HubSpot AEO vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

HubSpot AEO and Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit are both AI-answer-visibility products bolted onto an existing incumbent marketing platform, rather than standalone GEO startups — a distinct fork from most of this index, where AI-visibility tracking is the entire product. That shared shape makes the differences that remain more telling: price, free-trial policy and exactly which AI engines are covered at the entry tier.

On price, both charge for 25 tracked prompts at the base tier, but HubSpot AEO does it for $50/month ($45/month billed annually) while Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit charges $99/month for the same prompt count — almost double, for one fewer domain option built in (Semrush's $99/mo covers 1 domain; extra domains cost another $99/mo each, and every 50 extra prompts add $60/mo). HubSpot also ships a genuinely free entry point: its AI Search Grader is a one-time, no-signup diagnostic that returns a composite visibility score in about two minutes, before anyone commits to the paid AEO tier. Semrush has no equivalent — no free trial at all, though free demo reports can be browsed first — so a buyer has to commit to $99/month to see the toolkit run on their own brand.

Engine coverage tips the other way. Semrush's base tier confirms four engines — ChatGPT, Google AI (Overviews and AI Mode), Gemini and Perplexity — with Claude and Grok gated to a separate Enterprise tier. HubSpot AEO tracks three: ChatGPT (specifically GPT-5.4 mini, not the flagship model), Gemini and Perplexity — it has no Google AI Overviews coverage at all, a real gap for brands that care about that specific surface. Both are sold standalone and don't require an existing subscription to the parent platform, though existing HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional/Enterprise customers get expanded prompt tracking and CRM-tied recommendations, and Semrush customers get the toolkit inside the same account and login they already use for SEO/Content work.

The two companies sit at different points in their own AI-visibility maturity. HubSpot AEO is explicitly labeled "beta" on HubSpot's own product page, built from the team and technology HubSpot acquired with XFunnel in October 2025 — it has no independent review track record of its own yet, separate from HubSpot's broader Marketing Hub reputation. Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit isn't flagged as beta and has been live longer, though the company itself changed hands: Adobe completed an all-cash acquisition of Semrush on 2026-04-28 for about $1.9B, and Semrush's customer FAQ states there are "no immediate changes" to the toolkit's product, pricing or support. Both parent companies are large and financially durable — HubSpot is publicly traded (NYSE: HUBS, $3.13B FY2025 revenue, 288,706 customers) and Semrush now operates inside Adobe — so neither buyer is betting on an early-stage startup's survival, which is a genuine point of difference from most of this index.