Facts checked September 14, 2026
Foglift vs SE Ranking
Choose Foglift when you want unlimited free Technical Audits and a focused path from AI answer evidence to prioritized fixes, crawler activity, referrals, API, CLI, and MCP. Choose SE Ranking when daily keyword and prompt tracking, large site crawls, backlink research, content, local search, and agency reporting justify a broader suite. Paid plans start at $49 and $129 per month, respectively.
The short answer
Choose Foglift for the focused AI visibility loop
Run unlimited one-URL Technical Audits at $0. Launch costs $49 per month and adds monitoring across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overview, plus weekly full-site coverage, REST API, CLI, hosted MCP, a local MCP package, webhooks, and batch scanning.
Choose SE Ranking for broader SEO and GEO operations
Core costs $129 monthly and includes 2,000 keywords plus 100 AI prompts tracked daily, five GEO-research domains, 250,000 audit pages per month, 25,000 API credits, and MCP access. Growth raises those limits for multi-client teams.
Terms that change the buying decision
- Technical Audit
- Page and site evidence about SEO, performance, security, accessibility, crawlability, and structure.
- AI answer monitoring
- Repeated prompt runs that record brand mentions, citations, sentiment, competitors, and answer position.
- AI crawler request
- A server request from a known search, training, or live-answer agent. It does not prove citation.
- AI referral
- A recognized human visit arriving through a link in an AI answer. It is direct traffic evidence.
Current plan and workflow comparison
| Decision | Foglift | SE Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Best starting point | Unlimited one-URL Technical Audits at $0, with no signup or credit card | A 14-day platform trial with no credit card |
| Monthly starting price | $49 Launch for five-engine monitoring and developer access | $129 Core; the annual equivalent is $103.20 per month |
| Primary job | Connect Technical Audits, AI answers, recommendations, crawlers, and AI referrals | Run SEO and GEO research, tracking, audits, content, local, and reporting workflows |
| AI answer monitoring | Active-use weekly Perplexity on Free; ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overview from Launch | Core includes 100 prompts tracked daily across five AI engines; Growth includes 250 |
| Traditional search | Google and Bing performance evidence connects to the AI visibility workflow | Daily rank tracking, keyword research, competitor research, backlinks, and local search tools |
| Technical analysis | Unlimited single-page Technical Audits; weekly full-site coverage begins at Launch | Core includes up to 250,000 audit pages per month; Growth includes 2 million |
| Crawler and referral evidence | Sensor separates AI crawler requests from recognized human visits through AI answer links | Its current platform connects SEO, GEO, and social evidence, with AI source tracking |
| Developer workflow | REST API, CLI, hosted MCP, local MCP package, webhooks, and batch scans from Launch | Core includes 25,000 Data API credits and remote MCP; Growth includes 100,000 credits |
| Best fit | Startups and agencies that want a focused audit-to-answer-to-referral loop | Marketing and agency teams that need a broad SEO and GEO suite with larger research datasets |
SE Ranking now competes in both SEO and GEO
SE Ranking's current offer is materially different from its former Essential, Pro, and Business lineup. New customers choose Core, Growth, or custom Enterprise. Core combines traditional search research with daily AI prompt tracking, AI source evidence, API credits, and MCP access. Its remote MCP server exposes more than 160 tools across keyword, backlink, domain, audit, AI search, SERP, and project-management data.
That makes SE Ranking a legitimate SEO and GEO suite. Its advantage is breadth and scale. The tradeoff is price and operational weight: Core starts at $129 monthly, while Foglift keeps single-page Technical Audits at $0 and starts five-engine monitoring plus developer access at $49 monthly.
Where each developer surface fits
Foglift delivery surfaces
Launch includes 1,000 API requests per month, REST endpoints, webhooks, a CLI scanner, hosted MCP, an installable local MCP package, and batch scanning. These surfaces expose the same focused audit, answer, recommendation, crawler, and referral workflow used in the product.
