When you’re evaluating HubSpot AEO vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, I examined each for you as a advertising and AEO practitioner myself and can share my detailed evaluate.
To run the experiment, I used one of many area of interest web sites in my portfolio (a golf web site) that hasn’t but been optimized for AI search. Under, you’ll get screenshots and knowledge from my private expertise testing each HubSpot AEO and Semrush One (which incorporates Semrush’s AI Visibility options). Then, I’ll stroll you thru the professionals and cons of each AEO instruments and enable you to decide the most effective one primarily based in your workforce’s wants.
However first, let me demystify AEO, GEO, and all issues AI visibility so we’re working from the identical definitions.
Desk of Contents
What’s AEO vs. AI visibility? (And why it issues)
AEO matters because, as AI becomes more popular, people are turning to answer engines to do their buyer research, in addition to Google. In 2026, nearly half of U.S. adults use AI chatbots, up from one-third in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center. Additional, Pew discovered that 60% of American adults learn the AI-generated summaries on the high of search outcomes, whereas solely 30% say they don’t. Manufacturers that be taught and leverage AEO will achieve a aggressive benefit.
AI visibility is an umbrella time period for the metrics that measure how your model reveals up in AI search, together with share of voice, sentiment, citations, and mentions. It issues as a result of that is how entrepreneurs and SEOs observe their AEO progress.
Professional tip: To get a baseline snapshot of your AI visibility, use the free AI Search Grader instrument.
Prompts are to AEO what key phrases are to search engine marketing. Prompts are the phrases that customers sort into reply engines to get details about their question. Entrepreneurs use AEO instruments like HubSpot AEO to trace the prompts their manufacturers ought to present up for.
Citations are the web sites that the AI consulted to generate its reply. They could or will not be linked.
Protection is shorthand for “reply engine protection,” which refers to which LLMs the AEO instrument tracks. For instance, HubSpot AEO covers ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
HubSpot AEO vs. Semrush AI Visibility: Core Comparability
First, let me make clear the product naming and tiers, so that you perceive which one you want to purchase. HubSpot AEO is offered to buy by itself, with out one other HubSpot subscription. Moreover, AEO is the identify of the CRM-connected product included inside Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled and Enterprise.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is offered to buy by itself or as an add-on to an present Semrush subscription. Semrush search engine marketing + AI Search is also referred to as Semrush One, and it’s the bundled product with search engine marketing and AEO options.
This text (and the fast comparability desk under) primarily compares HubSpot AEO and Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit (the merchandise out there for buy on their very own). However I’ll additionally embrace extra details about AEO in Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled and Enterprise and Semrush One (the built-in/bundled merchandise).
How do these instruments observe prompts, citations, and model mentions?
How HubSpot AEO Tracks Prompts, Citations, and Model Mentions
Immediate Monitoring
HubSpot AEO makes use of the official APIs of ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to run your tracked prompts every day and present you the precise AI responses.
Customers can manually add prompts to HubSpot AEO or get strategies primarily based on the corporate information they supply throughout onboarding. Or, in the event that they’re utilizing AEO in Advertising and marketing Hub Professional+, customers can get AI-powered strategies that draw upon context from the CRM information. The benefit of that is that the strategies get smarter over time because the CRM learns extra about your enterprise.
Citations
HubSpot AEO’s dashboard reveals an in depth quotation evaluation, together with owned quotation charge versus opponents, citations by content material sort, and citations by channel.
Model Mentions
HubSpot AEO customers can get a way for the way their model mentions are doing by going to the Dashboard tab and viewing the model visibility rating to see how usually their model is talked about for tracked prompts, and model visibility over time to trace progress. For extra granular information, they’ll go to the Immediate tabs and click on on every particular person immediate to see if their model was talked about in that reply and on which of the three reply engines it was talked about.
How Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit Tracks Prompts, Citations, and Model Mentions
Immediate Monitoring
Semrush differs from HubSpot AEO in the best way it fetches solutions. As a substitute of sending the prompts stay to each reply engine each time, it has a pre-existing proprietary database of over 289 million prompts that it pulls from. The immediate database is up to date every day.
Customers can manually add prompts or use the artificial prompts that Semrush suggests primarily based on the consumer’s submitted area and placement. If a consumer manually provides prompts for monitoring, then Semrush runs it stay to see what solutions get fetched.
In contrast to AEO in HubSpot Advertising and marketing Hub Professional+, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit doesn’t have a CRM, so it can’t use your enterprise context to personalize prompts like HubSpot can.
Citations
I discovered it complicated to attempt to find my model’s citations inside Semrush’s AI Visibility dashboard. As a substitute of a devoted Citations tab, Semrush has just a few locations the place you will discover information on how usually AI cites your area. Customers can discover it below AI Visibility > Visibility Overview > Citations, which reveals what number of AI solutions a website will get cited in. Scroll right down to Cited Pages, and you may see the precise URLs in your web site which are getting cited by AI.
Beneath AI Visibility > Competitor Analysis > Sources > Lacking, you possibly can see which third-party web sites are driving your opponents’ AI visibility. These are alternatives for outreach to achieve inclusion on these third-party websites.
Model Mentions
Semrush customers can go to AI Visibility > Visibility Overview and see their AI visibility rating subsequent to how point out counts are trending over time. On the identical web page, model mentions are damaged down by LLM distribution, nation, subject, and immediate.
HubSpot AEO vs. Semrush AI Visibility: Actionability
Winner: HubSpot For Content material Creation, Semrush For Technical Optimization
This part covers how straightforward it’s to take motion on AEO insights supplied by HubSpot AEO vs Semrush AI Visibility.
Each instruments present suggestions tailor-made to your model, primarily based on what answer engines are already saying about it. However, they differ in their level of detail. HubSpot AEO provides prescriptive recommendations on blog posts you should create, providing a brief with a suggested title, target audience, summary, and primary and secondary keywords.
Semrush offers extra high-level directional steering, equivalent to adjusting your model voice or including sure content material design parts. It doesn’t give detailed steering on precise weblog posts to create — at the least, not inside its AI Visibility Toolkit. You may need to buy the Content material Toolkit add-on for that.
In contrast to HubSpot, Semrush doesn’t have a CMS or a CRM, so it lacks the unified path from perception to motion that HubSpot has. Transferring from suggestion to implementation will probably be extra of a trouble, as you’ll want a separate instrument for publishing. To get from perception to content material creation with HubSpot, you’ll want Advertising and marketing Hub Professional/Enterprise (which incorporates AEO options and a CRM) or HubSpot for Entrepreneurs (which incorporates AEO options, a CRM, and a CMS). To create content material with Semrush, you’ll want the Content material Toolkit add-on.
As for technical optimization, each instruments will provide you with a warning to AI-specific technical points, equivalent to a robots.txt file blocking an AI crawler. Nevertheless, Semrush offers a devoted AI Search Well being rating inside its deeper, conventional Web site Audit instrument, making it stronger for general technical search engine marketing.
What’s the quickest strategy to flip visibility gaps into content material updates?
The quickest strategy to flip visibility gaps into content material updates is to make use of HubSpot for Marketers, which mixes Advertising and marketing Hub, Content material Hub, and AEO that can assist you create reply engine-friendly content material quick primarily based in your precise CRM information. Subscribers to HubSpot for Entrepreneurs or Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled/Enterprise can use Content material Agent to generate research-backed weblog posts primarily based on AEO suggestions.
When must you use AI to speed up AEO duties?
As a author, I’m all the time going to advocate for holding people within the loop, particularly when writing AEO content material. If you’re going to use AI, use AI that has the correct context about your model; in any other case, your outputs will probably be generic. For instance, subscribers to Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled and Enterprise get AEO characteristic entry that attracts upon CRM information to offer extra contextualized immediate strategies primarily based in your precise enterprise.
