In case 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 overview.
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 data 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 choose the most effective one primarily based in your group’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 issues as a result of, as AI turns into extra common, individuals are turning to reply engines to do their purchaser analysis, along with Google. In 2026, almost half of U.S. adults use AI chatbots, up from one-third in 2024, in line with the Pew Analysis Middle. Additional, Pew discovered that 60% of American adults learn the AI-generated summaries on the prime 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 exhibits 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 software.
Prompts are to AEO what key phrases are to website positioning. Prompts are the phrases that customers kind 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 might or might not be linked.
Protection is shorthand for “reply engine protection,” which refers to which LLMs the AEO software 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 should purchase. HubSpot AEO is obtainable to buy by itself, with out one other HubSpot subscription. Moreover, AEO is the identify of the CRM-connected product included inside Advertising Hub Skilled and Enterprise.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is obtainable to buy by itself or as an add-on to an present Semrush subscription. Semrush website positioning + AI Search is also referred to as Semrush One, and it’s the bundled product with website positioning and AEO options.
This text (and the short comparability desk beneath) primarily compares HubSpot AEO and Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit (the merchandise accessible for buy on their very own). However I’ll additionally embrace extra details about AEO in Advertising 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 each day and present you the precise AI responses.
Customers can manually add prompts to HubSpot AEO or get ideas primarily based on the corporate data they supply throughout onboarding. Or, in the event that they’re utilizing AEO in Advertising Hub Professional+, customers can get AI-powered ideas that draw upon context from the CRM information. The benefit of that is that the ideas get smarter over time because the CRM learns extra about your online business.
Citations
HubSpot AEO’s dashboard exhibits an in depth quotation evaluation, together with owned quotation charge versus opponents, citations by content material kind, and citations by channel.
Model Mentions
HubSpot AEO customers can get a way for a 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 will 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 way in which it fetches solutions. As a substitute of sending the prompts reside 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 each day.
Customers can manually add prompts or use the artificial prompts that Semrush suggests primarily based on the person’s submitted area and site. If a person manually provides prompts for monitoring, then Semrush runs it reside to see what solutions get fetched.
Not like AEO in HubSpot Advertising Hub Professional+, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit doesn’t have a CRM, so it can not use your online business 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 a couple of locations the place you could find data on how usually AI cites your area. Customers can discover it underneath AI Visibility > Visibility Overview > Citations, which exhibits what number of AI solutions a site will get cited in. Scroll all the way down to Cited Pages, and you may see the precise URLs in your web site which can be 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, matter, 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 reply engines are already saying about it. Nevertheless, they differ of their degree of element. HubSpot AEO offers prescriptive suggestions on weblog posts it is best to create, offering a short with a urged title, audience, abstract, and first and secondary key phrases.
Semrush offers extra high-level directional steering, comparable to adjusting your model voice or including sure content material design components. It doesn’t give detailed steering on precise weblog posts to create — a minimum of, not inside its AI Visibility Toolkit. You might need to buy the Content material Toolkit add-on for that.
Not like 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 likely be extra of a problem, as you’ll want a separate software for publishing. To get from perception to content material creation with HubSpot, you’ll want Advertising 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, comparable to a robots.txt file blocking an AI crawler. Nevertheless, Semrush offers a devoted AI Search Well being rating inside its deeper, conventional Website Audit software, making it stronger for general technical website positioning.
What’s the quickest approach to flip visibility gaps into content material updates?
The quickest approach to flip visibility gaps into content material updates is to make use of HubSpot for Entrepreneurs, which mixes Advertising 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 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 at all times going to advocate for maintaining people within the loop, particularly when writing AEO content material. If you’ll use AI, use AI that has the right context about your model; in any other case, your outputs will likely be generic. For instance, subscribers to Advertising Hub Skilled and Enterprise get AEO function entry that attracts upon CRM information to provide extra contextualized immediate ideas 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 quickens immediate analysis by connecting to your CRM (by way of Advertising Hub Skilled and Enterprise). Semrush makes use of its large database of AI queries to counsel prompts primarily based in your area and site. Each instruments observe your prompts each day, supplying you with insights into whether or not and the way incessantly your model is talked about or cited for these goal prompts.
- Writing help. HubSpot presents Content material Agent, which might conduct analysis primarily based in your CRM information and generate content material drafts in a single click on. Semrush presents Content material 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 Good CRM in addition to its advertising and content material instruments. Utilizing AEO inside a Advertising 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 may get customized immediate ideas primarily based on your online business context inside HubSpot. HubSpot additionally has integrations with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, in addition to greater than 1,000 different integrations accessible within the HubSpot Market.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit natively integrates with the Semrush website positioning platform, which is beneficial for those who’re already utilizing it for website positioning. 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 in opposition to Semrush, although. If Semrush feels sophisticated, it’s simply because it has such a variety of options, so it takes extra getting used to. If simplicity and ease are your essential objectives, then HubSpot AEO is for you. But when function robustness issues extra, strive Semrush.
How can non-SEOs get worth quick?
Non-SEOs (entrepreneurs particularly) will get essentially 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 permits you to tailor your prompts primarily based on totally different ICPs.
HubSpot AEO vs. Semrush AI Visibility Pricing + Tips on how 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 provide a free software 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 — good for getting a baseline. The report relies on the LLMs’ coaching information, so it’s helpful for figuring out the place you stand if 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 offer a snapshot of your area’s mentions, citations, and AI visibility rating. It additionally grants entry to Website Audit, permitting you to audit as much as 100 pages for technical points which can be 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 presents a 28-day free trial. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit ($99/mo/area) does not provide a free trial. Nevertheless, Semrush website positioning + AI Search (beginning at $199/mo billed month-to-month) does provide a seven-day free trial.
