Clearscope isn’t the only option for content optimization and AI search visibility. Compare 7 alternatives with verified pricing. From AI Peekaboo and Profound to Surfer SEO, Frase, and Ahrefs Brand Radar.
Filipe Lins Duarte
|March 5, 2026|Updated March 20, 2026|21 min read|Tool Alternatives
Clearscope has built a strong reputation as one of the cleaner content optimization tools on the market. Its keyword grading, search intent analysis, and topic recommendations have made it a go-to for content teams trying to rank in Google. More recently, it's expanded into brand visibility tracking and AI search citations, positioning itself as a broader content intelligence platform.
But the price jump from Essentials ($129/mo) to Business ($399/mo) is steep, and the platform still skews toward teams that need content grading above all else. If you need more nuanced AI search visibility tracking, deeper content strategy tools, or something built for agencies managing multiple clients, Clearscope starts to show its limits. This guide covers the 7 best alternatives to Clearscope in 2026, with verified pricing and clear breakdowns of what each tool does better.
Yes (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AIO, Google AI Mode)
Agencies and brands tracking AI search visibility
Surfer SEO
From $99/mo
Yes
Emerging
Teams optimizing content for Google and AI search
Frase
From $39/mo
Yes
Yes (2+ platforms)
Solo creators and teams wanting SEO + GEO in one tool
MarketMuse
Contact for pricing
Yes
No
Content strategists building topical authority
Profound
From $99/mo
No
Yes (ChatGPT; 3 engines on Growth)
Data-driven marketing teams wanting deep AI visibility analytics
Ahrefs Brand Radar
From $199/mo
No
Yes (AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity)
Teams wanting large-scale AI visibility data
Semrush
From $139.95/mo
Yes
No
Teams wanting content optimization inside a full SEO suite
What is Clearscope?
Clearscope is a content optimization platform built around NLP-based keyword grading. You enter a target keyword, and Clearscope analyzes the top-ranking Google results to generate a list of terms your content should include, along with recommended usage frequency. Each piece of content gets a grade (A+ to F) based on how well it covers the topic.
Over time, the platform has expanded: it now includes AI Drafts for content generation, a Content Inventory for monitoring published pages, topic exploration reports, and brand visibility tracking across AI search platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. The Essentials plan runs $129/mo (20 tracked topics, 20 topic explorations, 20 AI drafts, 50 inventory pages), while Business costs $399/mo (50 tracked topics, 300 inventory pages, dedicated account manager).
Clearscope is well-regarded for its accuracy and interface simplicity. Where it starts to lose ground: AI visibility is a secondary feature rather than a core product, pricing for teams with large content inventories adds up quickly, and there's no native content brief workflow or deep topic modeling.
Clearscope core features
Clearscope's feature set is focused squarely on the content optimization and keyword grading workflow. Here's what the platform actually includes and where the limitations start to show.
Content grading: Clearscope's core offering. Enter a target keyword and the platform generates a list of NLP-based terms drawn from the top-ranking Google results. Your content gets a letter grade from A+ down to F based on how well it covers those terms. The grading is widely regarded as accurate and the interface is clean enough that writers can use it without much training.
AI Drafts: Included on all plans, with 20 drafts/month on Essentials and 20 on Business (same cap). Clearscope generates a first-pass article draft based on your keyword and topic recommendations. The drafts are functional but not a substitute for a proper writing workflow, and the monthly cap limits usefulness for high-volume teams.
Topic Explorations: Clearscope's research tool. Instead of grading a single keyword, Topic Explorations gives you a broader map of a subject area, surfacing related terms, questions, and content opportunities. Limited to 20/month on Essentials and 50 on Business.
Content Inventory: Tracks your published pages and monitors them for content decay, keyword grade changes, and optimization opportunities. Capped at 50 pages on Essentials and 300 on Business. For teams with large sites, these limits become a real constraint quickly.
