AI visibility trackers (GEO)
As of October 29, 2026, Profound's pricing page shows no fixed self-serve plan price we could read. Profound is built around tracking and improving AI visibility, while Paperboy writes and fact checks the articles those answers can cite, and the table shows where the two overlap.
| Row | Paperboy | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | $49 a month | No fixed price shown |
| Fact checks claims against sources | Yes | Not listed |
| Learns from Search Console | Yes | Partly |
| Publishes to your site for you | Partly | Partly |
| MCP, API or CLI for agents | Yes | Yes |
Side by side
Every cell links the page it came from, with the day we read it.
| Feature | Paperboy | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Researches, writes, fact checks and publishes SEO articles to your own site, then learns from Search Console. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | AI visibility tracking and AI marketing agents: tracks prompts on up to 9 answer engines (Trial: 50 prompts on 3 engines), plus AI-sourced traffic analytics for your domains. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
| Cheapest paid plan | Starter is $49 a month per site for 3 articles a week. Growth is $99 and Pro is $179. Yearly billing is two months free. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | No public price for brands. The pricing page shows a free Trial and a custom Enterprise plan. The only published paid price found is Agency Growth for agencies: $399 per month per client workspace, from a Profound blog post dated 11 Nov 2025. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
| Free plan or trial | Yes The first article is free, no card. Any plan then starts with a 14-day trial (card required). SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | Yes Yes. Free Trial plan: 7 days, 50 unique prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, 1 language, 1 region, limited AI Marketer credits, unlimited seats. No API, no exports, no data history. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
| Publishes to your site for you | Partly Posts directly to WordPress and Ghost. Other sites use a hosted blog, a signed webhook or a prompt that builds a blog in your code. No Shopify, Webflow, Wix or Squarespace connector. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | Partly Partial. The AI Marketer drafts and rewrites pages and stages them in your CMS, and its homepage demo shows changes staged as drafts and a prompt to approve before publishing. Docs list CMS tools for WordPress, Drupal, Sanity, Contentful, Adobe Experience Manager and Framer. No hands-off publishing mode is described. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
| Fact checks claims against sources | Yes Every number and cited sentence is compared with the saved text of its source. An article that fails gets one rewrite, then is held for you. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | Not listed Not stated for articles. Profound has a FactCheck feature for claims that AI answers make about your brand, and it traces them to the publishers repeating them. The pages read do not say it checks claims in content it writes against the text of cited sources. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
| Learns from Search Console | Yes Optional read-only Search Console connection. It picks topics from your impressions and reports clicks per article. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | Partly Partial. A native Google Search Console integration pulls impressions, clicks and average position into Profound, and Search Console nodes exist for Profound Agents. The page says to use both datasets to find content gaps and prioritize fixes. It does not say the data automatically picks or refreshes content. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
| Open source or self-host | Yes The engine is open source under AGPL-3.0. Self-host it with Docker and your own keys. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | Not listed Not stated. Profound is a hosted product. No open source or self-hosted option on the pages checked. The tryprofound GitHub org shows no public repos. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
| MCP, API or CLI for agents | Yes A remote MCP server with eight tools and a REST API with an OpenAPI file. The CLI is built in the open but not on npm yet. Agents pay with credits, $20 for 100. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 | Yes Hosted MCP server at mcp.tryprofound.com/mcp with read tools (reports, analytics, knowledge base) and write tools (workflows, prompts, documents, projects). Docs say it is Enterprise only. The pricing page shows API access on Enterprise only, none on Trial. No CLI, Zapier, n8n or Make listing found. SourceRead Oct 29, 2026 |
“Not listed” means we found no statement either way on the pages linked in that cell. It does not mean the answer is no. Vendors change their pages, so confirm before you buy.
The honest verdict
Sometimes the other tool is the better fit. Here is how to tell.
Pick Profound if
What Profound does well, from its own pages
Pick Paperboy if
Judge it before you pay anyone
Your first article is free with its full fact check, so you can judge it before you pay anyone.
Write my first article freeWhat you get
The four that decide it for most people, each with the source for the other side.
AI visibility tracking and AI marketing agents: tracks prompts on up to 9 answer engines (Trial: 50 prompts on 3 engines), plus AI-sourced traffic analytics for your domains (tryprofound.com, read Oct 29, 2026). Paperboy does not report how often AI answers mention your brand. It has a free check that shows whether AI crawlers can read your site, and nothing more on that side.
