If you want SE Ranking's kind of AI tracking plus Claude and Grok, without paying for an SEO suite, start with Cituna: $39 a month for seven engines checked daily, with Search Console and API access on the same plan. Promptwatch is the next pick if you need both an API and an MCP server from the first tier, at $95, and AIclicks is third, at $59 for three engines you choose. For the longest engine list, AthenaHQ covers 11 for $295, and Ahrefs Brand Radar is the swap to make if you want to stay inside a suite.
You can start a 3-day Cituna trial and see which of your buyer prompts the seven engines answer without you. A card is required to start.
Every price and feature below was read from the vendor's own pages on 25 September 2026. Where a page does not say something, the table says "not published". To compare these plans with the rest of the market, check every entry plan on the tools page.
What SE Ranking's AI tracking actually is
SE Ranking sells AI tracking in three ways, and they are easy to mix up. For what it tracks, what each plan includes and where it falls short, see our SE Ranking AI visibility tracker review.
- Inside the suite. The Core plan, $129 a month on monthly billing, now includes 100 prompts tracked daily across five LLMs, next to rank tracking, audits and backlink research. The five named on its AI visibility page are Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Core also carries MCP access, 25,000 API credits and a Google Search Console integration. Growth, at $279, raises the allowance to 250 prompts.
- The AI Search add-on. For $89 a month on top of a suite plan, it adds 200 prompts, the AI Results Tracker for AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity and ChatGPT, and access to the SE Visible dashboard. The AI Overviews Tracker and AI Mode Tracker pages describe the per-engine views that sit inside this toolkit.
- SE Visible on its own. A separate product with its own plans: Basic at $99 a month for 200 prompts, Core at $189 for 450 and Plus at $355 for 1,000. Every plan checks ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, Perplexity and AI Overviews daily, and an API covers everything in the interface except users and billing. There is a 10-day trial.
SE Ranking's strength is volume. At $99, SE Visible checks 200 prompts in five engines every day, which it puts at about 30,000 answers a month. No entry plan among the alternatives below comes close to that allowance.
Why teams look past it
- No Claude and no Grok. SE Visible's FAQ says Claude "will be added soon". Grok is not mentioned on any of the pages read.
- The suite is the price of admission. Core bundles AI tracking with SEO tools. If you already run a rank tracker elsewhere, you pay for a second one.
- Two products, two feature sets. Search Console and MCP are listed for the suite plans. SE Visible's own page mentions an API but neither of those.
- No Copilot. None of SE Ranking's AI plans list Microsoft Copilot, if your buyers work in Microsoft 365.
How the list was ranked
Each tool was scored on the gaps above, using its cheapest self-serve plan (for Ahrefs, the Lite plan that carries Brand Radar):
- Are Claude and Grok on the entry plan?
- Can you buy it without an SEO suite?
- Does the AI tracker's own plan connect Google Search Console? (A separate tool in the same company's suite does not count.)
- Are an API and an MCP server included at entry, or sold on a higher tier?
- Are prompts checked daily?
- What does the entry plan cost per month on monthly billing?
Tools are ordered by how many of questions 1 to 5 they answer yes, with ties broken by the lower monthly entry price (question 6). Cituna and Promptwatch both answer yes to all five, and Cituna comes first on price. It is the only tool here with Claude, Grok, Search Console, an API and MCP on a plan under $50. It is also weaker than SE Ranking on prompt volume, and its entry says so.
AIclicks and LLM Pulse are in the list partly because the engines lean on them for this topic. Measured with Cituna across seven engines, 41 scans of 22 buyer questions about AI visibility software in the 30 days to 25 September 2026, llmpulse.ai was the host Claude cited most (223 citations), with aiclicks.io close behind (216). On Perplexity, semrush.com led with 419.
SE Ranking against eight alternatives
| Tool | Entry plan (monthly) | Engines at entry | Claude and Grok | Search Console | API or MCP at entry | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE Ranking Core | $129 | 5 | Neither | Yes | MCP and 25K API credits | Daily |
| SE Visible | Basic, $99 | 5 | Neither (Claude "soon") | Not published | API | Daily |
| Cituna | Starter, $39 | 7 | Both | Every plan | API and MCP read; writes on Pro, $119 | Daily |
| Promptwatch | Essential, $95 | 4, from a list of 9 | Both in the list | Listed integration | API and MCP | Daily |
| AIclicks | Starter, $59 | 3, from a list of 11 | Both in the list | Not published | From Pro, $189 | Daily |
| AthenaHQ | Starter, $295 | 11 | Both | Yes, with GA4 | API as a paid add-on | Not published |
| Otterly.AI | Lite, $29 | 4 | Claude as add-on; no Grok | Not published | From Standard, $189 | Daily |
| Peec AI | Starter, $95 | 3, from a list of 6 | Enterprise only | Not published | MCP; API from Pro, $245 | Daily |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | In Ahrefs Lite, $129 | 7 | Claude only | Not in Brand Radar (separate GSC Insights tool) | API and MCP | Daily |
| LLM Pulse | Starter, €49 | 5 | Add-ons | Not published | MCP | Weekly; daily at €79 |
"Not published" means the vendor's pages do not say. The tool may still offer it.
