Hikoo vs Profound (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Hikoo if

• Fits if you want AI visibility gaps worked on, not only measured
• Works for teams already on Peec AI, Otterly.AI or a similar monitor

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you stay on Free: 10 questions on ChatGPT only, 2 competitors and 100 pages audited a month
• Skip it if you need Claude, Grok, AI Overviews or AI Mode below €499 a month, as they come with Agent or as extras by request
• Pricey if you run several sites, since each subscription covers one site, and prices exclude VAT
• Watch out: the outreach agent, prepared page fixes and weekly summary are on the €499 Agent plan only
• Watch out: cancelling a yearly subscription doesn't refund the year already paid

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

Hikoo

• Prices are in euros and exclude VAT, and each subscription covers one site; several sites need separate plans or a custom quote.
• Free covers ChatGPT only and Monitoring adds Gemini; Claude, Grok, AI Overviews and AI Mode come only with Agent or as extra engines by request.
• The outreach agent, prepared page fixes and the weekly summary are limited to the €499 Agent plan.
• Cancelling an annual subscription does not refund the year already paid.

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.

Hikoo

AI visibility monitoring

Asks set questions every day across up to 9 AI engines and tracks mentions, citations and competitors; 10 questions on Free, up to 200 on Agent.

Continuous site audit

Reviews pages the way an AI engine reads them, up to 5,000 a month on Agent, and adds headings, structured data and FAQs where answers need them.

Content briefs and refreshes

Turns tracked questions into briefs and new pages and flags pages that have gone out of date; 10 to 150 content suggestions a month by plan.

Outreach agent

On Agent, finds a contact at the sources AI engines cite, writes the email and sends follow-ups, either after you approve or on its own.

Reports and weekly summary

Ties visibility numbers to the actions taken, as a deck, client update or export. The Monday summary of work done comes with Agent.

MCP server

Included on every plan: Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT and other MCP clients can read citations, run audits and edit prompts with an API key.

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.

Hikoo

• Free€0

  10 questions on ChatGPT, 2 competitors and 100 pages audited a month, with citation tracking.

• Monitoring€69

  per month for 30 questions on 2 AI engines, billed monthly

  ChatGPT and Gemini, 5 competitors, 500 pages audited and 10 content suggestions a month. One site, excluding VAT.

• Growth€179

  per month for 80 questions on 4 AI engines, billed monthly

  Adds Perplexity and Copilot, 10 competitors, 1,500 pages audited, 30 content suggestions a month and source analysis.

• Agent€499

  per month for 200 questions on 9 AI engines, billed monthly

  Adds Claude, Mistral, Grok, AI Overviews and AI Mode, the outreach agent, prepared page fixes and a weekly summary.

• Multiple sitesCustom

  A custom plan for several sites or brands, with dedicated support and the integrations needed.

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.

Hikoo

• Annual discount

  20% off with annual billing

  Hikoo's pricing page gives 20% off monthly prices when a year is paid in one payment.

• Other savings

  10% off for 6 months with The Formula

  The Duo offer bundles Hikoo with The Formula, a LinkedIn prospecting service, on one invoice at 10% off for six months. Monthly billing only.

Profound

No public discounts listed.