HubSpot AI Search Grader alternative: ShownInAI vs HubSpot

The short answer

Use HubSpot's AI Search Grader if you want a free, quick read on how AI answer engines describe your brand: tone, depth, recognition and rough market position. It costs nothing, needs no account, accepts any brand name (including your competitors') and returns a score out of 100 in under two minutes. For a first look it is hard to beat.

Choose HubSpot AEO ($50 a month, $45 billed annually) if you already run marketing in HubSpot, want 25 prompts tracked every day and have someone who will act on the recommendations. Inside Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise it also links to your CRM and can generate blog posts.

Choose ShownInAI if your real question is not "what does AI think of my brand?" but "why does AI recommend my competitors when buyers ask for a tool like mine?", and you have no time to turn a score into pages. For $9 in the first month we check 10 real buyer questions, show which competitors are named instead of you and which sources the answers cite, and write the 3 pages most likely to get you named. After that it is $29 a month with 3 new pages every month, and if AI answers still do not name you within 60 days, you get everything back.

What HubSpot's AI Search Grader actually measures

We read HubSpot's own Grader page on 23 October 2026. You enter your company name, location, industry and product or service. The Grader sends that to three AI answer engines and asks how each one characterises your brand. HubSpot's AEO product page adds that two of the three answer from training data and one from live search, and that the queries are pre-set.

The result is a score out of 100 built from five weighted parts: sentiment (up to 40 points), presence quality (20), brand recognition (20), share of voice (10) and market competition (10), which classifies you as a leader, challenger or niche player. You complete a short form to see the full breakdown and a written interpretation.

That is a brand perception check. It answers "when AI is asked about us, what does it say?" It is good at spotting a negative narrative or a brand AI barely knows. What it is not designed to answer is the question that decides most software purchases: when a buyer who has never heard of you asks for the best tool in your category, are you on the shortlist? A buyer typing "best invoicing app for freelancers" does not type your name. A brand-name check, scored mostly from training data, cannot see whether you win or lose that answer.

HubSpot is open about this. Its own pages call the Grader "a single moment in time" and point to HubSpot AEO for tracking. It also offers AI Search Sensor, a free tracker of industry-wide trends, which, in HubSpot's words, will not show your brand's visibility.

What HubSpot AEO costs in 2026

HubSpot AEO is the paid tracker. On HubSpot's AEO pages, checked 23 October 2026, it is $50 a month, or $45 a month if you pay for the year, for 25 prompts tracked across three AI answer engines. It does not need any other HubSpot subscription, and there is a 28-day free trial with no credit card. Extra prompt add-ons are available. HubSpot's knowledge base lists the limits: 2,500 answers a month and 25 prompts a day, with tracked prompts run daily.

The standalone plan includes brand visibility, prompt tracking, competitor analysis, citation analysis and recommendations. Two features are reserved for AEO inside Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise: generating blog posts and CRM-based prompt suggestions. Marketing Hub Professional starts at $890 a month on monthly billing or $800 a month billed annually, with 3 core seats and a required one-time $3,000 onboarding fee. Enterprise starts at $3,600 a month with 5 seats and a $7,000 onboarding fee, and doubles the AEO limits to 50 prompts a day and 5,000 answers a month.

So the HubSpot route to tracking plus written content starts at $800 a month and $3,000 up front, plus the time to review and publish what it drafts. That makes sense for a team already running its marketing in HubSpot. It is a lot for a founder who simply wants to appear when buyers ask for tools in their category.

ShownInAI has one plan for a single brand. Starter is $9 for the first month, then $29 a month, and includes the scan, 3 written pages, 3 new pages every month and tracking every 14 days. The Agency plan is $99 a month for up to 10 client sites with white-label PDF reports. The $49 AI Visibility Report is a one-time purchase if you only want to see where you stand on real buyer questions.

What HubSpot does better

• A free first look. The Grader costs nothing, needs no account and takes under two minutes. ShownInAI has no free scan, because live checks cost real money to run.
• Brand perception detail. Sentiment by topic, depth of mentions and how AI positions you (leader, challenger or niche player) are not things ShownInAI scores separately.
• Check anyone. The Grader accepts any brand name, so you can look at competitors or prospects for free.
• Daily tracking of more prompts. HubSpot AEO tracks 25 prompts every day for $50 a month, against our 10 buyer questions every 14 days.
• A long free trial. 28 days of HubSpot AEO with no card is generous.
• One platform for HubSpot customers. If your CRM, email and blog already live in HubSpot, AEO in Marketing Hub ties AI visibility to campaigns and lets you act on recommendations without switching tools.

