# AI visibility tracker or done-for-you service: which is better for a solo founder? (2026)

Trackers tell you what is wrong for $25 to $95 a month. We do the work once and re-test. An honest side-by-side with prices checked October 2026.

By Dasha. Updated October 31 2026. https://heardofyou.io/compare/tracker-vs-done-for-you

A tracker measures. A done-for-you service changes what gets measured.

Have evenings for outreach and want numbers every day? A tracker at $25 to $95 a month is the better buy. Want the lists pitched, the pages written, the review profiles set up and an honest re-test? That is what we sell, once, at a fixed price.

Most solo founders who buy a tracker learn the same thing a month later. The dashboard says "invisible". Someone still has to do the work.

## Side by side

Prices checked October 2026.

| | Trackers (Otterly, Peec, Ahrefs, Semrush and others) | Heard of You |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A dashboard: daily prompt runs, mention rate, share of voice, sentiment, cited domains | A report with who was named instead and which sources were cited, then the placements, pages and profiles, then re-checks |
| Who does the outreach | You | We do |
| Price | Otterly from $29 a month (15 prompts); Peec from $95 a month (50 prompts); Semrush AI toolkit $99 a month per domain; Ahrefs Brand Radar from about $199 a month on top of an Ahrefs plan | Free check $0; audit $149 (credited); project $799 once; optional $349 a month after day 30 |
| Billing | Monthly, ongoing | One-time, except the optional plan (3-month minimum) |
| Engines | Usually ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity included; Gemini and Claude often paid add-ons or enterprise only | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity on every tier |
| Runs per prompt | Usually one per day | Three per question per engine, so a single odd answer does not mislead |
| Placements | None | 25 named lists and sites pitched, two follow-ups each |
| Pages written | None (some trackers include AI-written articles for your own site) | 3: your story, one honest comparison, one alternatives page |
| Review profiles | None | Set up on the 2 sites AI cites most for your category |
| Reddit | Some flag threads to reply in | A founder-led plan: the cited threads, a disclosed answer for each |
| Proof | Trend lines | Same 25 questions re-asked at day 30, 60, 90, raw answers included |
| Guarantee | Usually none | Deliverables in 90 days or money back; if not named in baseline + 3 of 20 agreed answers at day 60, we keep working free to day 120 |
| Best for | Marketing teams, agencies, founders who like doing outreach | Solo founders who want it done once |

**72.7% : of sources cited by AI search for US software questions were earned media, which a tracker can show you but cannot earn for you : Chen et al., University of Toronto, 2025**
## What a tracker is genuinely good at

- **Daily numbers.** Running experiments and want to see what moved? A tracker's trend line is the right tool.
- **Source analytics.** Peec and Ahrefs show which domains get cited across hundreds of prompts. That is more than our 25 questions cover.
- **Many prompts.** Selling in six countries or twenty product lines? 400 tracked prompts beats our 25.
- **Teams.** Seats, shared dashboards, agency views. We are one person and a report.

One Indie Hackers commenter does audits for clients. They called the score "the least-read part of every report". The useful feedback was "diagnosis but no prescription".

Trackers are excellent diagnosis. They are not the prescription, and they do not fill it.

## What we are genuinely good at

- **Doing the work.** Pitching 25 named sites with two follow-ups each is around 75 emails and a spreadsheet. That is what you pay for.
- **Repeated runs.** AI answers repeat the same brand list less than one time in a hundred. We start at three runs per question per engine. Our November variance study will say whether three is enough for an honest before and after.
- **A fixed price.** No month 7 you forgot to cancel.
- **The clean-methods promise.** No fake accounts, no bought reviews, no undisclosed paid listicles, no directory blasts.

## What neither can do

- Make an AI say your name. Answers change, and models update on their own schedule.
- Replace a product people want to recommend.
- Give you a rank. There is no rank. There is how often you are named across many runs, and that is the only honest number.

**Choose a tracker instead if** you enjoy doing the outreach and just need the numbers. Also if a team will act on a dashboard, or you track more than 25 questions or more than one country.

**Choose us if** you want the placements, pages and profiles done for you, paid once, with a fair re-test of the same questions afterwards. Start with the free check. It is the same first step either way.

Related: [Peec alternative](/compare/peec-alternative) · [Otterly alternative](/compare/otterly-alternative) · [Profound alternative](/compare/profound-alternative) · [All comparisons](/compare/)

## Questions

**Can I use a tracker and Heard of You together?**

Yes. It is a sensible pair if you want daily numbers between our re-checks. Our re-checks ask a fixed set of questions three times each, a different measurement from a daily dashboard. Expect the two to disagree a little on any given day.

**Does the project include tracking afterwards?**

It includes three re-checks at day 30, 60 and 90 on the same 25 questions, with the raw answers. It does not include a daily dashboard. The Keep growing plan adds a monthly re-check.

**Which tracker would you pick for one person?**

Otterly's $29 Lite plan if 15 prompts on four engines is enough. Peec if you want the nicest source analytics and can pay $95 a month. See the Peec, Otterly and Profound pages for specifics.


## Sources

- Otterly.AI pricing (https://otterly.ai/pricing)
- Peec AI pricing (https://peec.ai/pricing)
- Ahrefs Brand Radar (https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar)
- Semrush AI Toolkit (https://www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-toolkit)
- SparkToro: AI answers are highly inconsistent when recommending brands (https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-ais-are-highly-inconsistent-when-recommending-brands-or-products-marketers-should-take-care-when-tracking-ai-visibility/)
- Indie Hackers: the 'diagnosis but no prescription' comment (https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-asked-chatgpt-to-recommend-my-product-it-had-no-idea-it-existed-f30e86f4f5)
- Chen et al.: 72.7% of AI sources for US software queries are earned media (https://arxiv.org/html/2509.08919)