Alternatives · Rankscale

The best Rankscale alternative for AI visibility in 2026

By Maya Ellison, content lead · Updated 29 September 2026

In short

MentionChecker is the Rankscale alternative with no monthly plan: credits from $9, six AI engines on every pack, and your first check free. Rankscale is a subscription AI visibility platform from €20 a month, where what a question costs depends on which AI engine you pick, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page.

MentionCheckerKnow where you stand in AI search.
Run a free checkYour first check is free, no card. Then from $9, no subscription.

Which Rankscale alternative charges per check?

MentionChecker is a pay-as-you-go AI visibility checker. It asks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot the questions people ask about what you do, and tells you whether your brand is mentioned in the answers. A check is paid for on its own, with credits bought once, so nothing is owed in a month you do not run one. A mention is your brand's name in the words of an answer.

A check asks the questions drafted from your website, or the list you already hold. Four AI engines are ticked by default, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity, and all six run when you tick the other two. The report opens on three numbers: how often the answers mentioned you, your share of voice among every name they mentioned, and your average rank when the answer is a list. Together they are your AI visibility score, and each number opens to the answers it was counted from.

Why do people look for a Rankscale alternative?

Because Rankscale is a subscription, and the smallest thing you can buy is a month of it, bought before any of it is used, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. A MentionChecker check is paid for out of credits bought once, and the first check is free with no card.

Because the first price on that page is €99. The €20 tier is not one of the three cards at the top of it, it is the fourth column of the comparison table below them, with a button of its own, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Our whole ladder is on the pricing page, and the smallest rung on it is $9.

Because a plan is the wrong shape for work that does not come round every month. A quarterly review, a site move or a one-off audit still buys a whole month of dashboard, and the month after it renews at the same price whether anything was checked in it or not. A check here is started when there is a reason to run one.

Rankscale pricing: Pro at 99 euros a month with 1,200 credits, Growth at 385 and Enterprise at 780, above a monthly and yearly toggle
Rankscale's three pricing cards, each with the credits its month carries, 29 September 2026.

Rankscale review and pricing

Rankscale is sold as four monthly plans, and each of them carries an allocation of credits that renews every billing cycle. Its own FAQ says what a credit buys: each time Rankscale queries an AI engine on your behalf it costs a fraction of one, typically a quarter, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page.

What the money buys is a dashboard for each brand slot: a score tracked over time, the competitors ranked next to yours, which websites the answers cited, the sentiment of each mention, and an audit of your own pages, with white-label options and a REST API from Growth up, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page.

Rankscale planA monthBilled yearlyCredits a monthAnswers up toBrand dashboardsCredit rollover
Essentials€20€171204802None
Pro€99€841,2004,80010Up to 2×
Growth€385€3275,50022,00050Up to 3×
Enterprise€780€66312,00048,000100Up to 3×

Rankscale's prices as of 29 September 2026, in the euros its own pricing page served that day. The answers column is what a month's credits reach at that quarter, and the figure moves with which AI engines each question is asked on.

Rankscale plan comparison: monthly credits, the credit rollover multiplier, brand dashboard slots and answers tracked on each of its four plans
The comparison table under the cards, which is where the entry tier and the rollover multipliers are, 29 September 2026.

That table also counts the AI engines at 17 or more on every plan, naming ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek, Mistral, Grok and Copilot among them, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Its product page calls the whole thing the AI visibility platform for agencies and enterprise teams, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's own product page.

Rankscale's pricing FAQ: a question on one AI engine costs a fraction of a credit, typically 0.25, out of an allocation that renews each billing cycle
Rankscale's own answer on what a credit buys, 29 September 2026.

Rankscale competitors: what do the AI engines say?

Asked for the cheapest AI visibility tool from the United States on 13 September 2026, four of the six answers mentioned Rankscale, behind Otterly in five and ahead of Profound and Peec AI in two each, Knowatoa, AthenaHQ, LLMrefs and SE Ranking in one each. Across eight questions about AI visibility tools asked the same day, Rankscale was mentioned in 7 of the 46 answers the six AI engines gave, and no page of its own was among the sources those answers cited. Eight questions on six AI engines is 48, and two came back with no answer. Asked for Peec AI alternatives that day, two of the five answers that came back mentioned Rankscale.

The standings on every report rank every name the answers mentioned, yours among them, next to the websites those answers cited as their sources.

AI visibility report standings: every name the answers mentioned, ranked by the share of answers, with your own row marked
Standings from one check.

Rankscale vs MentionChecker side by side

Rankscale and a MentionChecker check differ on what you are buying: a month of a dashboard with an allocation behind it, or the one check you asked for with every answer in it. The Rankscale column is read from Rankscale's pricing page, read on 29 September 2026. The other column comes from the pricing page.

