Mentions.so, built by the SEO agency Contact Studios, is a lightweight AI visibility tracker that’s earned a reputation as a budget-friendly entry point into the GEO (generative engine optimization) space. It tracks brand mentions across major AI platforms and offers unlimited team seats, white-label reporting, and AI traffic analytics starting at $49/month.
But as teams get deeper into AI search optimization, many discover that Mentions.so’s agency-first approach and relatively basic analytics leave gaps. If you need deeper sentiment analysis, full AI response capture, advanced citation tracking, or multi-model comparison views, you’ll likely outgrow the platform quickly.
Table of Contents
This guide breaks down the best Mentions.so alternatives based on real feature comparisons, transparent pricing, and practical use cases. We start with the tools that deliver the most value for serious AI visibility tracking.
Why teams look for Mentions.so alternatives
Mentions.so works well for agencies that want a simple, affordable way to show clients their brand appears in AI responses. But there are several reasons teams start looking elsewhere:
- Limited analytical depth. Mentions.so tracks whether your brand gets mentioned, but the analytics layer is thin compared to platforms that capture full AI responses, citation positions, and detailed sentiment breakdowns.
- Agency-centric feature set. The platform is built around white-label reports and client management. In-house teams focused on actionable optimization insights often find the feature set doesn’t match their workflow.
- No Google AI Mode on lower tiers. As Google AI Mode becomes a critical channel (now available to all US users), platforms that include it across all plans have a significant advantage.
- Basic competitor benchmarking. Comparing your AI visibility against competitors requires more than mention counts. Teams need share of voice trends, side-by-side response views, and sentiment comparisons to build real strategy.
- Prompt discovery limitations. Like most tools in this space, Mentions.so requires you to bring your own prompts. Platforms with AI-powered prompt suggestion features save significant setup time and surface queries you’d never think to track.
The 7 best Mentions.so alternatives
1. LLM Pulse – best overall alternative
Pricing: from €49/month (Starter) | €99/month (Growth) | €299/month (Scale) | custom Enterprise Free trial: 14 days, Website: llmpulse.ai
LLM Pulse is a purpose-built AI visibility platform trusted by over 500 brands worldwide. It goes well beyond basic mention tracking by capturing the full AI response for every tracked prompt, giving you complete context on how AI models talk about your brand, not just whether they mention it.
What makes it stand out vs Mentions.so:
- Full AI response capture with citation analysis. Every tracked prompt returns the complete AI answer, including which sources are cited and in what position. Mentions.so focuses on mention detection; LLM Pulse lets you read exactly what AI tells your potential customers.
- Brand sentiment analysis on all plans. Understand whether AI platforms frame your brand positively, negatively, or neutrally. This isn’t a vague score: LLM Pulse provides explainable sentiment with specific topics and comments extracted from AI responses.
- Google AI Mode included in all plans. While some competitors gate this behind higher tiers or add-on pricing, LLM Pulse tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews on every plan.
- Share of voice and competitor side-by-side views. See exactly how your visibility compares to competitors across every model and prompt. Track trends over time to measure the impact of your content and PR efforts.
- Content Intelligence. Turn your AI visibility data into actionable content strategy. Generate content briefs, optimized articles, product positioning insights, and PR recommendations, all powered by your real tracking data.
- AI prompt suggestions. Don’t know which prompts to track? LLM Pulse analyzes your brand and industry to suggest the queries that matter, helping you avoid the guessing game that plagues most AI visibility tools.
- Looker Studio connector. Build custom dashboards and integrate AI visibility data into your existing reporting workflows.
- Unlimited team members on all plans. Just like Mentions.so, no per-seat fees.
- App store tracking. Monitor how AI models recommend mobile apps, a unique feature not found in most competitors.
