DeepSmith

Oct 26 · Tools & Comparisons

12 min read

Otterly.AI vs HubSpot AEO: Review for SSO and Vendor Risk Checks

Avinash Saurabh
Avinash Saurabh · CO-Founder & CEO
Monochrome line illustration of a shield with a checkmark between two checklist documents, with a lock and a key, under the line Clearing the Security Review.

HubSpot AEO and Otterly.AI clear different parts of a security review. HubSpot AEO sits on HubSpot's platform-level SOC 2 Type II report, while Otterly.AI offers SAML SSO on its Enterprise plan but claims no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report of its own. DeepSmith is a strong alternative for teams that want certification and data access in one place: it is SOC 2, GDPR and ISO certified, has a documented read-only API, and also produces publish-ready articles for your CMS.

If you are putting an AI visibility tool through an IT or procurement review, the questions are usually the same. Who holds a SOC 2 report, can people sign in with SSO, and what data can you pull out through an API. Otterly.AI vs HubSpot AEO for enterprise teams is a useful pair to test those questions on, because each answers them differently. This Otterly.AI vs HubSpot AEO security review covers only that job, not a full product comparison. DeepSmith comes up where it fits, as a third option for reviewers who want certifications and data access in one product.

Otterly.AI vs HubSpot AEO: the short answer

  • Choose DeepSmith if you want SOC 2, GDPR and ISO certification, a documented read-only API and MCP server, and publish-ready articles in one platform, with plans from $99 a month and a 7-day free trial.
  • Choose Otterly.AI if SAML SSO is a hard requirement and you can buy its Enterprise plan, and you can accept that the company claims no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report of its own.
  • Choose HubSpot AEO if your reviewers need a SOC 2 Type II report and you already run or plan to buy HubSpot's platform, knowing that AEO is a beta product and is not named in the platform's report scope.
CriterionDeepSmithOtterly.AIHubSpot AEO
Entry price (monthly)$99/mo (Pro)$29/mo (Lite)$50/mo (standalone)
Free trial7 days7 days28 days
SOC 2 reportYesNot listed (AWS host only)Yes, platform-level
Other complianceGDPR, ISOGDPR (processor terms)SOC 3, HIPAA, GDPR
SSO / SAML-Yes, Enterprise onlyPartial, Enterprise hub tier
Public APIYes, read-onlyYes, Standard and upPartial, beta read API
MCP serverYes, read-onlyYes, Standard and upPartial, via connector
Data hosting-Frankfurt, public data in USUS, EU, Canada, Australia (platform)
Publishes to a CMSYesNot listedPartial, HubSpot blog only
G2 rating4.8/54.7/5 and 4.8/5 (two listings)4.4/5

Pricing and features as of September 2026, from each vendor's site and public reviews.

Otterly.AI

Otterly.AI homepage showing its AI search monitoring pitch.

Otterly.AI is a self-serve AI search monitoring tool from OtterlyAI GmbH, based in Austria. It runs a tracked prompt set daily on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude sold as paid add-ons. Plans run from $29 to $489 a month with unlimited seats, and Enterprise is quoted on request. For a security reviewer the standout is access and data control, since SAML SSO is available on Enterprise and a public API and MCP server start on Standard. Its security page cites SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for its AWS data centers, but no report for OtterlyAI itself is claimed. Hosting is in Frankfurt, though Otterly.AI also stores public monitoring data in North Virginia in the US. G2 shows 4.7/5 from 54 reviews on one listing and 4.8/5 from 42 on another, and reviewers mostly praise easy setup and responsive support.

HubSpot AEO

HubSpot AEO homepage showing its answer engine optimization pitch.

HubSpot AEO is HubSpot's answer engine optimization tool, launched in April 2026 and still labelled beta. It tracks 25 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity for $50 a month standalone ($45 billed annually), and it is included in Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise. For a security reviewer the standout is the parent company. HubSpot says its platform has SOC 2 Type II reporting and a public SOC 3 report, lists GDPR and HIPAA badges, and offers hosting in the US, EU, Canada and Australia. The limit is scope. The AEO documentation does not name AEO in those reports, SAML SSO is tied to the Enterprise tier of a hub, and the product pages do not say how answers are collected or which model versions run. G2 shows 4.4/5 from 145 reviews, with reviewers calling it easy to set up and noting that the 25-prompt limit is tight.

