Profound vs Otterly.AI
Ranjeeth Kumar
Last updated on
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The short answer
Profound and Otterly.AI are both AI visibility (AEO) trackers founded in 2024, and both monitor how brands show up in AI answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. The honest split is depth versus price. Profound is the broader, more automated platform: it tracks up to nine AI engines on its Enterprise tier (including Meta AI and DeepSeek, which Otterly does not track at all), layers on agentic “Agents” and weekly “Aim” recommendations beyond passive monitoring, and publishes SSO/SAML plus SOC2 on its Enterprise tier. Otterly.AI is the leaner, cheaper entry point: its Lite plan starts at $29/mo and still covers four core engines, well below Profound’s $99/mo Starter, which covers ChatGPT only, and Otterly also ships its own Agent Analytics module on Standard and above. Both vendors have public facts with real gaps and figures that vary by source, flagged plainly below rather than smoothed over.
If you need to track nine AI engines including Meta AI and DeepSeek, want an autonomous agent layer (Agents plus weekly Aim recommendations) on top of monitoring, and need published enterprise compliance (SSO/SAML and SOC2) for a regulated buyer, Profound’s higher price is buying real breadth, at $99/mo Starter (ChatGPT only) up to demo-gated Enterprise pricing.
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), and you’d rather have built-in GEO/content audits plus Agent Analytics from the Standard tier 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 | $99/mo (Starter, ChatGPT only) | $29/mo (Lite, 4 core engines) |
| Engine ceiling | Up to 9 engines (Enterprise), incl. Meta AI and DeepSeek | Up to 7 with paid add-ons; no Meta AI, Grok, or DeepSeek |
| Public rating | G2 reported 4.5/5 (1,037 reviews, seller page) and 4.6/5 (~300+ reviews, product page) | G2 reported 4.8/5 (52 reviews, product page) and 4.9/5 (41 reviews, seller page) |
| Funding | $155M total raised, $1B valuation (Series C, Feb 2026) | No funding rounds publicly disclosed |
| Best for | Enterprise/growth teams needing breadth, agents, and compliance | Budget-conscious teams needing broad entry-tier coverage |
Vendor profile
Profound
Profound was founded in 2024 by James Cadwallader (CEO) and Dylan Babbs (CTO) and is headquartered in New York, NY. The company has raised $155M in total: a $3.5M seed (Aug 2024), a $20M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins (June 2025), a $35M Series B led by Sequoia Capital (Aug 2025), and a $96M Series C led by Lightspeed Venture Partners at a $1B valuation, announced by Profound on 24 February 2026. Team size is harder to pin down: press coverage of the Series C put headcount at roughly 140 across four cities in early 2026, while LinkedIn still lists a 201-500 employee band and a third-party revenue tracker (Latka) estimates roughly 62, so the vendor-adjacent ~140 figure is the most recent but none of the three is independently audited. Profound’s product covers prompt-volume analytics, Answer Engine Insights across up to nine engines, Agent Analytics (tracking AI-crawler visits), autonomous “Agents” for AEO workflows, and weekly “Aim” priority recommendations. 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
- $155M total: $3.5M seed, $20M Series A (Kleiner Perkins), $35M Series B (Sequoia), $96M Series C (Lightspeed) at a $1B valuation, Feb 2026
- Team size
- ~140 across four cities per Series C coverage (early 2026); LinkedIn shows a 201-500 band and Latka estimates ~62, so figures vary widely by source
- Public rating
- G2 reported 4.5/5 (1,037 reviews) on the seller page and 4.6/5 (~300+ reviews) on the product page; direct G2 fetch returns HTTP 403, so both figures come from search-indexed snapshots
- SOC2 (published on Enterprise tier)
- SSO/SAML (Enterprise tier)
Otterly.AI
Otterly.AI 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 at Obere Bahnzeile 13, 3680 Persenbeug, Austria, though the company’s own team blog describes the team as based in Vienna, so both cities are cited here rather than resolved to one. Team size is stated as 17 people on the company’s team blog post, versus roughly 7 as of October 2025 per Latka, a range that likely reflects rapid hiring rather than a single confirmed headcount. The company describes itself as exiting stealth with 1,000+ users, reaching 10,000 marketers by mid-2025 and 20,000 marketing professionals as of the beginning of 2026, all company-reported figures that are not independently audited. Otterly’s product covers AI Prompt Research, 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. OtterlyAI also placed #10 overall on G2’s 2026 Best Software Awards and on G2’s Rookies of the Year list, and says it was the only AEO-category product in that overall top 10. A G2 reviewer highlighted founder Thomas Peham’s hands-on onboarding support as a differentiator, though the reviewer’s full name and title could not be independently confirmed.
- Vendor
- Otterly.AI (otterly.ai)
- Founded
- 2024 (Thomas Peham, Josef Trauner, Klaus-M. Schremser)
- HQ
- OtterlyAI GmbH registered at Obere Bahnzeile 13, 3680 Persenbeug, Austria; company blog describes the team as Vienna-based (both cited, unresolved)
- Team size
- 17 per the company team blog vs. ~7 (October 2025, Latka), figures vary by source and date
- Funding
- No funding rounds publicly disclosed
- Public rating
- G2 reported 4.8/5 (52 reviews) on the product page and 4.9/5 (41 reviews) on the seller page; Software Advice shows 0 reviews (“no reviews yet”); direct G2 fetch returns HTTP 403
- 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
Both vendors publish self-serve pricing pages, verified live as of July 2026. Profound’s headline entry price is more than three times Otterly’s, while covering one engine instead of four. Enterprise pricing on both sides is demo-gated and not itemized.
