We make BusinessPulse. This page compares it with three popular AI visibility trackers as fairly as we can, including where they're the better choice. Competitor details are as listed in October 2026; check each vendor for current plans.
How is BusinessPulse different from Otterly.AI, Peec AI, and Profound?
They answer different questions. BusinessPulse answers "where do I stand, and on which kinds of questions?" once, for free. The other three answer "how is that changing?" on a schedule, for a monthly fee.
| BusinessPulse | Otterly.AI | Peec AI | Profound | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | From $29 a month | From about $95 a month | From $99 a month, billed yearly |
| How often | Once, plus a free re-check at 30 days | Ongoing | Daily | Ongoing |
| Questions | 20, chosen for you from your industry's question set | 15 on the entry plan, written by you | About 50, written by you | Varies by plan |
| Assistants | Perplexity | Several; some cost extra | Three, a fourth extra | ChatGPT on the entry plan |
| Built for | Small businesses checking themselves | Small businesses and freelancers | Small teams and agencies | Brands with marketing teams |
What BusinessPulse does differently
- It chooses the questions. We keep question sets for 29 industries, from roofing and HVAC to dentists and financial advisors, built from what buyers ask about cost, permits, comparisons, and problems, not only "who does this near me." Most businesses, asked to write their own list, leave out the questions they're least often cited on.
- It sorts the sites that win. A directory, a government page, and a competitor mean different things. BusinessPulse labels which is which, so you can see whether you're losing to Yelp or to the company down the road.
- It shows the pattern by type of question. "Cited on 4 of 6 near-me questions and 0 of 3 cost questions" tells you what page to write next.
- It compares you with your industry. Our industry benchmarks show how businesses like yours do on the same questions.
What BusinessPulse doesn't do
- No ongoing tracking dashboard. You get a report and a 30-day re-check, not daily charts.
- One assistant in the free snapshot. The full audit through Saxon AEO covers ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini; the free snapshot uses Perplexity only.
- No custom questions. If you know exactly which questions you want tracked, a tool that lets you write them fits better.
When is a paid tracking tool the better choice?
- Otterly.AI if you want low-cost ongoing tracking of a short list of questions and are happy to write them yourself.
- Peec AI if several people need to see the numbers, or you're an agency tracking clients, and daily data matters.
- Profound if you're a larger brand with a marketing team and budget to move up to its broader plans; its entry plan covers ChatGPT only.
If you already pay for Semrush or Ahrefs, check their AI visibility add-ons before buying a separate tool. Our list of AI visibility tools for small businesses covers those and more.
Can I use BusinessPulse alongside a tracking tool?
Yes, and it's a sensible order to do things in. Run a free snapshot first to find the kinds of questions where you're never cited, then add those questions to whichever tracker you choose. You'll be tracking the questions that matter instead of the ones you happened to think of.
If you'd rather someone else did the work of getting cited, not just the measuring, see what AEO costs.
Start with a free BusinessPulse snapshot.