Profound vs Otterly (2025): Which AI Search Visibility Tool Wins?

Cover image comparing Profound vs Otterly for AI search visibility monitoring in 2025

Why this comparison matters now

AI answer engines increasingly gate discovery. Whether customers ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews/AI Mode, your brand may be summarized, cited—or omitted—without a single click to your site. That’s why teams are moving beyond traditional SEO dashboards to track prompts, citations/links, and sentiment across AI systems. If you’re new to this, it’s worth understanding the basics of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and how it complements classic SEO.

In this buyer’s guide, we compare Profound and Otterly—the two most-referenced platforms for AI search visibility monitoring—through the lens of 2025 realities: platform coverage, localization, monitoring cadence, citation fidelity, sentiment/narrative tracking, alerting, integrations, governance, performance, pricing, and total cost of ownership.

Our aim is pragmatic: help you match the right tool to your team, stack, and risk profile.

Quick guidance by scenario

Global enterprise or multi-market agency needing rigorous localization, continuous monitoring, and enterprise controls: Profound is typically the safer bet.
Lean SEO/content team already in the Semrush ecosystem wanting fast setup, weekly monitoring, and clear reporting: Otterly tends to fit better.
Pilot/POC for a single brand where you need to learn quickly and keep costs contained: Start with Otterly; graduate to Profound if you later need broader engine coverage, automation, or governance.

Why: As of late 2025, Otterly emphasizes speed-to-value inside Semrush with weekly reporting and clear prompt limits, while Profound emphasizes breadth of engines, near-real-time tracking, and enterprise posture.

Head-to-head: What actually differs

Below are the dimensions that matter most in day-to-day use, followed by deeper product capsules.

Coverage (engines and recency)
- Profound: Official updates in mid–late 2025 indicate support for ChatGPT, Google AI Mode/Overviews, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Grok, Meta AI, DeepSeek, and Claude—positioning it for broad, fast-evolving coverage according to the Profound team’s August 2025 announcement of Claude support (updated Sep 30, 2025).
- Otterly: Semrush documentation (Sep 29, 2025) states monitoring across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews; this narrower scope can still cover the highest-impact surfaces for many brands.
Localization (regions/languages)
- Profound: Markets itself for multi-market/multi-language monitoring; official site avoids specific counts, but the positioning targets multi-region programs.
- Otterly: Focused on accessibility and core platforms; fewer public claims about extensive language coverage.
Monitoring cadence
- Profound: Positions around continuous tracking at scale; its public leaderboard mentions being “powered by 3M+ daily prompts,” implying high-frequency monitoring.
- Otterly: Semrush KB confirms weekly updates (with daily prompt checks referenced in Otterly materials), which is often enough for steady-state monitoring and monthly reporting.
Citations and link placement capture
- Profound: Publishes research on “citation drift” and platform-specific citation behaviors—useful for diagnosing why your links appear or vanish over a month.
- Otterly: Provides practical citation/link surfacing across supported engines with straightforward reporting and CSV export.
Sentiment and narrative tracking
- Profound: Tracks brand representation and share-of-voice; sentiment is referenced in reviews and product narratives but is less centralized in public docs.
- Otterly: Includes sentiment analysis in Semrush workflows; handy for brand teams who need weekly tone checks.
Alerts and anomaly handling
- Profound: Writes about AI crawlers and bot detection; push-alert specifics aren’t richly documented publicly, but enterprise users get analytics for crawler behavior and volatility.
- Otterly: Weekly cadence means alerting is more periodic; fine for stable categories, less ideal in a volatile launch or crisis scenario.
Integrations and workflow
- Profound: Introduced Actions (workflow automation) in July 2025; enterprise posture suggests APIs/exports and cross-stack workflows.
- Otterly: Deep Semrush App Center integration; fast handoffs into broader SEO/keyword workflows and CSV exports.
Reporting and shareability
- Profound: Executive-friendly dashboards and longitudinal benchmarking are core to its narrative.
- Otterly: Clean marketer-friendly dashboards inside Semrush; easy for teams already managing SEO there.
Scale and performance
- Profound: The 3M+ daily prompts claim suggests a system built for frequent refresh at volume.
- Otterly: Efficient for weekly check-ins and team syncs; suitable for smaller portfolios or early-stage programs.
Security and governance
- Profound: SOC 2 Type II and SSO are publicly noted; designed for enterprise procurement cycles.
- Otterly: Benefits from Semrush SSO and governance conventions; fewer standalone enterprise controls publicly described.
Pricing and TCO
- Profound: Uses contact-for-pricing; plans are listed without public dollar figures. Expect enterprise-style scoping.
- Otterly: Transparent monthly pricing with prompt limits; easy to pilot and forecast.

