Key takeaways
- Most AI visibility vendors publish a SOC 2 story, but few publish an ISO 27001 certificate of their own. Promptwatch and Conductor are the two in this comparison that state one.
- SSO, SCIM and audit logs are usually gated to enterprise plans. Ask which plan unlocks each one, and get the configuration doc.
- Data residency is the weakest area across the category. Almost no vendor states a contractual data region, and a SOC 2 report does not establish one.
- Inherited certificates (AWS, Google Cloud) are the hosting provider's audit, not the vendor's. Request the vendor's own report, with its period and product scope.
- Treat the tables below as a starting shortlist. Several figures come from a third-party review and vendor claims, so confirm each on the vendor's trust page.
Why security review decides this purchase
AI visibility tools used to be a marketing experiment that a team expensed on a card. That has changed. Once a platform ingests your prompts, brand strategy, site analytics, crawler logs and sometimes Search Console data, security and procurement want a say, and they tend to block on the same handful of things: identity, attestations, logging, contract terms and where the data lives.
One procurement-style review of 12 vendors by Rework made the point bluntly: "enterprise" in this category mostly means the vendor will not print a price. Of the 12, only Ahrefs ($1,499 a month, annual commitment) and Trakkr (from $1,000 a month) published an enterprise price that includes SSO. Everyone else routes you to a sales call, and some of them hold the strongest security paperwork in the group.
So this guide does not rank on price. It sorts by what a security review actually blocks on.
The four controls, defined quickly
ISO 27001 vs SOC 2
ISO 27001 is an international certification of an information security management system (ISMS). SOC 2 is an attestation report written by an auditor. Both address information security, but they differ in form. A SOC 2 Type II report evaluates controls over a period, typically 6 to 12 months. Type I is a single-day snapshot. If a vendor says "SOC II" and does not state the type, treat that as a question, not an answer.
ISO 27001 also gives auditors a vocabulary for AI tools. Annex A controls 8.15 and 8.16 cover logging and monitoring, which is why audit logs come up in nearly every review.
SSO and SCIM
SSO lets users sign in through your identity provider (Okta, Entra ID, Google Workspace, PingOne) over SAML or OIDC. SCIM automates provisioning and deprovisioning. Without them, the tool becomes another unmanaged login, and orphaned accounts survive after people leave. SSO alone is not enough if offboarding still depends on someone remembering to remove a seat.
Audit logs
You want a customer-facing log of who did what, and from where. The useful version records changes made through the dashboard, the API and any agent or MCP integration, because automation is where unattributed changes tend to hide.
Data residency
Residency is a contractual commitment about where data is stored and processed. A company's headquarters does not establish it, and neither does a SOC 2 report. Ask for the DPA, the subprocessor list, retention rules and a written region commitment.
Enterprise AI visibility platforms compared
Figures below come mainly from the Rework procurement review and the vendors' own pages. Several are vendor claims. The Promptwatch row reflects its published security posture. Verify everything on the trust page before it goes in an RFP response.
| Platform | Own SOC 2 | ISO 27001 | SSO | SCIM | Customer audit log | Hosting or region stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promptwatch | Not stated in our research | Yes, certified | SSO on Enterprise | Not stated | Yes, Business, Agency Scale, Enterprise | EU-based company, GDPR compliant |
| Profound | Type II | Not stated | SAML or OIDC, Enterprise | Yes (listed from 21 Aug 2026) | Yes, Enterprise (7 Aug 2026) | Not stated |
| Conductor | Type II | ISO 27001:2022, ISO 42001 | SAML SSO | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Scrunch | Type II | Not stated | SAML, OIDC; Enterprise only | Not stated | Yes | Not stated |
| AthenaHQ | "SOC II", type not stated | Not stated | SAML, OIDC; Enterprise | Not stated | Yes | Public MSA and DPA with EU clauses |
| Goodie | Type I and II | Not stated | SAML | Yes | Not stated | Not stated |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | In progress | Not stated | SAML 2.0; Enterprise | Via support | Yes, Enterprise | Not stated |
| Peec AI | Not found; "working toward" | Not stated | SAML 2.0 only | No | Not stated | Google Cloud via Google Ireland |
| Trakkr | None of its own | Not stated | Enterprise | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Otterly | Cloud host's certificates | Cloud host's certificates | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | AWS |
Three things stand out. First, only Conductor and Promptwatch state an ISO 27001 certificate among the vendors here. Second, the hosting column is nearly empty. Third, the same vendors keep showing up with SSO behind an Enterprise button.
