For agencies · Updated September 2026
One of the best SEO toolsets there is.
We do the writing and publishing.
Ahrefs is one of the strongest SEO toolsets available, and its AI-visibility tracking extends the same discipline to AI assistants. If your agency does SEO at any scale you almost certainly keep Ahrefs, and nothing on this page should change that. Found by AI is a different shape of thing: a white-label AI-search content programme you resell. Monitoring identifies the buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client in them, those gaps become the month's brief, and we write, publish and measure the content that answers them - under your agency's brand.
Stop at the dashboard.
Show the gap. Don't address it with content production. A client looking at a monitoring dashboard with no content production is not a recurring conversation; it's a quarterly question.
Write briefs from keyword tools.
Briefs come from search-volume guesswork. They produce useful articles, but the priorities don't reflect what AI assistants are actually citing for the client's category.
Turn monitoring evidence into the next brief.
Last month's monitoring evidence, competitor appearances, citation gaps, missing facts, weak topics, is where next month's topics are chosen from. Then the Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report shows what changed.
The wedge is the loop, not any single layer of it.
Different products entirely
Ahrefs is a toolset your team operates.
We are the team that does the work.
Ahrefs is an exceptional SEO toolset. Backlink data, keyword research, site audits, rank tracking - these are category benchmarks, and the AI-visibility side extends the idea to AI assistants: see where a brand is mentioned, research the questions, read the dashboards. It is a genuinely good product, and it is a tool. It assumes there is someone on the other side of the dashboard with the hours to turn findings into published work.
Found by AI assumes the opposite, because that is the constraint most small agencies actually have. We don't sell you a dashboard to operate. We run the loop for your clients: the monitoring is the brief, we write the articles against it, we publish them to a blog on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, and the Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report documents what changed. Portal, report and emails carry your agency's brand. We never solicit your clients.
Where each one sits
Where Ahrefs sits
- A deep, mature SEO toolset - backlink data, keyword research, audits, rank tracking - the classic search work your agency already bills for
- AI-visibility tracking inside that same toolset, so AI answers and classic search sit next to each other in one place
- Content grading and research features that make an existing writer faster - you supply the writer, the tool sharpens the output
Where Found by AI sits
- One programme, sold only through agency partners - you resell it, we run it, your brand is on it
- The monitoring is not a deliverable, it is the brief: the buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client become the month's articles
- Written, reviewed and published for you - a named editor from your team or your client's on written-by and reviewed-by bylines, review before publish the default and publishing immediately opt-in per client
The operating difference
Detection is where most tools stop. The production is what we own.
Found by AI runs one loop for agency partners. Every week we put your client's buying questions to AI assistants, for example ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, and record who gets named. The questions your client is missing from are where the month's topics are chosen; then we write, publish and measure the content that answers them, and the Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report documents what changed. The monitoring is not a dashboard: it is the brief. All of it ships under your agency's brand.
| Generates content? | Publishes for you? | Publishing surface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | Content grading and research, not finished articles | No | None |
| Found by AI | Yes | Yes | A blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain, one DNS record, agency-branded; the same articles over the Content Delivery API or our WordPress connector |
Ahrefs
Found by AI
AI does the research and the first draft; a named person from your team or your client's reviews, edits and signs it before it goes out. Articles the programme produces can carry the name of the person who reviewed them; posts your client's team write name their writer. Three publish modes, chosen per client: review before publish is the default for every new client brand, with a 7-day review window; publishing immediately after our quality gate is opt-in per client; dark until reviewed is available on request. Translations follow the same mode as the original. The client's own writers can publish alongside the articles the programme produces. We never solicit a partner's clients.