| Profound | Otterly.AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $99/mo (Starter, billed yearly), 1 engine, 50 prompts | $29/mo (Lite, $25/mo annual), 4 engines, 15 prompts |
| Mid tier | $399/mo (Growth), 3 engines, 100 prompts, 3 seats | $189/mo (Standard, $160/mo annual), 100 prompts, unlimited workspaces |
| Top self-serve tier | Not published (Enterprise is demo-gated); third-party estimates cite $2,000-$5,000+/mo, unconfirmed | $489/mo (Premium, $422/mo annual), 400 prompts, 10,000 audits/mo |
| Add-on engine cost | Included by tier (no separate add-on pricing published) | Google AI Mode $9-$149/mo, Google Gemini $9-$149/mo, Claude $29-$439/mo (scales with plan) |
| Extra prompts/queries | Not itemized (tier-gated instead) | $99/mo per additional 100 prompts ($1,020/yr) |
| 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 entry-tier engine access, 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) | 1 engine (ChatGPT only, Starter) | 4 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot, Lite) |
| Engines tracked (top tier) | Up to 9 engines incl. Meta AI, DeepSeek (Enterprise) | Up to 7 with paid add-ons (Claude, Gemini, AI Mode); no Meta AI, Grok, or DeepSeek |
| Prompt-volume analytics | ✓ (proprietary prompt-volume signal) | ✓ (AI Prompt Research module) |
| Agentic workflow automation | ✓ (“Agents” and “Aim” weekly recommendations) | ✕ (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 (Aim recommendations; not a dedicated audit module) | ✓ (Content/GEO URL Audits, built in) |
| Enterprise compliance | ✓ (SSO/SAML and SOC2 published on Enterprise) | Partial (Single Sign-on listed on Enterprise; no SAML or SOC2 published) |
| 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
| Criterion | Profound | Otterly.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Need the widest engine ceiling (incl. Meta AI, DeepSeek) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Tightest budget, lowest possible entry cost | ✕ | ✓ |
| Want agentic automation beyond passive monitoring | ✓ | ✕ |
| Need published enterprise compliance (SSO/SAML/SOC2) | ✓ | ✕ |
| Want broad engine access on the cheapest tier | ✕ | ✓ |
| 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 | ✓ | ✕ |
| Want named recognizable enterprise SaaS logos | ✓ | ~ |
| 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
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. Meta AI, DeepSeek (Enterprise) | Up to 7 with paid add-ons; no Meta AI, Grok, or DeepSeek |
| Engine breadth (entry tier) | 1 engine (ChatGPT only, Starter) | 4 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot, Lite) |
| Pricing/value | Higher cost per prompt, called out as a limitation in a G2 review quoted via a secondary aggregator | Cheaper at every published tier; better prompt-per-dollar from Lite up |
| Automation & agents | Autonomous “Agents” plus weekly “Aim” recommendations | Monitoring, audits, analytics, and reporting; no autonomous agent layer |
| AI-crawler/agent analytics | Agent Analytics across tiers | Agent Analytics on Standard (200k events/mo) and Premium (1M events/mo) |
| Enterprise compliance | SSO/SAML and SOC2 published on the Enterprise tier | Single Sign-on listed on Enterprise; no SAML or SOC2 published |
| 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 |
| Public-facts consistency | Team size figures range from ~62 to 201-500 across sources | Team size and HQ city vary by source, but the range is smaller |
| Vendor funding/scale | $155M raised, $1B valuation (Feb 2026 Series C led by Lightspeed, with Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins) | No funding rounds publicly disclosed; smaller team |
| Third-party rating | 4.5/5 (1,037 reviews, seller page) and 4.6/5 (~300+, product page) | 4.8/5 (52 reviews, product page) and 4.9/5 (41, seller page); 0 reviews on 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
| Metric | Profound | Otterly.AI |
|---|---|---|
| G2 rating (as reported) | 4.5/5 seller page, 4.6/5 product page | 4.8/5 product page, 4.9/5 seller page |
| G2 review count (as reported) | 1,037 seller page, ~300+ product page | 52 product page, 41 seller page |
| Software Advice | No profile located | 0 reviews (“no reviews yet”) |
| Founded | 2024 | 2024 |
| Funding disclosed | $155M total, $1B valuation (Series C, Feb 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 review pages returned HTTP 403 on direct fetch, so every rating figure above comes from search-indexed snapshots rather than a first-hand confirmed screenshot, and both should be re-checked live before you rely on them. Each vendor also shows a gap between its G2 seller page and its G2 product page: Profound reads 4.5/5 at 1,037 reviews on the seller page against 4.6/5 at roughly 300+ on the product page, and Otterly.AI reads 4.9/5 at 41 reviews on the seller page against 4.8/5 at 52 on the product page. Seller pages can bundle more than one listed product, which is the most likely explanation on both sides. On volume Profound is clearly ahead, and on score Otterly.AI is ahead on a much smaller sample with zero reviews on Software Advice, so its third-party validation outside G2 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 on 29 July 2026. Direct G2 review-page fetches returned HTTP 403 for both vendors; the ratings above come from search-indexed snapshots and should be re-checked live before relying on them. Team size and HQ figures are flagged where sources vary rather than resolved to a single number. Neither vendor’s funding figure is audited; Profound’s comes from its own Series C announcement, 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?
Is Profound better than Otterly.AI?
Which is cheaper, Profound or Otterly.AI?
Which AI engines does each tool track?
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)
Want an outside opinion before you commit?
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