Listed here are a few the most effective locations AI can velocity up AEO duties:
- Immediate analysis and monitoring. HubSpot accelerates immediate analysis by connecting to your CRM (by way of Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled and Enterprise). Semrush makes use of its large database of AI queries to counsel prompts primarily based in your area and placement. Each instruments observe your prompts every day, providing you with insights into whether or not and the way continuously your model is talked about or cited for these goal prompts.
- Writing help. HubSpot affords Content material Agent, which may conduct analysis primarily based in your CRM information and generate content material drafts in a single click on. Semrush affords Content Toolkit ($60/mo for the add-on).
HubSpot AEO vs. Semrush AI Visibility: Integrations
Winner: HubSpot. HubSpot’s benefit is its native integration with its Smart CRM in addition to its advertising and content material instruments. Utilizing AEO inside a Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled or Enterprise subscription grants you the flexibility to personal the AEO course of end-to-end, from AEO perception to printed content material. There’s additionally closed-loop reporting as a result of all of it occurs inside the HubSpot platform.
That CRM connection means you will get customized immediate strategies primarily based on your enterprise context inside HubSpot. HubSpot additionally has integrations with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, in addition to greater than 1,000 different integrations out there within the HubSpot Marketplace.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit natively integrates with the Semrush search engine marketing platform, which is helpful in the event you’re already utilizing it for search engine marketing. It additionally offers integrations with Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Semrush has deeper options for SEO than HubSpot does. Nevertheless, Semrush lacks the CRM immediate grounding and personalization that HubSpot has. Semrush’s third-party integrations embrace WordPress, Trello, Google Docs, and Fb.
HubSpot AEO vs. Semrush AI Visibility for Ease of Use
Winner: HubSpot. Of the 2, I discovered HubSpot AEO the best to make use of. The onboarding was considerably higher, with extra steering and personalization. Semrush dropped me proper into my dashboard after I entered my area.
HubSpot’s UI is intuitive and easy, making it straightforward to navigate. That’s not a knock towards Semrush, although. If Semrush feels difficult, it’s simply because it has such a variety of options, so it takes extra getting used to. If simplicity and ease are your most important objectives, then HubSpot AEO is for you. But when characteristic robustness issues extra, strive Semrush.
How can non-SEOs get worth quick?
Non-SEOs (entrepreneurs particularly) will get probably the most worth on the quickest charge by utilizing HubSpot AEO and finishing the guided onboarding course of. It’s extraordinarily user-friendly and made for entrepreneurs. For instance, HubSpot AEO lets you tailor your prompts primarily based on totally different ICPs.
HubSpot AEO vs. Semrush AI Visibility Pricing + The right way to Begin
Step 1: Use free choices to get a baseline of your AEO readiness.
Free Plans
Finest for: Getting a high-level snapshot of your AI visibility earlier than you deep dive into superior AEO instruments
HubSpot AEO doesn’t have a free plan, however HubSpot does supply a free instrument that helps entrepreneurs get a snapshot of their AI readiness. AI Search Grader provides entrepreneurs a free point-in-time report of their model’s AI visibility throughout ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — excellent for getting a baseline. The report relies on the LLMs’ coaching information, so it’s helpful for realizing the place you stand whenever you first get began on AEO. However to trace your model’s goal prompts and precise progress, you’ll must improve to HubSpot AEO.
Begin by getting your baseline utilizing the free AI Search Grader. Simply enter your area, and AI Search Grader offers you a one-time snapshot of your AI visibility primarily based on present coaching information for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. It’ll rating your model on sentiment, presence high quality, model recognition, share of voice, and market competitors.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit doesn’t have a free plan, however the free Semrush plan grants entry to Area Overview to supply a snapshot of your area’s mentions, citations, and AI visibility rating. It additionally grants entry to Web site Audit, permitting you to audit as much as 100 pages for technical points which are hindering your AI visibility.
