BrightEdge alternatives: software you operate vs SEO done for you
Short version: BrightEdge is a platform your team logs into and acts on. Dinkum is the other model: we make one change to your site every weekday and you approve each one as a pull request, for $2,000 a month, month to month. If you have SEO staff and several sites, a platform fits. If you have no one to run one, you are shopping for the work, not the software. Facts about BrightEdge checked 13 October 2026.
Include the hours your team will spend implementing changes when you compare costs.
What BrightEdge is, and what Dinkum is
BrightEdge describes itself on its homepage as "The Leading AI-Powered SEO and AEO Platform", for visibility across Google Search, AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. It lists six products: Data Cube X, AI Hyper Cube, Copilot, Autopilot, Agent Edge and Enterprise SEO. Pricing isn't listed on its site, and it points visitors to "Request a demo".
Dinkum is a managed service. It reads your Search Console, your site and your sales data each morning, picks the most valuable change, makes it in your site's code and opens it as a pull request. You approve it, ask for changes or close it. Every change is judged at 14 and 28 days against the rest of your site, and Dinkum tracks Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers. How Dinkum works walks through a day.
Who each one suits
| BrightEdge | Dinkum (our product) | |
|---|---|---|
| A good fit if | You have an SEO team or agency who will use the platform every week and want one place for data and reporting. | You have no one to run a platform and want the changes made on your site, not a list of them. |
| Size of estate | Its own case studies cover enterprises and global multi-market operations, as well as midsize and local businesses. Many domains and markets are home ground. | One site per subscription. Several sites mean several subscriptions. |
| How it reaches your site | Its Site Agents Suite connects to major CMS platforms such as WordPress and Drupal. | Your site's code has to be in a git repository (GitHub), because every change is a pull request. |
| Your time | Depends on how much of the platform's output your team acts on. That is the hours you need to find. | About ten minutes a day to review and approve a change. |
| Price | Not listed on its site as of 13 October 2026. Request a demo for a quote. | $2,000 a month, one site, month to month. First five changes free. |
When to stay with BrightEdge
Stay if a trained person will live in the platform, if you run several domains or markets under one roof, or if your site runs on a CMS where you want changes pushed through an integration rather than a code repository. Dinkum isn't a research and reporting platform and doesn't try to be. It makes one change a day on one site.
The four questions that decide it
1. Who does the work?
A platform tells you what to do and, in some modules, does part of it. BrightEdge's Site Agents Suite (formerly Autopilot) has three agents: Site Agent for internal links, Schema Agent for JSON-LD, and Publishing Agent, which pushes recommended title tag, meta title and H1 updates into a CMS. Its page says "A person confirms every change before it goes live." The Site Agents Suite page describes internal linking, schema and approved title/H1 updates. Ask BrightEdge which other implementation jobs your package includes.
With Dinkum the work is the product: new pages, fixes, internal links, schema and answer-first rewrites arrive as pull requests with their reasoning attached.
2. Who needs the site code?
Whoever makes the changes needs a way into the site. A CMS integration reaches titles, headings and fields. A repository reaches templates, redirects, speed fixes and new pages. Dinkum works only through the repository, so a site that isn't in git can't use it until it is. Whichever you choose, give the least access that does the job.
3. What does it cost?
BrightEdge doesn't list a price on its site as of 13 October 2026, so the route to a number is a demo and a quote. Ask for it in writing, with the contract length, the seats, domains and keywords it covers, and what each module adds. Then add the cost of the person or agency who will use it.
Dinkum is $2,000 a month for one site, month to month. Your first five Dinks (changes) are free, with no card, and you keep them whether you stay or not. If you join and aren't happy by the end of the first month, tell us why and we refund that month in full.
4. How are results judged?
Ask what the baseline is and who measures it. A report of rankings gained isn't the same as clicks and customers. Dinkum judges every change at 14 and 28 days against the rest of your site, so a seasonal bump isn't counted as a win. We don't guarantee rankings, traffic or AI citations, and you should be wary of anyone who does. The same questions are in the buyer's checklist for choosing an AI SEO agency.
Questions to ask on a BrightEdge demo call
- What is the total yearly cost for my site, including every module I would use?
- How long is the contract, and what happens if I stop?
- Which changes does the platform make for me, and which are left to my team?
- How many hours a week does a customer like me spend in it?
- How will you show whether a change worked, and against what?
- What do ChatGPT and Perplexity say about my business today, and which of my pages would change that?
The last question matters whichever you pick. The AI-answer work is pages that answer the buyer's question first, and facts that agree everywhere. What is AEO? and AEO vs GEO explain it, and what an AEO agency should actually do is the checklist to hold either vendor to.
A third option: check it yourself first
You don't need to buy anything to find out how visible you are. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google the questions your customers ask, write down who gets named, and fix the pages behind the gaps. How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business is the step-by-step version, with prompts to copy.
Questions
Does BrightEdge publish its pricing?
Not on its own site as of 13 October 2026. Its pages offer a demo request rather than a price list or a free trial, so ask for a written quote.
Is Dinkum a BrightEdge replacement?
Only if what you used BrightEdge for was getting SEO work done on one site. Dinkum isn't a multi-domain research and reporting platform for a team.
What do I need for Dinkum?
Your site's code in a git repository on GitHub, Search Console access, a Slack channel and about ten minutes a day to approve a change.
What does Dinkum cost?
$2,000 a month for one site, month to month. The first five changes are free and you keep them, and the first month is refundable in full if you aren't happy.
Can I see the work before paying?
Yes. The five free Dinks are real changes to your site, each a pull request you approve, so you see the work before you decide.
Dinkum is the managed service on this page, so weigh our view accordingly. BrightEdge facts come from its own pages, checked on 13 October 2026: its homepage and its Site Agents Suite page. We are not affiliated with BrightEdge.