# Endata's free report vs. Ahrefs' free AI Visibility Checker

> **Ahrefs' free AI Visibility Checker is a brand lookup**: type a brand name, no signup, and in seconds see how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google's AI results mention it, with the top five topics, cited domains and cited pages. **Endata's free AI Business Visibility Report is a buyer-question test**: it writes six questions that never name you, asks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini, and shows who was recommended, which questions left you out, and what to publish first. Use Ahrefs' checker to see where an established brand already appears. Use Endata's report to see where you don't, and what to do about it. Both are free, so run both.

Updated 2026-10-12

Both are free and both answer “does AI mention us?” They ask it in opposite directions: Ahrefs starts from your brand name, Endata starts from the questions your buyers ask.

## Endata vs. Ahrefs' checker at a glance

### Choose Endata if

- Your brand is new, small or local, and a count of existing mentions may come back close to empty.
- You want to know which buyer questions you're missing from, and who is named instead.
- You want your competitors beside you in the same free report.
- You want a plan for what to publish, and a way to have it drafted and published.

### Choose Ahrefs' checker if

- You want an answer in seconds without giving an email address.
- Your brand is well known and you want to see where assistants already mention it.
- You care about Google AI Overviews, AI Mode or Copilot.
- You want to know which domains and pages assistants cite alongside your brand.

### Running the check

| Feature | Endata | Ahrefs' checker |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What you enter | Your website; then you confirm your audience, 2 to 6 competitors and 3 to 5 topics | A brand name, as your audience would say it |
| Signup | An email address to receive the link; no account, password or card | None; no signup or card |
| Time | A couple of minutes | “Results in seconds” |
| How many checks | 5 reports per email address every 30 days | No limit on the number of brands |
| Assistants covered | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews; its FAQ adds AI Mode |
| Questions asked | 6 buyer questions written for your business, none naming a brand; up to 24 answers | Ahrefs' “search-backed prompts”, built from real Google searches; the number tested is not stated |

### What the free result shows

| Feature | Endata | Ahrefs' checker |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Headline number | The share of answers that named you | Total AI mentions of the brand |
| By assistant | Yes, question by question | Yes: which platforms mention you and which don't |
| Competitors | Your standing against each one, plus businesses you didn't list that kept appearing | No comparison; you can look up a competitor's name separately |
| Where you are missing | The exact questions that left you out, and who was named instead | Not shown |
| Topics | The topics you chose, tested through the questions | Top 5 topics that trigger mentions of the brand |
| Citations | Not measured | Top 5 cited domains and top 5 cited pages |
| Next steps | An action plan of up to 5 steps; the first 2 in full, the rest when you claim the report | No plan; Ahrefs suggests using the report to spot gaps |

### What comes after

| Feature | Endata | Ahrefs' checker |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The paid step | Endata researches, drafts and publishes an answer to each missed question, with your approval | Brand Radar: full data, history, competitor comparison and custom prompt tracking |
| Paid from | $49 a month (Solo) | Brand Radar's AI index from $199 a month per platform, as an Ahrefs add-on |

## What is the real difference between the two free tools?

The direction of the question. Ahrefs' checker asks **“where does this brand name appear in AI answers?”** It looks for your name across prompts Ahrefs already holds and counts what it finds.

Endata's report asks **“when a buyer asks about what we sell, without naming anyone, who gets recommended?”** None of its six questions contains a business name, so being mentioned means an assistant chose you unprompted.

The two can disagree, and both be right. A firm can have plenty of mentions in answers about itself and still be absent when someone asks for “the best accountant for a small restaurant”. A firm with almost no mentions can still be the one an assistant names for a narrow question.

> **Put simply** Ahrefs' checker shows the mentions you already have. Endata's report shows the recommendations you are not getting.

## What does Ahrefs' free AI Visibility Checker tell you?

You type a brand name. Ahrefs advises entering it the way your audience says it, and it works for product names, personal brands and competitors too. There is no signup, and Ahrefs says there is no limit on how many brands you check.

The report has five parts:

- **Total AI mentions**: how many times AI platforms mentioned the brand across the tested prompts.
- **Mentions by AI platform**: which platforms mention you and which don't.
- **Top 5 topics**: the subjects assistants associate with the brand.
- **Top 5 cited domains**: the sites referenced most when the brand is mentioned.
- **Top 5 cited pages**: the specific URLs cited alongside it.

Ahrefs calls it a limited preview and a one-time snapshot: five results per section, with no history and no competitor comparison. Those are in Brand Radar, its paid product. The prompts are what Ahrefs calls search-backed, built from questions people really search on Google, not invented ones. The page does not say how many prompts a free check covers.

> **Where Ahrefs' checker is plainly stronger** It is instant, asks for no email, has no cap on brands, covers Google's AI results and Copilot, and shows the domains and pages assistants cite. Endata's free report does none of those.

## What does Endata's free report tell you?

You enter your website. Endata reads it and asks you to confirm your audience, two to six competitors and three to five topics, then asks for an email address so it can send you the link. It writes six buyer questions and puts each to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini through their makers' APIs, with web search on: up to 24 answers, in a couple of minutes.

*A sample Endata report: how often each business was named, and the questions where the firm was left out.*

The report shows:

- the share of answers that named you;
- your standing against each competitor you listed;
- other businesses that kept appearing, which you may not have thought of as competitors;
- the questions you were missing from, and who was named instead;
- an action plan of up to five steps.

It has limits of its own. Six questions is a small sample, not a measure of a market. It needs an email address and a minute of setup. You can run five reports per email address every 30 days. And it does not show citations, cover Google's AI results, or keep a history unless you move to a paid plan.

