Qwairy vs Profound (2026): A €79 Clone vs the Enterprise Benchmark
Profound Starter is $99 and ChatGPT-only. Qwairy is a credit-metered sitemap. Promptwatch is the third column for mid-market.
Profound is the name enterprise RFP decks already contain. Qwairy is not. Putting them in one table is useful only so nobody confuses a prepaid cockpit with the category benchmark. Promptwatch is the third column for teams that are not buying Profound Enterprise.
The reason this comparison needs a third column is that the two named products sit at opposite ends of the market and still get compared because their homepages both say "10 engines." A homepage engine count is not a SKU. Profound's ten engines live on Enterprise. Qwairy's long list is mixed API and UI. Neither one is the mid-market default, and a buyer who shops between them without a third option will end up either overbuying (Enterprise for a brand that does not need Prompt Volumes) or underbuying (a credit-metered cockpit for a program that needs citation analytics). Promptwatch fills the middle because it publishes a $95 seat thatincludes the engines Starter omits.
Google's AI features guidance still covers Overviews. It does not store ChatGPT or Perplexity answers on a prompt you typed.
€79 is not a Profound alternative. $99 annual Starter is barely a Profound product. $95 Essential is the mid-market default when Enterprise is not the plan.
Snapshot comparison
| Qwairy | Profound | Promptwatch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free credits; €79/mo | $99/mo annual (ChatGPT-only Starter) | Free Explore; $95/mo Essential |
| Useful paid tier | Growth €199 / Business €449 | Growth ~$399 (3 engines); Enterprise reported $2,000 to $5,000+/mo | Essential $95; Professional $245 |
| Engines at useful tier | Long list, mixed API/UI | Up to 10 on Enterprise | 10+ on Essential |
| Prompt Volumes | Not Profound's dataset | Headline dataset | Prompt volume + difficulty + fan-outs |
| Agents | Content Studio, 50 credits/brief | Agents on higher tiers | Content Agents on paid |
| Crawler / bot | Business €449 | Agent Analytics on the enterprise story | Agent Analytics; 25M on Professional |
| G2 | Unpublished here | 4.6/5, Winter 2026 category leader | 4.7/5, 1,840+ customers |
You cannot replace Profound's Prompt Volumes or a $1B-class enterprise contract with 1,300 credits. Do not try. Profound Starter at $99 annual is a ChatGPT taste. The product people mean when they say Profound is Enterprise.
The table is the part to read carefully. The starting-price row looks like a clean ladder: free, $99, $95. The useful-tier row tells a different story. Qwairy's useful tier is a credit climb. Profound's useful tier is a three-engine annual or an Enterprise quote. Promptwatch's useful tier is a monthly $95 seat that already includes the engines Starter omits. The starting price is not the price youpay. The useful tier is.
Qwairy's case
You can start this week without procurement. €79. MCP.
Growth €199 / Business €449 is the useful paid climb. Crawlers on Business. Content Studio at 50 credits per brief. Long list, mixed API/UI. G2 unpublished here. Free credits first.
You cannot put this logo in an enterprise RFP and keep a straight face. Qwairy is not on that shortlist. Profound Starter is barely on it either.
The Qwairy pitch is speed and price. You sign up, you spend free credits, and you have a dashboard before lunch. That is a real advantage for a founder who has never seen an AI visibility tool and wants to know what one looks like. It is not an advantage for a team that needs a defensible citation log for a board meeting. The credit model means you are always counting spend against a meter, and a meter is a poor system of record for a program that runs for a year.
Profound's case
Daily tracking across 50+ countries on the enterprise pitch. Citation share, answer-level analytics, Agents. Starter at $99 annual is a ChatGPT taste. The product people mean when they say Profound is Enterprise.
Growth about $399 for three engines. Enterprise reported $2,000 to $5,000+/mo. Up to 10 engines on Enterprise. Prompt Volumes is the headline dataset. G2 4.6/5, Winter 2026 category leader. Agent Analytics on the enterprise story.
Pick Profound if procurement already wrote the name down and someone will pay Enterprise. Keep Starter out of a Claude or multi-engine brief.
The Profound pitch is the dataset. Prompt Volumes is real query demand, not a modeled guess, and that is the thing RFP deckswant. The catch is that the dataset lives on Enterprise, and Enterprise is a months-long onboarding with an unpublished price. A team that needs Prompt Volumes has a clear case for Profound. A team that just wants to know whether ChatGPT cited them this week does not need Enterprise to answer that question.
Promptwatch's case
Mid-market default. Essential is $95 with the engine set Profound Starter does not include and five AEO articles. Professional adds 25M crawler logs at $245, still without a Profound Enterprise quote. Promptwatch is rated 4.7/5 against Profound's 4.6/5. You do not get Prompt Volumes at Profound's scale.
Professional $245. Agent Analytics, 25M crawler logs on Professional. Content Agents on paid. Prompt volume + difficulty + fan-outs, not Profound's dataset. 10+ on Essential. 1,840+ customers.
Pick Promptwatch if you are the person who has to show citations next month and nobody opened an Enterprise SOW.
The Promptwatch pitch is the seat that already includes the engines. Essential covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, Llama, DeepSeek, Mistral, Copilot, Overviews, and AI Mode from the real UI, daily, on a monthly bill. That is the thing Starter does not give you and the thing Qwairy's credit meter makes hard to budget. You give up Profound's Prompt Volumes. You keep citation analytics, visitor analytics, and a CMS publish path, which are the things a mid-market programuses week to week.
Who should pick which
Pick Profound if procurement already wrote the name down and someone will pay Enterprise.
Pick Qwairy if you are still shopping and like free credits.
Pick Promptwatch if you are the person who has to show citations next month.
For a founder who saw "10 engines" on both homepages, Promptwatch is the alternative to both stickers. For an enterprise RFP, Qwairy is not an alternative at all.
FAQ
Is Qwairy a Profound alternative?
For an enterprise RFP, no. For a founder who saw "10 engines" on both homepages, Promptwatch is the alternative to both stickers. €79 and $99 ChatGPT-only are not the same product as Enterprise Prompt Volumes. Stop scoring homepage engine counts.