8 Best LLMrefs Alternatives & Competitors in 2026

Most people looking for an LLMrefs alternative want one of three things: a lower entry price, a real free tier to test before paying, or coverage of an engine or feature LLMrefs doesn't reach.

LLMrefs is a good mid-market AI-visibility tracker: one flat "All in One" plan at $79/month, broad engine coverage, and unlimited seats and domains, which makes it a favorite with agencies.¹ But that flat price has no free tier under it (only a 7-day trial), it tracks 500 prompts (about 50 keywords) and refreshes weekly rather than in real time, and it's light on the enterprise-governance story. Depending on which of those matters to you, a different tool fits better.

I've compared eight, with pricing checked against each vendor's own page where it's published (and third-party reviews where it isn't, flagged below). This is a buyer's guide, not a bait-and-switch.

Disclosure up front: I build FixAEO, one of the tools on this list, and I've put it at #1. Read that with the appropriate skepticism. I've kept the entry balanced, downsides included, and I'll point out exactly where LLMrefs and the others beat us. Most vendor-written "alternatives" posts quietly rank themselves best with no disclosure — I'd rather disclose and let you judge.

The 8 LLMrefs alternatives at a glance

Tool	Best for	Entry price / mo	Free tier	AI engines
LLMrefs (baseline)	Agencies wanting flat price + unlimited seats	$79 flat	No — 7-day trial	11
FixAEO	Free-first; broad coverage at the lowest paid entry	$29 ($25 annual)	Yes — real free tier	8
Peec AI	European BI-style analytics	€89 ($95)	No — 7-day trial	3 + add-ons
Otterly.ai	Pre-publish content scoring	$29	No — trial	4 core + add-ons
Scrunch AI	Enterprise agent-experience platform	$250	No	Multiple
RankScale	Cheapest, widest engine count	~$20 (credit-based)	Limited free	17+
AthenaHQ	Enterprise, broad engines	$295	Limited Essential	8–9
Profound	Enterprise benchmarking	$99 (real depth $399+)	No	1–10 by tier
SE Ranking	AI visibility inside an SEO suite	add-on (~$150+ all-in)	14-day trial	5

Prices are entry-tier and rounded; full detail and sources are in each section and under How I researched this.

Quick pick — which one for you

• You want a free way to check before paying → FixAEO. A no-signup free scan LLMrefs doesn't offer, then 8 engines at $29/mo paid.
• You want the most engines for the least money → RankScale (17+ surfaces advertised, credit-based from ~$20).
• You feed AI-visibility data into a BI dashboard → Peec AI.
• You care most about improving content, not just tracking → Otterly.ai (pre-publish scorer).
• You want to actively shape how AI agents read your site → Scrunch AI (enterprise agent-experience platform).
• You've outgrown LLMrefs and need enterprise governance (SOC 2, SSO) → AthenaHQ or Profound.
• You already pay for an SEO suite → SE Ranking's AI toolkit as an add-on.
• You're a large agency happy with LLMrefs' flat price and unlimited seats → you may not need to switch at all. See When LLMrefs is still the right call.

Why teams look beyond LLMrefs

LLMrefs does the core job well, so the reasons to switch are specific, not "it's bad":¹

• No free tier. The only way in is a 7-day trial, then $79/mo. If you just want to see where you stand before paying anyone, you can't.
• Weekly, not real-time. Dashboards refresh at least weekly. Fine for most teams; a limitation for fast-moving news or launch categories.
• 500-prompt / ~50-keyword cap. Generous for a small brand, tight if you track many topics or many clients on one plan.
• Light on enterprise governance. No prominent SOC 2 / SSO story — if procurement needs that, LLMrefs isn't the pick.
• Engine mix, not depth. LLMrefs counts a lot of engines, but if you need real-conversation demand data (Profound) or a content-fix workflow (Otterly), that's a different tool.

The eight below map to those needs.

The 8 alternatives, ranked by fit

1. FixAEO — the free-first alternative

FixAEO's homepage, 2026.

Best for: founders, indie marketers, and small teams who want broad engine coverage without a $79/mo floor, plus a free way to check first.

