Compare Lighthouse Local vs. BrightLocal
BrightLocal is a local SEO platform for rank tracking, citations, reviews and listings that now includes AI visibility tracking on every plan. Lighthouse Local is an AI visibility tracker first, covering the five we track and turning the gaps into fixes our specialists can make. Here's how they compare, with every BrightLocal fact sourced from BrightLocal's own pages.
Which one is built for you?
Two honest lists. Pick the one that sounds like your week.
Choose Lighthouse Local if
- You want to see who ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI each recommend, so a customer asking any of them finds you in your results.
- You want to add a service or a town by adding one question, with every question swept weekly and the important ones checked daily.
- You'd rather send the fixes to our specialists than buy citations one at a time.
- Your clients expect a white-label dashboard built around AI visibility, with unlimited client reports.
Choose BrightLocal if
- You want rank tracking, geo-grid scans, citation building and review management in the same login.
- You want a low per-location price with published tiers up to 250 locations.
- You want white-label reports and per-client dashboards included from the first plan.
- You want AI citation gaps routed straight into a pay-as-you-go citation service.
Feature by feature
The same eighteen rows on every comparison we publish.
AI platforms checked
| Feature | Lighthouse Local | BrightLocal |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Yes | Yes |
| Google Gemini | Yes | No Engines listed are AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT |
| Claude | Yes | No Engines listed are AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT |
| Perplexity | Yes | No Engines listed are AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT |
| Google AI Overviews | Yes | Yes AI Overviews and AI Mode |
What gets tracked
| Feature | Lighthouse Local | BrightLocal |
|---|---|---|
| Local-intent questions, by city and service area | Yes | Yes Every prompt anchored to a location |
| Weekly sweep of every tracked question | Yes | No |
| Daily checks on priority questions | Yes | No |
| Competitor tracking on every platform | Yes | Yes |
| Ranked, plain-English fix list | Yes | Yes Action items prioritized by impact; AI Insights on Manage and Grow |
| Optional done-for-you fixes | Yes | Partial Citation Builder per citation; managed local SEO as a separate service |
For agencies
| Feature | Lighthouse Local | BrightLocal |
|---|---|---|
| White-label client dashboard | Yes | Yes Branding on tools and reports on every plan |
| Unlimited client reports | Yes | Partial Per-client dashboard URLs; report limits unstated |
| Embeddable white-label audit for lead capture | Yes | Partial Agency Lead Generator widget, without an AI audit |
| Ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini about your own data | Yes | No |
Plans and trial
| Feature | Lighthouse Local | BrightLocal |
|---|---|---|
| 14-day free trial | Yes Self-serve plans | Yes 14 days, no card |
| Month-to-month billing | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated agency plans | Yes | No Per-location tiers up to 250 locations; no separate agency tier |
Plans, side by side
Lighthouse Local prices come straight from our plan catalog. BrightLocal's are what its pricing page showed on October 7, 2026. A prompt count on its own undersells coverage, because Lighthouse Local runs every tracked prompt on ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI, so compare the answer checks a month.
Lighthouse Local
Starter
$79/ month
1,400+ AI answer checks a month
50 tracked prompts (weekly sweep) · 3 daily slots (checked every day)
Growth
$249/ month
4,700+ AI answer checks a month
150 tracked prompts (weekly sweep) · 12 daily slots (checked every day)
Enterprise
CustomFrom ~$599 / month
Custom prompts (~250+), sites & seats · ~25 daily slots, custom competitors
Agency Starter
$349/ month
5,500+ AI answer checks a month
160 shared prompts · 16 daily slots
Agency Growth
$999/ month
17,000+ AI answer checks a month
500 shared prompts · 50 daily slots
Agency Enterprise
CustomFrom ~$1,999 / month
Custom client sites, prompts & seats
BrightLocal
Track
$31per month billed annually, or $41 month to month, for one location
Local AI Visibility, rank tracking, geo-grid, citation tracker, GBP audit
Manage
$40per month billed annually, or $54 month to month, for one location
Everything in Track plus AI Insights, Active Sync, GBP post scheduler
Grow
$49per month billed annually, or $65 month to month, for one location
Everything in Manage plus review monitoring, campaigns and a review widget
Managed Local SEO
From $1,299per month
Done-for-you local SEO as a separate service
BrightLocal prices are in US dollars as shown on its pricing page on the verified date, for one location. Multi-location pricing steps up by location count, and Local AI Visibility tracks up to 20 prompts per location across three AI engines.
