Compare

How teams track AI visibility today — and where it breaks.

There are three common ways to keep tabs on how AI describes you. Each works until it doesn't. Here's an honest look at the trade-offs.

DIY prompting

Open ChatGPT now and then, type a few questions, eyeball the answer. Free and immediate.

Breaks when: you need history, multiple engines, competitor tracking, or anything you can show a boss.

Single-engine trackers

A tool that watches one surface — usually ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews — over time.

Breaks when: your buyers use the other five engines, where you may be invisible and never know.

Legacy rank tools

Your existing SEO suite, tracking keyword positions in the ten blue links on Google.

Breaks when: the buyer never scrolls the links — they take the answer above them.

Side by side

What each approach actually sees.

Capability
DIY prompting
Single-engine
Rank tools
Mentionova
Engines covered
Manual
1
Google links
6 answer engines
Tracked over time
Scheduled runs + history
Citation, not just mention
Partial
Source-level citations
Competitors named beside you
Manual
Keyword overlap
Share-of-voice tracking
Tells you what to do next
More keywords
Ranked plays to get cited
Board-ready reporting
Partial
One defensible score

Evaluating named tools like AirOps, Peec, or Searchable? Bring this table to your demo — these are the rows that separate a real AI-visibility platform from a partial view.

The blind spot

One engine is a keyhole.

A single-engine tracker can show you winning while you're invisible everywhere else. The same brand often has wildly different visibility across engines — and your buyers don't all use the same one.

See full coverage
Same brand · visibility by engineuneven
Before you buy

Five questions for any tool you evaluate.

1 · How many engines?

If it's one or two, you're buying a keyhole. Insist on the full set your buyers actually use.

2 · Mention or citation?

Being named is nice; being the linked source is the win. Make sure it tracks both.

3 · Who's beside me?

You need share of voice — the competitors named in the same answers — not just your own score.

4 · What do I do next?

A score with no prioritized plays is a dashboard, not a strategy. Demand the to-do list.

5 · Can I prove ROI?

You should be able to tie visibility to pipeline and put it in front of a board with confidence.

Run the math

Use the ROI calculator to size the upside before you commit to anything.

Free AI visibility report

Compare on your data.

The fastest way to compare any tool is your own answer. Get the free report and see all six engines at once.

https:// Get my report

Takes ~3 minutes · no credit card