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Skald vs Profound: both ask the AI, both read the log
Skald vs Profound compares two tools that do both halves of AI visibility: they put your buyers' questions to AI engines, and they read the requests AI makes to your site. Profound asks more engines and checks more crawlers. Skald reads every request in your own server log, on your own server, and follows a visit to the lead.
Profound runs your prompts daily across AI answer engines (up to nine on its Enterprise plan) and, with Agent Analytics, reads the request logs your CDN or host forwards to it. Skald reads your server's access log, sorts every request into five groups that add up to the log, checks crawlers against their owners' published addresses, and asks four assistants your questions on your own API keys. Every claim about Profound below links to its own page, read on 26 October 2026.
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| Crawler | Profound, by its docs | Skald |
|---|---|---|
| Googlebot | reverse DNSASN | Google's listreverse DNS |
| GPTBot | IP rangeASN | OpenAI's list |
| ClaudeBot | ASNheuristic"Partially Verified" | Anthropic's list |
| Meta- | ASN | Meta's network |
| Amazonbot | reverse DNSIP range | not checked |
| CCBot | IP range | not checked |
Profound's docs name a method for 47 crawlers. Skald checks the crawlers of nine owners and counts every other one by its name.
ASN: the network an address belongs to. Heuristic: judged by how the crawler behaves. Skald still counts a crawler it does not check, under its own name.
Profound docs, Crawler Verification, read 26 Oct 2026 · docs.tryprofound.com/agent-analytics/crawler-verification
[01] question by question
Skald vs Profound, question by question
Nine questions, each Profound answer taken from its own page and linked. Questions its pages did not answer are not in the table. See every comparison.
| The question | Profoundby its own pages | Skaldyour server log |
|---|---|---|
| How it gets the traffic | "Uses server logs instead of JavaScript trackers", with integrations for Akamai, AWS, Cloudflare, Fastly, Google Analytics, Google Cloud Platform, Netlify, Vercel and WordPressProfound, 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/features/agent-analyticsProfound, 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/pricing | Reads your web server's access log, or your CDN's; nothing in your pages |
| Where the log goes | To Profound: its custom log API takes lines sent to its own endpoint, in batches of up to 1,000 as its docs adviseProfound docs, 26 Oct 2026 · docs.tryprofound.com/agent-analytics/custom | Stays on the server Skald runs on, yours when you self-host |
| Is that crawler real? | "Reverse DNS Lookup", "IP Range Validation" and "Heuristic Detection", with a method named for 47 crawlersProfound docs, 26 Oct 2026 · docs.tryprofound.com/agent-analytics/crawler-verification | Its owner's published list, DNS or network, for nine owners; other crawlers counted by name, unchecked |
| A fake GPTBot | "Differentiates real AI bots from spoofed crawlers for accurate reporting"Profound, 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/features/agent-analytics | Filed under bots and scanners as "claims to be GPTBot" |
| AI answers | Prompts run daily; "Up to 9 Answer Engines tracked" on Enterprise, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode among themProfound, 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/pricing | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude through their APIs, on your own keys; no AI Overviews |
| What it reads in an answer | Visibility score, citations, sentiment, FactCheck, share of voice (your mentions against your competitors' mentions) and average positionProfound docs, 26 Oct 2026 · docs.tryprofound.com/answer-engine-insights/about | Named in how many tries, pages cited, citation rank, competitors named; no sentiment |
| People who come from AI | From the log's referer or query parameters: without either, "human referral data will not be available"; sessions, transactions and revenue from your Google Analytics 4 property, connected to Profound; conversions through Profound Pixel, a script in betaProfound docs, 26 Oct 2026 · docs.tryprofound.com/agent-analytics/extensions/google-analyticsProfound docs, 26 Oct 2026 · docs.tryprofound.com/agent-analytics/customProfound docs, 26 Oct 2026 · docs.tryprofound.com/pixel/overview | From the same log, by assistant, a floor as apps strip referrers; followed to forms, bookings and payments |
| How far back | History "None" on the Trial, "All time" on EnterpriseProfound, 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/pricing | 180 days in the dashboard |
| Price | A free Trial, 50 prompts run daily for 7 days; Enterprise "Custom". For agencies, each client workspace is a $399-a-month add-on. As listed on tryprofound.com on 26 Oct 2026Profound, 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/pricing | The Docker image is free on your own server (Elastic License 2.0); hosted Skald is priced per site on the pricing page |
Every Profound answer was read on its own pages on 26 October 2026. If we have one wrong, tell us.
