For Agencies

Best AEO Platforms for Agencies in 2026: An Agency-Side Comparison

For agencies running an AEO practice in 2026, the strongest agency-fit platforms are Profound (an enterprise-grade pitch motion, with pitch workspaces and client workspaces at $399 a month each), Peec AI (published agency plans from $245 a month with white-label reporting), and SolCrys (client-separated organizations, an MCP server for client dashboards, and a governed execution loop a retainer can be priced against). Vendor facts verified on each vendor's own pages as of September 2026.

Published 2026-05-22 · Updated 2026-09-26

Questions this guide answers

What is the best AEO platform for agencies?
Which AI visibility tools are built for agencies?
How do agencies offer AEO as a service?
What features should an agency look for in an AEO platform?
How much do AEO platforms cost for agencies managing 25 clients?

Direct answer

For agencies running an AEO practice in 2026, the strongest agency-fit platforms are Profound (an enterprise-grade pitch motion, with 10 pitch workspaces a month and client workspaces at $399 a month each), Peec AI (the most complete published agency price list, from $245 a month, with white-label reporting), and SolCrys (client-separated organizations, an MCP server for client dashboards, and a governed Measure → Diagnose → Execute → Verify loop your retainer can be priced against). Most other AEO tools were built for one brand and added agency features later; the differences show up around client 8–12, not in the demo.

Why we wrote this for agencies specifically

We're SolCrys, and we sell to agencies, so treat this as a vendor-biased comparison with the bias disclosed up front, not a neutral analyst report. To partly offset that, we name a specific competitor wherever we score ourselves well, and we checked every vendor fact on the vendor's own pricing, product, or documentation pages on Sept. 26, 2026. (For the single-brand, in-house cut of this market, see our B2B AEO buyer guide.)

Most "best AEO tools" lists treat agencies as a footnote. That under-serves the agency buyer for three reasons:

The buying criteria are different. An in-house team optimizes for depth on one brand. An agency optimizes for unit economics across a portfolio: per-client cost, onboarding speed, white-label reporting, and client separation.
The failure modes are different. A dashboard that works for 1 brand can break operationally at 15 clients: client logins, prompt-set drift across workspaces, and cost allocation. You only discover this in production.
The pricing curves are different. Per-workspace pricing compounds. At Profound's published $399 per client workspace, 25 clients cost $9,975 a month in workspace add-ons alone.

Seven questions that separate agency-ready platforms

The category was built single-brand first. These are the questions that expose whether a platform was designed for 25 clients or retrofitted for them.

1. How deep is client separation? Many platforms call any account separator a "workspace." Ask whether each client's prompt set, competitor list, brand context, approvals, and logins are separated. On SolCrys agency plans each client is its own organization, and because Corporate Context is set at the organization level, each client's approved facts stay within its own organization.

2. How does billing work? Most agency plans bill the agency as one customer; Profound and Peec AI advertise consolidated billing, and Otterly simplified billing for partners. It's convenient, but if you itemize a platform fee to clients, you'll allocate cost yourself. Ask before you promise pass-through billing.

3. Is white-label architectural or cosmetic? A logo on a PDF is not white-label. Ask which surfaces carry the vendor's brand: dashboard, login, alert emails, and exports. Peec AI advertises white-label reporting on its agency plans; Otterly offers partners branded Looker Studio reports and says it has no native white-label option; Semrush sells white-labeled PDF reports as a $20-a-month add-on. SolCrys delivers white-label reporting as a service: our team prepares branded client reports rather than rebranding the app.

4. How long does client onboarding take? Most of the work per client is context, prompts, and competitors. Time the setup of clients 2 and 3 during your pilot; that number predicts capacity better than any feature list.

5. Is measurement clean per client? Ask whether each client's prompts run separately on each engine, or whether results are shared across similar clients to save cost. You need clean per-client measurement.

6. What can MCP and the API reach? In 2026, MCP is common: Profound, Peec AI, Otterly (Standard and above), Ahrefs, Semrush, Conductor, and SolCrys all document MCP servers. The differences are plan access and write scope. Peec AI's MCP server lists 50 read and 42 write tools; Profound's can start Agents; SolCrys's exposes 18 tools, 16 reads and 2 opt-in writes, and SolCrys has no public REST API. Ahrefs includes API and MCP access on paid plans; Profound reserves its API for Enterprise.

