★ Our pick
Pick
AthenaHQ
Pick AthenaHQ if you trust traction signals — they list 9 customers, Goodie lists 0; and SOC 2 Type 2 matters for your security review.
Head-to-head review · Updated June 2026
AthenaHQ vs Goodie: which one wins in 2026?
AthenaHQ and Goodie both claim to do the same thing: tell you where your brand shows up in AI search. They go about it differently enough that the choice matters. AthenaHQ is the more-funded incumbent; Goodie is the leaner challenger.
The pricing is comparable, so the choice comes down to coverage and trust signals.
The verdict
Pick
Goodie
Pick Goodie if you need broader AI platform coverage (11 platforms vs 8).
If neither is right, GrowthManager.ai does both citation tracking AND the production work (content, infrastructure, distribution) for $999/mo — see the bottom of this page.
The case for AthenaHQ
AthenaHQ has raised $2.7M (Seed — $2.2M (June 2025)). Founded by Andrew Yan, Alan Yao, based in San Francisco, CA. On their site they list 9 named customers including Rootly, Lago, Gruns, Popl. They cover 8 AI platforms (Goodie covers 11, more than them). Pricing starts at $295/mo with no free trial.
AthenaHQ is a GEO/AEO platform that tracks and optimizes brand visibility inside AI-generated search answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and five other LLMs.
What people praise
- Actionable, prioritized recommendations via the Action Center -- not just dashboards
- Granular, multi-engine visibility tracking that surfaces insights no prior tool could provide
- Measurable, documented lift in AI visibility and pipeline attribution
- Intuitive interface with a fast setup that non-technical users can adopt quickly
Where it falls short
- Credit-based pricing is opaque and causes surprise overages for active users
- Premium pricing ($295/mo+) excludes smaller businesses and agencies with budget-constrained clients
- Key features (ACE Citation Engine, Prompt Volume data, API) are locked behind Enterprise tier
- Sentiment and competitive benchmarking analytics are too shallow to be fully actionable
The case for Goodie
Founded by Mostafa ElBermawy, based in New York City, United States. They cover 11 AI platforms, more than AthenaHQ's 8. Pricing starts at Custom (quote-based) with no free trial.
Goodie is an enterprise AEO platform that monitors, analyzes, and optimizes brand and product presence across 11 AI search engines including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Amazon Rufus, and more.
What people praise
- Broadest AI engine coverage in the category (11 platforms including niche engines like Amazon Rufus, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI)
- Actionable optimization layer that closes the loop between insights and execution inside a single platform
- Delivers measurable, defensible business outcomes — documented client results across conversions, citations, and traffic
- User-friendly dashboard with digestible metrics accessible to both technical and non-technical marketers
Where it falls short
- No free trial — only demos and a free AI Search Assessment, putting it at a disadvantage vs. competitors that allow self-serve evaluation
- Premium pricing with no published rates makes ROI justification difficult for smaller or budget-constrained teams
- Onboarding complexity and setup friction — not self-serve; requires hands-on support and operational discipline to get started
- Rapid product roadmap velocity creates a 'moving target' effect — users must stay constantly informed of changes
Pricing, tier by tier
Tier 1
AthenaHQ
Self-Serve
$295/mo
- Coverage across 8 LLMs (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok)
- On/off-page GEO analysis
- Competitor monitoring
- Citation intelligence
Goodie
Explorer
Custom (quote-based)
- 3 seats
- 100 prompts tracked
- 10 optimization actions per month
- 3 AI engines (ChatGPT, AI Overview, Perplexity)
Tier 2
AthenaHQ
Enterprise
Custom
- All Self-Serve features
- LLM traffic analysis
- Self-improving content workflows
- Content Optimization AI Agent with Deep Research
Goodie
Pro
Custom (quote-based)
- 5 seats
- 250 prompts tracked
- 30 optimization actions per month
- 6 AI engines (adds Gemini, Copilot, Rufus)
Tier 3
AthenaHQ
—
—
Goodie
Enterprise
Custom (quote-based)
- 10+ seats
- 500+ prompts tracked
- 60+ optimization actions per month
- All 11 answer engines
Feature parity
What each one ships that the other doesn't. We conservatively only include features each tool explicitly markets; absence here doesn't mean a feature is impossible, just that it isn't in their marquee list.
Only on AthenaHQ
- AI Visibility Tracking (GEO Score). Monitors brand mention frequency, share of voice, and sentiment across 8 LLMs in real time, surfacing where a brand appears (or doesn't) in AI-generated answers.
- Athena Citation Engine (ACE). Machine-learning model trained on millions of AI search results that predicts the probability a given piece of content will be cited by an AI engine, enabling proactive content optimization.
- Ask Athena Agentic Copilot. Natural-language AI assistant inside the platform for querying visibility data, generating content gap recommendations, and surfacing competitive intelligence without manual report building.
Only on Goodie
- AI Visibility Monitoring. Tracks brand mentions, sentiment, ranking position, and top domains citing the brand across all 11 AI models. Segments performance by geography, persona, model language, and topic category. Enables competitive share-of-voice benchmarking.