What differsRankscaleA MentionChecker check
How you payA plan that renews, from €20 a monthCredits bought once, spent as checks run, and they do not expire on a monthly clock
The smallest thing you can buyA month of its entry tierThe $9 pack, 50 credits
A month with no checkThe plan renews anywayNothing
FreeNo free plan, a seven-day Pro trialYour first check, no card, on your own questions
What one question costsA fraction of a credit, and the fraction moves with the AI engineOne credit on any AI engine, and the six cost the same
AI engines17 or more by its own count, with Claude, DeepSeek, Mistral and Grok among the ones a check here does not askChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, any of the six on every paid check
Unused creditsRoll over up to a multiple of the month's allocation, and the entry tier carries noneStay on the balance for 12 months
BrandsA numbered dashboard slot per plan, with extra slots bought in the appAs many as you hold, all of them on one balance
The questionsSearch terms, unlimited to write, and running them is what spends the creditsThe ones drafted from your website or pasted in, and they are yours
How oftenHourly to monthly, set per search termOnce, or on a daily, weekly or monthly repeat, paid per run
CountriesAll regions on every planAny, chosen per check
What you readA visibility score over time, competitor benchmarking, citations and sentimentEvery answer word for word, your name marked
Sources the answers citeCitations analysis, on every planEvery website the answers cited, ranked, and each citation kept under its answer

Those 50 credits run 12 questions once on the four AI engines a check ticks by default, or 8 on all six.

AI visibility report as it opens: mentioned, share of voice and average rank for one brand, with the repeat above them
A report as one check leaves it.

What are Rankscale's limits?

What a month of Rankscale buys depends on which AI engines you pick: its own calculator prices Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini at a quarter of a credit each and DeepSeek at one and Claude at two, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here the six cost the same.

  • Unused credits expire on the month's clock. Whatever the multiplier in the table above does not carry is lost at the renewal, so the credits a quiet month did not use do not all survive into the next one, and on the entry tier none of them do, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here nothing renews, and a pack is not spent until a check runs.
  • Brands are numbered slots. The count is a ceiling the plan sets before you know how many brands you will hold, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here every brand you add sits in the same account, and nothing is bought to add one.
  • The answers a month reaches are capped by the allocation. The allocation is the ceiling on answers however the questions are asked, and the table above carries what each plan's month reaches, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here there is no cap to spend down, because the credits a check needs are bought when you decide to run it.
Rankscale credit calculator: AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini at 0.25 credits each, DeepSeek at 1 and Claude at 2, with 11 more engines behind a chip
Rankscale's own calculator prices each AI engine on its own, 29 September 2026.
An AI visibility account with several brands, each row showing the last check, what a check on it costs and whether it runs on a repeat
The last check on each brand, and what running it again costs.

What does MentionChecker do differently from Rankscale?

Nothing is charged by the month. One question on one AI engine is one credit, so a check costs the questions you ask times the AI engines you tick.

WhatCredits
25 questions on the four default AI engines, for example100
The same 25 on all six AI engines150
Your first check: 5 questions on ChatGPT and Gemini, no card10, free
Pay-as-you-go AI visibility tracking: the credit balance, the packs from $9, and a box that quotes any number of credits
The balance is credits, and the box turns any number of credits into the packs that cover it.

Run the same check again and you are tracking AI visibility week to week: History puts the two reports side by side, with the movement on each of the three numbers between them.

AI visibility tracking over time: mentioned, share of voice and average rank with their movement against the check before
The checks in the series sit under the three numbers, each with the date it ran.

Which one to pick: Rankscale or MentionChecker?

Choose Rankscale if you want a daily dashboard, or an hourly one, refreshing on its own without anyone starting it, and a plan that carries the whole month, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Choose a MentionChecker check as the Rankscale alternative if you want the answers themselves from six AI engines today, on your own questions, from the country you pick, and again when you decide to, paid one check at a time.

How to move off Rankscale

The search terms you wrote there are a list, and Rankscale's own pricing page is where the term and the monthly renewal are set out, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. A check here starts from the same wording.

  1. Bring the questions across. Paste them one per line or upload a CSV, and the questions drafted from your website sit under them to keep or drop.
  2. Tick the AI engines you want. What you pick changes what the report covers and not what it costs.
  3. Choose the country and run the check. The country is set per check, so the same list asked from Germany and from the United States is two checks and two reports.
  4. Leave the plan running until it renews. Run the checks here beside it, so History has two points to compare before you decide, and add a repeat only if you want the series to carry on.
Moving a question list into an AI visibility check: a paste box for one question per line and a Choose a CSV file button
Import a list, on the Questions tab of the brand's Settings.

Questions people ask about Rankscale alternatives

What is Rankscale?

Rankscale is an AI visibility platform sold by subscription, and it tracks how a brand is mentioned in the answers of the AI engines its own pages list. Its pricing page sells that tracking as four monthly plans, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. MentionChecker is the Rankscale alternative paid per check instead: credits bought once, and six AI engines on every pack.

