5 Best Scrunch AI Alternatives in 2026

Scrunch AI raised $15M+, landed customers like Lenovo, Skims, and Crunchbase, and earned coverage in TechCrunch, Fast Company, and Ad Age. Its AXP (Agent Experience Platform)—which delivers AI-optimized content directly to AI agents visiting your site, reducing page size by up to 98%—is genuinely unlike anything else in the AEO category.

But the platform’s pricing and platform coverage create real friction. The Core plan is $250/mo—more expensive than Profound’s Starter, Peec AI, and most mid-market AEO tools—yet it limits you to just 4 LLMs: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot. Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Grok, and AI Mode all require an Enterprise contract. The AXP feature—the most compelling differentiation Scrunch offers—is also Enterprise-only. And while Scrunch has built a real G2 presence—4.6/5 across 50+ reviews—reviewers flag that prompt credits deplete quickly when tracking multiple engines, there’s no way to generate reports, and optimization suggestions are described as “minimal” with limited guidance on implementation.

This guide covers the 5 best Scrunch AI alternatives for 2026. Each platform is evaluated on its own merits with an honest look at where it outperforms Scrunch and where it falls short.

What are the best Scrunch AI alternatives?

The top 5 Scrunch AI alternatives are Airefs, Promptwatch, Cognizo, Brandlight, and Xfunnel.

Airefs is the most affordable option at $24/mo—a full-stack AEO platform with Reddit monitoring, a ChatGPT-first methodology, and an optional done-for-you agency service. Promptwatch covers 10 AI platforms with 1.11 billion data points and costs less than Scrunch’s Core plan while including platforms Scrunch reserves for Enterprise. Cognizo combines monitoring, content briefs, technical audits, and automated content workflows in a single platform from $89/mo—with bot-to-human attribution that Scrunch doesn’t offer on any tier.

Brandlight is the enterprise counterpart: #1 ranked AEO platform by CB Insights, 11+ AI engine coverage including Llama and Rufus, and customers like Mastercard, Humana, and Estée Lauder. Xfunnel differentiates on service—dedicated analyst support, weekly progress meetings, and multivariate experiments that produce 20–40%+ visibility improvements—with a client list that includes Monday.com, HubSpot, and Wix.

Top Scrunch AI alternatives — Comparison table

1. Airefs: Best Scrunch AI alternative for startups and SMBs

Scrunch’s Core plan is $250/mo with 125 prompts across 4 LLMs. Airefs’ Pro plan—which costs $49/mo—gives you 60 prompts on ChatGPT by default, plus Reddit keyword monitoring that Scrunch doesn’t offer at any price point. Other LLMs (Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini) are available upon request. If you just need to start tracking AI visibility without committing to a $250/mo minimum, Airefs removes that barrier.

Airefs is built for teams that want to be proactive, not just informed. Beyond tracking where you’re mentioned, it surfaces the specific Reddit threads to join before they become established sources, the content gaps your competitors are filling, and the URLs AI models repeatedly cite in your category. The intent is to give you a prioritized to-do list, not just a dashboard.

For teams that want the work done rather than just directed, Airefs has a done-for-you tier where the team creates content and participates in relevant discussions on your behalf. Scrunch doesn’t offer an equivalent service layer at any plan tier.

Key features

• ChatGPT-first prompt tracking: Tracked on ChatGPT by default—where most AI search demand is—with other LLMs (Perplexity, Claude, Gemini) available upon request; daily refresh on paid plans
• AI Search Analytics: Identify real traffic coming from AI platforms and track crawler activity on your site
• Reddit keyword monitoring: Track up to 30 keywords (plan-dependent) to catch conversations before they become established sources
• Competitor source analysis: See which sources your competitors are cited in that you’re not
• Content opportunity identification: Pinpoint specific articles, discussions, and pages AI models rely on in your market
• AEO strategist access: Expert review and strategy support on Expert plan and above
• Done-for-you agency service: Full content creation and community participation on behalf of your brand

Pricing

All plans reflect yearly pricing with a 20% discount.

