If you are a founder or marketing lead trying to get your Webflow site cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, you are evaluating three fundamentally different types of products without a clean comparison to guide you. Profound and AthenaHQ are AEO monitoring and analytics tools — they measure and surface AI visibility data, and your team does the execution work. Loonis Growth Plans are a done-for-you AEO service — the strategy, content creation, schema implementation, and citation tracking are handled for you. These are not three versions of the same thing.

This comparison covers what each option actually includes, what it costs, what you need to be ready to do yourself, and which company stage each fits.

What is AEO and why does it matter for B2B SaaS companies in 2026?

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so that AI systems — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — extract and cite it when answering relevant queries. For B2B SaaS companies, being cited in AI answers drives more qualified traffic than page-two Google rankings (Airefs, 2026). The practical consequence: the brands that appear in AI answers when a buyer asks "which tool does X" are capturing pipeline that companies without AEO investment never see.

Gartner projects a 25% decline in traditional search traffic by 2026 as AI search usage grows (Gartner, 2025). For B2B SaaS, the shift is already commercial: a buyer asking ChatGPT for the best ATS for a 50-person tech company gets a specific named answer. That answer is either your brand or a competitor. AEO is how you influence which.

The three options in this comparison approach that goal differently. Profound and AthenaHQ give you the measurement infrastructure to understand where you stand and surface opportunities. Loonis Growth Plans give you a team that implements the optimisations and publishes the content. Which is right depends almost entirely on whether you have an in-house marketer or content team to do the work.

What does each option actually include?

Profound and AthenaHQ are both analytics and monitoring platforms: they show you how your brand appears in AI answers, track citation rates across AI engines, identify competitor mention patterns, and surface content gaps. Neither publishes content for you, implements schema on your site, or manages your AEO execution. Loonis Growth Plans include all of that — strategy, monthly AEO-optimised content, schema implementation, llms.txt management, and citation tracking — with no in-house execution required.

The distinction is the difference between a measurement instrument and a service. A measuring tape tells you how far apart two walls are. It does not move them. Profound and AthenaHQ are measuring tapes. Loonis Growth Plans move the walls.

Profound (Growth plan, $399/mo) includes: brand mention tracking across 3 AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, and one other), prompt volume data from Profound's proprietary database, competitor visibility comparisons, AI-optimised content creation tools (up to 6 articles/month), and G2-verified reporting. The Starter plan at $99/mo covers ChatGPT only with 50 prompts — too limited for most B2B use cases. Meaningful functionality starts at Growth. Enterprise unlocks more engines, more prompt volume, ChatGPT Shopping tracking, SSO, and a dedicated account team.

AthenaHQ (Self-Serve, $295/mo monthly or $95/mo annual) includes: AI visibility tracking across 8+ LLMs, citation intelligence, competitor monitoring, AI blindspot detection, and its Athena Citation Engine (ACE) which scores the probability a given URL gets cited before publishing. Enterprise adds the Automated Content Velocity Pipeline — content gap identification and near-real-time CMS publishing. AthenaHQ was founded by ex-Google Search and DeepMind engineers and counts 90+ Fortune 500 companies as clients (Goodie, 2026).

Loonis Growth Plans include: AEO strategy mapped to your business goals, monthly AEO-optimised blog content (question-based H2s, answer capsules, named citations, dual JSON-LD schema), technical implementation (schema deployment, llms.txt setup and maintenance, page structure audits), monthly citation tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and a dedicated contact who handles the work. No tool licences required. No in-house content or technical team required.

Three tiers:

• Visibility — $149/mo: Monthly citation tracking, AEO audit, foundational content recommendations
• Reach — $399/mo: Everything in Visibility plus monthly AEO content production and schema implementation
• Authority — $699/mo: Everything in Reach plus deeper strategy, higher content volume, and priority execution

See Growth Plans

How do the three options compare on pricing and what you get?

At comparable price points, Profound and AthenaHQ provide analytics dashboards and content tools that require in-house execution; Loonis Growth Plans Reach ($399/mo) provides done-for-you content production, technical implementation, and citation tracking with no execution overhead. The right choice depends on whether your team has bandwidth to act on the data or needs the work done for them.

Source: Scrunch (April 2026), Airefs (May 2026), AEO Engine (2026), Goodie (2026), Loonis pricing page.

When is each option the right fit?

Profound is right for enterprise marketing teams with dedicated AEO analysts and $400+/month to invest in best-in-class monitoring infrastructure. AthenaHQ is right for performance-focused B2B SaaS companies that want enterprise-grade citation tracking and AI blindspot data at a predictable price. Loonis Growth Plans are right for early-stage and growth-stage SaaS companies and Webflow-based businesses that need AEO executed, not just measured, without hiring an in-house content and technical team.

Choose Profound if:

Your company is post-Series A or enterprise-scale with a dedicated marketing team. You need the widest AI engine coverage and the deepest prompt volume dataset in the category. You have an in-house content team that will act on the data. You want compliance-grade reporting (SOC 2, HIPAA, SSO). Budget is $399+/month and the tool is one part of a larger marketing infrastructure.

Profound's client list — Ramp, MongoDB, DocuSign, Figma, Zapier — confirms its market position: enterprise SaaS teams with dedicated marketing functions. The $99/mo Starter plan is deliberately limited (ChatGPT only, 50 prompts) to push users to Growth. Most B2B use cases require Growth at $399.

Choose AthenaHQ if:

You want enterprise-grade citation intelligence at a predictable price without enterprise-scale sales processes. You have a growth team that will use the Athena Citation Engine (ACE) to pre-score content before publishing. You want 8+ LLM coverage without paying Profound's enterprise rates. AthenaHQ's annual plan at $95/month ($1,140/year) is the best-priced entry point for serious AEO tracking.

