Comparison
AIV Index vs Profound.
Profound’s pricing page now leads with “Meet your AI Marketer” and sells two tiers: a free Trial, “for companies who want to trial Profound before getting a demo”, and Enterprise, “for companies operationalizing AI Search insights and running marketing agents at scale”. Below is how the two actually differ — including the places Profound is the better buy.
How this was sourced. Every claim about Profound below comes from Profound’s own live pages, read on 21 September 2026 — not from third-party “best tools” round-ups, because in this category almost all of those are published by a competing vendor ranking itself first. Where Profound does not publish something, it says not published rather than being guessed at.
Sources: Profound pricing page
We build a competing product. That is exactly why the sourcing and the dates are on the page.
| Dimension | AIV Index | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | R650 / R1,500 / R3,500 per month (ZAR, published) | Trial free (10 prompts, run once, ChatGPT only) · Enterprise custom (“Tailored packages”, book a demo)The only number on the page is zero. The paid tier is “Custom” and you have to take a demo to learn it. Read 21 September 2026. |
| Engines | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Anthropic Claude, Google AI Overviews, Exa SearchEnterprise lists “Up to 9 Answer Engines tracked”, with capability for these nine. The free Trial tracks ChatGPT only. Grok, on the page in August, is no longer listed. |
| Sampling | Every prompt sampled 3× per engine per cycle, with live web search | Not publishedNot stated in a directly comparable form on their pricing page. |
- Pricing
AIV Index
R650 / R1,500 / R3,500 per month (ZAR, published)
Profound
Trial free (10 prompts, run once, ChatGPT only) · Enterprise custom (“Tailored packages”, book a demo)
The only number on the page is zero. The paid tier is “Custom” and you have to take a demo to learn it. Read 21 September 2026.
- Engines
AIV Index
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini
Profound
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Anthropic Claude, Google AI Overviews, Exa Search
Enterprise lists “Up to 9 Answer Engines tracked”, with capability for these nine. The free Trial tracks ChatGPT only. Grok, on the page in August, is no longer listed.
- Sampling
AIV Index
Every prompt sampled 3× per engine per cycle, with live web search
Profound
Not published
Not stated in a directly comparable form on their pricing page.
Where Profound is the better choice
- Broader engine coverage on Enterprise — nine surfaces to our four, including Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, DeepSeek and Exa.
- A free trial you can start without a call: 10 prompts, run once, on ChatGPT.
- Far greater scale and resourcing. The page announces a $180M Series D, and the product bundles agents, log-level integrations and prompt-volume data alongside tracking.
Where AIV Index is the better choice
- Published pricing for the paid product. You can see what AIV Index costs without booking a demo.
- South African market depth. Our prompt sets, benchmarks and the SA AI Visibility Index are built on SA buyer questions and SA competitor sets.
- A published methodology and every raw answer readable — you can audit how a number was produced, and take the data to someone who is not us.
Pick Profound if
You are an enterprise brand that wants nine engines, marketing agents and CDN log integrations in one platform, and a custom contract after a demo is normal for you.
Pick AIV Index if
You are a South African business that wants to know whether AI names you in your market, you want to see the price before the call, and you want the raw answers rather than a score.
Before you buy either, check something free: whether the AI crawlers can reach your site at all. If they are blocked at the server, no tracker will change the answer.