Head-to-head review · Updated June 2026

Profound vs Schema App: which one wins in 2026?

Profound and Schema App 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. Profound has raised $154.5 million, Schema App has raised Bootstrapped; Profound is the more-funded incumbent; Schema App is the leaner challenger.

Profound is cheaper out the gate, but that's not the only thing that matters. The right pick depends on which dimension matters most for you.

The verdict
★ Our pick
Pick

Profound

Pick Profound if you want the cheaper option ($99/mo vs $100/mo); and you need broader AI platform coverage (10 platforms vs 0); and you trust traction signals — they list 16 customers, Schema App lists 9; and you want the better-funded company ($154.5 million).

Pick

Schema App

Pick Schema App if you want the cheaper option ($100/mo vs $99/mo).

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 Profound

Profound has raised $154.5 million (Series C in February 2026 at $1B valuation). Founded by James Cadwallader, Dylan Babbs, based in New York, NY, USA. On their site they list 16 named customers including Ramp, Zapier, Alchemy, Aleph. They cover 10 AI platforms. Pricing starts at $99/mo with no free trial.

Profound is the full-stack AI visibility marketing platform that helps enterprise brands monitor, optimize, and measure how they appear across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and eight other AI answer engines.

What people praise

  • Intuitive, polished UI that makes complex AI visibility data easy to read and report on
  • Unique Prompt Volumes dataset showing real AI search demand that no competitor offers
  • Fast and thorough onboarding with highly responsive customer success team
  • Conversation Explorer gives direct visibility into how real users query AI platforms

Where it falls short

  • Pricing is steep relative to what lower tiers unlock, with a large jump between Growth and Enterprise
  • No free trial or self-serve signup - every plan requires a sales conversation first
  • Dashboard can be confusing - visibility data does not clearly tell you what to do next
  • Single-workspace architecture makes it unusable or cumbersome for agencies managing multiple clients

The case for Schema App

Schema App has raised Bootstrapped. Founded by Martha van Berkel, Mark van Berkel, based in Guelph, Canada. On their site they list 9 named customers including SAP, Wells Fargo, AdventHealth, Gusto. Pricing starts at $100/mo.

Enterprise schema markup and knowledge graph management platform.

What people praise

  • Deploys schema markup at enterprise scale, with Wells Fargo case study showing 1,200+ pages migrated from plugin-based markup.
  • Direct case study evidence of correcting an AI Overview hallucination within weeks of schema deployment (Wells Fargo Hayden Lake branch).
  • Entity Hub structures and connects entities into a content knowledge graph that AI systems can consume reliably.
  • SOC 2 Type II compliant, which is a hard requirement for the regulated enterprise buyers it targets.

Where it falls short

  • No public pricing tiers; all deals are custom quotes with a 12-month minimum commitment.
  • Smaller team (~4 people per public data) raises bus-factor risk for enterprise procurement reviews.
  • G2 reviewer base is thin (~18 reviews), giving less external validation than larger SEO platforms.
  • Attribution is complex; tying schema markup to revenue or organic click gains is not straightforward.

Pricing, tier by tier

Tier 1
Profound
Starter
$99
  • ChatGPT tracking only
  • 50 prompts tracked
  • 1 language and 1 region
  • 1 seat
Schema App
Platform Subscription
Custom
  • Schema App Editor and/or Highlighter access
  • Ongoing support services
  • Minimum 1 hour per month of high-touch support
  • Strategy and setup fee one-time charge
Tier 2
Profound
Growth
$399
  • 3 answer engines tracked
  • 100 prompts tracked (9,000 responses)
  • 6 optimized articles per month
  • 1 language and 1 region
Schema App
Entity Hub Add-on
Custom
  • Extended entity linking and graph control
  • Cross-page entity governance
Tier 3
Profound
Enterprise
Custom
  • 10 answer engines tracked
  • Multiple companies tracked
  • Tailored prompt tracking plan
  • API access
Schema App
MCP Server Add-on
$100 per 100K external requests
  • MCP server for AI tool integration
  • 100K external requests included
  • Schema-aware access for chatbots

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 Profound
  • Answer Engine Insights. Tracks how a brand is mentioned, cited, and represented across AI answer engines, including sentiment analysis and competitive share of voice monitoring.
  • Prompt Volumes. Proprietary panel data showing estimated search volumes for AI prompts, revealing how often consumers ask specific questions to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other LLMs.
  • Profound Agents. Autonomous AI marketing agents that orchestrate content workflows, including content refresh, AEO FAQ generation, competitive research, and CMS publishing.
Only on Schema App
  • Schema Markup Editor. Deploys structured data and entity linking across enterprise sites at scale.
  • Entity Hub. Structures and connects entities through a centralized knowledge graph.
  • Schema Performance Analytics. Tracks schema markup visibility metrics in search and AI results.
  • Content Knowledge Graph. Translates business information into machine-readable models for AI consumption.
  • Highlighter. Visual schema markup tool for content teams without dev resources.