Quick pricing comparison:
| LLM Pulse Starter | Mentions.so Starter | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | €49 | $49 |
| Tracked prompts | 40 | ~50 |
| AI models covered | 5 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews) | Varies by plan |
| Brand sentiment | ✅ All plans | Basic |
| Full AI responses | ✅ | ❌ |
| Content Intelligence | ✅ | ❌ |
| Prompt suggestions | ✅ | Limited |
| Free trial | 14 days | Limited |
At comparable entry pricing, LLM Pulse delivers significantly more analytical depth. The Growth plan at €99/month (100 prompts, 10 competitors, 2 projects) represents one of the best cost-per-prompt ratios in the market at €0.99 per prompt.
Start your free 14-day trial at LLM Pulse →
2. Peec AI – best for international brands
Pricing: from €89/month
Peec AI, built in Berlin, stands out with support for 115+ languages, making it the clear choice for global brands monitoring AI visibility across diverse markets. The platform includes automated prompt discovery using AI analysis of your website and competitors, and offers GDPR compliance by design.
Peec tracks visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot. The Looker Studio connector and CSV exports make it agency-friendly. Where it falls short compared to LLM Pulse is in content intelligence features and the depth of citation source analysis.
Best for: global brands needing multi-language AI visibility tracking across European and international markets.
3. Otterly AI – best for budget-conscious teams
Pricing: from $29/month (Lite, 10 prompts) | $189/month (Standard, 100 prompts)
Otterly AI is one of the most recognized names in the space, used by over 20,000 marketing professionals. Their Lite plan at $29/month for 10 prompts provides an extremely low entry point. The platform covers ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, AI Mode, Gemini, and Copilot.
The main limitation is the pricing gap between Lite (10 prompts, $29) and Standard (100 prompts, $189). If you need more than 10 prompts but fewer than 100, you’re stuck paying for capacity you might not use. The platform also focuses more on monitoring than on actionable optimization recommendations.
Best for: small teams testing AI visibility tracking on a tight budget who only need a handful of prompts.
4. Profound – best for enterprise compliance
Pricing: from $499/month
Profound is the enterprise-grade option, backed by $35M in Series B funding and trusted by companies like MongoDB and Ramp. SOC 2 Type II compliance, dedicated customer success managers, and advanced conversation analysis make it the go-to for Fortune 500 brands that need security infrastructure alongside their visibility tracking.
They offer content brief generation (15 briefs/month), a conversion explorer for deep AI conversation analysis, and specialized shopping AI optimization features. The downside is the price: $499/month minimum with no self-serve free trial, and the platform locks historical data to just 2 months on the starter plan.
Best for: large enterprises with strict compliance requirements and dedicated budgets for AI visibility tooling.
5. SE Ranking / SE Visible – best for all-in-one SEO teams
Pricing: from $355/month for 1,000 prompts and 10 brands (AI Search add-on)
SE Ranking recently launched SE Visible as a dedicated AI visibility platform, leveraging their 13+ years of data accuracy and established SEO platform. It tracks visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, and Gemini with clean dashboards, sentiment analysis, and source analysis.
The strength is integration with SE Ranking’s broader SEO toolkit: keyword tracking, competitive research, and content workflows all in one place. For teams already using SE Ranking, this minimizes tool sprawl. The AI search add-on pricing can add up on top of SE Ranking’s base subscription.
Best for: teams already using SE Ranking who want to add AI visibility without switching platforms.
6. Scrunch AI – best for hallucination detection
Pricing: from ~$300/month
Scrunch AI differentiates with hallucination detection, catching when AI models share incorrect information about your brand, like wrong pricing, outdated features, or fabricated claims. Their journey mapping shows how customers discover you through AI, and they’re SOC 2 Type II compliant.
A case study shows RunPod achieving approximately 4x growth in new paying customers within 90 days using Scrunch AI’s insights. However, the $300/month minimum price is steep for SMBs, and the platform focuses more on detection than on providing actionable optimization recommendations.
Best for: SaaS companies and brands where AI accuracy directly impacts conversion rates and trust.
