On June 3, 2026, Sitecore announced it had acquired Scrunch, one of the better-known AI visibility platforms. Bloomberg reported the price at about $225 million, though Sitecore hasn’t disclosed the terms. Sitecore has said it plans to combine Scrunch’s capabilities with its own enterprise content and digital experience platform.
For Sitecore customers, that’s good news. For everyone else, it raises a fair question: will a standalone AI visibility tool stay a priority inside a much larger enterprise software company? Scrunch’s own packaging hasn’t settled that question. It cycled through several plan names and layouts in 2026, at one point showing different pricing to different visitors.
None of that makes Scrunch a bad product. It does make this a sensible time to know your options. This guide covers what Scrunch does well, what you’d give up by switching, and seven alternatives with published pricing.
The short answer
If you use Scrunch alongside Sitecore, staying is probably your best option. If you don’t, the strongest alternatives are Eclincher AI Visibility ($249 per month, billed monthly) for teams that want to act on the gaps they find, AthenaHQ for the widest engine coverage, Peec AI for clean analytics at $95 per month, and Otterly.AI for the lowest-cost start at $29 per month. Semrush and Ahrefs suit teams already using their suites.
What Scrunch does well
It’s worth being clear about Scrunch’s strengths, because they’re what you’d be giving up.
Scrunch Core costs $250 per month for one brand, 125 prompts, five seats, and four engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. Agency Core is $500 per month, and Enterprise is custom, covering nine engines including Grok. There’s a seven-day trial that converts to a paid plan, and no free tier.
Beyond tracking, Scrunch stands out in three areas:
- AI crawler analytics. It shows which AI bots visit your site and what they read, which most trackers don’t.
- Its Agent Experience Platform. This serves AI crawlers a machine-readable version of your site at the CDN layer, aiming to improve how agents read and cite your pages. It’s a genuinely unusual capability.
- Page audits and persona-based prompts. You can track prompts from the perspective of different buyer types and audit individual pages.
The most common criticism from reviewers is that Scrunch is strong at diagnosis but its action layer stops at the pages you own, and that there’s no plan below $250 per month.
What you’d give up, and what replaces it
Before comparing tools, decide which Scrunch capabilities you actually use. That narrows the list quickly.
If the Agent Experience Platform is central to your setup, be honest with yourself about that. None of the alternatives below replicate it, and it may outweigh any concern about the acquisition.
The 7 best Scrunch AI alternatives
1. Eclincher AI Visibility: for teams that want to fix the gaps
Eclincher AI Visibility tracks how often your brand is mentioned and cited across AI engines compared with your competitors, organized by topic, and its Prompt Gaps view shows the questions where competitors appear and you don’t. The difference from Scrunch is what happens next. Eclincher also offers an AI Blog Writer to create the content those gaps call for, AI Local SEO for location-based businesses, and a full social media management platform, so you can act on the data in one place. It’s independent and focused on AI visibility as a core product.
The Standard plan is $249 per month, billed monthly, for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, with 100 prompts and 3,000 responses a month. Enterprise covers all 11 major engines.
The honest trade-off: at nearly the same price, Scrunch Core tracks more prompts (125 versus 100) and four engines, including Google AI Overviews and Copilot, versus three. If engine count and prompt volume matter most, Scrunch Core gives you more at that price. Eclincher wins if you want to act on what you find.
2. AthenaHQ: for the widest engine coverage
AthenaHQ’s Starter plan at $295 per month covers eleven engines, including Claude and Grok, with unlimited seats, and its free Essential tier includes $25 of credit across five engines. Pricing is credit-based, with one credit per AI response.
Trade-off: credit-based pricing takes some planning, and API access is a paid add-on on Starter.
3. Peec AI: for clean analytics at a lower price
Peec AI starts at $95 per month, or $80 billed annually, for 50 prompts across three engines you choose from seven, with unlimited users. Higher tiers are $245 and $495 per month.
Trade-off: Peec is report-only, and extra engines cost more.