Brand visibility tracking: Added more recently, this feature monitors where your brand is mentioned across AI search platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. It gives a top-level picture of AI citations but lacks the prompt-level granularity, competitor comparison, and white-label reporting that dedicated AI visibility tools provide.
Integrations: Clearscope integrates with Google Docs and WordPress, which covers the majority of content team workflows. There is no native CMS integration beyond those two, and no API access on the standard plans.
The clearest pattern across Clearscope's feature set: the tool is purpose-built for content grading and does that well. Everything else (AI drafts, topic research, brand visibility) feels like additions layered onto the core rather than features built from the ground up. For teams whose primary need is content optimization, that focus is a strength. For teams who need depth in any of those adjacent areas, it creates gaps that the alternatives in this list are built to fill.
AI Peekaboo
Best for: agencies and brands that want dedicated, accurate tracking of how they appear in AI-generated search results
AI Peekaboo was built for AI search visibility from day one. If the reason you're evaluating Clearscope is to understand where and how your brand gets cited in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AIO, and Google AI Mode, AI Peekaboo is a purpose-built alternative that does this at a fraction of the cost.
Where Clearscope's AI tracking gives you a general view of brand mentions, AI Peekaboo runs structured prompts across multiple AI platforms and shows you exactly which sources the LLMs are pulling from, which competitors are appearing instead of you, and how brand sentiment shifts across different AI engines. White-label reporting is included, making it a strong fit for agencies delivering AI visibility insights to clients.
Pricing: From $50/mo. 14-day free trial, no credit card required. Custom pricing for agencies managing 10+ brands.
Key features:
Monitors brand visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AIO, and Google AI Mode
White-label reports with custom branding (included, not an upsell)
Unlimited seats across all plans
Source tracking to see which URLs LLMs cite for your category
Competitor visibility comparison
Pros:
Purpose-built for AI search visibility: not a bolt-on feature, the core product
White-label reporting: agencies can deliver client-ready reports without manual work
Unlimited seats: no per-user pricing that compounds as your team grows
More affordable entry point: starts well below Clearscope's Essentials plan
Cons:
No content optimization: if you need keyword grading and SEO writing guidance, you'll need a second tool
Content creation not in scope: focused on tracking, not drafting or editing
Unlike Clearscope's brand visibility feature, which gives you a broad snapshot of mentions. AI Peekaboo lets you run custom prompts that mirror exactly what your potential customers are searching. You can monitor queries like 'best [your category] tools', 'what does [your brand] do', or 'alternatives to [competitor]' and see precisely how your brand appears in each answer, which sources get cited, and where you're absent from the conversation entirely.
The platform also surfaces competitor visibility side by side. If a competitor is appearing in 70% of AI responses for your core category queries and you're at 20%, that gap becomes the foundation of your optimization strategy. Clearscope's visibility layer doesn't offer that kind of prompt-level, competitor-aware breakdown , it's a general brand mention tracker, not a structured AEO intelligence tool.
For agencies, the combination of white-label reporting and unlimited seats means you can run AI visibility tracking across a full client roster without per-seat fees compounding as accounts grow, a structural cost advantage over both Clearscope and most dedicated AI visibility platforms.
Verdict: If AI search visibility is your primary concern and you want a tool that does it properly rather than as an add-on, AI Peekaboo is the right move. Pair it with a content optimization tool from this list and you have a stronger stack than Clearscope alone.
Surfer SEO
Best for: content teams who need real-time SEO grading while writing, with a growing AI search visibility layer
Surfer SEO is the most direct content optimization competitor to Clearscope. Its Content Score is the benchmark metric for on-page SEO quality, and its Content Editor gives writers real-time feedback on keyword usage, structure, and NLP terms as they draft. Trusted by over 150,000 users, it has more market penetration than any other tool in this category.