Spec	FixAEO
AI engines	8 — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, DeepSeek, Grok, AI Overviews
Entry price	$29/mo ($25/mo billed annually)
Free tier	Yes — 1 anonymous Gemini scan/day, no signup, plus 22 free tools
Standout	Real free tier; on paid, an MCP server for Claude/Cursor plus AI-crawler tracking, at the lowest paid entry price
Watch out	Lite tracks only 15 prompts (LLMrefs: 500); free tier is Gemini-only; no unlimited-seat flat plan; no Prompt-Volume demand data

Disclosure: FixAEO is our product, listed first. Here's the honest case for it. LLMrefs has no free tier at all; FixAEO's is free: one anonymous scan a day (Gemini-powered), no signup, no card, plus 22 standalone tools (schema generators, llms.txt and robots.txt builders, validators). If you just want to see whether AI mentions your brand before paying anyone, you can.

On price, paid Lite is $29/mo ($25 annually) for 8 engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, DeepSeek, Grok, and Google AI Overviews. LLMrefs is $79 flat. Monthly Lite also has a 7-day free trial (card required) if you want full coverage before paying. FixAEO also tracks something many trackers don't: AI-bot/crawler traffic, meaning how often GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot actually hit your site, not just human referrals.

FixAEO also ships an MCP server, which is handy for an AEO team. Connect Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT, ask "where do we rank on Google but never get cited by AI?", and pull the answer straight into the chat across all 8 engines, without opening a dashboard. It's included on the paid plans (from $29/mo). Among the tools here, Peec, Profound, and Otterly also offer an MCP server; LLMrefs doesn't. Of that group, FixAEO is the only one with a real free tier under it.

The limitations, straight. LLMrefs beats FixAEO on three things. It counts more engines (11 vs our 8). Its flat $79 plan includes unlimited seats and domains, excellent value for a large agency running many brands, where FixAEO's per-plan pricing can cost more. And it tracks far more prompts: 500 on its plan versus 15 on FixAEO's Lite tier (500 is FixAEO's Enterprise tier). If you track many topics or many clients, LLMrefs is more generous at this price. FixAEO's free tier is also single-engine (Gemini); seeing all 8 needs the Lite plan.

Who it's for: solo founders, small teams, and agencies that want breadth and a free entry point over an unlimited-seat flat plan. Run a free scan, read the full LLMrefs review, or check pricing.

2. Peec AI — the European analytics dashboard

Peec AI's homepage, July 2026.

Best for: European teams piping AI-visibility data into their own BI stack.

Spec	Peec AI
AI engines	3 on base tiers; Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek are ~€35/mo add-ons each
Entry price	From €89/mo (~$95); full coverage runs $200–$585/mo-equivalent
Free tier	No — 7-day trial
Standout	BI-grade analytics: CSV export, Looker Studio, API, sentiment over time
Watch out	Monitoring-only; add-on math adds up fast

Peec is a polished, BI-oriented tracker priced in euros from about €89/mo. It has real workflow depth: CSV export, Looker Studio integration, an API, and sentiment-over-time. If your job is feeding AI-visibility numbers into an existing dashboard, Peec is built for it. The catch: base tiers track only 3 engines, and every extra model — Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek — is a paid add-on at roughly €35/mo each. Full coverage lands at $200–$585/mo-equivalent once stacked.² It's pricier than LLMrefs's flat $79 once you match coverage, and it's monitoring-only.

Who it's for: funded European teams that value analytics depth. See FixAEO vs Peec AI.

3. Otterly.ai — the pre-publish content scorer

Otterly's homepage, July 2026.

Best for: content teams that want to predict citation potential before they publish.

Spec	Otterly.ai
AI engines	4 core — ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot; Claude/Gemini/AI Mode are add-ons
Entry price	$29/mo (then $189, $489)
Free tier	No — trial only
Standout	Pre-publish content scorer plus strong published GEO research
Watch out	Core tiers skip Claude and Gemini; no permanent free tier

Otterly's wedge is a pre-publish content scorer that estimates whether a page will get cited, plus genuinely good published GEO research. It covers 4 core engines from $29/mo. The limitation versus LLMrefs: Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons, so the out-of-the-box four skip two engines most trackers ship as standard.³ Where it beats LLMrefs is the content angle — Otterly helps you act, not just measure.

Who it's for: content-led teams that care more about a pre-publish score than raw engine count. See FixAEO vs Otterly.

4. Scrunch AI — the enterprise agent-experience platform

Scrunch AI's homepage, July 2026.

Best for: enterprise teams that want to actively shape how AI agents read their site.

