Key takeaways
- Visby AI's Starter plan is $79/month for 15 tracked prompts, 3 engines and 5 article generations. Every tool below undercuts it by at least $29.
- The cheapest paid options in the research are Airefs ($24 billed yearly, $29 monthly), Otterly.AI ($29), and ZipTie (about $35.63). LLM Pulse (EUR 49) is slightly over the $50 line.
- Low entry prices hide add-ons, small prompt allowances and thin engine coverage. Price the setup you actually need before you commit.
- If you want a free starting point, run a no-login visibility scan first, then pay only when you know which questions matter.
- Cheap trackers tell you where you are missing. They rarely fix it. Decide up front whether you need monitoring only, or monitoring plus content work.
What you get for $79 with Visby AI
To judge an alternative, you need the baseline. Visby AI Starter costs $79/month with a free trial. You pick any 3 of 4 engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, AI Overviews), track 15 prompts for 1 domain, and get 1 seat. It also includes 5 article generations a month, funnel-based content tracking, automated GEO task generation, and social proof tracking across Reddit, G2 and Trustpilot.
One detail from Visby's own pricing page is useful for comparing everything else. An "AI answer analyzed" is one prompt run on one engine. So 15 prompts across 3 engines equals 45 answers a month. That is not a bonus quota, it is just multiplication. When another tool advertises "prompts" or "answers", do the same math before you compare.
The reasons to leave are obvious: price, and a 15-prompt cap that fills up fast. The reasons to stay are the content generation and the Reddit/G2/Trustpilot tracking, which most sub-$50 tools do not match. Keep that tradeoff in mind as you read.
Quick comparison of tools under $50
Prices below come from third-party roundups dated around October 2026. I did not verify each vendor's current pricing page, so confirm before you pay.
| Tool | Entry price | Prompts | Engines at entry | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airefs | $24/mo yearly, $29 monthly | 25 | ChatGPT-focused | AI Overviews is a paid add-on |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo | 15 | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot | Gemini, AI Mode, Claude cost extra |
| ZipTie | From about $35.63/mo | Varies by plan | Focused AI search tracking | Check prompt and engine limits |
| LLM Pulse | EUR 49 (about $53) | Varies | Core engines | Claude, Grok, Meta AI, Copilot, DeepSeek are add-ons |
| Free scans and trials | $0 | Limited | Varies | One-off snapshots, not ongoing tracking |
The pattern is clear. Under $50 you get cheaper tracking, but you give up either prompts, engines, or both.
Airefs: the cheapest full tool
Airefs is the lowest-priced tool in the research at $24/month billed yearly, or $29 month to month. The Lite plan covers one domain, 25 prompts and three competitors. That is 10 more prompts than Visby Starter for about a third of the price.
Two things stand out. It surfaces Reddit discussions worth joining, which partly covers the social proof angle Visby sells. It also monitors when AI crawlers hit your site, which most budget trackers skip entirely.
The catch: it is ChatGPT-focused, and Google AI Overviews is a paid add-on. It is also a younger product with a shorter track record. If ChatGPT is where your buyers are, this is the cheapest way in. If you need four engines, look elsewhere.
Otterly.AI: cleanest interface, mind the add-ons
Otterly.AI Lite is $29/month and tracks 15 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. It includes unlimited seats, which is unusual at this price and a real advantage over Visby's single seat. One roundup also lists a yearly-billed credit option from $17/month, though the details differ by source, so check the pricing page.
The add-on math is where people get caught. Google AI Mode and Gemini each add $9/month, and Claude adds $29/month. Add all three and you are at $76/month, still with 15 prompts. That is barely under Visby, with the same prompt cap and no article generation.
My take: Otterly is excellent if the four included engines cover your audience. The moment you need Claude, the value case weakens fast.
ZipTie: deeper analysis for a few dollars more
ZipTie starts around $35.63/month and is positioned for deeper analysis and reporting, according to Zapier's roundup. It is a narrower, more analytical tool than the cheapest options. Look at it if you care about understanding why you are missing from an answer, not just that you are.
Because I could not verify its current prompt allowance, count your must-track questions first and ask what happens when you exceed the limit.
LLM Pulse: just over the line, but worth a look
LLM Pulse costs EUR 49 (about $53) on its entry plan. That is slightly above the $50 ceiling in the title, but it matters here because it can be the best value once more than one person needs access, or when you want Gemini included instead of bolted on.
