You are deciding whether to renew or sign a Profound contract for AI search visibility, or to move to something cheaper, narrower, or free. Here is what that decision actually turns on for a Hong Kong enterprise: which AI engines you need watched, how many prompts matter to your board, whether you need Chinese-language coverage, and whether you need a monitor at all or a diagnosis first.
This page compares Profound against four alternatives on the same criteria, with published prices verified in mid-2026, and gives a verdict by buyer type. Profound wins several rows. If it won every row, this would be an advertisement rather than a decision page.
What is Profound, and why do enterprises look for alternatives?
Profound is an AI search visibility platform that tracks how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and other engines mention a brand. Enterprises look for alternatives for three reasons: the US$99 Starter tracks ChatGPT only, multi-engine coverage starts at US$399 a month, and full ten-engine coverage requires a custom Enterprise quote.
Profound is widely regarded as having the deepest dataset in the category, and its Enterprise tier includes SSO/SAML and SOC 2 documentation that procurement teams ask for. Those are real strengths. The reason a buyer searches for alternatives is rarely quality. It is fit: the coverage ladder is steep, and the engines a Hong Kong brand cares about may not be the engines the entry tier covers.
According to That Marketing Buddy's verified pricing page (checked 5 June 2026), Starter is US$99 a month for ChatGPT only with 50 prompts and 1,500 responses, and Growth is US$399 a month for three engines, 100 prompts, 9,000 responses and six AEO articles. Annual billing brings those to US$82.50 and US$332.50. Third-party reviews put Enterprise deployments between US$2,000 and US$5,000 or more a month, depending on engines, seats and features.
Which Profound alternatives should a Hong Kong enterprise shortlist?
Four alternatives cover the realistic decision space: Peec AI for prompt-heavy monitoring at a lower entry price, Otterly.AI for the cheapest published entry with a usable audit feature, Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit for teams already inside Semrush, and a free structural auditor for organisations that need a diagnosis before they need a monitor. Each answers a different question.
The shortlist deliberately excludes agency-only platforms and tools without published prices, because a decision page that says "contact sales" five times is not a decision page. It also excludes tools that only track a single engine, since a Hong Kong enterprise buyer in 2026 is being asked about Gemini and Perplexity in the same meeting as ChatGPT.
One distinction matters more than any price. Profound, Peec, Otterly and Semrush are monitors: they run prompts against AI engines and report whether your brand appears. A structural auditor reads your website the way an AI crawler does and scores whether it can be cited at all. Monitors tell you what is happening. Auditors tell you why. Most enterprises need the second answer before the first one is worth paying for.
How do the alternatives compare on price, coverage and limits?
At published rates, entry prices run from US$0 for a free structural scan, to US$29 for Otterly Lite, US$99 for Profound Starter and Semrush's toolkit, and about €85 for Peec Starter. Multi-engine monitoring at 100 prompts costs roughly US$189 to US$399 a month. Hong Kong dollar figures below are approximate conversions at HK$7.8 per US dollar and HK$9.1 per euro.
Published prices and limits, verified June to September 2026
--- Profound: Starter US$99/month (about HK$770), ChatGPT only, 50 prompts, 1,500 responses. Growth US$399/month (about HK$3,110), three engines, 100 prompts, 9,000 responses. Enterprise custom, all ten engines, SSO/SAML, SOC 2; third-party estimates US$2,000 to 5,000+/month (about HK$15,600 to 39,000+). No free plan.
--- Peec AI: Starter €85/month (about HK$775), 50 prompts. Pro €205/month (about HK$1,870), 150 prompts. Advanced €425/month (about HK$3,870), 350 prompts. Annual billing drops these to €70, €180 and €360. Three of six AI models included; each extra model costs €30, €70 or €140 a month by tier. Enterprise custom.
--- Otterly.AI: Lite US$29/month (about HK$226), 15 prompts, four engines, 1,000 GEO URL audits. Standard US$189/month (about HK$1,470), 100 prompts, API with 2,000 requests. Premium US$489/month (about HK$3,810), 400 prompts. Annual billing saves about 15%. Google Gemini and Google AI Mode are add-ons at US$9 to 149 a month each. No free plan; free trial.
--- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: US$99/month equivalent, sold as a US$1,188 annual commitment (about HK$9,270 a year), one brand, one project, 25 prompts, four engines (ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity). Facts checked 1 September 2026 by Trakkr. No free trial.
--- UDomain AEO Auditor: free, no credit card, results in about 30 seconds, 170+ structural AEO checks against a live URL, with an AI visibility score, industry ranking and a prioritised fix list. A diagnostic, not a prompt monitor; it does not track brand mentions over time.
For a deeper look at how monitor subscriptions are priced, see our AI visibility tool pricing comparison. This page focuses on the switching decision rather than the price list.
Where does Profound win, and where do the alternatives win?
Profound wins on dataset depth, ten-engine coverage at Enterprise, and procurement-grade security documentation. Peec wins on prompts per dollar for mid-size teams. Otterly wins on the lowest usable entry price and on including a GEO URL audit. Semrush wins for teams already paying for Semrush. A free auditor wins when the real problem is that AI cannot read your site.