Free Trials
Finest for: Evaluating superior AEO instruments earlier than committing to a paid subscription
For extra superior AI visibility and steady monitoring, HubSpot AEO affords a 28-day free trial. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit ($99/mo/area) does not supply a free trial. Nevertheless, Semrush search engine marketing + AI Search (beginning at $199/mo billed month-to-month) does supply a seven-day free trial.
Organising on each is extremely straightforward — all you want to do is enter your area. Then, for HubSpot AEO, it’ll information you thru onboarding, asking for extra particulars about your enterprise so it will probably present customized immediate strategies.
Step 2: Develop to paid tiers to expedite and observe AEO progress.
Entrepreneurs critical about AEO shortly outgrow free plans and trials. When you’ve taken benefit of free trials for analysis functions, you’re able to decide to a paid subscription for long-term monitoring and expedited AEO progress.
HubSpot AEO may be bought by itself for simply $50/mo, granting you 25 prompts that it tracks every day. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit may be bought by itself for $99/mo/area, additionally permitting you to trace 25 prompts.
HubSpot AEO vs Semrush AI Visibility: Which must you select?
Select HubSpot AEO if:
- Your clients are primarily utilizing ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity. HubSpot AEO covers all three of those reply engines.
- You need customized immediate suggestions primarily based in your particular enterprise context. (Observe: To realize this, you should improve to Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled/Enterprise or HubSpot for Entrepreneurs, which incorporates AEO and connects to HubSpot’s Good CRM.)
- You prioritize simplicity and ease of use.
- Your workforce is usually entrepreneurs.
- $50/mo is inside your finances.
Select Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit if:
- Your clients are primarily utilizing Google AI Overviews or Google AI Mode. Semrush covers those two answer engines, as well as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
- You’re fine with auto-generated synthetic prompts. Note: Semrush does allow you to manually add your own prompts as well.
- You prioritize feature complexity and quantity.
- Your team is mostly SEOs. Note: For SEO functionality, you need to purchase the SEO base subscription ($139.95/mo) in addition to the $99/mo/domain AI Visibility Toolkit add-on.
- $99/mo is within your budget. Note: $99/mo is for one domain only and does not include SEO functionality.
What’s the best way to pilot and prove impact?
Personally, I like to pilot software I’m considering side by side. So, I’d recommend signing up for HubSpot AEO’s free 28-day trial at the same time that you sign up for Semrush One’s 7-day free trial. Then, spend the next week using them side by side and comparing their strengths and weaknesses.
Use the same domain to get a true apples-to-apples comparison of how each tool approaches the AEO process.
From there, I’d create a few pieces of content based on HubSpot AEO’s recommendations and Semrush’s recommendations. Think of this as split testing. Create a spreadsheet of the content that was based on HubSpot and a separate tab for the content that was based on Semrush.
AEO efforts, similar to SEO work, take time to show impact. Track both pieces of content over the next three months. Track these metrics: citations, mentions, prompts. Note: Because the free trial for HubSpot AEO ends after 28 days and Semrush One after seven days, you’ll have to upgrade to the paid version of HubSpot AEO ($50/mo) and then the paid version of the standalone Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit ($99/mo/domain).
At the end of your three-month pilot, see which tool ended up giving you content recommendations that moved the needle for your AI visibility. In addition to that, take note of which tool was genuinely most helpful and easy to use for your team.
Alternatives to HubSpot AEO and Semrush AI Visibility
Profound
Finest for: Enterprise groups desirous to automate the AEO content material creation course of (whereas sustaining human-in-the-loop approval)
Key Options
- Broadest engine protection (10): ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek, Claude
- Pre-built content material brokers: Select from a library of agent templates, together with one that allows you to generate AEO-friendly articles primarily based on a subject immediate. Vital observe from the Profound web site: “Each Agent run contains an approval step earlier than something publishes, so you possibly can keep answerable for what goes stay.”
