Promptwatch vs Trendos vs Profound 2026
A three-way GEO comparison: Trendos as a free mention checker, Profound as an enterprise agent suite, Promptwatch as the self-serve visibility platform.
Procurement teams love three-way comparisons because they fit on one slide. The problem with Trendos, Profound, and Promptwatch is that they answer different questions. Flatten them into "GEO tools 2026" and you will pick the wrong invoice.
Trendos is a free-first mention checker with a historical brand index. Profound is a marketing-agent platform whose public Starter is ChatGPT-only. Promptwatch is the self-serve visibility platform we rank for tracking plus citations, crawler logs, visitors, and publishing.
Snapshot
| Trendos | Profound | Promptwatch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public start | Free scanner | $99/mo annual, ChatGPT only | Free Explore; Essential $95/mo |
| What the sticker actually is | Mention dashboard, ChatGPT Ad Radar | Starter is a slice; Growth $399/mo yearly for 3 engines; Enterprise ~$40k/yr | Essential includes citations, visitors, 5 AEO articles |
| Documented engines (entry) | Features: ChatGPT, DeepSeek, GAIO, Perplexity, Gemini | Starter: ChatGPT | Paid: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, Llama, DeepSeek, Mistral, Copilot, Overviews, AI Mode |
| Historical lookup | Vendor: 2.3M to 2.5M brands | Collection starts at subscribe; no Trendos-style public index | Explore is 10 ChatGPT prompts, not a brand encyclopedia |
| Crawler logs | Not in public docs | Not published as Agent Analytics | Professional $245/mo, 25M logs |
| CMS publish | Not documented | Agents on Enterprise, not a Webflow/Framer inbox on Starter | Content Agents to Webflow or Framer |
| Proof we can cite | 3 Shopify reviews | G2 4.6/5; Winter 2026 category leader | G2 4.7/5, 1,840+ customers |
Trendos: the scan
No demo wall. Brand in, scores out. Visibility, Trendos Score, share of voice, sentiment, domain citations, competitors. Custom prompts on free (one prompt = country + LLM). Ad Radar on every plan, ChatGPT ads only, daily. Features (March 2026) lists eleven free countries. Shopify (July 2026) lists $39 / $169 / $379 and unlimited countries on free, which already disagrees with Features. We cite both. We do not invent a trendos.com Starter dollar figure.
The main dashboard shows a week snapshot: prompt group, average Trendos Score, share of voice, visibility score, top source. Brand Insights filters by date, prompt group, prompt, LLM, and country. Prompt Analysis is per-question visibility, position, and sentiment. Citations list domains the models lean on. AI Model Insights splits score, SoV, sentiment, and average position by model.
Use it on Monday to see if ChatGPT mentions the category. Do not use it as the QBR system.
Profound: the enterprise story with a $99 door
Profound still tracks prompts. The live pitch is marketing agents for AEO, content, demand, and PR. Starter at $99/mo annual is ChatGPT, 50 prompts, one seat. Growth at $399/mo yearly adds two more engines. The 10-engine list, Prompt Volumes, API, and SSO sit on Enterprise. Contracts start around $40k a year. Setup is 1 to 3 months with an owner.
G2 reviewers have reported citation counts that do not match a manual ChatGPT check. Annual billing only. Seven-day trial. Promptwatch-style crawler logs, visitor-to-conversion analytics, and Content Agents to Webflow or Framer are not on this listing.
Profound raised $1B after a February 2026 Series C. G2 4.6/5, Winter 2026 category leader. The company sells a marketing-agent program, not a self-serve mention checker. Profound is not last on our tables. It is also not #1 for a team that wanted a tracker they can turn on this week.
Promptwatch: the program
Explore is free, 10 ChatGPT prompts. Essential $95/mo is the honest comparison to anyone shopping Starter SKUs: 50 prompts, 6,000 responses, 200K visitor events, five AEO articles, citation analytics. Professional $245/mo adds 25M crawler logs. Agency Kick-off $199/mo, unlimited projects and prompts, 10 seats.
Prompt trends explain what changed between checks. Citation trends watch sources over time. Agent Analytics logs ChatGPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, GoogleOther, and Meta's AI crawler, with a crawl-to-citation path. Visitor analytics attach AI referrers to conversions. Content Agents plan, write, and publish with a review inbox. Ads Radar tracks sponsored placements. ChatGPT Shopping tracking is on the platform.
Amsterdam, April 2025. €2M+ ARR within 12 months of launch (May 2026). That is a different diligence file than a Vilnius Shopify app launched 10 July 2026.
Who should sign which order
Trendos if you need a free historical screenshot and ChatGPT ads. Profound if procurement is already buying a marketing-agent program and someone will own a three-month rollout. Promptwatch if the number has to explain a URL, a crawler hit, a conversion, or a draft going live.
Do not run all three. Keep Trendos free on the side if you like the index. Put reporting on Promptwatch. Leave Profound for the enterprise conversation it actually is.
Product: promptwatch.com.
FAQ
Is Profound cheaper than Promptwatch?
Starter $99 annual versus Essential $95 monthly is not a fair pair. Starter is ChatGPT-only. Essential is the multi-engine paid set with citations and articles. Growth at $399 yearly is closer to Professional on spend and still is not crawler logs.
Can Trendos replace Profound?
No. One is a checker with a huge catalog. The other is an agent suite behind Enterprise. Different budgets, different owners.
Does Profound have crawler logs?
Not published as Agent Analytics on the listing we use. Promptwatch Professional at $245/mo includes 25M crawler logs.