Updated May 2026
The best SEO tool on earth.
We're doing something different.
Ahrefs is genuinely the best SEO toolset available - largest backlink index, 150+ countries of keyword data, 15+ years of brand trust. Their Brand Radar tier tracks AI visibility across 6 indexes, and it's thorough. We're not in the SEO-suite competition, and we've conceded backlink-and-keyword depth on purpose. Brand Radar sits at $828–$1,148/month, which is an adjacent category, not a competitor. We've made monitoring deliberately cheap (€14/month annual) so the budget goes into customer-site AI Content with publishing support and optional profile inclusion when useful.
Stop at the dashboard.
Show the gap. Don't address it with content production. A client looking at a monitoring dashboard with no content production is not a recurring conversation; it's a quarterly question.
Write briefs from keyword tools.
Briefs come from search-volume guesswork. They produce useful articles, but the priorities don't reflect what AI assistants are actually citing for the client's category.
Turn monitoring evidence into the next brief.
Last month's monitoring evidence - competitor appearances, citation gaps, missing facts, weak topics - becomes next month's content brief. Then the monthly proof report shows what changed.
The wedge is the loop, not any single layer of it.
What each product does
Ahrefs is an SEO suite with AI visibility built in. We're a focused AI Content service.
Ahrefs is a complete SEO platform: the largest backlink database, deep keyword research across 150+ countries, site audits, rank tracking, content gap analysis. Brand Radar is their AI visibility tier - 246 million search-derived prompts across 6 AI indexes, plus YouTube, Reddit and TikTok in beta, with custom prompt tracking up to 25,000 checks/month at the high end. If you need a serious SEO suite and want AI visibility data inside the same workspace as your keyword and backlink work, Ahrefs is genuinely one of the best products on the market.
Found by AI is not an SEO suite and won't try to be. We do two things. First, weekly AI visibility monitoring (€14/month annual) - a simple "are AI assistants mentioning us?" answer, with citation, sentiment, and competitor benchmarking on every tier. Second, recurring AI Content production (€199-€799/month) - we plan, write, edit, and help publish content designed to be quoted in AI answers. If you need backlinks, keyword research, technical site audits, or rank tracking, we won't replace Ahrefs. Most of our customers use both.
Where each one sits
Where Ahrefs sits
- Industry-defining SEO suite: 246 million search-derived prompts in Brand Radar, the largest backlink index, keyword data across 150+ countries, 15+ years of trust
- Brand Radar tracks 6 AI indexes plus YouTube, Reddit, and TikTok visibility (beta) - thorough monitoring at $828–$1,148/month for the AI visibility tier
- Custom prompt tracking at scale on the Scale add-on (up to 25,000 checks/month, daily/weekly/monthly cadence options)
Where Found by AI sits
- Cheap commodity monitoring (€14/month annual) - weekly scans, citation/sentiment/competitor benchmarking included by default, no tier-gating of fundamentals
- Recurring AI Content production, with publishing support and optional profile inclusion when useful at no extra cost
- AI Content (€199-€799/month) includes AI Monitoring Minimum on every plan - monitor, content, report as one purchase
The operating difference
Monitoring shows the gap. AI Content does the work.
Found by AI pairs low-cost AI Monitoring with recurring content production. The found-by.ai profile is an optional included surface, not a separate product or proof claim.
| Generates content? | Publishes for you? | Publishing surface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs (Brand Radar) | — | — | — |
| Found by AI | Yes | Yes | Recurring AI Content; optional found-by.ai profile |
Ahrefs (Brand Radar)
Found by AI
AI Monitoring is the diagnostic. Recurring AI Content is the paid work; the optional profile is included and can be skipped without changing price.
Feature comparison
| Found by AI | Ahrefs | |
|---|---|---|
| AI visibility entry price | €14/mo annual (15 prompts, 3 LLMs) | $828–$1,148/mo (Brand Radar tier) |
| Optional found-by.ai profile | Optional found-by.ai profile | — |
| AI engines covered | 3 on Minimum (ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Perplexity); 5 on Growth (+ Microsoft Copilot, Claude) | 6 AI indexes + YouTube, Reddit, TikTok (beta) |
| Scan cadence | Weekly | Monthly standard; daily/weekly with Scale add-on |
| Monthly playbook | Standard on Minimum; personalized site-aware on Growth (€39/mo) | Dashboards; no monthly playbook |
| AI Content (done-for-you publishing) | €199-€799/mo recurring AI Content production; AI Monitoring Minimum included on every plan | No managed content service |
| Free trial | Minimum: 30-day CC trial · Growth: 14-day money-back guarantee | $29 trial (7 days, limited features) |
Key Differences
Choose Ahrefs if…
- You need a full SEO suite - backlinks, keyword research, site audits, rank tracking - and you're going to publish your own content
- You want AI visibility tracking inside the same ecosystem as your SEO work, and have the budget for the Brand Radar tier ($828–$1,148/month)
- You need large-scale prompt tracking (up to 25,000 checks/month) across 6+ AI indexes
Choose Found by AI if…
- You want cheap honest AI monitoring (€14/month) AND someone to execute customer-site AI Content with optional profile inclusion when useful
- You want the monitor, content, report as one purchase: AI Content (€199-€799/mo) includes AI Monitoring Minimum on every plan
- You're already using Ahrefs for SEO and want a focused AI visibility tool alongside it, not a second SEO suite
Frequently asked questions
Is Found by AI a replacement for Ahrefs?
No. Ahrefs is the best SEO tool on earth - the largest backlink index, industry-leading keyword research, site audits, rank tracking, and 15+ years of trust. If you need an SEO suite, you should buy Ahrefs (or one of its direct competitors). Found by AI does something narrower: weekly AI visibility monitoring from €14/month and recurring AI Content production from €199/month. Most teams that care about both keep Ahrefs and add us alongside.
What does each product actually do for me?
Ahrefs gives you the full SEO workbench - keyword research, backlink analysis, site audits, rank tracking, content gap analysis - and Brand Radar adds AI visibility tracking inside the same workspace at $828–$1,148/month. Found by AI tells you whether AI assistants are mentioning you (€14/month monitoring) and produces recurring content for your site to help when they aren't (€199-€799/month AI Content, with planning, writing, editing, and publishing support). One is a SEO suite. The other is a focused AI Content service.
What's the difference between AI Content and what Ahrefs offers?
Ahrefs has AI Content Helper, which grades content for SEO quality - useful, but it doesn't write or publish anything for you. Found by AI's AI Content is a managed service: we plan topics, write the drafts, handle editorial polish, and help get them published on your site. AI Content starts at €199/month and includes AI Monitoring Minimum on every plan, so you can see whether the content is moving AI mentions.
Should I keep Ahrefs and use Found by AI alongside?
Probably yes, if you do SEO at all. The work doesn't overlap much: Ahrefs covers Google search infrastructure (keywords, backlinks, rankings, audits); Found by AI covers AI assistant visibility and recurring content production. Most teams use both - Ahrefs for the SEO program, Found by AI for the monthly AI-aware content output.
Bottom line
If you do SEO, keep Ahrefs. It is genuinely one of the best products in the category, and Brand Radar is a serious AI visibility tier inside that suite. We aren't trying to replace it, and we'd be lying if we said we could. Found by AI does something narrower: weekly AI visibility monitoring (€14/month) and recurring AI Content production (€199-€799/month, AI Monitoring Minimum included on every plan). If you want someone to write and publish AI-aware content for your site every month, alongside whatever SEO suite you're already running, that's us. If you need the SEO suite itself, that's Ahrefs.
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