DeepSmith: the alternative that is certified and complete

DeepSmith homepage showing its AI search analytics and content production platform.

DeepSmith is an AI search analytics and content production platform in one, and it is SOC 2, GDPR and ISO certified. Otterly.AI claims no report of its own, and HubSpot's SOC 2 sits at the platform level, so a reviewer has to ask whether AEO is in scope. With DeepSmith the certification belongs to the vendor you are actually reviewing. Ask the team for the report type and standard number your reviewers need.

DeepSmith also documents its data access. The REST API gives read-only access to visibility data, the Content Map, the content library and Deep IQ assets, with scoped keys, 120 requests per minute per workspace and no credits spent on reads. An OpenAPI spec is published. The MCP server offers 23 read-only tools to assistants such as Claude, Claude Code and Microsoft Copilot, and webhooks are signed with HMAC-SHA256 and retried automatically. Each workspace is isolated, with its own context, content and plan, which helps when a reviewer asks how brands or clients are kept apart.

The tracking side reports mention rate, citation rate and share of voice, broken down by engine, with a competitor leaderboard. Depending on plan, DeepSmith covers up to ten engines.

DeepSmith's AI Visibility overview showing mention rate, citation rate and share of voice with a competitor leaderboard, using demo data.

The part neither competitor offers on its own is production. The Writer turns a planned idea into a finished, brand-grounded article, and you review it and publish to WordPress, Webflow, Strapi, Sanity or Contentful, or to your own webhooks. That keeps tracking and production in one vendor review instead of two.

DeepSmith's Produced Content view showing a finished article with a cover image, word count and a Publish button, using demo data.

Plans are Pro at $99 a month, Grow at $199 and Scale at $399, plus custom Enterprise, which adds 1:1 expert onboarding and a dedicated account manager. There is a 7-day free trial and no long-term contract.

Certifications and data hosting

HubSpot AEO has the edge here, because it sits under a SOC 2 Type II report and Otterly.AI claims none of its own.

HubSpot says its platform has SOC 2 Type II reporting and a public SOC 3 report, and its trust center also lists SOC 1 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR badges. These are platform claims, and AEO is not named in their scope, so it is worth asking HubSpot in writing whether the report covers AEO. HubSpot also says accounts can be hosted in the US, EU, Canada and Australia, and paid accounts can request a move between regions.

Otterly.AI's security page cites SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for its AWS data centers. That covers the hosting layer and not OtterlyAI GmbH, and third-party research could not verify a corporate certification. Otterly.AI says it follows GDPR and provides data processing terms. It hosts in Frankfurt, but public monitoring data is stored in North Virginia, and an EU-only residency commitment was not verified. If your questionnaire asks for the vendor's own SOC 2 report, that line may need an exception on the Otterly.AI side.

One more point for both tools is methodology. HubSpot AEO is in beta and does not say how answers are collected, and Otterly.AI does not publish its answer-history retention period.

What DeepSmith does: DeepSmith is SOC 2, GDPR and ISO certified on its own account, so the certification can go straight onto your vendor form without a question about hosting layers or parent platforms.

SSO and access control

Otterly.AI is clearer here, since it documents SAML SSO for Enterprise customers, while HubSpot AEO's SSO depends on the HubSpot plan around it.

Otterly.AI says SAML SSO runs through Clerk and is for Enterprise customers only. Everyone else signs in with Google OAuth or an email link. It offers Admin, Member and Viewer roles, and the Viewer role is read-only, which suits stakeholders who only need to look at reports. Seats are unlimited on every plan.

HubSpot documents SAML SSO with any hub at the Enterprise tier, which means Marketing Hub Enterprise, listed from $3,600 a month. It does not state whether standalone HubSpot AEO or Marketing Hub Professional gets SSO, and "Sign in with Google" is documented for all customers. A Super Admin also has to enable generative AI tools and data access in the account settings before prompts and recommendations work.

