Profound vs Scalenut (2026): Pricing, Features & Verdict
Profound is our pick, scoring 6.6/10 against 5.1/10 for Scalenut on our AI Software criteria. Its biggest advantage: higher Security score (8/10 vs 3/10). For 10 users, Profound is free, against $59/mo for Scalenut; only Profound has a free plan.
Last updated: November 2026
Profound
6.6/10
Profound is an AI search visibility platform that shows brands and agencies how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity cite them, and uses AI agents to improve it.
Scalenut
5.1/10
AI SEO and generative engine optimization platform for marketing teams and agencies that drafts and optimizes articles and tracks brand visibility in AI answer engines.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.6/10 | 5.1/10 |
| Integration | 7/10 | 4/10 |
| Analytics | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Support | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 3/10 | 6/10 |
| Scalability | 8/10 | 5/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 3/10 |
| Output Quality | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | Contact for pricing | $59/mo Starter |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Trial | $59/mo Starter |
| Features | ||
| AI Agents | ||
| Text Generation | ||
| API Access | Not listed | |
| Enterprise Controls | Not listed | |
| Image Generation | Not listed | |
| Workflow Automation | Not listed | |
Profound vs Scalenut cost by team size
Profound costs less at every team size we checked.
| Team size | Profound | Scalenut |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeTrial | $89/moPlus |
| 5 users | FreeTrial | $59/moStarter |
| 10 users | FreeTrial | $59/moStarter |
| 25 users | FreeTrial | $59/moStarter |
| 50 users | FreeTrial | $59/moStarter |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Who Profound and Scalenut suit
Profound fits enterprise better; Scalenut fits small business better.
| Audience | Profound | Scalenut |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | 9/10Most capabilities now sit in custom Enterprise contracts that include SSO, SOC 2, the API and up to 10 engines, and the vendor cites a large Fortune 500 customer base. | 3/10No published SSO, audit logs or compliance certifications were found. |
| Small Business | 3/10The self-serve tiers have been removed, and reviewers repeatedly say the cost is too high for smaller teams. | 6/10The annual offer brings entry pricing low, but Starter only allows 5 articles and 10 tracked prompts a month. |
| E-commerce | 7/10The Shopping module tracks SKU-level product visibility in ChatGPT Shopping across merchants and retailers. | 6/10Native Shopify publishing supports store blogs, though the tool is about content rather than product catalogs. |
| Marketing Teams | 9/10It is built around AI search visibility, content drafting and campaign work for marketing departments. | 8/10The research, briefs, drafting, optimization and AI visibility tracking are built for in-house content and SEO marketers. |
| Agencies | 7/10An agency plan provides per-client workspaces with monthly credits, and reviewers report agency use, though its price is not published. | 7/10Professional includes unlimited workspaces (one domain each) and seats, so one plan can cover many client sites. |
| Content Creators | Not rated | 7/10Cruise Mode and the template library speed up long-form blog drafting for bloggers and writers. |
| Freelancers | Not rated | 5/10Usable for solo SEO writers, but monthly list prices are high for the article limits on Starter. |
| SaaS Companies | 7/10Named customers include software firms such as MongoDB, Figma and Ramp. | Not rated |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Profound
- Has a free plan (Scalenut does not)
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: Free vs $59/mo
- Higher Security score (8/10 vs 3/10)
- Higher Integration score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (9/10 vs 3/10)
Why choose Scalenut
- Higher Cost score (6/10 vs 3/10)
- Better fit for small business (6/10 vs 3/10)
Pros & Cons
Profound
Pros
- Covers up to 10 answer engines on Enterprise, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode and DeepSeek, which is broader than most visibility trackers.
- Agent Analytics uses server and CDN log integrations (Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly, Vercel and others) to show how AI crawlers actually visit and cite your pages.
- Goes beyond reporting. Its Agents, Sheets and AI Marketer draft content and stage changes for a person to approve.
- Built for enterprise buyers, with SSO/SAML, SCIM, RBAC, SOC 2, unlimited seats and a REST API with v2 report endpoints.
- Reviewers on G2 (4.5/5 from over 1,100 reviews) praise its citation and competitor analysis and its hands-on onboarding and account managers.
Cons
- The $99 and $399 self-serve plans were removed in September 2026, so brands now need a sales quote after the trial.
- Credit-based pricing with overage billing makes total cost hard to predict, and price is the most common complaint from reviewers.
- Data history, exports, the API, SSO and engines beyond the first three are all limited to Enterprise.
- Some users report inconsistent results when re-running prompts manually, and find it hard to link visibility to revenue.
- Reviewers mention a learning curve, a dense dashboard and recommendations that can be too broad to act on.
- Profound does not publish changes to your live site. Your team still has to ship the content.
Scalenut
Pros
- Combines keyword clustering, SERP-based briefs, drafting, optimization and audits in one workflow, which reviewers called among the most complete SEO content workflows they had tested.
- Cruise Mode produces a long, structured blog draft in about five minutes from a single keyword.
- Tracks brand visibility in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, with Perplexity added on Professional, alongside the content tools.
- Native WordPress and Shopify publishing removes copy-and-paste steps for blog teams.
- Professional includes unlimited workspaces and seats, which suits agencies managing many domains.
- Review-site ratings are strong, at about 4.7 on G2 and 4.8 on Capterra.
Cons
- Independent testers found the drafts generic and in need of heavy human editing, and AI detectors still flag them after humanizing.
- Starter includes only 5 articles and 10 tracked prompts a month for 59 USD on monthly billing.
- Useful tools such as OnPage Pro, the AI Detector and Humanizer, and AI Link Manager are paid add-ons with no public prices on the pricing page.
- Trustpilot sits at about 3.2 out of 5, with complaints about unexpected annual charges, unanswered support emails and partial trial refunds.
- No public security certifications, SSO or public API documentation were found.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Profound scores higher on our AI Software criteria: 6.6/10 against 5.1/10 for Scalenut. The largest gap is in Security: 8/10 for Profound and 3/10 for Scalenut.
Profound costs less for 10 users: free on its Trial plan, against about $59/mo on its Starter plan for Scalenut, billed monthly.
Profound has a free plan; Scalenut does not list one.
Profound is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 3/10 for Scalenut.
