Found by AI
Compare / vs AthenaHQ

For agencies · Updated September 2026

An AI-visibility platform that guides the work.
We are the ones who do it.

AthenaHQ is a polished AI-visibility platform: it monitors how a brand appears in AI answers, turns that into structured recommendations, and gives your team an assistant to interrogate the data in plain language. There is a storefront publishing add-on for ecommerce clients too. If your agency wants a capable tool to steer its own on-site work, it is a credible choice. Found by AI is a different shape of thing: a white-label AI-search content programme you resell. The monitoring is not a dashboard - it is the brief. Detection is where other tools stop; the production is what we own.

Where each one sits
Most AI-search tools

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.

Most content shops

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.

Found by AI

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.

Guidance, or delivery

AthenaHQ tells your team what to fix.
We fix it, under your brand.

AthenaHQ is well built. It tracks brand presence across AI assistants, surfaces specific structured fixes rather than vague advice, and its conversational assistant lets a marketer ask competitive and gap questions without building a report first. The ecommerce publishing add-on is a real capability for storefront clients. For a team that will operate a tool and act on what it says, this is a serious product and we would rather acknowledge that than pick at it.

Found by AI is built for the agency that runs out of road at the recommendation. We are not a tool your team operates. For the clients you sell us to, 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. Articles can carry a named editor from your team or your client's with written-by and reviewed-by bylines, 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, and the portal, report and emails carry your agency's brand. We never solicit your clients.

Where each one sits

Where AthenaHQ sits

  • An AI-visibility platform that monitors AI answers and converts them into structured, specific fixes rather than general advice
  • A conversational assistant your team can interrogate directly - a genuinely nice way to answer competitive questions without building a report first
  • A storefront publishing add-on for ecommerce clients, which is a route to publication we do not offer

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.

AthenaHQ

Generates content?Recommendations and drafts, for your team to finish
Publishes for you?Storefront add-on, for ecommerce clients
Publishing surfaceClient's own site or storefront

Found by AI

Generates content?Yes
Publishes for you?Yes
Publishing surfaceA 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

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.

The AI content objection

Why this isn't 'AI in a coat'.

Every client asks their agency the same question: why can't we just do this with ChatGPT ourselves? The honest answer: you can write one good article that way.

We built the machinery for the fiftieth one. 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. Review before publish is the default for every new client brand; publishing immediately is opt-in, per client. It runs every month, on a schedule, under your agency's brand.

See how the programme works →  Judge the output for yourself: we walk real articles, the bylines and the review flow end to end on a walkthrough.

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 AthenaHQ's own site. What follows is the difference in shape, which doesn't go out of date.

Key differences

AthenaHQAI-visibility platform + recommendations
Found by AIDelivered content programme
Who writesWe do
Named reviewer sign-offYes
Whose brandYour agency's

Choose AthenaHQ if…

  • Your agency has writers and what it needs is direction - specific, structured fixes to work through on the client site
  • The client is an ecommerce storefront. Their publishing add-on is aimed squarely at that, and we do not have an equivalent
  • Your team wants to interrogate the data itself rather than receive a brief and a finished article

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

Both can be true at once: a tool for the clients your team services directly, and a delivered programme for the ones where you have no editorial hours left.

Frequently asked questions

Is Found by AI a replacement for AthenaHQ?

Not exactly - they overlap on monitoring and diverge on everything after it. AthenaHQ monitors AI answers and hands your team structured recommendations to act on. We run one programme for agency partners: the monitoring becomes the month's brief, and we write, publish and measure the content under your brand. If your agency has the editorial hours, a good recommendation tool may be all you need.

AthenaHQ can publish to a storefront. How is that different from what you do?

It is a real capability and we do not have an equivalent for storefronts - if that is the client, say so. What we do is different in kind: we publish to a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, the articles carry sign-off from a named editor from your team or your client's with written-by and reviewed-by bylines, 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, and the whole surface carries your agency's brand rather than ours or theirs.

Why does named authorship matter?

Because an article with no accountable human behind it is worth less to a reader and to the client. Every programme article is signed by a named reviewer from your team or your client's - a real person, their job title, a public profile when provided - with role-accurate credits and structured author data. 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, and the client's own writers can publish alongside the articles the programme produces.

Can an agency run both?

Yes. Use the platform for clients your own team services hands-on, and resell our programme for the clients where the editorial capacity is not there. One is software your team operates, the other is work delivered on your behalf.

Bottom line

AthenaHQ is a capable AI-visibility platform, and for an agency with writers and a storefront client it may well be the better buy. Found by AI is for the case where the recommendation is not the bottleneck - production is. The monitoring becomes the brief, we write and publish the content, signed by a named editor from your team or your client's, 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.

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.