Buyer's guide · AI visibility tools
Choosing an AI visibility tool on engine coverage and price.
For marketing teams weighing two low-cost trackers for one budget line. Seven checks, a scorecard, and five questions to ask any vendor before you sign.
Check whose questions a tool asks before you compare engines or price. Then count engines by name (Resonate Labs asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity) and price what you get back: a score alone, or a ranked list of fixes. A cheap plan on a generic question set buys a confident number about the wrong market.
- ChatGPTasked
- Claudeasked
- Geminiasked
- Perplexityasked
- Questions150, every one scored
- Question setYours to edit
- ReportUsually within 72 hours
Charged on delivery · no subscription
The problem
Why do two AI visibility tools give you two different scores?
Because they ask different questions. You run a trial on two trackers, and one puts your brand at 9% while the other says 31%. Both list the same engines. Both cost about the same each month. Neither tells you where its prompts came from.
That gap costs you more than the subscription. Your CEO will ask where the number came from, and "the tool said so" won't hold up. Worse, you could spend a quarter improving a score on questions your buyers never ask.
The usual advice is to pick the tool with the most engines at the lowest price. That's a fair start, and coverage does matter. It just skips the step that decides whether either number means anything.
The idea
Check the questions first. Engines and price come second.
A visibility score is a count of answers. Change the questions and the count changes, on every engine, at every price. So the first thing to compare is the question set, and the second is whether you can change it.
"Ask the wrong 150 and you get a confident number about a market you aren't in."Resonate Labs pricing page
Want to see your own question set before you buy any tool? Start your Foundation with Resonate Labs. It's free, needs only your URL, and lands in your account in about an hour.
The checklist
Seven checks before you pay for AI visibility tracking.
Run every tool on your shortlist through these, in this order. The first two decide whether the score is worth reading, and the rest decide what you can do with it.
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It names every engine it asks.
"Multi-engine" can mean two engines or six. Ask for the list by name, and check it against your plan tier, since coverage can change with the tier you buy. Then ask yourself which engines your buyers use to build a shortlist.
Resonate Labs asks the same 150 questions across four engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity.
Resonate Labs to confirmDoes the Crawl cover any engine beyond those four, such as Google's AI answers or Microsoft Copilot, or is that on the roadmap?
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It asks your buyers' questions.
A generic prompt list describes your category the way the web writes about it. A good score on it means the category is well covered, which says little about you. You want questions written from who actually buys, in their words, and the right to change them.
Resonate Labs writes all 150 from your approved buyer map. You can rewrite, cut, or add any of them before the Crawl locks the set.
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It shows who gets named instead of you.
Your own share means little without the names beside it. When an engine answers a shortlist question, you need to know which competitors it recommends and how often. That's the number your sales team will care about.
Resonate Labs reports share of voice against your named competitors, plus your head-to-head record wherever you meet one in the same answer.
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It tells you what to fix, in order.
A tracker that reports 9% every week, with no next step, leaves your team staring at a chart. Look for the pages engines cite instead of yours, the outside sources worth going after, and a plan ranked by impact.
Resonate Labs hands back a ranked action plan, critical work first, with each item tied to the questions it would move.
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It checks whether AI crawlers can read your site.
If your site renders in JavaScript, an AI crawler like GPTBot may get an empty page while Google sees the real one. No amount of new content fixes that. A tool that only counts answers will never tell you why you're missing from them.
Resonate Labs checks whether the AI crawlers can read your site at all, inside the free Foundation.
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Its price is published, and so is the commitment.
A low monthly price is easy to compare and easy to forget. Look at the minimum term, what each tier drops, and when your card is charged. Then ask what you'd have to show for it after three months.
Resonate Labs prices one AI Visibility Crawl at $997, charged on delivery. Crawl packs are $897 or $797 each, and credits never expire.
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It measures as often as you'll act.
AI answers shift between runs, so one reading is noisy. Daily tracking helps if someone watches it. If your team ships changes monthly, a monthly re-measure on the same question set tells you more than a daily chart.
