Profound is the most funded AI visibility platform in the market, having raised $58.5 million across seed, Series A, and Series B rounds. LLM Pulse is a bootstrapped alternative that launched in mid-2025 and has grown to serve clients across fintech, marketplaces, SaaS, and agencies worldwide.
This comparison examines both platforms across pricing, features, AI model coverage, and real-world value to help you choose the right tool for your team.
Table of Contents
Quick comparison
| Category | LLM Pulse | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | €49/month (40 prompts, 5 models) | $99/month (50 prompts, 1 model) |
| Multi-model entry | €49/month | $399/month |
| 100 prompts tier | €99/month | $499/month (Lite) |
| AI models (base) | 5 | 1-4 (tier dependent) |
| Free trial | ✅ 14 days, self-serve | ❌ Application required |
| Funding | Bootstrapped | $58.5M VC-funded |
| Best for | Teams wanting value + features | Fortune 500 with compliance needs |
Company background
LLM Pulse
LLM Pulse launched publicly on July 15, 2025, founded by a team with deep experience in SEO, SaaS, and AI product development. The founders previously led SEO at major marketplace platforms managing 250+ million indexed pages.
The company is bootstrapped — no outside funding, just focus on building a product customers want to pay for. This means pricing reflects actual value delivered, not investor return expectations.
As of January 2026, LLM Pulse serves clients across fintech, marketplaces, SaaS companies, and marketing agencies in multiple countries.
Profound
Profound was founded in 2024 by James Cadwallader (CEO) and Gary Fishkin (Co-founder), both based in New York. The company has raised $58.5 million in total funding:
- $3.5M seed (August 2024) — led by Khosla Ventures
- $20M Series A (June 2025) — led by Kleiner Perkins, with NVIDIA participation
- $35M Series B (late 2025) — led by Sequoia Capital
Profound positions itself as the enterprise leader for “marketing to Superintelligence” and targets Fortune 500 brands. They’re SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliant.
Pricing comparison
This is where the platforms differ most dramatically.
LLM Pulse pricing
| Plan | Price | Prompts | AI models | Cost/prompt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €49/month | 40 | 5 | €1.23 |
| Growth | €99/month | 100 | 5 | €0.99 |
| Scale | €299/month | 300 | 5 | €1.00 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | 10+ | Custom |
All plans include: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews
Profound pricing
| Plan | Price | Prompts | AI models | Cost/prompt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $99/month | 50 | 1 (ChatGPT only) | $1.98 |
| Growth | $399/month | Limited | 3 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews) | — |
| Lite | $499/month | Limited | 4 (+Copilot) | — |
| Enterprise | $2,000-5,000+/month | Unlimited | 10+ | — |
Enterprise-only models: Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek
The pricing gap
| Comparison | LLM Pulse | Profound | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry with 5 models | €49/month | $2,000+/month (Enterprise) | 40x cheaper |
| 100 prompts, multi-model | €99/month | $499/month | ~80% cheaper |
| Annual savings (Growth vs Lite) | €1,188/year | ~€5,520/year | €4,332/year saved |
Key insight: To get Google AI Mode and Gemini on Profound, you need Enterprise pricing. LLM Pulse includes both on the €49/month Starter plan.
AI model coverage
LLM Pulse
All plans (€49+):
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- Google Gemini
- Google AI Mode
- Google AI Overviews
Enterprise:
- All above plus Claude, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek, and more
Profound
Starter ($99/month):
- ChatGPT only
Growth ($399/month):
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews
Lite ($499/month):
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot
Enterprise (custom pricing):
- All above plus Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek
The coverage gap
| AI model | LLM Pulse (€49) | Profound ($99) | Profound ($499) | Profound Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Perplexity | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Gemini | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI Mode | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI Overviews | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Copilot | Enterprise | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Claude | Enterprise | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
Bottom line: LLM Pulse offers more AI models at €49/month than Profound offers at $499/month.