Paperboy writes the article, compares every cited claim with the saved text of its source and publishes it. On Profound's side: Partial. The AI Marketer drafts and rewrites pages and stages them in your CMS, and its homepage demo shows changes staged as drafts and a prompt to approve before publishing. Docs list CMS tools for WordPress, Drupal, Sanity, Contentful, Adobe Experience Manager and Framer. No hands-off publishing mode is described (docs.tryprofound.com, read Oct 29, 2026).
Measuring shows the gap. Fixing it takes a page that answers the question and cites sources a model can lean on, which is the part Paperboy writes. Profound on search data: Partial. A native Google Search Console integration pulls impressions, clicks and average position into Profound, and Search Console nodes exist for Profound Agents. The page says to use both datasets to find content gaps and prioritize fixes. It does not say the data automatically picks or refreshes content (tryprofound.com, read Oct 29, 2026).
Profound: Hosted MCP server at mcp.tryprofound.com/mcp with read tools (reports, analytics, knowledge base) and write tools (workflows, prompts, documents, projects). Docs say it is Enterprise only. The pricing page shows API access on Enterprise only, none on Trial. No CLI, Zapier, n8n or Make listing found (docs.tryprofound.com, read Oct 29, 2026). Paperboy has a remote MCP server with eight tools and a REST API. Its CLI is not on npm yet.
Try it
You do not have to switch. Run Paperboy on one site, read the fact check, and compare it with what you get from Profound.
Keep Profound running. Nothing to cancel to try Paperboy.
Paste your site address. The first article is free, no card.
Read the fact check. Every number and cited sentence is compared with the saved text of its source.
Pick a plan only if you want more. Cancel with one button on the Billing page.
https://paperboyseo.com/start?url=yoursite.comThe engine is open source under AGPL-3.0. Self-hosting for your own sites is free; you pay your own model bill. Self-host docs.
About Profound
AI marketing platform that tracks brand visibility across AI answer engines and runs an AI Marketer agent that drafts and stages content. (its own description, read Oct 29, 2026)
Brand pricing is not public: the page offers a free 7-day Trial or a demo for Enterprise. Agency Growth pricing comes from a Nov 2025 blog post and may have changed. Profound positions itself as an AI marketing platform with agents, wider than tracking only.
| Plan | Price | What the page says it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Trial | Free for 7 days | Limited AI Marketer credits; 50 unique prompts run daily for 7 days; ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews; 1 language, 1 region; unlimited seats; no API, exports or data history |
| Enterprise | Custom, demo required | AI Marketer credits for the team; tailored prompt plan; up to 9 answer engines; custom languages and regions; ChatGPT Shopping; CSV and JSON export; API access; SSO/SAML; SOC 2; dedicated support options; unlimited seats |
| Agency Growth (agencies only) | $399/month per client workspace (from a Profound blog post dated 11 Nov 2025, not shown on the pricing page) | 400 credits per month per client workspace (pricing page FAQ); 100 custom prompts per client workspace; 6 articles optimized for AEO per month per client workspace; 10 pitch workspaces per month with 25 prompts each; ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews; 5 seats |
From Profound's pricing page, read October 29, 2026. Paperboy's own prices are on our pricing page.
FAQ
Profound's pricing page did not show a price we could read on Oct 29, 2026. Check tryprofound.com.
Partial. The AI Marketer drafts and rewrites pages and stages them in your CMS, and its homepage demo shows changes staged as drafts and a prompt to approve before publishing. Docs list CMS tools for WordPress, Drupal, Sanity, Contentful, Adobe Experience Manager and Framer. No hands-off publishing mode is described (docs.tryprofound.com, read Oct 29, 2026).
Partial. A native Google Search Console integration pulls impressions, clicks and average position into Profound, and Search Console nodes exist for Profound Agents. The page says to use both datasets to find content gaps and prioritize fixes. It does not say the data automatically picks or refreshes content (tryprofound.com, read Oct 29, 2026).
The Profound pages we read do not say (github.com, read Oct 29, 2026).
Hosted MCP server at mcp.tryprofound.com/mcp with read tools (reports, analytics, knowledge base) and write tools (workflows, prompts, documents, projects). Docs say it is Enterprise only. The pricing page shows API access on Enterprise only, none on Trial. No CLI, Zapier, n8n or Make listing found (docs.tryprofound.com, read Oct 29, 2026).
Sources
Every cell above links the page we read, and every date is the day we read it. Facts about Profound come from Profound's own pages only. Facts about Paperboy come from pages on this site. If something is wrong or out of date, write to hello@paperboyseo.com and we will fix it and change the date.
Keep going
Paste your address. In under ten minutes you read a finished, fact-checked article written for your site. Free, no card.
Prefer to run it yourself? Self-host it (repo coming soon). Using an agent? Add the MCP server.