Ahrefs Brand Radar alternatives compared feature by feature: what each adds to an SEO suite (2026)
Six Ahrefs Brand Radar alternatives compared row by row on check costs, engines, crawler logs, personas, location and publishing, from vendor pages read November 2026.
Most people who use Ahrefs Brand Radar came to it through Ahrefs. They already pay for Site Explorer and the backlink index, and Brand Radar is the AI tab sitting next to it. That is a good reason to try it. The AI Visibility Index lets you look up any brand, product or category across 538M+ prompts with no setup, with history back to 2025. Custom Prompts track your own prompt list daily across AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude, and show the fan-out queries each engine generates behind a prompt. Bot Analytics logs AI crawler visits on every paid Ahrefs plan while it is in beta, and Web Analytics reports AI-referred traffic for free on verified sites. Having all of that one tab away from a backlink index is hard to match.
The reasons teams compare alternatives show up once the prompt list grows. Ahrefs Brand Radar bills Custom Prompts in checks: one prompt, on one platform, in one location, is one check. Lite's 150 checks a month equal 5 prompts tracked daily on a single platform, and Claude uses 8 checks per update. Packages run from €46.7 a month for 2,500 checks to €234 for 25,000. Lite, Standard and Advanced each include one user, and extra users cost €37.4 to €74.8 a month depending on the plan. Asked about free trials, Ahrefs' pricing FAQ says "We never run discounts" and points to Ahrefs Free instead, alongside a free AI visibility preview. Then there are the rows that aren't on Ahrefs' Brand Radar or pricing pages at all (checked November 2026): personas, an action queue, CMS publishing, ChatGPT Shopping tracking, ads inside AI answers, and tracking a single URL. The AI fact checker and the conversational layer live in Letaido, a separate Ahrefs product whose price isn't listed.
Ahrefs Brand Radar page, captured November 6, 2026.
The useful question for an Ahrefs customer is rarely "replace everything." It is usually "what do I add beside the SEO suite, or what replaces Brand Radar alone?" So each section below ends with that answer. Every competitor fact comes from the vendor's own pricing or product pages, captured November 6 and 8, 2026. Where a page says nothing, we say so. For the two-way version with a 28-row table and a worked check budget, read our Promptwatch vs Ahrefs Brand Radar feature comparison.
Quick verdict
- Promptwatch is the one to trial first. It covers the rows Brand Radar leaves blank (personas, city and coordinate targeting, faster-than-daily runs, Page Tracker, Fact Check, Ads Radar, Shopping, CMS publishing) inside one product, with unlimited seats and no per-engine check weighting. Keep Ahrefs for backlinks.
- AthenaHQ suits teams that want an action workflow and a free tier, and can work inside a credit pool.
- Scrunch AI suits sites that want bot traffic and personas on one $250 plan and can live with four engines on Core.
- Semrush AI Toolkit is the sideways move for a team that would rather consolidate its SEO suite with Semrush.
- Rankscale is the budget pick for hourly runs, shopping and ads data, if you write content elsewhere.
- LLM Pulse is the cheapest entry, if weekly data is enough.
The comparison table
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | What it doesn't list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promptwatch | Teams that need tracking, crawler evidence, conversions and publishing in one project | $95/mo (Essential); 7-day free trial | No backlink index; no free plan; crawler logs and AEO articles start on Professional ($245/mo) |
| AthenaHQ | Teams that will work an action list every week | Free Essential; Starter $295/mo | Crawler logs, fan-outs and an MCP server not listed; personas and multi-region on Enterprise |
| Scrunch AI | Sites that want bot traffic and a persona on the entry plan | Core $250/mo; 7-day free trial | Gemini, Claude and AI Mode Enterprise only; API and MCP Enterprise only |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | SEO teams consolidating on Semrush | Base $99/mo per domain, billed annually | 25 prompts on Base; fan-outs not listed; crawler log analysis only on Enterprise AIO |
| Rankscale | Budget teams that want hourly runs plus shopping and ads | Pro €99/mo; Essentials €17/mo billed yearly | Does not generate content (its facts page says so); personas not listed |
| LLM Pulse | Small teams on a tight budget | Starter €49/mo, weekly tracking; 14-day trial | Daily tracking on separate plans; Claude and Copilot are add-ons; crawler logs from Scale (€299/mo) |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar (reference) | Ahrefs customers who want AI data next to backlinks | Check packages from €46.7/mo; included in Lite (€119/mo) | Personas, action queue, CMS publishing, Shopping and ads tracking not listed; one user per plan |
Sources: each vendor's pricing page captured November 6, 2026, plus product pages and llms.txt files read November 8, 2026. Ahrefs, Rankscale and LLM Pulse showed euro prices to a visitor in the Netherlands, and Ahrefs' captured page doesn't say whether its plan prices are monthly or annual billing. Semrush's AI toolkit page showed dollars.