• Lite: $24/mo — 1 domain, 3 competitors, 25 prompts, 2-day refresh, 7-day analytics history, 3 Reddit keywords
• Pro: $49/mo — 3 domains, 5 competitors, 60 prompts, daily refresh, 90-day history, 10 Reddit keywords, 2 seats, 7-day free trial
• Expert: $83/mo — Unlimited domains, 10 competitors, 150 prompts, 30 Reddit keywords, 10 seats, AEO strategist
• Done-for-you: $249/mo+ — Monthly strategy calls, content creation, discussion participation

Pros & cons

Pros:

• Starts at $24/mo—a fraction of Scrunch’s $250/mo Core entry point
• Reddit monitoring is a genuinely unique feature with no equivalent in Scrunch at any tier
• Done-for-you tier converts monitoring insights directly into content and community work
• Transparent pricing with a free trial—no sales call required

Cons:

• No equivalent to Scrunch’s AXP (Agent Experience Platform) for AI agent content delivery
• Doesn’t have Looker Studio integration or a Data API for internal workflows
• Scrunch’s G2 4.6/5 across 50+ reviews gives it stronger third-party validation than Airefs at this stage

Customers

Airefs serves 100+ teams including startups, content teams, SEO agencies, and B2B SaaS companies across North America and Europe. It holds a 5.0/5 customer rating.

While every other AI search visibility tool showed me whether I was being cited, Airefs showed me all 571 URLs that were being cited.

— Lillian P, Fractional CMO

2. Promptwatch: Best Scrunch AI alternative for comprehensive coverage at lower cost

Scrunch’s Core plan covers 4 LLMs for $250/mo. Promptwatch’s Starter covers 10 LLMs for $99/mo—the same price point Profound charges for ChatGPT-only. That gap is the clearest argument for Promptwatch as a Scrunch alternative: significantly broader platform coverage at a significantly lower entry price.

The dataset behind Promptwatch is also substantially larger: 1.11 billion citations, clicks, and prompts collected across 6,900+ brands and agencies. Scrunch doesn’t disclose comparable data volume figures. For teams that rely on benchmarking and trend analysis—where dataset size matters for statistical reliability—this is a meaningful advantage.

Promptwatch also extends into territory Scrunch doesn’t cover: YouTube analysis, entity tracking, and Reddit monitoring alongside core brand visibility features. Its free tools—an AI Brand Visibility Report, LLMs.txt Generator, and GEO Glossary—give agencies a way to demonstrate AEO value to prospective clients before committing to a paid plan.

Key features

• 10-platform tracking: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, Copilot, DeepSeek, AI Overviews, Mistral, and Meta AI
• Crawler logs: Real-time monitoring of AI bots visiting your site with detailed access logs
• ChatGPT Shopping data: Track product recommendations and shopping trigger analysis in ChatGPT
• Reddit and YouTube tracking: Monitor brand conversations beyond AI platforms
• Entity tracker: How AI models define and describe your brand as an entity
• Prompt volume tracking: Understand the volume of queries triggering your brand’s mentions
• Content generation: Create and optimize AEO content within the platform
• Free client prospecting tools: AI Brand Visibility Report, LLMs.txt Generator, GEO Glossary

Pricing

• Starter: $99/mo
• Growth: $249/mo
• Business: $579/mo
• Enterprise: Custom
• Free trial: 7 days

Pros & cons

Pros:

• 10-platform coverage at $99/mo—Scrunch charges $250/mo for 4 platforms
• Includes Mistral, Meta AI, Claude, and Gemini from the base plan; Scrunch reserves these for Enterprise
• 1.11 billion data points provides more reliable benchmarking than tools without disclosed dataset scale
• Reddit and YouTube tracking extends monitoring beyond AI answer engines
• G2 4.7/5 and press coverage from WSJ, Yahoo Finance, and Axios

Cons:

• No equivalent to Scrunch’s AXP for AI agent content delivery
• No Looker Studio integration or enterprise-grade SSO (SAML/OIDC)
• No disclosed integrations with GA4, GSC, or BI tools
• Amsterdam-based support may create timezone friction for US teams

Customers

Promptwatch serves 6,900+ brands and agencies including Booking.com, Center Parcs, and Elaboratum. The platform has a G2 4.7/5 rating and has been covered by Yahoo Finance, WSJ, and Axios.

