AthenaHQ alternative: BotSay and AthenaHQ compared
AthenaHQ sells credits. BotSay gives six engines on every plan for a fixed monthly price, with a likely range and a test for a real change on your Mention rate.
Written by the BotSay team.
BotSay's price is fixed: $59, $139 or $359 a month, for 60, 150 or 400 questions on six engines, every week. AthenaHQ sells credits: its Starter plan is $295 a month for 3,600 credits, and 1 credit buys 1 AI response. Every fact about AthenaHQ here comes from its own site, read on 11 Oct 2026, and is listed under Sources.
At a glance
| BotSay | AthenaHQ Starter | |
|---|---|---|
| How the price works | Yes: Fixed a month, by number of questions | Credits, spent per AI response |
| Lowest paid plan | Yes: $59 a month | $295 a month |
| Engines | 6 on every plan | 11 engines |
| How often it reads | Every week, same questions and engines | A schedule you set |
| Likely range on Mention rate | Yes: Printed, with the answer count | Not published |
| Test for a real change | Yes: Labelled for you | Not published |
| Sentiment | Scored 0 to 100, labelled as estimated | Positive, Neutral or Negative per mention |
| What to do next | Yes: Ranked by questions each item could win | Impact and effort bars |
BotSay starts at $59 a month, with no credits to count
| Plan | BotSay | AthenaHQ |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | ||
| Plan | Starter | Starter |
| Price | $59 a month Lower price | $295 a month |
| Questions | 60 questions | 3,600 credits; 1 credit is 1 AI response |
| Engines | All six engines | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral |
A check marks where BotSay gives you more for the month.
AthenaHQ Starter is its one paid plan with a published price. Extra credits and API access are add-ons billed on top. Enterprise has a custom price.
AthenaHQ Starter is $295 a month for 3,600 credits. Its credit calculator says Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral are heavier and cost 5 credits per response, and its optional expansion adds 3 rephrasings of each question, each one using credits. So what a month buys depends on which engines you read, how often, and how many rephrasings you add. Extra credits are an add-on billed on top.
BotSay's price covers a set number of questions, each one asked on all six engines every week. You know what the month costs and what it reads before you start. The plans differ only in how many questions they read:
- Starter: $59 a month for 60 questions.
- Growth: $139 a month for 150 questions.
- Scale: $359 a month for 400 questions.
A likely range and a test, printed with every reading
AthenaHQ lets you set how many days a week your questions run (credit calculator). It publishes no fixed number of runs per question, no likely range on its visibility figures and no test for when a change is real.
BotSay asks the same questions of the same six engines every week and compares the week with the one before. Your Mention rate comes with its likely range, the span the true rate almost certainly sits in, and the number of answers behind it. When the rate moves, BotSay runs the exact test on both weeks and labels the change as real once it clears their combined uncertainty. Share of voice, Average rank, Your pages cited and Sentiment show each week's figure and how it moved. Below, an invented brand's two weekly ranges sit clear of each other.
The figures as a table
| Week | Mention rate | Likely range (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Last week | 27.8% | 25.1 to 30.7 |
| This week | 34.0% | 31.1 to 37.0 |
Example, using an invented brand
The full method is on How we measure. Your reading arrives in the weekly email.
Sentiment as a score you can follow week to week
AthenaHQ labels each mention Positive, Neutral, Negative or Not analyzed (responses), and publishes no numeric scale.
BotSay reads every measure every week: Mention rate, Share of voice, Average rank, Your pages cited and Sentiment, scored from 0 to 100 and labelled as estimated. Below, how one invented answer describes a brand, beside the week's Sentiment.
Which payroll tool is easiest to set up?
“Tessera is easy to set up and its support answers quickly, though its reports are basic.”
Example, using an invented brand
BotSay ranks the work by how many questions it could win
AthenaHQ shows impact and effort bars on its insight cards. Its content opportunity score ranks items against each other (insights). On Starter, the Athena Recommendation Engine is not included.
BotSay's action list gives each item the number of your questions it could win, with the answers that show it:
- Pages to write: topics where rivals are named and you are not.
- Places to be mentioned: the review sites, communities and publishers the engines lean on, and whether you are on them.
- Quick decisions: small choices that make your numbers more accurate, like confirming which sites are yours.
Once you publish, BotSay follows the questions that work was meant to win and labels the change in Mention rate when it is real.
What you gain with BotSay
- A fixed monthly price from $59, with all six engines and no credits to count.
- The same questions, engines and method every week, so each reading compares cleanly.
- A likely range and answer count on your Mention rate, and a label when a change is real.
- A list of work sized by how many questions each item could win.
Sources: 4 pages on athenahq.ai and docs.athenahq.ai, each read on 11 Oct 2026
- athenahq.ai/plans does not publish: a price for extra credits; a likely range for any figure; a test for when a change is real; supports: AthenaHQ's plans page opens on monthly billing; AthenaHQ's paid plan with a published price is Starter, and its top plan, Enterprise, has a custom price; AthenaHQ Starter lists its region support as Single, and multiple countries and the Athena Recommendation Engine are not included; AthenaHQ bills API access and extra credits as optional add-ons on top of the plan; AthenaHQ Starter lists ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral; AthenaHQ's free Essential plan lists ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, read on 11 Oct 2026
- athenahq.ai/credit-calculator does not publish: a fixed number of runs per question; a likely range for any figure; a test for when a change is real; supports: AthenaHQ's credit calculator says Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral are heavier and cost more credits per response; AthenaHQ's credit calculator lets you set how many days a week your questions run; AthenaHQ's optional expansion adds rephrasings of each question, and each one uses credits, read on 11 Oct 2026
- docs.athenahq.ai/guides/responses.md does not publish: a numeric scale for sentiment; supports: AthenaHQ labels each mention Positive, Neutral, Negative or Not analyzed, read on 11 Oct 2026
- docs.athenahq.ai/guides/insights.md does not publish: how many of your questions an item could win; supports: AthenaHQ shows impact and effort bars on its insight cards; AthenaHQ's content opportunity score is relative across opportunities, read on 11 Oct 2026
Your first reading runs right after setup
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