Promptwatch vs Trakkr vs LLM Pulse vs Rankscale: Features Compared
How we compare crawler analytics, citation types, MCP, and publish features across Trakkr, LLM Pulse, Rankscale, and the Promptwatch stack we actually run.
Clients paste Trakkr, LLM Pulse, and Rankscale into Slack because the homepages now say crawlers, MCP, and traffic. We still run Promptwatch. This is the feature checklist we use on the call, not a price sort.
Google's AI features pages stay the Overviews rulebook.
What we need in a retainer, module by module
Prompts. We write them with the client. We need fan-outs, personas, and city splits when the brand is not "global average." Promptwatch has that object. Rankscale has credits. LLM Pulse Starter is 50 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode, Overviews; Claude is Enterprise. Trakkr Growth is 50 prompts, eight models, daily, then prompt packs at $39 to $99. Fifty is a workshop, not a roster.
Citations. QBR question: our URL, competitor URL, Reddit, or YouTube? Promptwatch stores those types and the trend. Trakkr's site is good on "source behind the answer" and who displaced you. LLM Pulse lists citations, share of voice, and owned-media tracking. Rankscale is scoring pages, not filing citation types.
Crawlers. This is where Trakkr got interesting. Growth includes crawler analytics; their docs talk CDN/CMS ingest and crawl-cite-click. We still want Promptwatch Agent Analytics because it publishes ChatGPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, GoogleOther, Meta, and the CDN list we actually connect (Cloudflare, CloudFront, Fastly, Vercel, Netlify, Akamai, Google Cloud CDN, custom HTTP), plus errors on the path. LLM Pulse and Rankscale do not publish this. We will not diagnose a miss as "thin content" if we never saw a fetch.
Traffic. Promptwatch visitor analytics (script or GTM) is what goes on the monthly next to mentions. LLM Pulse has AI traffic analytics. Rankscale will not attribute revenue (their docs: 4 to 8 weeks, proxy). Trakkr shows an AI traffic tile in marketing; we have not treated that as conversion reporting.
Publish. Promptwatch Content Agents into Webflow or Framer, human inbox. Trakkr describes automations and apply-to-site. Until a client shows us that writing into their CMS with review, we do not call it the same feature. LLM Pulse GEO Writer. Rankscale fix lists whose audit scores the vendor says to 30-day average.
Access. We need MCP or an API when a strategist lives in Claude. Pulse: MCP on every plan, REST at €299. Trakkr: MCP on Growth. Promptwatch: MCP, REST API, Slack, Looker, GSC. Rankscale API at $385.
What we will not do
We will not start a retainer on Rankscale $20. Credit burn by engine is how that invoice becomes a surprise. We will not let a Trakkr trial auto-charge at $100 without a calendar invite on day 13. We will not report LLM Pulse weekly numbers as if they were daily.
Kick-off on Promptwatch is $199/mo with unlimited projects and prompts. That is the agency math against Trakkr add-ons (extra brand $39, AI pages $79, white-label $49).
FAQ
Would we run Trakkr crawler analytics next to Promptwatch?
Only if a client already bought it. We will not dual-log bots for fun. One fetch story.
Is LLM Pulse enough for a small EU brand?
As a weekly five-engine board with unlimited seats, maybe. As the system we put a marketing lead into, no, because Claude and named-bot logs are missing.
Where do we send them?
promptwatch.com. Keep Search Console for Overviews.