In both cases SSO is held back for the top tier, so the real question is which top tier you can buy. HubSpot publishes a starting price, and Otterly.AI quotes Enterprise on request.

What DeepSmith does: DeepSmith scopes access by workspace, with its own context, content and plan in each one, and owners and members invited per workspace. DeepSmith doesn't document SSO, so confirm that with the team if your policy requires it.

API, MCP and data access

Otterly.AI wins this axis, because its API and MCP server are documented and available from Standard, while HubSpot AEO's API is a beta read API.

Otterly.AI offers a public REST API at 2,000 requests a month on Standard and 5,000 on Premium, with extra requests not available to buy. Keys can be read or read/write, and write access can create audits and create or delete prompts and tags, so reviewers should decide which key type they will allow. The MCP server uses OAuth, and there is a native Looker Studio connector from Standard.

HubSpot documents a versioned beta read API for prompts, runs, answer text, citations and recommendations. Its docs name Marketing Hub products, so it is unclear whether standalone customers get it. AEO data is also reachable from Claude and ChatGPT through the HubSpot connector, which needs Super Admin approval.

What DeepSmith does: DeepSmith's API and MCP server are read-only by design, so they read workspace data and never create or publish content. That is usually easier to approve in a risk review than a key that can write. Scoped keys limit each integration to the data it needs.

From insight to action

Neither tool is the clear winner for a reviewer who wants fewer vendors, because Otterly.AI stops at monitoring and audits while HubSpot AEO drafts content only inside Marketing Hub.

Otterly.AI turns tracking into ranked recommendations and page audits, but no page describes writing articles or publishing to a CMS. HubSpot AEO gives recommendations with a projected citation lift, and "Generate blog post" drafts a full post for review. That feature needs Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise, costs 1,000 HubSpot Credits per post, and publishes to a HubSpot blog, with external blogs handled by copy and paste. Either way, a team that wants content written ends up reviewing a second vendor.

What DeepSmith does: DeepSmith's Opportunity Agents return content ideas, each carrying the data point that justifies it, and the Writer produces the finished article grounded in your Deep IQ brand context. Autowrite can run it hands-off on a schedule, and the result lands in Produced Content for review before it goes to your CMS. One security review covers the tracking and the production.

Which should you choose

The full comparison is in the Otterly.AI vs HubSpot AEO buying guide for teams that need more engines. Choosing Otterly.AI or HubSpot AEO for enterprise security and procurement work comes down to the following.

  • DeepSmith: a good fit for most teams that want SOC 2, GDPR and ISO certification, read-only API and MCP access, and a platform that tracks AI visibility and writes the content to close the gaps, starting at $99 a month.
  • Otterly.AI: the better pick of the two when SAML SSO and a documented API matter most and you can buy Enterprise, as long as your reviewers accept hosting-provider certifications.
  • HubSpot AEO: the better pick of the two when a SOC 2 Type II report from the parent platform is the main gate, particularly if you already use HubSpot.

Start a DeepSmith free trial and run the security questionnaire against a workspace with real data.

Frequently asked questions

Does Otterly.AI have its own SOC 2 report?

No report for OtterlyAI itself is claimed. Its security page cites SOC 1, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 for its AWS data centers, so if your review needs a vendor-level report, ask Otterly.AI for one in writing.

Does HubSpot AEO support SSO?

HubSpot documents SAML SSO with any hub at the Enterprise tier. It does not state whether standalone HubSpot AEO or Marketing Hub Professional includes it, so confirm with HubSpot before you rely on it.

Can either tool give me both SOC 2 and SSO without an Enterprise plan?

Not from what each documents. Otterly.AI's SSO is Enterprise only, and HubSpot's is tied to the Enterprise tier of a hub, though its SOC 2 report is described at the platform level.

Is there an alternative to Otterly.AI and HubSpot AEO that is certified and also writes the content?

DeepSmith is SOC 2, GDPR and ISO certified, offers a documented read-only API and MCP server, and tracks AI visibility and produces publish-ready articles in one platform. SSO is not part of what it documents, so check that against your policy.