Profound vs Otterly.AI
Ranjeeth Kumar
Published on · Last updated on
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The short answer
In this Profound vs Otterly AI comparison, Profound is the enterprise-first, agentic AEO platform with a free trial and demo-gated Enterprise pricing; Otterly.AI is the self-serve monitor from $29/month. Pick Profound for enterprise data and agents; pick Otterly.AI for transparent pricing and fast setup. Both track brand visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Otterly.AI covers four engines from its $29/mo plan; Profound’s Enterprise tier covers up to nine.
If you need to track up to nine AI engines (including DeepSeek, Claude, and Exa Search), want an autonomous agent layer (Agents plus the credit-based AI Marketer) on top of monitoring, real user prompt data (vendor-reported), and published enterprise compliance (SSO/SAML and SOC 2) for a regulated buyer, Profound fits, via a free Trial up to custom-priced, demo-gated Enterprise.
If your budget is tight, you want broad core-engine coverage on the cheapest plan (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot all included at $29/mo Lite), unlimited team members, a free trial, and a Query Fan Out Tool, and you’d rather have built-in GEO/content audits plus Agent Analytics than an autonomous agent layer you may not use, Otterly.AI is the better fit at $29/mo up to $489/mo Premium.
At a glance
| Profound | Otterly.AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2024 (James Cadwallader CEO, Dylan Babbs CTO) | 2024 (Thomas Peham, Josef Trauner, Klaus-M. Schremser) |
| Category | AEO platform with agentic workflow layer | AI search monitoring plus GEO/content audits |
| Starting price | Free Trial, then custom Enterprise | $29/mo (Lite, 4 core engines) |
| Engine ceiling | Up to 9 engines (Enterprise), incl. DeepSeek, Claude, Exa Search | Up to 7 with paid add-ons; no DeepSeek |
| Public rating | G2 4.5/5 (1,136 reviews) | G2 4.7/5 (54 reviews) |
| Funding | $335M+ total; $180M Series D at $1.8B valuation (Sep 2026) | No funding rounds publicly disclosed |
| Free trial | Yes (free Trial: 50 prompts, 7 days, 3 engines) | Yes (free trial on signup) |
| Agency plans | Agency Growth (10 pitch workspaces/mo; client workspaces $399/mo add-on) | Agency Partners (150 prompts Standard, 500 Premium, unlimited workspaces) |
| Best for | Enterprise teams needing breadth, agents, and compliance | Self-serve, budget-conscious SMBs and agencies needing broad entry-tier coverage |
Vendor profile
Profound
Profound is an enterprise-first AI search and agentic marketing platform that tracks how brands appear in AI answers and runs AI Marketer agents on top of that data. It was founded in 2024 by James Cadwallader (CEO) and Dylan Babbs (CTO) and is headquartered in New York, NY. Press reports put total funding above $335M, after a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation co-led by Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins (announced 15 September 2026), on top of earlier seed, Series A, Series B, and a $96M Series C at a $1B valuation (Feb 2026). Headcount figures vary by source and none is independently audited. Profound’s product covers prompt-volume analytics (a Prompt Volumes dataset the vendor reports as real user prompts), Answer Engine Insights across up to nine engines, Agent Analytics (tracking AI-crawler visits), autonomous “Agents” for AEO workflows, and the credit-based “AI Marketer.” A G2 reviewer quoted via a secondary aggregator flagged per-prompt cost as high enough to limit Profound to a general overview tool rather than a sole AEO platform, a caveat worth weighing against its broader feature set.
- Vendor
- Profound (tryprofound.com)
- Founded
- 2024 (James Cadwallader CEO, Dylan Babbs CTO)
- HQ
- New York, NY
- Funding
- $335M+ total; $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins (Sep 2026), after a $96M Series C at a $1B valuation (Feb 2026)
- Public rating
- G2 4.5/5 (1,136 reviews), read live 20 October 2026
- SOC2 (published on Enterprise tier)
- SSO/SAML (Enterprise tier)
Otterly.AI
Otterly.AI is a self-serve AI search monitoring and GEO audit platform that tracks brand mentions and citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot from $29/month. It was founded in 2024 by Thomas Peham (CEO, formerly VP of Marketing at Storyblok), Josef Trauner (CPO, founder of Usersnap), and Klaus-M. Schremser (CRO). Its registered entity, OtterlyAI GmbH, is filed in Persenbeug, Austria, while the company’s own team blog describes the team as Vienna-based. The company describes itself (vendor-reported) as serving 30,000+ marketing professionals as of 2026, up from a 2024 stealth exit. Its G2 listing also cites a Gartner Cool Vendor 2025 recognition (AI in Marketing) and Best AI Search Software Solution at the 2026 European Search Awards. Otterly’s product covers AI Prompt Research, a Query Fan Out Tool, AI Search Analytics, Content/GEO URL Audits, Competitive Benchmarking, a Brand Visibility Index, sentiment analysis across 50+ countries, and an Agent Analytics module (AI bot, agent, and AI-referred visitor traffic) on Standard and Premium. A G2 reviewer highlighted founder Thomas Peham’s hands-on onboarding support as a differentiator.
