MarketMuse and Clearscope Alternatives: How Surfer and Frase Compare on AI Visibility

MarketMuse and Clearscope are content optimization tools for planning, writing and scoring content for search, and this article compares them with two alternatives, Surfer and Frase. Clearscope, Surfer and Frase now also sell tracking of how AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mention a brand, so a tech company choosing a tool can check where it appears in AI answers as well as how its pages score for Google. This comparison uses only what each vendor publishes on its own website, checked in October 2026. A note on independence: williamreviews.com is the personal site of William Gyltman, co-founder and CMO of Rankad.ai, the company behind the AI visibility product Citera (rankad.ai now redirects to Citera's website). Citera is not in the table, and it is described separately further down.

How do MarketMuse, Clearscope, Surfer and Frase compare?

The four tools overlap on content research and optimization but differ clearly on AI visibility and on pricing. Clearscope, Surfer and Frase each sell tracking of how a brand shows up in AI answers, while MarketMuse's home and pricing pages describe content planning and optimization without that feature. Clearscope, Surfer and Frase publish their prices; MarketMuse shows a free plan and asks you to book a demo for the paid ones.

The table summarises each vendor's own description of its product. It does not rate quality, accuracy or ease of use, because none of that can be judged fairly from a feature list. Prices are in US dollars, and plan contents change often, so check the vendor's pricing page before you buy.

| Feature | MarketMuse | Clearscope | Surfer | Frase | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Published entry price | Free plan (1 user, 10 queries/month); paid plans show Book a demo instead of a price | Essentials $129/month | Discovery $49/month billed yearly | Starter $39/month billed yearly or $49 month to month | | Tracking of brand mentions in AI answers | Not listed on its home or pricing page | Query Tracking across ChatGPT and Gemini in every plan | AI Tracker from 25 prompts (Standard) to 100 prompts (Peace of Mind); none on Discovery | AI Visibility on every plan: ChatGPT and Google AI on Starter, more engines on higher plans | | Topic research and planning | Content inventory, topic authority, personalized difficulty and content plans | Query Discovery from a topic or URL; 20 monthly Topic Explorations on Essentials | Topical Map, keyword research and SERP Analyzer | SEO research that ends in a brief, topic clusters and an opportunity report | | Writing support | Content briefs (5 to 20 per month on paid plans); says it does not write content for customers | AI drafting and editing; 20 monthly Drafts | Content Editor with Content Score and the Surfy AI writing assistant | AI Agent drafts in your brand voice; 10 articles a month on Starter | | Monitoring published pages | Inventory of your pages and topics, updated on a regular basis | Content analytics for a whole site or single pages | Content Audit with ranking drop alerts | Content Guard watches 10 pages on Starter for Google decay | | Publishing and integrations | Says it does not act like or replace a CMS | WordPress plugin, Google Docs add-on, Google Search Console | WordPress, Google Docs, Contentful and Zapier | Publishes to WordPress, Webflow, Sanity or Wix, or hosts on FraseCMS | | Trial or free option | Free plan | 14 day free trial | Start for Free button on each plan; trial terms not stated on the pricing page | 7-day free trial, no credit card |

What stands out in the comparison?

MarketMuse is the only one of the four whose home and pricing pages do not list tracking of brand mentions in AI answers.
Clearscope includes Query Tracking for ChatGPT and Gemini in every plan, from Essentials at $129/month.
Surfer's cheapest plan, Discovery at $49/month billed yearly, has no AI prompt tracking; tracking starts with Standard or the separate AI Search Analytics plan.
Frase has the lowest published price for a paid plan, $39/month billed yearly, and its Starter plan already tracks ChatGPT and Google AI.
Clearscope allows unlimited users on every plan, while Frase Starter is limited to 1 seat and 1 site.

What does AI visibility mean in a content tool?

In these tools, AI visibility means checking whether, and how, AI assistants mention your brand when they answer the questions your buyers ask. It is a different job from classic content optimization, which scores a page against what already ranks on Google.

The vendors describe the feature in similar terms. Clearscope says its Query Tracking lets you track specific queries across ChatGPT and Gemini to see when and how your brand gets mentioned, and to monitor changes over time as AI answers evolve. Surfer's AI Search Analytics plan is described as tracking your brand's visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews and other AI models. Frase says its AI Visibility feature tracks where you show up across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI on a daily cadence and alerts you when your share of voice moves.

The unit these tools count is the prompt or query: a question you choose to monitor. Frase gives the example "best telehealth platform". For a B2B software company, the useful prompts are the ones a buyer would type before a shortlist exists, such as a question about tools for a specific problem, in a specific country or for a specific team size. The number of prompts in a plan, how often they are re-checked and which AI engines are covered decide how much of that picture you actually see.