Promptwatch is a game changer. It provides actionable insights on AI Visibility that we can actually use.

— Alessandro Di Vito, Managing Consultant, Elaboratum

3. Cognizo: Best Scrunch AI alternative for monitoring and content in one platform

Scrunch’s Core plan monitors and diagnoses; it doesn’t generate content. Cognizo combines monitoring, content briefs, technical audits, and automated content creation in a single workflow—and it starts at $89/mo rather than Scrunch’s $250/mo. For teams evaluating Scrunch because they need both visibility tracking and content execution, Cognizo covers both at significantly lower cost.

The feature with no Scrunch equivalent is bot-to-human attribution. Cognizo tracks how AI crawler visits convert into actual human traffic—connecting the AI visibility layer to tangible business impact. For teams building an internal business case for AEO investment, this kind of attribution data is more persuasive than citation counts alone. Scrunch’s Core plan shows you AI bot activity; Cognizo shows you what that bot activity produces in real human visits.

Cognizo also offers phone support alongside online support—a hands-on service model that appeals to teams that want implementation guidance rather than a self-serve dashboard to interpret independently.

Key features

• AI visibility monitoring: Real-time brand mention, citation, and sentiment tracking across 10 AI platforms
• Bot-to-human attribution: Tracks how AI crawler activity converts to actual human visits—unique in the category
• AI-powered content briefs: Generate optimized content recommendations based on citation gap analysis
• Technical audits for LLM crawlability: Identify technical barriers preventing AI bots from properly indexing your content
• Automated content creation and revision: Create and update AEO content directly within the platform
• Prompt Volumes from billions of signals: Large-scale data for understanding AI search demand in your category
• Competitive benchmarking: Visibility, sentiment, and citation frequency comparisons across platforms
• Phone and online support: More hands-on than most software-only AEO tools

Pricing

• Starting at $89/mo (full plan details require contact with sales@cognizo.ai)
• Results reported within 2 weeks; substantial improvement typically within 6 weeks

Pros & cons

Pros:

• Monitoring + content briefs + technical audits + content creation in one platform at $89/mo vs Scrunch’s $250/mo for monitoring only
• Bot-to-human attribution is a genuinely unique capability for building ROI business cases
• 10-platform coverage including Meta AI and DeepSeek from the base plan—Scrunch covers only 4 on Core
• Phone support offers more accessible guidance than Scrunch’s standard support model
• Results within 2 weeks is a specific, testable commitment

Cons:

• No named customer testimonials or published case studies for independent validation
• Pricing opacity: $89/mo starting price but full plan details require a sales conversation
• No G2 reviews or third-party category recognition
• No disclosed integrations (GA4, GSC, Slack, or Looker Studio)

Customers

Cognizo serves mid-size businesses, enterprises, startups, agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Anonymous customers describe seeing meaningful visibility improvements within six weeks and value the “hands-on guidance” model.

Cognizo has been a true partner—their hands-on guidance and technical depth made the difference in our AI visibility program.

— Cognizo customer

4. Brandlight: Best Scrunch AI alternative for enterprise teams

Scrunch is built for enterprise teams and its AXP platform is a genuine innovation. But Brandlight is the CB Insights #1 ranked AEO platform globally—and it covers 11+ AI engines including Llama and Amazon Rufus that no other platform in this comparison tracks. For enterprise teams that need the most complete platform in the category, Brandlight is the strongest option.