7. Does the pricing model punish growth? Under a per-workspace model, client 25 costs the same as client 1, even though later clients often carry discounted retainers. Model the curve at 5, 15, and 25 clients before you sign.

These aren't all the failure modes, but they're the ones agency teams raise with us most often.

The 8 vendors we compared

Selection notes. We excluded AI SEO content writers that bolted on a visibility module; they don't compete for agency AEO budget. We excluded vendors that market "guaranteed AI citation lift," because no one can deliver it, and an agency that sells it gets burned in client reviews.

Vendor	Category	Agency offering (September 2026)
Profound	Enterprise AEO analytics and agents	Agency Growth (self-serve) and Agency Enterprise plans
Peec AI	Analytics-first dashboard	Agency plans: Essential, Growth, Scale, and Comprehensive
Otterly	Low-cost tracker for SEO teams	Agency Partner program on Standard and Premium plans
Ahrefs Brand Radar	AI visibility index on the Ahrefs suite	No agency plan; standard Ahrefs plans
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit	AEO module on Semrush (part of Adobe)	No agency plan; white-label and agency-directory add-ons
Conductor	Enterprise SEO and AEO platform	Agency partner program; enterprise contracts
Brandlight	Enterprise AI brand presence	Agency partnership program
SolCrys	Governed AEO execution	Agency ($1,499/mo, 10 client orgs) and Agency Pro ($4,999/mo, 25)

Agency feature scoreboard

The rows below decide whether a platform scales past 8–10 clients without an operational tax. Each cell reflects the vendor's own public pages on Sept. 26, 2026. "Not published" means we couldn't find the answer publicly, not that the feature is missing; ask in your sales process.

A few notes on how to read it:

Client separation is table stakes. The real question is what is separated: prompts, context, logins, and reporting.
White-label ranges from a branded PDF or Looker Studio report to a managed service. Ask exactly which surfaces are rebranded.
MCP is the 2026 differentiator for agencies that embed AEO data in their own client portals. Check write scope as carefully as read scope.
Execution layer is what lets a monthly report say "we shipped X, and the same prompts moved Y" instead of "here's a dashboard."

Feature	Profound	Peec AI	Otterly	Ahrefs Brand Radar	Semrush AIVT	Conductor	Brandlight	SolCrys
Client separation	Client and pitch workspaces; agency mode	Client projects; unlimited client users	Unlimited workspace management (partners)	Projects within Ahrefs plans	Projects within Semrush plans	Enterprise contract	Not published	Client-separated organizations
Pitch workspaces	10 a month on Agency Growth	3–10 pitch projects by plan	Yes (partners)	No	No	Not published	Co-pitching support	No dedicated feature
White-label reporting	Not published	Yes, on agency plans	Branded Looker Studio reports (partners)	No	White-labeled PDF add-on ($20/mo)	Not published	Not published	Delivered as a service
Engines on agency plans	Growth: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews; Enterprise: up to 9	Chosen per project from Peec's model list	4 included; AI Mode, Gemini, Claude as paid extras	6 in the index; Claude for custom prompts	AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini	9 engine options	Not published in full	Agency: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews. Agency Pro: any 4 of 5
MCP	Yes (read and write)	Yes (50 read, 42 write tools)	Standard and above	Paid Ahrefs plans	Semrush MCP	Yes (AgentStack)	Not published	18 tools (2 opt-in writes)
Public API	Agency Enterprise only	Yes; plan tier unclear	Standard and above	Paid Ahrefs plans	Semrush One Advanced	Yes (data API)	Not published	None; CSV export
Execution layer	Agents draft; per Profound, can publish to a CMS	Actions recommend with a suggested brief	Recommendations and GEO audits	None	Through Semrush content tools	Writing Assistant; turnkey agents	Content analysis and optimization	Action Hub tasks with approval, then a re-test

Pricing-per-workspace economics for a typical 25-client agency

This is the section agencies skip in evaluation and regret at renewal. We modeled cost at 5, 15, and 25 clients, assuming about 30 tracked prompts per client, using prices each vendor published on Sept. 26, 2026. Where a vendor doesn't publish agency pricing, we say so instead of guessing.

Profound (Agency Growth)

Profound's self-serve Agency Growth plan includes 10 pitch workspaces a month (25 prompts each, for 7 days) and adds full client workspaces at $399 a month each, with 100 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews plus 400 Agent credits a month. The figures below cover client workspaces only, not the plan's base fee.