Vendor notes
Promptwatch
Promptwatch is an end-to-end AI visibility platform: it tracks how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews mention and cite a brand, then helps fix the gaps with content agents and an action board. On security, it is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, and its data is handled by an EU-based company, which tends to matter for procurement and Schrems II-conscious reviews.
The control set is the part procurement cares about. Owner, editor and viewer roles with project-level access. An organization audit log on Business, Agency Scale and Enterprise that lists every change and whether it came from the dashboard, the API, an MCP client or Agent Chat. Scoped project, organization and read-only API keys. SSO and a white-label client portal on Enterprise. Tracking also continues if a payment is past due, so the data has no gaps.
Pricing is public: Essential $95/mo, Professional $245/mo and Business $579/mo, with agency tiers from $199/mo, so confirm current numbers at promptwatch.com/pricing. Note the gating: the audit log starts at Business, SSO at Enterprise. If a customer-facing SOC 2 report is a hard requirement, ask for it directly, since our research did not confirm one. The book a demo page is the fastest way to get the security pack.
Profound
Profound publishes one of the fuller control sets: SOC 2 Type II, SAML or OIDC on Enterprise, SCIM and an enterprise audit log, both of which were added in August 2026. It also has a HIPAA assessment and "GDPR-Ready" wording but states no hosting region. Pricing is not public. If you need a vendor with strong identity features and are fine with a sales-led process, it belongs on the list.
Conductor
Conductor has the widest attestation list in the group: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 42001, SAML SSO and annual third-party penetration tests, plus DPA terms. It is an SEO platform with AEO added, so you are buying a larger suite. Region is not stated on its security page.
Scrunch
Scrunch lists SOC 2 Type II, four user roles, audit logs, an SLA and a Trust Center. SAML and OIDC are Enterprise-only. One thing to flag for vendor-risk teams: Sitecore announced it was acquiring Scrunch on 3 June 2026. Terms were not disclosed, and Bloomberg reported about $225M. Ask what changes to subprocessors and contracts follow the deal.
AthenaHQ
AthenaHQ is the one for buyers who mark up contracts first. It publishes its MSA and DPA, with EU clauses, and offers SAML/OIDC SSO and activity audit logs on Enterprise. The gap is the SOC 2 report: the type is not stated, so ask.
Goodie
Goodie lists SOC 2 Type I and II, SAML SSO, SCIM, role-based access and a Trust Center. GDPR wording, a DPA, data region and a customer audit log are not stated on its security page.
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Ahrefs is the rare one with a printed enterprise price ($1,499/mo). It has SAML 2.0, a customer audit log on Enterprise, a DPA and pen tests, with SCIM through support. SOC 2 is still in progress, which will stop some reviews cold.
Peec AI
Peec suits a GDPR-first buyer whose IT team accepts SAML 2.0 alone. There is no OIDC and no SCIM, and Peec's team sets up SSO. It has a GDPR policy and processor agreements and is hosted on Google Cloud via Google Ireland, which is the only hosting detail we found among these vendors. No SOC 2 was located, and one buyer guide says it is working toward it.
Trakkr and Otterly
Trakkr starts at $1,000/mo with SSO on Enterprise, but has no SOC 2 of its own. Otterly lists SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 on its security page, but those are the certifications of the AWS data centers it runs on, not its own audit. Rankscale and Trakkr also cite their cloud host's certificates. That is fine for a small team. It will not satisfy a vendor-risk questionnaire that asks for the vendor's own report.
Semrush and HubSpot AEO
Semrush has a security page, a DPA, SAML and pen tests, but SOC 2 shows up on only one page. HubSpot's parent platform has SOC 2 Type 2, but the AEO product is in Beta, and a parent's attestation does not automatically cover a new product. Both fit when AEO must sit inside a contract you already hold.
Where the evidence is thin
Data residency
This is the honest finding of the whole exercise. Almost no vendor states a contractual data region. Hosting disclosures are rare, and company location does not establish residency. If your legal team needs EU-only processing, put it in the RFP as a pass/fail item and require it in the DPA, not on a marketing page.