Some tools go a step further. Clearscope's pricing page lists query fan-out awareness, described as showing the web searches AI platforms trigger to build their answers, so you can write content that earns a place in those responses. Surfer lists Mention Gap and Brand Sentiments. Frase scores each page for search and for AI readiness. These are the vendors' own descriptions; none of them publishes an independent test of how accurate its tracking is.

What should an AI visibility tracker show you?

Which AI engines are checked, for example ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude or Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode.
How many prompts the plan includes and how often they are refreshed: daily, weekly or less often.
Whether your brand is mentioned, and which competitors are mentioned instead.
How long the history is kept, so you can see change over months rather than a single snapshot.
What the tool does with the result: only reports it, or also suggests or drafts content changes.

What are the key features of MarketMuse?

MarketMuse is a content planning and optimization platform. In its own words, its AI-powered software tells you what content to write, and how much, to build on the authority your site already has.

Its core is a content inventory. MarketMuse says its patented AI analyzes your entire content inventory, pinpoints high-value topic clusters and finds quick wins based on your existing authority, and that it keeps the inventory of your pages and topics updated without manual uploads. On top of that inventory it calculates its own metrics: Personalized Difficulty, a score from 1 to 100 for how hard a topic is for your site specifically, plus Topic Authority, Competitive Advantage, Content Score and Page Authority. It also says it locates gaps in competitors' content and shows the topics they have missed.

For writing, MarketMuse offers content briefs. The paid plans include 5, 10 or 20 briefs a month, and the Strategy plan has access to all nine brief types: Article, Comparison, FAQ Collection, Guide, How-to, Listicle, Local, News/Event and Product Review. Its Optimize application has a generative AI component, but the company states plainly that it does not write content for customers and that it does not act like or replace a CMS. The Strategy tier is described as a team solution where you can assign content to team members, track progress and due dates.

On price, MarketMuse publishes a Free plan with 1 user and 10 queries a month, but the Optimize, Research and Strategy plans show a Book a demo button instead of a price. The company describes Strategy as ideal for agencies and for teams at mid-market and enterprise companies. Its home and pricing pages do not mention tracking how AI assistants mention your brand, so a team that needs that would have to ask MarketMuse directly or pair it with another tool.

What are the key details to consider?

MarketMuse builds an inventory of your existing pages and scores topics against your own site's authority.
Paid plans include 5 to 20 content briefs a month, with nine brief types on Strategy.
Paid prices are not published; the pricing page asks you to book a demo.
AI answer tracking is not listed on its home or pricing page.
MarketMuse says it does not write content for customers and does not replace a CMS.

What does Clearscope offer compared with MarketMuse?

Clearscope covers research, drafting, optimization and monitoring, and it adds tracking of AI answers to every plan. Unlike MarketMuse, it publishes its prices: Essentials costs $129/month and Business $399/month, with a 14 day free trial and no contracts.

For research, Clearscope's Query Discovery lets you enter a topic or a website URL and surfaces the queries that drive traffic and attention across Google, Gemini, GPT and Claude. For writing, it offers an AI drafting and editing workflow and term suggestions to guide the text, with collaboration for the team. For published content, it says it provides content analytics for your entire site or for individual pages, with pre-built or custom views. Its product menu also lists internal linking suggestions and a Localize module for locally focused content.

On AI visibility, every Clearscope plan includes Query Tracking, brand visibility tracking and query fan-out awareness. The pricing page describes Query Tracking for ChatGPT and Gemini, and the home page also names Claude. The plans differ mainly in volume: Essentials includes 50 Tracked Queries, 50 Pages, 20 monthly Topic Explorations and 20 monthly Drafts, while Business includes 300 Tracked Queries, 300 Pages, 50 monthly Topic Explorations, 20 monthly Drafts and a dedicated account manager. Every plan has unlimited users and projects, which matters for a growing team.

Clearscope connects to the tools many content teams already use. Its support center documents a WordPress plugin, a Google Docs add-on and a Google Search Console connection for its Content Inventory. For a small company, the trade-off is the price floor: at $129/month the entry plan costs more than the entry plans of Surfer or Frase, but it includes AI answer tracking and unlimited users from the start.

What are the key details to consider?

Clearscope's Essentials plan costs $129/month and Business $399/month.
Query Tracking for AI answers is included in every plan.
Essentials includes 50 Tracked Queries and 20 monthly Drafts.
Every plan has unlimited users and projects.
Integrations include a WordPress plugin, a Google Docs add-on and Google Search Console.

What makes Surfer a possible alternative?