Profound's pitch workspaces are a real strength if AI-visibility audits drive your prospecting. If your model is set-and-forget retainers, about $400 per client per month is a floor your retainer has to recover.

5 clients: 5 × $399 = $1,995/month
15 clients: 15 × $399 = $5,985/month
25 clients: 25 × $399 = $9,975/month (larger books typically move to Agency Enterprise, priced by quote)

Peec AI

Peec AI publishes agency plans priced by credits (1 prompt × 1 model × 1 day = 1 credit), which you allocate across client projects: Essential $245 a month (10,000 credits, 3 projects), Growth $495 (25,000 credits, 10 projects), and Scale $795 (65,000 credits, 25 projects), or about 15% less billed annually. Comprehensive is custom. Agency plans include white-label reporting, unlimited team and client users, pitch projects, and consolidated billing.

Peec is hard to beat on price if your retainer is sold as reporting. The trade-off is how far credits stretch: 30 prompts on 3 models every day is about 2,700 credits a month per client, and Actions recommends work but doesn't draft it.

5 clients: about 13,500 credits a month, so Growth at $495/month
15 clients: about 40,500 credits, so Scale at $795/month (25 projects)
25 clients: about 67,500 credits, just over Scale's 65,000, so Scale at $795/month with fewer models or prompts on some clients, or Comprehensive (custom)

Otterly

Otterly's plans are Lite $29, Standard $189, and Premium $489 a month; Enterprise starts at 1,000 prompts and is custom. Agency partners get 150 prompts on Standard (instead of 100) and 500 on Premium (instead of 400), plus unlimited workspace management, pitch workspaces, branded Looker Studio reports, and simplified billing. There is no separate agency price list.

Otterly fits agencies whose AEO offer is light-touch and SEO-led, such as prompt audits inside an existing SEO retainer. The math below assumes a partner plan's prompts can be spread across client workspaces; confirm that with Otterly, and add engine add-ons if clients need AI Mode, Gemini, or Claude.

5 clients (about 150 prompts): Standard partner plan, $189/month before add-on engines
15 clients (about 450 prompts): Premium partner plan (500 prompts), $489/month before add-ons
25 clients (about 750 prompts): beyond one Premium plan; Enterprise (custom) or multiple plans

Ahrefs Brand Radar

Brand Radar is sold standalone from $199 a month; Ahrefs' help center lists $199 per platform index and $699 for all platforms (including 2,500 custom-prompt checks a month). Custom Prompts packages cost $50 (2,500 checks), $100 (7,000), or $250 (25,000) a month, and each prompt uses 1 check per platform per update. There is no agency plan.

The index is priced per agency, not per client, so researching any brand doesn't multiply with your book. Daily tracking of each client's own prompts does: 30 prompts on 1 platform every day is about 900 checks a month per client. The catch: no execution layer and no white-label, and the UI is Ahrefs-branded. Good for SEO agencies already in Ahrefs that want AI visibility in existing client decks.

5 clients, 1 platform daily (about 4,500 checks): $100/month Custom Prompts package, plus $199–$699 if you want the index
15 clients (about 13,500 checks): $250/month package, plus the index
25 clients (about 22,500 checks): $250/month package, plus the index; tracking 3 platforms triples the checks and adds about $425 in overage at $0.010 a check

Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit is $99 a month with 25 tracked prompts and 1 domain for brand-performance reports; extra domains cost $99 each, and 50 more prompts cost $60 a month. Semrush One bundles SEO and AI visibility from $199 a month (50 prompts) to $549 (200 prompts). There is no agency plan; agencies add white-labeled PDF reports for $20 a month and can list on Semrush's Agency Partners platform for $90 a month.

Semrush is the cheapest option if you're already a Semrush shop and the deliverable is a report. Limitations are the same as Brand Radar: no execution layer and a Semrush-branded UI. The estimates below assume each client needs its own brand-performance domain; confirm how Semrush counts domains for agencies.

