Elmo vs Rankscale AI (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, we pick Rankscale AI: it is first in our ranking of AI search visibility tools, and it grades higher too, 3.0 against 2.2.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
Rankscale AI grades higher on value for money and 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.
Elmo
Open-source AI visibility tracker, self-hosted free or as a cloud app
Rankscale AI
Credit-based AI visibility tracker covering 17+ AI engines
Which one is for you
Pick Elmo if
- Fits if your prompt data must stay on your own servers and you can run Docker
- Works for developer teams that want an API, SDKs and MCP on every plan
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need more than ChatGPT for under $99 a month, as Starter covers ChatGPT only, once a day
- Not for you if you can't run servers, since the free edition is self-hosted and the hosting and AI API keys are on you
- Watch out: cloud plans cover any 4 platforms, and Claude (web) and Grok (web) are Pro and up, with extra pairings at $5 a month each
- Pricey if you track several brands, as 2 brands need Pro at $299 a month and 5 need Business at $649
Pick Rankscale AI if
- Fits if you want 17+ AI engines on one plan and can do the credit sums
- Works for brands where local results matter, as it shows your place in AI map packs
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you track a lot every day, since monitoring pauses when the credits run out until renewal or a top-up
- Skip it if you want the cheapest plan paid monthly, as Essentials is yearly only and the trial is for Pro
- Pricey if you need the REST API, which starts at Pro+ for $229 a month, or white label at $385
- Watch out: Claude costs 2 credits a run against 0.25 for ChatGPT, so Essentials' 120 credits go fast
- Watch out: extra brand dashboard slots are bought separately in the app
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAElmoFair | 3.0GPARankscale AIVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStarter is $29 a month for 50 prompts, at the edge of this category's cheaper quarter, but it's ChatGPT only, once a day. Four engines and 4 checks a day start at Basic for $99, above the dearer quarter at $95. Self-hosting is free, but you pay for servers and API keys. | A$17 a month on yearly billing is just under $17.40, the line for an A in this category. But Essentials' 120 credits cover about five prompts a day on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity at 0.25 a run. Pro, at $99 a month for 1,200 credits, is where daily tracking gets room. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free cloud plan or trial. The free edition is the full product with unlimited prompts, but you host it yourself with Docker and pay for the servers and the AI providers' API keys. | CNo free plan, just a 7-day trial of Pro with a limited credit allowance. Enough to see how fast credits drain, not much more. |
| Features | CVisibility, share of voice, sentiment, position, citations and the searches a model ran, read from real chat screens or APIs, plus prompt suggestions. The gap the listing names: cloud plans cover any 4 platforms, and Claude (web) and Grok (web) start at Pro. | AAll 17+ engines on every plan, Claude and DeepSeek included, with visibility, sentiment, citations and query fan-out, plus things few rivals track: your place in AI local and map packs, and the questions ChatGPT asks before it recommends brands. Page audits cover what to fix. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. The cloud app suggests prompts, but you still choose four platforms and what to track. The free edition needs Docker, a CLI and your own PostgreSQL database. | CNo rating on record. A run costs 0.25 to 2 credits depending on the engine, and tracking pauses when credits run out, so there are sums to do before you set a schedule. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. Every plan has a REST API with TypeScript and Python SDKs and an MCP server for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and VS Code. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. Looker Studio, Google Sheets, Cloudflare and an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor, with the REST API from Pro+ at $229. |
| Best for | self-hosted AI visibility tracking | 17+ AI engines from $17 a month |
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: Elmo and Rankscale AI. How we grade
Price against what you get
Elmo starts at $29 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Rankscale AI starts at $17 a month and scores 3.0.
Rankscale AI scores higher and starts $12 a month lower. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 6 score higher than Elmo for less, and none scores higher than Rankscale AI 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
- Elmo is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Rankscale AI also covers web analytics.
At a glance
| Elmo | Rankscale AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $29 per month for 50 prompts on ChatGPT, billed monthly | $17 per month, billed yearly only (Essentials) |
| Free plan | The self-hosted edition is free and open source, with unlimited prompts and every model; you pay for your own servers and AI provider API keys. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day free trial of the Pro plan with a limited credit allowance |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Blue Whale Software, LLC | Rankscale GmbH |
| Price read from | elmohq.com | rankscale.ai |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Elmo
- Starter tracks ChatGPT only, once a day; other engines and 4 daily checks start at Basic for $99 a month.
- Paid cloud plans cover any 4 platforms; premium models such as Claude (web) and Grok (web) are Pro and up, with extra pairings at $5 a month each.
- Self-hosting is free but you pay for your own servers and for the AI provider API keys it uses.
- White-label deployments for agencies are quoted on request.
Rankscale AI
- Tracking is limited by credits, not prompts: each engine run costs 0.25 to 2 credits, and monitoring pauses when credits run out until renewal or a top-up.