Surfer combines an on-page content editor with AI visibility tracking, and it sells AI tracking either inside its content plans or as a separate plan. Its published prices run from $49 to $299 per month, billed yearly, plus a custom Enterprise plan.

Surfer's Content Editor, according to Surfer, gives live guidelines for writing new content and refreshing existing pages, scored with its Content Score. Around it sit a Topical Map for planning content clusters, keyword research, a SERP Analyzer, a Content Audit that notifies you about ranking drops, and an AI writing assistant called Surfy. Its pricing table lists integrations with WordPress, Google Docs, Contentful and Zapier, and its FAQ says Surfer works with all languages.

The plan you pick decides how much AI tracking you get. Discovery, at $49/month billed yearly, covers content creation and tracks 10 pages but no AI prompts. Standard, at $99/month billed yearly, tracks 25 AI prompts across ChatGPT, refreshed weekly. Pro, at $182/month billed yearly, tracks 50 prompts refreshed daily, and Peace of Mind, at $299/month billed yearly, tracks 100. Teams that only want tracking can choose AI Search Analytics at $82/month billed yearly, with 50 prompts refreshed daily, Mention Gap and Brand Sentiments. Surfer lists the engines it tracks as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview and Google Gemini.

Two pricing details are easy to miss. The annual plan is paid upfront for the whole year, and Surfer says it gives a discount of up to 17% compared with paying monthly. Team size is also tied to the plan: Discovery has 1 team seat, Standard 3, Pro 5 and Peace of Mind 10.

What are the key details to consider?

Surfer's plans run from $49 to $299 per month, billed yearly.
AI prompt tracking starts on Standard or on the separate AI Search Analytics plan, not on Discovery.
Prompts are refreshed weekly on Standard and daily on Pro and Peace of Mind.
The Content Editor, Topical Map and Content Audit cover writing, planning and monitoring.
Annual plans are paid upfront, with a discount of up to 17% versus monthly billing.

Is Frase a good choice for tech companies?

Frase is worth a look for small tech teams on a budget, because it has the lowest published price for a paid plan of the four and includes AI visibility tracking from its first plan. Starter costs $39/month billed yearly or $49 month to month, and every plan starts with a 7-day free trial that needs no credit card.

Frase now describes itself as a content operating system for AI search that covers the whole loop: audit, research, writing, publishing and monitoring. Its SEO research ends in a content brief, it maps topic clusters, and its AI Agent drafts in your brand voice, learned from your own pages or set in its Brand Hub. It publishes to WordPress, Webflow, Sanity or Wix, or hosts pages on its own FraseCMS, and it says it writes natively in 70+ languages. Nothing goes live until you approve it, unless you choose to let the agent publish on its own.

AI Visibility is tracked daily on every plan, but the engines grow with the plan. Starter covers ChatGPT and Google AI with 50 prompts, Professional adds Perplexity with 200 prompts, and Scale adds Claude and Gemini with 500 prompts. Content Guard, a separate feature, watches published pages for Google rank and traffic decay and drafts a fix for you to approve: 10 pages on Starter, 75 on Professional and 300 on Scale.

The main limit for a team is seats. Starter is 1 seat and 1 site. Professional costs $103/month billed yearly or $129 month to month and includes 3 seats and 5 sites, and Scale costs $239/month billed yearly or $299 month to month with 5 seats and up to 10 domains. Extra seats cost $29/mo each on Professional and Scale, and Frase says yearly billing takes 20% off the monthly rate.

What are the key details to consider?

Frase Starter costs $39/month billed yearly or $49 month to month, for 1 seat and 1 site.
AI Visibility is included on every plan, with more engines and prompts on higher plans.
The 7-day free trial needs no credit card.
Frase publishes to WordPress, Webflow, Sanity or Wix, or hosts pages on FraseCMS.
Content Guard drafts fixes for pages losing Google rank or traffic and waits for your approval by default.

What about Citera, the tool this site's author co-founded?

Citera is an AI visibility and content automation product from Rankad AB, and this site's author, William Gyltman, is listed on Citera's About page as co-founder and CMO. It is left out of the table above because this site cannot review it independently. The facts below come from Citera's own website.

Citera says it shows how AI engines describe your brand, finds the gaps and helps improve your visibility. Its site describes a dashboard that tracks traffic, clicks, keywords and AI-search visibility in one place, and an agent that generates content 30 days ahead, such as blogs, Reddit posts, X posts and website fixes, which you can edit, deny, remove or approve. Citera adds that execution depends on your plan, connected tools and approval settings, and that progress is measured over time.

