MaxAEO vs Spotlight (Now rocketblue): Which AI Visibility Platform Fits Your Team?

Last updated: July 17, 2026 · By the MaxAEO Team

Looking for Spotlight alternative? The first thing to know is that Spotlight is now rocketblue. The old get-spotlight.com homepage says the team has rebranded and that existing Spotlight accounts and data are unchanged. This comparison therefore uses “Spotlight (rocketblue)” for the product people may still search for, while checking current capabilities and prices on rocketblue’s owned pages.

MaxAEO and rocketblue both help marketing teams measure how brands appear in AI-generated answers. Both address brand mentions, competitor visibility, sentiment, prompts, and citations. The meaningful differences are operational: how frequently you want monitoring, how much you want to spend, whether you need fan-out query evidence, and whether API, export, or large-team packaging is a requirement.

This is a MaxAEO-owned comparison, so the verdict is deliberately based on public product and plan pages from both vendors rather than unsupported performance claims.

Quick verdict: choose by operating model, not by logo

Choose MaxAEO if you want a lower-cost entry point, daily monitoring, competitor and sentiment analysis, citation tracing, and a practical path from a visibility gap to content optimization. Its public monthly plans begin at $19, with Growth at $149 and Pro at $399.

Choose Spotlight, now rocketblue, if your team specifically wants published support for fan-out query analysis, source reverse engineering, API access, data export, or clearly defined 20- to 30-seat packages. Its current public plans list Growth at $199 per month and Pro at $499 per month.

If your core need is simply to monitor mentions, sentiment, competitors, and citations across AI assistants, both belong on the shortlist. Compare the usable plan—not just the engine catalog on the homepage—because model access, prompts, competitors, seats, and reporting cadence vary by tier.

MaxAEO vs Spotlight at a glance

The table separates broad public capabilities from plan-specific limits. “Not publicly stated” does not mean a feature is unavailable; it means the current public page does not make the scope clear enough to promise it here.

Decision factor	MaxAEO	Spotlight (now rocketblue)
Current identity	MaxAEO	Spotlight has rebranded to rocketblue
Public entry price	Starter: $19/mo, or $15/mo annual equivalent	Free report available; paid Growth: $199/mo
Higher public tiers	Growth $149/mo; Pro $399/mo; Enterprise custom	Pro $499/mo
Monitoring/report cadence	Daily monitoring on public plan cards	Weekly reports on Growth and Pro plan pages
Public engine catalog	Eight named engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, Grok, AI Mode, AI Overview	Feature pages name the same major engine set; paid plan pages list five engines on Growth and six on Pro
Prompt capacity	10 Starter; 100 Growth; 400 Pro	100 per report Growth; 300 per report Pro
Competitor scope	5 Starter; 8 Growth; 8 per brand Pro; unlimited Enterprise	3 competitor reports Growth; unlimited competitor reports Pro
Sentiment and reputation	Sentiment analysis within the monitoring workflow	Sentiment/reputation analysis; custom perception properties listed on Pro
Citation intelligence	Citation tracing to identify sources and content issues	Per-page/model citation trends, prompt attribution, cross-platform tracking, narrative impact
Prompt research	Prompt research and AI-generated monitoring profile	Prompt monitoring plus a dedicated fan-out query feature
Content optimization	Content optimization and action recommendations	Cited-source property analysis and content recommendations
API and export	Not listed on the current self-serve pricing page; confirm enterprise scope	API access and data export listed on Pro
Team packaging	Seat counts not stated on current public self-serve cards	Up to 20 seats Growth; up to 30 seats Pro
Data retention	30 days Starter; 90 days Growth; one year Pro; unlimited Enterprise	Not publicly stated on the plan pages reviewed

Where the products diverge in real workflows

1. Monitoring tempo and engine scope

AI answers change as models, retrieval indexes, and cited sources change. That makes cadence and engine scope separate buying decisions.

MaxAEO publishes daily monitoring across its plan cards. Its homepage names eight supported AI surfaces, while the Starter, Growth, and Pro cards show four platforms with approximately six available; Enterprise lists all platforms. Teams should therefore verify which engines are active on the exact tier they intend to buy.

rocketblue’s Growth and Pro pages publish weekly reports. Growth lists ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and AI Overview. Pro adds AI Mode. Its feature pages also discuss Claude and Copilot, but the paid plan bundle should be the source of truth for procurement.

Fit anchor: MaxAEO is for teams that want daily change detection at a lower self-serve price; Spotlight (rocketblue) is for teams comfortable with a weekly reporting workflow and its published plan bundles.

