AthenaHQ vs Mole (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ grades higher than Mole: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
AthenaHQ grades higher on the free plan and features. Mole grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
AthenaHQ
Credit-based AI search tracking with content optimization agents
Free plan · from $245/mo
Which one is for you
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
Pick Mole if
- Fits if you're a founder who wants SEO pages drafted and can review each one
- Works for teams whose buyer wording sits in sales call notes and Reddit threads
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want to see a price or sign up today, as access is by request only
- Not for you if you know no SEO at all, as you'll be judging its suggestions, and the course to learn is sold separately
- Too light for teams who mainly want AI citation and sentiment tracking, as neither is listed
- Watch out: the vendor says it can't promise rankings, leads or revenue
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAthenaHQFair | 1.8GPAMoleWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for 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. | CNo price is published. Access is by request, so the price is only given once you talk to their team, much like a sales call, and we can't set it against what this category charges. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | FNothing free is on record: no free plan, no stated trial and no self-serve sign-up. You request access and wait to hear back. |
| Features | 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. | CA brief on your company, keyword and competitor research, article and landing page drafts, a Google indexer, rank tracking and AI mention checks on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. On the AI side, though, it lists no citation or sentiment tracking. |
| Ease of use | 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. | CNo rating on record. Mole itself says you still need to review its work and know enough SEO to pick what fits, and it sells a course for exactly that. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to Ahrefs, Search Console, PostHog and Mixpanel. No API is listed. |
| Best for | a free start on credit-based AI answer tracking | founders who want SEO and AI search work drafted for them |
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: AthenaHQ and Mole. How we grade
Where they differ
- AthenaHQ also covers content optimization.
- Mole also covers long-form writing, keyword research, rank tracking and site audit.
In commonWebAI agentsAI search visibility
At a glance
| AthenaHQ | Mole | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly) | Not published |
| Free plan | Essential plan: $25 of credit (300 credits, 1 credit = 1 AI response) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, with unlimited users. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | AthenaHQ | Synscribe |
| Price read from | athenahq.ai | Not confirmed |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Mole
- No prices are published: access is by request, and the vendor replies about access and next steps.
- Mole says you still need to review its work and enough SEO knowledge to choose what fits; a separate SEO/GEO course is offered for that.
- The vendor says it cannot guarantee rankings, leads or revenue.
Key features
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.
Mole
- Company Brain
- Saves product facts, buyer details, claims and voice rules from your site, sales call notes and brand guide, so each task starts from them.
- Keyword and competitor research
- Expands a theme into buyer keywords, compares your pages with a rival's, and pulls buyer wording from sales calls and Reddit threads.
- Article and landing page drafts
- Drafts articles and landing pages from a chosen keyword and your company facts, with sources linked, for you or a client to review and approve.
- Google Indexer
- Submits new pages for indexing and shows whether Google and Bing have indexed them.
- Rank and AI visibility tracking
- Follows Google rankings and how often ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name you for set questions, with checks that can run on a schedule.
- Audits and reporting
- An AI site audit ranks fixes by impact, a diagnostic looks into pages that lost clicks, and reports tie search traffic to signups.
Plans
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.
Mole
Pricing could not be confirmed. See agentmole.io.
Ways to pay less
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.
Mole
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, AthenaHQ or Mole?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ starts at $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly), and Mole has no price we could confirm.
Which has a free plan, AthenaHQ or Mole?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only AthenaHQ has a free plan. Mole does not.
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.