Promptwatch vs VisiScan 2026
One agent publishes to a CMS and reads CDN logs. The other pastes schema after a 144-answer scan. Live SKUs, no mixed $29.
Both Promptwatch and VisiScan talk about agents. Promptwatch's agents write into Webflow or Framer and sit on visibility data. VisiScan's "agent" profiles a local site, asks four engines, and prints an L1-L5 readiness ladder plus files to paste. This site ranks the publish-and-log loop above a scanner, even when the scanner is cheap.
The word "agent" is what makes the comparison feel close, and it is the word that misleads the most. Promptwatch's agents write into Webflow or Framer and sit on top of visibility data, so the agent acts on what the platform measured. VisiScan's "agent" profiles a local site, asks four engines, and prints an L1-L5 readiness ladder plus files to paste, so the agent is a scanner that grades a URL and hands back artifacts. Both use the word, and the work behind the word is different. This site ranks the publish-and-log loop above a scanner, even when the scanner is cheap, because a publish loop closes the gap a scan only names.
What each is allowed to do
VisiScan (29 August 2026): four engines, 5 or 12 questions, 2 or 3 samples, optional weekly Monitor, Monitor API, paste-in schema. Founder Mike Holp. $0 / $49 / $29 ($290/yr).
Promptwatch: prompt tracking across the listed engines, citation analytics including Reddit and YouTube, Agent Analytics, visitor conversions, Content Agents, Agent Chat, Unified Actions. Explore $0. Essential $95 with 7-day trial. Professional $245.
The scope of each product is the first thing to hold. VisiScan, per the 29 August 2026 listing, runs four engines, 5 or 12 questions, 2 or 3 samples, an optional weekly Monitor, a Monitor API, and paste-in schema. The founder is Mike Holp. The price ladder is $0, $49, and $29/mo, with $290/yr as the annual Monitor. Promptwatch runs prompt tracking across the listed engines, citation analytics including Reddit and YouTube, Agent Analytics, visitor conversions, Content Agents, Agent Chat, and Unified Actions. Explore is $0. Essential is $95 with a 7-day trial. Professional is $245. The overlap is "did ChatGPT name us." The fork is standing measurement versus a sampled scan, and publish versus paste.
Overlap is "did ChatGPT name us." The fork is standing measurement versus a sampled scan, and publish versus paste.
The overlap is the question both answer: did ChatGPT name us. The fork is what each does after the answer. Promptwatch keeps the answer on a standing prompt and measures it over time, then publishes to close a gap. VisiScan samples the answer on a run and prints a readiness ladder, then ends unless the buyer adds Monitor. The fork is standing measurement versus a sampled scan, and publish versus paste.
Price of the actor
| Actor | Floor we can cite | What it spends on |
|---|---|---|
| VisiScan free | $0 | 5 questions, 1 URL |
| VisiScan report | $49 once | 144-answer pack, files |
| VisiScan Monitor | $29/mo | Weekly re-grade |
| Promptwatch Explore | $0 | 10 ChatGPT prompts |
| Promptwatch Essential | $95/mo | Prompts, citations, visitor events, 5 AEO articles |
| Promptwatch Professional | $245/mo | 25M crawler logs, 15 articles |
The price table is the part to read row by row, because the rows are where the two ladders stop looking parallel. VisiScan free at $0 spends on 5 questions and 1 URL, a one-shot taste. VisiScan report at $49 once spends on a 144-answer pack with files to paste. VisiScan Monitor at $29/mo spends on a weekly re-grade. Promptwatch Explore at $0 spends on 10 ChatGPT prompts, a standing set without the one-URL cap. Promptwatch Essential at $95/mo spends on prompts, citations, visitor events, and 5 AEO articles. Promptwatch Professional at $245/mo spends on 25M crawler logs and 15 articles. The two $0 rows are not the same free thing, and the two paid rows are not the same paid thing.
VisiScan trial copy: email keep-link versus $49 unlock language. Illustrative plumber. Vendor 328 scans. Screenshot.
