Pick
OnCrawl
OnCrawl is the right pick if your team prefers their approach and pricing fits.
Head-to-head review · Updated June 2026
OnCrawl vs Writesonic GEO: which one wins in 2026?
OnCrawl and Writesonic GEO 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. Writesonic GEO is the more-funded incumbent; OnCrawl is the leaner challenger.
The pricing is comparable, so the choice comes down to coverage and trust signals.
The verdict
Pick
Writesonic GEO
Pick Writesonic GEO if you need broader AI platform coverage (4 platforms vs 0); and SOC 2 Type 2 matters for your security review.
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 OnCrawl
Founded by Francois Goube, Tanguy Moal, based in Bordeaux, France. On their site they list 10 named customers including Adidas, L'Oreal, Ticketmaster, Harrods.
Enterprise SEO data platform combining crawl, logs, and AI insights.
What people praise
- JavaScript-capable crawler scales to 300M+ URLs per project, putting it in the same league as Botify and DeepCrawl for enterprise sites.
- Log file analyzer processes 500M+ log lines per day, surfacing how Googlebot, Bingbot, and AI crawlers actually behave on the site.
- Cross-references crawl data, server logs, GSC, GA4, Adobe Analytics, and Majestic backlinks in one analysis - few competitors integrate all five sources.
- 100% unsampled data analysis appeals to enterprise SEOs frustrated with GA4 sampling and Search Console limits.
Where it falls short
- No public pricing - book-a-demo gating means SMBs and indie consultants are filtered out before evaluation.
- Capterra rating of 3.8 is the lowest among major technical SEO crawlers, with reviewers citing UI complexity and pricing opacity.
- Steep learning curve - the platform assumes data-science fluency, which leaves marketers needing a technical SEO specialist to extract value.
- Self-serve onboarding is limited; complex multi-source setups (logs plus crawl plus analytics) typically need OnCrawl's customer success team.
The case for Writesonic GEO
Writesonic GEO has raised $2.72M raised (Seed (September 2021, $2.6M)). Founded by Samanyou Garg, based in San Francisco, CA. On their site they list 10 named customers including Amazon, Unilever, Acer, OECD. They cover 4 AI platforms. Pricing starts at $79/mo.
YC-backed AI growth engine combining GEO visibility monitoring with a content production engine powered by 120M+ proprietary AI chatbot conversations.
What people praise
- Tracks 10 AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok and DeepSeek, broader than most dedicated GEO tools.
- Action Center turns visibility gaps into prioritized off-page, on-page and technical task lists rather than dashboards alone.
- Citation gap analysis surfaces sources citing competitors but not you, with ready-made outreach email templates included.
- Sentiment analysis at Growth tier shows whether AI assistants describe your brand positively or negatively, not just whether they mention you.
Where it falls short
- The Action Center is gated to Enterprise pricing, meaning self-serve tiers only get visibility data without actionable recommendations.
- Starter tier only tracks ChatGPT, forcing a jump to $199/mo Basic to monitor Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
- GEO insights feel surface-level versus dedicated platforms like Profound, since Writesonic optimizes for SEO and content workflows first.
- CMS integrations limited to WordPress, Vercel and Cloudflare, narrower than Profound's connector ecosystem.
Pricing, tier by tier
Tier 1
OnCrawl
—
—
Writesonic GEO
Starter
$79/mo
- ChatGPT tracking only (50 prompts, 50 answers daily)
- 15 AI articles per month
- 10 site audits covering 100 pages each
- 10 trial runs of agentic workflows
Tier 2
OnCrawl
—
—
Writesonic GEO
Basic
$199/mo
- ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews tracking (100 prompts, 300 answers daily)
- 25 AI articles per month
- 20 site audits covering 1,200 pages each
- 50 trial runs of agentic workflows
Tier 3
OnCrawl
—
—
Writesonic GEO
Growth
$399/mo
- ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews tracking (200 prompts, 600 answers daily)
- Sentiment analysis
- Action Center trial (5 off-page + 5 on-page actions/month)
- 50 AI articles per month
Tier 4
OnCrawl
—
—
Writesonic GEO
Enterprise
Custom
- All 10 AI platforms tracked (custom prompts, regions, languages)
- Full Action Center across off-page, on-page, technical
- Custom article and audit volumes
- SSO/SAML, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR compliance
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 OnCrawl
- SEO Crawler. JavaScript-capable cloud crawler that audits 300M+ URLs, mapping site architecture, internal linking, and orphan pages.