Feature comparison
Core tracking features
| Feature | LLM Pulse | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Brand mention tracking | ✅ | ✅ |
| Citation tracking | ✅ | ✅ |
| Competitor tracking | ✅ | ✅ |
| Share of Voice | ✅ | ✅ |
| Sentiment analysis | ✅ Live | ✅ |
| Historical data | ✅ | ✅ |
Advanced features
| Feature | LLM Pulse | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Query fan out | ✅ | ✅ |
| Prompt research / volumes | ✅ | ✅ (Prompt Volumes) |
| Content Intelligence | ✅ | ✅ (Workflows) |
| ChatGPT Shopping | Roadmap | ✅ |
| Agent Analytics (crawler tracking) | Roadmap | ✅ |
| Conversation Explorer | — | ✅ |
Integrations and exports
| Feature | LLM Pulse | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Data exports (CSV/Excel) | ✅ All plans | ✅ |
| API access | ✅ | ✅ (MCP server, SDKs) |
| Looker Studio connector | ✅ | ❌ |
| Web Analytics integration | ✅ (GA4) | ✅ (GA4, Enterprise) |
| App store tracking | ✅ | ❌ |
Agency and enterprise features
| Feature | LLM Pulse | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| White label | ✅ | Agency plan |
| Pitch workspaces | — | ✅ (Agency plan) |
| Team members | Unlimited | Limited by plan |
| SOC 2 Type II | — | ✅ |
| HIPAA compliance | — | ✅ |
| SSO (SAML/OIDC) | — | ✅ |
Extras
| Feature | LLM Pulse | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome extension | ✅ (Query Detector) | — |
| Free AI Visibility Report | ✅ | — |
| Free trial | ✅ 14 days, no card | ❌ Application required |
Where Profound wins
To be fair, Profound has genuine strengths for certain use cases:
1. Enterprise compliance
Profound is SOC 2 Type II certified and HIPAA compliant. If your procurement process requires these certifications, Profound checks those boxes. LLM Pulse doesn’t currently offer enterprise compliance certifications.
2. ChatGPT Shopping visibility
Profound offers dedicated tracking for ChatGPT Shopping tiles — how products appear when users ask purchase-related questions. This is valuable for e-commerce brands monitoring AI-driven product discovery. LLM Pulse has this on the roadmap but hasn’t shipped it yet.
3. Agent Analytics
Profound tracks AI crawler behavior — which AI systems are crawling your content, how often, and which pages. This helps technical teams optimize for AI indexing. LLM Pulse is building this but it’s not live.
4. Conversation Explorer and Prompt Volumes
Profound’s Conversation Explorer shows real-time search volume insights for AI engines — how often topics are discussed in ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc. This is valuable market research data that LLM Pulse doesn’t replicate at the same depth.
5. Agency pitch workspaces
Profound’s Agency plan includes pitch workspaces (10/month with 25 custom prompts each) for prospecting. This is purpose-built for agencies selling AEO services.
Where LLM Pulse wins
1. Price-to-value ratio
This is the most significant difference. LLM Pulse delivers more AI models at lower price points:
- 5 AI models at €49/month vs Profound’s 1 model at $99/month
- 80% lower cost for comparable multi-model tracking
- €4,332/year savings comparing Growth (€99) to Lite ($499)
2. AI model coverage at accessible tiers
Google AI Mode and Gemini are included on all LLM Pulse plans starting at €49/month. Profound locks these behind Enterprise pricing (reportedly $2,000-5,000+/month).
For many teams, AI Mode and Gemini are essential — Google AI Mode is becoming a primary search interface, and Gemini powers increasingly important AI experiences.
3. Transparent, self-serve access
- 14-day free trial
- Immediate signup — no application, no sales calls
- Published pricing for all tiers
Profound requires you to apply for access. There’s no free trial, no self-serve signup. You wait for approval, then get a sales call.
4. Looker Studio connector
LLM Pulse offers a native Looker Studio connector for building custom dashboards and combining AI visibility data with other marketing metrics. Profound doesn’t offer this integration.
5. App store tracking
LLM Pulse tracks AI citations in iOS App Store and Google Play — important for mobile apps and games. Profound focuses on web-based AI visibility.
6. Unlimited team members
All LLM Pulse plans include unlimited team members. Profound limits seats by plan tier.
7. Platform stability
Multiple G2 reviews mention Profound reliability issues:
- “Profound has become extremely unreliable over the past months”
- “Every time we request a plan upgrade… it duplicates old prompts, restores deleted data, and breaks our tracking setup”
- “The platform is also getting painfully slow”
- “Support is slow and disconnected — replies can take up to a week”
LLM Pulse hasn’t accumulated the same volume of public reviews, but users report stable performance and responsive support.
Tracking methodology
Both platforms use similar fundamental approaches:
How both work
- Send prompts to AI models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.)
- Capture the full response including brand mentions and citations
- Track changes over time
- Compare visibility against competitors
Profound’s methodology claims
Profound emphasizes “direct-interface monitoring” — capturing responses from the actual AI interfaces rather than APIs. They claim this captures dynamic, real-time information that API-only approaches miss.
LLM Pulse’s methodology
LLM Pulse also queries AI models directly and captures full responses. The company emphasizes transparent, auditable data collection.
Bottom line on methodology
Both platforms query the same AI models. The fundamental data is similar — the difference is in coverage (which models), features (what you can do with data), and pricing (what you pay).