See full pricingWhich assistants is your customer actually asking?
An AI visibility tool can only report on the assistants it asks. BrightLocal's page names three engines, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT, so an answer a customer gets from Gemini, Claude or Perplexity isn't in its data today. If most of your customers ask Google or ChatGPT, three engines may be the right trade, especially when rank tracking, geo-grid scans and citations sit in the same login at a published per-location price.
That leads to the first question to ask any vendor. Which assistants do you check, and are those the ones my customers use? Nobody can tell you where a given customer will ask, so a longer list means fewer blind spots.
Our answer is to check ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI on every plan, so you see who each one recommends and where you're missing. Every gap lands on a ranked fix list in plain English, and our specialists can do the work if you'd rather not touch your site.
What happens when you add one more service?
A prompt is one question you ask an assistant on your customers' behalf, such as who to call for a roof repair in your town. How many you can track decides how much of your business you can watch. BrightLocal's Local AI Visibility tracks up to 20 prompts per location, and its page says you can't track more than that. For a single shop with a few services, 20 may be plenty, and it comes alongside the rest of BrightLocal's local SEO tools. A brand with many services or a national footprint is the one that runs into the cap.
So ask any vendor this. What does it take to add one more service or one more town to my tracking? With a per-location cap, the answer sits in that cap, so read it before you sign.
We track local-intent questions by city and service area, plus national ones, and we sweep every tracked question weekly with daily checks on the priority ones. Each plan carries a monthly allowance of AI answer checks, shown on the pricing cards above, so adding a service or a town means adding a question and watching it run. That allowance is the number to compare.
Does white-label cover the AI reports your clients see?
White-label means your client sees your brand, not the vendor's. BrightLocal's agency story is strong on the local SEO side. Branding on tools and reports comes with every plan, each client gets a dashboard URL, a lead generator widget captures prospects on your site, and per-location pricing scales to large portfolios. If your offer is local SEO with AI visibility as one line, that's a well-fitted bundle.
The question to ask is whether the AI visibility reports live inside those white-label dashboards, and whether the number of reports is limited. Neither is stated on the pages we read, so ask before you commit.
On our agency plans, the white-label dashboard is built around AI visibility and runs on your own custom domain, with unlimited client reports. Beacon, our white-label audit for lead capture, puts an embeddable AI visibility audit on your own site. To compare, price a typical client on our agency plans and on BrightLocal's per-location tiers.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lighthouse Local an alternative to BrightLocal?
For AI visibility, yes. If you also need rank tracking, citation building and review management, BrightLocal bundles those and Lighthouse Local doesn't. If the question is which assistants recommend you and what to fix, you'll want every assistant your customers use covered and a clear next step, so Lighthouse Local checks the five we track on every plan and turns each gap into a fix list our specialists can make for you.
Which AI engines does BrightLocal track?
BrightLocal's Local AI Visibility page lists Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT. That means a customer asking Gemini, Claude or Perplexity isn't in its data today. Lighthouse Local checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI on every plan, so those customers show up in your results.
How many prompts can BrightLocal track per location?
Up to 20, per its Local AI Visibility page, which says you can't track more than that. For one shop that may be enough, but a brand adding services or towns will feel the cap. Each Lighthouse Local plan has a monthly allowance of AI answer checks, shown in the pricing cards above, so adding a service means adding one question.
Does BrightLocal offer a free trial?
Yes, 14 days with no card required, per its pricing page. That's enough time to see the tool, so the real test is what you leave the trial with. Lighthouse Local's 14-day free trial on every self-serve plan runs the questions you set up on ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI, so you leave the trial with a fix list, not a sample.
Which is better for an agency?
It depends on what you sell. If your agency's offer is local SEO with AI visibility as a line item, BrightLocal's per-location pricing and bundled citation and review tools fit well. If AI visibility is the service, our agency plans give each client a white-label dashboard built around it, unlimited reports and Beacon for lead capture, with our specialists available to make the fixes.
How did we check these facts?
Every BrightLocal fact on this page comes from BrightLocal's own pages, read on October 7, 2026. Where a page doesn't publish something, the scorecard says No. If you spot a change, contact us and we'll re-verify. Sources: BrightLocal Local AI Visibility (seen October 7, 2026) · BrightLocal pricing (seen October 7, 2026) · BrightLocal home (seen October 7, 2026) · BrightLocal for agencies (seen October 7, 2026).
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