Resonate Labs re-asks the same 150 questions every month on the Loop, its done-for-you plan, or per Crawl when you run the work yourself. It doesn't sell a daily dashboard.
The scorecard
Three ways to buy AI visibility, scored on the same seven checks.
A monthly tracker wins when you want an always-on chart and already trust your prompts. An agency retainer wins when you want one partner writing everything. A Resonate Labs Crawl fits when you need to know where you stand, and what to fix, before you commit to either.
| What to check | Resonate Labs Crawl | Monthly tracker subscription | Agency retainer with GEO added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engines asked | Four, by name: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity | Varies by tool and plan tier | Depends on the tool the agency licenses |
| Whose questions | 150, written from your buyer map; yours to edit | Often prompts you write, or a suggested list | Often built from the agency's keyword research |
| Who gets named instead | Share of voice and head-to-head record against named competitors | Usually, against competitors you enter | Varies by agency |
| What to fix | Ranked action plan, cited pages, off-domain briefs | Mostly scores and trends; acting on them is on you | Strategy and content, inside the retainer |
| Crawler readability | Checked in the free Foundation | Ask whether it tests your rendered pages | Ask whether it tests AI crawlers or only Google |
| Price and commitment | $997 per Crawl, charged on delivery; no subscription | Monthly subscription | Monthly retainer, often with a minimum term |
| How often it measures | Per Crawl, or monthly on the Loop | Daily or weekly; the better fit for a live chart | Usually monthly reporting |
Sources: Resonate Labs facts from resonatelabs.co/pricing. The other columns describe kinds of option, not any one company; check each vendor's own plan page.
Case study
A fixed question set is what lets you prove movement.
Insynctive, a mid-market B2B HR tech platform, was measured on the same 150 buyer questions across the same four engines, before and after. It went from 2 of 150 questions to 24 by week six. Because the set never changed, that jump is a result you can defend, rather than a shift in prompts.
Crawler traffic moved first. GPTBot crawl volume rose 504% over baseline once the site became readable, and citation visibility followed within the month.
- 38Net-new server-rendered pages in the first four weeks
- +504%GPTBot crawl volume over baseline
- 6xAt the four-week re-crawl: 2 of 150 to 12
- 12xBy week six: 2 of 150 buyer questions to 24
Before you sign
Five questions to ask any AI visibility vendor this week.
Send these to every tool and agency on your list. A vendor that answers all five plainly is worth a trial. One that dodges the first two is selling you a number you can't defend.
- Where do your questions come from, and can I change them?Ask to see the actual prompt list for your brand, not a sample.
- Which engines does my plan tier ask, by name?Get it in writing, and check whether a cheaper tier drops any.
- How do you calculate the score?You should be able to explain it to your CEO in two sentences.
- What do I get besides the number?Look for named competitors, cited pages, and a ranked list of fixes.
- Can you see what an AI crawler gets from my site?If the answer is about Google rankings, it's a different test.
Questions buyers ask.
Short answers on coverage, cost, and why scores disagree.
How many AI engines should an AI visibility tool cover?
At least the ones your buyers use to build a shortlist. A Resonate Labs Crawl asks four, by name. Check coverage per plan tier, because what a tool covers can change with the tier you buy.
Is a low-cost monthly tracker enough?
Yes, when your question set already reflects your buyers and your team has the hours to act on the trend. If you don't yet know what to fix, one diagnosis first tells you whether a subscription is worth paying for.
How much does the Resonate Labs AI Visibility Crawl cost?
$997 for one Crawl, with your card charged at delivery, usually within 72 hours. Prepaid packs bring it to $897 or $797 a Crawl, and the Foundation that writes your questions is free.
Why do two tools give my brand different visibility scores?
They ask different questions, often on different engines, and AI answers shift between runs. Put the two question sets side by side before you compare the numbers.
Can I keep the tracker I already pay for?
Yes. The Foundation's 150 questions are yours to keep and use, including inside a tracker you already have, so the two can measure the same set.
See your questions before you pick a tool.
The Foundation is free, needs no card, and is yours to keep even if you never order a Crawl. Then whichever tool you choose measures the questions that matter.
