AI answers now sit between your buyer and your site. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, or Google’s AI Overviews for the best choice, they see a synthesized answer with a few citations. If your brand is not included, correctly described, and supported by solid sources, you lose the moment of consideration.

I spent the last few months running controlled prompt panels, reviewing answer snapshots across engines, and pressure-testing platforms with client scenarios. This list is my take on the AEO tool market from a growth lens. It follows a simple standard: does the tool help you measure answer presence and change it with a believable path to action.

How I reviewed

• Coverage. Tracks the AI surfaces that matter today.
  
• Clarity. Explains why an engine answered a certain way and which sources shaped it.
  
• Action. Turns findings into edits, briefs, outreach, or structured updates.
  
• Cost-to-impact. You should feel a line between spend and visibility.

1. Goodie AI

Quick description
Full-stack AEO built to monitor your presence in AI answers and push fixes through an optimization hub. Coverage includes ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and more, with workflows to improve on-site content and the third-party sources models cite. 

Pros

• Purpose-built for answer engines, not just classic SEO. Clear monitor-to-action flow.
• Education and playbooks that help non-specialists move.

Cons

• Pricing is sales-led, so trials need a demo.
• Fewer public case studies than older SEO suites.
  
  

Funding
No external funding listed publicly.

Location: New York, USA.

Pricing: Quote based. Request a demo.

Customers
Selective references; ask for vertical examples.

My rating: 4.6/5. I’m slightly biased toward Goodie because it reduces tool sprawl while giving a clear path from visibility gap to fix. Bias aside, it performs.

2. HubSpot AI Search Grader (free)

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Quick description
A free baseline to see how you show up in AI search. Runs prompts across major engines and reports on share of voice, narrative, and sentiment. Great for a first pass or for quick competitive snapshots. 

Pros

• Free, fast, and genuinely useful for initial diagnostics. 
• Includes competitive and share-of-voice views. 

Cons

• Not an always-on monitor.
• Coverage focuses on a few major engines.

Funding: Public company.

Location: Cambridge, MA, USA.

Pricing: Free. 

Customers: N/A for the free tool.

My rating: 4.2/5. Use it to establish a baseline, then graduate to a full platform once you see the opportunity.

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3. Scout by Yext

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Quick description
An AI search and competitive intelligence agent that measures presence, sentiment, and share of voice across search and AI platforms, with recommendations and direct ties into Yext’s Content, Listings, Pages, and Reviews for execution.

Pros

• Lives inside a mature enterprise stack that already handles listings and reviews. 
• Clear framing around presence, sentiment, and comparative position. 

Cons

• Details on AEO-specific depth are lighter on public pages than pure-play tools.
• Sales-led packaging.

Funding: Public company, NYSE: YEXT.

Location: New York, USA.

Pricing: Quote based. 

Customers: Large multi-location brands via Yext’s broader platform.

My rating: 4.1/5. A safe pick if you want AEO measurement plus execution tie-ins to listings and reviews.

4. Semrush Enterprise AIO + App Center

Semrush’s Enterprise AIO brings AI Overview and answer-engine visibility into a familiar enterprise SEO suite, and the App Center lets you bolt on specialized AEO apps like Otterly for AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity monitoring.

Pros

• Enterprise governance with a growing AEO lens and credible AIO research. 
• Easy add via App Center if you already use Semrush. 

Cons

• AEO features are spread across modules and apps, which adds some setup.
• Enterprise packaging is sales-led.
  
  

Funding: Public company.

Location: US presence in Boston and global offices.

Pricing: Enterprise AIO is quote based. App Center apps are billed separately. 

Customers: Broad enterprise base across categories.

My rating: 4.0 /5. A solid backbone if your company already runs on Semrush and wants AEO insights without adding a net-new vendor.

5. Contently

AEO needs citable, structured, accurate content. Contently is a mature content marketing platform and talent network that helps large teams plan, produce, and govern content at scale, then measure outcomes. Use it to build the sources AI systems actually quote. 

Pros

• Enterprise workflows, governance, and analytics built for content operations. 
• Deep case studies that show impact on search and content ROI.

Cons

• Not an AEO monitor by itself, so pair it with a visibility tool.
• Sales-led pricing. 

Funding: Private company.

Location: US based with enterprise focus.

Pricing: Subscription plus content budget, per team, via sales. 

Customers: Enterprise brands across finance, tech, and retail in published case studies. 

My rating: 4.0/5. Not AEO analytics, but excellent infrastructure for the content that fuels AEO wins.

6. Ahrefs Brand Radar

Tracks how AI presents your brand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. Adds impression-weighted visibility, topics that move AI traffic, and simple competitor views. Lives inside Ahrefs, which reduces adoption friction for SEO-led teams. 

Pros

• Familiar stack with large datasets and clear visualizations. 
• AI platform tracking offered as add-ons, including an “All Platforms” route depending on current packaging.

