrics, and Claude is collected through Anthropic's API; answers export as CSV. Source | Sales plan only Answers through Answer Engine Insights and the Enterprise API; all-time history and CSV or JSON exports on Enterprise only. Source |
| Citations and sourcesCited pages and domains for each answer, with source analysis. | Included Cited domains and pages per answer, the sources that cite competitors but not you and content types including Reddit threads and YouTube videos. Source | Sales plan onlyAlso in free trial Citations, FactCheck and query fan-outs in Answer Engine Insights (all plans, including the free trial). Source |
| SentimentHow answers describe the brand, per answer or per brand. | Included How AI answers describe you, positive, neutral or negative, and why. Source | Sales plan onlyAlso in free trial Sentiment in Answer Engine Insights (all plans, including the free trial). Source |
| Data exportsCSV or spreadsheet exports of answers, prompts or citations. | IncludedCSV CSV exports of answers, prompts, page evidence and crawler logs on every plan; articles export as Markdown, HTML or text on Pro and up. Source | Sales plan onlyCSV, JSON CSV and JSON exports on Enterprise (and agency client workspaces); none on the trial. Source |
| Site evidenceWhat your own site data adds. | ||
| AI crawler logsAI crawler requests read from server, CDN or edge logs. | Included Requests from AI crawlers, verified or declared, after you connect Cloudflare (Logpush or Worker), Vercel, Next.js, Netlify, WordPress or the HTTP API; 90-day retention; CSV export. Source | Sales plan onlyCDN and server logs Agent Analytics on Enterprise and the free trial (unlimited domains) from Cloudflare, Vercel, CloudFront, Fastly, Netlify, Akamai, WordPress, Shopify and S3. Source |
| AI referral visitsHuman visits from AI assistants, from GA4 or the vendor's own script. | IncludedVia GA4 Visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and other AI assistants, read from Google Analytics 4 through a read-only connection, with no extra script. Source | Sales plan onlyGoogle and Adobe Analytics Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics extensions to Agent Analytics; Profound Pixel for conversions is in beta. Source |
| Google Search ConsoleSearch Console data inside the product. | Included Search Console clicks, impressions, CTR and position by query, page, country and device beside the AI evidence for each page; no indexing data. Source | Not documented Search Console is not documented in the pages read. Source |
| Site auditIncluded means a multi-page technical or AI-readiness audit. | LimitedHomepage only Site Health checks your homepage and selected root files, including AI crawler access in robots.txt, llms.txt and structured data, with a fix for each; not a whole-site crawl. Source | Sales plan onlyPage Health Pages (all plans, including the trial): per-page content score, Page Health from Lighthouse and the bot versus human view. Source |
| Taking actionWhat happens after a finding. | ||
| Recommendations or action queueA ranked list of next steps or tasks. | Included Opportunities: a ranked list of next steps tied to the evidence, from setup and on-page fixes to sites worth pitching; outreach is drafted, nothing is sent. Source | Sales plan onlyAI Marketer AI Marketer Suggestions (limited on the trial); agency client workspaces get 4 opportunities a week. Source |
| Content generationIncluded means article generation that is generally available. | IncludedPro and up Content Studio on Pro, Business and the Pro trial: full articles or writer briefs in 8 formats from verified sources, readiness checks and accept or reject revisions; English only, hourly generation caps, no monthly article quota. Source | Sales plan onlyAgents, credits Agents and Workflows with brief, title and article generation steps, funded by AI Marketer credits (limited on the trial). Source |
| CMS publishingIncluded means content sent to two or more CMSs, as drafts or live. | LimitedWebflow drafts, Pro and up Approved articles go to your Webflow CMS as drafts on Pro and up; WordPress, Framer and Shopify publishing are not built. Source | Sales plan only6 CMS connectors Workflow connectors for Adobe Experience Manager, Contentful, Drupal, Framer, Sanity and WordPress, plus Dynamic Bot Rendering at the CDN; plan gate not stated. Source |
| AI agent or assistantAn in-app agent that works on the product's own data. | Included Agent on every paid plan and the Pro trial: ask about your AI visibility in plain language; it reads your Searchly data, opens the right page and proposes changes such as new prompts or competitors that you confirm; it does not write or publish articles. Source | Sales plan onlyAI Marketer AI Marketer with Suggestions, Agents and Profound Sheets; credits for the team on Enterprise, limited on the trial. Source |
| Access and teamsHow data leaves the tool and who can sign in. | ||
| REST APIA documented API for the visibility data. | Included REST API with an OpenAPI spec and scoped, expiring keys on every plan; operations that generate content need an active subscription or the Pro trial. Source | Sales plan only REST API with Python and JavaScript SDKs, 'Available on: the Enterprise plan'; not on the trial or Agency Growth. Source |
| MCP serverA documented MCP server for the visibility data. | Included MCP server on every plan for AI tools that support Streamable HTTP and a custom Authorization header (bearer key, no OAuth). Source | Sales plan only Hosted MCP server, 'Available on: the Enterprise plan'. Source |
| Agency plans and client reportingAn agency plan, client workspaces or branded or shareable client reports. | Not offered No agency plan, white label, scheduled or PDF reports or share links; client data leaves as CSV or through the API. Source | IncludedAgencies from $99 Agency Growth at $99 a month with pitch workspaces, client workspaces at $399 each and consolidated billing; white label not documented. Source |
| SSO (SAML or OIDC)Company identity-provider sign-in; Google sign-in does not count. | Not offered No SSO, SAML, SCIM or audit log; customers sign in with email and password or Google. Source | Sales plan onlySAML or OIDC SSO over SAML or OIDC, SCIM, custom roles and Activity Logs on Enterprise; SOC 2. Source |
