Head to head
Profound vs Rankshift
Rankshift's $82/month Starter tracks nine AI engines with API access on every tier; Profound's $99/month Starter tracks ChatGPT alone with no public API at all. This is the category's enterprise-trusted anchor against the broadest entry-tier coverage-per-dollar in this index.
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Profound and Rankshift both track how AI engines mention and cite a brand, but they price engine coverage in opposite directions. Rankshift's Starter tier costs $82/month and tracks all nine of its supported engines from day one: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Mistral and Meta AI. Profound's Starter tier costs slightly more, $99/month, and tracks exactly one: ChatGPT. Matching Rankshift's default nine-engine reach on Profound requires the custom, sales-led Enterprise plan; Profound's self-serve Growth tier ($399/month) still reaches only three engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews).
The gap continues past engine count. Rankshift bundles MCP and API access, unlimited projects and unlimited seats into every self-serve tier, Starter included. Profound has no public API at any self-serve tier (its own listing records API access as unavailable outside a custom deal) and gates seats by plan (1 seat on Starter, 3 on Growth); real API access only appears as an Enterprise-tier line item, alongside SSO/SAML and SOC2. Trial policy splits the same way: Rankshift offers a 30-day free trial, no credit card required, across every self-serve tier. Profound's Growth tier carries a "try for free" offer; its cheaper Starter tier shows no equivalent.
The two also point their data at different jobs. Profound's citation-source module identifies which publications and pages the AI engines actually cite in a category, aimed at content and PR teams deciding where to place coverage, plus sentiment and framing analysis and competitive benchmarking, backed by a $96M funding round reported by Fortune. Rankshift's Agent Analytics does something adjacent but different: it logs real AI-crawler bot traffic against your own site, capturing bot name, page path and HTTP status: evidence a pure prompt-sampling tracker like Profound cannot produce on its own, useful for confirming a visibility change actually followed a re-crawl rather than assuming one happened.
Track record cuts the other way. Profound is, by its own listing's account, the most-searched brand in this category, sales-tested by large comms and brand teams and financially backed by that nine-figure raise. Rankshift, registered as Rankshift BV in Deerlijk, Belgium, is a newer entrant with no reviews yet on Slashdot or SourceForge, and independent reviewers note its bundled Content Brief Generator and AI Content Writer are rougher than its tracking core. A team weighing an established name and dedicated account support over price will still land on Profound; a team that wants the widest engine coverage, an API and a real free trial from the first dollar spent gets more of all three, per dollar, from Rankshift.
How Profound and Rankshift compare
Scroll across to compare every side. Feature names stay in view.One card per question, with every side answering it in turn.
| Feature | ProfoundVisit Profound ↗ | RankshiftVisit Rankshift ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| Description | AI answer engine visibility platform with content agents and AI crawler analytics. | AI visibility tracking with unlimited projects and seats, plus content briefs and an AI writer. |
| Category | AI visibility monitoring | AI visibility monitoring, GEO & content optimization |
| Pricing | from $99/month | from $92/month |
| Tags | ||
| Pricing model | subscription | subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Optimises your content | Yes | Partly |
| Publishes to your site | Yes | No |
| Technical AEO | Partly | - |
| Perplexity | Partly (Growth, available higher) | Yes |
| Gemini | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | Yes |
| Google AI Overviews | Partly (Growth, available higher) | Yes |
| Google AI Mode | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | Yes |
| Claude | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | Yes |
| Microsoft Copilot | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | Partly |
| Grok | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | No |
| DeepSeek | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | No |
| Meta AI | No | Yes |
| Coverage in the vendor’s words | Partly | Yes |
| Wrong answers about you | Yes | - |
| Projects or brands | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | Yes |
| Countries | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | Yes |
| Card required to start | - | No |
| API | Partly (Enterprise, available higher) | Yes |
| BI export | Partly (Growth (file exports); Enterprise (API-based connectors), available higher) | Yes |
| Limitations |
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Who each one is for
Profound
enterprise comms, brand and content teams that need multi-engine depth and a sales-led Enterprise contract
From $99/month
Verdict: Profound or Rankshift?
Want the category's most enterprise-tested name, deep citation-source analysis for PR targeting, and can commit to Growth or Enterprise pricing for real multi-engine depth → Profound. Want the widest engine coverage and an API from the cheapest tier, plus a 30-day free trial with no credit card, and can accept a newer, thinly-reviewed vendor → Rankshift.
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Frequently asked questions
- What's the main difference between Profound and Rankshift?
- Profound's $99/month Starter tier tracks ChatGPT only and has no public API. Rankshift's $82/month Starter tracks all nine of its supported engines and bundles API/MCP access on every tier. Profound is the category's established, better-funded enterprise anchor; Rankshift is a newer, much broader entry-tier vendor.
- Which tracks more AI engines at the entry tier?
- Rankshift, by a wide margin: nine engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Mistral, Meta AI) on its $82/month Starter tier. Profound's $99/month Starter tracks ChatGPT alone; reaching Profound's own nine-engine maximum requires its custom Enterprise plan.
- Does either have a free trial?
- Rankshift offers a 30-day free trial, no credit card required, on every self-serve tier. Profound's Growth tier ($399/month) carries a "try for free" offer; its cheaper Starter tier shows no equivalent.
- Which one has an API?
- Rankshift bundles MCP and API access into every self-serve tier, Starter included. Profound has no public API at its Starter or Growth tiers; API access is listed only as an Enterprise-tier feature, alongside SSO/SAML and SOC2.
- Which has the stronger track record?
- Profound, clearly. It is described as the most-searched brand in the category and raised $96M according to Fortune's reporting. Rankshift is a newer vendor with no reviews yet on Slashdot or SourceForge, and independent reviewers note its bundled content-generation features are rougher than its tracking core.
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At a glance
Rankshift's $82/month Starter tracks nine AI engines with API access on every tier; Profound's $99/month Starter tracks ChatGPT alone with no public API at all. This is the category's enterprise-trusted anchor against the broadest entry-tier coverage-per-dollar in this index.