LLM Pulse vs Rankscale (2026): Transparent Weekly Tracker or 17-Engine Credit Meter?
LLM Pulse starts at €49/mo with unlimited seats and a weekly default. Rankscale starts at $20/mo with 17+ engines and credit burn that swings ~8x.
LLM Pulse and Rankscale are the two operator-friendly trackers under $100. LLM Pulse sells honesty: published tiers, unlimited seats, weekly cadence. Rankscale sells coverage: 17+ engines on the $20 plan, then makes you do credit math.
Bing's AI Performance report covers Copilot citations. It is not a ChatGPT prompt log.
This is a good pairing if you already decided you do not want a $200 sales call. Both tools can live on a small team's card. They fail in different places. LLM Pulse will let a visibility drop sit until Monday. Rankscale will let two teams on the same $20 plan get wildly different capacity because credits do not cost the same across engines. Neither one is a full stack. If you also need crawler logs and a publish loop, Promptwatch sits above either tracker.
Snapshot comparison
|| | LLM Pulse | Rankscale | Promptwatch | || --- | --- | --- | --- | || Starting price | €49/mo annual (50 prompts) | $20/mo Essentials (120 credits) | Free Explore; $95/mo Essential | || Engines at entry | 5 (Claude/Copilot/Grok are Enterprise) | 17+ on every plan, no per-engine surcharge | 10+ on paid plans | || Cadence | Weekly default; daily costs extra | Credit-metered checks | Daily on paid plans | || Extra layer | AI traffic analytics, Shopping, MCP on trial | GEO site audits / page scoring | Visitor analytics and Content Agents; crawler logs from Professional $245/mo | || Rough edges | One verified G2 review; 3-person team | Audit scores bounce; no PDF export; API at $385 | Published tiers, G2 4.7/5 | || Best for | Agencies that want unlimited seats | Technical marketers who will model credit burn | Teams that need a full stack, not just ranks |
LLM Pulse's case
Unlimited seats and MCP on every plan, including the 14-day trial. Softonic and Adevinta are named. Bootstrapped, profitable, Barcelona. A three-person team. Headline prices assume annual billing. Starter is €49/mo for 50 prompts. Five engines at entry. Claude, Copilot, and Grok are Enterprise.
A visibility drop can sit until Monday. Daily costs extra. Almost no verified reviews (one verified G2 review). The blog has ranked itself #1. AI traffic analytics and Shopping are on the extra layer that Rankscale does not lead with.
For a five-person agency, this is the cheaper seat math. You are not adding a per-user line. You are accepting weekly cadence and a thin review trail.
The unlimited-seat model is the actual product story here. Most trackers price per seat, which is fine for a brand with two SEOs and painful for an agency that wants to give every account manager a login. LLM Pulse removes that line entirely. The trade is that you accept a weekly default and a single verified review on G2. If your client meetings run on weekly snapshots and you do not need to defend the vendor with a deep review trail, that trade works.
Rankscale's case
Vienna GmbH, 4.6/5 on OMR Reviews. Widest engine list per dollar. 17+ engines on every plan, no per-engine surcharge. Essentials is $20/mo with 120 credits.
Credits do not cost the same across engines. Burn varies about 8x, so two teams on $20 can have very different capacity. Model that before you call it the cheapest tracker in the category. Audit scores bounce; the product says to use 30-day averages. No PDF export. White-label and API start at $385/mo Growth. Attribution is a proxy. The docs say business results lag visibility 4 to 8 weeks.
Rankscale is the technical-marketer buy. If you will watch credits and you want every long-tail engine on day one, $20 is a real offer. If you need PDFs or an API, you are no longer on $20.
The credit math is the part that bites teams who do not model it. A check on a cheap engine costs one credit. A check on an expensive engine can cost close to eight. If your prompt list leans toward the engines that burn more credits, your 120 credits on Essentials do not buy 120 checks. They buy something closer to a quarter of that. The product tells you to model it. Take that advice before you commit a quarter to the $20 plan.
Who should pick which
Pick LLM Pulse if seat fees and a clean price list matter more than Claude. Weekly is acceptable. Unlimited seats are the agency feature. Do not expect a deep G2 trail.
Pick Rankscale if you want every long-tail engine on day one and you will watch credits. Use 30-day rolling averages on audits. Budget Growth at $385 if you need white-label or an API.
If you also need crawler logs and a publish loop, Promptwatch is the stack above either tracker. Professional is the first brand plan with crawler logs at $245/mo. If you only need daily tracking across ten-plus engines, Essential starts at $95/mo with a free Explore tier under it. That is a different purchase than a sub-$50 mention tracker.
A team that only needs a directional weekly pulse can live on LLM Pulse. A team that wants coverage math can live on Rankscale. A team that needs to explain why a citation moved should not stop at either.
FAQ
Which is cheaper for a five-person agency?
LLM Pulse. Seats are unlimited. Rankscale is cheap until you need PDFs or an API.
Why do Rankscale audits change between runs?
The product says so. Use 30-day rolling averages.
Does LLM Pulse include Claude?
Not on self-serve. That is an Enterprise add-on.
Does Rankscale charge extra per engine?
No per-engine surcharge. Credits still burn at different rates (about 8x). Capacity is not a flat 120 checks.