Product capsule: Otterly

Who it fits

Lean in-house SEO/content teams and agencies that live in Semrush.
Teams that want quick setup, weekly monitoring, and CSV-friendly reporting.
Budget-conscious pilots that need to prove value before scaling.

Strengths

Clear scope and cadence: Semrush’s knowledge base (Sep 29, 2025) confirms coverage of ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews with weekly updates and export options—making stakeholder reporting predictable. See the Semrush entry at “Otterly AI Search Monitoring” for details.
Pricing transparency and simple limits: As of Sep 16, 2025, Otterly’s pricing page lists Lite at $29/month (15 prompts), Standard at $189 (100 prompts), and Pro at $989 (1,000 prompts)—easy for budgeting and POCs.
Semrush-native workflow: Operates where many SEO teams already run audits, rankings, and keyword research; reduces onboarding friction.
Practical link and sentiment surfacing: Otterly’s materials emphasize citation tracking and sentiment in a marketer-friendly UI.

Caveats

Narrower engine coverage than Profound; if you need Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Claude, Meta AI, or Grok monitoring in the same pane, you may outgrow it.
Weekly cadence may lag fast-moving narratives, launches, or crises.
Enterprise governance/permissions are less detailed publicly; large orgs might need extra diligence for procurement and data controls.

Evidence anchors

Engines and weekly cadence: according to the Semrush knowledge base entry for Otterly (2025-09-29), it monitors ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews with weekly updates and CSV export.
Pricing tiers (as of 2025-09-16): see the Otterly pricing page (2025) for current prompt limits and monthly rates.
Features overview: Otterly outlines daily prompt checks and platform coverage on its features page updated in 2025.

Best-fit use cases

Weekly brand prompt tracking across the big three (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews).
Reporting on citation/link placement and sentiment trends on a monthly or quarterly cadence.
Early-stage GEO/AEO pilots where speed-to-value beats full enterprise breadth.

Product capsule: Profound

Who it fits

Global marketing teams and agencies with multi-region, multilingual campaigns.
Stakeholders who expect continuous monitoring, executive dashboards, and longitudinal benchmarking.
Enterprises requiring SSO, SOC 2 Type II, and mature governance.

Strengths

Broad engine coverage and fast update tempo: The Profound team’s August 2025 announcement around Claude support (updated Sep 30, 2025) lists coverage across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode/Overviews, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Grok, Meta AI, DeepSeek, and Claude—useful if your audience asks multiple engines.
Continuous/near-real-time posture at scale: Profound’s leaderboard states the system is “powered by 3M+ daily prompts,” indicating high-frequency scanning that can surface volatility fast.
Research-driven visibility analytics: Profound publishes studies on AI search volatility and citation patterns, framing how and why link references drift over weeks.
Enterprise readiness: SOC 2 Type II and SSO are publicly documented; Actions (introduced July 2025) suggests automation hooks for workflows.

Caveats

Pricing is not publicly listed; expect an enterprise-style scoping process and potentially higher TCO than SMB-focused tools.
Push alert specifics (e.g., for bot visits or anomalies) aren’t richly documented in public pages; you may need a demo to validate alerting workflows.
While positioned for multi-language coverage, the official site avoids specific counts; confirm localization needs in scoping.

