Comparison
CitationDesk vs Profound.
Enterprise AI-search visibility platform
Profound and CitationDesk both help you win AI citations, with different jobs: CitationDesk is a free point-in-time readiness audit plus fix generators; Profound sells continuous monitoring. Here's a side-by-side written by the operator who built CitationDesk — including where Profound is the better pick.
Quick read
CitationDesk
Free — optional Pro €29/mo
Free Citation Readiness Score + fix generators · open methodology · readiness scored for 4 LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) · no signup · NL/EU.
Profound
Free trial (7 days) · Enterprise custom (sales-led)
Profound is the most-funded player in the category ($155M raised total — including a $96M Series C at a $1B valuation in Feb 2026; G2 Winter-2026 leader). They focus on publishers and brands tracking presence across multiple AI search engines. Its public pricing is now a free trial (50 prompts a day for 7 days) and custom Enterprise plans; the earlier $399 and $499 self-serve tiers are gone. Strong on competitive intelligence + share-of-voice dashboards.
Side-by-side
| Feature | CitationDesk | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Free tools · optional Pro €29/mo | Free 7-day trial, then custom enterprise |
| Self-serve onboarding | ✓ (no sales call) | ~ free trial, then sales-led |
| Free audit tool | ✓ Citation Readiness Score | ✗ |
| Pricing transparency | ✓ Public + flat tiers | ✓ Self-serve public · enterprise quote |
| Multi-LLM coverage | Readiness scored for 4 (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) | Tracks 6+ |
| Enterprise (SSO, SLA) | ✗ | ✓ |
| SMB / indie operator fit | ✓ Built for it | ✗ Enterprise-first |
When CitationDesk is the better pick
CitationDesk covers the readiness half free: the Citation Readiness Score audits any URL with no signup, and the fix generators produce the llms.txt, schema, and robots allowlist to act on it. For solo operators and small teams, that is the right first step before committing to a $399+/mo monitoring platform.
When Profound is the better pick
If you’re a Fortune 5000 brand tracking competitive AI-share-of-voice across 6+ LLMs with mandatory SOC 2 + dedicated CSM, Profound is the more mature enterprise solution.
Who is each best for?
- CitationDesk: Solo operators, indie publishers, content marketers, small SEO teams, AI-native product teams under €5k/mo tooling budget.
- Profound: Mid-market and enterprise marketing teams with budget to track competitive share-of-voice across 6+ LLMs and need vendor-managed onboarding.
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Compare all 12 AI-visibility tools side by side →
or jump to: vs Otterly · vs Profound · vs AthenaHQ.