For agencies · Updated July 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 - becomes next month's content brief. Then the monthly proof 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 prompts, 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 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 automation 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. Monitoring identifies the buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client in them; those gaps become the month's brief; then we write, publish and measure the content that answers them. 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 | — | — |
| Found by AI | Yes | Yes | Client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, agency-branded |
Ahrefs
Found by AI
Articles carry named human editors from your team or your client's - a real person, their job title and a public professional profile, with written-by and reviewed-by bylines. Review before publish is the default and approval is role-gated; a draft left unreviewed for 7 days publishes with a notification - a default we disclose, changeable per client. Translated articles follow the same rule. 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, prompt 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 | Configurable per client, with role-gated approval; 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, 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
See the loop on one of your clients
Found by AI is sold only through white-label agency partners. Bring one client and we'll walk the monitoring, the articles it produced, the review flow and a real monthly report end to end.
Or start smaller: the free scan puts a focused set of buying questions to leading AI assistants and shows which get answered without your client - and who is named instead. The report comes to you.
Founding Pilot seats for agencies onboarding in 2026: one retained client, three report cycles, no cohort fee - and you walk away with a full export if it ends there. Ask us.
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 in your market.