How much does Rankscale cost?

Four plans, from Essentials at €20 a month to Enterprise at €780, with Pro at €99 and Growth at €385 between them, and a lower figure on each of them when the year is paid up front, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here the smallest pack is 50 credits for $9, spent only when a check runs.

Does Rankscale have a free plan?

No plan on its pricing page is free. The lowest price on it is €20 a month, and the one free way in that the page offers is a seven-day trial of Pro, under which it says no charge until day seven and cancel anytime, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Your first MentionChecker check is free with no card: 5 questions on ChatGPT and Gemini, with the report and every answer kept afterwards.

How do Rankscale credits work?

They are the month's allowance, and they do not simply accumulate. Pro rolls unused credits over to twice the allocation and the tiers above it to three times, while the entry tier carries none, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. A MentionChecker credit is one question on one AI engine on one run, and what you buy stays on the balance for 12 months.

Which AI engines does Rankscale track?

Claude, DeepSeek, Mistral and Grok are the four names on its list that a MentionChecker check does not ask, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. A check here asks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, and none of them is an add-on: each is one credit a question, whichever of the six you tick.

What are the best Rankscale alternatives?

Profound was mentioned by all six AI engines, Peec AI by five, and Ahrefs, Otterly and Semrush by four each, when ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot were asked for the best AI visibility tool from the United States on 13 September 2026. Rankscale was mentioned by none of the six on that question. A MentionChecker check gives that list for your own market.

Is there a cheaper Rankscale alternative?

On the smallest amount you can spend, yes. The least Rankscale costs is a month of its entry tier at €20, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. At MentionChecker the first check is free with no card and a pack starts at $9, so a month with no check in it costs nothing.

Does Rankscale track competitors?

Yes. Its comparison table carries competitor benchmarking on every plan, described there as seeing how your brand stacks up against competitors in AI search results, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. A MentionChecker AI visibility report puts your row beside theirs from the answers themselves, and each name opens the answers it was counted from.

How often does Rankscale check?

As often as hourly. Its comparison table gives the scheduling frequency as hourly to monthly on every plan, chosen per search term, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here a check runs when you start it, and a repeat is daily, weekly or monthly if you add one at all, with each run paid from the balance on the day it runs and nothing owed between runs.

Can I track more than one brand in Rankscale?

Up to the slots the plan carries. Brand dashboards are numbered on every tier, two on the entry one and 10 on Pro, and extra slots are bought in the app, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here the number of brands is not a plan setting: every one holds its own questions, History and repeat, and all of them spend from one balance.

Is Rankscale worth it?

That depends on whether a dashboard refreshing on its own is worth a plan carried every month, including the months nobody opens it: that refresh is sold as hourly to monthly scheduling on every plan, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. A MentionChecker check carries nothing between checks, and the reports you have already run stay open to read with nothing left on the balance.

Do I lose my Rankscale history if I switch?

Nothing here needs your Rankscale readings. The search terms move across as a paste or a CSV, and the series here starts at your first check. From there every check is kept with every answer and every citation in it, while the AI visibility tracking chart carries the movement between one check and the next.

What is a search term in Rankscale?

A search term is Rankscale's word for a question you track. Writing one costs nothing there, and the credits go when it is run, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. Here the same thing is a question, and a check asks as many of them as you give it.

Is Rankscale good for agencies?

Growth is the plan written for them, at €385 a month with 50 brand dashboards, white-label options and a REST API, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. An agency here pays for the checks it runs, holds every client brand on one balance with no fee per brand, and shares a report by link. The AI visibility agency tool page has the whole of it.

What is the cheapest AI visibility tool?

The least Rankscale costs is a month of its entry tier at €20, read on 29 September 2026 on Rankscale's pricing page. A MentionChecker check has no monthly price at all: the first check is free with no card, and after that a pack starts at $9 and is spent only when a check runs, so the smallest amount you can spend here is nothing. What the six AI engines answered to that question on 13 September 2026 is under "Rankscale competitors: what do the AI engines say?".

MentionCheckerKnow where you stand in AI search.
Run a free checkYour first check is free, no card. Then from $9, no subscription.

Rankscale is a trademark of its owner. MentionChecker is not affiliated with or endorsed by Rankscale. Keep reading: pay as you go AI visibility tracker, what AI visibility is, how to check ChatGPT visibility, and the AI visibility agency tool. The Peec AI alternative, Profound alternative, Otterly alternative, Semrush alternative, Scrunch AI alternative, AthenaHQ alternative, HubSpot AEO alternative, Ahrefs Brand Radar alternative, Searchable alternative, Writesonic alternative, AskWatch alternative, Promptwatch alternative, Superlines alternative and Gauge alternative pages compare them the same way. The About page says what MentionChecker is.