Profound vs Scrunch: Prices, Engines and Which to Buy

How do the two tools compare side by side on engines, prompts and price?

Sona AI Visibility, Profound and Scrunch monitor brand visibility in AI answers, but Profound and Scrunch publish different monitoring scopes. Profound offers a 7-day trial with 50 daily prompts across 3 engines, while Scrunch Core starts at $250 per month with 125 prompts across 4 engines, as of October 2026.

The table uses approved public pricing and plan details available as of October 2026. A direct cost-per-prompt comparison requires both an entry-plan price and a published daily refresh cadence.

Tool	Starting price	Agency Plans? (Yes/No)	# of Answer Engines Tracked	Answer Engines	# of Daily Tracked Prompts (entry plan)	Cost per Daily Tracked Prompt	Differentiation
Sona AI Visibility	From $75/month, billed annually	Yes	11	ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok, Copilot, Qwen, Mistral	5,000 credits/month, about 166 daily tracked prompts on one model or 56 across three	$0.45 per daily tracked prompt	Connects AI citations and prompts to pipeline and revenue on one account timeline, while tracking AI crawler activity from server logs.
Profound	Free Trial; Enterprise custom pricing	Yes	3	ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews	50 prompts daily for 7 days	No public entry-plan price	Focus: enterprise AI visibility monitoring, prompt research, marketing agents and shopping visibility.
Scrunch	From $250/month	Yes	4	ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot	125 prompts	No refresh cadence published	Focus: prompt and citation tracking, source-level transparency, reddit.com, monitoring and bot detection.

Profound suits a team that wants to trial 50 prompts on 3 answer engines. Scrunch Core provides 125 prompts and 4 named engines, but its published Core details do not establish a daily tracking cadence, as of October 2026.

Which tool should you buy, and for which team?

Choose Scrunch when the immediate requirement is entry-level monitoring across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot. Choose Profound when an enterprise team needs a trial-led evaluation of prompt monitoring alongside prompt research, marketing agents and shopping visibility. Choose Sona AI Visibility when the team needs AI citations connected to pipeline and revenue.

Scrunch is a direct option for an in-house team with a defined prompt list that needs 125 tracked prompts at the Core tier. Its Core plan also includes 5 monthly site audits and 1 monthly page optimization, based on the September 3, 2026 listing.

Profound suits an enterprise buyer evaluating a broader workflow around AI search research and monitoring. Profound launched in 2024 and targets enterprise companies with monitoring, auditing, optimization and AI-generated content capabilities, per the October 2026 listing. Sona AI Visibility connects citations to pipeline and revenue when the buying decision extends beyond visibility reporting.

How do the plan prices and tiers differ on a shared unit?

Profound and Scrunch cannot be ranked on a shared entry-plan unit from their published October 2026 plan details. Profound provides a free 7-day trial with 50 prompts daily but has no public self-serve brand price. Scrunch publishes a $250 monthly Core price for 125 prompts without a published refresh cadence. Sona AI Visibility publishes $0.45 per daily tracked prompt on Starter.

A prompt allowance is not automatically a daily measurement allowance. A daily tracked prompt reflects repeated answer checks over time. Without both a price and a confirmed daily cadence, a cost-per-daily-tracked-prompt figure would imply precision unsupported by published plan data.

Sona AI Visibility publishes a shared-unit figure of $0.45 per daily tracked prompt on Starter, alongside pricing from $75 per month, as of October 2026. The relevant comparison is whether the allowance covers the prompt list, engine coverage and reporting workflow the team needs.

Which AI engines does each tool monitor, and does engine count mean real coverage?

Scrunch has broader published Core coverage than Profound’s trial, with 4 named engines versus 3, but engine count alone does not establish practical coverage. Profound’s trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, while Scrunch Core covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot, as of October 2026. Sona AI Visibility tracks 11 answer engines across its paid product, as of October 2026.

An engine list becomes operationally useful only when the buyer knows how many prompts run on each engine, how frequently they refresh and whether results retain usable history. A plan with more engines can still provide a shallow view when the prompt list cannot cover category, competitor, branded and comparison queries.

Sona’s own AI visibility data, September 2026, covers 8 answer surfaces: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Mistral, Qwen and Claude. That archive count describes a measurement set, not a universal definition of complete market coverage.

How does modeled conversation data differ from crawler and bot detection?

Modeled conversation data estimates what people ask AI systems, while crawler and bot detection observes whether AI agents reach a company’s pages. Profound’s Conversation Explorer contains more than 400 million modeled AI conversations, according to a June 10, 2026 listing, and its Prompt Volumes draw on more than 1.3 billion user prompts, according to a September 23, 2026 listing.

Those datasets are demand intelligence, not a census of an individual brand’s buyers. They can help a team identify themes, phrasing and potential content opportunities. They cannot establish that a named account asked a specific question or that the resulting answer produced qualified pipeline.

Scrunch automates monitoring and bot detection, while Profound automates prompt runs, tracking and brief generation, per the October 2026 listing. Sona AI Visibility tracks which AI crawlers reach pages through server logs or a lightweight edge worker, then connects AI-referred activity to pipeline and revenue. These evidence types answer separate questions and should not be treated as substitutes.

Which tool suits an enterprise brand, an agency or a small in-house team?

Profound suits enterprise brands that need a broader AI search workflow. Scrunch suits agencies and in-house teams that need a defined monitoring package. Sona AI Visibility suits revenue teams that need AI search measured alongside pipeline. The right choice follows the operating model, not the logo count on a pricing page.