Brandlight’s $30M Series A puts it in the same funding tier as Peec AI, and its customer logos reflect true enterprise scale: Mastercard, Humana, Estée Lauder, Kimberly-Clark, and Aetna. Where Scrunch’s enterprise customers include Lenovo and Skims, Brandlight’s customers are Fortune 500 brands operating across multiple regions and product lines simultaneously—which is exactly what its Enterprise HQ View and multi-brand dashboard are built for.

The platform also extends into territory no other AEO tool has entered: Agentic Commerce optimization (making your brand more visible to AI agents making purchasing decisions) and an Ad Analysis feature for measuring AI-driven advertising visibility. Scrunch’s AXP has similar ambitions in the AI agent space, but Brandlight’s agentic commerce layer goes further into the purchase funnel.

Key features

• 11+ platform coverage: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Copilot, DeepSeek, Llama, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Amazon Rufus, and more
• Visibility & Insights: Brand tracking, query intent analysis, citation analysis, and competitive insights across all platforms
• Technical Health: AI crawler monitoring, crawl frequency and coverage analysis, server log analysis, fix prioritization
• Content: Existing content optimization, new content generation, competitor content analysis
• Agentic Commerce: Optimization for AI agents making purchasing decisions on behalf of users
• Enterprise HQ View: Multi-brand and multi-region dashboard with ROI and budget optimization
• Ad Analysis: Measure, analyze, and optimize AI-driven advertising visibility
• Elite advisory network: Advisors include David Edelman (HBS Fellow), Sarah Fay (former CEO Aegis), Tony Weisman (former CMO Dunkin’)

Pricing

• Custom enterprise pricing only — no public pricing or self-serve option
• SOC 2 Type II certified; multi-region and multilingual deployment

Pros & cons

Pros:

• CB Insights #1 AEO platform globally—the strongest independent validation in the category
• 11+ AI engine coverage including Llama and Rufus, which no self-serve tool tracks
• Full-stack enterprise platform: visibility + technical health + content + agentic commerce + ad analysis + attribution (coming soon)
• Enterprise customers (Mastercard, Estée Lauder, Humana) provide credibility at Fortune 500 scale
• Elite advisory network adds strategic depth and industry relationships

Cons:

• Enterprise-only pricing with no disclosed cost—almost certainly more expensive than Scrunch’s $250/mo Core
• No free trial or self-serve option; requires a sales process to evaluate
• Overkill for startups, SMBs, or teams without multi-brand or multi-region complexity
• Attribution feature listed as “coming soon”—still developing key capabilities

Customers

Brandlight serves Humana, Verifone, Mastercard, Estée Lauder, GoTo, Aetna, Charter, Kimberly-Clark, Microchip Technology, and Hartford.

Full clarity into our AI visibility—transforming insights into measurable growth.

— Kady Srinivasan, CMO, You.com

5. Xfunnel: Best Scrunch AI alternative for white-glove service

Scrunch is a software platform: you configure it, interpret the data, and decide what to do next. Xfunnel is fundamentally different—it pairs the platform with a dedicated analyst, weekly progress meetings, content briefs ready for writers, and affiliate activation kits. For enterprise teams that need outcomes, not just tracking tools, Xfunnel’s service model is the clearest differentiator in the AEO category.

The multivariate experimentation capability is the most quantifiable differentiator. Xfunnel runs structured experiments across prompt variations, content formats, and targeting approaches—and reports 20–40%+ improvement variability from these experiments. Scrunch’s Core plan provides recommendations; Xfunnel tests which recommendations actually work before scaling them.

The customer list validates the approach at meaningful scale: Monday.com, HubSpot, Wix, Getty Images, LastPass, Lemonade, and Betterment have all used Xfunnel. These aren’t early-adopter logos—they’re mature marketing teams that chose a service-led model over a self-serve dashboard because the outcomes matter more than the tooling.