- Log File Analyzer. Processes 500M+ log lines daily to show how Googlebot, Bingbot, and AI bots interact with the site.
- Data3 Cross-Analysis. Combines crawl, logs, GSC, GA4, Adobe Analytics, and Majestic data in unified reports with custom segmentation.
- SEO Impact Report. Connects technical SEO metrics to business outcomes like organic revenue and conversions.
- REST API. Full developer API with automated crawl scheduling and log ingestion for enterprise SEO automation.
Only on Writesonic GEO
- AI Search Visibility Tracking. Daily monitoring of brand mentions, citations and share of voice across 10 AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.
- Action Center. Prioritized off-page, on-page and technical action items generated from visibility gaps, with effort vs impact scoring.
- Citation Gap Analysis. Finds publications and pages citing competitors but not you, paired with outreach email templates.
- Sentiment Analysis. Classifies how AI assistants describe your brand and tracks tone changes over time.
- Bot Crawler Analytics. Server-side tracking of GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers per page.
- Agentic Workflows. Multi-step automated workflows that rewrite or publish pages to close GEO gaps end to end.
When each one wins
When OnCrawl wins
- JavaScript-capable crawler scales to 300M+ URLs per project, putting it in the same league as Botify and DeepCrawl for enterprise sites.
When Writesonic GEO wins
- Budget is the constraint. Writesonic GEO starts at $79/mo vs OnCrawl's $∞/mo, so on a per-seat basis it's the cheaper way in.
- Platform coverage matters. Writesonic GEO monitors 4 AI platforms; OnCrawl covers 0.
- Procurement requires SOC 2 Type 2. Writesonic GEO has it; OnCrawl doesn't yet.
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 OnCrawl 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 OnCrawl over Writesonic GEO
- Faster product velocity. OnCrawl has shipped 5 public launches in the last year vs Writesonic GEO's 0.
- More mature platform. OnCrawl (founded 2013) has had more time to harden the product than Writesonic GEO (2020).
- What users praise most. JavaScript-capable crawler scales to 300M+ URLs per project, putting it in the same league as Botify and DeepCrawl for enterprise sites.
- EU data residency. OnCrawl is HQ'd in Bordeaux, France, which simplifies GDPR data-processor agreements for European buyers.
Reasons to pick Writesonic GEO over OnCrawl
- Lower entry price. Writesonic GEO publishes a clear entry tier at $79/mo; OnCrawl gates pricing.
- Public pricing. Writesonic GEO publishes 4 tiers on its website; OnCrawl requires a sales conversation.
- Broader AI platform coverage. Writesonic GEO tracks visibility across 4 AI engines vs OnCrawl's 0.
- SOC 2 Type 2. Writesonic GEO carries SOC 2 Type 2; OnCrawl does not yet, which can hold up procurement.
- HIPAA-ready. Writesonic GEO is HIPAA compliant; OnCrawl is not.
- Higher G2 rating. Writesonic GEO averages 4.7/5 on G2 across 2,065 reviews; OnCrawl averages 4.4.
- Built for the LLM era. Writesonic GEO was founded in 2020, built around AI search from day one; OnCrawl dates back to 2013 and is retrofitting.
- What users praise most. Tracks 10 AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok and DeepSeek, broader than most dedicated GEO tools.
Switching from one to the other
From OnCrawl to Writesonic GEO
Export your saved queries and prompt panels from OnCrawl (most tools support CSV export). Most Writesonic GEO setups can import the same query list in a single CSV upload. Expect 1-2 days of parallel running so you can validate Writesonic GEO's data againstOnCrawl's; one to two weeks of full reconciliation before you cancel OnCrawl. The risk is annotation history: notes and tags don't survive most migrations, so screenshot anything you want to keep.
