Cognizo vs Orchly: Price, Engines, Metrics, Agents and Fit in 2026

For anyone weighing Cognizo vs Orchly, the main split is managed service versus self-serve. Cognizo starts at $499 a month through a sales demo, tracks 150 prompts on five engines you choose, and includes a customer success partner and unlimited seats. Orchly starts at $49 a month with a seven-day free trial, tracks 25 prompts on three engines, and adds agents for content, outreach and site fixes.

Both products track how AI answers mention, cite and describe a brand, and both write content to close the gaps they find. The differences are in capacity, engine coverage, how much human help comes with the plan, and how much traditional SEO data sits next to the AI data.

Cognizo vs Orchly: the short answer

• Choose Cognizo if you want more tracked prompts and engines from the first plan, unlimited seats, prompt volume estimates, AI crawler and referral data on every plan, and a customer success partner with scheduled strategy reviews.
• Choose Orchly if you want to start small and cheaply, try the product before talking to sales, and keep Google Search Console, GA4 and rank tracking in the same tool as your AI answers, with agents your own team directs.
• On Claude: Cognizo lists Claude only on Enterprise. Orchly sells it as a paid add-on on every plan, without a published price.
• On data collection: Orchly says it reads answers from each engine's own interface. Cognizo's documentation describes scheduled runs against AI providers without saying which interface it uses.
• On published comparisons: the main Cognizo-versus-Orchly page online comes from Orchly. Most of its claims about Cognizo match Cognizo's own pages; one does not.

Who the two companies are

Cognizo. Cognizo is a New York company founded by Deniz Özcan, its CEO, and Alp Aysan. Dealroom reported in March 2026 that it raised $1.8 million led by Galata Business Angels and that it was commercialised in spring 2025. It describes itself as an answer engine optimization (AEO) platform: visibility tracking, prompt volumes, AI traffic analytics, an ad library, and a content agent that writes and publishes. It also runs an agency partner program with a directory of agencies that sell AEO services. In October 2026, Cognizo's G2 profile listed a 4.9 out of 5 rating from 21 reviews.

Orchly. Orchly's About page says it was founded in 2025 by Shivam Kumar, who built the first version to automate his own team's content work, and that it is used by "500+ brands and agencies", which is the company's own figure. It describes itself as an agentic platform for AI search visibility that combines AI answer tracking with Google Search Console, GA4, rank tracking and page audits, then hands the resulting tasks to agents. If the category is new to you, start with our explainer on what these tools measure.

Cognizo vs Orchly on the same checks

Each row applies the same check to both vendors, using prices and features as published in October 2026. Where a cell has two figures, they are the first and second paid plans.

Check	Cognizo	Orchly
Entry price	$499/month	$49/month
Second plan	$999/month	$125/month
Free option	Demo only	7-day trial
Prompts	150 / 350	25 / 100
Engines	5 of 6	3 + add-ons
Claude	Enterprise	Add-on
Refresh	Daily	Daily
Articles	8 / 20	20 / 50
Seats	Unlimited	1 / 5
AI traffic	All plans	Pro and up
API	All plans	Pro and up
Named helper	Every plan	Enterprise

Notes:

• Cognizo's engines. Growth and Pro each let you choose five platforms from ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Grok. Enterprise lists ten: those six plus Google AI Mode, Meta AI, Claude and DeepSeek.
• Cognizo's responses. Growth lists 22,500 responses analyzed a month and Pro 52,500. Both figures equal one response per prompt, per platform, per day over a 30-day month, so ask whether any prompt is run more than once a day.
• Cognizo's other inclusions. Every plan lists unlimited regions, languages and competitors, citation share, mention share, sentiment, source and page-type classification, a YouTube and Reddit breakdown, prompt volumes, keyword research, crawler analytics and AI referral traffic for one domain, exports, reports, MCP and API access. Strategy reviews are quarterly on Growth and monthly on Pro. ChatGPT Shopping, the AI Ads features, managed services and SSO are marked in one column only, so confirm which plan includes them.
• Orchly's engines. The pricing page includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, and lists Gemini, Google AI Mode, Grok and Claude as paid add-ons on Essential and Pro, without add-on prices. Orchly's help guide to tracking, updated September 28, 2026, lists three add-ons and omits Grok, and its llms.txt file lists eight engines including Microsoft Copilot. Ask which engines your contract covers and what each add-on costs.
• Orchly's credits. Agent work such as writing, research and outreach uses monthly credits: 1,500 on Essential and 5,000 on Pro, according to the help centre, which also lists a 25,000-credit Business plan that the pricing page does not show. Tracking itself uses no credits. Yearly billing lowers the two plans to $37 and $93 a month.

Methodology note: this is a comparison of public specifications, not measured product performance. It draws on each company's pricing, documentation, help and product pages, and where a vendor's own pages disagree, both figures are reported. Affiliation: Prime AI Visibility competes with both vendors, and it has a commercial relationship with Percepture and Pyra, which appear near the end.

How each tool collects AI answers

The collection method decides what a score can tell you, so it is worth settling before comparing numbers.

