KIME vs Scrunch: 2026 GEO Platform Comparison

Scrunch is the stronger platform for AI crawler analytics and enterprise delivery. KIME is the stronger platform for multi-market tracking and executing the fixes.

Two things changed about Scrunch in 2026, and both matter before you compare it to anything. Sitecore acquired Scrunch on 3 June 2026, in a deal Bloomberg reported at $225 million, and Scrunch now operates as a Sitecore company while continuing to sell standalone. Then in July 2026 Scrunch deliberately walked away from the "AI visibility" category it helped create, arguing in its own words that "most of the market is still treating this as an AI visibility problem. We see it as an agent experience problem." It now calls itself an Agent Experience Platform.

That repositioning is the real comparison. KIME and Scrunch both started by measuring how brands appear in AI answers. They have since diverged: Scrunch moved toward the infrastructure layer, detecting AI agents at the edge and serving them optimised content, while KIME moved toward the execution layer, turning visibility findings into finished articles, outreach and fixes.

What is each platform?

KIME is a GEO platform built around your prompt set. You define the prompts, countries, engines and competitors that reflect how your buyers actually ask, KIME runs them daily across up to 10 AI engines, and the results feed an 8-factor perception model, citation analytics and an execution engine called AWX. KIME was founded in Copenhagen and describes itself as "the agentic operating system for AI Search."

Scrunch is an Agent Experience Platform. It monitors brand presence across 9 AI platforms, analyses which AI crawlers hit your site and why, and at the enterprise tier serves those crawlers a token-light version of your pages through its AXP edge layer. Scrunch was founded in 2023 by Chris Andrew and Robert MacCloy, raised $26M across seed and a $15M Series A led by Decibel, grew from 3 to 49 employees during 2025, and was acquired by Sitecore in June 2026. It reports 500+ brands and agencies as customers, including Lenovo, Akamai, ADP and Skims.

The one-line difference: Scrunch optimises the machine's experience of your website, KIME optimises what the machine says about your brand and then produces the work to change it.

1. AI engine coverage

KIME lists 10 AI engines, Scrunch lists 9, and at the entry tier Scrunch actually gives you more.

In short, KIME supports one engine Scrunch does not, DeepSeek, but engine access on both platforms is gated by plan. Scrunch Core includes 4 engines at $250/month. KIME Core includes 3 at €399/month, and KIME Explorer includes 2 at €99/month. If raw engine count at the entry tier is your deciding factor, Scrunch wins that comparison and we would not pretend otherwise.

2. Markets, languages and workspaces

KIME includes unlimited languages, unlimited countries and unlimited brand workspaces on every tier, including the €99 Explorer plan. Scrunch Core is limited to 1 country, 2 languages and 1 brand workspace.

This is the widest gap between the two products, and it is a structural one rather than a feature checkbox. Scrunch states that "pricing is charged per brand, per month" and that "standard plans support a single brand. If you need to monitor multiple brands, you can upgrade to an Enterprise account." A company running three brands, or one brand across four European markets, is having an Enterprise conversation with Scrunch and is on a published price with KIME.

Scrunch does support prompt tracking in every country and any language at the Enterprise tier, and says it currently serves customers across the US, Europe and Japan. The constraint is commercial, not technical.

For a European or Nordic brand operating in several languages, this single difference usually decides the evaluation.

3. Data refresh and history

KIME runs every tracked prompt daily on every plan. Scrunch collects daily for the first 14 days after a prompt is created, then shifts to a default 72-hour refresh cadence, though prompts can be refreshed manually at any time.

Credit where it is due: Scrunch documents this publicly and precisely, which is rare in this category. Several competitor-published reviews claim Scrunch does not disclose its refresh rate or that it runs weekly. Both claims are wrong, and we mention it because getting a competitor's mechanics right matters more than scoring a point.

On history the comparison inverts. Scrunch retains up to 12 months of data in its interface, and aggregates brand presence across a 90-day window to smooth daily variation. But the Scrunch API is capped at 90 days of retention, which constrains anyone building their own reporting on top of it. KIME data begins when tracking begins, with Looker Studio access on every tier.

