AthenaHQ vs ZeroRank (2026): which should you pick?

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 ZeroRank if

• Fits if you want Grok, Copilot and DeepSeek watched as well as ChatGPT
• Works for teams that want to query rankings from Claude or Cursor through MCP

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you track dearer models, as they use more of the answer budget
• Pricey if you want white-label client reports, which start at Growth for $169 a month
• Not for you if you'd rather count prompts than AI answers, as one prompt on 3 models uses 3
• Watch out: refunds cover only 14 days from first purchase with light use, and renewals aren't refunded
• Watch out: it's web only for now, with phone apps listed as coming, and SSO is Enterprise only

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.

ZeroRank

• Plans are sized by AI answers a month, not prompts: one prompt on 3 models uses 3 answers, and higher-cost models use more of the budget.
• White-label dashboards and automated client email reports start at Growth ($169 a month, billed yearly); single sign-on is Enterprise only.
• Refunds cover 14 days from the first purchase if the service has not been used heavily; renewals are not refunded.
• iOS and Android apps are listed as coming soon; today it runs in the browser.

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.

ZeroRank

Tracking across 17 AI platforms

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and more on every plan, checked daily, weekly, monthly or on demand.

Prompt Research

Turns a topic, a question or a competitor's domain into prompts worth tracking, each with an estimated AI search volume. 10 to 150 runs a month by plan.

Sources and citations

Shows which domains the models cite for your category, how often each is used and what type of page it is.

Fixes and content

Explains why an answer left you out, drafts the page edit and re-runs the prompt to check it. Plans also include a monthly quota of AI articles.

Agentic workflows

Scheduled workflows that pull rankings, find gaps, draft content for missing prompts and alert the team, on every paid plan.

MCP server and REST API

Query live rankings, run prompts and pull cited sources from Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or any MCP client, or over REST, on every paid plan.

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.

ZeroRank

• Starter$33

  per month for 2,400 AI answers, billed yearly ($39 billed monthly)

  About 26 prompts a day on 3 models, 1 workspace, 10 Prompt Research runs, 2 AI articles and 2 content optimizations a month, MCP and API.

• Growth$169

  per month for 13,500 AI answers, billed yearly ($199 billed monthly)

  About 150 prompts a day on 3 models, up to 10 workspaces, white-label dashboards, automated client email reports and 12 AI articles a month.

• Agency$424

  per month for 31,500 AI answers, billed yearly ($499 billed monthly)

  About 350 prompts a day on 3 models, unlimited workspaces, 150 Prompt Research runs, 36 AI articles a month and a dedicated account rep.

• EnterpriseCustom

  An answer budget sized to your prompts, models and schedule, with single sign-on, dedicated support and custom content allowances.

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.

ZeroRank

• Annual discount

  Save 15% with yearly billing

  ZeroRank's pricing page takes 15% off for yearly billing: Starter is $33 a month instead of $39, which it states as a $72 saving a year.