Aparok vs AthenaHQ (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Aparok and AthenaHQ share a 2.2 GPA, and only AthenaHQ has a free plan.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Aparok grades higher on value for money. AthenaHQ grades higher on features. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Aparok
AI visibility analytics that ranks the next fix for SaaS teams
AthenaHQ
Credit-based AI search tracking with content optimization agents
Which one is for you
Pick Aparok if
- Fits if you're a SaaS startup checking whether ChatGPT or Perplexity recommends you
- Works for teams that want each gap turned into a task with its expected impact
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if Gemini, Claude or Google's AI answers need tracking, as they show only in traffic
- Tight if you have lots of prompts, with 10 on Mini and 25 on Starter, each on one domain
- Pricey if you want prompts run daily, since every run eats credits and packs cost $49 to $349
- Watch out: AI traffic needs a snippet on your site and depends on referrer data
- Not for you if you want a free plan: it's a 7-day trial, and the listing doesn't say if a card is needed
Pick AthenaHQ if
- Fits if you want to look at real AI answers about your brand before paying anything
- Works for shops checking their products in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Gemini shopping results
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you outgrow the free credits, as the next step is $245 a month on yearly billing
- Tight if you track lots of prompts every day, because every answer spends a credit
- Skip it if you need Claude, AI Mode or Grok on the free plan, as they start on Starter
- Watch out: the API and extra credits on Starter are add-ons priced only on request
- Not for you if you need SSO, audit logs or multi-region tracking without an Enterprise contract
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAparokFair | 2.2GPAAthenaHQFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CMini is $49 a month for 10 prompts and 300 credits. A run costs 3 credits per prompt per engine, so that's about five runs of your 10 prompts in both engines a month. Under this category's middle, but little for the money. | DStarter is $245 a month billed annually, $295 monthly, for 3,600 credits. That sits in this category's dearest tenth, which starts at $129, and the API and extra credits are add-ons priced only on request. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but every paid plan starts with a 7-day free trial. The listing doesn't say whether a card is needed. | CA free plan, Essential, with 300 credits on ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot and unlimited users. But one credit is one AI answer, so 10 prompts on 5 models spend 50 credits a run. You'll hit the wall fast. |
| Features | CPrompt watchlists, AI referral tracking, readiness audits, ranked next actions, test personas and a prospect scorer for sales. The gap is in its own listing: prompts are tracked in ChatGPT and Perplexity only, and the other assistants show up only in traffic. | BUp to 11 models on Starter, Claude, AI Mode and Grok among them, with competitor benchmarks, sentiment and source insights. It adds an optimization agent, AI shopping results and robots.txt and llms.txt controls. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. There's a snippet to put on your site, and credits to budget across runs, audits and prospect checks. | CNo rating on record. Credits take some working out: there's a whole calculator just for estimating how prompts, locations, models and cadence add up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with a ChatGPT plugin and a Claude connector, plus a site snippet that picks up visits from five AI assistants. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It links to Google Analytics, Search Console, WordPress, Shopify and Webflow, and works inside ChatGPT or Claude over MCP. The API is a paid add-on. |
| Best for | SaaS teams that want a ranked list of fixes | a free start on credit-based AI answer tracking |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Aparok and AthenaHQ. How we grade
Price against what you get
Aparok starts at $49 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. AthenaHQ starts at $245 a month and scores 2.7.
AthenaHQ scores higher, and starts $196 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 10 score higher than Aparok for less, and 1 scores higher than AthenaHQ for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Aparok also covers reports, site audit and web analytics.
- AthenaHQ also covers AI agents and content optimization.
At a glance
| Aparok | AthenaHQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $49 per month for 10 prompts and 300 credits | $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | Essential plan: $25 of credit (300 credits, 1 credit = 1 AI response) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, with unlimited users. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every paid plan before the first billing cycle | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Aparok | AthenaHQ |
| Price read from | aparok.com | athenahq.ai |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Aparok
- Prompt tracking covers ChatGPT and Perplexity; Gemini, Claude and Copilot appear only in traffic attribution.
