Tools for MSPs
Best AI visibility tools for MSPs: seven compared on the city test
By Arnav Mukherjee, founder of TofuBofu · October 31, 2026
When we scan an MSP, the questions that matter carry a place name. "Best managed IT services in Vancouver," to take one city. "MSP for healthcare practices near me." The answers to those questions cite a short list of places, and in the scans we've run for MSP brands they were Google's own business listings, Clutch, GoodFirms, IT directories, and the websites of rival MSPs in the same town.
Picture it, as an illustration: the MSP down the road with a decent Clutch profile and a page called "Managed IT in Vancouver" can get named while the bigger firm with a beautiful national homepage doesn't. An MSP needs a tool that asks the question the way its buyer asks it.
Why do MSPs need a different test?
- The buyer we're writing for is local. A dental group in Calgary wants an MSP that can send someone on Tuesday. The question names the city, and the answer changes with it.
- The sources are local too. Business listings, directories and the rival's city page are what engines leaned on in our MSP scans. None of those is a tech-press review or a software marketplace.
- The buyer is choosing who to trust with their network. In our view price comes second: a buyer wants proof you've done this for a firm like theirs, and video carries that proof better than a feature list.
A tool that measures "best managed IT services" with no city attached will hand you a number that describes a national buyer, not the one in your city.
What engines leaned on in our MSP scans (top), and the three levers an MSP owns (bottom). Small sample of brands; check it against your own market.
How did we rank them?
Four criteria, weighted for a 10 to 200 person MSP with one marketer or none:
- Does it ask the question with your city in it? Ask every vendor on the demo. TofuBofu's local scope does; confirm the rest yourself.
- Does it check fixes before showing them? A listing you're already on is a wasted afternoon.
- Does it write the content? An MSP owner reading a recommendation at 9pm won't write the page.
- Price a services firm can carry. Prices below were read on each vendor's own page on 31 October 2026. Count your questions first: three cities times four services is twelve before any variation, which fits our Dominate plan's 25 queries, crowds our Fix plan's 10, and uses about half of Semrush's 25 prompts on one engine (Semrush counts each engine separately).
We didn't rank on engine count. Profound's Enterprise plan lists nine engines, and in our view engine count matters less to a city-bound MSP than whether the tool asks about your city. TofuBofu is ours, and it's first because it was built for this buyer.
Which tool fits which MSP, at a glance?
| Tool | Best for | Entry price | Writes the content? |
|---|---|---|---|
| TofuBofu | Lean MSPs selling to named cities | Free; Fix $99/mo | Yes, from Fix |
| Peec AI | MSPs with a marketer; clean and fair, in our view | $95/mo | Briefs and rewrites of existing pages |
| HubSpot AEO | MSPs on HubSpot wanting a low-cost scan | $45/mo annual | No; drafting needs Marketing Hub Pro |
| Writesonic | Teams that want a writer; Action Center on Enterprise | $79/mo annual | Yes |
| Semrush | Toolkit for tracking; Enterprise AIO for big teams | Toolkit $99/mo | Toolkit no (Content Toolkit sold separately); Enterprise AIO yes |
| Profound | National MSPs with big teams | 7-day trial, then demo | Yes |
| Otterly.AI | Low paid entry; B2B case studies | $29/mo | Briefs; drafts via its separate GEO Content Creator |
The seven tools, reviewed for MSPs
1. TofuBofu
- Best for: SMB and mid-sized MSPs with a lean team that want to scan, diagnose and then fix with content. The scan asks buying questions localised to your market, down to city level, stores every engine's full answer and citations, and names the rivals engines pick instead.
- Price (read 31 Oct 2026): free Track plan, 1 scan a month and 5 queries, content ideas only. Fix $99/month: 4 scans, 10 queries, 10 drafted articles. Dominate $499/month: 25 queries, 25 articles, 10 video scripts and 4 newsletters. Rule from $1,999/month: Dominate's numbers, done for you by our team.
- Engines: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode, on every plan, with search on for every engine.
- Writes the content? Yes. Drafted articles (blog posts, comparison and FAQ pages) from Fix; newsletters and video scripts from Dominate. All are drafted from the questions you lose and published to WordPress, Webflow, HubSpot, GitHub or a webhook after you approve. Fixes are checked first, and we never recommend a listing we haven't checked. The next scan shows whether engines now name you on the query it targets.
- Where it falls short: no Google AI Overviews tracking (we track Google AI Mode, because Google shows no AI Overview on most vendor-shortlist questions) and no Bing Copilot. Video scripts start at Dominate. The free plan has no drafts. Finished videos are made with our team, not self-serve. We're a small company, younger than the enterprise vendors.
