AI Visibility Platform for Small Business: Otterly, Peec.ai, Profound, and Semrush AI Visibility
Small businesses get pitched Otterly, Peec.ai, Profound, and Semrush AI Visibility. Promptwatch is the SMB default on this ranking. Profound is usually the wrong size.
A small business shopping an AI visibility platform will see the same four names in every roundup: Otterly, Peec.ai, Profound, and Semrush. Those are real products. They are not equally sized for a one-domain shop that wants to know if ChatGPT and Perplexity mention them.
On our rankings, Promptwatch is the SMB default. Explore is free (ChatGPT, 10 prompts). Essential is $95/mo for the paid engine set. Profound is usually the wrong purchase at this size.
The four names, ranked for a small business
Otterly.AI starts at $29/mo. Fastest setup in the category. Base engines are ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot. Gemini, Claude, and AI Mode are paid add-ons. Monitoring can lag up to seven days. Lite includes 15 prompts. That is a trial budget, not a program. Buy Otterly to prove the category exists. Do not scale a year of work on weekly-ish data and add-on math.
Peec AI starts at $95/mo, same sticker as Promptwatch Essential. You get 50 prompts, one project, and three models. Extra models are $35 to $165/mo each. Claude is Enterprise-only. No historical backfill: the graph starts the day you subscribe. Excellent tracker UX. It will not tell you what to change, and it will not attach crawler logs or visitor analytics.
Profound Starter is $99/mo billed annually, ChatGPT-only, 50 prompts, one seat. Growth is $399/mo annual for three engines. Everything people cite Profound for (up to 10 engines, Prompt Volumes, API, SSO) is Enterprise. Setup is measured in months. A small business that buys Starter has paid for a ChatGPT sample with an annual lock.
Semrush AI Toolkit is $99/mo per domain on top of Semrush. One domain, one user, 25 prompts. Extra domains and seats are $99/mo each. Extra 50 prompts are $60/mo. Claude is Enterprise AIO. If you already live in Semrush and want an AI column next to keywords, this is the lowest-friction add. If you do not already pay for Semrush, do not start that suite to get this add-on.
Where Promptwatch sits on the same table
| Platform | Public entry | What that entry actually covers | SMB verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promptwatch | Free Explore; $95/mo Essential | Explore: ChatGPT, 10 prompts. Essential: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, plus Grok, Llama, DeepSeek, Mistral, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode | Default |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo | Four base engines; add-ons; lag | On-ramp |
| Peec AI | $95/mo | Three models; extras billed | Tracker only |
| Profound | $99/mo annual | ChatGPT-only Starter | Wrong size |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | $99/mo per domain | Add-on; 25 prompts | Only if Semrush is already paid |
Promptwatch paid plans monitor real UIs, daily. Citation analytics cover page, domain, Reddit, and YouTube. Agent Analytics is crawler logs (ChatGPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, GoogleOther, Meta). Visitor analytics tie AI-referred traffic to conversions via a script or GTM. Content Agents can draft to Webflow or Framer from a gap. Professional is $245/mo when 50 prompts is tight. Business is $579/mo. Review: Promptwatch. Site: promptwatch.com. 4.7 on G2, 1,840+ brands.
That stack is why we rank it above a cheaper mention counter for anyone who will actually change a page. If you only want a weekly screenshot of four engines, Otterly is honest about being small.
How a small business should buy
Start on Explore. Load the 10 prompts customers already ask: "best [category] for [job]," your brand vs a competitor, "alternative to [incumbent]." If ChatGPT never names you, you have a measurement, not a mystery.
If Perplexity or Gemini matters, Essential is the first paid row that includes them without a model add-on. Compare that configured price to Peec plus extras and to Otterly plus Gemini/Claude. The $29 sticker is not the comparable.
Skip Profound until someone on payroll will own an enterprise research tool. Skip Semrush AI Visibility unless the SEO suite is already a line item.
Allow OAI-SearchBot. Then check crawler logs before rewriting the homepage. A miss with no fetch is infrastructure.
FAQ
Is Otterly "good enough" for a small business?
For a two-week proof, yes. For a year of decisions, the lag and the add-ons are the product. Read the Otterly.AI page before you treat $29 as the annual plan.
Peec and Promptwatch are both $95. Why not Peec?
Same sticker, different bill and different job. Peec bills extra models and stops at monitoring. Promptwatch Essential includes the paid engine set and adds citation analytics, crawler logs, and visitor analytics.
Should we wait for Profound's $99 Starter to "grow into" Growth?
Starter is ChatGPT-only and annual. You do not grow into three engines. You pay $399/mo annual or you talk to sales. That is not an SMB ladder.
What to do this week
- Write 10 real customer questions. Run them in ChatGPT once by hand.
- Load the same 10 into Promptwatch Explore (free).
- Price Otterly with the add-ons you would actually need. Price Peec with the fourth model.
- If you already pay for Semrush, look at the Toolkit as a column, not as the only log.
- Leave Profound off the shortlist unless the rankings row for enterprise research is the brief you wrote down.