Key takeaways
- SSO, SCIM and audit logs are usually gated to the top plan. Get the plan requirement in writing before you shortlist anyone.
- Few GEO vendors publicly document their own ISO 27001 certificate. Conductor is the clearest example in the research. Treat every other badge as unverified until you see the certificate and Statement of Applicability.
- Promptwatch is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, with SSO, an audit log and a white-label client portal on Enterprise, and it also does the work (content, publishing, measurement) instead of only reporting.
- A vendor inheriting AWS's SOC 2 is not the same as holding its own report. Check scope.
- Acquisitions (Adobe and Semrush, Sitecore and Scrunch) can change contract terms and roadmap mid-term.
Why security review decides enterprise GEO purchases
Most GEO tools look the same in a demo. A visibility score, a prompt list, a competitor chart. The difference shows up when your security team sends the questionnaire and the vendor needs three weeks to answer it.
Enterprise buyers filter on different things than mid-market teams. The core metrics matter, but SSO, audit trails, data handling and contract terms become hard gates. A platform that cannot pass procurement never gets adopted, however good its charts are.
One caveat on sourcing. Much of the public comparison content on this topic is written by vendors, including some of the checklists I draw on below. I flag where a claim is vendor self-description and where it comes from an independent read of public pages.
The enterprise checklist
A workable checklist, adapted from Presenc AI's April 2026 buying guide and Rework's procurement review:
- SAML SSO with Okta, Azure AD or Ping, plus SCIM provisioning
- Role-based access control across brands, agencies and regions
- Audit logs showing who changed what, and from where
- Data residency options (EU, US, APAC) and GDPR terms
- MSA, DPA and security questionnaire responses
- Integration with your data stack (Looker, Snowflake, Databricks, Tableau)
- Multi-brand support and a named customer success contact
- Hallucination and brand-safety alerting
Rework suggests weighting access control (SSO, SCIM, audit log) at around 20% of an RFP score. That seems about right to me. For each control, ask for the configuration doc and the plan it requires.
What the evidence shows by vendor
Rework read each vendor's public pages on October 5, 2026. "Not stated" means nothing was found on those pages, not that the control is missing.
| Vendor | SSO | SCIM | Customer audit log |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | SAML or OIDC, Enterprise plan | Yes (Aug 21, 2026) | Yes, Enterprise plan (Aug 7, 2026) |
| Scrunch | SAML and OIDC, Enterprise plan | Not stated | Yes |
| Goodie | SAML | Yes | Not stated |
| AthenaHQ | SAML and OIDC, Enterprise plan | Not stated | Yes |
| Ahrefs | SAML 2.0, Enterprise plan | Via support | Yes, Enterprise plan |
And the attestation picture, which is messier:
| Vendor | Own SOC 2 | ISO 27001 evidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Promptwatch | Not covered in research | ISO/IEC 27001 certified, GDPR compliant | EU-based company, audit log on Business and above |
| Conductor | Type II | ISO 27001:2022 and ISO 42001 listed on its security center | Hosting region not stated |
| Profound | Type 2 announced | Not mentioned in the announcement found | Trust center at trust.tryprofound.com |
| Ahrefs | Not yet certified per Rework | "ISO27001 certified" tile, unmatched to a certificate | Ask for the certificate |
| GeoGenie | Claims Type II | Claims ISO 27001 program | Vendor marketing, unverified |
| Goodie | Type I and II | Not verified | No DPA or audit log found by Rework |
| Otterly | AWS's SOC 2, not its own | Not verified | SSO available |
| Peec AI | None stated | Not verified | Unlimited users, SAML 2.0, GDPR-first |
Rework counted 7 of 12 vendors stating their own SOC 2 report. Two of those cover a parent platform rather than the AEO product, and three cite only their cloud host's certificates. That distinction matters more than any badge.
The platforms worth shortlisting
Promptwatch
Promptwatch is the option on this list that pairs a stated ISO/IEC 27001 certification with an actual execution layer. It is also GDPR compliant, handled by an EU-based company, which tends to shorten security reviews for European buyers.
On the controls this guide cares about: owner, editor and viewer roles with project-level access, scoped API keys, an organization audit log (Business, Agency Scale and Enterprise) that records every change and whether it came from the dashboard, the API, an MCP client or Agent Chat, SSO on Enterprise, and a white-label dashboard and client portal on Enterprise. Tracking keeps running while a payment is past due, so there are no data gaps.
The bigger difference is what happens after the score. Most GEO platforms are dashboards. Promptwatch tracks real interfaces (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Meta AI and more), traces which pages and third-party sources get cited, then acts through the Action Board, Content Agent and CMS publishing to WordPress, Webflow and Framer. IP-verified crawler logs and visitor analytics close the loop by showing whether the fix got crawled, cited and clicked. Business also covers Fact Check, which flags the pages teaching AI the wrong claim about you, a governance feature enterprise teams ask about early.
Pricing tops out as custom for Enterprise (Business is $579/mo, with audit log included). Confirm current tiers at promptwatch.com/pricing. See also Promptwatch vs Profound. Start with the 7-day free trial or the free AI visibility report, or book a demo with your security questionnaire in hand.