4. Otterly.AI: for the lowest-cost start
Otterly.AI’s Lite plan is $29 per month for 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot. Its Standard plan at $189 per month adds 100 prompts, API access, and agent analytics, making it one of the few affordable options with any view into AI crawler activity. Seats are unlimited on every plan.
Trade-off: Gemini, Google AI Mode, and Claude are paid add-ons.
5. Promptwatch: for a flat mid-market plan
Promptwatch offers a flat $95 per month plan covering four engines you choose. It’s a smaller, newer vendor, so use a trial to test feature depth.
6. Semrush AI Visibility: if you already use Semrush
AI visibility tracking inside Semrush costs $99 per month per domain. It’s the natural choice if your team already works in Semrush, though costs grow as you add domains.
7. Ahrefs Brand Radar: if you already use Ahrefs
Ahrefs Brand Radar adds AI brand visibility to the Ahrefs suite from $398 per month. It makes the most sense for existing Ahrefs customers.
Scrunch alternatives at a glance
Prices checked against vendor pages and third-party reviews between August and October 2026. Scrunch’s packaging changed several times in 2026, so confirm current pricing on each vendor’s site before you buy.
Should you stay with Scrunch?
Stay if you’re a Sitecore customer, since the acquisition will likely make Scrunch more tightly integrated with the platform you already use. Stay if the Agent Experience Platform or crawler analytics are central to how you work, because no alternative here matches them directly.
If you’re not on Sitecore and you’re about to sign or renew an annual contract, ask Scrunch for a written commitment on the standalone product’s roadmap and pricing. Reviewers have suggested exactly this, and it’s a reasonable request after an acquisition.
How to choose
Run your top two options side by side for a week with the same prompts, ideally the ones you already track in Scrunch, so the comparison is apples to apples. Look at which tool gives you data you’d actually act on, not just the longest list of engines. For background on the metrics these tools report, our guide to what AI visibility is covers mentions, citations, share of voice, and how to measure them properly.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Scrunch AI?
Sitecore, the enterprise digital experience platform company, announced its acquisition of Scrunch on June 3, 2026. Bloomberg reported the price at about $225 million, though Sitecore hasn’t disclosed the terms. Sitecore plans to combine Scrunch’s capabilities with its own platform.
How much does Scrunch AI cost?
As of September 2026, Scrunch Core costs $250 per month for one brand, 125 prompts, five seats, and four engines. Agency Core is $500 per month, and Enterprise is custom. Scrunch’s plan names and prices changed several times in 2026, so confirm on its pricing page.
What is the best Scrunch AI alternative?
It depends on what you use Scrunch for. Eclincher AI Visibility suits teams that want to act on the gaps they find, AthenaHQ offers the widest engine coverage, Peec AI offers clean analytics at $95 per month, and Otterly.AI is the cheapest start at $29 per month.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Scrunch?
Yes. Otterly.AI starts at $29 per month, Peec AI and Promptwatch at $95 per month, and AthenaHQ has a free tier. Eclincher AI Visibility’s Standard plan is $249 per month, billed monthly, which is roughly the same price as Scrunch Core.
Does any alternative match Scrunch’s Agent Experience Platform?
Not directly. Scrunch’s Agent Experience Platform, which serves AI crawlers a machine-readable version of your site, is unusual in the category. If it’s central to your setup, that’s a strong reason to stay, especially if you also use Sitecore.
Should I switch from Scrunch after the Sitecore acquisition?
Not automatically. Sitecore customers will likely benefit from tighter integration. If you don’t use Sitecore and you’re approaching an annual renewal, ask Scrunch for a written commitment on the standalone roadmap, and compare alternatives with a side-by-side trial before deciding.
The bottom line
The Sitecore acquisition doesn’t make Scrunch a worse product, but it does change who it’s most likely to be built for. If you’re on Sitecore or rely on the Agent Experience Platform, stay and get your roadmap questions answered in writing. If you’re not, and you want independent tracking, there are strong published options: AthenaHQ for coverage, Peec AI and Otterly.AI for price, and Eclincher AI Visibility for turning the gaps you find into content and fixes.
To see how AI engines talk about your brand right now, run a free AEO check.