- Prompt Research. Discovers the actual customer prompts used in AI search and surfaces visibility opportunities. Helps teams identify which queries they are and are not appearing in across AI answer engines.
- Agentic Commerce Suite. Tracks and optimizes product visibility inside AI shopping experiences on ChatGPT, Amazon Rufus, and Perplexity. A differentiating feature for e-commerce brands not commonly offered by other AEO platforms.
When each one wins
When AthenaHQ wins
- Budget is the constraint. AthenaHQ starts at $295/mo vs Goodie's $∞/mo, so on a per-seat basis it's the cheaper way in.
- You're enterprise and need to call a reference. AthenaHQ lists 9 named customers; Goodie lists 0.
- Procurement requires SOC 2 Type 2. AthenaHQ has it; Goodie doesn't yet.
When Goodie wins
- Platform coverage matters. Goodie monitors 11 AI platforms; AthenaHQ covers 8.
- Broadest AI engine coverage in the category (11 platforms including niche engines like Amazon Rufus, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI)
When neither wins (pick GrowthManager)
- You don't have an in-house content team and you don't want to hire one.
- You want one $999/mo invoice instead of stacking AthenaHQ plus an agency.
- You need the team that measures to also act on the data, in the same week.
- You're a B2B SaaS, services firm, or e-commerce brand at $20K+ MRR.
Reasons to pick one over the other
Reasons to pick AthenaHQ over Goodie
- Lower entry price. AthenaHQ publishes a clear entry tier at $295/mo; Goodie gates pricing.
- More named customers. AthenaHQ lists 9 customers vs Goodie's 0, including Rootly, Lago, Gruns.
- SOC 2 Type 2. AthenaHQ carries SOC 2 Type 2; Goodie does not yet, which can hold up procurement.
- More verified reviews. AthenaHQ has 32 G2 reviews vs Goodie's none on file, so the average rating carries more weight.
- Faster product velocity. AthenaHQ has shipped 3 public launches in the last year vs Goodie's 1.
- Wider integration ecosystem. AthenaHQ integrates with 15 tools; Goodie ships 6.
- What users praise most. Actionable, prioritized recommendations via the Action Center -- not just dashboards
Reasons to pick Goodie over AthenaHQ
- More plan flexibility. Goodie offers 3 pricing tiers vs AthenaHQ's 2, so there's a better chance one fits your team size.
- Broader AI platform coverage. Goodie tracks visibility across 11 AI engines vs AthenaHQ's 8.
- What users praise most. Broadest AI engine coverage in the category (11 platforms including niche engines like Amazon Rufus, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI)
Switching from one to the other
From AthenaHQ to Goodie
Export your saved queries and prompt panels from AthenaHQ (most tools support CSV export). Most Goodie setups can import the same query list in a single CSV upload. Expect 1-2 days of parallel running so you can validate Goodie's data againstAthenaHQ's; one to two weeks of full reconciliation before you cancel AthenaHQ. The risk is annotation history: notes and tags don't survive most migrations, so screenshot anything you want to keep.
From Goodie to AthenaHQ
Same flow in reverse. Export from Goodie, import to AthenaHQ. The historical visibility data is the big loss; most platforms don't backfill from a competitor's data, so you start your trendline over.
From either to GrowthManager.ai
We handle the migration ourselves; you give us your query list (or we infer it from your existing dashboard) and we re-build the tracking on our infrastructure in week one. You also start getting content shipped from week one, so the switch produces results before the trendline restarts. The conversation that kicks this off is a 20-minute call.
Side by side, every number we could verify
| AthenaHQ | Goodie | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at (USD/mo) | $295/mo | Custom (quote-based) |
| Founded | 2025 | 2022 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA | New York City, United States |
| Funding raised | $2.7M | — |
| AI platforms tracked | 8 | 11 |
| G2 rating | 4.9 / 5 (32 reviews) | — |
| Named customers | 9 | — |
| SOC 2 Type 2 | ✓ Yes | — |
| GDPR | ✓ Yes | — |
| HIPAA | — | — |
What real users say
Below: the recurring themes from G2, Capterra, SourceForge, Reddit, and case-study reviewers — distilled into the strengths and limitations that came up most often.
