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 — no paid tiers
Free Citation Readiness Score + fix generators · open methodology · readiness scored for 4 LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) · no signup · NL/EU.
Profound
$399/mo self-serve (Growth) · $499 (Lite) · $2,000-5,000+ (Enterprise)
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. Self-serve plans start at $399/mo (Growth) and $499/mo (Lite, ChatGPT-only); Enterprise runs $2,000-5,000+/mo. Strong on competitive intelligence + share-of-voice dashboards.
Side-by-side
| Feature | CitationDesk | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Free — no paid tiers | $399/mo self-serve · $2,000+ enterprise |
| Self-serve onboarding | ✓ (no sales call) | ✓ self-serve ($399+) or 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 each is 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.