Cons

• Add-on pricing scales with the number of engines you track and has changed recently across posts vs pricing pages. Verify before budgeting. 
• Some AI indices refresh monthly, which can lag fast-moving categories.

Funding: Bootstrapped profile; Singapore entity.

Location: Singapore HQ.

Pricing: Core plans plus Brand Radar AI add-ons, listed per index on the pricing page. 

Customers: Global SEO teams across many industries.

My rating: 3.9 /5. If your org already lives in Ahrefs, this brings AEO measurement into your day-to-day without a big switch.

7. Airank

Quick description
Early-stage AEO tracker positioning around visibility checks across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and more, with AI agents for recommendations. Currently building toward launch with a public changelog and waitlist.

Pros

• Lightweight UX and a fast on-ramp feel.
• Claims AI agent support for remediation as the product matures.

Cons

• New product with limited public references and unclear refresh cadence. 
• Pricing not listed and enterprise controls unproven.
  
  

Funding: Not disclosed.

Location: Not listed.

Pricing: Not listed; app in development.

Customers: Not listed.

My rating:  3.5/5. Interesting for experimentation. I wouldn’t anchor executive reporting on it yet.

8. SEO Scout

An SEO content optimizer with entity and topic analysis. It is not a direct AEO monitor, but the editor encourages fact-dense, scannable content that models can parse and cite. Pair it with an AEO visibility tool for a practical combo. 

Pros

• Entity and topic suggestions inside a simple writing assistant. 
• Transparent, low starting price.

Cons

• No answer-engine tracking.
• Smaller ecosystem around AEO use cases.

Funding: Private.

Location: Not listed publicly.

Pricing: Plans starting around $49 per month with a 7-day trial. 

Customers: SMBs, consultants, and content teams.

My rating:  3.7/5. A practical sidekick for improving “answerability” of content you already plan to publish.

9. Athena

Prompt-level monitoring with citation intelligence and an action center. Tracks presence and sentiment across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and more, then turns findings into tasks. Clear packaging with credits and unlimited seats. 

Pros

• Straightforward dashboards for visibility and impersonation monitoring. 
• Transparent plans and credits, plus published examples of starting price in reviews.
  
  

Cons

• Younger than legacy SEO suites.
• Credit management requires basic guardrails.
  
  

Funding:  Multiple reports of a seed round in 2025. 

Location: San Francisco roots per site. 

Pricing: Starter around $295 per month based on public reviews, with Growth and Enterprise tiers. Check the pricing page for current credit allotments. 

Customers: Logos and references on the site and reviews.

My rating: 4.1/5. Strong value for teams that want to operationalize AEO quickly.

How to choose the right AEO stack

If you want one system to measure and fix
Pick an all-in-one like Goodie or Athena that turns answer snapshots into structured tasks and outreach. 

If you want AEO inside the suite you already use
Turn on Ahrefs Brand Radar and its AI indexes or run Semrush Enterprise AIO with an App Center add-on like Otterly. 

If you need content infrastructure
Use Contently for workflow, governance, and production at scale, then feed those assets into your AEO monitor. 

If you are testing on a budget
Run HubSpot’s free grader to find gaps, then use SEO Scout to harden pages and entities. Add a paid monitor when you are ready.

What to measure in your first 30 days

• Share of Answer and Mention Rate by engine. Do not confuse rankings with inclusion. Start with ChatGPT and AI Overviews, then add Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot. Semrush’s AIO research gives helpful context on where AIOs appear.
  
  
• Citation sources the engines rely on. If AI keeps citing a competitor’s comparison, fix your own and pitch updates to that page. Ahrefs and Yext expose the domains and topics driving visibility.
  
  
• Sentiment and correctness at the answer level. HubSpot’s grader includes this, and it is a quick win to fix factual errors.
  
  
• Volatility of answers. Weekly sampling beats monthly in most categories. Semrush’s large-scale AIO studies show how dynamic appearances are.
  
  

Buyer checklist

• Engine coverage. Track the engines your buyers use now, not just the easy ones.
  
  
• Explainability. Can you see the sources and “why,” not just a score.
  
  
• Action layer. Does the tool route improvements into briefs, edits, and outreach in the same workflow.
  
  
• Cost clarity. Know how AI indexes or credits are billed and how often data refreshes. Ahrefs lists per-index add-ons on its pricing page, and some vendors adjust pricing in posts over time. Verify before you commit.
  
  

My quick picks

• Best overall AEO platform: Goodie AI for monitor-to-optimize flow with broad engine coverage.‍
• Best free baseline: HubSpot AI Search Grader to size the problem quickly.
• Best AEO inside an SEO suite: Ahrefs Brand Radar. ‍
• Best enterprise backbone: Semrush Enterprise AIO with Otterly from the App Center.