1. Promptwatch: the rows Brand Radar leaves blank
Promptwatch is a dedicated AI visibility platform, so it doesn't try to match Ahrefs on backlinks or keyword data. What it does is fill the AI-side rows that Brand Radar either leaves out or hands to a separate product.
Start with how usage is counted. Promptwatch sells a fixed number of prompts and responses per plan, and every paid plan can track any of the supported engines with no per-engine surcharge. Essential is $95 a month (€85) for 1 project, 50 prompts and 6,000 responses. Professional is $245 (€205) for 2 projects, 150 prompts and 18,000 responses. Business is $579 (€499) for 5 projects, 350 prompts and 42,000 responses. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Amazon Alexa and Meta AI are monitored through their real interfaces. Claude, DeepSeek, Mistral and Grok are tracked via API, and Codex, Claude Code and OpenCode are tracked as coding agents. On Brand Radar, Claude costs eight times the checks of other engines. Grok, Meta AI and Alexa aren't listed there, and neither are coding agents.
Promptwatch's prompt tracking page, captured November 8, 2026.
Then the gaps, with the plan where Promptwatch gates them:
- Personas with stacking, plus Persona Insights, which draws a radar per persona against the general audience. Promptwatch doesn't sell personas as a higher-tier feature, and they aren't listed for Brand Radar.
- Location below country. Country tracking is on every paid plan, state and city on Business and every agency plan, and coordinate targeting (a pin with a 20 m to 5 km radius) on Business, Agency Scale and Enterprise. Ahrefs counts checks per location but doesn't state the granularity.
- Runs every 12, 6 or 1 hours on Business, Agency Scale and Enterprise. Custom Prompts top out at daily.
- Page Tracker for any URL, including a competitor's, plus Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram citation reports. Ahrefs covers YouTube, TikTok and Reddit sources, but not LinkedIn or Instagram, and doesn't list single-URL tracking.
- Brand Narrative on every plan, which groups the claims AI makes about you by theme and scores them, and Fact Check on Business and up, which checks a claim against pages crawled from your own site.
- The Action Board and Agent Chat inside the same product. On Ahrefs, the agent and the fact checker sit in Letaido.
- AEO articles from Professional (5 a month), and on Business the automated Content Agent, which publishes to WordPress, Webflow or Framer from a review inbox. Ahrefs' Content Kit is an €89 add-on, and CMS publishing isn't listed.
- ChatGPT Shopping (including Alexa product results) and Ads Radar on Business. Neither is listed for Brand Radar.
On crawler data, Ahrefs is ahead on price. Its Bot Analytics is on every paid plan, Lite included, while Promptwatch's crawler logs start on Professional. The difference is depth. Promptwatch verifies each bot against its operator's published IP ranges, explains crawl errors, and shows a citation rate per page, which tells an access problem apart from a content problem. Ahrefs lists 404s and low-value pages, but no IP verification or crawl-to-citation link. Our guide on how to read a crawl-to-citation path shows what that view is for.
Promptwatch model picker, from the Promptwatch changelog. Example project data.
The honest limits: there is no free plan, only the 7-day trial and the free AI Visibility Report. Essential has no crawler logs and no AEO articles, while Ahrefs Lite (€119) includes Bot Analytics next to a full SEO suite. Promptwatch also has no backlink index. Keep Ahrefs? Yes, for SEO data. Promptwatch replaces Brand Radar, not Site Explorer.
2. AthenaHQ: an action layer, billed in credits
AthenaHQ adds the thing Brand Radar's pages don't list at all: a prioritized action queue. Starter costs $295 a month and includes on-page and off-page actions, a content optimization agent, the Ask Athena agent, unlimited topics, prompts and competitors, and 11 models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral). Users are unlimited on every plan. Essential is free, with 300 credits across five engines and the agent.
AthenaHQ's pricing page, captured November 6, 2026.
Credits work much like Ahrefs checks. One credit is one AI response, and Starter's 3,600 a month cover about 30 prompts on four engines checked daily. AthenaHQ doesn't weight Claude more heavily, which is a point in its favor against Brand Radar. The gaps for an Ahrefs user are the data rows. AI crawler logs and query fan-outs aren't listed on AthenaHQ's pricing or product pages (checked November 2026), and both are things Ahrefs gives you. Persona targeting and multi-region tracking are Enterprise only, and the API is a paid add-on on Starter. Keep Ahrefs? Yes, and you'd keep Bot Analytics too, since AthenaHQ doesn't list a replacement.
