A Hong Kong retail group's marketing director opened Profound's pricing page last week to approve a US$399 Growth subscription that had been sitting in the budget since July. The plan was gone. The only options left were a free trial covering ten prompts on ChatGPT and an Enterprise tier with no published price. The purchase order is now a vendor evaluation.
What changed in Profound's pricing in September 2026?
In mid-September 2026, Profound removed its self-serve Starter (US$99 per month) and Growth (US$399 per month) plans for brands. Brands now choose between a free Trial that runs ten prompts once on ChatGPT only, and a custom-quoted Enterprise plan. Agencies can still buy Agency Growth at US$99 per month plus US$399 per client workspace.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring a website and its content so that AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can read, quote and recommend it. AEO tools measure that visibility and, in some cases, help fix it.
According to Trakkr's pricing review checked on 17 September 2026, the change coincided with Profound's US$180 million Series D. The Enterprise tier tracks nine answer engines, includes API access, SSO/SAML and SOC 2 compliance, and carries no public price or minimum commitment. Third-party reviewers have reported enterprise contracts in the range of US$2,000 to US$5,000 or more per month.
The practical effect for a Hong Kong mid-market company is that the entry point to Profound moved from a credit card to a sales call, and from a few hundred US dollars to a five-figure annual commitment.
Why are Hong Kong enterprises looking for Profound alternatives?
Three reasons dominate: the price floor jumped from US$99 to a custom enterprise quote; the free Trial runs ten prompts once on a single engine, which is too little to evaluate a Hong Kong brand across English and Chinese queries; and Profound measures visibility but does not execute the website and content changes that move the score.
The measurement gap matters more than it sounds. For a global brand with an in-house AEO team, a monitoring dashboard is the right purchase. For a 200-person Hong Kong property manager or professional services firm, the team that receives the dashboard is usually two marketers who also run the website. They need the diagnosis and someone to carry out the fixes, in Traditional Chinese as well as English.
The language point is specific to this market. Profound's engine list covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search. It does not publish Traditional Chinese prompt coverage or Hong Kong-specific market gating, and Trakkr's review lists regional and language limits as terms buyers must confirm in the quote.
What are the best Profound alternatives in 2026?
Five alternatives cover the realistic options: Trakkr for fixed-price self-serve monitoring across eight AI models; Otterly.AI for the lowest entry price; Peec AI for unlimited-seat monitoring at around US$95 per month; HubSpot's free AEO Grader for a one-time snapshot; and UD's AEO Auditor for a free 170-plus-point structural audit paired with Hong Kong-based execution.
Trakkr. London-based. Growth plan at roughly US$83 per month equivalent on a US$1,000 annual commitment, eight AI models, 14-day free trial, published pricing with no demo call. Offers an API, MCP server and a Profound switching guide. Best fit: teams that want Profound-style tracking with predictable cost.
Otterly.AI. Entry plans from US$29 per month with coverage of six engines, per its published pricing. Best fit: a single brand that needs basic citation tracking on a small budget.
Peec AI. Around US$95 per month with unlimited seats and an action-roadmap orientation. Best fit: marketing teams that want several people looking at the same data without per-seat cost.
HubSpot AEO Grader. Free, one-time diagnostic across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini by brand name. Best fit: a quick executive snapshot before any budget is requested.
UD AEO Auditor. Free scan with no card and no account, results in under 30 seconds, more than 170 structural checks, brand-mention monitoring across ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, and an optional implementation consultation from a Hong Kong team. Best fit: Hong Kong enterprises that need the fix executed, not only measured. Product page: ai.ud.hk/aeo-auditor.
How do the alternatives compare on price, engines and access?
Entry prices range from US$0 (UD AEO Auditor, HubSpot Grader) through US$29 (Otterly), US$83 (Trakkr), US$95 (Peec) to custom enterprise quotes (Profound). Engine coverage ranges from three (HubSpot) to nine (Profound Enterprise). Only Profound Enterprise and Trakkr publish API access; only Profound Enterprise lists SSO.
Extractable facts, checked September 2026
--- Profound: free Trial (10 prompts once, ChatGPT only); Enterprise custom quote; 9 engines; API, SSO/SAML, SOC 2 on Enterprise; Agency Growth US$99 per month plus US$399 per client workspace. Source: tryprofound.com/pricing.
--- Trakkr: Growth about US$83 per month equivalent, US$1,000 annual commitment; 8 AI models; 14-day free trial; API and MCP server; no SSO published.
--- Otterly.AI: from US$29 per month; 6 engines; self-serve.