Establishing on each is extremely straightforward — all you should do is enter your area. Then, for HubSpot AEO, it’ll information you thru onboarding, asking for extra particulars about your online business so it may possibly present customized immediate ideas.
Step 2: Develop to paid tiers to expedite and observe AEO progress.
Entrepreneurs severe about AEO rapidly 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 might be bought by itself for simply $50/mo, granting you 25 prompts that it tracks each day. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit might 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 prospects 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. (Word: To attain this, you could improve to Advertising 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 group is usually entrepreneurs.
- $50/mo is inside your funds.
Select Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit if:
- Your prospects are primarily utilizing Google AI Overviews or Google AI Mode. Semrush covers these two reply engines, in addition to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
- You’re wonderful with auto-generated artificial prompts. Word: Semrush does help you manually add your individual prompts as effectively.
- You prioritize function complexity and amount.
- Your group is usually SEOs. Word: For website positioning performance, you should buy the website positioning base subscription ($139.95/mo) along with the $99/mo/area AI Visibility Toolkit add-on.
- $99/mo is inside your funds. Word: $99/mo is for one area solely and doesn’t embrace website positioning performance.
What’s one of the simplest ways to pilot and show influence?
Personally, I wish to pilot software program I’m contemplating aspect by aspect. So, I’d advocate signing up for HubSpot AEO’s free 28-day trial on the similar time that you just join Semrush One’s 7-day free trial. Then, spend the subsequent week utilizing them aspect by aspect and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses.
Use the identical area to get a real apples-to-apples comparability of how every software approaches the AEO course of.
From there, I’d create a couple of items of content material primarily based on HubSpot AEO’s suggestions and Semrush’s suggestions. Consider this as break up testing. Create a spreadsheet of the content material that was primarily based on HubSpot and a separate tab for the content material that was primarily based on Semrush.
AEO efforts, just like website positioning work, take time to point out influence. Monitor each items of content material over the subsequent three months. Monitor these metrics: citations, mentions, prompts. Word: As a result of the free trial for HubSpot AEO ends after 28 days and Semrush One after seven days, you’ll must improve to the paid model of HubSpot AEO ($50/mo) after which the paid model of the standalone Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit ($99/mo/area).
On the finish of your three-month pilot, see which software ended up supplying you with content material suggestions that moved the needle on your AI visibility. Along with that, be aware of which software was genuinely most useful and simple to make use of on your group.
Alternate options to HubSpot AEO and Semrush AI Visibility
Profound
Finest for: Enterprise groups eager 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 permits you to generate AEO-friendly articles primarily based on a subject immediate. Necessary observe from the Profound web site: “Each Agent run consists of an approval step earlier than something publishes, so you possibly can keep accountable for what goes reside.”
- Immediate Volumes: A standout function that estimates quantity on the key phrase or phrase degree, drawn from actual ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude person information
Pricing: Begins at $99/mo for ChatGPT monitoring solely
Scrunch
Finest for: Mid-market to enterprise groups needing technical optimizations and AI 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 function that basically 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 Model Radar
Finest for: Groups already utilizing Ahrefs for website positioning, 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 website positioning/AEO dashboard: For present Ahrefs website positioning customers, AEO information will sit in the identical dashboard as their website positioning information.
Pricing: Begins at $199/mo for one platform
In case 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 ideas and content material suggestions. To get CRM-powered ideas which can be customized primarily based on your online business context, improve to Advertising Hub Professional+ or HubSpot for Entrepreneurs.
Subscribers of HubSpot for Entrepreneurs (Advertising 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.
Steadily Requested Questions About HubSpot AEO vs Semrush AI Visibility
Can I exploit HubSpot AEO and Semrush collectively?
Sure, in actual fact, utilizing Semrush for website positioning and HubSpot for AEO is the advisable method. Semrush has deep experience and performance for key phrase analysis, backlink monitoring, and competitor analysis, whereas HubSpot offers the distinctive CRM-connected immediate ideas that assist your online business stand out. The CRM-based immediate ideas can be found just for subscribers of Advertising Hub Skilled/Enterprise or HubSpot for Entrepreneurs.
Alternatively, for those who’re utilizing Semrush for website positioning and don’t wish to pay the extra $99 so as to add its AI Visibility Toolkit, HubSpot AEO is obtainable for buy by itself for simply $50, which brings down your whole value 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 should join your AEO content material to enterprise influence. For this, I like to recommend HubSpot Advertising 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 simplest ways to get cited in AI solutions?
One of the simplest ways to get cited in AI solutions is to be taught reply engine optimization (AEO), which incorporates techniques comparable to creating answer-first content material, enhancing your off-site fame, guaranteeing your website has no technical points, and utilizing a devoted AEO software. For extra particulars, take a look at HubSpot’s AEO information.
When must you prioritize AEO over conventional website positioning work?
First, a caveat: Good AEO depends on a stable website positioning basis. So, when you’ve received a stable website positioning basis in place, prioritize AEO over conventional website positioning you probably have not but optimized your website for reply engines. I like to recommend this as a result of AI search habits is rising quick, and it takes time for AEO content material to compound. So beginning on AEO now will repay sooner or later.