3. Scrunch AI: personas and bot traffic on one plan
Scrunch AI Core costs $250 a month for 125 unique prompts, 5,000 responses, five site audits, one brand workspace and five user licenses, with a 7-day free trial. Core lists AI agent and bot traffic split into training, indexing and retrieval bots, one persona, limited query fan-outs, basic content generation, sentiment, and insights and recommendations. Against Brand Radar, the persona, the recommendations and the content generation are the additions.
The catch is engine coverage. Core tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot. Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, AI Mode and Grok are Enterprise only, so Scrunch's entry plan covers fewer engines than Ahrefs' Custom Prompts. MCP, the API and the Looker Studio connector are also Enterprise only, where Ahrefs has API and MCP access from Lite. Scrunch's Agent Experience Platform, which serves token-light page versions to AI agents, is unique on this list and also Enterprise only. Keep Ahrefs? Probably, for the API and the backlinks.
4. Semrush AI Toolkit: the suite-for-suite swap
Semrush AI Toolkit is the only alternative here that replaces the whole Ahrefs account rather than just Brand Radar. Semrush cites 28B+ keywords and 43T+ backlinks, and its AI Visibility Toolkit is sold on its own: Base is $99 a month per domain, billed annually, with 25 custom prompts tracked daily across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, plus 300 instant AI visibility reports a day for any domain. That last part is the closest match to Ahrefs' AI Visibility Index. A free $0 plan lists AI Visibility features.
Semrush's Enterprise AI Optimization page, captured November 8, 2026.
On the AI rows, though, it's mostly a sideways move. Query fan-outs and personas aren't listed on Semrush's pages (checked November 2026), where Ahrefs documents fan-outs. Crawler log analysis, GA4 or Adobe traffic and conversion data, city-level detail and shopping tracking appear only on the Enterprise AIO page. Ahrefs has Bot Analytics on Lite and free Web Analytics. Search Console data and scheduled PDF reports come through a paid report add-on (€9.59 a month on Base), and extra users start at €43 a month. Keep Ahrefs? This is the one case where you wouldn't, and the reason to switch would be the rest of Semrush, not its AI tracking.
5. Rankscale: hourly runs and a lighter Claude bill
Rankscale also bills per engine, but more gently. Credits cost 0.25 a run for ChatGPT, AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini, 1 for DeepSeek and 2 for Claude, against Ahrefs' 8 checks for a Claude update. Pro is €99 a month for 1,200 credits, up to 4,800 answers and all 17+ engines, with a 7-day trial. Every plan schedules runs anywhere from hourly to monthly and includes query fan-outs, page audits and an MCP server. Pro adds AI Visits (crawler data through a read-only Cloudflare connection), shopping and ads tracking, a Looker Studio connector and unlimited seats in team workspaces. The REST API starts on Pro+ at €229.
Rankscale's AI Visits page, captured November 8, 2026.
Rankscale's facts page says it analyzes output but does not generate text or media itself, so there's no content side. Personas aren't listed, and AI Visits is Cloudflare only on a daily sync, with no IP verification or crawl-to-citation link listed. Keep Ahrefs? Yes. Rankscale replaces Custom Prompts cheaply but not much else.
6. LLM Pulse: the low-cost entry, weekly by default
LLM Pulse Starter is €49 a month on weekly tracking for 50 prompts, one project and five engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini), with unlimited team members, an MCP server with about 140 tools, and a 14-day trial. Growth (€99) adds sentiment, social and community citations, and AI traffic analytics with conversions. Scale (€299) adds crawler logs, shopping and ads tracking, the REST API and a Looker Studio connector.
Against Brand Radar, cadence is the problem. Ahrefs runs Custom Prompts daily, while LLM Pulse defaults to weekly, and its daily plans start paid with no trial. Claude is a €25 add-on and Copilot €10 on weekly Starter. Keep Ahrefs? Yes, and LLM Pulse would only replace the tracking.
Feature-gap table
Rows where Promptwatch has the capability, checked against each vendor's matrix entry. "Not listed" means not on that vendor's pricing or product pages (checked November 2026).
