The Ranking Factory vs Ahrefs Brand Radar

· The Ranking Factory

Ahrefs Brand Radar suits teams that want an index-based read on any brand's visibility in AI answers, YouTube and Reddit without setting anything up, and that already work in Ahrefs. The Ranking Factory suits teams that want the gaps closed as well as measured: evidence written from the business's own material and published on its own site, on a flat plan from $49 a month.

Every fact about Brand Radar on this page was read from Ahrefs' own pages on 29 September 2026; the pages are linked in the text and listed under Sources. Each price carries the currency the page showed.

At a glance

FeatureThe Ranking FactoryAhrefs Brand Radar
What it doesAsks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Grok and DeepSeek the questions buyers ask and reads Google's AI Overviews as a separate surface. Where the answers name competitors instead of the business, it writes the missing evidence from the business's own material, publishes it on the business's own site once that is connected, and measures again.Tracks a brand's visibility across AI answers, YouTube and Reddit, built on Ahrefs' web index. Writing tools are separate products.
Entry price, as shown 29 Sep 2026Starter $49 a month, Growth $129, Agency $249, Enterprise $499 (US dollars). Annual plans are ten months for twelve. AI queries run on your own AI keys, and Google AI Overview checks on your own DataForSEO credit (default budget $10 a month on Starter).Platform indexes: $199 a month for one AI platform or $699 a month for all platforms (US dollars). Custom prompts alone from $50 a month, and a monthly custom-prompt allowance comes with paid Ahrefs plans from Lite. The main pricing page shows "Get started from £159/mo" (pounds, as shown to a UK connection).
Engines covered3 of 6 engines per run: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Grok and DeepSeek, whichever you connect on your own keys, plus Google AI Overviews as a separate surface. Google's own AI Overview and AI Mode impressions can be imported from a Search Console export.AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot; Claude for custom prompts only. Grok is listed, and Ahrefs says it is temporarily unable to gather new data.
Publishes content for youYes. Pages written from the business's own material go to its own site once connected (WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Ghost or a signed webhook), with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Blogger as supporting pieces and a video on its own YouTube channel. Publishing is on by default; review-before-publishing is a setting.Brand Radar measures. Separate products write: AI Content Helper, and Letaido ($99 a month), which drafts content and delivers work to Notion, Slack, HubSpot and WordPress.
Agent access (MCP)Read and write on every plan, the trial included. Writes stay off until you tick a box; five write tools, capped at 30 writes an hour, every attempt audited.Ahrefs MCP on the Lite, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise plans; Brand Radar data can be pulled through MCP or the API.
Trial14 days on the Growth monthly plan. Card details are taken at sign-up and nothing is charged for 14 days; then $129 a month unless you cancel. The free site check needs no account, card or AI keys.No trial is stated for Brand Radar. Ahrefs Free gives limited Site Explorer and Site Audit; custom prompts are free with paid Lite plans and above; a free AI Visibility Checker is on the site.
Who it is forAgencies, consultants and in-house teams.Teams that want to check any brand, competitor or prospect without connecting anything; no cap on brands or domains analysed for AI visibility.

Sources: Ahrefs' Brand Radar page, index page, pricing page and help article, read 29 Sep 2026; The Ranking Factory's pricing page, in US dollars.

Where Ahrefs Brand Radar is stronger

  • Read on any brand without setup. Brand Radar's index holds hundreds of millions of prompts modelled from real searches, so a brand, competitor or prospect can be checked without connecting anything (Brand Radar page, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory's first visibility run comes after the business is confirmed and an AI key is added.
  • Platforms. Indexes cover AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, and Claude is available for custom prompts (help article, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory does not list Copilot and does not measure AI Mode as a surface.
  • How answers are collected. Ahrefs takes People Also Ask questions from its keyword index and enters them into the web version of each AI chatbot on its default model (help article, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory's scores come from the engines' APIs.
  • Neighbouring channels. YouTube and Reddit indexes, TikTok in beta, search demand and web visibility (help article, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory does not offer YouTube, Reddit or TikTok visibility indexes.
  • Data access. API and MCP access come with paid Ahrefs plans from Lite, and pulling custom-prompt data by API uses no API units (pricing page, custom prompts help article, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory reaches your data through its MCP server.

Where The Ranking Factory differs

  • Action after measuring. Brand Radar measures. Writing sits in separate products: AI Content Helper, and Letaido at $99 a month, which drafts content and delivers work to Notion, Slack, HubSpot and WordPress (pricing blog, Letaido page, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory writes and publishes the evidence inside the plan.
  • Refresh. Ahrefs' chatbot indexes refresh once a month, its AI Overviews index every few days, and custom prompts can be checked daily (help article, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory's Evidence Engine runs on demand on Starter and every 6, 4 or 3 hours on Growth, Agency and Enterprise. One is an index refresh, the other a work cycle.
  • Price basis. The index costs $199 a month per AI platform or $699 a month for all, and custom-prompt packages start at $50 a month for 2,500 checks (US dollars; index page, custom prompts help article, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory is a flat plan in US dollars; the engines run on your own AI keys, and Google AI Overview checks on your own DataForSEO credit. For scale, on our own account in September 2026 a weekly run of 10 questions on two or three engines with live search cost $0.55 on average and $1.09 at most, about $2.40 a month per project; writing costs extra and varies with how much is written.
  • Impressions. Ahrefs reports Estimated Impressions, weighted by the search volume behind each prompt (Brand Radar page, 29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory buys no keyword-volume database and estimates no volume; its numbers say what the engines say when asked, not how often real people see the business.
  • Ranges and sample sizes. Ahrefs' Brand Radar page lists mentions, citations, AI share of voice and estimated impressions, and does not describe ranges or sample sizes there (29 Sep 2026). The Ranking Factory reports every rate with a 95% range and the number of prompt-and-engine pairs behind it.

From our own account, read on 20 September 2026: 32% → 84% of Gemini’s live-search answers cited therankingfactory.com — 6 of 19 on 15 August 2026, 16 of 19 on 24 August 2026, nine days apart on the same model and the same prompt set. In the same 24 August run OpenAI’s live search cited us in 64% of answers (16 of 25) and Perplexity in 40% (10 of 25). Some prompts carry our name, and the run says which. (Home page, "Measured on ourselves".)

Which to choose

  • Choose Ahrefs Brand Radar if you want to read any brand or competitor across AI platforms, YouTube and Reddit without setup, and you already use Ahrefs, where API and MCP access come with paid plans from Lite.
  • Choose Ahrefs Brand Radar if you need Copilot or AI Mode covered in an index.
  • Choose The Ranking Factory if you want the gaps closed: pages written from your own material, published on your own site, and measured again, with a range beside every rate.
  • Choose The Ranking Factory if you prefer one plan price that covers measuring and writing.
  • Not sure yet? The free site check reads one web address and needs no account, card or AI keys.

Sources