Profound
The name that comes up first in enterprise deals. SAML or OIDC SSO, SCIM (added August 21, 2026) and an audit log (August 7, 2026) are on the Enterprise plan, and it has announced SOC 2 Type 2. I did not find ISO 27001 mentioned in that announcement. Profound says it raised a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation in September 2026, which is a company statement. Pricing is sales-led. It is strong on monitoring, but you are paying enterprise rates for it and the execution side is lighter.
Conductor
Conductor has the widest attestation list in the research: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 42001, SAML SSO and annual third-party penetration tests. The gap is that it does not state a hosting region, which matters if you have residency requirements. If a signed ISO 27001 scope is non-negotiable and you already run Conductor for SEO, it deserves a look.
Scrunch
Strong on citation intelligence, with SOC 2 Type II and audit logs. SAML SSO is Enterprise-only. Note that Sitecore announced its purchase of Scrunch on June 3, 2026, so ask what the roadmap and contract terms look like after the deal.
AthenaHQ
Publishes its MSA and DPA, which is rare and saves procurement time. It has SAML and OIDC SSO on Enterprise and an audit log. Its SOC 2 type is not stated, so ask.
Goodie
SAML, SCIM and both SOC 2 Type I and II. Rework found no DPA or audit log on its public pages. Prices differ between sources: Rework lists $399/mo on annual billing, while an older guide shows $295. Rework is more recent, so I would trust it, but confirm.
Bluefish and Evertune
Both target Fortune 500 brands. Bluefish lists SSO, RBAC and permissioned data governance. I found no verified ISO 27001 evidence for either, so they go through the same certificate request as everyone else.
Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush
The two suites with AI tracking inside. Ahrefs is one of only two vendors that print an Enterprise price that includes SSO: $1,499/mo on an annual commitment, with an audit log and uncapped API. Its Enterprise page shows an ISO27001 tile that Rework could not match to a certificate, so ask for it. Semrush has PCI DSS Level 1 and SAML, and Adobe closed its acquisition of Semrush on April 28, 2026. Suites tend to use fixed prompt sets and shallow AI-specific data, so they fit teams that mainly want one vendor.
Otterly and Peec AI
Otterly starts at $29/mo and offers SSO and country-specific monitoring, but its SOC 2 belongs to AWS, not Otterly. Peec AI is $95/mo with unlimited users and SAML 2.0, a reasonable pick for a GDPR-first team, though it states no SOC 2. Both are monitoring tools, so pair them with other workflows if you need execution.
How to verify an ISO 27001 claim
A logo on a pricing page proves nothing. Ask for:
- The certificate itself, issued by an accredited certification body, and check the expiry date.
- The Statement of Applicability.
- The scope statement. Does it cover the GEO product, or only a parent company or cloud host?
- The latest SOC 2 report under NDA, and confirmation whether it is the vendor's own or inherited from AWS or GCP.
- The DPA, subprocessor list and data residency options.
- The plan that includes SSO, SCIM and audit logs, in writing.
A note on tooling: ISO 27001 compliance platforms such as Drata or Strac are what vendors use to get certified. They are not GEO tools, so do not confuse the two lists.
Plan gating is the real trap
SSO and audit logs rarely come with the entry tier. Scrunch SAML is Enterprise-only. Profound's SSO and audit log sit on Enterprise. Ahrefs needs the $1,499 tier. Rework found only Ahrefs and Trakkr (from $1,000/mo) publish an Enterprise price with SSO, and the other eight vendors route you to sales.
Promptwatch is more transparent here: the audit log starts at Business ($579/mo) and Agency Scale ($799/mo), with SSO and the white-label portal on Enterprise.
Vendor risk beyond security
- Ownership changes. Adobe closed Semrush on April 28, 2026. Sitecore announced Scrunch on June 3, 2026. Ask about contract assignment and roadmap commitments.
- Beta products. HubSpot's AEO product, from the XFunnel deal, is still Beta. Rework calls that a stop sign for most procurement teams.
- Engine coverage. Promptwatch Data showed ChatGPT citing about 5 sources per answer while Google AI Overviews cites about 10, so check that a platform tracks each engine separately instead of blending them.
- Public trust docs. Promptwatch's software citation data (Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026) shows documentation and help centers earn the largest share of software citations at 2.64%. A vendor with crawlable security docs is easier to evaluate, and those pages can be cited too.
Quick picks
| Your priority | Start with |
|---|---|
| Verified ISO 27001 plus execution and measurement | Promptwatch |
| Widest attestation list from an SEO suite | Conductor |
| Enterprise monitoring brand recognition | Profound |
| Published MSA and DPA | AthenaHQ |
| Printed enterprise price with SSO | Ahrefs |
| GDPR-first, low budget | Peec AI |
For wider exploration, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com lists more options.
Running the evaluation
Shortlist three vendors. Send the same questionnaire to each on the same day. Score access control at roughly 20%, and weight verified certificates above badges. Run a 30-day pilot with real prompts in your markets, and check the audit log yourself: change a monitor setting and confirm it appears with the right user and source.
If a vendor takes longer than two weeks to produce an ISO certificate it claims to hold, you have your answer.
For teams that want a deeper look at how visibility ties to results, the Crisp case study shows what the measure-and-fix loop produced in practice.
If you would rather hand the program to specialists, 1001 SEO Media runs GEO engagements on Promptwatch.