| Feature | Promptwatch | Ahrefs Brand Radar | Semrush AI Toolkit | Scrunch AI | Rankscale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engines and per-engine cost | Any supported engine on every paid plan; no surcharge | 7 engines; Claude uses 8 checks per update | 4 named on self-serve plans | 4 on Core; 9 on Enterprise | 17+; Claude 2 credits, DeepSeek 1, most others 0.25 |
| Personas | Yes, with stacking | Not listed | Not listed | 1 on Core | Not listed |
| State/city and coordinates | Business and up | Checks per location; granularity not stated | Cities on Enterprise AIO | Not listed | Local results from Pro; state/city not listed |
| Faster than daily | Every 12, 6 or 1 hours, Business | Daily maximum | Daily | Not listed | Hourly, every plan |
| Social citation reports | Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram | YouTube, TikTok, Reddit (beta) | Not listed | Partial ("Social" segment) | Not listed |
| Track any URL, incl. a competitor's | Page Tracker | Not listed | Partial (any-domain reports) | Partial (own pages) | Partial (audits any URL) |
| IP verification and crawl-to-citation | Yes, Professional and up | Partial (404s, low-value pages) | Not listed | Partial (bot types) | Partial (404 signals) |
| Claim-level brand narrative | Brand Narrative, every plan | Sentiment and narrative aspects; claim grouping not described | Sentiment and Narrative Drivers; claims by theme not described | Sentiment; claims not listed | Sentiment from Pro; claims not listed |
| Fact check against your pages | Business and up | Partial (skill in Letaido, a separate product) | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Action queue | Action Board | Not listed | Partial (recommendations) | Yes, Core | Yes, every plan |
| CMS publishing | WordPress, Webflow, Framer; automated on Business | Not listed | Partial (Content Toolkit) | Not listed | Not listed |
| ChatGPT Shopping tracking | Business | Not listed | Enterprise AIO only | Enterprise only | Pro and up |
| Ads inside AI answers | Business and agency plans | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed | Pro and up |
| Seats | Unlimited on every paid plan | 1 included; extra users paid | Extra users from €43/mo | 5 on Core | Unlimited from Pro |
Which missing rows matter depends on who owns the program. A content or SEO team trying to get specific pages cited should weigh Page Tracker and the crawl-to-citation rate most, since Ahrefs already gives you raw bot visits and the next question is which visits turned into citations. Multi-location and retail brands should look at the location and Shopping rows: Brand Radar charges per location but doesn't say how fine it goes, and only Promptwatch lists coordinate targeting here. Brands worried about wrong AI claims should look at Fact Check, which Ahrefs places in a separate product with no listed price. And any team bigger than two people should do the seat math, because Ahrefs includes one user per plan. Rankscale beats Promptwatch on two rows, hourly runs and ads tracking on cheaper plans, and that's worth knowing if those are your only needs.
Who should pick which
- You need to explain why a page is or isn't cited, by city or persona, and act on it in the same tool: Promptwatch, on Professional if crawler logs matter, Business if you need location depth.
- You want an action list and a free starting tier, and one country is enough: AthenaHQ.
- You want bot traffic and a persona on a $250 plan and four engines are enough: Scrunch AI.
- You're ready to move your whole SEO suite: Semrush AI Toolkit.
- You want hourly runs and shopping data cheaply and will write content elsewhere: Rankscale.
- You want the lowest bill and weekly data is fine: LLM Pulse.
- Stay on Ahrefs Brand Radar if you mostly benchmark competitors through the AI Visibility Index, your prompt list is short, you work alone or in pairs, and the value of having backlinks and AI data in one login outweighs the missing rows.
Our recommendation
Most Ahrefs customers who read a page like this already have the SEO side covered. What they're missing is a way to turn an AI visibility number into a fix: which persona sees a competitor, which city the gap is in, which cited page to beat, and whether the new article was crawled and cited. Promptwatch answers that in one project, and Page Tracker is the quickest way to see it. Start the 7-day free trial on Professional, add the competitor URL that keeps getting cited instead of yours to Page Tracker, load the same prompts you track in Brand Radar, and keep both running for the week. Ahrefs stays your backlink tool either way.
FAQ
Is Ahrefs Brand Radar included in an Ahrefs subscription?
Custom Prompts are included in every paid Ahrefs plan, but the quota is small: Lite's 150 checks a month cover 5 prompts daily on one platform. Larger check packages cost €46.7, €93 or €234 a month for 2,500, 7,000 or 25,000 checks. The AI Visibility Index is a separate purchase from €179 a month. Brand Radar can also be bought on its own, with an Ahrefs Free account.
Which alternatives track Claude without a surcharge?
Every paid Promptwatch plan can track any supported engine, with Claude tracked via API and no per-engine cost. AthenaHQ Starter lists Claude among its 11 models at one credit per response. Rankscale charges 2 credits per Claude run, against Ahrefs' 8 checks per update. LLM Pulse sells Claude as an add-on, and Scrunch puts it on Enterprise.
Does any alternative match Ahrefs' backlink data?
Semrush is the only one here with a comparable SEO index, citing 28B+ keywords and 43T+ backlinks. The dedicated AI platforms, Promptwatch included, don't have a backlink index, which is why many teams keep Ahrefs and add an AI visibility tool beside it.
Which alternatives have AI crawler logs?
Ahrefs has Bot Analytics on every paid plan in beta. Promptwatch includes crawler logs from Professional ($245/mo) with IP verification and a per-page citation rate. Scrunch lists bot traffic on Core, Rankscale on Pro (Cloudflare only), and LLM Pulse on Scale. AthenaHQ doesn't list crawler logs, and Semrush lists log analysis only on Enterprise AIO.