Extra engines are add-ons on the weekly Starter plan: Claude EUR 25, Grok EUR 15, Meta AI EUR 12, Copilot and DeepSeek EUR 10 a month. Bootstrapped, transparent pricing, and some free tools to try first. Add up what you need before assuming it is the pricier choice.
Other budget options worth checking
A few more names show up repeatedly in budget roundups and in our catalog:
- Peec AI starts at $95 for 50 prompts and 3 models, so it is above the $50 line, but its entry plan is a reasonable step up if you outgrow the cheapest tools.
- Radarkit starts at $29/month and leans toward local AI recommendations.
- Rankscale and Knowatoa are other small-budget trackers worth a look.
For a wider view of the category, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com lists far more options than fit in one guide.
The hidden costs of cheap AI visibility tools
I have seen people pick the lowest sticker price and regret it a month later. Here is what to check.
Add-ons
Otterly's engine add-ons can take a $29 plan to $76. LLM Pulse charges for Claude, Grok and others. Airefs charges for AI Overviews. Write down the engines you need and price the full setup, not the headline.
Prompt limits
Fifteen prompts sounds fine until you realize that each buying question has several phrasings. Start with ten to twenty questions a real buyer would type. If your list is longer than the tool's cap, you are either paying more or sampling too thinly to trust the data.
Refresh frequency
Daily checks and weekly checks are not the same product. Some low-priced tools run weekly scans. For fast-moving categories, a weekly snapshot misses a lot.
Engine differences
Engines behave differently. According to Promptwatch Data, ChatGPT cites about 5 sources per web-search answer, while Google AI Overviews cites about 10 and Perplexity almost exactly 10. That means ChatGPT slots are more contested. A tool that only watches one engine gives you a partial picture, and you should measure each engine separately.
What the cheap tools do not do
Most sub-$50 tools monitor. They tell you whether a brand is named and which competitors appear instead. Few connect that to crawler activity, real AI-referred traffic, or content that closes the gap. Visby at least bundles article generation, which is why replacing it with a pure tracker is a real tradeoff.
If you want monitoring plus action, Promptwatch is the one I would point to. It starts at $95/month on Essential (with a free Explore tier for ChatGPT only), so it sits above this guide's budget, but it adds IP-verified crawler logs, visitor analytics, content gap analysis, and agents that write and publish. Confirm current plans at promptwatch.com/pricing.
If budget is the hard limit, the practical route is to pair a cheap tracker with your own content workflow and the free tools below.
Free ways to start before you pay
You do not need a subscription on day one.
- Run a free no-login AI visibility scan to see how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe your brand. Promptwatch offers one, and Monroya has a free check too.
- Use free trials. Visby, Otterly and others offer them, so test your real questions rather than demo prompts.
- Try free utilities like an LLMs.txt generator or an AI crawler checker to catch technical blockers.
- Check Promptwatch's Explore plan, which tracks 10 prompts in ChatGPT for free.
One published guide on affordable tools also notes that free tiers exist at AthenaHQ (credit based) and Surfaced (EUR 39 starter with a free plan). Treat those as starting points, and verify the current terms.
The Industry Lens table above sorts 18 tools by entry price, which is a handy way to see how crowded the $29 to $40 band is.
How to choose: a simple decision path
- ChatGPT is your main channel and cash is tight. Start with Airefs.
- You want the friendliest dashboard and several teammates. Otterly.AI, as long as the four included engines are enough.
- You need analysis, not just scores. Look at ZipTie.
- You need Claude, Gemini and Copilot with team access. Price LLM Pulse's add-ons against Otterly's.
- You need content generation and Reddit/G2 tracking. Visby may still be worth $79, or step up to a platform that also executes.
Whatever you pick, run one month on a real list of buyer questions, then compare what the tool found against what you can actually fix.
Final thoughts
Visby is not overpriced for what it bundles, but 15 prompts for $79 is a tight deal if you mainly need monitoring. Airefs and Otterly.AI deliver comparable or larger prompt allowances for roughly $29, as long as you stay within their included engines. The real cost is whatever add-ons you end up needing, so do the arithmetic before you commit. For wider browsing, the rank tracker directory at ai-rank-tools.com is a good next stop.