CitationIQ vs Profound (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Profound grades higher than CitationIQ: 2.2 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Profound grades higher on the free plan and features. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
CitationIQ
AI citation tracking and content alignment reports on one plan
Profound
AI search visibility tracking with an AI marketing agent built in
Which one is for you
Pick CitationIQ if
- Fits if you need evidence of AI visibility to show your boss or clients
- Works for agencies with three or more clients, at $149 per client a month
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're one person with one site, at $167 a month even billed yearly
- Not for you if you want to try it before paying, as there's no trial
- Skip it if Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode are where your buyers see answers
- Watch out: agency accounts must bring their own OpenAI and Anthropic API keys and pay monthly
- Watch out: cancelling forfeits the Founding Member rate for good, and the standard rate is $208
Pick Profound if
- Fits if you're a large brand that wants answers tracked on up to 9 engines and can sign a custom contract
- Works for agencies running pitch audits for prospects, at $99 a month for 10 short workspaces
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want to sign up and pay without a sales call, as brands can't
- Pricey if you're an agency with several clients, at $399 a month per client workspace on top of $99
- Tight if you want to test your own questions, since the trial's prompts are fixed
- Watch out: custom prompts, the API, exports and SSO all come only with Enterprise
- Watch out: agents spend credits, and extra credits need an Enterprise package with overage billing or a pause
How we grade them
| 1.6GPACitationIQWeak | 2.2GPAProfoundFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DThe Founding Member rate is $167 a month billed yearly ($1,999 a year), or $179 monthly, for 250 queries and 100 pages. That's in this category's dearest tenth, and the standard rate it replaces is $208. | DBrands get no published price: past the trial it's a custom Enterprise quote, given only on a sales call. Agency Growth is $99 a month, but that buys 10 short pitch audits, and each real client workspace is $399 a month on top. |
| Free plan and trial | FNothing free at all. No free plan or trial is listed, so the self-serve plan is paid from day one. | CNo free plan, but a 7-day trial runs 50 preset prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. You can't edit those prompts, so you see the questions Profound picks, not your own. |
| Features | CCited, mentioned, paraphrased or absent on four engines, query expansion, section-level content scores, technical checks and competitor comparisons. The gaps: Google AI Overviews and AI Mode aren't among the engines, and each account stops at 250 queries. | BDaily answers with citations, sentiment and competitor ranking on up to 9 engines, Claude, Copilot and DeepSeek among them, plus an AI Marketer, reusable agents, Prompt Volumes and crawler analytics across unlimited domains. It covers the whole job; the agents run on credits. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. There are seven report types to learn, and agency accounts have to connect their own OpenAI and Anthropic API keys. | CNo rating on record. Brands are onboarded through sales, and custom prompts, exports and the API only arrive with Enterprise, so there's set-up before it's really yours. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. Standard API access is included, reports download as XLSX, and work runs in 36 languages. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to Google Analytics, Search Console, Cloudflare, Vercel, WordPress, Webflow, Slack and G2, and the API comes with Enterprise. |
| Best for | checking page sections against the questions AI gets | big brands tracking AI answers on many engines |
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: CitationIQ and Profound. How we grade
Price against what you get
CitationIQ starts at $167 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Profound starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7.
Profound scores higher and starts $68 a month lower. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 24 score higher than CitationIQ for less, and 1 scores higher than Profound 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
- CitationIQ also covers reports and site audit.
- Profound also covers AI agents and web analytics.
At a glance
| CitationIQ | Profound | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free trial |
| Starts at | $167 per month, billed annually ($179 billed monthly) | $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day free trial: 50 preset prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with limited AI Marketer credits |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Nashi Holdings, LLC | Profound |
| Price read from | citationiq.com | tryprofound.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
CitationIQ
- No free plan or free trial is listed; the self-serve plan is paid from the start.
- Each account manages up to 250 queries and 100 pages.
- Agency accounts must connect their own OpenAI and Anthropic API keys, and are billed monthly only.
- Cancelling forfeits the Founding Member rate for good.
Profound
- Brands have no self-serve paid plan: after the 7-day trial, ongoing tracking needs a custom-priced Enterprise contract.
- Trial users get a recommended prompt set and cannot edit it; custom prompts, API access, exports and SSO come with Enterprise.
- On Agency Growth, each full client workspace is a $399-a-month add-on and 5 more trial workspaces cost $199 a month.
- Agent runs use credits; extra credits beyond the plan need an Enterprise package, with overage billing or a pause set by the account team.
Key features
CitationIQ
- Citation tracking
- Checks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity for your key queries and records whether the brand is cited, mentioned, paraphrased or absent over time.
- Query alignment
- Expands seed topics into the query variations people use and scores your content against each with semantic analysis.
- Chunk performance
- Scores individual sections of your pages against target queries to show which are ready, which need work and where new content would help.
- Technical visibility
- Finds crawl problems, access restrictions and llms.txt issues that keep AI platforms from reading your content.
- Competitive intelligence
- Compares your alignment scores with competitors query by query, showing where you lead or trail.
- Exports in 36 languages
- Queries, URLs and reports can be in 36 languages, and every report downloads as XLSX, white-labeled for agency accounts.
Profound
- Answer Engine Insights
- Runs set prompts daily and reports where a brand appears in the answers, which sources are cited, sentiment and how it ranks against competitors.
- Wide engine coverage
- Enterprise can track ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search.
- AI Marketer and agents
- An assistant that finds gaps in AI answers and drafts or rewrites pages, plus reusable agents for recurring work. Agents run on credits.
- Agent Analytics
- Tracks AI crawler visits and AI-referred traffic across unlimited domains by connecting to CDNs and hosts such as Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS and Vercel.
- Prompt Volumes
- Estimates what people ask AI answer engines about a topic; the trial allows 5 searches.
- Agency workspaces
- Agency plans manage short pitch workspaces for prospects and full client workspaces from one dashboard with consolidated billing.
Plans
CitationIQ
Founding Member$167
per month, billed annually ($179 billed monthly)
Every report, standard API access, 250 queries and 100 pages. Rate locked for life while the account stays active; offered to early accounts. $1,999 a year.
Standard$208
per month, billed annually ($249 billed monthly)
The same full access at the standard rate, $2,490 a year. The page says all new accounts currently get the Founding Member rate instead.
Agency Getting Started$249
per client / month, billed monthly
Full access for one client account, white-label exports, and your own OpenAI and Anthropic API keys required.
Agency Growth$149
per client / month for 3+ clients, billed monthly
Volume pricing: $199 per client at 2 clients and $149 at 3 or more, applied to every client in the account.
Profound
Agency Growth$99
per month for up to 10 pitch workspaces a month
For agencies: 10 seven-day pitch audits a month on ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews, 5 agency seats. Each full client workspace is $399 a month extra.
EnterpriseCustom
For brands: tailored prompt tracking on up to 9 answer engines, AI Marketer credits, all-time history, CSV and JSON exports, API, SSO and dedicated support.
Agency EnterpriseCustom
For large agencies and networks: tailored client and trial workspaces, a dedicated agency partner, go-to-market help and Slack support.
Ways to pay less
CitationIQ
- Annual discount
Lower monthly rate with annual billing
CitationIQ's pricing page lists the Founding Member rate at $167 a month billed annually ($1,999 a year), against $179 billed monthly.
Profound
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, CitationIQ or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Profound is cheaper to start with: $99 a month, against $167 a month for CitationIQ. CitationIQ starts at $167 per month, billed annually ($179 billed monthly), and Profound starts at $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies).
Which has a free plan, CitationIQ or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, neither CitationIQ nor Profound has a free plan. Profound 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.