5 clients: $99 + 4 extra domains ($396) + 3 prompt packs ($180) = about $675/month
15 clients: $99 + 14 domains ($1,386) + 9 prompt packs ($540) = about $2,025/month
25 clients: $99 + 24 domains ($2,376) + 15 prompt packs ($900) = about $3,375/month

Conductor

Conductor doesn't publish prices; its Essentials, Growth, and Enterprise tiers are usage-based and quoted by sales. Its agency partner program (partners include Havas, Razorfish, Publicis Groupe, and WPP Media) offers co-selling, co-marketing, and data API and MCP access. It fits agencies whose clients are enterprises already standardized on Conductor and need one SEO and AEO platform with enterprise certifications.

5, 15, or 25 clients: priced by quote

Brandlight

Brandlight doesn't publish pricing. Its agency partnership offers co-pitching, white-glove support, and help building AI-visibility services ("You execute, you bill," per its agencies page). It fits agencies whose clients are large brands; ask for per-client economics in writing.

5, 15, or 25 clients: priced by quote

SolCrys

We publish our prices. SolCrys prices agency work per client organization, not per seat: Agency is $1,499 a month for 10 client organizations on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, and Agency Pro is $4,999 a month for 25, with any 4 of the 5 engines (adding Perplexity and Claude to the selectable set). Both include 30 tracked prompts per client organization; Agency includes 200 Deep Analyses and 50 Content Audits a month, and Agency Pro 700 and 150. White-label reporting is delivered as a service. Current numbers live on pricing, which is canonical if it and this page ever disagree.

5 clients: $1,499/month on Agency (capacity for 10)
15 clients: $4,999/month on Agency Pro (capacity for 25)
25 clients: $4,999/month on Agency Pro

Pricing summary: where the curves cross

For agencies under 5 clients with monitoring-only retainers, Otterly, Peec AI, or a Semrush or Ahrefs add-on usually wins on cost.

For agencies in the 5–15 client range selling execution as a service line, SolCrys pairs a governed loop with an MCP server for embedded client dashboards; Peec AI is cheaper if the retainer is reporting.

Above 15 clients on enterprise retainers, the realistic options are Profound (Agency Enterprise), Conductor, Brandlight, and SolCrys (Agency Pro or Custom).

Our pricing logic: platform cost should be a modest share of the retainer, not 40% or more of it. We'd rather grow with an agency into year three than maximize first-year contract value. If the numbers above don't pencil for your retainers, book a partnership call and we'll tell you honestly if a cheaper monitoring tool like Peec AI is a better fit.

90-day rollout checklist for a new agency AEO practice

This is the week-by-week sequence we recommend to agencies launching AEO as a service line. It assumes you've picked a platform from the scoreboard above and have 3–5 pilot clients lined up.

Weeks 1–2: Foundations

Week 1. Stand up the agency account in your chosen platform. Define a brand-context template for clients (positioning, voice, claims, compliance rules). Document your service tiers (audit, monitoring, execution, enterprise) in a one-page service description. Train two senior team members on the platform.
Week 2. Build a prompt-set library by category (SaaS, DTC, fintech, healthtech, and so on), with 20–30 baseline prompts per category that you'll customize per client. Set up your reporting templates, white-labeled if you sell them that way. Decide whether clients log in or you embed AEO data in your own client portal; that decision drives the MCP or API work.

Weeks 3–4: Pilot client onboarding

Week 3. Onboard clients 1 and 2. For each: create the client workspace, load the client's brand context, install the category prompt set, customize about 30% of prompts, set up the competitor list, and run the baseline. Time each onboarding.
Week 4. Onboard clients 3, 4, and 5, applying lessons from clients 1–2. Run the first weekly monitoring reports. Identify the top 3 answer gaps per client and queue them as execution candidates.

Weeks 5–8: Execution rhythm

Week 5. Run the first execution sprint: 1–2 approved actions per client (page update, FAQ block, comparison page, third-party source work). Use the platform's approval workflow if it has one; if not, add one in Notion or Asana.
Week 6. Verify shipped actions by rerunning the prompts each action targeted on the same engines. Record what moved and what didn't, and treat before/after as an observation, not proof of cause. Start your case-study library.
Week 7. Hold the first month-end review per pilot client: actions shipped, prompts re-tested, citation changes, and next month's plan. This is the meeting that justifies the retainer.
Week 8. Run the second execution sprint and move to a 2-week cycle per client. By the end of week 8, each pilot client should have about 4 shipped actions, each with a before/after re-test.

Weeks 9–12: Scale prep

A reasonable planning target: by day 90, at least 6 active client engagements, a healthy gross margin on the platform line, and a documented case study for at least 3 of them. If you're well short, the practice probably needs a different platform or price point.