- Vendor
- Otterly.AI (otterly.ai)
- Founded
- 2024 (Thomas Peham, Josef Trauner, Klaus-M. Schremser)
- HQ
- OtterlyAI GmbH registered in Persenbeug, Austria; company blog describes the team as Vienna-based
- Funding
- No funding rounds publicly disclosed (checked October 2026)
- Public rating
- G2 4.7/5 (54 reviews), read live 20 October 2026; Capterra listing shows no reviews; Software Advice (same Gartner pool) 0
- Recognition
- #10 overall on G2’s 2026 Best Software Awards and G2 Rookies of the Year (vendor-reported, G2-sourced)
Pricing: what you'll actually pay
Otterly.AI publishes self-serve plans from $29/mo; Profound now lists a free Trial and a custom-priced Enterprise plan, with no paid self-serve tier (both checked October 2026). Enterprise pricing on both sides is demo-gated and not itemized.
| Profound | Otterly.AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free Trial (50 prompts for 7 days; ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews), then custom Enterprise (checked October 2026) | $29/mo (Lite, $25/mo annual), 4 engines, 15 prompts |
| Mid tier | No paid self-serve tier; Agency Growth client workspaces are a $399/mo add-on (agencies only) | $189/mo (Standard, $160/mo annual), 100 prompts, unlimited workspaces, incl. API, MCP, Agent Analytics |
| Top self-serve tier | None published; Enterprise is demo-gated; third-party estimates of $2,000-$5,000+/mo are unconfirmed | $489/mo (Premium, $422/mo annual), 400 prompts, 10,000 audits/mo |
| Add-on engine cost | Not itemized; Enterprise is custom | Google AI Mode $9-$149/mo, Google Gemini $9-$149/mo, Claude $29-$439/mo (scales with plan) |
| Extra prompts/queries | Not itemized; Enterprise is custom | $99/mo per additional 100 prompts ($1,020/yr) |
| Free trial | Free Trial plan (50 prompts, 7 days, 3 engines) | Free trial on signup |
| Enterprise pricing | Custom / demo-gated; up to 9 engines, SSO/SAML, SOC2, API | Custom / demo-gated; Single Sign-on and dedicated support on request, price not itemized |
Capability comparison
Both tools cover the same core job: track how a brand shows up across AI answer engines. The gaps show up in engine ceiling, whether the product stops at monitoring or adds workflow automation, and how each vendor handles enterprise-grade compliance. Profound wins on breadth, agentic automation, and published compliance; Otterly.AI wins on built-in content auditing and price. Both ship an “Agent Analytics” module for AI bot and agent traffic, so that is a tie rather than a Profound-only feature.