## What can you do next with each result?

With Ahrefs' result, the next move is yours to work out. Ahrefs suggests using the report to spot gaps and set priorities, and notes that if your own domain is missing from the cited domains, content and digital PR are where to look. For more data the path is Brand Radar: historical trends, AI Share of Voice, competitor benchmarking and tracking of your own prompts. That is a serious tool for a team with writers; see [Endata vs. Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://endata.com/compare/ahrefs-brand-radar).

With Endata's result, the next move is written down. The plan lists what to publish, starting with the questions where competitors were named and you were not. The first two steps are shown in full; the rest open when you claim the report into a workspace.

*The plan that comes with a report: what to publish first, and why.*

On a paid plan Endata then does the work. For each question it searches the last 30 days of news and web sources, keeps up to eight pieces of evidence and drafts an answer that cites them claim by claim. You can add your own attributed view. Nothing is published until you approve it. Approved answers go to a hosted newsroom on your own domain or to your CMS, and the same six questions are asked again every month. The walk-through is in [How to fix a hidden AI visibility gap in 10 minutes](https://endata.com/guides/fix-ai-visibility-gap).

|   | Endata | Ahrefs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | AI Business Visibility Report | AI Visibility Checker |
| First paid step | **Solo, $49/month**: 20 researched answers a month, a newsroom on your domain, monthly rechecks | **Ahrefs Lite, $129/month**: Ahrefs' SEO tools with 5 tracked AI prompts |
| Next | **Business, $199/month**: 100 researched answers, 3 seats, API and MCP | **Brand Radar AI add-on**: $199/month per platform index, or $699/month for all platforms |

Neither paid step is a trial of the other: Ahrefs' buys measurement, Endata's buys published answers. Ahrefs says its prices may vary by region. Endata's plans are on the [pricing page](https://endata.com/pricing).

## Should you run both?

Yes. They cost nothing and take a few minutes together. A sensible order:

1. **Run Ahrefs' checker on your brand name.** Note which platforms mention you and which domains get cited.
2. **Run it on two competitors.** There is no side-by-side view, but the totals give a rough sense of scale.
3. **Run [Endata's free report](https://endata.com/#check).** See which buyer questions name those competitors and not you.
4. **Compare.** Many mentions but few recommendations means your name is known but not attached to what buyers ask. Few of both means there is not yet enough published for assistants to find.

Either way the remedy is the same: clear, sourced answers to the questions buyers ask, published where assistants can read them.

## What Endata does not do

A comparison is only useful if it is honest about both sides. Endata does not:

- give a result without an email address, or in seconds;
- count every mention of your brand across a large set of prompts;
- show which domains or pages assistants cite;
- cover Google AI Overviews or AI Mode, Copilot, Grok or Meta AI;
- measure sentiment, ranking position or prompt volume;
- promise that an assistant will recommend you. What an assistant says is its own decision; Endata makes sure there is a clear, sourced answer for it to find.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Ahrefs' AI Visibility Checker really free?

Yes. Ahrefs says there is no signup, no credit card and no limit on the number of brands. The free version shows the top five results per section; full data, historical tracking and competitor comparison are in Brand Radar, its paid product.

### Is Endata's free report really free?

Yes. You enter your website, confirm your competitors and topics, and give an email address to receive the link. There is no account, password or card. The first two steps of the action plan are shown in full; the rest open when you claim the report into a workspace.

### Which free tool is better for a small or new business?

Usually Endata's. A count of existing mentions tells a little-known brand little. Endata's questions never name a business, so the report is useful even with no mentions at all: it shows who assistants recommend in your place and what to publish first.

### Which is better for a well-known brand?

Start with Ahrefs' checker. An established brand will have mentions to count, and the cited domains and pages show which sources assistants rely on. Then run Endata's report to find the unbranded buyer questions where competitors are recommended instead.

### Which AI assistants does each free tool check?

Ahrefs' checker covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews, and its FAQ also lists Google AI Mode. Endata's report asks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini through their official APIs with web search on. Only Endata's includes Claude; only Ahrefs' includes Google's AI results and Copilot.

### Why do the two tools give different results?

They measure different things. Ahrefs counts how often a brand name appears in answers to prompts built from Google searches. Endata asks six questions written for your buyers and records who was named. A brand can score well on one and poorly on the other.

### Do I need an Ahrefs account to use the checker?

No. Ahrefs states that no signup is required. Ongoing tracking is a different matter: Brand Radar's AI index is an add-on to a paid Ahrefs plan, from $199 a month per platform according to Ahrefs' help center.

### Does either free tool fix the problem?

No free tool does, and neither can promise what an assistant will say. Ahrefs' checker leads to more measurement in Brand Radar. Endata's report leads to researched, sourced answers published for your approval, from $49 a month.

## Sources

- [Ahrefs: Free AI Visibility Checker](https://ahrefs.com/ai-visibility-checker)
- [Ahrefs: free SEO tools](https://ahrefs.com/free-seo-tools)
- [Ahrefs: plans and pricing](https://ahrefs.com/pricing)
- [Ahrefs Help Center: What is Brand Radar, and how to use it?](https://help.ahrefs.com/en/articles/11064852-what-is-brand-radar-and-how-to-use-it)

## Keep reading

- [Endata vs. Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://endata.com/compare/ahrefs-brand-radar): The paid comparison: a prompt database against measure-and-publish.
- [Fix an AI visibility gap in 10 minutes](https://endata.com/guides/fix-ai-visibility-gap): From a missed question to a published, sourced answer.
- [Plans and pricing](https://endata.com/pricing): What each plan researches, drafts and publishes a month.