Structural comparison
Deliberately no plan or price table. Their packaging changes, and a stale figure on our page would be worse for you than no figure at all - check anything commercial on Ahrefs's own site. What follows is the difference in shape, which doesn't go out of date.
| Found by AI | Ahrefs | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A delivered AI-search content programme, resold by agencies | An SEO toolset with AI-visibility tracking inside it |
| What arrives each month | Published articles briefed from the monitoring, plus a report on what moved | Dashboards, question research and reports for your team to interpret |
| Who writes the articles | We do - briefed from the monitoring, signed off by a named editor from your team or your client's | Your team, optionally assisted by their content tools |
| Who publishes | We do - to a blog on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way | Your team, wherever the client’s site lives |
| Author accountability | A named reviewer from your team or your client's - real job title, public profile linked - with role-accurate written-by / reviewed-by credits and structured author data | Not applicable - Ahrefs is not the publisher |
| Review before publish | Three modes per client: review window (the default, 7 days), publish immediately (opt-in), dark until reviewed (on request); the client's own writers can publish alongside the articles the programme produces | Your team's own editorial process |
| Whose brand the client sees | Yours - portal, monthly report and emails are white-labelled | Ahrefs', unless you rebuild the reporting yourself |
| Classic SEO tooling | None - we do no SEO tooling and do not try to | Comprehensive. This is what Ahrefs is for, and it is very good at it |
Key differences
Choose Ahrefs if…
- You need a serious SEO toolset - backlinks, keyword research, audits, rank tracking - which is not a thing we do at all
- You have editorial capacity in-house and the bottleneck is direction, not production. A better dashboard genuinely helps you; a delivery partner would duplicate your own team
- You want AI visibility and classic search visibility side by side in one interface your team already lives in
Choose Found by AI if…
- You run an agency without spare editorial capacity, and the gap between seeing the problem and shipping something about it is where client retainers stall
- You want a monthly artifact that makes the retainer defensible: what AI assistants said, what we published about it, what changed
- You want it under your own brand, sold on your paper, with no risk of us going around you to your client
Agencies that partner with us generally keep their SEO toolset. These are different jobs, and we would rather say so than pretend to replace one.
Frequently asked questions
Is Found by AI a replacement for Ahrefs?
No, and we would be wasting your time if we said otherwise. Ahrefs is a broad SEO toolset - backlinks, keyword research, audits, rank tracking - plus AI-visibility tracking. We do none of that toolset work. We run one programme for agency partners: monitoring identifies the buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client in them, those gaps become the month's brief, and we write, publish and measure the content. If you do SEO, keep Ahrefs.
Ahrefs already tracks AI visibility. Why would an agency add Found by AI?
Because tracking and fixing are different line items. A tracking module tells you a client is absent from the answers that matter; someone still has to write the pages that change that, get them reviewed, publish them, and show the effect next month. In a small agency without spare editorial capacity, that someone is often nobody, which is how a finding ends up in a slide instead of turning into work. We are that production step, delivered under your brand.
How is this different from Ahrefs' content features?
Their content features are self-service: they make your writer faster and grade what that writer produced. We are not a tool your team operates - we produce and publish the work. Articles are briefed from the client's own monitoring evidence rather than keyword guesswork, can carry a named editor from your team or your client's with written-by and reviewed-by bylines, pass a review step you configure per client, and go live on a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way.
Can an agency run both?
Yes, and most would. Ahrefs stays the SEO workbench; we handle the AI-answer content loop for the clients where you have sold it. They barely overlap: one is software your team operates, the other is work delivered on your behalf.
Bottom line
Ahrefs is one of the strongest SEO toolsets available and its AI-visibility tracking is a credible way to see the problem. If your agency has the editorial hours to act on what it shows, that may be all you need. Found by AI exists for the other case: the monitoring becomes the brief, we write and publish the content, and the monthly report documents what changed - under your agency's brand, with a standing promise that we never approach your clients. We promise the process, not an outcome. Different jobs; keep the toolset.
More comparisons
Next step
Run the loop on one client. Judge us on three reports.
Bring one retained client. We show you the monitoring, the articles it produced, the review flow and a real report. Three monthly reports later, you decide.
Founder terms, for agencies signing up through 31 December 2026: the founder rate is locked when you claim it and runs on a 12-month agreement per client brand, with one brand swap inside the term. Your first client brand is the trial: one retained client, three monthly report cycles, then decide at the third report. Roll out on the founder term, or stop there and take a full export. No minimum on standard monthly terms. No per-brand setup fee; a one-time partner onboarding fee applies, waived for founding partners.
Not an agency? Then we're not the right people to buy from, but your agency might be. Get in touch and we'll tell you plainly whether there's a partner for you.