AthenaHQ Pricing and 7 AthenaHQ Alternatives (2026)

AthenaHQ is one of the few AI visibility trackers with a genuine free tier: 300 credits on 5 engines, where one credit is one AI response. The next step up is Starter at €263 a month for 3,600 credits on 11 engines, with unlimited seats. Its MCP server has more than 100 tools and can draft and publish content, not just report.

Short answer. The free tier is a good way to see whether AI answers mention you at all. The problem is the gap after it. Going from free to €263 a month is a large jump for a company that only needs 30 prompts watched, and most of the options below cover that for a fraction of it.

We make zaDojo, one of the alternatives. AthenaHQ facts come from AthenaHQ's own pricing page and documentation on the date shown above. Where a vendor lists prices in US dollars, we show them in euros converted at 1 EUR = 1.1225 USD (ECB rate, 19 October 2026), so the amount you pay depends on your card's exchange rate.

AthenaHQ plans

Plan	Price	Credits	Engines	Seats
Essential	Free	300	5	Not stated
Starter	€263 a month	3,600	11	Unlimited

One credit is one AI response, so a prompt checked on three engines spends three credits each time it runs. Daily checks burn credits far faster than weekly ones, which is the number worth modelling before you commit.

When AthenaHQ is the right choice

You want to start free and are happy to pay a lot more later rather than a little more.
You need 11 engines rather than the 2 to 4 most trackers cover at entry.
You want an agent that drafts and publishes content as well as reporting on it, which its 100-plus tool MCP server does and most rivals do not.
Unlimited seats matters because the whole team will log in.

Seven alternatives

Ranked by entry price.

Tool	Entry price	Prompts at entry	Engines at entry	MCP
zaDojo	From €10/mo, usage included	Pay per check	ChatGPT, Gemini; 3 optional	Every account
Rankscale	€15/mo, billed yearly only	Credit based	Long list incl. Grok	Every plan
Otterly	€26/mo	15	4	From €168/mo
Geoptie	€44/mo, or €37 billed yearly	15	Any 4 of 7	From €88/mo
Peec AI	€85/mo	50	Any 3 of 6	Yes, plan not stated
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit	€88/mo per domain	25	4	Semrush One plans
Scrunch	€267/mo, or €223 billed yearly	350	7	Every plan

zaDojo

Plans from €10 a month with 10,000 credits included, billed per answer at about 2 credits (€0.002) on scheduled checks. Fifty prompts on two engines checked weekly runs around 850 credits a month, which leaves most of the €10 Base plan for keyword, ranking and backlink research in the same account. MCP is on every account including the trial.

Choose it if the jump from AthenaHQ's free tier to €263 is the problem you are trying to solve. Look elsewhere if you need 11 engines, or an agent that publishes content for you.

Rankscale

About €15 a month, sold yearly only at €182, with the widest engine list here including DeepSeek, Mistral and Grok, and MCP on every plan.

Choose it if engine count is what you liked about AthenaHQ but the price is not.

Otterly

€26 a month for 15 prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, unlimited team members, 7-day trial with no card.

Choose it if you want something simple with Copilot in it.

Geoptie

€44 a month, or €37 billed yearly, for 15 prompts and 2 brands across 123 countries with unlimited seats. It also publishes free GEO audit and checker tools.

Choose it if you need per-country reporting or client white-labelling.

Peec AI

€85 a month for 50 prompts on 3 engines, unlimited users, plus Naver AI and SKU-level shopping answers.

Choose it if you sell in Korea or sell products. Plans are in Peec AI pricing and alternatives.

Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

€88 a month per domain for 25 prompts, extra users €88 each, no free trial.

Choose it if your team already works in Semrush.

Scrunch

€267 a month, or €223 billed yearly, for 350 custom prompts plus 1,000 industry prompts and 7 engines including Claude and Meta.

Choose it if you want persona prompts and a ready-made prompt library. Plans are in Scrunch pricing and alternatives.

How to pick

Model your credits before the free tier runs out. Prompts multiplied by engines multiplied by checks a month is the number that decides your bill.
Be honest about engine count. Eleven engines sounds better than four. Your buyers are mostly on ChatGPT and Google.
Decide if you need publishing or only reporting. AthenaHQ's MCP drafts content; most rivals report and stop there.
Check whether weekly is enough. Daily checks are the single biggest cost multiplier and one week of data is noise anyway.
Keep a free check in reserve. HubSpot's AEO Grader gives a free one-off report if you only want a second opinion.

Twelve trackers side by side are in best AI visibility tools. What to change once you have the data is in what AEO is, how to get cited by ChatGPT and schema markup for AI.

Questions people ask

Is AthenaHQ free? There is a free Essential tier with 300 credits on 5 engines. One credit is one AI response, so it is a trial in practice rather than an ongoing free plan.

How much is AthenaHQ after the free tier? Starter is €263 a month for 3,600 credits on 11 engines with unlimited seats.

What is the cheapest AthenaHQ alternative? zaDojo from €10 a month with usage included, then Rankscale at about €15 a month billed yearly.

What is an AthenaHQ credit? One AI response. A prompt run on three engines spends three credits per check, so the engine count and check frequency drive the cost more than the prompt count does.

Which alternatives have an MCP server on every plan? zaDojo, Rankscale and Scrunch. Otterly and Geoptie keep MCP for higher plans.