2. Sentiment and reputation questions

Both platforms go beyond a binary “mentioned or not mentioned” check. They analyze how AI answers describe a brand and how that position compares with competitors.

MaxAEO places sentiment alongside mention rate, competitive ranking, average recommendation position, and citation tracing. That makes sentiment one diagnostic inside a broader visibility-to-optimization workflow. A marketer can identify a negative or weak description, inspect the supporting sources, and turn the gap into a content action.

rocketblue’s current articles place more emphasis on reputation management. Its Pro plan also lists custom perception properties, which may matter when a team wants to track specific qualities or narrative attributes instead of only positive, neutral, and negative labels.

Fit anchor: MaxAEO is for sentiment analysis connected to monitoring and optimization actions; Spotlight (rocketblue) is for teams attracted to its explicit reputation and custom-perception framing.

3. Citation intelligence and source evidence

Citation tracking is not the same as counting backlinks. The useful questions are: which page was cited, by which model, for which prompt, how that changed over time, and what the cited page contributed to the answer.

MaxAEO’s public product describes citation tracing as a way to pinpoint issues in how AI describes and sources a brand. It sits beside competitor benchmarking and content optimization, so the emphasis is diagnosis followed by a recommended action.

rocketblue publishes a more detailed feature description. Its citation tracking page promises per-page and model-specific trends, the exact prompt that yielded a citation, tracking across owned and third-party sites, and a “narrative impact” view of how content shapes an AI answer.

Fit anchor: MaxAEO is for teams that want citation diagnosis tied to an optimization center; Spotlight (rocketblue) is for buyers prioritizing explicitly documented page-level, prompt-level, and narrative-impact reporting.

4. Prompt research versus fan-out query research

A user prompt is the question a person asks. A fan-out query is one of the narrower searches an AI system may generate when it retrieves fresh information from the web. Those are related but different evidence layers.

MaxAEO focuses publicly on prompt research: it can use a brand URL to build a monitoring profile, then track strategically relevant prompts across AI engines. This suits teams managing a stable portfolio of category, comparison, and brand questions.

rocketblue has a dedicated fan-out feature. It says it captures the sub-queries used by systems such as ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, tracks how those searches change, and recommends content aligned with them. Its own FAQ also notes that fan-out data is not available for every prompt, because a model may answer from training data without searching the web.

Fit anchor: MaxAEO is for managing the prompt set that defines your AI-search market; Spotlight (rocketblue) is for teams that specifically want evidence about the sub-queries an LLM uses during web retrieval.

5. Turning monitoring gaps into content action

A dashboard creates value only when a team can act on the gap it finds.

MaxAEO presents a clear sequence: monitor visibility, analyze mentions and sentiment, trace citations, compare competitors, and use content optimization recommendations to improve how the brand is described and recommended. This is useful for non-technical marketing teams that want the action queue close to the monitoring data.

rocketblue calls its approach source reverse engineering. Its current feature page says it analyzes cited pages for structure, schema types, word count, media, links, tone, and depth, then proposes content that either follows proven citation patterns or fills an uncovered perspective. Those properties are evidence inputs, not guarantees that perfect schema or a target word count will earn a citation.

Fit anchor: MaxAEO is for a practical monitoring-to-optimization workflow; Spotlight (rocketblue) is for teams that want detailed cited-source property analysis as a planning input.

6. Agencies, integrations, and team scale

Packaging may decide the comparison before analytics do.

MaxAEO Pro publicly includes four brands and 400 prompts, which is a straightforward self-serve option for a small portfolio. Enterprise expands to unlimited brands, prompts, competitors, platforms, and retention, but custom integration and seat details require a sales conversation.

rocketblue publishes more collaboration detail on its standard plans. Growth includes up to 20 seats and three competitor reports. Pro includes up to 30 seats, unlimited competitor reports, API access, data export, onboarding support, prompt search volume, and custom perception properties.

Fit anchor: MaxAEO is for teams optimizing self-serve multi-brand monitoring cost; Spotlight (rocketblue) is for buyers who need published API, export, onboarding, and larger-seat commitments before contacting sales.

How to switch from Spotlight to MaxAEO without losing your baseline

A clean migration protects comparability. Do not change the platform, prompts, competitors, engines, and reporting period at the same time.