Orchly says it reads answers "from the AI platforms the way a real person sees them", runs each prompt for the market you set, and uses varied locations and IP addresses. Its llms.txt file says it does not rely on API output, which "often names different brands and sources than the live product". Prompts refresh daily on every plan, first results arrive in 20 to 30 minutes, and Orchly itself advises judging progress on the trend over weeks rather than a single reading.

Cognizo's metrics guide says "every tracked prompt is run against AI providers on a schedule", each answer is parsed for brand mentions, and every metric is an aggregation over those runs. Its pricing FAQ adds that it collects "millions of responses daily" across its customers. The guide does not say whether answers come from the consumer apps or from the providers' APIs.

In our judgement, this is the first question for a Cognizo demo. An answer captured from a live app includes the web search, citations and regional differences a buyer sees. An API answer can differ in which brands and sources it names. Ask Cognizo to show one raw answer with its cited links for a prompt you supply, and ask both vendors how many times each prompt runs per day, since one answer per prompt can swing from run to run.

What the numbers mean: a metric definitions crosswalk

This table is the original analysis in this comparison. Both vendors publish formulas for their headline metrics, Cognizo in its API metrics guide and Orchly in its help centre and llms.txt file. Similar names do not always mean identical measures.

Metric	Cognizo	Orchly
Visibility	% of runs naming you	% of answers naming you
Share of voice	% of brand mentions	% of brand mentions
Sentiment	Average, 1 to 100	Average, 0 to 100
Position	First, middle, last	Average rank
Citations	Citation share	Cited pages by type
Prompt volume	Per-prompt estimate	Not listed

Notes:

• Visibility and share of voice use the same formulas at both vendors. Orchly's help page gives a worked example: ten prompts on three engines make 30 answers; if a brand appears in 12, visibility is 40%, and if those answers name 50 brands and 12 mentions are yours, share of voice is 24%.
• Sentiment is an average at both. Cognizo's guide warns that averaging daily sentiment figures does not give the window average, and that an empty sentiment value means nothing was scored, which is not the same as neutral.
• Position differs. Cognizo reports the percentage of runs in which a brand appears first, in the middle or last. Orchly reports an average rank, where 1 means first. The two cannot be converted into each other.
• Citations. Cognizo reports your share of the citations in scope, plus source and page-type classification. Orchly splits cited pages by owner, domain, site type and content type, and its Mention Gap view lists cited pages that name competitors but not you.

In our judgement, a 40% visibility score from one tool equals 40% from the other only when the prompts, engines, markets and number of runs are the same. A side-by-side trial should fix those inputs first. Prime AI uses its own four measures, each defined on the metrics page, and they are not interchangeable with either vendor's scores.

The five AI visibility signals

Each signal moves independently, so check which product reports which:

1. Mention (the answer names the brand): both, through visibility and share of voice. Cognizo also reports mention share.
2. Citation (the answer links your site or a page about you): both, with source classification at Cognizo and the Mention Gap view at Orchly.
3. Recommendation (the answer suggests your brand over others): both report position and sentiment, and Orchly's Perception tab lists the objections answers raise. Neither public page lists a metric that records an explicit recommendation, so read the answer text.
4. Referral (someone clicks through to your site): Cognizo lists AI referral traffic and crawler analytics for one domain on every plan. Orchly's AI Traffic Analytics reads CDN or CMS logs on Pro and up.
5. Conversion (the visit becomes a lead or sale): Orchly shows GA4 sessions and conversions next to Search Console data. Cognizo's free audit returns a revenue-opportunity forecast, which is a model rather than measured conversions. Confirm what reaches your CRM with either tool.

Content agents and execution

Both vendors argue that tracking alone is not enough, and both sell content work inside the subscription.

Cognizo. Every plan includes a content agent with auto-publishing, at eight AI-optimized articles a month on Growth and 20 on Pro. The plan table also marks on-page and off-page actions, outreach targets, content refreshes, social media and PR suggestions, company context and technical site audits on every plan. Enterprise adds custom agents, managed services and a dedicated AI search strategist. Cognizo's customer stories include a retailer that it reports grew revenue from AI search 20-fold; that is Cognizo's published client result, not a benchmark.

Orchly. Three agents come with every plan. The Content Agent finds, writes, refreshes and translates articles and publishes to WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Sanity or Ghost. The Activation Agent writes outreach to the sites AI answers cite, follows up and drafts Reddit replies. The Site Health Agent audits tracked pages and fixes issues such as broken links and missing metadata. Pro adds custom agents, where you choose the model, tools, trigger and destination. Orchly's About page says suggested tasks wait for approval and finished work sits in a review queue unless you switch on autopilot.

In our judgement, the split is about who does the thinking. Cognizo pairs its software with people: a success partner on every plan and strategy reviews on a schedule. Orchly gives a small team more self-serve tools, including SEO data, and expects that team to direct the agents. With either tool, decide who checks facts before anything auto-publishes, and count articles carefully: Orchly's allowance covers articles "created or refreshed" and its agents draw on credits, while Cognizo counts new articles and lists refreshes separately.