Spec	Scrunch AI
AI engines	Multiple — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and more
Entry price	$250/mo (Core); Enterprise custom
Free tier	No
Standout	The Agent Experience Platform — serves AI crawlers a clean, machine-readable version of your site
Watch out	$250/mo floor; enterprise-oriented; the AXP is newer and still rolling out

Scrunch is the enterprise, agent-experience play. Beyond tracking mentions across engines, its Agent Experience Platform serves AI crawlers a machine-readable version of your pages, so you're not just measuring visibility, you're shaping what the models read. It starts at $250/mo with no free tier, so it's a funded-team buy, not a founder tool. Against LLMrefs, it's far pricier and enterprise-oriented, but it does something LLMrefs doesn't touch — actively optimizing your site for AI crawlers rather than only reporting on them.

Who it's for: funded, enterprise teams that want to shape how AI agents read their site, not just track mentions. See our Scrunch AI review.

5. RankScale — the cheapest, widest-coverage option

RankScale's homepage, July 2026.

Best for: multi-client agencies that want the most engines for the least money and don't mind a credit-based model.

Spec	RankScale
AI engines	17+ surfaces advertised (the widest count here)
Entry price	~$20/mo, credit-based (≈120 credits)
Free tier	Limited free plan
Standout	Broadest engine coverage at the lowest price, plus Looker Studio integration
Watch out	Credit model can bite at volume; younger, thinner track record

RankScale is the budget pick: it advertises the widest engine coverage of anything here (17+ surfaces) at a credit-based entry around $20/mo, with a limited free plan and Looker Studio integration for agency reporting.⁴ Against LLMrefs, it's cheaper and counts more engines. The trade-offs are the usual for a young, aggressively-priced tool: the credit model can get expensive as you scale, and the track record is shorter, so verify current credit costs and engine list on rankscale.ai before committing.

Who it's for: budget-conscious agencies that want maximum engine breadth and will watch their credit usage. See FixAEO vs RankScale.

6. AthenaHQ — the broad-coverage enterprise pick

AthenaHQ's homepage, July 2026.

Best for: enterprise teams that need SOC 2, SSO, and named case studies with broad engine coverage.

Spec	AthenaHQ
AI engines	8 named (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok); vendor advertises up to 9
Entry price	$295/mo (limited free Essential tier below it)
Free tier	Yes — Essential (300 credits/mo, 5 models)
Standout	Enterprise depth: SOC 2 Type 2, SSO, BI connectors, hallucination detection
Watch out	$295/mo floor; no DeepSeek; an enterprise buy

If you're outgrowing LLMrefs and moving upmarket, AthenaHQ is the closest broad-coverage enterprise option. It's YC-backed and ships SOC 2 Type 2, SSO, brand-impersonation and hallucination detection, sentiment analysis, and BI connectors for Tableau, Power BI, and Looker, across 8–9 engines. The reasons it's mid-list: a $295/mo floor (though a limited free Essential tier now sits below it) and no DeepSeek. It's the governance LLMrefs lacks — at roughly 4× the price.

Who it's for: funded companies that want enterprise depth with published, self-serve-ish pricing. See FixAEO vs AthenaHQ.

7. Profound — the enterprise benchmark

Profound's homepage, July 2026.

Best for: enterprises that want the category's deepest real-conversation demand data and will pay for it.

Spec	Profound
AI engines	1 (Starter) to up to 10 (Enterprise) by tier
Entry price	$99/mo Starter; $399/mo Growth; Enterprise unpublished ($2,000–$5,000+ est.)
Free tier	No
Standout	Prompt Volume — real AI-conversation demand data — plus autonomous Agents
Watch out	Published tiers gate engines hard; the famous features are Enterprise-only

Profound is the most enterprise product in the category. Its published self-serve tiers are $99/mo (Starter, ChatGPT only, 50 prompts) and $399/mo (Growth, ChatGPT + Perplexity + AI Overviews, 100 prompts); the features it's actually known for — Prompt Volume demand data and autonomous Agents — sit in an unpublished Enterprise tier that third parties peg at $2,000–$5,000+/mo.⁵ Versus LLMrefs, it's far more expensive and gates engines hard on published tiers, but nothing else matches its real-conversation demand data. Buy it for that data specifically, not as a like-for-like LLMrefs swap.

Who it's for: enterprises whose whole reason to buy is Prompt Volume depth. See FixAEO vs Profound.

8. SE Ranking (AI toolkit) — AI visibility inside an SEO suite

SE Ranking's homepage, July 2026.

Best for: teams already paying for SE Ranking who want AI visibility added on.