SE Ranking developer surfaces
One SE Ranking key covers its Data API and Project API. Core includes 25,000 Data API credits per month, Growth includes 100,000, and a separate API product is available. Its remote MCP exposes the platform's broader SEO and GEO datasets inside compatible assistants and developer tools.
Choose by the work your team repeats
Foglift is the direct route to AI-search improvement
- You want to inspect one public page before creating an account. The $0 Technical Audit has no trial deadline and can be repeated across as many URLs as you need.
- You need answer evidence and traffic evidence in separate views. Monitored prompts record mentions, citations, sentiment, competitors, and position; Sensor records crawler requests and recognized AI referrals.
- You want each finding to lead into an improvement queue. Recommendations connect observed gaps to a target page, supporting evidence, a first step, and a verification condition.
- Your developers work from a terminal or coding assistant. Launch exposes the workflow through REST, CLI, hosted MCP, local MCP, webhooks, and batch scans at one plan boundary.
SE Ranking is the broader search operations suite
- Your team manages traditional rankings alongside AI answers. Core tracks 2,000 keywords and 100 AI prompts daily, while Growth raises those limits to 5,000 keywords and 250 prompts.
- Keyword, competitor, backlink, content, and local-search research are central to the buying decision. These datasets and workflows are part of SE Ranking's wider platform scope.
- Large crawl capacity matters more than a permanent free diagnostic. Current plan limits reach 250,000 audit pages per month on Core and 2 million on Growth.
- You need agency reporting and collaboration. Growth adds three manager seats, 30 projects, guest links, page-change monitoring, and project-lifetime historical data.
The evidence boundary
A technical crawl and an AI answer panel prove different things. A crawl can expose page structure, performance, security, indexing, and link issues. Prompt monitoring shows whether an engine mentioned or cited a brand. Crawler logs show retrieval activity, while referral analytics records recognized human visits from AI answer links.
Foglift keeps those layers visible in one improvement loop. SE Ranking combines a larger set of SEO and GEO datasets for teams that also need daily rank tracking, backlink research, content operations, local search, and scaled agency reporting.
Primary sources and product specifications
- SE Ranking plans and pricing for current Core, Growth, Enterprise, trial, keyword, prompt, crawl, API-credit, and MCP limits.
- SE Ranking platform overview for rank tracking, research, backlinks, site auditing, content, local search, and reporting scope.
- SE Ranking API access guide for the shared Data API and Project API key plus included credit boundaries.
- SE Ranking MCP specification for its hosted transport, supported clients, and 160-plus-tool scope.
- Foglift Technical Audit specification for single-page, full-site, report, plan, and history boundaries.
- Foglift developer specification for API, CLI, MCP, webhook, batch, and plan boundaries.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between Foglift and SE Ranking?
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Foglift is a focused AI search operating layer joining Technical Audits, answer monitoring, recommendations, crawlers, referrals, API, CLI, and MCP. SE Ranking is a broader SEO and GEO suite with rank tracking, research, backlinks, large site crawls, content, local search, API, and MCP.
How much do Foglift and SE Ranking cost?
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Foglift provides unlimited single-page Technical Audits at $0. Launch costs $49 per month. SE Ranking Core costs $129 monthly, or $103.20 per month with annual billing. Growth costs $279 monthly, or $223.20 per month with annual billing.
Does SE Ranking monitor AI search?
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Yes. Core includes 100 AI prompts tracked daily across five engines, while Growth includes 250. The current platform also presents AI source tracking, competitor research, citations, sentiment, API data, and MCP access.
Which tool is better for developers?
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Foglift includes REST API, CLI, hosted MCP, a local MCP package, webhooks, and batch scanning from Launch. SE Ranking Core includes Data API credits and remote MCP access for a wider set of SEO and GEO datasets. Match the surface to the data and workflow your team needs.
Start with the permanent free audit
Run a Foglift Technical Audit for one URL with no signup or credit card. Inspect SEO, performance, security, accessibility, and the separate eight-dimension AI Readiness result before choosing a monitoring plan.
Run a Free Technical Audit