AthenaHQ vs Scrunch (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ grades higher than Scrunch: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
AthenaHQ grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and ease of use.
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
Scrunch
AI search monitoring plus pages served to AI agents
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 Scrunch if
- Fits if you're a large brand weighing Agent Pages, which serve AI agents a cleaned-up copy of your site
- Works for agencies running several client brands and pitch workspaces from one account
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if Gemini, Claude or AI Mode matter, as they're tracked on Enterprise only
- Pricey if you're a small team: Core is $250 a month for one brand and 125 prompts
- Tight if you sell in several countries or watch many rivals: Core allows one country and 5 competitors
- Watch out: the API, SSO and Agent Pages are Enterprise only, and Enterprise prices aren't published
- Watch out: the only trial is 7 days of Core, and Scrunch became a Sitecore company in 2026
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAthenaHQFair | 1.8GPAScrunchWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | DCore is $250 a month for 125 prompts and 5,000 responses, one brand and 5 users. That's well into this category's dearest tenth, which starts at $129. Agency Core is $500. |
| 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. | CNo free plan, just a 7-day free trial of Core. A week is enough to see the first answers come in, not to watch a trend. |
| 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. | CPosition, sentiment and cited sources per prompt, with personas, funnel stages, site audits, AI bot traffic and product-level shopping data. The gap is engines: Core watches four, and Gemini, Claude, AI Mode, Grok and Meta AI need Enterprise. |
| 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. You set prompts, competitors, personas and funnel stages before the data says much, and Core caps you at 5 competitors and one country. |
| 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. | CWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. Looker Studio is the one integration on record, and the API and SSO come only with Enterprise. |
| Best for | a free start on credit-based AI answer tracking | brands that want monitoring plus pages for AI agents |
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 Scrunch. How we grade
Price against what you get
AthenaHQ starts at $245 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Scrunch starts at $250 a month and scores 2.0.
AthenaHQ scores higher and starts $5 a month lower. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than AthenaHQ for less, and 98 score higher than Scrunch 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
- AthenaHQ also covers AI agents.
- Scrunch also covers site audit and web analytics.
At a glance
| AthenaHQ | Scrunch | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly) | $250 per month for 125 prompts |
| 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 | 7-day free trial of the Core plan |
| Web | ||
| Made by | AthenaHQ | Scrunch |
| Price read from | athenahq.ai | scrunch.com |
| 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.
Scrunch
- Core covers four AI platforms; Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Grok and Meta AI are tracked only on Enterprise.
- Core is limited to 1 brand workspace, 5 user licenses, 5 competitors and one country.
- API access, SSO and the Agent Experience Platform are listed for Enterprise only.
- Scrunch became a Sitecore company in 2026; it says it continues to run as a standalone platform.
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.
Scrunch
- Monitoring and citations
- Tracks brand presence, position, sentiment and the sources cited for each prompt, with competitors, personas and funnel stages.
- Insights and recommendations
- Turns monitoring data into suggested changes; Core includes one page optimization a month and basic content generation.
- Agent Experience Platform
- Enterprise plans include Agent Pages, which deliver an optimized version of a site to AI agents that visit it.
- Site audits and bot traffic
- Audits pages for how well AI can read them and reports AI agent and bot visits; Core includes 5 audits a month.
- Shopping and query fan-out
- Product-level AI search performance and the follow-up searches AI tools run behind a prompt; fan-out is limited on Core.
- Agency workspaces
- Agency plans manage several client brands and pitch workspaces from one place, with access controls and white-label output.
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.
Scrunch
Core$250
per month for 125 prompts
For brands: 5,000 responses a month on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot, 5 site audits a month, 1 brand workspace and 5 users.
Agency Core$500
per month for 250 prompts
For agencies: 10,000 responses a month, 3 brand workspaces, 3 pitch workspaces, 5 site audits per brand a month and unlimited users.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom prompts and workspaces, 9 AI platforms, the Agent Experience Platform, full site audits, API access, SSO and a dedicated account team.
Agency EnterpriseCustom
For large agencies: custom brand and pitch workspaces, full site audits, the Agent Experience Platform, SSO and a dedicated account team.
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.
Scrunch
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, AthenaHQ or Scrunch?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ is cheaper to start with: $245 a month, against $250 a month for Scrunch. AthenaHQ starts at $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly), and Scrunch starts at $250 per month for 125 prompts.
Which has a free plan, AthenaHQ or Scrunch?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only AthenaHQ has a free plan. Scrunch 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.