7. Writesonic GEO – best for content-first teams
Pricing: from $249/month (estimated)
Writesonic GEO takes a content-first approach to AI visibility, functioning like an “Ahrefs for AI platforms.” It tracks brand mentions across ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Claude, providing competitor benchmarking and sentiment analysis alongside content creation tools.
The platform combines tracking with content generation, making it appealing for teams that want to act on insights immediately. Early adopters report discovering significant blind spots in AI visibility. The limitation is that content creation tools are generic rather than powered by your specific tracking data like LLM Pulse’s Content Intelligence.
Best for: content marketing teams who want AI visibility tracking bundled with content creation capabilities.
How to choose the right Mentions.so alternative
The right tool depends on where you are and what you need:
- If you want the most value per euro spent: LLM Pulse’s Growth plan at €99/month gives you 100 prompts, 5 AI models including Google AI Mode, full response capture, brand sentiment, content intelligence, and a Looker Studio connector. It’s hard to find more capability at that price point.
- If you operate globally across many languages: Peec AI’s 115+ language support is unmatched. No other tool comes close for international brand monitoring.
- If you’re testing with a tiny budget: Otterly AI’s Lite plan at $29/month for 10 prompts is the cheapest way to start, though you’ll quickly want more prompts.
- If enterprise compliance is non-negotiable: Profound ($499+) or Scrunch AI ($300+) provide the SOC 2 infrastructure large organizations require.
- If you’re already in an SEO suite: SE Ranking’s AI Search add-on or Semrush’s AI Toolkit minimize tool sprawl if you’re already invested in those ecosystems.
Bottom line
Mentions.so does what it promises: affordable, agency-friendly AI visibility tracking with unlimited seats and white-label reports. For agencies managing many clients at a basic level, it’s a reasonable starting point.
But for teams who want to truly understand and optimize their AI visibility, not just report on it, the depth of insight matters. Full AI responses, explainable sentiment analysis, citation source tracking, content intelligence, and competitive share of voice provide the foundation for real optimization work.
LLM Pulse stands out as the best overall alternative, combining transparent pricing (from €49/month), a 14-day free trial, brand sentiment analysis, content intelligence, Looker Studio integration, white-label capabilities, and unlimited team members. It’s the platform that gives you the most capability per euro spent while letting you prove value before committing budget.
Ready to try it? Start your free 14-day trial at LLM Pulse – no sales call needed.
Last updated: February 2026
FAQ
What is an AI visibility tracking tool?
An AI visibility tracking tool monitors how your brand appears inside AI-generated responses across platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity, helping you understand whether you are mentioned, how you are framed, which sources are cited, and how you compare to competitors in generative search environments.
Why are companies looking for Mentions.so alternatives?
Companies often look for Mentions.so alternatives when they need deeper analytics such as full AI response capture, advanced sentiment analysis, citation tracking, competitor share of voice comparisons, or broader AI model coverage beyond basic mention monitoring and agency-style reporting.
What features matter most in AI search optimization tools?
The most important features include full AI response visibility, explainable sentiment analysis, citation source tracking, multi-model monitoring (including Google AI Mode), competitor benchmarking, prompt discovery assistance, and integrations that allow teams to turn insights into actionable content and PR strategies.
How does AI visibility tracking differ from traditional SEO tracking?
Traditional SEO tracking focuses on keyword rankings and organic search positions, while AI visibility tracking measures how generative AI systems reference, describe, and cite your brand within conversational answers, requiring different metrics such as share of voice in AI responses, citation frequency, and response sentiment.
Is LLM Pulse a good alternative to Mentions.so?
LLM Pulse is considered a strong alternative because it goes beyond mention detection by capturing full AI responses, providing citation analysis and explainable sentiment insights, supporting Google AI Mode across plans, and offering content intelligence features that help teams actively optimize their AI visibility rather than just report on it.