The eight alternatives
1. Cituna: Claude and Grok added, for $39
Cituna tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode daily. That is SE Ranking's five engines plus the two it lacks. Search Console is on every plan. The $39 Starter includes API and MCP read access. The Pro plan at $119 adds write actions, three brands, 30 prompts and competitor tracking. There is no suite to buy first.
Best for: teams that want Claude and Grok watched daily and do not need another rank tracker.
Price: Starter $39 a month for one brand and 10 prompts. A 3-day trial needs a card. See Cituna's plans.
Where it falls short: 10 prompts against SE Visible's 200 at $99 and Core's 100, so large prompt sets need Max at $399 for 90. There is no Copilot and no classic SEO toolkit, and the API and MCP are read-only below Pro.
2. Promptwatch: API and MCP from the first tier
Promptwatch's $95 Essential plan includes both MCP and API access, with 50 prompts checked daily across four models. Its model table names nine answer engines, plus OpenCode and Claude Code, with Claude and Grok among them, and Google Search Console appears in its integrations. It also counts responses: 6,000 a month on Essential.
Best for: teams that want to pull AI answers into their own dashboards or agents from day one.
Price: Essential $95 a month, with a 7-day trial. promptwatch.com
Where it falls short: four models at once on every listed plan, and Agent Analytics and AEO articles start on Professional at $245.
3. AIclicks: pick the three engines that matter
AIclicks lets you choose three engines on Starter, from a list that includes Claude, Grok, Copilot, DeepSeek and Mistral. It checks 30 prompts daily and includes five AI-written articles a month.
Best for: small teams that care about two or three specific engines, Claude or Grok among them.
Price: Starter $59 a month. Pro, at $189, adds a fourth engine, GA4, API and MCP. There is a 3-day trial. aiclicks.io
Where it falls short: three engines on the entry plan against SE Ranking's five, and Search Console is not on the pricing page.
4. AthenaHQ: the longest engine list with a public price
AthenaHQ's Starter covers 11 models, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral. That is more than twice SE Ranking's five. It connects GA4 and Search Console. A free Essential tier gives $25 of credit on five engines.
Best for: brands that need Copilot, Grok and Claude side by side and can budget for them.
Price: Starter $295 a month for 3,600 credits, where one credit is one AI response. athenahq.ai
Where it falls short: credits drain faster as you add engines. The API is a paid add-on with no published price, and check frequency is not stated.
5. Otterly.AI: the lowest entry price
Otterly's Lite plan costs $29 a month for 15 prompts checked daily in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Claude, AI Mode and Gemini are extra add-ons. Unlimited team members are included.
Best for: a first look at AI visibility on a small budget, especially if Copilot matters.
Price: Lite $29 a month. API and MCP start on Standard at $189. otterly.ai
Where it falls short: 15 prompts is a small sample, Grok is not offered, and AI Mode costs extra, although SE Ranking includes it.
6. Peec AI: three models, deep analytics
Peec's Starter checks 50 prompts daily in three models chosen from ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI. Users are unlimited, and the plan adds AI crawler analytics through CDN and log integrations. MCP is included on Starter.
Best for: marketing teams that want sentiment, sources and bot-visit data on a few engines.
Price: Starter $95 a month. The price loads with JavaScript on its pricing page. peec.ai
Where it falls short: Claude and Grok appear only in the Enterprise column, the API starts on Pro at $245, and three models is fewer than SE Ranking's five.
7. Ahrefs Brand Radar: the suite-for-suite swap
If you keep SE Ranking for its SEO tools, Ahrefs is the like-for-like move. Lite, at $129, includes Brand Radar custom prompts, API and MCP access, and Ahrefs' keyword and site tools. Brand Radar covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, with Claude available on custom prompts.
Best for: SEO teams that want AI prompts, backlinks and keywords in one subscription.
Price: Lite $129 a month. Prompt packages without the suite start at $50. ahrefs.com
Where it falls short: Lite includes five tracked prompts (150 checks a month), Claude uses eight checks per update, and Grok is not listed.
8. LLM Pulse: counted by prompt, with MCP at entry
LLM Pulse's Starter tracks 50 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini, the same five engines as SE Ranking. It includes an MCP server. Grok, Claude and Copilot are sold as add-ons.
Best for: teams that like SE Ranking's engine set but want it cheaper and in their MCP client.
Price: Starter €49 a month with weekly checks, or €79 with daily checks. llmpulse.ai
Where it falls short: weekly by default, priced in euros, and Search Console is not listed.
Which to choose
- Claude, Grok and Search Console, daily, without a suite: Cituna.
- An API and MCP server on the first plan: Promptwatch.
- Two or three hand-picked engines on a small budget: AIclicks.
- Eleven engines, Copilot included: AthenaHQ.
- The cheapest way to start: Otterly.AI.
- Sentiment and bot-traffic analytics on a few engines: Peec AI.
- Another SEO suite with AI tracking built in: Ahrefs.
- SE Ranking's five engines, cheaper, with MCP: LLM Pulse.
- Stay with SE Ranking if you already use its rank tracking and audits, and 100 or more prompts across five engines matters more than Claude and Grok.
How many prompts you actually need decides much of this. How to choose prompts to track helps you size the list before you compare allowances. For the two big suites side by side, see Semrush vs Ahrefs for AI visibility. The budget end is covered in the cheapest AI visibility tools, and every entry plan is on the tools page.
To check the two engines SE Ranking leaves out before you commit, run your prompts through Cituna on its 3-day trial.