4. Where Scrunch is genuinely ahead: agent traffic and AXP

Scrunch has two capabilities KIME does not offer, and they are the reason to buy it.

Agent Traffic analytics. Scrunch integrates natively with Akamai, AWS CloudFront, Cloudflare, Fastly, Vercel and WordPress to read real server-side bot logs, then classifies each request as training, indexer or retrieval. That last category is the valuable one: a retrieval request means a real person just asked an AI something and the model came to your page for the answer. Most platforms in this category either do not track crawlers at all or infer them from JavaScript tags. KIME does not offer crawler log analytics; its nearest capability is AI Site Health, a free scored audit of whether AI can reach, extract from and cite your site.

AXP, the Agent Experience Platform. Scrunch detects AI agents at the edge and serves them a token-light, JavaScript-free version of your site while humans continue to get the normal one, with Adaptive Optimization re-applying approved fixes week over week. Nobody else in this category ships an edge delivery layer. It is Enterprise-only and not publicly priced, which is worth knowing given Scrunch now describes AXP as "the product itself."

Scrunch also brings enterprise credentials KIME cannot match yet: SOC 2 Type II with a public trust centre, SAML and OIDC SSO, 12 published case studies with named brands, and Sitecore's balance sheet behind it.

5. Where KIME is genuinely ahead: perception scoring and execution

KIME scores sentiment across eight named factors. Brand Focus, Language Tone, Competitive Position, Endorsements, Source Credibility, Information Recency, Confidence Level and Risk Factors. Scrunch tracks sentiment as a three-way classification, positive, mixed or negative, sliceable by platform, persona, funnel stage, country, topic and prompt. Both measure sentiment; KIME resolves it more finely, Scrunch slices it along more dimensions. If you want to know why a model describes you the way it does, KIME's breakdown is the more useful instrument.

KIME executes the work. AWX produces GEO-optimised articles, outreach emails to the publishers whose pages the model actually cited, FAQ and knowledge pages, and technical structure fixes. KIME defines an agentic execution as "a task KIME's AWX agent completes for you instead of just recommending." Volume is metered at 10 executions a month on Explorer, 30 on Core, 40 on Agency Starter and 40 to 100 on Enterprise, so it is a real constraint rather than an unlimited content engine.

Scrunch has been building toward this from the other direction. Its Optimizer, Knowledge Studio and Site Diagnostics generate prioritised recommendations, and Adaptive Optimization applies approved fixes automatically at the edge. But Content Generation is still marked "coming soon" on Scrunch's own live pricing page, alongside Query Fan-out, Product Observability, MCP access and CLI access. Signals and Explorer are in beta. Judge Scrunch on what ships today, and the execution gap is real. Judge it on the roadmap, and it closes.

6. Pricing

Both vendors publish entry pricing, which is unusual in this category and good for buyers.

KIME

Annual billing saves 15%, quarterly saves 5%. Explorer and Core both carry a 7-day free trial started from the pricing page.

Scrunch

Additional Scrunch seats cost $25/month each, or $75/month for a pack of five. Scrunch offers a 7-day free trial of Core, and requires a credit card, converting to a paid subscription automatically unless cancelled. KIME's trial does not convert automatically.

In short, Scrunch Core is cheaper than KIME Core and gives you one more engine. KIME Core gives you 75 more prompts, unlimited markets, unlimited workspaces, daily refresh and 30 agentic executions. The cheaper plan depends entirely on whether you need more than one brand and more than one country.

Summary comparison table

When to choose KIME

You operate in more than one market or language. Unlimited countries and languages on every tier, against 1 country and 2 languages on Scrunch Core, is the clearest practical difference between the two products.

You manage more than one brand. KIME includes unlimited brand workspaces on every plan. Scrunch charges per brand and routes multi-brand companies to Enterprise.

You want the platform to do the work, not just show it. AWX ships today and produces finished articles and outreach. Whether that matters depends on whether your team already has content capacity; if it does, this is worth less to you than it looks.

You need daily data on every prompt. KIME refreshes daily on all plans. Scrunch settles to a 72-hour cadence after the first two weeks.

You want to trial without a card. A small thing, but a real one for teams that cannot expense a subscription that auto-converts.