- Prompt runs use credits (3 per prompt, per provider, per run); extra packs cost $49 for 1,000 up to $349 for 10,000.
- Entry plans track only 10 or 25 prompts on one domain.
- Traffic attribution needs a snippet on your site and depends on referrer data being available.
AthenaHQ
- Everything runs on credits: 3,600 a month on Starter. A free credit calculator helps estimate use by prompts, locations, models and cadence.
- API access and extra credits on Starter are paid add-ons whose prices are given only on request.
- The free Essential plan covers 5 models; Claude, AI Mode, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral need Starter.
- SSO, audit logs, multi-region tracking and BI dashboards come only with Enterprise.
Key features
Aparok
- Prompt watchlists
- Runs buyer questions in ChatGPT and Perplexity and stores answer excerpts, brand mentions, cited domains and whether your domain was cited.
- AI referral attribution
- A site snippet records visits, page views and conversions arriving from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.
- LLM-readiness audits
- Crawls pages for answerable content, schema, canonical tags, headings, freshness and pages that depend on heavy rendering.
- Next best actions
- Turns each gap into a ranked content, technical, trust or competitive task with funnel stage, expected impact and confidence.
- Synthetic buyer personas
- Builds editable personas from your crawl and buyer prompts, which you can chat with to test messaging and pricing.
- Prospect Fit
- Scores a prospect domain or a CSV of companies as Activate, Review or Skip, with public evidence and an outreach angle; 3 credits per company.
AthenaHQ
- AI answer monitoring
- Analyzes prompts and responses for brand mentions, competitor benchmarking and real-time sentiment across up to 11 models on Starter.
- Sources and citation intelligence
- Shows which sources AI answers draw on and where competitors are cited instead of you.
- Content optimization agent
- Recommends on-page and off-page actions and rewrites content against brand guidelines; drafts can be published to WordPress, Shopify and other CMSs.
- Shopping insights
- Shows how a site's products appear in AI shopping results in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Gemini carousels, with position and competitor pricing.
- AI crawler controls
- Manages AI crawler access through a generated robots.txt and llms.txt.
- MCP and analytics connections
- Connects Google Analytics and Search Console to tie AI visibility to traffic, and works inside ChatGPT or Claude through MCP.
Plans
Aparok
Mini$49
per month for 10 prompts and 300 credits
1 workspace and 1 domain. A prompt run costs 3 credits per AI provider per run; audits, reports and traffic analytics are included.
Starter$99
per month for 25 prompts and 900 credits
1 workspace and 1 domain, with the same features as Mini.
Growth$299
per month for 100 prompts and 3,600 credits
3 workspaces and 3 domains.
Agency$499
per month for 200 prompts and 7,500 credits
10 workspaces and 10 domains, for agencies managing several brands.
Enterprise$1,499
per month for 750 prompts and 30,000 credits
25 workspaces and 25 domains, with onboarding and tighter controls.
AthenaHQ
Essential$0
300 credits on 5 models, unlimited users, prompt and source analysis, content recommendations and the Athena AI agent.
Starter$245
per month for 3,600 credits, billed annually ($295 monthly)
11 models including Claude, AI Mode, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral; unlimited topics, prompts and competitors, CSV export and the optimization agent.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits and websites, API access, knowledge base and claim review, multi-region tracking, BI dashboards, SAML SSO, audit logs and a 2-hour SLA.
Ways to pay less
Aparok
No public discounts listed.
AthenaHQ
- Annual discount
17% off with annual billing
AthenaHQ's plans page takes 17% off for annual billing, described as two months free: Starter is $245 a month instead of $295.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Aparok or AthenaHQ?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Aparok is cheaper to start with: $49 a month, against $245 a month for AthenaHQ. Aparok starts at $49 per month for 10 prompts and 300 credits, and AthenaHQ starts at $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Aparok or AthenaHQ?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only AthenaHQ has a free plan. Aparok does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.