Athena vs Farse vs Aiclicks for Tracking LLM Citations

How do the three compare?

Prices and features as listed on each vendor's pricing page:

Why does the counting method matter?

Because the same monitoring job costs very different amounts. Take one job: 50 prompts, checked daily on ChatGPT and Google's AI answers, for a 30-day month. That is 50 × 2 × 30 = 3,000 AI responses.

• AthenaHQ Starter includes 3,600 credits, so the job fits within $295 a month, about $0.10 per response used.
• AIclicks Starter allows only 30 prompts, so the job needs Pro at $189 a month. Pro allows 150 prompts on four platforms, which leaves room to grow.
• Frase Starter tracks 50 prompts on ChatGPT and Google AI, so the job fits within $49 a month, or $39 billed yearly.

For that narrow job, Frase is cheapest and AthenaHQ dearest. The picture changes as you add assistants and prompts. AIclicks Business covers 300 prompts on six platforms for $499. Frase needs its $299 Scale plan to add Claude and Gemini. On AthenaHQ, every extra assistant consumes more credits. Always model your own prompt count, assistants and frequency before comparing prices.

Which tracks citations in the most depth?

All three record whether answers mention or cite you. They differ in how far they go beyond that.

• AthenaHQ lists sources and competitor insights, citation intelligence and prompt-variation tracking on its paid Starter plan. Enterprise plans add the newer Athena Citation Engine, knowledge-base claim review and detection of discrepancies between answers and your own facts. It also tracks prompt variations and conversation context, which matters because answers change with phrasing.
• AIclicks focuses on which sources drive answers for your prompts. It turns them into suggested actions, such as pitching a publisher or updating a listing. Its Clicky assistant answers questions from your tracked data. Its documentation says Clicky does not estimate or guess.
• Frase describes its AI Visibility module as daily monitoring and alerts on whether engines cite you, and says plainly that it does not auto-fix. Its strength is what happens next: writing, auditing and republishing pages.

If your main need is understanding which third-party sources decide your category, AthenaHQ and AIclicks give more to work with. If your main need is producing and updating pages, Frase's tracking is enough to steer the content work. The single-tool view of AIclicks is in the AIclicks review.

Which connects citations to traffic?

AthenaHQ integrates with GA4 and Google Search Console to connect AI visibility with site traffic. It also integrates with Shopify and Webflow. AIclicks connects GA4 from its Pro plan, mapping AI referral sessions and key events to assistants. Frase's pricing page lists AI crawler monitoring from the Professional plan. That shows when AI bots fetch your pages, which is a different signal from human visits.

None of them can tie a specific prompt to a specific visit, because assistants do not pass the question along. They show whether pages that are cited more often also get more AI referrals.

What should you be careful with?

• Automated content. Frase's agent can publish on its own if you switch that on, and AIclicks and AthenaHQ draft content too. Review drafts before publishing. Large volumes of lightly edited AI text risk breaching Google's policy on scaled content abuse, and rarely add the new information that earns citations.
• Crawler file management. AthenaHQ offers "smart" robots.txt and llms.txt management. robots.txt changes can block crawlers you need, so review them. llms.txt has no proven effect on citations, as covered in whether llms.txt improves AI search visibility or citations.
• Scores. Each tool calculates visibility differently. Compare mention rates and cited sources, not scores across tools.
• Single daily samples. Answers vary between runs, so a daily check per prompt gives a trend, not a precise share of voice.

Which should you choose?

• AthenaHQ, if you need broad assistant coverage, several markets, enterprise controls such as SSO and audit logs, or executive dashboards. Its free tier lets you test the interface first.
• AIclicks, if you want daily tracking with source analysis at a moderate price, especially as an agency splitting prompts across clients.
• Frase, if your team's main work is producing and refreshing content, and you want citation monitoring in the same place.

For other pairings, see Ahrefs Brand Radar vs AthenaHQ for tracking AI citations and Peec vs Determ vs SE Visible for tracking LLM mentions.

How do you test them side by side?

1. Write 20 prompts from real customer questions before starting any trial.
2. Start the shortest trial last. AIclicks' trial lasts three days, Frase's seven, and AthenaHQ's free tier has no time limit but only 300 credits.
3. Enter the same prompts, assistants and country in each tool.
4. Run five prompts yourself in each assistant, and save the answers.
5. Compare the brands and sources each tool records with your own runs.
6. Judge the next step: which tool's source lists or recommendations would you actually act on?

What do people ask about these tools?

Is Farse a different product from Frase?

Not as far as we can find. The spelling appears in user posts and marketplace questions that refer to Frase.

Which is cheapest for a single small business?

For a few dozen prompts on ChatGPT and Google, Frase's Starter plan, or AthenaHQ's free tier for occasional checks.

Do any of them track Grok?

AthenaHQ lists Grok among its monitored assistants. Check the current lists for the others.

Can I use more than one?

Yes, but compare them on the same prompts. Running two trackers long term rarely adds enough to justify the cost.