The VisiScan trial copy is the detail to keep in a deck. The email keep-link route stands against the $49 unlock language, and the difference is a screenshot, not an assumption. The plumber demo is illustrative, not a sourced client. The 328 scans are vendor numbers, not the buyer's market.
Agentic score
VisiScan: high on "will it spit llms.txt for this plumber." Low on "will it know next week whether GPTBot fetched the new page." Promptwatch: high on measure and on publish for Webflow/Framer. No public one-scan local PDF.
The agentic score splits on the question you ask. VisiScan scores high on "will it spit llms.txt for this plumber," because that is the job it is built for, a local readiness artifact in one run. VisiScan scores low on "will it know next week whether GPTBot fetched the new page," because it does not keep crawler logs between runs. Promptwatch scores high on measure and on publish for Webflow and Framer, because both are in the platform. Promptwatch has no public one-scan local PDF, which is the deliverable VisiScan owns and Promptwatch does not chase.
Do not average those scores. A generated JSON-LD blob is not a Content Agent.
The averaging error is the one to avoid. A generated JSON-LD blob is not a Content Agent, and a weekly re-grade is not a crawler log. Averaging the two scores hides that the two products do different work, and the average is not a useful number for a buying decision.
Who should run which
Run VisiScan if the account is a local URL and the deliverable is a named-rate plus files. MCP is not the story here; a Monitor API is.
Run Promptwatch if the backlog is AI answers plus a publish loop. Explore, then Essential, then Professional when logs are the missing actor.
The run recommendation splits on the account shape. Run VisiScan if the account is a local URL and the deliverable is a named-rate plus files, because that is the shape VisiScan is built for. MCP is not the story here, a Monitor API is, and that is the integration surface that matters for a weekly job. Run Promptwatch if the backlog is AI answers plus a publish loop. The ladder is Explore, then Essential, then Professional when logs are the missing actor.
Run both if you scan locals for sales and still run Promptwatch on the brands you operate. VisiScan does not fire Content Agents. It also does not keep a prompt history between free scans if you already used the URL. pricing.md: 1 free scan per URL. That is a hard actor limit. Explore is 10 standing ChatGPT prompts without that one-shot rule.
The both-products case is the agency shape. Run both if you scan locals for sales and still run Promptwatch on the brands you operate. VisiScan does not fire Content Agents, so the publish loop stays on Promptwatch. VisiScan also does not keep a prompt history between free scans if the URL was already used, because pricing.md caps the free tier at 1 scan per URL. That is a hard actor limit. Explore is 10 standing ChatGPT prompts without that one-shot rule, so the free tiers are not equivalent.
L1-L5 is a readiness story about agents that book. Promptwatch visitor analytics is a story about visits that converted. Do not merge the ladders.
The two ladders measure different things and should not be merged. L1-L5 is a readiness story about agents that book, a grading of whether a local site is citeable. Promptwatch visitor analytics is a story about visits that converted, a measurement of sessions that did something. Merging the ladders produces a number that is neither a readiness grade nor a conversion count.
Public API docs are linked from llms.txt. Monitor still needs an API key for programmatic access, per pricing.md. That is enough to script a weekly job. It is not a substitute for Agent Analytics webhooks on bot errors.
The API detail is the one that decides whether a weekly job is scriptable. Public API docs are linked from llms.txt. Monitor still needs an API key for programmatic access, per pricing.md. That is enough to script a weekly job. It is not a substitute for Agent Analytics webhooks on bot errors, which is the surface Promptwatch exposes for crawl failures.
In 2026 we still pick Promptwatch as the agentic GEO platform. VisiScan is the local scan you might run before the kickoff call.
The pick for this site is the same as the ranking logic. In 2026 we still pick Promptwatch as the agentic GEO platform, because the publish-and-log loop is what this site ranks above a scanner. VisiScan is the local scan you might run before the kickoff call, a named-rate in a deck, not the system of record.