Attensira vs a typical SEO agency

What do AI engines say when you ask agency or software?

We track "GEO agency vs GEO software" in our own workspace, because it is the question this page exists to answer. On 3 October 2026 ChatGPT put it in one line: an agency means "done-for-you execution", software means "tools for your team". Its table said that with an agency the agency does the work, with software your team does, that agency cost is a retainer and software a subscription, and that agency scalability is "people-dependent".

That framing leaves out a third option, which is what Attensira is. Attensira is software that does your AI-search visibility work: whatever it takes to win the answer. The work is done for you, like an agency, but by a crew of AI agents, at a tool's price, with every piece of work in front of you before it ships. No brand was named in that answer, ours included; our 197 mentions across 3,534 answers from 21 September to 4 October 2026 all came from the three questions that already contain our name.

What does a traditional SEO agency do, and what does it cost?

Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO lists what one typically provides: a review of your site's content or structure, technical advice on website development, content development and keyword research. Many agencies add link building, local SEO, PR and, increasingly, AI search work under names like GEO and AEO.

The best public data on price is Ahrefs's survey of 439 SEO service providers, updated in August 2024. The most common monthly retainer was $501 to $1,000, charged by 20.4% of respondents. Agencies averaged $3,209 a month, well above the freelancer average. The most common hourly rate was $75 to $100, charged by 24%. These are 2024 figures from a provider survey, not a price list, but they give a fair sense of the range.

Google's guidance is also blunt about what no one can sell you: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." It suggests asking any SEO for examples of past work, what results to expect and in what timeframe, and whether they will share all the changes they make to your site.

What is an AI-native SEO agency?

The label is new and covers at least two models, and it is worth knowing which one you are buying.

A managed agency that uses AI. People do the work; AI gathers and analyses data. Passionfruit describes itself this way: an AI-native managed SEO and AEO agency in which human experts execute and AI handles the data, priced after an exploratory call. Our Attensira vs Passionfruit page goes through that model in detail.

An agent run for you by the vendor. An AI agent does the work, but the vendor's team sets it up and manages it. Relixir describes its agent, Rex, this way: forward-deployed, configured, launched and managed by Relixir's team, at a custom price. Our Attensira vs Relixir page compares that model.

Attensira is a third model: software you run yourself. There is no account team doing your work and no scoping call. The crew reads your site, drafts your business profile, proposes the competitors and questions to track, and starts.

How does the work itself compare?

An agency plans in sprints or months. Attensira's crew works each morning. A Daily win plan reads the questions you are losing and does up to three pieces of work toward them, and each one lands where an agency's would:

• On your site, a rewritten passage or a fixed page arrives as a draft pull request on your repository, or an unpublished draft in Webflow, WordPress or Shopify.
• New content is written when no page of yours answers the question, filed for your approval, and delivered to a pull request, a CMS or Notion draft, or a copy to paste.
• Off your site, the crew starts with pages an engine already cites for your question that name a competitor and not you, and drafts the pitch or the listing, sent from your own mailbox.
• In communities, a reply to a cited Reddit or Hacker News thread is drafted for you to post from your own account.
• In paid search, the crew can research keywords and draft a Google Ads Search campaign; nothing reaches Google and nothing is spent until a person says yes.

The difference most agency clients notice first is visibility of the work. Google suggests you ask an agency whether it will share every change it makes. With Attensira you do not need to ask, because every change is a draft you read before it ships.

Who stays in control?

With an agency, control is set in the engagement: what needs sign-off, who signs, how quickly. It varies by agency and by contract.

With Attensira, it is set by one public rule. New workspaces start in Draft, where nothing leaves the workspace until you approve it. Act mode lets hygiene work, such as structured data, meta descriptions and alt text, go out on its own. Anything that states a claim, a price, a number, a promise, a product or competitor name, waits for a person in every mode. If you run several brands, each is its own workspace, and a client reviewer link lets a client approve or decline work without an account.

What can you check afterwards?

An agency reports, usually monthly, and the quality of that reporting is one of the main things that separates good agencies from bad ones.

Attensira's reporting is structural. Each shipped change is re-read at +7, +14 and +30 days against the week before it, per engine, and every verdict states its sample size. "No change" and "too close to call" are verdicts, not omissions. The month's receipt lists every act and what each one did, and work we committed to but did not deliver is credited back on the first of the month. We promise the work, not the outcome, which is the only honest promise anyone in search can make, as Google says.

Which should a founder with no marketing team pick?

This is the buyer the page is mostly for, so here is a direct answer.

If your company is small, sells to buyers who now ask AI assistants for recommendations, and has nobody whose job is search, you have three realistic options. You can do it yourself at night, which works until the product needs you. You can hire an agency, which works if you can afford a retainer and wait a quarter for momentum. Or you can put a software crew on it and spend a few minutes a day approving its work.

The deciding questions are simple. Can you afford a retainer in the range above for at least six months? Do you want a person to call? Do you need work beyond search, such as PR or programmatic pages? If the answers are yes, hire a good agency, and use Google's questions to pick one. If the answers are no, and what you need is the work done and proof that it moved something, start with the crew. You can always hire an agency later; the before-and-after receipts will tell them, and you, what has already been tried.

How do the costs really compare?

Agencies charge for time: a retainer that buys a share of a team's month, or hours. If the team is excellent, that is money well spent. If the work stalls, you still pay for the month.

Attensira charges for work, credits first. The plan fee includes monitoring and a monthly allowance of credits; agents spend credits as they work; a monthly budget you set caps what the work can be charged, and it is shown as the articles, page fixes and outreach pitches it buys before you agree. Committed work we do not deliver is credited back. Reading the numbers you already have never costs a credit.

How did we check this page?

The agency side comes from Google Search Central's guidance on hiring an SEO and from Ahrefs's survey of SEO pricing (439 providers, updated 15 August 2024), both read on 4 October 2026. The AI-native agency examples come from Passionfruit's and Relixir's own pages, read the same day. Attensira's facts come from docs.attensira.com, with our prices, credits and engines rendered from the same source as our pricing page. The ChatGPT and Perplexity readings come from our Attensira workspace for attensira.com, read through the Attensira MCP.

Related reading: Attensira vs Passionfruit, Attensira vs Relixir, and how the crew does the work.