VisiScan vs Ansvisor 2026
VisiScan is a four-engine local scan at $0 / $49 / $29. Ansvisor is MIT code plus $49/$249 cloud. Starter engines differ. Promptwatch stays in the table.
VisiScan and Ansvisor can both sit in a "$49 GEO" tab. They are not the same $49. VisiScan's $49 is a one-time 12-question report (up to 144 answers) with schema to paste. Ansvisor's $49 is Starter cloud: 50 prompts a month, one brand, ChatGPT and Perplexity only. Promptwatch is the third column for crawler logs, citation depth, and CMS publish.
The headline price is the trap in this comparison. Both tools print $49 on a pricing page, and a buyer who skims the sticker treats them as substitutes. They are not. VisiScan's $49 is a document you buy once, a 12-question report that returns up to 144 answers, with a schema file you can paste into the site. Ansvisor's $49 is a month of cloud tracking, 50 prompts, one brand, and only two engines, ChatGPT and Perplexity. One is a deliverable. The other is a subscription. The rest of the comparison is about what each subscription or each deliverable contains, and where Promptwatch sits relative to both.
Ansvisor: MIT, GitHub ansvisor/ansvisor, Empler AI Inc., co-founders Gokhan and Cihan Geyik, launch claimed 15 May 2026. Self-host with IS_CLOUD=false; bring Supabase, an AI provider, Cloro. Cloud Growth $249 adds Gemini, Copilot, AI Mode, Overviews on the card. Enterprise from $999. Engine lists fight on Claude and Grok. Trial copy fights Pro versus Starter versus 7-day demo. Ansvisor's identity is open source first. The license is MIT, the repo is GitHub ansvisor/ansvisor, the company behind it is Empler AI Inc., and the co-founders are Gokhan and Cihan Geyik. The launch date claimed on the traffic page is 15 May 2026. Self-host is the path that makes the "free" claim honest, but it is free as in software, not free as in data collection. Setting IS_CLOUD=false ungates the self-host build, and you bring your own Supabase, your own AI provider, and Cloro. Those are real line items on a real invoice, and the buyer who self-hosts pays them. The cloud side has its own ladder. Growth at $249 is the tier that adds Gemini, Copilot, AI Mode, and Overviews to the card, which is where the engine list stops being just ChatGPT and Perplexity. Enterprise starts from $999. Two engine-list fights show up in the docs. Claude and Grok appear on the README and in the FAQ in places where they are not on the paid card, so a buyer who reads the README and then reads the pricing card gets two different answers about which engines are included. The trial copy fights with itself too, mixing Pro, Starter, and a 7-day demo across pages, which is the reason the trial row in the grid below is the one to read carefully.
VisiScan: Mike Holp, four engines on every SKU including the free scan, 1 scan per URL free, Monitor $29/mo weekly. pricing.md 24 August 2026.
VisiScan is the narrower product and the more legible one. The founder is named, Mike Holp. Four engines ship on every SKU, including the free scan, so the free tier is not a stripped engine list. The free scan is capped at one per URL, which is the limit that separates a free taste from a free tracker. Monitor at $29/mo is the weekly re-grade tier. The pricing.md date of 24 August 2026 is the provenance for the numbers on this row.
Snapshot
| VisiScan | Ansvisor | Promptwatch | |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | 40-answer scan, 1 URL | MIT self-host (you pay APIs) | Explore, 10 ChatGPT prompts |
| $49 | One-time 144-answer report | Cloud Starter, 2 engines, 50 prompts | Not a SKU |
| ~$250 | Not a SKU | Growth, extra engines on the card | Professional, 25M crawler logs |
| ~$30/mo | Monitor, weekly 12 questions | None | None |
| Logs | Readiness signal | Traffic snippet | Agent Analytics |
| Publish | Paste schema / llms.txt | Briefs, Agent Chat | Content Agents |
| Repo | No | MIT | No |
The snapshot is the part to read row by row, because the rows are where the two $49 products come apart. The $0 row shows three different free things. VisiScan gives a 40-answer scan on one URL. Ansvisor gives MIT self-host where you pay the APIs. Promptwatch gives Explore with ten ChatGPT prompts. None of those is the same free thing. The $49 row is the one that earns the comparison its title. VisiScan's $49 is a one-time 144-answer report. Ansvisor's $49 is Cloud Starter with two engines and 50 prompts. Promptwatch has no $49 SKU. The ~$250 row is where the products stop overlapping entirely. VisiScan has no SKU at this price. Ansvisor Growth puts extra engines on the card. Promptwatch Professional lands here with 25M crawler logs. The ~$30/mo row belongs to VisiScan Monitor alone, weekly 12 questions, because neither Ansvisor nor Promptwatch has a SKU at that sticker. Logs, publish, and repo are the three rows that decide whether a buyer is looking at a scanner, a codebase, or a platform. VisiScan gives a readiness signal. Ansvisor gives a traffic snippet. Promptwatch gives Agent Analytics. On publish, VisiScan pastes schema and llms.txt, Ansvisor ships briefs and Agent Chat articles, and Promptwatch runs Content Agents. On repo, only Ansvisor is MIT.
Do not mix VisiScan Monitor $29 with a Promptwatch plan. Do not mix Ansvisor Starter $49 with VisiScan's $49 PDF. One is a month of two-engine prompts. One is a document.
The two mixing errors are the ones that show up in proposals. VisiScan Monitor at $29 is a weekly re-grade, not a Promptwatch plan, and treating it as one drops the citation analytics and the visitor events that are the actual point of a Promptwatch seat. Ansvisor Starter at $49 is a month of two-engine prompts, and VisiScan's $49 is a document, so putting them on the same line of a comparison sheet hides that one renews and one does not.
Pick
VisiScan if the URL is local and you wanted a named-rate this hour. Ansvisor if you wanted inspectable code or a standing $49 ChatGPT/Perplexity seat and you will screenshot the engine card. Promptwatch if you wanted Essential at $95 or Professional at $245 with logs. Self-host Ansvisor is free software, not free data collection.
The pick splits three ways. VisiScan is the right buy when the URL is local and the deliverable is a named-rate this hour, a number you can put in a deck today. Ansvisor is the right buy when the requirement is inspectable code, or a standing $49 ChatGPT and Perplexity seat, and the buyer is willing to screenshot the engine card to confirm what is included. Promptwatch is the right buy when the requirement is Essential at $95 or Professional at $245 with logs. The line about self-host Ansvisor is the one to keep in the proposal language. Self-host is free software, not free data collection, and the difference is the Supabase, AI provider, and Cloro line items that show up on the self-hoster's own bill.