Key features

• Research: Top questions by intent level, high-priority topics, segmentation by region, persona, and product
• Measure Visibility: Share of voice, brand visibility, sentiment analysis, and persona-level analysis across 7 AI platforms
• Analyze: Response and citation gap analysis, competitor benchmarking, topic prioritization
• Optimize/Experiment: Multivariate experiments producing 20–40%+ improvement variability; AI optimization playbooks
• Dedicated analyst support: Named analyst assigned to your account
• Weekly progress meetings: Regular structured check-ins on visibility trends and experiment results
• Content briefs ready for writers: Actionable briefs with no interpretation required
• Affiliate activation kits: Structured playbooks for expanding citation sources through partnerships
• Tailored playbooks: Custom strategy documentation for your specific market and competitive context

Pricing

• Free Starter: One-time, 50 queries (no ongoing access)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing (contact sales)
• No self-serve ongoing plan between Free Starter and Enterprise custom

Pros & cons

Pros:

• White-glove service model (dedicated analyst, weekly meetings, content briefs) converts tracking data into actual work—Scrunch has no equivalent
• Multivariate experiments with documented 20–40%+ improvement variability give clients testable ROI evidence
• Impressive enterprise customer list (Monday.com, HubSpot, Wix, Getty Images) with 5-star testimonials across all named customers
• Free Starter tier (50 one-time queries) allows evaluation before any commercial conversation

Cons:

• No mid-tier self-serve plan: only Free Starter or Enterprise custom, with no pricing transparency for the latter
• Heavy service component makes it less suitable for teams that want to self-manage their AEO program
• 7 AI platforms vs Scrunch’s 4 on Core—good breadth, but less than Promptwatch (10) or Brandlight (11+)
• No disclosed integrations with GA4, GSC, or BI tools

Customers

Xfunnel serves Wix, Monday.com, MyFitnessPal, LastPass, Lemonade, Island, HubSpot, Getty Images, MyHeritage, Fireblocks, Docebo, Cox, Betterment, HiBob, Checkpoint, and Cato Networks.

The insights Xfunnel provided have been transformative for our AI visibility strategy. Clear, actionable, and backed by real experimentation.

— Oz Tollman, HiBob

Frequently asked questions

Why would I choose a Scrunch AI alternative instead of Scrunch itself?

Scrunch is a strong platform with a genuine innovation in AXP—the Agent Experience Platform is the only self-serve tool built specifically to optimize your content for AI agents visiting your site. But its $250/mo Core plan covers only 4 LLMs, AXP is Enterprise-only, and G2 reviewers specifically flag that prompt credits deplete quickly across multiple engines, there’s no way to generate reports, and optimization suggestions lack implementation guidance. For teams that need broad platform coverage at a lower entry price, content generation alongside monitoring, or white-glove service rather than a self-serve dashboard, the alternatives in this guide are more practical choices.

How much does Scrunch AI cost compared to alternatives?

Scrunch’s Core plan is $250/mo for 125 prompts across 4 LLMs. Airefs starts at $24/mo. Cognizo starts at $89/mo. Promptwatch’s Starter is $99/mo and covers 10 LLMs. Brandlight and Xfunnel are enterprise custom pricing. Scrunch is the most expensive self-serve entry point of any AEO platform in this comparison, which is the primary reason teams with tighter budgets look for alternatives.

Which alternative covers the most AI platforms?

Brandlight covers 11+ AI engines including Llama and Amazon Rufus—more than any other platform on this list or Scrunch’s Enterprise tier. Promptwatch covers 10 platforms at $99/mo (vs Scrunch’s 10 on Enterprise custom). Cognizo covers 10 platforms from its base plan. Xfunnel covers 7. Airefs covers ChatGPT by default with other LLMs available on request.

Does any alternative have an equivalent to Scrunch’s AXP (Agent Experience Platform)?

