# AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane, the publisher, sells software in this category. Every product here is measured by the same method as in every other category.

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool" and as "tool for tracking brand visibility in AI answers", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/ai-visibility-tracking/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/ai-visibility-tracking/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Otterly leads with 31% of first choices; verdict contested. 51 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Otterly](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/otterly/index.md) | 31% | 4% | 49 |
| 2 | [HubSpot AEO Tool](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-aeo-tool/index.md) | 16% | 2% | 43 |
| 3 | [Peec AI](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/peec-ai/index.md) | 12% | 3% | 30 |
| 4 | [Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/semrush-ai-visibility-toolkit/index.md) | 8% | 8% | 36 |
| 5 | [Rankscale](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/rankscale/index.md) | 6% | 0% | 11 |
| 8 | [Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/ahrefs-brand-radar/index.md) | 2% | 22% | 18 |
| 17 | [Profound](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/profound/index.md) | 2% | 62% | 16 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 94 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Otterly, Peec AI; alternatives Ayzeo, Mentionova, Wellows
- GPT-5.4 mini: Ahrefs Brand Radar, Profound; alternatives First Answer, JustBlank
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Orchly; alternatives Ahrefs Brand Radar, Peec AI, Rankscale, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Perplexity Sonar: Zip Tie; alternatives Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Siftly
- Grok 4.20: Otterly; alternatives HubSpot AEO Tool, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Mistral Small: Otterly
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: HubSpot AEO Tool, Otterly; alternatives AIclicks, SE Ranking AI Visibility Tracker
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Wellows
- Kimi K2: Ayzeo; alternatives Frase, HubSpot AEO Tool, Otterly, Peec AI
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Rank Prompt; alternatives Birdeye AI Search, HubSpot AEO Tool, Otterly, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- MiniMax M2.5: Trakkr; alternatives Otterly
- GPT-6 Luna: Peec AI; alternatives HubSpot AEO Tool, Otterly
- Muse Glimmer 30B: HubSpot AEO Tool, Otterly

## Sources the answers cite

80 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- blog.hubspot.com: 43 answers, 89 citations
- business.com: 41 answers, 42 citations
- semrush.com: 34 answers, 64 citations
- airops.com: 28 answers, 28 citations
- hubspot.com: 23 answers, 34 citations
- wellows.com: 23 answers, 28 citations
- elfsight.com: 22 answers, 22 citations
- otterly.ai: 20 answers, 24 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://business.com/categories/best-ai-visibility (40 answers)
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/answer-engine-optimization-tools (30 answers)
- https://airops.com/blog/answer-engine-optimization-tools (24 answers)
- https://semrush.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (23 answers)
- https://wellows.com/blog/ai-visibility-tools (22 answers)
- https://conductor.com/academy/best-ai-visibility-platforms (18 answers)
- https://elfsight.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (18 answers)
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-ai-visibility-tools (17 answers)
- https://hubspot.com/products/aeo (15 answers)
- https://integrate.io/blog/best-ai-visibility-tracking-tools (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Profound: 10 of 16 labels negative. "Avoid unless budget allows: Profound (enterprise-focused, expensive at scale)" (Kimi K2, scale prompt)
- Ahrefs Brand Radar: 4 of 18 labels negative. "I’d verify that your real service, location, and comparison queries are included rather than relying on a broad index alone. Ahrefs currently lists custom prompts from $50/month" (GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt)
- Scrunch: 3 of 3 labels negative. "Avoid: Enterprise-Scale Intelligence Suites Examples: *Profound, AthenaHQ, Limy, Scrunch AI*." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: 3 of 36 labels negative. "its complexity and cost can be overwhelming for an SMB... it is not a specialized AI visibility platform" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Otterly at 28%.

- Otterly: 47% to 28%, −19. Cleared the floor by 8 points · rank 1 of 92, unchanged.
- HubSpot AEO Tool: 4% to 14%, +10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 5 → 2 of 92.
- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: 0% to 9%, +9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 20 → 4 of 92.
- Peec AI: 4% to 12%, +8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 4 → 3 of 92.
- Wellows: 11% to 5%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 2 → 7 of 92.
- Rankscale: 2% to 5%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 7 → 5 of 92.
- Ahrefs Brand Radar: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 40 → 8 of 92.
- Profound: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 99 → 17 of 92.
- Frase: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 17 → 18 of 92.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.