AEOResolve vs. free checkers vs. subscription platforms
There are three real options for finding out if AI search engines cite your site. Here's the honest comparison, based on what each one actually delivers.
| Feature | Free checkers(Semrush, Ahrefs) | Subscription platforms(AI-visibility monitoring tools) | AEOResolve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | $100–650+/month | $49 one-time |
| Account required | No (Semrush) / No (Ahrefs) | Yes | No |
| Checks multiple AI platforms | |||
| Shows which competitor was cited instead | Semrush: yes. Ahrefs: no in free tier. | ||
| Ranked, page-specific improvement plan | Varies by platform | ||
| Marketing plan for the findings | |||
| Ongoing monitoring / tracking over time | |||
| Built to fund an ongoing subscription | N/A — it is the subscription |
Why the honest comparison matters
Semrush and Ahrefs both ship free AI-visibility checkers, and they're genuinely useful for a quick score. But by their own product pages, the free tier is explicitly a preview: Ahrefs caps the free checker to a top-5 summary with no competitor citations and no recommendations, and frames it as "the starting point" for their paid Brand Radar product. Semrush's free tool includes more (a competitor comparison), but reserves "deeper AI visibility analysis" and prompt-level tracking for its paid AI Visibility Toolkit.
Neither is dishonest about this — they're lead-generation tools for platforms priced well into the hundreds of dollars per month. That's a reasonable model if you want ongoing monitoring across a large site or brand. It's the wrong model if you just want a real, complete answer once: which queries you lose, who wins them instead, and a specific, ranked plan to fix it — without becoming a lead for a subscription you didn't ask for.
That's what the $49 one-time audit is for.