Its pricing page lists prices in euros. Starter is €199 per month with 1 brand, 25 prompts a month and weekly scans, and Scale is €399 per month with up to 4 AI models, 3 brands, 50 prompts a month and scans every 2 days. At the time of writing, the page also shows an introductory discount for the first 3 months and a 90-day money-back guarantee on its plans. If you consider it, compare it on the same criteria as the other tools: engines covered, prompts, refresh frequency and price.

How should a small tech company choose between these tools?

Start from the job you need done. If you mainly need to plan content around your existing authority, MarketMuse is built for that; if you also need to see how AI assistants mention your brand, Clearscope, Surfer and Frase each include it in at least some plans.

A worked example shows how the published plans fit a typical small team. Take a two-person marketing team at a software company with one website that wants to monitor about 25 buyer questions in AI answers and optimize its existing articles. On Clearscope, Essentials at $129/month covers it with unlimited users and 50 Tracked Queries across ChatGPT and Gemini. On Surfer, Standard at $99/month billed yearly includes 3 team seats and 25 AI prompts across ChatGPT, refreshed weekly. On Frase, Starter allows only 1 seat, so two people would need Professional at $103/month billed yearly, which includes 3 seats and tracks 200 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI and Perplexity. On MarketMuse, you would need to book a demo to get a price, and AI answer tracking is not listed.

The example also shows why the headline price is only a starting point. Weekly against daily refreshes, which engines are covered and how many seats are included can matter more than a difference of a few dollars a month. A team that writes in Swedish or another language besides English should also test the tool on its own language during the trial, since language support and the quality of suggestions can only be judged on real content.

It is also reasonable to combine tools. Nothing in these products prevents a team from using one for planning and briefs and another for AI answer tracking, as long as the combined cost and the time spent moving between tools stay worth it.

Finally, use the trials. Clearscope offers a 14 day free trial and Frase a 7-day free trial without a credit card, and MarketMuse has a free plan. Run the same handful of prompts and the same two or three existing articles through each tool you shortlist, and compare what you would actually change on your site.

Which questions should you ask before you buy?

Which AI engines does the plan track, and are they the ones your buyers use?
How many prompts are included, and are they refreshed daily or weekly?
How many seats and sites does the plan include, and what does an extra seat cost?
Is the price billed yearly upfront or month to month?
Does the tool connect to your CMS and the writing tools your team already uses?
Does it work well in the language your content is written in?

What is an AI visibility solution?

An AI visibility solution checks whether AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity mention your brand when they answer chosen questions, and shows which competitors appear instead. Many content optimization tools now include this next to their classic features for scoring and writing pages for Google.

How does MarketMuse help tech companies?

MarketMuse builds an inventory of a site's pages and topics, scores how hard each topic is for that specific site, shows gaps in competitors' content and produces content briefs and plans. It does not list AI answer tracking on its home or pricing page, and its paid prices are only given after a demo.

Is Clearscope suitable for small tech startups?

It depends on budget and needs. Clearscope's entry plan, Essentials, costs $129/month, which is more than the entry plans of Surfer or Frase, but it includes AI answer tracking, unlimited users and a 14 day free trial.

Which of these tools track how AI assistants mention a brand?

Clearscope includes Query Tracking in every plan, Frase includes AI Visibility in every plan, and Surfer includes AI prompt tracking from its Standard plan or as a separate AI Search Analytics plan. MarketMuse does not list the feature on its home or pricing page.

Can I use multiple AI visibility tools together?

Yes. Some teams use one tool for content planning and briefs and another for tracking AI answers. Check that the combined cost and the extra work of switching between tools are justified before adding a second subscription.

Are these tools suitable for non-tech companies?

Yes. None of the four is limited to tech companies: MarketMuse says its users are most often brands, publishers and agencies, and Clearscope, Surfer and Frase describe users ranging from solo creators and freelancers to agencies and large companies.

William Gyltman runs williamreviews.com and is co-founder and CMO of Rankad.ai, according to his About page. The rankad.ai domain now redirects to citeralabs.ai, the site of Citera.

What are the sources?

Every product fact in this article comes from the vendor's own website, checked in October 2026. Plans and prices change, so confirm them on these pages before buying.

Which sources support these claims?

MarketMuse, https://www.marketmuse.com/
MarketMuse pricing, https://www.marketmuse.com/pricing/
Clearscope, https://www.clearscope.io/
Clearscope pricing, https://www.clearscope.io/pricing
Clearscope support: integrations, https://www.clearscope.io/support/topics/integrations
Surfer pricing, https://surferseo.com/pricing/
Frase, https://www.frase.io/
Frase pricing, https://www.frase.io/pricing
Citera, https://citeralabs.ai/
Citera pricing, https://citeralabs.ai/pricing
Citera about, https://citeralabs.ai/about
William Gyltman, About, https://williamreviews.com/about