When to choose Scrunch

You need to see which AI crawlers hit your site and why. Agent Traffic with training, indexer and retrieval classification is the strongest single capability either product has, and KIME does not offer it. If your question is "are the models actually reading my pages", only Scrunch answers it.

You are an enterprise with procurement requirements. SOC 2 Type II, a public trust centre, SAML and OIDC SSO, RBAC and Sitecore's backing clear security reviews that a younger vendor will not.

Your site is technically hostile to agents. If your pages are JavaScript-heavy and slow to render, AXP's edge delivery solves a problem no amount of measurement fixes. This is the case where Scrunch is not just better, it is the only one of the two that helps.

You want deep public proof before buying. Scrunch publishes 12 case studies with named brands and specific numbers, including Akamai reporting a 364% increase in brand presence on non-branded prompts. KIME is younger and its public review base is thinner. If vendor track record carries weight in your process, that difference is real and it favours Scrunch.

You need one engine more than KIME gives you at the entry price. Scrunch Core covers 4 engines at $250 against KIME Core's 3 at €399.

The complementary case

These products overlap less than the category name suggests, and running both is a coherent strategy rather than a hedge.

Scrunch answers infrastructure questions: which agents crawl you, what they retrieve, and whether your pages are rendering usefully for them. KIME answers narrative questions: how AI describes you across markets, which sources shaped that description, and what to publish next. A large brand with a complex site and a European footprint has a genuine argument for both, and they meter different things so the costs do not duplicate.

If you are choosing one, the honest test is whether your bottleneck is technical or editorial. A site AI cannot read needs Scrunch. A brand AI reads and describes badly needs KIME.

Frequently asked questions

Was Scrunch acquired?

Yes. Sitecore acquired Scrunch on 3 June 2026, in a deal Bloomberg reported at $225 million, though Sitecore's press release does not disclose terms. Scrunch continues to operate as a standalone platform and says the acquisition accelerates its product roadmap.

What is an Agent Experience Platform?

It is the category Scrunch named for itself in July 2026, describing software that optimises how AI agents crawl, retrieve and consume a website rather than only measuring brand mentions. In practice it means crawler analytics plus edge delivery of agent-optimised content.

How much does Scrunch cost?

Scrunch Core is $250 per month, or $208 billed annually, covering 125 prompts, 4 AI engines, 5 seats and 1 brand workspace. Agency Core is $500 per month. Enterprise pricing, which is required for AXP and for the full 9 engines, is not published.

Does Scrunch track sentiment?

Yes. Scrunch classifies sentiment as positive, mixed or negative, and lets you filter it by platform, persona, funnel stage, country, topic and prompt. KIME scores sentiment across eight named factors instead, which resolves the underlying drivers more finely.

How many AI engines does each platform track?

KIME supports 10 engines and Scrunch supports 9. Scrunch's full set requires Enterprise; its $250 Core plan covers 4. KIME Explorer covers 2 and KIME Core covers 3, with all engines on Enterprise.

Does KIME offer crawler or bot traffic analytics?

No. KIME does not analyse AI crawler logs. Its closest capability is AI Site Health, a free audit scoring whether AI can reach your brand, extract your content and cite you. Scrunch's Agent Traffic is the better tool for that specific question.

Which platform is better for agencies?

Both have real agency products. Scrunch Agency Core is $500 per month with unlimited seats, 3 brand workspaces and 3 pitch workspaces. KIME Agency Starter is €499 per month with 10 seats and unlimited client and pitch workspaces. The deciding factor is usually client count and market spread.

Can I use KIME and Scrunch together?

Yes, and for large multi-market brands it is a defensible setup. Scrunch handles crawler analytics and edge delivery, KIME handles multi-market perception tracking and content execution. They meter different things, so the spend does not overlap.

Sources. All figures verified 21 August 2026 against primary sources: scrunch.com/pricing, scrunch.com/about, scrunch.com/platform/agent-traffic, scrunch.com/platform/agent-experience, scrunch.com/blog/agent-experience-platform, Scrunch's public FAQ library, Sitecore's acquisition press release, kime.ai/pricing, kime.ai/agency-pricing, kime.ai/integrations, kime.ai/ai-perception and kime.ai/agentic.

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