What's changed recently is Surfer's push into AI visibility. The platform now includes an AI Tracker (with Gemini support), a Mention Gap feature that shows where competitors appear in AI answers and you don't, and Sentiment Analysis to surface how AI describes your brand. It's not as deep as a dedicated AI visibility tool, but for teams already using Surfer for content, the AI layer is a meaningful addition.
Pricing: From $99/mo. Check surferseo.com/pricing for current plans.
Key features:
Content Editor with real-time Content Score and NLP keyword suggestions
Surfer AI for generating optimized articles from scratch
AI Tracker for monitoring brand mentions in Gemini and other AI platforms
Mention Gap to spot AI visibility gaps vs. competitors
Google Docs, WordPress, and ChatGPT integrations
Auto internal linking
Pros:
Market-leading content optimization: the Content Score is the industry standard for on-page grading
Growing AI visibility features: Mention Gap and Sentiment Analysis add genuine value
Active product development: regular feature updates with a clear roadmap
Stronger brief tools: Outline Builder and AI drafting are more developed than Clearscope's
Cons:
Pricing requires checking the website: not publicly shown on the pricing page
AI visibility is secondary: not as deep as a dedicated tracker
Steeper learning curve: the full platform has more complexity than Clearscope's clean interface
Where Clearscope relies primarily on keyword frequency and topic coverage for its grading, Surfer's Content Score synthesizes over 500 web signals: NLP term usage, content structure, word count benchmarks, heading distribution, image density, and more. This gives a more complete picture of what's needed to rank competitively for a given query, rather than a pass/fail on term inclusion.
The Outline Builder is worth calling out specifically for teams doing heavy content production. Enter a keyword and Surfer generates a recommended article structure , potential H2 and H3 headings drawn from competitor analysis, plus commonly asked questions from search data. Clearscope produces term recommendations; Surfer produces a structural blueprint for the whole article before a single word is written.
Surfer also integrates directly with Google Docs, WordPress, and the ChatGPT plugin, which keeps writers in their existing workflows without needing to copy-paste between tools. Clearscope has similar integrations, but Surfer's Google Docs extension is more widely used and better maintained according to user reviews on G2.
Verdict: For most teams choosing between Clearscope and an alternative for content optimization, Surfer SEO is the first tool to evaluate. More features, a stronger writing workflow, and an evolving AI visibility layer.
Frase
Best for: solo creators and content teams who want SEO research, content optimization, and AI visibility tracking in a single, affordable platform
Frase has evolved from a content brief and research tool into a full content platform that covers SEO research, GEO optimization, AI visibility tracking, site audits, and publishing. For teams looking to replace Clearscope with something broader, Frase is the most feature-dense option per dollar in this list.
The content optimization workflow pulls from SERP data to recommend topics, structure, and terms to include, similar to how Clearscope works. On top of that, Frase tracks AI visibility across 2 to 5 platforms depending on plan, runs automated site audits, handles auto internal linking, and includes API and MCP access. The Starter plan at $39/mo (annual) is the lowest price point in this list for a tool that still delivers meaningful content optimization.
Pricing: Starter $39/mo (billed annually, 1 user, 10 AI-optimized articles/mo, 2 AI platforms tracked). Professional $103/mo (annual, 3 seats, 40 articles/mo, 3 platforms tracked). Scale $239/mo (annual, 5 seats, 100 articles/mo, 5 platforms tracked). Monthly billing available at higher rates.
Key features:
SEO + GEO content optimization with SERP-based recommendations
AI visibility tracking across 2 to 5 platforms (Starter to Scale)
Site audits (50 to 1,000 pages/mo by plan)
Auto internal linking suggestions
AI Agent with 80+ skills for content research and drafting
API and MCP access included on all plans
Brand voice profiles
Pros:
Best value for all-in-one capability: covers content optimization and AI visibility in one tool
Starts at $39/mo: the most accessible paid entry point in this comparison
GEO optimization built in: not just SEO, actively optimizes for AI answer engines
API and MCP access: included on every plan, no upgrade required
Cons:
Newer AI visibility features: less mature than dedicated AI visibility tools
Article limits: monthly article caps can be limiting for high-volume teams
Learning curve: more features means more to configure compared to Clearscope's simplicity
One area where Frase pulls clearly ahead of Clearscope is the research-to-draft pipeline. Frase's SERP research pulls in competitor content automatically, generating a ranked list of questions people are asking, topics competitors are covering, and structural patterns across the top results. You can assemble a brief, draft, and optimize a piece of content inside the same editor without switching tools , something Clearscope doesn't support.
