Comparison
Ahrefs Brand Radar vs Ternith
If you already run Ahrefs, Brand Radar gives you a new column in your reporting: AI Share of Voice. Ternith answers a different question — why your client or brand isn’t showing up, and what to fix first.
Ahrefs Brand RadarTracks the number.
TernithExplains it.
Side by side
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Ternith | |
|---|---|---|
| What you learn | Brand Radar reports how often AI mentions your brand relative to competitors, and it weights each mention by search volume. SEO leads use these figures for trending and benchmarking in monthly reports. A low or falling score tells you something is wrong, but it cannot distinguish which problem — discoverability, compellingness, or positioning — is responsible. | Ternith identifies which of three failure modes is costing you recommendations: discoverability, compellingness, or positioning. That tells you what to brief your content team on. |
| Core metric | Brand Radar reports AI Share of Voice, a mention percentage, alongside Estimated Impressions, which weight that percentage by Google search volume. You can drop these numbers straight into a client or leadership deck. | Ternith returns a named diagnosis, not a number. It backs that diagnosis with two measurement runs on separate days, and it reports a finding only when both runs agree. |
| AI answer instability | Ahrefs acknowledges that "AI answers change frequently" and "the same question can surface different recommendations from one moment to the next." Brand Radar addresses this with volume — hundreds of millions of prompts a month — and aggregation across reporting windows. | Ternith uses a controlled measurement instrument that holds query phrasing, model version, and session parameters constant across every run. That means the variation you see in a Ternith result is real signal rather than noise from a changing tool. Each measurement also runs twice on separate days — if the two runs disagree, you see that disagreement rather than an average. |
| Platforms covered | Brand Radar covers seven platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Grok. That broad coverage suits trend reporting. | Ternith runs three independent measurement legs: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. It covers fewer sources than Brand Radar’s seven, but each leg is a controlled sample queried via API, not a free web interface. |
| How it works | Brand Radar derives its prompts from Ahrefs’ keyword database and Google’s People Also Ask corpus, and it sends them through free web interfaces. The tool runs continuously to build up monthly trend data. | Ternith uses a frozen measurement instrument with published classification rules. The instrument never changes between measurements, so you can compare results across time without wondering if the tool moved. |
| What you get back | Brand Radar returns a dashboard with SOV trends and Estimated Impressions over time. It also offers custom prompt tracking if you want to watch specific queries. | Ternith delivers a diagnosis with full evidence: every observation, every page each AI actually read, and what the measurement does and doesn’t settle. It checks the pages, too — how well each one supports your relevance, not just whether your brand appeared. You can walk a client through it. |
| Pricing | Brand Radar is an add-on to your Ahrefs plan. Usage is based on checks, with an included allowance, prepaid packs, and pay-as-you-go. Custom prompt tracking costs extra, and plans meter it with a monthly check allowance for custom prompts. | Ternith uses per-diagnosis pricing. You pay for a measurement when you need one; there is no subscription. |
How Ahrefs Brand Radar works
If you already use Ahrefs for keyword research or backlink analysis, Brand Radar slots into the same dashboard. It runs hundreds of millions of search-derived prompts through AI platforms every month and reports how often your brand appears, weighted by search volume. Ahrefs describes it as "a media-visibility audit, showing what appears in AI and search — not who saw it" and says its metrics are "directional indicators, not exact traffic counts." For monthly reporting and competitive benchmarking, that is genuinely useful.
How Ternith works
Ternith answers a different question: not how often, but why not. It runs a controlled measurement instrument that identifies which of three failure modes — discoverability, compellingness, or positioning — explains why a brand isn’t being recommended. Every measurement runs twice on separate days; a finding is reported only when both runs agree. When they don’t, you get the full evidence instead of a guess — and if your result is inconclusive, the next measurement is on us. The diagnosis also records which pages each AI actually read and how well they support your brand’s relevance, not just whether your brand appeared. The output is evidence you can hand to a content team or present to a client — not a number, but a what-to-fix.
When to use which
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Monthly AI visibility reporting
You run a retainer and need an AI visibility number for the monthly deck. Brand Radar gives you AI Share of Voice trended over time — a column you can add next to organic traffic and rankings.
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Competitive benchmarking in a pitch
You're pitching a prospect and want to show how their AI visibility compares to competitors. Brand Radar's SOV index gives you the side-by-side of how often each brand is mentioned, and Estimated Impressions weight those mentions by Google search volume to model potential exposure — numbers you can pull straight into a slide.
Ternith
A client asks why they're not showing up in ChatGPT
The client's question isn't about a number — it's about a reason. A Ternith diagnosis tells you which failure mode is responsible and gives you evidence to brief the content team on what to change.
Ternith
Justifying a content strategy change to leadership
You need to explain why the team should shift budget from one content type to another. A Ternith diagnosis gives you a named problem and evidence trail you can present — not a graph that needs your interpretation.
Both
Brand Radar shows a drop — now what?
Suppose your AI Share of Voice fell from 12% to 8% month-over-month in Brand Radar. The trend line tells you something changed, but not what. Run a Ternith diagnosis: if the finding is positioning, the AI is recommending you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another, in the same category. That’s a messaging problem, not a findability problem. Different diagnosis, different fix.