From Writesonic GEO to OnCrawl
Same flow in reverse. Export from Writesonic GEO, import to OnCrawl. 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
| OnCrawl | Writesonic GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at (USD/mo) | Custom | $79/mo |
| Founded | 2013 | 2020 |
| Headquarters | Bordeaux, France | San Francisco, CA |
| Funding raised | — | $2.72M raised |
| AI platforms tracked | — | 4 |
| G2 rating | 4.4 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 (2065 reviews) |
| Named customers | 10 | 10 |
| SOC 2 Type 2 | — | ✓ Yes |
| GDPR | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| HIPAA | — | ✓ Yes |
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.
OnCrawl — what users praise
- JavaScript-capable crawler scales to 300M+ URLs per project, putting it in the same league as Botify and DeepCrawl for enterprise sites.
- Log file analyzer processes 500M+ log lines per day, surfacing how Googlebot, Bingbot, and AI crawlers actually behave on the site.
- Cross-references crawl data, server logs, GSC, GA4, Adobe Analytics, and Majestic backlinks in one analysis - few competitors integrate all five sources.
- 100% unsampled data analysis appeals to enterprise SEOs frustrated with GA4 sampling and Search Console limits.
- 30-day ROI guarantee gives risk cover for enterprise buyers piloting against incumbent BrightEdge or Conductor deployments.
OnCrawl — what users complain about
- No public pricing - book-a-demo gating means SMBs and indie consultants are filtered out before evaluation.
- Capterra rating of 3.8 is the lowest among major technical SEO crawlers, with reviewers citing UI complexity and pricing opacity.
- Steep learning curve - the platform assumes data-science fluency, which leaves marketers needing a technical SEO specialist to extract value.
- Self-serve onboarding is limited; complex multi-source setups (logs plus crawl plus analytics) typically need OnCrawl's customer success team.
- BrightEdge ownership raises long-term roadmap questions for customers who prefer best-of-breed technical SEO over consolidated suites.
Writesonic GEO — what users praise
- Tracks 10 AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok and DeepSeek, broader than most dedicated GEO tools.
- Action Center turns visibility gaps into prioritized off-page, on-page and technical task lists rather than dashboards alone.
- Citation gap analysis surfaces sources citing competitors but not you, with ready-made outreach email templates included.
- Sentiment analysis at Growth tier shows whether AI assistants describe your brand positively or negatively, not just whether they mention you.
- Bot crawler analytics monitor real AI bot visits at the page level, useful for proving AI traffic to skeptical leadership.
Writesonic GEO — what users complain about
- The Action Center is gated to Enterprise pricing, meaning self-serve tiers only get visibility data without actionable recommendations.
- Starter tier only tracks ChatGPT, forcing a jump to $199/mo Basic to monitor Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
- GEO insights feel surface-level versus dedicated platforms like Profound, since Writesonic optimizes for SEO and content workflows first.
- CMS integrations limited to WordPress, Vercel and Cloudflare, narrower than Profound's connector ecosystem.
- Multi-user approvals, role-based access and audit trails are thinner than enterprise teams expect from an 'orchestrated' content factory.
A third option
Both OnCrawl and Writesonic GEOare 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, OnCrawl or Writesonic GEO?
Honestly: neither one fully solves the problem. OnCrawl and Writesonic GEO 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 OnCrawl 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 OnCrawl and Writesonic GEO cost?
OnCrawl starts at Custom. Writesonic GEO starts at $79/mo. 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 OnCrawl and Writesonic GEO cover?
OnCrawl covers an undisclosed number of AI platforms. Writesonic GEO covers 4. 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 OnCrawl and Writesonic GEO actually improve your AI visibility, or just measure it?
Both OnCrawl and Writesonic GEO 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 OnCrawl and Writesonic GEO?
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.