The AI visibility tracking, while newer than Clearscope's, is also more granular on the plans that include it. Frase tracks how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers across multiple platforms, which prompts trigger mentions, and how that's trending over time. For teams on the Professional or Scale plan, having this alongside SEO optimization in one dashboard is a meaningful consolidation.
Verdict: If budget matters and you want one tool that handles both content optimization and basic AI visibility tracking, Frase is the strongest value proposition in this comparison. Agencies and teams already using separate tools for each use case will find the consolidation worthwhile.
MarketMuse
Best for: content strategists and SEO teams building topical authority across large content programs
MarketMuse takes a different approach from Clearscope. Rather than grading individual pieces of content against keyword terms, MarketMuse builds a model of your entire site's topical coverage and identifies where your authority is strong, where it's thin, and which gaps represent your highest-value opportunities. It's a content intelligence platform more than a content grading tool.
For teams with mature content programs, this distinction matters. Clearscope helps you optimize a single piece of content. MarketMuse helps you decide which content to create or update in the first place, and how to build clusters that drive sustained authority. Its Content Briefs, Topic Navigator, and Personalized Difficulty metrics work together to guide strategy rather than just execution.
Pricing: Free plan available (10 queries/month, 1 user). Paid plans (Optimize, Research, Strategy) are not publicly priced , contact MarketMuse directly or check marketmuse.com/pricing for current rates.
Key features:
Site inventory with proprietary metrics (Personalized Difficulty, Topic Authority, Competitive Advantage)
Topic Navigator for mapping content clusters and opportunities
Content Score for individual page optimization
SERP x-ray and heatmap analysis
Pros:
Best-in-class topic modeling: patented technology for understanding topical relationships
Strategic depth: tells you what to create, not just how to optimize it
Personalized Difficulty: shows ranking difficulty based on your specific domain's authority
Comprehensive brief types: 9 structured brief formats for every content type
Cons:
No public pricing: requires contacting sales, which adds friction
Overkill for smaller teams: built for mid-market and enterprise content programs
No AI visibility tracking: focused entirely on Google SEO
Per-user and per-site limits: paid plans cap users (1 to 5) and sites (1)
In practice, a typical MarketMuse workflow looks like this: start with the Site Inventory to understand which published pages have strong topical authority and which are underperforming. Use the Topic Navigator to find content gap clusters where competitors have coverage and you don't. Then run the Optimize application to grade individual pieces of content against MarketMuse's topic model. It's similar to Clearscope's grading, but the recommendations are shaped by your site's specific authority profile rather than generic SERP averages.
The Personalized Difficulty metric is one of MarketMuse's most practical differentiators. Instead of a generic keyword difficulty score, it calculates how hard it is for your specific domain to rank for a topic based on your existing content coverage. A topic that's hard to rank for on a new domain might be relatively achievable for a site that has already built depth in that subject area. Clearscope has no equivalent , it grades content quality without any consideration of your competitive position.
For enterprise teams managing a large site with hundreds of pages, the Content Inventory feature is also genuinely useful. It tracks every published page on your domain, scores each one for topical coverage, and flags pages that are decaying in traffic or falling behind competitors. Clearscope's Content Inventory does something similar at the page level, but MarketMuse's version is more deeply connected to its broader topic modeling system.
Verdict: For content strategists building large-scale SEO programs who need more than keyword grading, MarketMuse is a stronger strategic layer than Clearscope. For smaller teams or those moving into AI search visibility, look elsewhere.
