The tools tell you you're invisible. I make AI name you, and prove it moved.
A head-to-head between my AI Visibility Setup and the software you could buy instead. No strawman. Semrush is good at what it does. Here's exactly what each one does, who does the work, and what it costs.
Semrush, Ahrefs, and the trackers
You get a login. It scores your visibility across the AI engines, shows the gaps, even pushes your listings out and tracks your map rank. Then you, or someone on your team, run it. Every week. Forever.
The honest comparison
Every column here is real. The blue column is me.
| Row | AutoJate AI Visibility SetupDone for you | SemrushOne + Local + Content | DIY AI trackersOtterly, Rankscale, etc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A build plus a monthly scoreboard | A self-serve software suite | A self-serve monitor |
| Who does the work | I do | You or your team | You |
| AI engines checked | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Google AI Overviewplus the Local Pack | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, AI Modeno Claude or Copilot | Usually 2 to 4 |
| Checked on the real screen | Yeslive captures, the receipts | Modeled scores | Varies |
| Google Local Pack | Yes | Map Rank Trackera separate Local product | No |
| Listings and NAP | Yesand only the ones that matter | Yes, 70+ directories | No |
| The citation lever | The specific sources each engine quotes for your queries | Generic aggregator listingspresence, not the cited source | No |
| Reviews | Velocity handled | Management tools | No |
| Proof it moved | Monthly before-and-after scoreboard | Dashboards you read | Charts you read |
| You operate anything? | No | Yes, daily | Yes |
| Price | $2,500 + $350/mo | ~$200 to $260/moplus your hours | $20 to $99/mo |
| Best for | The owner with a team who won't run a tool | An in-house marketer who will | A hobbyist doing it themselves |
Presence is not visibility. A tool can put you on EZlocal and Brownbook in one click. That alone usually isn't what gets you named by ChatGPT. When someone asks an engine for a roofer near them, it quotes a specific handful of sources: a best-of list, a Reddit thread, a chamber page, a review site. I find those exact sources and get you into them. That's the whole game, and a directory spray isn't it.
It isn't five times a tool
It's a person doing the work versus software you run at night. Line the two up honestly.
- Semrush One Starter, $199/mo, the AI visibility layer
- Content Toolkit to write the fixes, +$60/mo
- Local for listings and reviews, extra per location
- Then you run all of it, and you still do the off-site work by hand
- I do the build, the citations, the profile, the reviews
- A scoreboard every month that proves it moved
- If it doesn't move, I keep working until it does
- Your time in it: approvals
Competitor features and prices are from each vendor's own pages as of July 2026 and change often. Verify before you buy.
The software floor isn't the real cost. The real cost is the hours every week it takes to run it right, and the fact that your roofer, your dentist, your painter isn't going to spend them. That's the whole reason the result is worth more than the tool.
Sometimes the tool is the right call
- You have an in-house marketer who will log into Semrush every week and actually do the work. Buy the tool. It's a good tool. You don't need me.
- You want to watch a number, not move it. A $30 tracker will chart your AI visibility just fine. I'm for moving it.
- You're a national brand. My edge is local: the Local Pack, the near-me queries, the sources that rank in one metro. If you're not local, a platform serves you better.
If you're the owner with a team who will never run any of this, that's exactly who I built the Setup for.
See where you stand first. Free.
I'll run your business through every engine and show you, on the real screen, whether AI names you when a local buyer asks. No login, no tool to learn. Then you decide if you want it fixed.
The read is free. The build is $2,500. The scoreboard is $350 a month, and if it doesn't move, I keep working until it does.