| Service | Profound | Otterly.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Engines tracked (cheapest tier) | 3 engines on the free Trial (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews) | 4 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot, Lite) |
| Engines tracked (top tier) | Up to 9 engines (Enterprise), incl. Perplexity, Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek, Exa Search | Up to 7 with paid add-ons (Claude, Gemini, AI Mode); no DeepSeek |
| Prompt-volume analytics | ✓ (Prompt Volumes, reported as real user prompts) | ✓ (AI Prompt Research plus Query Fan Out Tool) |
| Agentic workflow automation | ✓ (“Agents” and the credit-based AI Marketer) | ✕ (monitoring, audits, analytics, and reporting; no autonomous agent layer) |
| AI-crawler visit analytics | ✓ (Agent Analytics) | ✓ (Agent Analytics on Standard and Premium: 200k and 1M events/mo) |
| Content/GEO URL audits | Partial (AI Marketer recommendations; not a dedicated audit module) | ✓ (Content/GEO URL Audits, built in) |
| Enterprise compliance | ✓ (SSO/SAML and SOC2 published on Enterprise) | Partial (SSO and “enterprise-grade compliance” listed on Enterprise; no SOC2 or SAML attestation named) |
| Free trial | ✓ (free Trial: 50 prompts, 7 days) | ✓ (free trial on signup) |
| Seats / team members | Unlimited seats (Trial and Enterprise) | Unlimited team members (all tiers) |
| Integrations | Akamai, AWS, Cloudflare, Fastly, Google Analytics, GCP, Netlify, Vercel, WordPress | Looker Studio connector, API, MCP; Agent Analytics via Cloudflare Worker, WordPress, Netlify, webhook or log upload (vendor-reported) |
| Agency plans | Agency Growth (10 pitch workspaces/mo; client workspaces $399/mo add-on) | Agency Partners (150 prompts Standard, 500 Premium, unlimited workspaces, Looker Studio) |
| API / MCP access | ✓ (Enterprise tier) | ✓ (Standard tier and above, plus Looker Studio connector) |
| Multi-country support | Not itemized on the public product or pricing pages | ✓ (50+ countries) |
| Named enterprise customers | ✓ (Ramp, MongoDB, DocuSign, Figma, Wayfair, Target, Walmart) | ✓ (Roche, Opera, Avis Budget Group, IQVIA, Check24, Visma) |
Decision matrix - who fits which side
This Profound vs Otterly AI matrix maps who fits which side by the axes that actually differ.
| Criterion | Profound | Otterly.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Need the widest engine ceiling (incl. DeepSeek, Claude, Exa Search) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Lowest paid entry price | ✕ | ✓ |
| Want agentic automation beyond passive monitoring | ✓ | ✕ |
| Need published enterprise compliance (SSO/SAML/SOC2) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Want broad engine access on the cheapest paid tier | ✕ | ✓ |
| Want to start self-serve without a sales call | ✕ | ✓ |
| Want real user prompt demand data (vendor-reported) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Need built-in content/GEO URL audits | ~ | ✓ |
| Want the higher headline third-party rating | ~ | ✓ |
| Want the largest third-party review base | ✓ | ~ |
| Need large, investor-backed vendor scale/runway | ✓ | ✕ |
| Agency managing many client workspaces | ✓ | ✓ |
| Want AI-crawler visit tracking beyond monitoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Want multi-country tracking published as a feature | ~ | ✓ |
Check = clear edge. Tilde = capable but not the stronger pick. Cross = outside the model.
Strengths & tradeoffs
In Profound vs Otterly AI, both tools do the core job of AI visibility tracking competently. The real differences are engine ceiling, whether the product automates action or just reports, and price, and each side wins rows the other does not.
| Axis | Profound | Otterly.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Engine breadth (top tier) | Up to 9 engines incl. DeepSeek, Claude, Exa Search (Enterprise) | Up to 7 with paid add-ons; no DeepSeek |
| Engine breadth (entry tier) | 3 engines on the free Trial (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews) | 4 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot, Lite) |
| Pricing/value | No paid self-serve tier; free Trial then custom Enterprise; higher cost per prompt flagged in a G2 review via a secondary aggregator | Cheaper, transparent self-serve pricing; better prompt-per-dollar from Lite up |
| Automation & agents | Autonomous “Agents” plus the credit-based AI Marketer | Monitoring, audits, analytics, and reporting; no autonomous agent layer |
| AI-crawler/agent analytics | Agent Analytics (Enterprise lists unlimited domains) | Agent Analytics on Standard (200k events/mo) and Premium (1M events/mo) |
| Enterprise compliance | SSO/SAML and SOC2 published on the Enterprise tier | SSO and “enterprise-grade compliance” listed on Enterprise; no SOC2 or SAML attestation named |
| Named customers | Ramp, MongoDB, DocuSign, Figma, Wayfair, Target, Walmart; quantified outcomes published for Ramp, Zapier, Hone | Roche, Opera, Avis Budget Group, IQVIA, Check24, Visma; fewer quantified outcomes published |
| Vendor funding/scale | $335M+ raised; $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation (Sep 2026), co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins | No funding rounds publicly disclosed; smaller team |
| Third-party rating | G2 4.5/5 (1,136 reviews), read live 20 Oct 2026 | G2 4.7/5 (54 reviews), read live 20 Oct 2026; no reviews on Capterra/Software Advice |
| Review-base size | Far larger G2 footprint in the AEO category | Small sample, and no reviews outside G2 |
| Geographic tracking | Not itemized on the fetched pages | 50+ countries published as a feature |
Ratings & track record
On ratings, Profound vs Otterly AI is volume against score: Profound carries far more G2 reviews, while Otterly.AI holds the higher average on a much smaller base.