Profound wins when AI search visibility is a board-level metric, when you need Claude, Copilot, Grok and Gemini tracked alongside ChatGPT, and when your security team will not approve a vendor without SOC 2 and SAML. For a listed Hong Kong company with a global brand, the US$399 Growth tier is a reasonable floor and Enterprise is often the right answer.
Peec wins when your team runs 150 to 350 prompts a month and does not need ten engines. At €205 for 150 prompts, Peec's Pro tier delivers more prompt volume than Profound Growth at roughly half the price, with the trade-off of paying extra for models beyond the three included.
Otterly wins for a single Hong Kong brand that wants four engines watched on a modest budget, and for teams that want the API and MCP server on a US$189 tier rather than a custom quote. The trade-off is that Gemini and Google AI Mode are billed separately.
Semrush wins only if you already run Semrush for SEO and want AI visibility inside the same reporting. The 25-prompt cap and annual commitment make it a poor standalone choice.
A free structural auditor wins when a monitor would only confirm what you already suspect: that your brand does not appear. If the underlying cause is that your site lacks extractable answers, schema and crawlable structure, a US$399 monitor will report zero visibility every month with great precision. The auditor tells you what to fix so that a monitor later has something to measure.
Which option should each type of Hong Kong buyer choose?
A listed group with a global brand should choose Profound Growth or Enterprise. A mid-market firm running many prompts should choose Peec Pro. A single-brand SME or a department testing the channel should choose Otterly Lite or Standard. An existing Semrush customer should add the toolkit. Any organisation that has never checked whether AI can cite its site should run a free structural audit first.
Verdict by buyer type
--- Listed company, global brand, security review required: Profound Growth as a floor; Enterprise if you need all ten engines and SAML. Budget US$4,788 a year on Growth annual billing, or a custom quote.
--- Mid-market firm, 150 to 350 prompts, three engines sufficient: Peec Pro or Advanced. Budget €2,160 to €4,320 a year on annual billing, plus model add-ons if you need Gemini or Claude.
--- Single brand or department pilot, budget under HK$2,000 a month: Otterly Lite to start, Standard once you need the API. Budget US$300 to US$1,920 a year.
--- Already on Semrush: add the AI Visibility Toolkit at US$1,188 a year and revisit in twelve months.
--- Not yet sure whether AI can read your site: run a free structural scan first, fix the top items, then choose a monitor from the list above. Cost: zero, and about 30 seconds.
Two questions to put to every vendor in a trial, regardless of tier: does the tool run prompts in Traditional Chinese and return Hong Kong-locale results, and does it let you export the raw responses rather than a score? Neither is a given, and neither appears on a pricing page.
What are the honest limitations of each option, including UD's?
Every option here has a limitation that can stop a purchase. Profound's coverage ladder is steep. Peec charges per extra model. Otterly bills Gemini and AI Mode separately. Semrush caps prompts at 25 with an annual lock-in. UD's free auditor scores structure only: it does not monitor brand mentions over time, and UD's published visibility-lift figures are its own aggregate data, not audited third-party benchmarks.
The UD limitation deserves the plainest statement. A structural score is not a citation. Passing 170 checks means an AI engine can read and extract your content; it does not mean the engine will choose your brand over a competitor's when a user asks. The auditor's fix list is also just that, a list. Implementing it is your team's work or a paid engagement. If what you need is a monthly chart of brand mentions across engines for a board pack, you need a monitor, and UD's free scan will not replace one.
Profound's limitation is the mirror image. It measures with great precision, but it does not change your site. Enterprises that buy monitoring before fixing structure often spend a year watching a flat line.
All prices above are vendor list prices in US dollars or euros as published on the dates cited, and vendors change tiers without notice. Hong Kong dollar figures are approximate conversions for budgeting only, not quoted prices. Confirm every figure with the vendor before procurement.
What is the right next step for a Hong Kong enterprise?
Run the free structural audit first, because it costs nothing and takes 30 seconds, and it tells you whether a paid monitor would be measuring a real signal or an empty room. Then choose the monitor that fits your buyer type above. For most Hong Kong mid-market firms, that sequence saves a year of paying US$399 a month to watch a zero.
The decision this page set out to resolve is not "Profound or not Profound". It is "diagnosis or monitoring, and in what order". Profound is an excellent monitor for the buyer who has already fixed the fundamentals and needs a board-grade dataset. Peec and Otterly are sound monitors for smaller budgets. None of them is the right first purchase for a site that AI cannot yet read.
We understand the cold edges of AI and the hard parts of your work, and UD has walked with Hong Kong enterprises for twenty-eight years, making technology a partnership with warmth.
Reviewed by the UD enterprise AI team.
Before you sign any monitoring contract, find out whether AI can read your site at all. The UDomain AEO Auditor is free, needs no card, and returns 170+ structural checks in about 30 seconds. We'll walk you through every step, from reading the score to prioritising the fixes and choosing the right monitor afterwards.