Evidence anchors

Engine coverage (as of 2025-08-20, updated 2025-09-30): see Profound’s announcement of Claude support listing all tracked engines in that update: Profound — Introducing Claude support.
Scale and cadence: Profound notes it is “powered by 3M+ daily prompts” on its Leaderboard page (2025-08-07).
Volatility and citations research: Profound’s mid-2025 studies discuss month-over-month “citation drift” and platform patterns: AI search volatility (2025-07-17) and AI platform citation patterns (2025-06-05).
Enterprise controls: Profound publicly documents SOC 2 Type II (2025-06-10) and SSO on its Enterprise page (2025).
Workflow automation: Profound introduced Actions in July 2025, implying integrations and automation flows.

Best-fit use cases

Multi-market localization reporting across regions/languages with frequent refresh.
Executives who want share-of-voice trendlines and narrative shifts tracked continuously.
Campaign launches and crisis monitoring where hours matter, not weeks.

Workflow comparison: how teams actually use them

Weekly brand prompt tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews

Otterly: Designed around weekly updates with CSV exports, which aligns to Monday reporting and monthly business reviews. It’s easy to set up prompts like “best [category] tool,” “[brand] vs [competitor],” and “is [brand] trustworthy?” and then share changes with stakeholders.
Profound: Better suited if you need continuous tracking and faster signal on narrative swings. Its research on volatility and citation drift supports more frequent checks when markets move quickly.

Visibility deltas after content updates (2–4 weeks)

Otterly: The weekly cadence is a natural fit for before/after analyses. You can annotate content pushes and check deltas in 2–4 weeks.
Profound: Useful if you need to detect changes within days and align with sprints. The frequent scan posture helps identify early impacts or regressions.

Citation/link surfacing and placement changes

Otterly: Practical link capture and simple CSVs help SEOs quantify which pages get referenced in AI outputs across supported engines.
Profound: Adds explanatory context through research on pattern changes, which helps you brief execs on why citations fluctuate.

Sentiment and narrative shifts (brand and category prompts)

Otterly: Sentiment summaries support brand/PR check-ins and executive summaries inside Semrush.
Profound: Narrative/share-of-voice framing can help multi-brand orgs watch who the engines elevate and why; confirm sentiment specifics in a demo.

Multi-market localization reporting

Otterly: Solid for initial coverage in core languages/regions when the priority is simplicity.
Profound: Designed for multi-region/multi-language monitoring; confirm the exact locales you need in scoping.

Pricing and TCO considerations (as of Oct 2025)

Otterly
- Transparent monthly pricing and prompt limits lower procurement friction. Lite and Standard plans are popular for pilots; Pro scales up to 1,000 prompts. Keep in mind that Semrush listings and third-party reviews sometimes cite slightly different prompt counts; use the vendor pricing page for contracting.
- TCO is predictable for lean teams: a few seats, defined prompt quotas, and weekly reporting overhead.
Profound
- Contact-for-pricing aligns with enterprise scoping. Expect a discovery process to match engines, regions/languages, and automation requirements. While you may pay more than SMB tools, you’re buying breadth of coverage, frequency, and governance.
- TCO considerations should include potential automation value (Actions), governance benefits (SSO, SOC 2), and the cost of missing fast-moving narrative shifts in volatile categories.

How to choose: a practical decision map

You prioritize breadth and speed:
- Choose Profound if you must monitor multiple engines beyond the big three and need signal within hours or days across markets.
You prioritize simplicity and budget:
- Choose Otterly if you want an immediate, Semrush-native workflow with weekly updates and transparent prompt limits.
You’re running a pilot:
- Start with Otterly to validate prompt lists, stakeholder appetite, and reporting needs; consider Profound later if you need broader engines, continuous tracking, or enterprise governance.
You operate globally:
- Favor Profound and ask for explicit coverage confirmations for your target languages/regions; assess reporting and access controls for distributed teams.

If you’re still unsure, run both in parallel for 30 days: align prompts, log content changes, and compare volatility detection, citation fidelity, and stakeholder satisfaction.

Also consider: turning monitoring into execution

If you need more than monitoring—specifically, a system to turn visibility data into a prioritized content roadmap with multi-platform tracking, AI sentiment, prompt history, and collaborative workspaces—consider Geneo. Disclosure: Geneo is our product.

This route makes sense when leadership expects a roadmap and measurable lift, not just dashboards. It’s complementary to whichever monitoring stack you choose.