| Metric | Profound | Otterly.AI |
|---|---|---|
| G2 rating | 4.5/5 | 4.7/5 |
| G2 review count | 1,136 | 54 |
| Software Advice / Capterra | No profile located / listing shows no reviews | 0 reviews (“no reviews yet”) |
| Founded | 2024 | 2024 |
| Funding disclosed | $335M+ total; $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation (Sep 2026) | None publicly disclosed |
| Notable signal | Named the definitive Leader in G2’s inaugural Winter 2026 AEO category (vendor blog, G2-sourced) | #10 overall on G2’s 2026 Best Software Awards and G2 Rookies of the Year (vendor blog, G2-sourced) |
Both vendors’ G2 product pages were read live on 20 October 2026. We use the G2 product-page figures (Profound 4.5/5 across 1,136 reviews; Otterly.AI 4.7/5 across 54 reviews) rather than seller-page counts, since seller pages can bundle more than one listed product. On volume Profound is clearly ahead, and on score Otterly.AI is ahead on a much smaller sample with no reviews outside G2, so its third-party validation elsewhere is untested. Given how young this category is (both vendors were founded in 2024), a thin review base is expected rather than a red flag by itself. For a wider view of the category, see our roundup of the best AI visibility tools .
Both tools’ data is sourced from publicly available information, verified against vendor pricing pages, vendor blogs, and third-party profiles. Pricing and G2 ratings were re-checked live on 20 October 2026. Profound’s old Starter and Growth tiers were removed in September 2026, per third-party pricing trackers. Neither vendor’s funding figure is independently audited; Profound’s Series D comes from its own announcement and the $335M+ total from press reports, and Otterly.AI has disclosed no rounds. This comparison is independent; we take no affiliate or referral fees from either vendor.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Profound and Otterly.AI?
Which is better, Profound or Otterly.AI?
Profound vs Otterly AI: how much does each cost?
Which AI engines does each tool track?
Does Profound or Otterly.AI have a free trial?
Which is better for agencies?
Does Profound use real user prompt data and Otterly.AI estimates?
Does either tool publish enterprise compliance certifications?
Which tool has the better G2 rating?
Where can I find more options beyond Profound and Otterly.AI?
Sources and references
- Profound homepage (accessed July 2026)
- Profound pricing (accessed July 2026)
- Profound G2 seller page (accessed July 2026)
- Profound: $96M Series C at $1B valuation (Feb 2026) (accessed July 2026)
- Sacra: Profound company profile (founding, funding history) (accessed July 2026)
- LinkedIn: Profound company page (team size) (accessed July 2026)
- Latka: Profound revenue/team estimate (accessed July 2026)
- Scalenut: summary of Profound G2 reviews (accessed July 2026)
- Profound: named AEO leader in G2 Winter Report 2026 (accessed July 2026)
- Otterly.AI homepage (accessed July 2026)
- Otterly.AI pricing (accessed July 2026)
- G2: Otterly.AI reviews (accessed July 2026)
- Software Advice: Otterly.AI profile (no reviews) (accessed July 2026)
- Wikipedia: Otterly.ai (accessed July 2026)
- Otterly.AI: about page (accessed July 2026)
- Otterly.AI: team blog post (accessed July 2026)
- Otterly.AI: legal imprint (registered address) (accessed July 2026)
- Otterly.AI: #10 on G2 2026 Best Software Awards (accessed July 2026)
- Latka: Otterly.AI revenue/team estimate (accessed July 2026)
- Profound G2 product page (accessed October 2026)
- Profound: $180M Series D at $1.8B valuation (Sep 2026) (accessed October 2026)
- PricingSaaS: Profound pricing-change tracker (third-party) (accessed October 2026)
- Otterly.AI changelog (accessed October 2026)
- CMSWire: Otterly.AI launches Agent Analytics (accessed October 2026)
Want an outside opinion before you commit?
This comparison is independent — we don't take referral fees from either agency. If you'd like a second read from a B2B SaaS specialist on which fits your stage, PipeRocket is happy to give you an honest one. No obligation.
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