Save the current baseline. Export or document every active prompt, engine, competitor, mention rate, sentiment view, rank, cited URL, and report date available in your Spotlight/rocketblue workspace.
Freeze a representative prompt set. Keep the highest-value category, alternative, recommendation, and brand-reputation questions unchanged for the overlap test.
Map plan scope. Match engines, prompt count, competitors, countries, and cadence to the closest MaxAEO plan. A homepage engine catalog is not enough; verify tier access.
Run both for one reporting cycle. Compare direction and major gaps rather than expecting identical percentages. Vendors may sample at different times and normalize answers differently.
Move the operating workflow last. Once the baseline is understood, assign owners for citation review, sentiment issues, competitor gaps, and content actions in MaxAEO.

The same method works in reverse if rocketblue’s fan-out, API, or export package is the reason for switching. Preserve evidence first; change the workflow second.

Pricing: compare the usable plan, not the lowest number

MaxAEO pricing currently lists Starter at $19 per month or $15 per month with annual billing, Growth at $149/$119, and Pro at $399/$319. Enterprise is custom. The practical step-up depends on prompts, brands, competitors, retention, and the engines enabled on that plan.

rocketblue lists Growth at $199 per month and Pro at $499 per month. Growth includes 100 prompts per report, three competitor reports, five named AI surfaces, and up to 20 seats. Pro includes 300 prompts per report, unlimited competitor reports, six named AI surfaces, API/export, and up to 30 seats. The company offers a free AI visibility report, but its public pages do not describe that report as a permanent free software tier.

MaxAEO has the lower published self-serve entry and mid-tier price. rocketblue’s higher price buys clearer public packaging for collaboration and integration. Compare the tier that supports your real workflow.

Frequently asked questions

Any good tools for tracking brand mentions in ChatGPT and Perplexity?

Yes. MaxAEO and Spotlight (now rocketblue) both monitor brand mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI systems. MaxAEO is the stronger fit when daily monitoring, a lower entry price, and an integrated optimization workflow matter. rocketblue is the stronger fit when fan-out queries, API/export, or its citation narrative reporting are explicit requirements.

I’m a brand manager and I’m worried about how AI search engines talk about us — any suggestions for monitoring tools?

Start with a platform that tracks more than mention count. You need sentiment, recommendation position, competitor visibility, the prompts that trigger the answer, and the sources behind it. Both tools cover that problem; choose MaxAEO for daily diagnosis-to-action work, or rocketblue for its published reputation, perception, and source-analysis package.

Is there a platform that analyzes brand sentiment across different AI chatbots?

Both MaxAEO and rocketblue analyze brand sentiment across multiple AI platforms. MaxAEO combines sentiment with mention rate, rankings, citations, and content actions. rocketblue combines sentiment with reputation analysis and lists custom perception properties on its Pro plan. Confirm language, country, and model support for your chosen tier.

What do people use to monitor how AI search engines recommend their products?

Teams use AI visibility platforms that repeatedly run product-category and recommendation prompts, record which brands appear, measure position and sentiment, and trace cited sources. MaxAEO and rocketblue both fit this category. The decision turns on cadence, prompt scope, source intelligence, integrations, team size, and budget.

What tools are available for checking if my brand is mentioned in AI-generated answers?

Dedicated AI visibility tools include MaxAEO, rocketblue, and other market platforms. For this comparison, MaxAEO offers daily monitoring and self-serve plans from $19 per month, while rocketblue publishes weekly Growth and Pro reporting from $199 per month. Test the same prompt set across the models that actually influence your buyers.

How is MaxAEO different from Spotlight?

Spotlight is now called rocketblue. MaxAEO differentiates through lower public self-serve pricing, daily monitoring, and a monitoring-to-content-optimization workflow. rocketblue differentiates through explicitly published fan-out query analysis, cited-source reverse engineering, narrative-impact citation tracking, and Pro-level API/export and team packaging.

Final recommendation: verify with your own prompt set

For most small and mid-sized teams seeking affordable daily AI visibility monitoring plus actionable optimization, MaxAEO is the more accessible starting point. For teams whose requirements list begins with fan-out queries, API/export, 20–30 seats, or rocketblue’s specific source-analysis workflow, rocketblue may be the better operational fit.

Evaluate both with the same prompts, models, competitors, and reporting window. That controlled test will tell you more than any feature checklist. Review MaxAEO’s current plans or start from the MaxAEO homepage to map the right monitoring scope.

Source note: Product identity, feature, and pricing facts were checked against public MaxAEO, get-spotlight.com, and rocketblue pages on July 17, 2026. Plan details can change; verify them before purchase.