Our closest customer to this isn't an MSP, and the reason to mention it here is video. Robgence is a robotics training-data company, and our team produced finished videos for it: the trust format we've argued an MSP's buyer responds to. It's on Dominate and publishes the articles we draft to its own blog through GitHub. Inotek Pharma Solutions, a pharmaceutical design and engineering firm, tracks its AI visibility with us, and we wrote it a video script comparing EU GMP and US FDA requirements. We're the only AI visibility platform we checked that turns its own citation findings into video scripts as part of the plan, plus finished videos made with you.
Your own agents can start scans and pull each report, its checked fixes and its content ideas through our REST API, or run scans and read reports over MCP.
2. Peec AI
- Best for: an MSP with a marketer on staff who wants a tracker that is, in our view, clean and fairly priced.
- Price (read 31 Oct 2026): Starter $95, Pro $245, Advanced $495 a month; Enterprise custom.
- Engines: Starter, Pro and Advanced include three models, chosen from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI, with more, Perplexity among them, as paid add-ons without switching plans. Claude is on Enterprise.
- Writes the content? Partly. Content briefs and recommended actions on every plan, and a content optimizer, described in its 13 October 2026 changelog, that suggests rewrites to pages you already have, which you accept, edit or reject. On the pages we read it doesn't draft new articles from scratch. MCP on all plans, API from Pro.
- Where it falls short: three models included and each extra engine a paid add-on, and it improves pages you have rather than drafting the city pages you don't. More in our Peec review.
3. HubSpot AEO
- Best for: an MSP already running HubSpot that wants a low-cost scan.
- Price (read 31 Oct 2026): $45 a month billed annually, $50 monthly. No HubSpot subscription required.
- Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
- Writes the content? Not on the standalone plan. It recommends what to create or update; generating blog posts from those recommendations needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise plus HubSpot credits.
- Where it falls short: the standalone plan doesn't draft; drafting needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise plus credits. See HubSpot AEO claims vs reality.
See whether AI engines name your MSP in your own city. Our free scan asks real buying questions across five AI engines and shows who gets named instead. No card, no call.
Check your AI visibility free4. Writesonic
- Best for: an MSP that wants a writing platform, with citation-driven topics on Enterprise.
- Price (read 31 Oct 2026): Starter $79, Basic $199, Growth $399 a month, billed annually; Enterprise custom. Starter tracks 50 prompts daily and includes 15 AI articles a month; Basic includes 25, Growth 50.
- Engines: Starter tracks ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews; Enterprise tracks nine platforms.
- Writes the content? Yes. Starter includes 15 AI articles a month and Basic 25. Its Action Center, which groups competitor citations by intent, surfaces uncovered topics for its Article Writer and ranks page refreshes by citation impact with one-click push to your CMS, is available on Enterprise; Growth gets an Action Center trial of 5 off-page and 5 on-page actions a month. It also sells a video-script generator, plus APIs and MCP.
- Where it falls short: Starter tracks three engines, and we couldn't verify whether it localises questions to a city. Ask before you buy.
5. Semrush
- Best for: an MSP whose agency already lives in Semrush, or, through Enterprise AIO, a large MSP with a content team.
- Price (read 31 Oct 2026): AI Visibility Toolkit $99 a month per domain, billed annually, with 25 prompts, sold on its own with no other Semrush subscription needed. Enterprise AIO is demo-only pricing.
- Engines: not verified for this post; check the toolkit's own pages.
- Writes the content? Not in the AI Visibility Toolkit, which gives audits and optimisation guidance. Semrush sells drafting separately in its Content Toolkit, $60 a month billed annually, for full long-form drafts, and Enterprise AIO drafts too.
- Where it falls short: the $99 Toolkit stops at guidance, so drafting means adding the Content Toolkit or moving to Enterprise AIO.
6. Profound
- Best for: a national MSP or a roll-up with a big marketing team and an enterprise budget.
- Price (read 31 Oct 2026): free 7-day trial with 50 prompts; Enterprise is custom-priced through a demo.
- Engines: the trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. Enterprise lists ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search.
- Writes the content? Yes. Posts, images and newsletter drafts, plus a YouTube metadata agent template. Hosted MCP server and REST API.
- Where it falls short: built and priced for enterprise. In our view a 40-person MSP pays for breadth it won't use. See our Profound review.
7. Otterly.AI
- Best for: an MSP that wants the lowest paid entry price of the seven. Its case studies include B2B SaaS companies and agencies.
- Price (read 31 Oct 2026): Lite $29, Standard $189, Premium $489 a month, lower if paid annually; Enterprise custom.
- Engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot at base. Claude, AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons.