No direct equivalent exists on the self-serve market. Brandlight’s Agentic Commerce feature approaches similar territory—optimizing your brand’s visibility to AI agents making purchasing decisions—but it’s an enterprise product. Xfunnel’s affiliate activation kits and playbooks address some of the same strategic goals but through human-led outreach rather than technical content delivery. For teams specifically evaluating Scrunch because of AXP, the honest answer is that AXP is Scrunch’s most unique capability and no mid-market alternative replicates it.

Which platform is best for agencies managing multiple clients?

Airefs Expert (unlimited domains, 10 seats, $83/mo) is the strongest choice for agencies at a transparent price point. Promptwatch’s Growth ($249/mo) and Business ($579/mo) tiers support multi-client usage. Brandlight’s multi-brand enterprise dashboard is built for agencies running large portfolios. Xfunnel’s white-glove service model is well-suited to premium agencies that want to offer a managed AI visibility service to clients. Scrunch charges per brand per month, which makes multi-client costs add up quickly.

Is there a free trial available for these alternatives?

Airefs offers a 7-day free trial. Promptwatch offers a 7-day free trial. Xfunnel offers a one-time free Starter with 50 queries. Cognizo doesn’t list a free trial. Brandlight has no self-serve or trial option. Scrunch offers a 7-day free trial on its Core plan. For teams wanting to evaluate before committing, Airefs or Promptwatch give the clearest trial paths with no sales call required.

Which alternative has the best third-party validation?

Brandlight holds CB Insights #1 AEO platform globally. Promptwatch has G2 4.7/5 and press coverage from WSJ, Yahoo Finance, and Axios. Airefs has a 5.0/5 customer rating. Xfunnel has 5-star testimonials from named senior marketers at Monday.com, HiBob, and Cato Networks. Cognizo has anonymous testimonials only. Scrunch holds a G2 4.6/5 across 50+ reviews—solid validation—but has no G2 category badges or leader recognition as of early 2026. Platforms with category-specific rankings (like Profound’s G2 Leader status or Otterly AI’s High Performer badge) have an easier procurement story for teams that need formal vendor validation.

Conclusion: Choosing your Scrunch AI alternative

Scrunch AI is a capable platform with a unique innovation—AXP is the first self-serve tool built specifically to serve AI-optimized content to AI agents. But its $250/mo Core entry point covers only 4 LLMs, AXP requires an Enterprise contract, and the absence of independent review data makes evaluation harder than it should be at that price.

For startups, SMBs, and teams new to AEO, Airefs at $24/mo removes the financial barrier entirely. It tracks prompts on ChatGPT by default with other LLMs available on request, adds Reddit monitoring that Scrunch doesn’t offer at any price, and has a done-for-you tier for teams that want execution alongside tracking. A 7-day free trial means you can evaluate it without a sales conversation.

For teams that specifically need broad platform coverage at a lower price, Promptwatch covers 10 LLMs—including Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, and Meta AI—at $99/mo. That’s $150/mo less than Scrunch’s Core plan for more than double the platform breadth.

For teams that need monitoring and content creation in a single workflow, Cognizo combines both from $89/mo. Its bot-to-human attribution feature makes it easier to build ROI business cases than any pure-monitoring platform, including Scrunch.

For enterprise teams that need the most complete AEO platform available, Brandlight is the CB Insights #1 ranked platform globally, with 11+ AI engine coverage, agentic commerce capabilities, and Fortune 500 customers. The enterprise-only pricing reflects the enterprise-only scope.

For enterprise teams that want outcomes rather than tools, Xfunnel delivers a white-glove service model—dedicated analyst, weekly meetings, multivariate experiments, content briefs—that Scrunch doesn’t offer at any tier. The 20–40%+ improvement variability from its structured experiments makes it the most results-oriented option in this comparison.

Want to start tracking AI visibility without Scrunch’s $250/mo entry price? Try Airefs free for 7 days and see exactly where your brand stands in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.