Week 9. Recruit and train a second tier of AEO operators (typically mid-level SEOs or content strategists). Document the standard operating procedure for onboarding, sprint planning, reporting, and review.
Week 10. Run a pricing audit: compare platform cost per client to retainer revenue per client. If gross margin is below your target, re-price the retainers or re-tier the offer before onboarding client 6.
Week 11. Productize the audit-as-pitch motion with a templated audit deck that takes about 2 days per prospect. Use it as the top of funnel for the next 5 clients.
Week 12. Plan next quarter: 6–10 active clients, a documented sprint motion, a productized audit pitch, and a known gross margin per client.

Talk to us about the agency motion

If you're an agency founder, head of SEO at an agency, or growth lead deciding whether AEO becomes a service line, we run partnership calls with people in exactly that seat. It's a working session: we look at your client list, retainer pricing, and AEO readiness, and tell you whether SolCrys fits or whether a cheaper monitoring tool like Peec AI or an enterprise platform like Profound or Brandlight is a better start.

Book a SolCrys agency partnership call.

If you'd rather start by reading: our AEO for Agencies pillar page covers the service-ladder model, our guide to running an AEO practice across clients covers operations, and our AEO Platform Pilot Playbook is the 30-day version of the rollout above.

Vendor facts on this page were checked on each vendor's own pricing, product, and documentation pages on Sept. 26, 2026. Prices change often, so re-verify with each vendor in your sales process, and tell us if you find an error.

Sources

FAQ

How should an agency charge for AEO?

Two models work well in 2026: (1) a flat monthly retainer, commonly $1,500–$5,000, that includes monitoring plus 2–4 execution actions a month, or (2) a tiered retainer with monitoring as the base ($800–$1,500 a month) and execution sprints priced separately ($1,500–$3,000 per sprint). Avoid the one-shot audit as your only offer; it fills the top of the funnel but doesn't sustain a service line. The closer your offer gets to "we ship the fix and show the before/after," the higher the retainer ceiling.

How do agencies package AEO as a retainer?

Bundle four deliverables: (1) a weekly or biweekly monitoring report on a fixed prompt set, (2) a monthly executive review of citation and recommendation movement, (3) 2–4 shipped execution actions a month (page updates, FAQ improvements, comparison pages, third-party source work), and (4) a quarterly refresh of the prompt set, competitor list, and brand context. Packaging matters because clients buy a workflow, not a tool.

What should an agency ship to clients monthly?

At minimum: an executive summary deck (5–10 slides), the biggest movement of the month, a list of actions shipped, a re-test of the prompts those actions targeted, and next month's plan. Put the deck under your agency's brand. The clients who renew in year 2 are the ones whose monthly deliverable feels like a strategy meeting, not a status report.

What are the white-label limits I should ask vendors about?

Ask specifically: (1) Can the live dashboard run under our domain, or only exports? (2) Does the client login screen show our brand or the vendor's? (3) Does the vendor's name appear in any client-facing email (alerts, password resets, support)? (4) Can we expose data through our own portal, via MCP or an API, without the client touching the vendor product? Answers degrade quickly after the first question. Get them in writing before signing.

Can I really run a 25-client AEO practice solo, or do I need a team?

You need at minimum: 1 senior strategist (you), 1 mid-level operator for sprint execution and reporting, and content production capacity (an in-house writer, freelancers, or a partner content agency). Above 15 clients, add a coordinator for onboarding, scheduling, and report assembly. Solo founders tend to top out around 8–10 clients before the strategist role burns out.

What's the difference between an AEO platform and an AI visibility dashboard for agency purposes?

A dashboard measures, reports, and increasingly recommends. An execution platform also routes approved fixes through a governance workflow and re-tests the same prompts afterward. For agencies, the execution model is easier to defend on retainer because each month produces a "we shipped X, and the same prompts moved Y" report. The dashboard model tends to drift into a status-update business that faces price pressure. We unpack this in our dashboard vs execution engine guide.

How long before an agency AEO practice is profitable?

It depends on retainer price, platform cost, operator time, and content production, so model it before you launch. The levers are the same everywhere: reuse prompt-set templates and case studies across clients in the same category, keep platform cost a modest share of each retainer, and compress onboarding so each new client reaches its first shipped action quickly.

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