Claim check: what Orchly's page says about Cognizo

Orchly publishes "10 Best Cognizo AI Alternatives in 2026", updated September 28, 2026 and written by its founder, with a disclosure that Orchly is the publisher. Cognizo's blog roundup of AI visibility platforms, dated April 2, 2026, does not mention Orchly. The table checks claims Orchly makes about Cognizo against Cognizo's own pages.

Orchly's claim	Cognizo's page says
Starts at $499/month	Matches
No free trial	Matches
Claude on Enterprise only	Matches
8 articles on entry plan	Matches
Enterprise has 9 platforms	Lists 10
Unlimited seats	Matches
Success partner on all plans	Matches

Notes, row by row:

• No free trial. Every Cognizo plan uses "Book a demo". Its site also offers a free report and a free AEO audit form that returns a revenue forecast, which Orchly's page mentions.
• Enterprise has 9 platforms. Cognizo's Enterprise column lists ten: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, Claude, Grok and DeepSeek.
• "More than Cognizo Growth's 8". Orchly says Essential's 20 articles exceed Cognizo Growth's eight. The count is right, but the units differ, as the agents section explains.
• "Does what Cognizo's Growth plan does". Orchly says its product does what Cognizo Growth does from $49. In our judgement, the published plans are not equivalent: prompt allowances, included engines, seats and human support all differ. Whether the smaller plan is enough depends on how many questions and engines you need.

Plans change quickly, so treat this check, and any vendor's comparison including this one, as a list of points to confirm in a demo or trial.

A side-by-side evaluation plan

Orchly's trial makes a parallel test practical; Cognizo needs a demo first. A fair Cognizo vs Orchly test keeps the inputs identical:

1. Write your prompts first. List 20 to 25 buyer questions, so the set fits Orchly's Essential limit, and keep the exact text outside both tools.
2. Fix the engines. Use ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, which both include without Enterprise or add-ons.
3. Fix the market. Set the same country and language in both.
4. Ask for raw answers. Request five full answers with cited URLs from each tool for the same prompts and save them.
5. Test variance. Rerun five prompts over a week and note how far each score moves.
6. Test one content task. Ask each agent to draft a page for one gap and check every fact against your own sources before approval.
7. Price your real plan. Include add-on engines, credit packs, seats and the number of sites you need.

The guide on how to choose an AI visibility tool explains each evaluation axis in more depth.

Who each tool fits

Cognizo is a likely fit for:

• Mid-market and enterprise teams that want a success partner and strategy reviews included rather than bought separately.
• Teams that need many seats, several markets and languages, or Copilot and Grok without an add-on.
• Agencies that want Cognizo's partner program, bulk pricing and directory placement.

Orchly is a likely fit for:

• Small teams and solo marketers who want to try the product for a week before paying.
• Teams that want AI answers next to Search Console, GA4, rank tracking and page audits in one tool.
• Agencies that want white-label reports and pitch reports at a lower monthly price.

Weaker fit for either: teams that only need saved evidence for a small set of buyer questions and do not plan to use content agents. For a wider shortlist, see our guide to AI visibility tools for B2B companies.

Where Prime AI Visibility fits

Prime AI Visibility is an AI visibility tracker for teams that want to run a smaller set of saved buyer questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and an AI Overview-style preview, then read every saved answer with the brands named and the links shown. It reports Brand named, Website cited, Source links and Explicit recommendation, each defined on the metrics page linked above.

The Prime AI Visibility features include an AI Search Predictor that finds questions worth pursuing and a Content Studio that drafts source-enriched pages as files, with nothing published without approval. Flash is free each month for five questions across ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity, with up to 15 answers and no card. Starter is $69 a month for all five, and the pricing page lists every plan.

Limitations: Prime AI does not report sentiment, rank, AI crawler visits, traffic or conversions, so referral and conversion data must come from your analytics. It has no prompt-volume data, no auto-publishing and no advertising tools. It checks monthly by default, with weekly, temporary daily and on-demand checks on paid plans, and does not track Microsoft Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI or Google AI Mode. PyraBuilds also keeps a Prime AI agent profile that describes the product in its agent catalogue.

When the next job is implementation

An AI visibility tool, whether Cognizo, Orchly or another, shows where a brand stands and drafts fixes. Earning coverage on the publications, forums and review sites that answers cite is still work for people, and so is fixing site-wide technical problems that agents only flag.

If you want a partner for that work, Percepture, founded in 2004 and Inc. 5000-recognized, offers generative engine optimization services and, for site-wide technical work, enterprise SEO services. Fit: a team that wants SEO, GEO, digital PR and content aimed at the sources AI answers cite, done by people. Limitation: Percepture is a services firm, not a tracking platform, so it pairs with a tool rather than replacing one. Prime AI has a commercial relationship with Percepture.

Teams that want agents beyond content can also look at Pyra's AI agents for marketing and sales, which include human-approved content operations agents. Pyra is also commercially connected to Prime AI.