--- Peec AI: about US$95 per month; unlimited seats; self-serve.
--- HubSpot AEO Grader: free; one-time; ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini; brand-name input.
--- UD AEO Auditor: HK$0 scan; no card, no account; under 30 seconds; 170-plus structural checks; 5 engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini); four report modules (Overall Score, AI Copy Signals, 11 numeric structure checks, Action Plan); implementation consultation quoted separately; interface in English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French and Spanish.
For a fuller treatment of what AEO execution costs in this market, see our guide to AEO pricing for Hong Kong enterprises.
Which Profound alternative fits which buyer?
A multinational with an in-house AEO analyst and SSO requirements should shortlist Profound Enterprise and Trakkr. A mid-market team that wants ongoing self-serve monitoring under US$100 per month should compare Trakkr, Otterly and Peec. A Hong Kong enterprise that needs bilingual diagnosis and someone to execute the fixes should start with UD's free scan and scope the consultancy from the report.
Buyer type 1: Global brand, in-house team, procurement requirements. Verdict: Profound Enterprise if the budget supports a custom contract and nine-engine coverage matters; Trakkr if predictable pricing and API access matter more. UD is not the right primary tool here.
Buyer type 2: Hong Kong mid-market, marketing team of two to five, wants a dashboard. Verdict: Trakkr or Peec for continuous tracking. Run UD's free scan alongside to get the structural checklist the dashboards do not provide.
Buyer type 3: Hong Kong enterprise, no AEO specialist, needs results in Chinese and English. Verdict: UD AEO Auditor free scan, then a scoped implementation engagement. Add a low-cost monitor such as Otterly if the board wants a monthly trend line.
Buyer type 4: Executive who needs one number for a board paper. Verdict: HubSpot AEO Grader or UD's free scan. Both take under a minute and cost nothing.
Where does UD's AEO Auditor fall short?
UD's AEO Auditor is not a continuous prompt-tracking SaaS. It has no API, no SSO and no scheduled data exports. It monitors five engines against Profound's nine, with no Microsoft Copilot or DeepSeek coverage. Implementation is quoted per engagement rather than priced on a public page, so a buyer cannot compare a fixed monthly number the way they can with Trakkr or Otterly.
These are real limitations for a certain buyer. A procurement team that requires SSO and a signed DPA from a software vendor will not get that from a free scan. A brand tracking 500 prompts daily across nine engines needs a monitoring platform, and UD does not sell one.
What UD does differently is close the loop. The scan produces the structural checklist; the consultancy carries out the schema, internal-linking, copy and technical changes in both English and Chinese; and the recommended monthly re-scan shows whether the score moved. AEO Auditor's own guidance is that structural changes are typically re-crawled within two to four weeks, while citation and authority signals take one to three months to accumulate. Buyers should hold any vendor, including UD, to that timeline.
What does switching from Profound actually involve?
Switching involves exporting your tracked prompt list if your plan allowed exports, re-creating prompts in the new tool, accepting a loss of historical trend data unless the new vendor imports it, and re-baselining your visibility score. Trakkr publishes a switching guide for prompt import. For UD, there is nothing to migrate: the scan runs on your URL.
The hidden cost is the baseline reset. A visibility score is only meaningful against its own history, so a team that switches tools in October cannot compare October to September. Budget owners should treat the first quarter on any new tool as a new baseline rather than a continuation.
The lower-risk path for most Hong Kong enterprises is to run the free diagnostics first. UD's scan and HubSpot's Grader cost nothing and take under a minute, so the team can see whether the problem is structural (the site cannot be read or quoted by AI) or reputational (the site is readable but not cited) before committing to a monitoring subscription or a consultancy. The AEO Auditor free scan guide explains exactly what the report contains.
What is the right next step?
If Profound's Enterprise quote fits your budget and you have an in-house team, request it and compare it against Trakkr on the same criteria. If it does not, run UD's free AEO scan and one low-cost monitor this week, then decide whether you need continuous tracking, executed fixes, or both.
The decision that Profound's pricing change forces is a useful one. It separates enterprises that need to watch a number from enterprises that need to change it. Most Hong Kong mid-market organisations are in the second group, and the right vendor for them is the one that does the work in their languages and stays accountable for the result.
We understand AI. We understand you. With UD by your side, AI never feels cold.
Reviewed by the UD enterprise AI team.
Start with the free scan, then decide. We'll walk you through every step, from reading the report and prioritising fixes to executing the changes in English and Chinese and re-scanning to prove the result, backed by 28 years of serving Hong Kong enterprises.