[02] who asks which engine
Which AI engines each one asks
Both tools put your questions to AI engines and keep the answers: a sample, never what every user sees. Pick an engine to see who asks it, and on which plan. Profound's Enterprise list also has DeepSeek and Exa Search, a web search engine that AI apps call.
Which engine? pick one
udm=50, the mark Google puts on AI Mode results.Skald's answers cost on your own provider account, about 1 to 4 US cents an answer, with a daily cap you set. Profound's come with its plan.
Profound pricing, read 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/pricing
[03] to be fair
Where Profound does more than Skald
Profound is built around AI answers, for teams that want every engine and every crawler named. Pick it for these three.
More engines
Up to nine on Enterprise, with Google AI Overviews and AI Mode among them. Skald asks four, through their APIs, and tracks no AI Overviews.
More crawlers checked
Its docs name a check for 47 crawlers, 16 of them under "Partially Verified Platforms", Anthropic's, Common Crawl's and ByteDance's among them, with heuristics where an owner publishes nothing. Skald checks the crawlers of nine owners.
More read from each answer
Sentiment, FactCheck against your own facts, share of voice (how often answers name you against your competitors), and Prompt Volumes, to "see what users are prompting AI Answer Engines". Skald counts names, citations and competitors.
Profound, read 26 Oct 2026 · tryprofound.com/pricing · docs.tryprofound.com/agent-analytics/crawler-verification · docs.tryprofound.com/answer-engine-insights/about
[04] use both
Profound's answers, beside every request in your own log
Skald reads the log your server already writes, so its first day also covers the days still on disk. When you run it yourself, your log never leaves your server.
Count
Every request in five groups: people, AI assistants, search engines, bots and scanners, your own traffic. They add up to the log.
Check
Every figure is counted a second time by separate code. A day where the two counts differ is withheld until someone finds out why.
Follow
For one page and one assistant: answers that cited it, its fetcher reading it, the visits it sent, and the leads they became.
[05] choose by the question
Profound, Skald, or both
Pick by whether you want every engine and crawler named, or a checked count of every request on your own server.
- "What do AI Overviews and Copilot say about us?" Profound.
- "Is that Amazonbot really Amazon's?" Profound.
- "Does every request land in one of five groups, each counted twice?" Skald.
- "Which AI click became a lead, and can the data stay with us?" Skald.
What it does not do
- Four assistants are asked, through their APIs; Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and Copilot are not.
- Each answer is billed to your own provider account, and a sample says which way things move, not what every user saw.
- A crawler outside the nine owners Skald checks is counted by its name, unchecked.
- History in the dashboard stops at 180 days; Profound Enterprise lists "All time". A site with no server or CDN log gets people only, from the script tag, and no crawlers.
keep reading
More on Skald vs Profound
questions
Skald vs Profound FAQ
Straight answers, including what Skald does not do.
What does Profound do?
By its own pages, read on 26 October 2026: it runs structured prompts across AI platforms and tracks where your brand appears, with citations, sentiment, ranking and competitors. Its Agent Analytics reads server logs your CDN or host forwards, tells real AI bots from spoofed ones, and measures human visitors from AI search. It also sells an AI Marketer and Agents that run on credits.
Does Profound read server logs?
Yes. Its Agent Analytics page says it "uses server logs instead of JavaScript trackers", and its pricing page lists integrations for Akamai, AWS, Cloudflare, Fastly, Google Analytics, Google Cloud Platform, Netlify, Vercel and WordPress. Its docs add a custom log API. Skald reads the access log on your own server, or logs sent to it.
Which one checks more crawlers?
Profound. Its docs name a method for 47 crawlers: reverse DNS, IP ranges, the network (ASN) or heuristics. Skald checks the crawlers of nine owners against their published lists, DNS or network, files a fake as "claims to be GPTBot", and counts every other crawler by name, unchecked. How AI crawler checks work.
Does Skald track Google AI Overviews?
No. Skald asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude through their APIs, on your own keys. Profound tracks Google AI Overviews on its free Trial and on Enterprise, with Google AI Mode, Copilot, DeepSeek and Exa Search on Enterprise.
How much does Profound cost?
Its pricing page, as listed on 26 October 2026, shows a free Trial (50 prompts run daily for 7 days, on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) and Enterprise at a custom price. For agencies, each client workspace is an add-on at $399 a month. Skald is free to self-host; hosted plans are on the pricing page.
Can I use both?
Yes. Profound takes the logs your CDN or host forwards; Skald reads your server's own log. A page your CDN answers from its cache never reaches your server's log, so if you want the two counts to line up, send Skald your CDN's log as well.
$ tail -f access.log | skald
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