AEO Tracker vs Shop Mentions: Shopify AI Visibility Apps Compared (2026)
Choose Shop Mentions if product-level monitoring, competitor comparisons and content changes are jobs you want together. Choose AEO Tracker for a weekly record of your store's mentions and cited sources, with an ongoing free ChatGPT plan and paid four-engine tracking from $9.99 monthly.
We make AEO Tracker. This is a comparison of published offers, not a hands-on test of the other product. Every row was checked on 5 October 2026. Unspecified means the source does not tell us, rather than that a feature is absent.
AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) both concern visibility in AI answers. Compare the measurement you need and the work each tool helps you do, rather than treating all visibility scores as equivalent.
Shop Mentions and AEO Tracker side by side
| What to compare | Shop Mentions | AEO Tracker | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly plans, USD | Starter $29; Growth $79; Pro $149; Scale $499. Annual offers are also listed. | Free; Starter $9.99; Growth $29.99; Pro $99.99. | 5 October 2026 |
| Ongoing free plan | No ongoing free subscription listed. Starter, Growth and Pro list a three-day trial; the homepage offers a free store scan. | Five ChatGPT questions weekly. New installs first receive a 14-day Starter preview. | 5 October 2026 |
| Questions and allowance | Starter: 20 products and 100 AI searches/month. Growth: 500 products and 480 searches. Pro: unlimited products and 1,200 searches. Scale: unlimited products and 5,000 searches. Saved weekly-question limits are not stated. | Free 5; Starter 10; Growth 30; Pro 40 weekly questions. Each pinned country variant uses one slot. | 5 October 2026 |
| Engines | Homepage names ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overview. Confirm the exact engine allowance for your plan. | Free: ChatGPT. Starter and Growth: ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Gemini and Perplexity. Pro adds Claude and Grok. | 5 October 2026 |
| Check schedule | Homepage offers a chosen daily, weekly or monthly scan frequency. Listing allowances are monthly search totals, plus a monthly brand scan. | Weekly on every plan. | 5 October 2026 |
| Live web search stated? | The checked listing and homepage do not explicitly state that each tracked answer uses live web search. | Yes. Chat services use web search through software connections; Google AI Overview is read from Google search results. | 5 October 2026 |
| Sources shown | Listing and homepage advertise the websites each answer cites. | Stored answers and cited sources. Paid plans add source insights for each engine. | 5 October 2026 |
| Countries or markets | Country allowances are not stated on the checked listing or homepage. | Home market on Free and Starter; extra-country question variants on Growth and Pro. | 5 October 2026 |
| Reviews and rating | No reviews yet; no customer rating established. | No reviews yet; no customer rating established. | 5 October 2026 |
| Launch date | 18 June 2026. | 28 August 2026. | 5 October 2026 |
| Developer | Toast Media FZCO. | Flexsta. | 5 October 2026 |
What Shop Mentions does that AEO Tracker doesn't
Shop Mentions advertises product-level tracking, competitor comparisons, incorrect-claim review and prioritized actions. Its homepage also describes product content rewriting, an AI article writer and referral revenue attribution. These are broader jobs than AEO Tracker's weekly measurement record.
What AEO Tracker does differently
AEO Tracker focuses on a weekly record of the buying questions you choose: whether your store was named, its position when an answer ranks recommendations, and the sources cited. It drafts editable questions from your catalog and leaves your storefront unchanged.
Its ongoing Free plan checks five questions on ChatGPT. Starter adds Google AI Overview, Gemini and Perplexity for $9.99 monthly. It does not offer competitor tracking, automatic content changes or revenue attribution.
Search-enabled software checks are samples for particular models and markets. They do not reproduce every shopper's personalized chat or guarantee recommendations or sales.
When Shop Mentions is the better pick
Shop Mentions may be the better pick if you want to follow individual products, compare competitors and act on content gaps in one place. Check how your chosen schedule consumes monthly searches, especially across products and engines. AEO Tracker suits a smaller set of weekly buying questions and a lower starting subscription.
Compare the wider set of Shopify AEO tracking apps. Ask how each question and engine consumes the plan allowance before subscribing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shop Mentions free?
Its listing starts at $29 monthly, with a three-day trial on Starter, Growth and Pro. Its homepage offers a free store scan. A free scan is different from an ongoing free monitoring subscription.
Are 100 AI searches the same as 20 weekly questions?
Not necessarily. Shop Mentions lists monthly searches and tracked products. Ask how engines and repeats consume searches before translating that into a weekly question allowance.
Does AEO Tracker track competitors like Shop Mentions?
No. AEO Tracker measures your store's mentions and cited sources. It does not offer competitor tracking.
Which app should a small Shopify store start with?
Start with the measurement or changes you need. AEO Tracker offers five weekly ChatGPT questions on Free; Shop Mentions combines product monitoring and content work, with subscriptions starting at $29 monthly.
Sources and scope
Checked 5 October 2026: Shop Mentions listing, Shop Mentions homepage, and AEO Tracker listing. Our plan allowances come from the current app plan definitions. Monthly USD offers are compared without annual discounts. Reviews and offers can change; a feature absent from a listing is not assumed absent from the product.