Profound vs ZipTie (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, we pick ZipTie: it is second in our ranking of AI search visibility tools, and it grades higher too, 2.6 against 2.2.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
ZipTie grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Profound
AI search visibility tracking with an AI marketing agent built in
ZipTie
AI search visibility tracker priced per prompt and engine
Which one is for you
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
Pick ZipTie if
- Fits if you want to pay only for the prompts and engines you track
- Works for agencies that need white-label PDF reports on every plan
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you want content written for you, as that's $20 a month per brand extra
- Skip it if you might cancel mid-period, since unused time isn't refunded
- Pricey if you want UGC Impact Analysis, which adds 80% to the prompt cost, or the API and MCP at $10 more
- Watch out: the trial covers only ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Copilot, and engines vary by country
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAProfoundFair | 2.6GPAZipTieGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | BThe Starter preset is $25.65 a month for 30 daily prompts on 3 engines, inside this category's cheapest quarter, which starts at $29. Yearly billing takes 20% off the prompt cost. The API and MCP are $10 a month extra. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | CNo free plan, but a 7-day trial with 25 daily prompts and no card. It only covers ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Copilot, though. |
| Features | 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. | BSeven engines, AI Mode, Gemini and Bing's AI Overview among them, at the same price each, a 0 to 100 score per prompt, daily to monthly checks, an Action Center, competitor ranking and organic results alongside. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | 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. | CNo rating on record. You choose prompts, cadences and engines per project in a calculator, and which engines run depends on the country. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. Search Console connects, Excel exports and share links need no account, and the API and MCP are a $10 add-on. |
| Best for | big brands tracking AI answers on many engines | AI tracking priced per prompt and engine |
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: Profound and ZipTie. How we grade
Price against what you get
Profound starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. ZipTie starts at $25.65 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and ZipTie starts $73.35 a month lower. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Profound for less, and 1 scores higher than ZipTie 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
- Profound also covers AI agents and web analytics.
- ZipTie also covers reports.
At a glance
| Profound | ZipTie | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies) | $25.65 per month for 30 daily prompts on 3 engines, billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial: 50 preset prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with limited AI Marketer credits | 7-day free trial with 25 daily prompts on 3 engines, no card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Profound | ZipTie, Inc. |
| Price read from | tryprofound.com | ziptie.ai |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
ZipTie
- Add-ons cost extra: API and MCP access $10 a month, content generation $20 a month per brand context, and UGC Impact Analysis adds 80% to the prompt cost.
- The trial covers only ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Copilot; other engines need a paid plan.
- Cancelling takes effect at the end of the paid period, and unused time is not refunded.
- Which engines can run depends on the country chosen for each project.
Key features
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.
ZipTie
- Seven AI engines
- Checks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Bing AI Overview and Gemini, at the same price per engine.
- AI Success Score
- Combines citation rate, mention rate and sentiment into a 0 to 100 score for each prompt and a trend line for the project.
- Daily, weekly or monthly checks
- Cadence is set per project, so key prompts can run daily and long-tail prompts monthly from one shared pool.
- Action Center
- A ranked queue of gaps per project, such as prompts where no engine names or cites the brand across several checks.
- Competitors and organic results
- Ranks the brands and domains AI answers name and cite, with Google and Bing organic results captured alongside at no extra cost.
- Client reports
- White-label PDF reports with an agency's logo, Excel exports and share links that need no account, on every plan.
Plans
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.
ZipTie
Starter$25.65
per month for 30 daily prompts on 3 engines, billed monthly
A starting preset on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity. Every plan is built in a calculator at about $0.01 per prompt check.
Professional$340.20
per month for 100 daily and 280 weekly prompts, billed monthly
A preset on 5 engines, adding AI Mode and Gemini, with the UGC Impact Analysis add-on switched on.
Enterprise$1,647
per month for 300 daily, 1,050 weekly and 1,500 monthly prompts
The largest preset: all 7 engines with UGC Impact Analysis, billed monthly. Bigger volumes get a custom quote.
Ways to pay less
Profound
No public discounts listed.
ZipTie
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
ZipTie's calculator takes 20% off the prompt cost for annual billing, 10% for semi-annual and 5% for quarterly. Flat add-ons stay at full price.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Profound or ZipTie?
As of Oct 23, 2026, ZipTie is cheaper to start with: $25.65 a month, against $99 a month for Profound. Profound starts at $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies), and ZipTie starts at $25.65 per month for 30 daily prompts on 3 engines, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Profound or ZipTie?
As of Oct 23, 2026, neither Profound nor ZipTie 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.