HubSpot AEO vs Profound (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, Profound grades higher than HubSpot AEO: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
HubSpot AEO grades higher on value for money. Profound grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
HubSpot AEO
HubSpot's AI visibility tracker for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity
Profound
AI search visibility tracking with an AI marketing agent built in
Which one is for you
Pick HubSpot AEO if
- Fits if you already pay for Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, which include it
- Works for one brand watched on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and nothing else
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need Claude, Copilot or Google's AI Overviews, as the pages name only ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity
- Pricey if you run several brands, since each one needs its own $50 a month subscription
- Tight if 25 prompts won't cover it, as each extra 10 prompts and 1,000 answers costs $20 a month
- Watch out: HubSpot labels it a beta, and there's no API or MCP server listed
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
| 2.0GPAHubSpot AEOFair | 2.2GPAProfoundFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$45 a month billed yearly, $50 monthly, for 25 prompts run daily on 3 engines. That's between this category's cheaper quarter at $29 and its middle at $49. Each extra 10 prompts is $20 a month, and every brand needs its own subscription. | 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 | CNo free plan, but a 28-day trial with 25 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and no card needed. | 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 | CA daily visibility score, share of voice, citations sorted by source type, sentiment from -100 to +100 and a list of fixes. The gap the listing names: only ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are tracked, and HubSpot labels it a beta. | 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. HubSpot suggests prompts from your company and rivals, but you still pick what to track and read the trend per engine before the numbers mean much. | 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 | CWeb only. The only connections named are HubSpot's own CRM and Marketing Hub, and no API or MCP server is listed. | 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 | HubSpot users tracking three AI engines | 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: HubSpot AEO and Profound. How we grade
Price against what you get
HubSpot AEO starts at $45 a month and scores 2.0 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 $54 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 40 score higher than HubSpot AEO 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
- HubSpot AEO also covers reports.
- Profound also covers AI agents, web analytics and content optimization.
At a glance
| HubSpot AEO | Profound | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $45 per month for 25 prompts, billed annually ($50 billed monthly) | $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 28-day free trial with 25 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, no credit card required | 7-day free trial: 50 preset prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with limited AI Marketer credits |
| Web | ||
| Made by | HubSpot, Inc. | Profound |
| Price read from | hubspot.com | tryprofound.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
HubSpot AEO
- Only ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are tracked; the pages name no other AI engines.
- The $50 plan covers 25 prompts; each pack of 10 more prompts and 1,000 more answers is $20 a month.
- Each brand needs its own $50 a month subscription.
- Marketing Hub Professional includes 25 prompts and Enterprise 50, with recommendations that draw on CRM data.
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
HubSpot AEO
- Brand visibility score
- A daily score for how often the brand appears in AI answers across tracked prompts, shown as a trend per engine beside competitors' share of voice.
- Prompt tracking and suggestions
- Shows each tracked prompt's full answer per engine, filterable by buyer's journey stage, and suggests prompts based on the company, its rivals and its industry.
- Citation analysis
- Breaks down which domains, pages and source types (owned, competitor, social, user-generated, affiliate) AI answers cite for the brand and its rivals.
- Sentiment analysis
- Rates how positively or negatively AI answers describe the brand, on a scale from -100 to +100.
- Prioritized recommendations
- Turns visibility gaps into actions such as a new blog post, an update to an existing page, a LinkedIn post or outreach to a third-party site.
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
HubSpot AEO
HubSpot AEO$45
per month for 25 prompts, billed annually ($50 billed monthly)
Each prompt runs daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, up to 2,500 answers a month, with citations, share of voice and recommendations.
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
HubSpot AEO
- Annual discount
10% off with annual billing
HubSpot's AEO page lists the plan at $45 a month when paid annually instead of $50 billed monthly, a saving of 10%.
Profound
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, HubSpot AEO or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, HubSpot AEO is cheaper to start with: $45 a month, against $99 a month for Profound. HubSpot AEO starts at $45 per month for 25 prompts, billed annually ($50 billed monthly), and Profound starts at $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies).
Which has a free plan, HubSpot AEO or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, neither HubSpot AEO nor Profound has a free plan. Both have 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.