AthenaHQ — what users praise
- Actionable, prioritized recommendations via the Action Center -- not just dashboards
- Granular, multi-engine visibility tracking that surfaces insights no prior tool could provide
- Measurable, documented lift in AI visibility and pipeline attribution
- Intuitive interface with a fast setup that non-technical users can adopt quickly
- Responsive support team that acts on user feedback quickly
AthenaHQ — what users complain about
- Credit-based pricing is opaque and causes surprise overages for active users
- Premium pricing ($295/mo+) excludes smaller businesses and agencies with budget-constrained clients
- Key features (ACE Citation Engine, Prompt Volume data, API) are locked behind Enterprise tier
- Sentiment and competitive benchmarking analytics are too shallow to be fully actionable
- Rapid product updates cause UI churn and make onboarding documentation go stale
Goodie — what users praise
- Broadest AI engine coverage in the category (11 platforms including niche engines like Amazon Rufus, DeepSeek, Grok, and Meta AI)
- Actionable optimization layer that closes the loop between insights and execution inside a single platform
- Delivers measurable, defensible business outcomes — documented client results across conversions, citations, and traffic
- User-friendly dashboard with digestible metrics accessible to both technical and non-technical marketers
- Multi-market, multilingual monitoring with region and language segmentation — a differentiator for global enterprise brands
Goodie — what users complain about
- No free trial — only demos and a free AI Search Assessment, putting it at a disadvantage vs. competitors that allow self-serve evaluation
- Premium pricing with no published rates makes ROI justification difficult for smaller or budget-constrained teams
- Onboarding complexity and setup friction — not self-serve; requires hands-on support and operational discipline to get started
- Rapid product roadmap velocity creates a 'moving target' effect — users must stay constantly informed of changes
- Not a replacement for traditional SEO tools — lacks site audits, keyword explorers, backlink crawlers, and web search monitoring
A third option
Both AthenaHQ and Goodieare tracking tools. They tell you what's wrong with your AI visibility. Neither one fixes it. That's our pitch for GrowthManager.ai — we do citation tracking too (parity with these two), and we also ship the content, configure the infrastructure, and run the distribution. $999/mo, managed end-to-end. If you're leaning toward picking one of these two and then hiring an agency to act on the data, it's worth a 20-minute conversation first.
Other comparisons in this space
Same shape, different pairs. Pick a comparison that shares a tool with this one.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, AthenaHQ or Goodie?
Honestly: neither one fully solves the problem. AthenaHQ and Goodie are tracking tools — they tell you where your brand shows up in AI answers but don't change the answer. If you only need one of these two, pick AthenaHQ for the cheaper monthly price; pick the other if its specific integrations matter to your team. Our actual editorial pick is GrowthManager.ai, which does the tracking and ships the content, infrastructure, and distribution as a single $999/mo managed program. Disclosure: we publish this comparison and make GrowthManager.
How much do AthenaHQ and Goodie cost?
AthenaHQ starts at $295/mo. Goodie starts at Custom (quote-based). Both have higher-tier plans for larger workspaces. GrowthManager.ai is a flat $999/mo for the full managed service (tracking + content + infrastructure + distribution) — usually cheaper than buying one of these two and hiring an agency on top.
Which AI platforms do AthenaHQ and Goodie cover?
AthenaHQ covers 8 AI platforms. Goodie covers 11. Most tools in this space monitor ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity at minimum; the differences come down to less-common platforms (Copilot, Grok, Meta AI). GrowthManager.ai monitors the same four primary platforms and acts on the data.
Do AthenaHQ and Goodie actually improve your AI visibility, or just measure it?
Both AthenaHQ and Goodie are measurement tools. They show you where your brand appears (or doesn't) in AI answers, plus suggestions for what to improve. Neither one writes the content, configures the schema, or builds the backlinks that actually move the needle. To do that you need an in-house content team or an agency. GrowthManager.ai is the agency — and we include the tracking, so you don't pay twice.
What's the GrowthManager.ai alternative to AthenaHQ and Goodie?
GrowthManager.ai is a managed AI visibility program. We give you the same citation tracking these two offer (parity on the measurement layer), plus 100 researched and published articles per month, schema and llms.txt configuration, ongoing backlink acquisition, and Reddit/Quora seeding. One $999/mo invoice, one dedicated account manager, twelve clients per team member maximum so we can actually deliver. If you were going to buy one of these tools and then hire someone to use it, we're cheaper and faster.
Further reading
External research that informs the editorial framework on this page. We cite these openly because the framework is meant to be auditable.
- Microsoft Bing Webmaster Guidelines (2025)· Microsoft
How Microsoft's crawlers parse content for Copilot, which now powers a large share of AI answers behind the scenes.
- Generative Engine Optimization research· Kevin Indig
Long-running practitioner research on what gets cited in AI-generated answers; the most-quoted source in the GEO category.
- Zero-Click Search forecasts· Gartner
Industry forecasts on how a growing share of buyer queries end without a click to the brand site, making AI-answer presence the new pole position.
- Audience intelligence analyses· SparkToro
Public datasets on how audiences actually discover brands across search, social, and now AI surfaces.
- Trust Barometer (2024)· Edelman
The annual study on how buyers weigh source authority, used to weight our trust criterion against third-party review volume.
Disclosure + methodology
GrowthManager.ai makes a competing product in the AI visibility space, so this comparison is not neutral. Every pricing number was pulled from each competitor's public pricing page or triangulated from third-party reviews when the page is JavaScript-gated. Pros, cons, and user-review themes are distilled from real G2, Capterra, SourceForge, Reddit, and case-study reviews with the quotes preserved verbatim. We update this comparison whenever the underlying data changes.