| Shopping and adsProducts and ads inside AI answers. | ||
| AI shopping visibilityIncluded means the products AI answers show are captured and tracked; the tag names the engines. | IncludedChatGPT AI shopping on every plan: the products ChatGPT shows for your prompts, whose they are, their price, rating and retailer and where they rank. Source | Sales plan onlyChatGPT shopping Shopping Analysis on Enterprise, focused on ChatGPT Shopping; Perplexity and Gemini coverage described as evolving. Source |
| AI ads trackingIncluded means ads inside AI answers captured on two or more surfaces. | Not offered AI ads tracking is not built. Source | Sales plan onlyOwn ad results only Ad Manager and Pixel (beta) attribute your own OpenAI ad conversions; tracking other advertisers' ads is not documented. Source |
| BuyingPublic prices and free trials. | ||
| Published priceA public price for a paid plan that tracks AI answers, listed on the vendor's pricing page. | Included Starter $99, Pro $239 and Business $499 a month; yearly billing is 10 times monthly; Custom is quoted. Source | LimitedAgencies only Brands: free 7-day trial, then a custom Enterprise contract; agencies: Agency Growth $99 a month plus $399 per client workspace. Source |
| Free trial or free tierA documented free trial or free tier that includes AI-answer tracking. | IncludedOn Pro, 14 days 14-day trial on Pro ('Start for free'); Starter and Business have no trial; the free AI visibility report is a one-off sample, not a trial. Source | Included7 days Free 7-day trial: 50 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Source |
pricing
The same workload, priced on both.
One brand, 50 buyer prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, checked once a day in one country: a common base for AI visibility tracking. Every Searchly plan includes all three engines; where Profound counts or includes engines differently, the note says so.
| Item | Searchly | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Covers the workload | Covers it | Quote required |
| Plan | Starter | Enterprise (custom contract) |
| Monthly price | $99 | Quote |
| Billed yearly | $990 a year ($82.50 a month) | Quote |
| The three engines | All three included | Up to 9 on Enterprise; the free trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, not Perplexity |
| Extra cost | None | Not published |
| Free trial | None on Starter; a 14-day trial of Pro ($239 a month after) | Free 7-day trial: 50 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with no all-time history, exports or API |
| What the plan counts | 50 prompts on 3 engines once a day: up to 4,500 runs in 30 days, the whole Starter allowance | Not published |
Agencies can buy Agency Growth at $99 a month plus $399 for each client workspace (100 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews daily).
Prices before tax, in each company's own currency, as published on Oct 21, 2026. est. marks our arithmetic from published units. Units differ: Searchly counts runs, up to 4,500 in 30 days on 50 prompts.
Sources: Searchly: Searchly pricing; Profound: Profound pricing (brand and agency views)
fit
Which one to choose.
Choose Searchly if…
you want AI shopping, AI crawler logs, Search Console, the REST API, MCP server and the Agent on one published plan from $99 a month.
Profound may suit you if…
your security review requires SSO over SAML or OIDC and SCIM, and you are ready to negotiate an Enterprise contract to get them.
switching
Moving from Profound, or running both.
- Your prompts.Profound includes CSV and JSON exports on Enterprise; its trial has none, so keep your prompt list in a spreadsheet. Source In Searchly, paste or upload your prompts as CSV. Prompts you add are tracked at once; the ones Searchly suggests wait until you accept them.
- Competitors.Add the competitors you follow in Profound. Searchly benchmarks the ones you choose.
- History.Past results stay in Profound. Scores are not comparable between tools, because engines, collection methods and formulas differ, so compare trends from the same start date.
- Site data.Connect Google Analytics 4 and Search Console read-only, and send AI crawler logs from Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, WordPress, Next.js or the HTTP API by following a setup guide. Searchly installs nothing on your site.
- Run both.Track the same prompts in both tools during the 14-day Pro trial before you decide.
evaluation
Put both tools to the test.
Use your own brand, the same buyer prompts and the same dates in both tools. Ask the other vendor these three questions.
- What will the Enterprise contract cost for my prompts, markets and engines, and is that price published anywhere?
- Which plan includes the REST API, MCP server, CSV exports and Shopping Analysis, and does the trial include any of them?
- Can you show Search Console clicks, AI crawler logs and Google Analytics visits for the same page, and which of them need Enterprise?
sources
Sources and scope.
How we compare. We read each company's own pricing page, documentation and changelog, noting the day we checked each one. A capability we could not find is marked Not documented; Not offered means the company's own pages say it is not part of the product. Both columns follow the same rules. We do not compare visibility scores between tools: engines, collection methods and formulas differ.
Profound sources
- Profound pricing (brand and agency views)
- Docs index
- Platform guides index (CMS connectors)
- Answer Engine Insights
- Pages
- REST API
- MCP
- Shopping Analysis
- Activity Logs
- Agent Analytics
- Agent Analytics Google Analytics extension
- Profound Pixel (beta)
Searchly sources
Spotted an out-of-date detail about Profound? Email piotr@trysearchly.com and we will check it against Profound's pages.
The positioning map and its methodChanges
- Rewritten with a feature table, pricing for the same workload and dated sources.
related
Also on your shortlist?
get started
Make the comparison with your own brand.
Start a 14-day free trial of Pro. Track your own buyer prompts, open the answers and sources behind them and decide with evidence.