- Writes the content? Content briefs in the plan; a separate GEO Content Creator tool generates articles, listicles and comparisons, and its page doesn't say whether that's in the paid plans. MCP and API from Standard.
- Where it falls short: Claude, AI Mode and Gemini cost extra, and we couldn't confirm whether Content Creator drafts come with the paid plans.
Which one should your MSP choose?
- Choose TofuBofu if you sell to a handful of named cities, nobody on staff writes for a living, and you want the city pages, FAQ pages and trust videos drafted for you. If the honest answer to "who will do the fixes?" is "just me", Rule puts our team on it.
- Choose Peec AI if you have a marketer who'll act on what is, in our view, a clean dashboard and three included engines, plus add-ons, cover what you need.
- Choose HubSpot AEO if you live in HubSpot and want a low-cost scan, no HubSpot subscription required.
- Choose Profound or Semrush Enterprise AIO if you're a national MSP with a marketing department and a procurement process.
- Choose Otterly.AI if you want the lowest paid entry price and will add engines as you need them. For B2C brands we'd point you to Otterly; its homepage shows consumer brands such as BenQ, Avis Budget Group and eToro.
Whichever you pick, do three things this quarter. Build one page per city and service you sell, with real clients and real response times. Make sure your site links to every listing you're on, so a tool and an engine can both find them. Then record two short videos answering the question a nervous office manager asks before switching providers. Our MSP page shows how the scan handles local scope.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI visibility tool for an MSP?
For a small or mid-sized MSP with a lean marketing team, TofuBofu, because it asks buying questions localised to your city, lists checked fixes, and drafts the pages and scripts that close the gap. For tracking on a budget, look at Otterly.AI, HubSpot AEO or Peec AI. A national MSP with a big marketing team should look at Profound or Semrush Enterprise AIO.
What do AI engines cite when a buyer asks for an MSP in their city?
In the scans we've run for MSP brands, engines cited Google's own business listings, Clutch and GoodFirms, IT directories, and the websites of local rival MSPs. That's a small number of brands, so read it as a pattern worth checking against your own market rather than a law.
Why does an MSP need city-level AI visibility tracking?
Because MSP buyers rarely ask for the best managed IT company in the world. They ask for one in their city, or for their kind of practice near them. A score built on national questions can look fine while you're missing from every answer in the three cities you serve.
Do AI visibility tools write content for MSPs?
Several do, in different ways. Profound drafts posts and newsletters, Writesonic writes AI articles on every plan and, on Enterprise, from citation-driven topics, Semrush drafts through its Content Toolkit and Enterprise AIO, HubSpot generates blog posts from AEO recommendations on Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, with credits, and Peec AI suggests rewrites to pages you already have. TofuBofu drafts a typical month's articles from the questions you lose on Fix, adds newsletters and video scripts on Dominate, publishes after you approve, and the next scan shows whether engines now name you on the query each piece targets.
Does video help an MSP get named by AI engines?
Video helps a local buyer judge whether to trust a provider, and an MSP sells trust. Our view is that a short video answering a buyer's real question, published with a transcript, is worth more to an MSP than another generic blog post. TofuBofu writes video scripts on its Dominate plan and up.
Should an MSP get listed on Clutch and GoodFirms?
They appeared in the answers we saw for MSPs, so check them. TofuBofu never recommends a listing it hasn't checked. Getting reviews there is your job; no tool can or should do it for you.
Sources and further reading
- Profound pricing, read 31 October 2026: the 7-day trial and Enterprise demo
- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit and Semrush Enterprise, read 31 October 2026: price, prompts and Enterprise AIO
- HubSpot AEO, read 31 October 2026: price, engines and what it leaves to Marketing Hub
- Otterly.AI pricing, read 31 October 2026: tiers, base engines and add-ons
- Peec AI pricing, read 31 October 2026: tiers, engines by tier, MCP and API
- Writesonic, read 31 October 2026: the GEO agent and video-script generator
- TofuBofu's own MSP scans, completed scans to 31 October 2026: the sources engines cited, reported as a pattern over a small number of brands
- Peec AI changelog, read 31 October 2026: the content optimizer, described in its 13 October 2026 changelog
- Otterly.AI case studies and GEO Content Creator, read 31 October 2026
- HubSpot, set up and analyze AI visibility, read 31 October 2026: the standalone plan recommends; generating blog posts needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise and credits
- Semrush AI pricing and Enterprise AIO content optimisation, read 31 October 2026
- Writesonic pricing, read 31 October 2026: plans, prompts, engines and article counts
- Semrush Content Toolkit pricing, read 31 October 2026: drafting sold separately
- Writesonic AI Visibility Action Center, read 31 October 2026