When each one wins

When Profound wins
  • Budget is the constraint. Profound starts at $99/mo vs Schema App's $100/mo, so on a per-seat basis it's the cheaper way in.
  • Platform coverage matters. Profound monitors 10 AI platforms; Schema App covers 0.
  • You're enterprise and need to call a reference. Profound lists 16 named customers; Schema App lists 9.
  • You want the better-funded incumbent. Profound has raised $154.5 million, giving it more runway and shipping velocity.
When Schema App wins
  • Deploys schema markup at enterprise scale, with Wells Fargo case study showing 1,200+ pages migrated from plugin-based markup.
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 Profound 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 Profound over Schema App

  1. Lower entry price. Profound starts at $99/mo vs Schema App's $100/mo.
  2. Broader AI platform coverage. Profound tracks visibility across 10 AI engines vs Schema App's 0.
  3. Better-funded incumbent. Profound has raised $154.5 million, giving it more runway and shipping velocity than Schema App (Bootstrapped).
  4. More named customers. Profound lists 16 customers vs Schema App's 9, including Ramp, Zapier, Alchemy.
  5. HIPAA-ready. Profound is HIPAA compliant; Schema App is not.
  6. More verified reviews. Profound has 790 G2 reviews vs Schema App's 18, so the average rating carries more weight.
  7. Faster product velocity. Profound has shipped 8 public launches in the last year vs Schema App's 4.
  8. Built for the LLM era. Profound was founded in 2024, built around AI search from day one; Schema App dates back to 2014 and is retrofitting.
  9. Wider integration ecosystem. Profound integrates with 28 tools; Schema App ships 8.
  10. What users praise most. Intuitive, polished UI that makes complex AI visibility data easy to read and report on

Reasons to pick Schema App over Profound

  1. More mature platform. Schema App (founded 2014) has had more time to harden the product than Profound (2024).
  2. What users praise most. Deploys schema markup at enterprise scale, with Wells Fargo case study showing 1,200+ pages migrated from plugin-based markup.

Switching from one to the other

From Profound to Schema App

Export your saved queries and prompt panels from Profound (most tools support CSV export). Most Schema App setups can import the same query list in a single CSV upload. Expect 1-2 days of parallel running so you can validate Schema App's data againstProfound's; one to two weeks of full reconciliation before you cancel Profound. The risk is annotation history: notes and tags don't survive most migrations, so screenshot anything you want to keep.

From Schema App to Profound

Same flow in reverse. Export from Schema App, import to Profound. 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

ProfoundSchema App
Starts at (USD/mo)$99/mo$100/mo
Founded20242014
HeadquartersNew York, NY, USAGuelph, Canada
Funding raised$154.5 millionBootstrapped
AI platforms tracked10
G2 rating4.6 / 5 (790 reviews)4.8 / 5 (18 reviews)
Named customers169
SOC 2 Type 2✓ Yes✓ 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.

Profoundwhat users praise

  • Intuitive, polished UI that makes complex AI visibility data easy to read and report on
  • Unique Prompt Volumes dataset showing real AI search demand that no competitor offers
  • Fast and thorough onboarding with highly responsive customer success team
  • Conversation Explorer gives direct visibility into how real users query AI platforms
  • Rapid product velocity with frequent feature releases

Profoundwhat users complain about

  • Pricing is steep relative to what lower tiers unlock, with a large jump between Growth and Enterprise
  • No free trial or self-serve signup - every plan requires a sales conversation first
  • Dashboard can be confusing - visibility data does not clearly tell you what to do next
  • Single-workspace architecture makes it unusable or cumbersome for agencies managing multiple clients
  • Platform performance issues - slow load times and bugs triggered by plan upgrades

Schema Appwhat users praise

  • Deploys schema markup at enterprise scale, with Wells Fargo case study showing 1,200+ pages migrated from plugin-based markup.
  • Direct case study evidence of correcting an AI Overview hallucination within weeks of schema deployment (Wells Fargo Hayden Lake branch).
  • Entity Hub structures and connects entities into a content knowledge graph that AI systems can consume reliably.
  • SOC 2 Type II compliant, which is a hard requirement for the regulated enterprise buyers it targets.
  • 4.75/5 rating on G2 and 4.9/5 on Capterra reflect strong customer satisfaction in a niche category.

Schema Appwhat users complain about

  • No public pricing tiers; all deals are custom quotes with a 12-month minimum commitment.
  • Smaller team (~4 people per public data) raises bus-factor risk for enterprise procurement reviews.
  • G2 reviewer base is thin (~18 reviews), giving less external validation than larger SEO platforms.
  • Attribution is complex; tying schema markup to revenue or organic click gains is not straightforward.
  • Mandatory minimum 1 hour per month of paid high-touch support inflates effective cost for small teams.

A third option

Both Profound and Schema Appare 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.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, Profound or Schema App?

Honestly: neither one fully solves the problem. Profound and Schema App 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 Profound 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 Profound and Schema App cost?

Profound starts at $99/mo. Schema App starts at $100/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 Profound and Schema App cover?

Profound covers 10 AI platforms. Schema App covers an undisclosed number of. 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 Profound and Schema App actually improve your AI visibility, or just measure it?

Both Profound and Schema App 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 Profound and Schema App?

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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. Audience intelligence analyses· SparkToro

    Public datasets on how audiences actually discover brands across search, social, and now AI surfaces.

  5. 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.