Profound
Best for: data-driven marketing teams and enterprise brands wanting deep, analytics-focused AI search visibility tracking
Profound is a dedicated AI visibility platform built for brands that need rigorous, analytics-grade tracking of how they appear across AI answer engines. While Clearscope added brand visibility as a secondary feature, Profound goes much further: detailed share-of-voice reporting, source citation analysis, competitor benchmarking, and content agents that help you understand and act on what the AI models are pulling from.
It's a serious tool with a serious price point. The Starter plan's restriction to ChatGPT only at $99/mo means you'll need the Growth plan ($399/mo) to get multi-engine coverage, which puts it out of reach for many teams. But for enterprise brands where AI search visibility is a strategic priority, the depth of data justifies the investment.
For a detailed breakdown of how Profound compares, the best alternatives to Profound covers the full competitive landscape.
AI search visibility tracking across ChatGPT (Starter), Perplexity, and Google AI (Growth+)
Share-of-voice and citation analysis
Competitor benchmarking across AI platforms
Content agents to identify and act on visibility opportunities
Detailed prompt-level reporting
SOC 2 compliance for enterprise security requirements
Pros:
Enterprise-grade depth: more granular tracking and reporting than Clearscope's AI features
Content agents included on Growth: helps teams turn visibility data into optimization actions
Rigorous analytics: built for teams who need to report on AI visibility at scale
Strong security posture: SOC 2 compliance for enterprise requirements
Cons:
Starter plan is severely limited: ChatGPT only at $99/mo is hard to justify for most teams
Growth plan at $399/mo is steep: same price as Clearscope Business, but no content optimization
Not a content tool: no keyword grading, SEO writing assistance, or content inventory
Requires a separate content optimization tool alongside it
One feature that sets Profound apart from Clearscope's AI tracking is its Content Agents. On Growth plans, the platform doesn't just show you where you're appearing , it actively suggests the types of content and structural changes most likely to increase your citations in AI answers. That feedback loop between visibility data and content action is something Clearscope hasn't built. Clearscope tells you how to write for Google; Profound (on Growth) is starting to tell you how to write for AI.
The main practical limitation is the Starter plan. At $99/mo, ChatGPT-only tracking is too narrow for most teams who need a full picture of where they appear across the AI search landscape. You're effectively paying Clearscope Business pricing for less engine coverage than what AI Peekaboo offers at $50/mo. Profound's real value proposition kicks in at Growth ($399/mo), and that's a different budget conversation entirely.
Verdict: Profound is the right choice when you need AI visibility data at depth and your team has the budget for enterprise-grade analytics. For most teams, AI Peekaboo delivers the essential AI visibility tracking at a far more accessible price, while Profound is the step up for those who need the extra layer of reporting rigor.
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Best for: teams wanting large-scale, multi-channel AI visibility data backed by the largest prompt database in the category
Ahrefs Brand Radar is the AI visibility product from Ahrefs, and it arrives with a data advantage few competitors can match: over 213 million monthly prompts across AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity. Beyond AI search, it also tracks brand mentions across YouTube and Reddit, making it the broadest-coverage option in this list.
Where Brand Radar falls short is on the actionability side. It's a measurement tool, not an optimization platform. It tells you how often you're mentioned and where, but it stops short of explaining why or what to do about it. There's no sentiment analysis, no prompt-level recommendations, and no content guidance. Teams serious about improving their AI visibility will find themselves needing a second tool alongside it.
Pricing: Single AI platform: $199/mo per index. All AI platforms: $699/mo. Custom prompt packages from $50/mo. Available as a standalone tool or as part of a full Ahrefs plan.