What ShownInAI does better

• It checks the questions buyers ask, not your name. Every ShownInAI check uses unbranded buyer questions such as "best [category]", "[competitor] alternatives" and "X vs Y", answered live with web search, so the result shows whether you make the shortlist.
• It writes the pages. A score or a recommendation still leaves someone to decide what to publish and to write it. ShownInAI writes 3 publish-ready pages straight after payment, with FAQ schema, and 3 new ones every month, aimed at the exact questions where AI names someone else.
• Written pages without a $800 platform. On HubSpot, generated content for AEO is only in Marketing Hub Professional and above. ShownInAI includes the pages at $29 a month.
• It shows who wins instead of you, and why. For each question we list the competitors named and the sources the answer leaned on, which is the work plan for getting in.
• It puts money on the result. If AI answers still do not name you within 60 days, we refund everything you have paid. If the first month is not useful, email us within 7 days and we refund the $9.
• It is built for agencies with small clients. $99 a month covers 10 client sites with white-label PDF reports, about $10 a client.

Why the written pages matter

We ran unbranded buyer questions through AI search for 50 software brands. 39 of the 50 were never named in any answer to their own category's buyer questions, and all 30 brands that had launched in the previous month scored 0. Many of those brands would still get a decent brand-perception score, because AI says neutral or positive things about them when asked by name. They simply are not recommended when a buyer asks for options.

The sources explain why. In 33 of the 50 cases, the most cited source was a competitor's own website: its comparison pages, docs and help centre. Review sites were the top source for only 6 of 50 brands. The pages that decide who gets recommended are mostly pages companies wrote about themselves and their rivals.

That is why ShownInAI spends its effort on writing. A comparison page, an alternatives page or a plain answer page for the buyer question you are losing is what changes the answer. A perception score will not pick those topics for you.

Which one fits you

1. 01Curious what AI says about your brand, with no budget: run HubSpot's free AI Search Grader first. It is free and quick.
2. 02Founder or small SaaS team that wants to be recommended, with no content person: ShownInAI Starter. $9 to start, pages written for you, and a 60-day guarantee if it does not work.
3. 03Marketing team already on HubSpot that wants daily tracking: HubSpot AEO at $50 a month, or AEO inside Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise if you already pay for it.
4. 04Agency selling AI visibility to many small clients: ShownInAI Agency at $99 a month for 10 sites, white-labelled, with pages written for each client.
5. 05Not sure yet: run the free Grader, then buy the $49 ShownInAI report to see how you do on real buyer questions, and compare the two pictures.

Can you use both?

Yes, and they fit together well. The Grader tells you how AI describes your brand when asked by name. ShownInAI tells you whether you are named when buyers ask for options, and writes the pages to fix the gaps. Plenty of HubSpot customers keep HubSpot for CRM and email and add ShownInAI for the pages, rather than upgrading to Marketing Hub Professional for content generation. The deciding question is simple: do you need a score, or pages?

How to go from a Grader score to being recommended

1. 01Run the free HubSpot Grader and note any negative or thin areas, especially sentiment and presence quality.
2. 02Start ShownInAI for $9 with your website address. The scan runs straight after payment and takes about a minute, and shows which buyer questions you lose and who wins them.
3. 03Publish the 3 pages we write on your own site, and link to them from your pricing page, docs or blog so they are easy to find.
4. 04Fix the sources: if the answers lean on a review site or roundup where you are missing, that is your next task.
5. 05Re-run the Grader in a month or two if you want a second perception read; ShownInAI rechecks your buyer questions every 14 days.

How we checked these facts

HubSpot's facts on this page come from HubSpot's own public pages, checked on 23 October 2026: the AI Search Grader page, the HubSpot AEO product page and its AI search monitoring page, the knowledge-base article on setting up AEO (limits and features by plan) and the Marketing Hub pricing page. Prices are in US dollars as shown to us and may differ by region or change, so check the source before you buy. ShownInAI's numbers come from our own pricing page. If anything here about HubSpot is wrong or out of date, email [email protected] and we will correct it.