Spec	SE Ranking (AI toolkit)
AI engines	5 — AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity
Entry price	Add-on (~$150–$240+/mo all-in) or a standalone "SE Visible" plan
Free tier	14-day trial plus a free 5-checks/day checker
Standout	AI visibility inside a full SEO suite you may already pay for
Watch out	Confusing two-path pricing; no Claude/Copilot/Grok/DeepSeek

If you already live in SE Ranking's all-in-one SEO suite, adding AI visibility as one more line item can beat a separate LLMrefs subscription. It tracks 5 platforms and offers a free 5-checks/day checker for ad-hoc lookups. The honest problem is the pricing: there are two paths, an "AI Search" add-on (real all-in cost $150–$240+/mo, annual-only) or a standalone "SE Visible" plan, and sources don't clearly reconcile them or their exact tiers.⁶ The tracked list also has no Claude, Copilot, Grok, or DeepSeek.

Who it's for: existing SE Ranking customers who want AI as an add-on, not a new tool. (One honorable mention in the same "AI inside a suite" bucket: Nightwatch for classic rank tracking plus AI.)

How to choose an LLMrefs alternative

Five questions narrow the list fast:

1. Do you want to test for free first? → FixAEO (real free tier) or RankScale (limited free). LLMrefs and most others are trial-only.
2. Is price the constraint? → FixAEO ($29) or RankScale (~$20). Both undercut LLMrefs's $79.
3. Do you manage many brands on unlimited seats? → this is LLMrefs's strength; only a flat-price model matches it (see below).
4. Do you need to act on the data, not just see it? → Otterly (content), Peec (analytics), Scrunch AI (agent experience).
5. Do you need enterprise governance? → AthenaHQ or Profound.

And before you cancel LLMrefs: export your prompt lists and historical data. Most tools won't import it, so keep your own copy.

Migrating off LLMrefs without losing data

Switching trackers is low-risk if you do it in this order — the mistake is canceling first and losing your history:

1. Export before you cancel. Pull your prompt and keyword lists, tracked competitors, and any historical charts out of LLMrefs (CSV where offered). No tool imports LLMrefs's history, so your export is your archive.
2. Write down what you track. The prompts, the competitor set, the topics, the countries. You'll recreate these by hand in the new tool.
3. Run both in parallel for one cycle. Start the replacement's free tier or trial while LLMrefs is still live, recreate your prompts, and let it collect one full refresh. Now you can compare the same week's data side by side instead of guessing.
4. Add anything the new tool tracks that you weren't watching. If you're moving to a tool with wider coverage (RankScale's 17+ surfaces) or a feature LLMrefs lacked (a free tier, AI-crawler tracking, an MCP server), set those up now so your first baseline already includes them.
5. Cancel LLMrefs only after the new tool has logged a complete refresh cycle and you've saved your export. Then you've lost nothing.

When LLMrefs is still the right call

To be fair to it: if you're an agency running many client brands, LLMrefs's one flat $79/mo plan with unlimited seats and domains is hard to beat on total cost, since per-brand or per-seat pricing elsewhere can add up past it fast. If you're happy with weekly refresh, you're inside the 500-prompt budget, and you don't need a free tier or enterprise governance, there's no urgent reason to move. Switch when you hit a specific limit, not because a listicle told you to.

How I researched this

Every price, tier, and engine count above was checked against each vendor's own pricing page in July 2026, then cross-referenced with third-party reviews where a number was ambiguous. Where a vendor doesn't publish a figure — Profound's Enterprise tier, for instance — I've labeled the third-party estimate as an estimate, not a fact. LLMrefs's own specifics come from llmrefs.com and are covered in depth in our separate LLMrefs review. AEO pricing changes constantly, so treat every number as a starting point and confirm before you buy. And I build FixAEO, which is disclosed above and at #1.

Bottom line

If LLMrefs's price or missing free tier is your blocker, the pick for most self-serve buyers is FixAEO: 8 engines at $29/mo with a free way to check first. If you want the most engines for the least money, RankScale. If you need to act on the data, Otterly or Scrunch AI; if you're going enterprise, AthenaHQ or Profound. And if you're a big agency happy with unlimited seats at a flat price, LLMrefs may still be your best option. That's the honest answer.

For the wider category, our best AEO tools of 2026 guide ranks everything, and the full LLMrefs review goes deep on LLMrefs itself.

FAQ

What are the best LLMrefs alternatives?