Real-world use cases
Choose LLM Pulse if:
You’re a SaaS company or startup
- Need comprehensive AI visibility without enterprise budgets
- Want Gemini and AI Mode tracking without paying $2,000+/month
- Value fast setup over procurement processes
You’re a marketing agency
- Need to prove ROI to clients at accessible price points
- Want white label options for client-facing reports
- Need Looker Studio integration for custom dashboards
You’re an e-commerce brand (non-enterprise)
- Want to track AI visibility across multiple models
- Need cost-effective scaling as prompt volume grows
- Don’t require SOC 2/HIPAA compliance
You want to test AI visibility tracking
- 14-day free trial to evaluate before committing
- Low entry price (€49) to start with real data
- No sales calls required to get started
Choose Profound if:
You’re a Fortune 500 brand
- SOC 2 Type II is a hard procurement requirement
- HIPAA compliance is mandatory (healthcare/pharma)
- Budget is not a constraint
You’re focused on ChatGPT Shopping
- E-commerce brand tracking product visibility in AI shopping experiences
- Need dedicated Shopping analysis that LLM Pulse doesn’t yet offer
You need Agent Analytics
- Technical teams optimizing for AI crawler behavior
- Want to track which AI systems are indexing your content
You’re an agency building AEO practices
- Need pitch workspaces for prospecting
- Value the Profound brand name for enterprise client sales
Migration considerations
Switching from Profound to LLM Pulse
- Export your data: Download prompt lists and historical data from Profound
- Start LLM Pulse trial: 14-day free trial, immediate access
- Configure identical prompts: Set up the same tracking for comparison
- Run parallel for 2-4 weeks: Validate data consistency
- Evaluate features: Determine if LLM Pulse meets your needs
- Cancel Profound: 30-day notice for annual plans
What you’ll gain:
- Google AI Mode and Gemini on base plans
- ~80% cost reduction
- Looker Studio integration
- App store tracking
- Unlimited team members
What you might miss:
- ChatGPT Shopping visibility (LLM Pulse roadmap)
- Agent Analytics (LLM Pulse roadmap)
- Conversation Explorer depth
- SOC 2/HIPAA compliance
- Agency pitch workspaces
Verdict
For most teams: LLM Pulse
If you don’t have hard compliance requirements (SOC 2, HIPAA, SSO) and budget isn’t unlimited, LLM Pulse delivers better value:
- 5 AI models (including AI Mode and Gemini) at €49/month
- 80% lower cost for comparable coverage
- More transparent, accessible pricing
- Features competitors charge extra for (Looker Studio, app tracking)
The €4,332/year you save switching from Profound Lite to LLM Pulse Growth could fund content creation, link building, or campaigns that actually improve the AI visibility you’re tracking.
For enterprise with compliance needs: Profound
If your procurement process requires SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA compliance, or SSO — and budget is not a constraint — Profound is the established choice. Their Fortune 500 client base and $58.5M in funding signal stability for enterprise buyers.
The fundamental question
Both platforms track AI visibility by querying the same AI models. The data is fundamentally similar. The questions are:
- How much should you pay for it?
- Which AI models do you need at accessible tiers?
- Do you need enterprise compliance, or just visibility data?
For most teams, the answer points to LLM Pulse.
Start your free evaluation: Try LLM Pulse free for 14 days — immediate access to all features.
FAQ
What’s the main difference between LLM Pulse and Profound?
Pricing and AI model coverage at accessible tiers. LLM Pulse includes 5 AI models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews) at €49/month. Profound’s $99/month plan only tracks ChatGPT, and you need Enterprise pricing ($2,000+/month) to access Gemini and AI Mode.
Does Profound have a free trial?
No. Profound requires you to apply for access. There’s no self-serve signup and no free trial. LLM Pulse offers a 14-day free trial with immediate access.
Which platform has more AI models?
At comparable price points, LLM Pulse has more. LLM Pulse offers 5 models at €49/month. Profound offers 4 models at $499/month (Lite tier). Profound’s full 10+ model coverage requires Enterprise pricing.
Is Profound worth the premium pricing?
For Fortune 500 brands with SOC 2/HIPAA requirements and unlimited budgets, Profound’s compliance certifications may be necessary. For everyone else, the 80% price premium doesn’t deliver proportional value — both platforms query the same AI models.
Does LLM Pulse have ChatGPT Shopping tracking?
Not yet. ChatGPT Shopping visibility is on LLM Pulse’s roadmap. If this is critical for your e-commerce brand today, Profound currently offers this feature.
Which platform has better support?
G2 reviews mention Profound support “can take up to a week.” LLM Pulse users report same-day response times. However, Profound offers dedicated account managers for Enterprise clients.
Can I migrate from Profound to LLM Pulse?
Yes. Export your prompt lists from Profound, start a free LLM Pulse trial, configure identical tracking, run parallel for 2-4 weeks to validate, then cancel Profound with 30-day notice for annual plans.
What if I need SOC 2 compliance?
Profound is SOC 2 Type II certified. LLM Pulse doesn’t currently offer this certification. If SOC 2 is a hard procurement requirement, Profound is the choice. If it’s nice-to-have, the 80% cost savings on LLM Pulse may outweigh it.