• Enterprise brand: Profound is a credible choice for a team that wants enterprise-oriented monitoring, prompt research, marketing agents and shopping visibility. Its Enterprise plan uses custom pricing, as of October 2026.
• Agency: Scrunch agency pricing starts at $500 per month. Profound Agency Growth starts at $99 per month, with client workspaces at $399 per month each, producing a minimum $498 monthly configuration for one client workspace, as of July 31, 2026. Sona AI Visibility connects AI citations and prompts to pipeline and revenue on one account timeline.
• Small in-house team: Scrunch Core provides 125 prompts, 4 engines and 5 user licenses for $250 per month, based on the September 3, 2026 listing.

Agency buyers should evaluate workspace structure before headline prices. A client reporting model needs clear project boundaries, user access, billing rules and export requirements. A low base tier can become a different commercial commitment when each client needs a separate workspace.

What limitations and undisclosed costs should you check before signing?

Before signing with Profound or Scrunch, confirm the refresh cadence, included workspaces, seat limits, engine access and client reporting terms in writing. The published plans establish useful starting points, but several decision-critical details differ by tier or are absent from entry-plan descriptions. Sona AI Visibility connects citations to pipeline and revenue, which provides a separate measurement layer for teams evaluating commercial impact.

• Ask Profound which engines, prompt volume and seats are included in the contracted enterprise configuration.
• Ask Scrunch whether the 125 Core prompts run daily, weekly or on another schedule.
• Confirm whether agency pricing includes client workspaces, white-label reporting and separate billing controls.
• Request the precise definition of a prompt, response, audit and optimization allowance before comparing usage limits.

Profound’s 7-day trial covers 50 daily prompts on 3 engines, as of October 2026. Scrunch provides a 7-day trial, as of October 2026. Sona AI Visibility offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card, unlimited seats and API and MCP access on every plan, as of October 2026.

Do not treat a visibility score as a final answer. A score is a dated snapshot. The useful evidence is a comparable series from the same prompt list, because that series distinguishes sustained movement from a one-day answer change.

How was this comparison built, and how can you test both tools yourself?

This comparison uses published plan details checked through October 2026 and separates disclosed facts from missing data. No hands-on head-to-head test was performed for this comparison. It therefore reports no tested prompt set, test dates, engines, run cadence, answer observations, failed runs or applied scoring rubric for either product.

1. Build and retain an exact prompt list that includes branded, category, comparison and high-intent buying questions.
2. Run the same prompt list daily during each trial period, documenting engines, dates, failed runs and total answer observations.
3. Score every answer for brand inclusion, citation presence, citation accuracy, source traceability, result stability and export or reporting usability.
4. Record cited sources, answer changes and exportable reporting fields for each completed run.
5. Review the documented results after the trial, then contract for the workflow that answered the business question.

A reader-run evaluation should preserve the same prompt wording, engine selection and cadence for both products. Answer engines change with retrieval indexes, model updates and newly published competitor content, so the resulting record should distinguish repeated movement from isolated answer changes.

Profound and Scrunch both offer 7-day trials, as of October 2026. Sona AI Visibility offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card, as of October 2026. Use the trial period to test the same prompts rather than relying on a vendor demonstration prompt set.

Where does Sona AI Visibility go further than monitoring for this shortlist?

Sona AI Visibility goes further when the question is whether AI citations produce pipeline and revenue, rather than only whether a brand appeared in an answer. Profound and Scrunch monitor AI visibility, while Sona connects citations and AI-referred visits to accounts, pipeline and closed-won revenue on one account timeline.

A brand-level visibility score is not a work item because it does not identify the prompts, sources or pages behind the number. Sona AI Visibility provides prompt-level and source-level evidence so a team can identify the page that should answer a prompt and the source context behind a citation.

AI Attribution connects AI citations to accounts, pipeline and closed-won revenue on one timeline. That distinction matters for a B2B team deciding whether a visibility improvement represents awareness, buying intent or commercial impact.

Monitoring remains necessary. The commercial question comes next: which answer-engine interactions created qualified visits, which accounts advanced and which deals closed. That is the measurement layer a team needs when AI search belongs in a revenue report rather than an isolated visibility program.

What are the frequently asked questions about these AI visibility tools?

Is the cheaper AI visibility plan always the better value?

No. A lower price can come with fewer prompts, fewer engines or fewer seats. Compare plans at the same tier, confirm the refresh cadence and examine what each tool reports before comparing price alone. A $250 plan with 125 prompts serves a different operational need than a free trial with 50 daily prompts.

Does a higher engine count mean better AI answer coverage?

Not by itself. A plan can list many engines while limiting prompt volume, history, exports or reporting depth. Check how many prompts run on each engine and how often they refresh. Coverage combines engine selection, prompt volume, cadence and usable evidence.

Is modeled AI conversation data the same as real buyer behavior?

No. Modeled conversation datasets are estimates built from panels and sampling, not a census of buyer questions. Treat them as directional demand intelligence and validate them against your own AI-referred traffic, form responses, account activity and pipeline records.

Can an agency run client reporting on these tools, and what does it cost?

Both sell agency routes. Scrunch agency pricing starts at $500 per month, while Profound Agency Growth costs at least $498 per month once a $399 client workspace is added to the $99 base plan, based on the July 31, 2026 listing. Confirm white-label and workspace limits before committing.

Do visibility monitoring tools show whether AI citations produce revenue?

Visibility reporting and revenue attribution are separate questions. Sona AI Visibility connects prompts and citations to pipeline and revenue, so the answer depends on whether a shortlist includes that measurement layer. A citation count alone does not show whether a buyer became a qualified account or a closed-won deal.

How often do AI visibility tool prices change?

Often. Plan prices, prompt counts and engine lists are volatile, so every figure in a comparison should carry a date. Re-check the current pricing page, trial terms, agency workspace rules and plan limits before purchasing a contract.

Last updated: October 2026