- Immediate Volumes: A standout characteristic that estimates quantity on the key phrase or phrase degree, drawn from actual ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude consumer information
Pricing: Begins at $99/mo for ChatGPT monitoring solely
Scrunch
Finest for: Mid-market to enterprise groups needing technical optimizations and AI site visitors attribution
Key Options
- Engine protection (9): ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Grok
- Agent Expertise Platform (AXP): A standout characteristic that primarily creates a second model of each webpage that’s served solely to AI crawlers (not search engine crawlers or people) to assist along with your AEO
- AI referrals: Hook up with GA4, and also you’ll see who visited from AI, in addition to buy income and conversion charge tied to AI referrals.
Pricing: Begins at $250/mo for 4 reply engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot)
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Finest for: Groups already utilizing Ahrefs for search engine marketing, or these targeted on AI visibility on social media
Key Options
- AI protection on LLMs and social media (6+3): Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini + YouTube, TikTok, Reddit
- Largest immediate database: 406M+ month-to-month prompts
- Unified search engine marketing/AEO dashboard: For present Ahrefs search engine marketing customers, AEO information will sit in the identical dashboard as their search engine marketing information.
Pricing: Begins at $199/mo for one platform
When you’re already utilizing Profound, Scrunch, or Ahrefs, you possibly can nonetheless add HubSpot AEO by buying it by itself. This can grant you entry to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity information, in addition to HubSpot’s immediate strategies and content material suggestions. To get CRM-powered strategies which are customized primarily based on your enterprise context, improve to Advertising and marketing Hub Professional+ or HubSpot for Entrepreneurs.
Subscribers of HubSpot for Entrepreneurs (Advertising and marketing Hub Professional+ and Content material Hub Professional+ bundled) can personal the AEO content material creation course of end-to-end by getting the AEO advice, clicking a button to create content material with Content material Agent, after which monitoring that content material’s URL to see its influence on AEO — multi function place. This avoids stack sprawl and governance gaps, enabling a centralized dashboard for AEO insights and actions.
Incessantly Requested Questions About HubSpot AEO vs Semrush AI Visibility
Can I exploit HubSpot AEO and Semrush collectively?
Sure, actually, utilizing Semrush for search engine marketing and HubSpot for AEO is the really useful method. Semrush has deep experience and performance for key phrase analysis, backlink monitoring, and competitor analysis, whereas HubSpot offers the distinctive CRM-connected immediate strategies that assist your enterprise stand out. The CRM-based immediate strategies can be found just for subscribers of Advertising and marketing Hub Skilled/Enterprise or HubSpot for Entrepreneurs.
Alternatively, in the event you’re utilizing Semrush for search engine marketing and don’t wish to pay the extra $99 so as to add its AI Visibility Toolkit, HubSpot AEO is offered for buy by itself for simply $50, which brings down your whole price of possession.
How do I measure success past visibility scores?
AEO success finally relies on whether or not your AEO efforts are constructing your pipeline. So, past visibility scores, you want to join your AEO content material to enterprise influence. For this, I like to recommend HubSpot Marketing Hub Enterprise as a result of then you definately’ll get AEO options and multi-touch attribution that may inform you how your AEO efforts are tied to precise offers in your pipeline.
What’s one of the best ways to get cited in AI solutions?
The easiest way to get cited in AI solutions is to be taught reply engine optimization (AEO), which incorporates ways equivalent to creating answer-first content material, bettering your off-site status, making certain your web site has no technical points, and utilizing a devoted AEO instrument. For extra particulars, try HubSpot’s AEO guide.
When must you prioritize AEO over conventional search engine marketing work?
First, a caveat: Good AEO depends on a stable search engine marketing basis. So, when you’ve bought a stable search engine marketing basis in place, prioritize AEO over conventional search engine marketing if in case you have not but optimized your web site for reply engines. I like to recommend this as a result of AI search conduct is rising quick, and it takes time for AEO content material to compound. So beginning on AEO now will repay sooner or later.