Ahrefs Brand Radar is best for
SEO leads and freelancers who need a trending AI visibility metric for monthly reports, client decks, or competitive benchmarks. Teams that already live in Ahrefs and want AI data in the same place.
Ternith is best for
SEO managers and consultants who need to tell a client or leadership what is actually wrong and what to fix first — not just that a number moved. Teams that need a stable, evidence-backed baseline before committing budget to content changes.
Common questions
I already pay for Ahrefs. Why would I add Ternith?
Brand Radar tells you your AI mention rate went down. It doesn’t tell you why. For example, suppose your AI Share of Voice slipped from 12% to 8% and the trend line doesn’t say which fix to try. Ternith tells you whether the AI can’t find you at all, finds you but picks a competitor instead, or recommends you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another. Those are three different problems with three different fixes.
Can I use both together?
Yes — they pair well. Brand Radar gives you a trending SOV metric for monthly reports. When that number drops, run a Ternith diagnosis to find out why. One tracks the trend, the other explains the cause.
What does “discoverability” mean as a diagnosis?
Discoverability is the baseline failure: the AI never turns up your brand, even when the query is directly relevant to your product or service. It is the most fundamental problem — if you are not found, nothing else matters. A declining AI Share of Voice in Brand Radar could mean a discoverability problem, but the metric alone cannot tell you which failure mode is responsible. That is what the diagnosis is for.
What does “compellingness” mean as a diagnosis?
Compellingness means the AI reads your pages but recommends a competitor instead. It finds you, but picks someone else. That is a different problem from never being found at all — and a different fix from a positioning problem, where the AI recommends you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another.
What does “positioning” mean as a diagnosis?
Positioning means the AI recommends you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another, in the same category. For example, suppose you win when someone asks about a premium option and lose when they ask about a budget one. That’s a messaging problem — a different fix from not being found at all, or found but passed over. Ternith shows you that split so you know which message to change.
AI answers change all the time. How does each tool handle that?
Brand Radar runs hundreds of millions of prompts per month and aggregates across reporting windows — volume smooths the instability into a trend line. Ternith runs the same instrument twice on separate days and only reports a finding if both runs agree. SparkToro found the exact same recommendation list appears fewer than 1 in 100 times, so how you handle instability shapes what you can confidently report.
Does Ternith give me a number I can put in a report?
No. Ternith produces a named diagnosis and the evidence behind it — not a percentage or ranking. If you need a trending metric for a monthly deck, that’s what Brand Radar’s SOV is for. If you need to tell a client what to fix, that’s what the diagnosis is for.
How long does a Ternith diagnosis take?
Each measurement runs twice on separate days, so a diagnosis takes a minimum of two days from start to delivery. Brand Radar updates continuously — if you need a number today, it’s already in your Ahrefs dashboard.
What happens if Ternith can’t give me a clear answer?
Ternith runs twice on separate days and reports a finding only when both runs agree. If they don’t, the result is inconclusive — and it ships with the full evidence so you can see exactly what each run found. If your result is inconclusive, the next measurement is on us. A confident-sounding guess isn’t a diagnosis.
Does Ternith cover my category?
Ternith works across categories — it measures how AI systems respond to queries in your space, not from a fixed index. If you’re unsure whether your niche is a fit, the waitlist is the fastest way to ask.
Does Ternith show me how I compare to competitors?
Not as a leaderboard. Ternith diagnoses what’s happening to your brand specifically — whether the AI can’t find you, finds you but picks a competitor, or recommends you to one kind of buyer and not another. Brand Radar gives you the competitive SOV index if a side-by-side number is what you need.
Ternith checks which pages each AI actually read — what does that tell me?
When an AI answers about your brand, it reads a set of pages first. Ternith records those pages and checks how well each one supports your brand’s relevance — not just whether your brand appeared. For example, suppose the AI read your homepage but still named a competitor: the page was found, but it didn’t make the case. That tells you whether to fix findability or the page itself.
Can Ternith show me trends over time?
Not yet — each diagnosis is a point-in-time measurement. If you need monthly trends, Brand Radar is the right tool. Ternith tells you what’s wrong right now so you know what to fix before measuring again.
Sources
Every claim on this page is drawn from the competitor's own published materials or independently verified research.
- Ahrefs Brand Radar methodology — verifies the platform list, how prompts are derived, and what AI Share of Voice and Estimated Impressions measure. Accessed 22 July 2026.
- Ahrefs custom AI prompt tracking announcement (BusinessWire) — verifies the two quoted sentences about AI answer instability and the checks-based pricing. Accessed 22 July 2026.
- SparkToro: AI tools are highly inconsistent when recommending brands — verifies the 1-in-100 finding on repeat recommendations. Accessed 22 July 2026.
- Ahrefs Brand Radar product page — verifies the monthly check allowance for custom prompts. Accessed 22 July 2026.
Find out why you're not being recommended
A Ternith diagnosis tells you which failure mode to fix — not just whether a number went up or down.