--- title: "Lighthouse Local vs. Surfer - AI Visibility Platforms Compared (2026)" description: "Compare Lighthouse Local and Surfer on AI assistants tracked, local prompts, agency reporting and pricing, every Surfer fact checked against its own pages." source: "https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/compare/lighthouse-local-vs-surfer-seo" --- [Home](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/) / [Compare](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/compare) / Lighthouse Local vs. Surfer # Compare Lighthouse Local vs. Surfer Surfer, the content platform at surferseo.com, sells an AI Tracker that checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI daily on its Pro plan and on a standalone AI Search Analytics plan, with recommendations that open in its Content Editor. Lighthouse Local checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI on every plan, by city and service area or nationally, with a plain-English fix list and specialists who make the fixes. Here's how they compare, every Surfer fact sourced from its own pages. [Start Free Trial](https://app.lighthouselocal.ai/?utm_source=lighthouselocal&utm_medium=marketing-site&utm_campaign=compare-surfer-seo&utm_content=hero-cta) Book a Demo 14-day free trial on self-serve plans Checked against Surfer's pages, October 13, 2026 Checked on every Lighthouse Local plan ChatGPT Claude Gemini Perplexity Google AI ## Which one is built for you? Two honest lists. Pick the one that sounds like your week. ### Choose Lighthouse Local if - You want Claude checked alongside the others on the plan you buy, with the list printed on the pricing card. - You want the Tempe answer and the Mesa answer kept apart, with the town set on the question. - You want a missing mention handled by a person rather than opened as a brief in an editor, with your approval first. - You want clients inside a dashboard under your brand from your first agency plan, instead of a share link from a workspace. ![](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/images/compare/surfer-seo.png) ### Choose Surfer if - You want writing and tracking in one login, with recommendations that open a brief in the Content Editor and one-click Auto-Optimize on the page. - You want a tracker you can buy on its own, 50 daily prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI from $82 a month billed yearly, with 100 and 200 prompt tiers and an unlimited tier at custom pricing. - You want a public view-only share link per tracker project with no time limit, CSV export and Looker Studio through its API on Peace of Mind. - You want off-page mention suggestions and a sponsored articles marketplace inside the tracker, in one ranked list with the content ideas. ## Feature by feature The same eighteen rows on every comparison we publish. ### AI platforms checked | Feature | Lighthouse Local | ![](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/images/compare/surfer-seo.png)Surfer | | --- | --- | --- | | ChatGPT | Yes | Yes | | Google Gemini | Yes | Yes On the standalone AI Search Analytics plan and from Pro up; Standard tracks ChatGPT only | | Claude | Yes | No | | Perplexity | Yes | Yes On the standalone AI Search Analytics plan and from Pro up; Standard tracks ChatGPT only | | Google AI Overviews | Yes | Yes AI Overviews and AI Mode on AI Search Analytics and from Pro up | ### What gets tracked | Feature | Lighthouse Local | ![](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/images/compare/surfer-seo.png)Surfer | | --- | --- | --- | | Local-intent questions, by city and service area | Yes | No | | Weekly sweep of every tracked question | Yes | Yes Daily on every tracker plan except Standard, which refreshes weekly | | Daily checks on priority questions | Yes | Yes Daily on AI Search Analytics and from Pro up | | Competitor tracking on every platform | Yes | Yes Ranked by visibility score with mention rate and average position | | Ranked, plain-English fix list | Yes | Yes One ranked list of content ideas and off-page mentions | | Optional done-for-you fixes | Yes | No One-click Auto-Optimize and Auto Internal Link on your content | ### For agencies | Feature | Lighthouse Local | ![](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/images/compare/surfer-seo.png)Surfer | | --- | --- | --- | | White-label client dashboard | Yes | Partial Enterprise only | | Unlimited client reports | Yes | Partial Public view-only share links per project; a limit isn't stated | | Embeddable white-label audit for lead capture | Yes | No | | Ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini about your own data | Yes | Yes MCP for Claude and ChatGPT on AI Search Analytics and from Pro up | ### Plans and trial | Feature | Lighthouse Local | ![](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/images/compare/surfer-seo.png)Surfer | | --- | --- | --- | | 14-day free trial | Yes Self-serve plans | No 7-day Pro trial, card at checkout | | Month-to-month billing | Yes | Yes Monthly or yearly; yearly is up to 17 percent less | | Dedicated agency plans | Yes | No Brand workspaces on each plan, 5 on Pro and unlimited on Peace of Mind | ## Plans, side by side Lighthouse Local prices come straight from our plan catalog. Surfer's are what its pricing page showed on October 13, 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 Custom From \~$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 Custom From \~$1,999 / month Custom client sites, prompts & seats ### ![](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/images/compare/surfer-seo.png)Surfer - AI Search Analytics $82 per month billed yearly, or $95 month to month Tracker only, 50 prompts checked daily on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, 5 seats, 5 brand spaces, MCP, with 100 prompts at $158 or $185 and 200 at $308 or $365, and an unlimited tier at custom pricing - Discovery $49 per month billed yearly, or $59 month to month 120 documents, 10 tracked pages, 1 seat, 1 brand workspace, 0 AI prompts tracked - Standard $99 per month billed yearly, or $119 month to month 25 prompts checked weekly on ChatGPT only, 360 documents, 50 tracked pages, 3 seats, 1 brand workspace - Pro $182 per month billed yearly, or $219 month to month 50 prompts checked daily on every tracked model, 360 documents, 200 tracked pages, 5 seats, 5 brand workspaces - Peace of Mind $299 per month billed yearly, or $359 month to month 100 prompts daily, unlimited documents and brand workspaces under fair use, 500 tracked pages, 10 seats, API access - Enterprise Custom quoted Custom prompt limits, SSO, white-label, an advisory program and priority support Surfer prices are in dollars as shown on its pricing page on the verified date, listed per month billed yearly with a month-to-month rate beside each, and yearly billing is charged upfront at up to 17 percent less. The same figures apply in euros. Extra tracker prompts are sold as add-ons. [See full pricing](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/pricing) ## What the tracker checks on each plan Surfer's AI Tracker lives inside a content platform, so read the tracker column of the pricing table on its own. Discovery tracks no prompts. Standard tracks 25 prompts weekly on ChatGPT only. Pro tracks 50 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, one prompt across every model at once, and Peace of Mind takes that to 100. A standalone AI Search Analytics plan sells the same tracker without the writing tools, 50 daily prompts from $82 a month billed yearly, with 100 and 200 prompt tiers published. The answers are scraped from the real interfaces rather than pulled from an API. The question to ask any vendor is whether the headline list and the tracker list are the same list. The header on Surfer's pricing page names Claude among the engines it helps you win, and its tracker FAQ and help center list five models without Claude, so ask which list applies to the plan you're buying. The same goes for the cadence, where Standard's weekly refresh is a different product from Pro's daily one. Lighthouse Local checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI on every plan, and the pricing cards above show each plan's monthly allowance of AI answer checks, with a weekly sweep over every question and daily checks on the ones you mark. The list on the card is the list the tracker runs, from the first plan. ## From a recommendation to a finished fix Surfer turns tracker data into two kinds of recommendation, refreshed every Monday. Off-page mentions list the sources where your brand is missing or mentioned with mixed sentiment, for outreach. On-page content ideas open as a brief in the Content Editor, where Auto-Optimize and Auto Internal Link apply one-click changes, and an October 2026 update folds both kinds into one ranked list, with a sponsored articles marketplace for buying a mention where a source sells one. Peace of Mind adds a dedicated success manager and Enterprise an advisory program. If the same team writes the pages, tracking and editing in one login saves a handoff. On the pages we read, Surfer's answer to work beyond the page is a recommendation and an advisory call, so ask who handles a Business Profile category, an old number on a directory, or a listing claim that a person has to file. Lighthouse Local orders every fix by what moves your visibility most, in a [ranked fix list](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/how-it-works) in plain English, and [our specialists make the fixes](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/for-business) if you'd rather not, including on-page changes, Google Business Profile management and local citations, with your approval before any of it goes live. If your gaps are mostly articles and you want a brief open in an editor, Surfer's editor is the right home for it. ## Workspaces, share links and the brand on the login Surfer organizes clients as brand workspaces, 1 on Standard, 5 on Pro and AI Search Analytics, and unlimited under fair use on Peace of Mind, each holding one tracker project, all under one subscription. Any tracker project can be shared with a public view-only link that never expires, there's CSV export on the dashboards, and Looker Studio connects through the API that Peace of Mind carries. White-label is listed on Enterprise. For an agency whose clients are happy with a share link, that's simple. Whose brand is on the view a client opens, and what does one more client cost? Surfer publishes the workspace counts per plan and puts the branding on the custom tier. From the first agency plan, your clients log into a [white-label dashboard](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/for-agencies) on your own domain, with unlimited client reports and a shared prompt pool, and each client's questions can be pointed at their own town. Lighthouse Local's Beacon puts [an embeddable AI visibility audit](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/beacon) on your site so a prospect sees their own gaps before you've met. Then set [our agency plans](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/pricing) beside Pro and Peace of Mind and cost one client on each. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Lighthouse Local an alternative to Surfer? If AI visibility is the job rather than content writing, yes. Surfer is a content platform whose AI Tracker checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI daily on Pro and on a standalone plan, with recommendations that open in its editor, which fits a team that writes in Surfer already. Lighthouse Local is built around the answer itself. It checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI on every plan by city and service area or nationally, ranks the fixes in plain English, and has our specialists make them if you'd rather not. ### Which AI platforms does Surfer track? Its AI Tracker page and help center list ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Perplexity, with one prompt running across every model at once on Pro and above, and Standard tracking ChatGPT only. Its pricing page header names Claude as an engine it helps you win, and the tracker list doesn't include it, so ask Surfer which list applies before you count on Claude. Lighthouse Local checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI on every plan, and that list doesn't change by tier. ### How much does Surfer cost? The standalone AI Search Analytics tracker is $82 a month billed yearly or $95 month to month for 50 daily prompts, with 100 prompts at $158 or $185 and 200 at $308 or $365. The content plans are Discovery at $49 or $59 with no tracker, Standard at $99 or $119 with 25 weekly prompts on ChatGPT, Pro at $182 or $219 with 50 daily prompts, Peace of Mind at $299 or $359 with 100, and Enterprise custom. The same figures apply in euros. Those prompt tiers are the number to compare with the AI answer checks on each of our cards above. ### Does Surfer track local questions by city? Its tracker pages describe prompts suggested from your site and run across the tracked models, and its MCP docs list a location setting for Content Editors. Nothing on the pages we read describes pointing a tracker prompt at a city or service area, so the answer you see is the one the models give without a place attached. A brand that sells everywhere gets the national answer it wants, and a brand that needs the Mesa answer kept apart from Tempe's gets one answer for both. Lighthouse Local points each question at a city and service area, or nationally, so a gap in one town shows up as that town. ### Does Surfer have a free trial? A 7-day trial with Pro access, for new accounts, with billing details entered at checkout and the subscription converting automatically after seven days unless you cancel, and the standalone tracker has its own 7-day trial at Pro's limits. Seven days shows one week of daily tracker data. Lighthouse Local's self-serve plans include a 14-day free trial with every feature included, and it's twice as long. ### Can agencies white-label Surfer? White-label is listed on the Enterprise plan at a custom price, and its agencies page describes custom branding and team management without naming a tier. Below that, clients see their tracker through a public view-only share link and separate brand workspaces, 5 on Pro and unlimited under fair use on Peace of Mind, with the plan's prompt cap shared across them. Lighthouse Local includes the white-label dashboard on your own domain on every agency plan, with unlimited client reports. Beacon, sold separately, puts a branded audit on your own site. ### How did we check these facts? Every Surfer fact on this page comes from Surfer's own pages, read on October 13, 2026. Where a page doesn't publish something, the scorecard says No. If you spot a change, [contact us](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/contact) and we'll re-verify. Sources: [Surfer pricing](https://surferseo.com/pricing/) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer AI Tracker](https://surferseo.com/ai-tracker/) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer for agencies](https://surferseo.com/solutions/agency/) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer help, AI Tracker](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/11667466-ai-tracker) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer help, AI Search Analytics](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12944184-ai-search-analytics) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer help, the trial](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12944181-how-does-the-surfer-trial-work) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer help, MCP](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12944186-surfer-mcp) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer help, competitors dashboard](https://docs.surferseo.com/en/articles/12577029-ai-tracker-competitors-dashboard) (seen October 13, 2026) · [Surfer updates, AI visibility recommendations](https://surferseo.com/updates/ai-visibility-recommendations-october2026/) (seen October 13, 2026). ## Ready to see how AI describes your business? Set up in ten minutes with a 14-day free trial on every self-serve plan, or talk to a specialist first. [Start Free Trial](https://app.lighthouselocal.ai/?utm_source=lighthouselocal&utm_medium=marketing-site&utm_campaign=compare-surfer-seo&utm_content=closing-cta) Book a Demo ![Lighthouse Local Online Presence dashboard](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/_astro/online-presence.Bf6-fV_P_1YFuFw.webp?dpl=dpl_DfpqxA2kzoGswa4dpGX8giY7tPQR) ## Sitemap - [Markdown sitemap](https://www.lighthouselocal.ai/sitemap.md)