Key features:
213M+ monthly prompts covering AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Perplexity
AI Share of Voice metric showing brand mention percentage vs. competitors
Branded search volume tracking (Search Demand)
Web visibility across publications and domains
YouTube and Reddit brand mention tracking
Custom prompt tracking packages (from $50/mo)
Zero setup, instant search across the full database
Pros:
Largest AI visibility dataset: no other tool in this comparison comes close on raw prompt volume
Multi-channel reach: AI search, YouTube, Reddit, and soon TikTok in one platform
Standalone option: available without a full Ahrefs subscription
Zero setup: search any brand instantly, no configuration required
Cons:
No optimization guidance: measures visibility only, no recommendations for improvement
Expensive for full coverage: $699/mo for all AI platforms is the highest price in this list
Snapshot-based methodology: can underreport fast-changing AI responses in ChatGPT and Perplexity
No content integration: completely separate from any writing, grading, or content workflow
Verdict: Ahrefs Brand Radar makes sense for enterprise teams and agencies that need breadth of data across multiple channels. For teams that want actionable AI visibility insights without the overhead, AI Peekaboo delivers more targeted tracking at a fraction of the cost.
Semrush
Best for: teams already using Semrush for SEO who want content optimization integrated into their existing stack
Semrush isn't a direct Clearscope competitor in the traditional sense. It's a full-stack SEO platform that includes content optimization as one component of a much larger toolkit. But for teams already paying for Semrush (and particularly those on Guru or above), the SEO Writing Assistant and Topic Research tool cover the same core use case as Clearscope: analyzing target keywords and guiding content to match what top-ranking pages include.
The SEO Writing Assistant scores content in real-time across four dimensions (readability, SEO, tone of voice, and originality) and integrates directly into Google Docs and WordPress. Topic Research surfaces content ideas and related questions based on keyword clusters.
Pricing: Pro $139.95/mo (1 user). Guru $249.95/mo (3 users, includes SEO Writing Assistant). Business $499.95/mo. Annual billing discounts apply.
Key features:
SEO Writing Assistant with real-time scoring (SEO, readability, tone, originality)
Topic Research for content idea generation
ContentShake AI for AI-assisted drafting (Guru+)
On-Page SEO Checker for existing content
Google Docs and WordPress integration
Full backlink, keyword, and site audit suite
Pros:
All-in-one SEO platform: content optimization is part of a broader research and analytics suite
No additional cost if already on Guru: built into plans many teams already have
Google Docs integration: writers can stay in their existing workflow
Extensive data depth: combines content grading with keyword difficulty, backlink data, and competitor analysis
Cons:
Expensive for content optimization alone: Guru at $249.95/mo is steep if content is the only use case
No dedicated AI visibility tracking: not built for monitoring how brands appear in ChatGPT or Gemini
Writing Assistant is secondary: core Semrush users are often keyword researchers, not content writers
Verdict: If you're already a Semrush customer on Guru or above, there's a good case for dropping Clearscope and using the built-in content tools instead. If you're not already in the Semrush ecosystem, the cost-to-value ratio for content optimization alone doesn't justify the switch.
Which Clearscope alternative is right for you?
The answer depends on what you actually need.
If Clearscope's AI visibility tracking is the feature drawing you in, AI Peekaboo does it better, more specifically, and for less. If you want enterprise-grade AI visibility analytics, Profound goes deeper, and if you need broad, multi-channel data at scale, Ahrefs Brand Radar has the largest prompt database in the market. For pure content optimization, Surfer SEO is the strongest all-round option, while Frase combines content grading with basic AI visibility tracking at a lower entry price.
For content strategists building large topical programs, MarketMuse offers strategic depth Clearscope doesn't touch. And if you're already deep in the Semrush ecosystem, the upgrade to Guru may make more sense than maintaining a separate Clearscope subscription.
Clearscope is a solid tool. But if it's not quite right, the alternatives above cover every angle it doesn't.
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Filipe Lins Duarte
I'm Filipe, the CEO & Co-Founder of Peekaboo. I lead all commercial and customer facing functions here at the company. I am obsessed about making sure our customers are heard and have a great experience with us!
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