AthenaHQ's published case studies show a 45% gain in AI answer share within 30 days for teams that implement aggressively (Topify, 2026). The caveat: those results require a team that can act on the data within 30 days. The tool measures. Your team executes.

Choose Loonis Growth Plans if:

You are pre-Series A, bootstrapped, or a Webflow-based business without an in-house content or technical team. You want AEO executed and tracked without buying a monitoring tool and then hiring to act on it. Your site is built on Webflow and you want schema, llms.txt, and content structured specifically for Webflow's architecture. You want a done-for-you AEO outcome rather than a data platform.

The Reach plan at $399/mo delivers the same investment level as Profound Growth — but instead of a dashboard that requires your team to act, it delivers executed content and technical AEO work each month. For early-stage companies where the founder or a generalist marketer is the whole marketing team, this distinction is decisive.

If your site is not yet built or is using an outdated template, start with Launch & Grow at $2,295 to get your Webflow site properly structured for AEO from day one, then transition to a Growth Plan for ongoing execution.

What does each option require from your team?

Profound and AthenaHQ both require significant in-house execution capacity to produce results: a marketer or content strategist to interpret the dashboard, a writer to produce and optimise content, and a technical resource to implement schema and site changes. Loonis Growth Plans require a monthly briefing call and feedback on content drafts. This is the functional difference between a tool and a service, and it is the most practically important comparison for early-stage founders evaluating AEO investment.

Profound Growth at $399/mo delivers: a dashboard with citation data, prompt volume insights, and competitor visibility. Your team writes the content, implements the schema, manages the llms.txt, and monitors changes. Profound has content creation assistance (6 articles/month) but execution is yours.

AthenaHQ at $295/mo delivers: citation tracking, AI blindspot data, and the ACE pre-publication citation score. Your team interprets the blindspot data, writes the content, implements the changes, and monitors results. AthenaHQ's Enterprise tier adds the Automated Content Velocity Pipeline, but even that requires your CMS to be configured to receive the output.

Loonis Growth Plans Reach at $399/mo delivers: monthly AEO-optimised blog post published in your Webflow CMS, schema implemented across your site, llms.txt maintained, citation tracking reported monthly, and strategy guidance on which queries to prioritise. Your team reviews content drafts and attends a monthly briefing. That is the full execution burden.

For a company at $0-$2M ARR where the founder is the marketing team, Profound and AthenaHQ are the wrong tools at any price. They provide data without execution capacity. Loonis Growth Plans are built for exactly that stage.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an AEO tool and an AEO service?

An AEO tool (Profound, AthenaHQ) provides a monitoring dashboard and analytics infrastructure. It shows you how your brand appears in AI answers, tracks citation rates, identifies competitor patterns, and surfaces content gaps. Your team does the execution: writing the content, implementing schema, managing llms.txt, and publishing. An AEO service (Loonis Growth Plans) handles the execution. The strategy, content production, schema implementation, and citation tracking are done for you. Tools are right when you have a team to act on data. Services are right when you need the work done.

How much should a B2B SaaS company spend on AEO in 2026?

Most mid-market AEO programs run $2,000–$8,000/month when implemented through agencies (Digital Elevator, 2026). Dedicated AEO tools start at $99/month (Profound Starter) and scale to $399+/month for meaningful functionality. Done-for-you AEO services start at $149/month (Loonis Visibility) and $399/month for full content execution (Loonis Reach). For early-stage B2B SaaS companies without in-house marketing teams, a done-for-you service at $399/month delivers more executed output than a monitoring tool that requires significant internal resource to act on.

Is Profound worth it for early-stage SaaS companies?

Profound is best suited for post-Series A or enterprise teams with dedicated AEO analysts who can act on the platform's data. At $99/month, the Starter plan is deliberately limited to ChatGPT only with 50 prompts. Meaningful functionality begins at Growth ($399/month) which covers 3 AI engines and 100 prompts. For early-stage founders without a dedicated marketing team, the data Profound surfaces requires execution capacity the company does not yet have. A done-for-you service is typically better value at this stage.

What makes AthenaHQ different from Profound?

AthenaHQ is founded by ex-Google Search and DeepMind engineers and positions on predictable enterprise-grade pricing: $295/month monthly, $95/month annual (Goodie, 2026). Its standout feature is the Athena Citation Engine (ACE) — a pre-publication citation probability score that tells you how likely a given URL is to be cited by AI before you publish. Profound positions on prompt volume depth ($58.5M raised from Khosla, Kleiner, Sequoia) and the widest engine coverage in the category (10+ AI systems). Profound is the enterprise default. AthenaHQ is the better-priced serious option for growth-stage performance teams.

Can I use Loonis Growth Plans with a site not built on Webflow?

Loonis Growth Plans are optimised for Webflow sites. Schema implementation, llms.txt setup, CMS content publishing, and technical AEO work are all executed within Webflow's architecture. For sites on other platforms (WordPress, Squarespace, Framer), the content and strategy components of Growth Plans can still be delivered, but the technical implementation requires your team or a separate developer to apply. If your site is not yet live, Launch & Grow builds the Webflow foundation with AEO structure from day one.

The bottom line

The right AEO investment in 2026 is not the one with the most impressive dashboard. It is the one that produces executed output given your current team size and stage.

Profound at $399/mo is the enterprise-default monitoring platform. AthenaHQ at $295/mo is the best-priced serious tracking option for teams that can execute. Loonis Growth Plans starting at $149/mo are the right option for Webflow-based businesses and early-stage SaaS companies that need AEO executed, not just measured.

If your Webflow site is not yet AEO-structured, Launch & Grow is the first step — a fully configured, schema-ready Webflow site in 5 business days for $2,295, before Growth Plans begin.