Inherited certificates
AWS and Google Cloud hold excellent certifications. But a vendor running on them has not been audited by virtue of that. Ask for a SOC 2 Type II report with its audit period and product scope. Also remember that SOC 2 scope is usually infrastructure. It says little about what an AI agent does once it is connected to your systems, so ask specifically about agent permissions and logging.
Beta products
A Beta label is a stop sign for most procurement teams, and reasonably so. Ask whether the attestation covers the exact product you are buying.
Enterprise-ready or a point tool with an enterprise button
| Group | Vendors | What the evidence shows |
|---|---|---|
| Own SOC 2 or ISO 27001, full control set | Profound, Conductor, Scrunch, Goodie, AthenaHQ, Promptwatch | Attestation or certification, SSO and an access or audit layer on their own pages |
| Contract-first | AthenaHQ, Ahrefs | Public MSA, DPA or printed price; SOC 2 incomplete or unspecified |
| Lean tools with an enterprise tier | Peec AI, Trakkr, Otterly, Rankscale | Borrowed or partial attestations, limited gating detail |
| Inside an existing contract | Semrush, HubSpot AEO | Parent controls; check product scope |
RFP checklist you can paste in
Rework suggests weighting access control (SSO, SCIM, audit log) at 20%, attestations at 20% and data location with DPA at 10%. That is a reasonable starting point. Here is the evidence to request for each item.
| Criterion | Suggested weight | Evidence to request |
|---|---|---|
| Attestations | 20% | Current SOC 2 Type II report with period and product scope, or ISO 27001 certificate and scope statement |
| Access control | 20% | SSO config doc (SAML or OIDC), SCIM support, and the plan each needs |
| Audit logging | 10-15% | Sample log export; which channels (dashboard, API, agents) are covered |
| Data location and DPA | 10% | Signed DPA, subprocessor list, written region commitment, retention and deletion terms |
| Data use | 10% | Written statement that your data is not used to train models |
| Encryption and RBAC | 10% | Encryption in transit and at rest; role definitions; scoped API keys |
| Incident response | 5% | Breach notification window and process |
| Vendor stability | 5% | Ownership changes, funding, acquisition status |
You can also use this short checklist for a first pass:
- A current SOC 2 Type II report, or an ISO 27001 certificate
- SSO through your identity provider, plus SCIM or an offboarding process
- Role-based access and scoped API keys
- Audit logs covering dashboard, API and agent actions
- Documented residency, retention and deletion
- No training on your data
- A trust center you can reach without a sales call
For context on why this is worth the effort, a 2026 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report puts the global average breach at $4.99M, up 12%. An AI visibility tool is rarely the weak link, but it should not be the easiest one.
Don't let security review hide the crawler question
One practical point that gets missed. Many AI visibility platforms ask for crawler logs, a tracking script or CMS access, and each of those is a security conversation in its own right. Look at what the integration actually requires: a CDN log feed, a WordPress plugin, or an API key with write access.
It also helps to understand what you are measuring. Promptwatch's AI crawler traffic report uses IP-verified requests only, so spoofed user agents are excluded. It shows OpenAI at 79.8% of verified AI crawler requests in the week of Aug 31 to Sep 6, 2026, down from 94.8% in Jun 8 to 14. That is the kind of mix your own robots.txt, CDN and WAF rules should be compared against, and it is a good reason to scope read-only log access rather than broad site permissions.
How to run the process
- Shortlist three to five vendors by control set, not feature list.
- Send the checklist above before the demo, not after. The vendors that answer in writing are telling you something.
- Ask for the plan that unlocks each control. SSO on Enterprise-only changes the budget.
- Pilot with a non-sensitive project first, using scoped keys.
- Re-check at renewal. Two vendors in this list changed their control sets within a few weeks of each other in 2026, and one changed owners.
If you want more options beyond this list, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com is a good place to browse by category.
What I would do
If you must have a SOC 2 Type II report on day one, Profound, Conductor, Scrunch and Goodie are the clearest on paper. If ISO 27001 is the stated requirement, Conductor and Promptwatch are the two here that state it, and Promptwatch adds a public price list, an audit log that tracks agent and API changes, and EU-based data handling. If you are GDPR-first and small, Peec is workable with eyes open. For everyone, treat data residency as unsolved until a DPA says otherwise.
The pattern is consistent: the paperwork is easy to find and the specifics are hard to find. Ask for the specifics.