- Essentials is sold on yearly billing only; the 7-day trial is for Pro.
- The REST API starts at Pro+ ($229 a month); white-label dashboards start at Growth.
- Extra brand dashboard slots are bought separately in the app.
Key features
Elmo
- Visibility, share of voice and sentiment
- Each prompt gets a visibility score from 0 to 100%, plus share of voice against competitors, a sentiment score and the brand's position in the answer.
- Real interfaces and APIs
- ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and other consumer apps are scraped from the screens users see; Qwen, DeepSeek, Mistral and Claude are queried through their APIs.
- Citation and search analysis
- Breaks each answer into the domains and URLs cited and the web searches the model ran to find them.
- Prompt Wizard
- Suggests the questions buyers are likely to ask, based on the site's products, competitors and personas, and starts tracking them.
- REST API and MCP server
- Every plan includes a REST API with TypeScript and Python SDKs, and an MCP server for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and VS Code.
- Self-hosting
- Runs as a Docker Compose stack set up with a CLI, storing brands, prompts and answers in your own PostgreSQL database.
Rankscale AI
- Wide engine coverage
- All plans can query 17+ engines, from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity at 0.25 credits a run to Claude at 2 credits, on schedules from hourly to monthly.
- Visibility, sentiment and citations
- Tracks a visibility score over time, benchmarks competitors, analyzes sentiment and shows which sources AI engines cite.
- Query fan-out and ChatGPT follow-ups
- Shows the internal searches AI engines run while answering, and the clarifying questions ChatGPT asks before recommending brands.
- Shopping, ads and local results
- Analyzes shopping cards and sponsored ads in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Copilot, and brand placement in AI local and map packs.
- AI visits from Cloudflare
- A read-only Cloudflare connection reports AI crawler and assistant visits, top pages and the 404 errors AI bots hit.
- Sharing, API and MCP
- Shareable dashboard links, CSV and Google Sheets exports, Data Studio, an MCP server for AI assistants and, from Pro+, a REST API.
Plans
Elmo
Self-hosted$0
The same product on your own servers via Docker, with unlimited prompts and any model. You host it yourself.
Starter$29
per month for 50 prompts on ChatGPT only, billed monthly
1 brand, each prompt checked once a day in ChatGPT, unlimited seats, and API and MCP access.
Basic$99
per month for 50 prompts on 4 AI platforms, billed monthly
1 brand, with prompts checked 4 times a day on any 4 platforms picked from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini and others.
Pro$299
per month for 150 prompts on 4 AI platforms, billed monthly
2 brands, checks 4 times a day, plus 20 daily premium pairings on Claude (web), GPT Search or Grok (web).
Business$649
per month for 350 prompts on 4 AI platforms, billed monthly
5 brands, checks 4 times a day, plus 30 daily premium prompt and model pairings.
CustomCustom
More brands, custom prompt limits, more frequent sampling and any models, by contract.
Rankscale AI
Essentials$17
per month for 120 credits, billed yearly only
For individuals and startups: 2 brand dashboards and 10 page audits a month. Shown as $20 crossed out.
Pro$99
per month for 1,200 credits, billed monthly
Up to 4,800 AI answers a month, 10 brand dashboards, 50 page audits, Looker Studio and MCP. Unused credits roll over up to 2x.
Pro+$229
per month for 3,000 credits, billed monthly
Up to 12,000 answers, 25 brand dashboards, 100 page audits, REST API access and 5 prompt researches a month.
Growth$385
per month for 5,500 credits, billed monthly
For agencies: up to 22,000 answers, 50 brand dashboards, 200 page audits, white-label dashboards and the agency program.
Enterprise$780
per month for 12,000 credits, billed monthly
Up to 48,000 answers, 100 brand dashboards, REST API access, a dedicated partner, and credit rollover up to 3x.
Custom PlanCustom
Built around credit volume and team size, with options such as SSO, custom API work, SLA guarantees and a success manager.
Ways to pay less
Elmo
- Annual discount
Two months free with annual billing
Elmo's pricing page says annual billing saves two months: Starter is $290 a year instead of $29 a month, and Basic $990 instead of $99 a month.
Rankscale AI
- Annual discount
15% off with yearly billing
Rankscale's pricing FAQ says yearly billing is 15% cheaper than monthly, paid 12 months upfront, with credits still renewing each month.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Elmo or Rankscale AI?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Rankscale AI is cheaper to start with: $17 a month, against $29 a month for Elmo. Elmo starts at $29 per month for 50 prompts on ChatGPT, billed monthly, and Rankscale AI starts at $17 per month, billed yearly only (Essentials).
Which has a free plan, Elmo or Rankscale AI?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Elmo has a free plan. Rankscale AI 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.