Side-by-side matrix
| What you get | CitunaThat’s us | AthenaHQ | Scrunch AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price / month | $39 | $0 → $295 | $250 |
| Pricing model | Flat tiers | Credit-based | Flat tiers |
| AI engines at entry | 7 | 5 free / 11 paid | 4 |
| Claude tracked | Paid ($295) | Enterprise | |
| Grok tracked | Paid ($295) | Enterprise | |
| Microsoft Copilot | |||
| Google AI Overviews | |||
| Refresh cadence | Daily | Not published | Not published |
| Search Console integration | |||
| MCP access at entry | |||
| Generated fixes | Paid agent | 5 site audits / mo | |
| Content generation | Not published | Not published | |
| Publishes to your CMS | Not published | Not published | |
| Content languages | 50+ | Not published | Not published |
| Free trial | 3 days (card) | Free tier | 7 days |
Compiled from each vendor’s public pricing page: AthenaHQ figures from www.athenahq.ai/plans, checked October 1, 2026; Scrunch AI figures from www.scrunch.com/pricing, checked October 1, 2026. AthenaHQ: free Essential tier stepping up to a $295/mo Starter. Scrunch AI: Core covers four engines, 125 prompts and 5,000 responses a month, with 5 user licenses. “Not published” marks a row the vendor does not state publicly; it is not a “no”. Cituna checks all seven engines daily and does not track Microsoft Copilot. MCP read tools are included from $39, write tools from Pro ($119); MCP is not exclusive to us. Prices change often: verify before buying. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it.
Published entry-tier price per month from each vendor’s pricing page (dates in the matrix note above). Read it against what each tier includes, a lower price can mean fewer engines or prompts.
| Engine | Cituna | AthenaHQ | Scrunch AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | ? | ? | |
| Grok | ? | ? | |
| Microsoft Copilot | |||
| Google AI Overviews |
The four engines coverage varies most on. A dash-ringed “?” means we have not confirmed that vendor’s position on that engine (shown as “Not published” in the matrix), never a no we have not earned.
Reading the difference
On cost per engine at entry, the crudest useful way to normalise these two, AthenaHQ works out at about $26.82 per engine per month ($0 → $295 across 5 free / 11 paid) and Scrunch AI at about $62.50 ($250 across 4). AthenaHQ is the better ratio, by roughly $35.68 per engine. Treat that as a sanity check rather than a verdict: an engine you do not care about is not worth anything, and Scrunch AI’s number improves immediately if its engine mix happens to be the one you need.
The confirmed capability split between these two is narrow enough to state exactly: AthenaHQ covers Search Console integration and Scrunch AI does not. That is the whole difference on the rows both vendors publish, everything else in the matrix either matches or is unpublished by one of them, and an unpublished row is not a “no”.
Worth knowing before you shortlist either: neither AthenaHQ nor Scrunch AI offers an MCP server. If any of those is a requirement, this comparison is the wrong shortlist and you should widen it rather than pick the better of two tools that both miss what you need.
The tier ladders are worth reading side by side, because the entry price means something different on each. AthenaHQ: Essential $0 (5 engines) · Starter $295 (11 engines, 3,600 credits). Scrunch AI: Core $250 (4 engines, 125 prompts, 5 licenses) · Enterprise custom (9 engines, API, SSO). That is where most of the apparent price gap between these two either disappears or widens sharply, depending on which engines you actually need.
They also genuinely overlap on Claude, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews and generated fixes, so those rows should not carry weight in the decision even though both vendors market them.
One practical difference that does not appear in any feature list: AthenaHQ bills as credit-based and Scrunch AI as flat tiers. A credit-metered plan and a flat plan are hard to compare over a year because only one of them has a predictable ceiling, so run your expected prompt volume through both before treating the entry prices as comparable at all.
Which to choose
Choose Cituna if…
For seven AI engines checked daily and the fixes written, on one plan from $39 a month, the pick is Cituna rather than AthenaHQ or Scrunch AI.
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, all seven checked daily on the $39 Starter
- the generated fixes to close the gaps, and articles written and published to your site
- a Search Console integration to prove the result; AthenaHQ has one too
- MCP access from the $39 Starter; neither AthenaHQ nor Scrunch AI offers it
What you give up:
- Microsoft Copilot, which AthenaHQ and Scrunch AI track and Cituna does not
- sentiment analysis, which Scrunch AI includes
- more engines, which AthenaHQ lists
Choose AthenaHQ if…
AthenaHQ is an eleven-engine platform, if you can clear the $295 step. Against Scrunch AI specifically, you are paying $45 a month more than Scrunch AI for it, it covers more engines at entry (5 free / 11 paid against 4) and it bills as credit-based where Scrunch AI bills as flat tiers.
- eleven engines on the $295 Starter, including Claude, Grok, Google AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot
- a genuinely free Essential tier covering five engines, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, with no card, which is the least risky way to start in this whole category
- a native Search Console integration, still uncommon among the self-serve tools
What you give up:
- the jump from free to paid is a $295 cliff with nothing in between, which prices out most small teams the free tier attracts
- billing is credit-metered rather than flat, so the monthly cost moves with usage and needs a calculator to predict
- no MCP server at entry, so the data cannot be queried from an AI client without export
Choose Scrunch AI if…
Scrunch AI is the mid-market platform, sold to teams rather than to individuals. Against AthenaHQ specifically, it is the cheaper entry by $45 a month, it covers fewer engines at entry (4 against 5 free / 11 paid) and it bills as flat tiers where AthenaHQ bills as credit-based.
- a 7-day free trial of Core, so the product can be evaluated before a contract
- five user licenses included at entry rather than one
- Microsoft Copilot covered at entry, with sentiment analysis and AI bot traffic reporting on the same plan
What you give up:
- a $250 floor with no smaller plan beneath it, which rules it out for solo operators and early-stage teams
- Claude, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Grok are held for the custom Enterprise plan, so Core covers four engines
- no Search Console integration, and MCP only on a custom Enterprise plan
Drafted with AI assistance from our own research and Search Console data, and reviewed by Rahul A before publishing. Rules and prices change; check the linked official source before you act.