For most self-serve buyers: FixAEO (free tier, 8 engines, $29/mo), RankScale (widest engine count, ~$20 credit-based), Peec AI (BI analytics), and Otterly (content scoring). For enterprises, AthenaHQ and Profound. Which one wins depends on your budget, how many engines your buyers use, and whether you need a free tier or governance.

Is there a free LLMrefs alternative?

Yes. LLMrefs has no free tier, only a 7-day trial. FixAEO has a real one: one anonymous Gemini-powered scan a day, no signup or card, plus 22 free standalone tools. RankScale also offers a limited free plan. Seeing all of FixAEO's 8 engines needs the $29/mo Lite plan (which has a 7-day trial too).

How much does LLMrefs cost?

LLMrefs runs one flat "All in One" plan at $79/month (billed as a limited-time rate), which tracks 500 prompts (about 50 keywords) across its engines with unlimited seats and domains, plus a 7-day free trial. Confirm the current rate on llmrefs.com — see our full review for the deep dive.¹

Should you actually switch from LLMrefs, or stay?

Stay if you're an agency getting value from the flat price and unlimited seats, you're within the 500-prompt budget, and weekly refresh is fine. Switch if you want a lower price or a free tier (FixAEO, RankScale), more engines (RankScale), a content-fix workflow (Otterly), or enterprise governance (AthenaHQ, Profound). There's no shame in staying — it's a good tool for the right buyer.

Which LLMrefs alternative tracks the most AI engines?

RankScale advertises the most (17+ surfaces) at the lowest entry price. Among mainstream trackers, FixAEO covers 8 major engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, DeepSeek, Grok, and Google AI Overviews — while AthenaHQ covers 8–9 of the majors but not DeepSeek. Verify current engine lists before buying; they change often.

What's the best LLMrefs alternative for agencies?

It depends on your model. For many small clients on a tight budget, FixAEO's 8 engines at $29/mo or RankScale's credit model stretch furthest. If you want unlimited seats and domains at one flat price, LLMrefs itself is strong — that's its whole pitch. For enterprise clients needing SOC 2 and SSO, AthenaHQ fits better.

What's the cheapest LLMrefs alternative?

RankScale at roughly $20/mo (credit-based) is the lowest sticker, with a limited free plan. FixAEO is $29/mo for 8 engines and adds a permanent free tier, which is the cheapest way to actually start (free), then the lowest paid entry for full multi-engine coverage.

Can I query these tools from Claude or Cursor (MCP)?

Some of them. FixAEO, Peec, Profound, and Otterly ship an MCP server, so you can connect an AI client — Claude, Cursor, and others — and ask about your AI visibility without opening a dashboard. LLMrefs doesn't offer one. FixAEO's MCP is included on its paid plans (from $29/mo) and exposes read-only tools across all 8 engines, so you can pull your visibility, citations, and competitor data straight into a chat. For an AEO team that already lives inside AI tools, that's a meaningful convenience most trackers don't have.

Do these alternatives cover Claude, Grok, and DeepSeek?

Not all of them. FixAEO covers all three (plus ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and AI Overviews). AthenaHQ covers Claude and Grok but not DeepSeek. Otterly's core tiers, Nightwatch, and SE Ranking miss one or more of them. If a specific engine matters, check the tracked list before you buy — this is exactly where engine count can be misleading.

Footnotes

1. LLMrefs pricing, plan structure, engine count, and cadence verified against llmrefs.com in July 2026 and covered in depth in our LLMrefs review. The "All in One" $79/mo rate is labeled limited-time on the site. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Peec AI full-coverage cost range from third-party reviews (geoptie.com, workduo.ai), cross-checked against peec.ai/pricing, July 2026. ↩

3. Otterly's live pricing page did not state a specific trial length in July 2026; core tiers list 4 engines with Claude/Gemini/AI Mode as add-ons. ↩

4. RankScale engine count and credit-based pricing from rankscale.ai and third-party cross-checks, July 2026; treat the ~$20 credit entry and "17+ engines" as approximate and verify current terms. ↩

5. Profound published tiers from tryprofound.com, July 2026; Enterprise price is unpublished — the $2,000–$5,000+/mo figure is a third-party estimate (thatmarketingbuddy.com, trakkr.ai), not a vendor figure. ↩

6. SE Ranking bundled-cost figures and the SE Visible standalone pricing from WebSearch cross-check (checkthat.ai, aeoengine.ai), July 2026. ↩