AI visibility trackers (GEO)
As of October 30, 2026, Rankscale's cheapest paid plan is Essentials at $17/month billed yearly only, per its own pricing page. Rankscale 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 | Rankscale |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | $49 a month | $17/month billed yearly only |
| Fact checks claims against sources | Yes | Not listed |
| Learns from Search Console | Yes | Partly |
| Publishes to your site for you | Partly | Not listed |
| 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 | Rankscale |
|---|---|---|
| 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 across 17+ engines, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, with page audits and recommendations SourceRead Oct 30, 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 | Cheapest paid plan is Essentials at $17/month, billed yearly only (a struck $20 is shown beside it). Pro, the first plan with monthly billing shown, is $99/month, or $84/month on the yearly rate. Credit based, with no per-engine upsells stated. SourceRead Oct 30, 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 | Partly A Try Pro for Free button appears on the Pro plan. Duration and card requirement are not stated on the pricing page. No free plan is listed. SourceRead Oct 30, 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 | Not listed Not stated on the Rankscale homepage or pricing page. No content writing or CMS publishing feature is listed. The MCP docs list data, setup and tracking tools only. SourceRead Oct 30, 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 on the Rankscale homepage. It lists sentiment analysis and citation tracking but no claim or fact checking feature. SourceRead Oct 30, 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. The homepage says you can connect GA4 and Search Console (beta) to see how AI visibility translates into real traffic. It does not say the data drives content selection or refreshes. SourceRead Oct 30, 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 on the Rankscale homepage or pricing page. It appears to be a hosted product only. SourceRead Oct 30, 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 Yes. A hosted MCP server at mcp.rankscale.ai/mcp works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and OpenAI Codex. Read access is on by default and writes and credit-spending runs are opt-in. A REST API is listed from Pro+ up, with a limit of 200 requests per minute per API key. The pricing page lists MCP on every plan, while the help article says only selected plans. SourceRead Oct 30, 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 Rankscale if
What Rankscale 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 across 17+ engines, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, with page audits and recommendations (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 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 Rankscale's side: The Rankscale pages we read do not say (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 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. Rankscale on search data: Partial. The homepage says you can connect GA4 and Search Console (beta) to see how AI visibility translates into real traffic. It does not say the data drives content selection or refreshes (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 2026).
Rankscale: Yes. A hosted MCP server at mcp.rankscale.ai/mcp works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and OpenAI Codex. Read access is on by default and writes and credit-spending runs are opt-in. A REST API is listed from Pro+ up, with a limit of 200 requests per minute per API key. The pricing page lists MCP on every plan, while the help article says only selected plans (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 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 Rankscale.
Keep Rankscale 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 Rankscale
AI visibility platform that monitors how brands appear across generative search engines, with citation tracking, sentiment analysis, competitor analysis and page audits. (its own description, read Oct 30, 2026)
The homepage text says plans start at $99/month, but the pricing page shows an Essentials plan at $17/month billed yearly, so the pricing page is used here. Pricing page lists MCP on all plans, but the help article says selected plans. Rankscale is a tracking and analysis product. No content writing or publishing is stated on the pages checked.
| Plan | Price | What the page says it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $17/month billed yearly only (shown next to a struck $20/month) | 120 credits per month; basic monitoring; 2 brand dashboard slots; 10 page audits per month; 480 answers from AI engines; MCP; no REST API |
| Pro | $99/month (shown with $84/month, the yearly rate) | 1,200 credits per month; up to 4,800 answers from AI engines; 10 brand dashboards; 50 page audits; sentiment analysis; custom dashboards; Slack support; a Try Pro for Free button; no REST API |
| Pro+ | $229/month (shown with $195/month, the yearly rate) | 3,000 credits per month; up to 12,000 answers; 25 brand dashboards; 100 page audits; 5 prompt researches per month; REST API access |
| Growth | $385/month (shown with $327/month, the yearly rate) | 5,500 credits per month; up to 22,000 answers; 50 dashboards; 200 page audits; agency program benefits; priority support; API metrics and share links |
| Enterprise | $780/month (shown with $663/month, the yearly rate) | 12,000 credits per month; up to 48,000 answers; 100 dashboards; 200 page audits; dedicated onboarding; API metrics and share links |
| Custom | Contact sales | Tailored plan arranged through the sales email listed on the pricing page |
From Rankscale's pricing page, read October 30, 2026. Paperboy's own prices are on our pricing page.
FAQ
As of Oct 30, 2026, Rankscale lists Essentials $17/month billed yearly only; Pro $99/month; Pro+ $229/month; Growth $385/month. rankscale.ai is the source, so confirm there before you buy.
The Rankscale pages we read do not say (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 2026).
Partial. The homepage says you can connect GA4 and Search Console (beta) to see how AI visibility translates into real traffic. It does not say the data drives content selection or refreshes (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 2026).
The Rankscale pages we read do not say (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 2026).
Yes. A hosted MCP server at mcp.rankscale.ai/mcp works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and OpenAI Codex. Read access is on by default and writes and credit-spending runs are opt-in. A REST API is listed from Pro+ up, with a limit of 200 requests per minute per API key. The pricing page lists MCP on every plan, while the help article says only selected plans (rankscale.ai, read Oct 30, 2026).
Sources
Every cell above links the page we read, and every date is the day we read it. Facts about Rankscale come from Rankscale'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.
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