The Hint Co. vs AEO Engine.

What each product actually is.

AEO Engine is a managed AEO service. 90-day rolling contracts, human-managed campaigns, and a performance guarantee: 30% qualified organic and AI traffic growth in 90 days or they work free until they deliver. Homepage headlines include "920% average AI traffic growth" and "3-9x ROI in 180 days" across client campaigns. They limit availability to 5 new clients per month.

The Hint Co. is a one-time diagnostic. Fixed pricing ($1,500 founding read, $3,000 standard, $4,500 for the 30-day paid pilot). No performance guarantee. The deliverable is a written diagnosis, benchmark, and fix list. Whether the fixes move the number is measured but not guaranteed.

The three questions to decide by.

1. Do you want someone to execute the fixes for you? AEO Engine executes. The Hint Co. writes the fix list; you or your team execute.
2. Do you want a growth guarantee? AEO Engine offers one. The Hint Co. does not. The tradeoff: performance guarantees typically come with more marketing framing and less methodology transparency.
3. Do you want to see published audits before buying? The Hint Co. publishes 14 free case files with brand names and methodology. AEO Engine publishes client testimonials with aggregate metrics.

What we do differently.

• Published methodology. Two-stage matcher, six-code recommendation classifier, versioned methodology document. Every published Hint Co. audit references the exact methodology version it ran under. Buyers can compare audits only if the methodology is comparable.
• Fixed pricing. $1,500 founding / $3,000 standard read, $4,500 pilot. No custom quoting.
• No guarantee, honest about it. We do not guarantee the fix list moves your number. We guarantee measurement. If the audit does not produce actionable findings, we say so.
• Right of reply. Named brands can request free counter-audits.
• Self-audit. EX-14 audits the AEO agency category. AEO Engine does not appear in our current Anthropic Claude subset.

Where AEO Engine wins.

• You want a done-for-you managed service, not a diagnosis you have to execute.
• Performance guarantees matter to how you buy services.
• Your budget supports a 90-day managed engagement, not a one-time diagnostic.
• You have traffic-growth targets specifically, not visibility-share targets.
• You are comfortable with marketing-heavy positioning ("920% average growth").

Where The Hint Co. wins.

• You want to see the audit methodology before you buy.
• You want free case files with brand names and real numbers to evaluate quality.
• Your budget is one-time, not multi-month managed service.
• You want a diagnosis you can act on internally, or with your existing agency.
• You are skeptical of aggressive growth-guarantee claims in AEO.
• You want a right-of-reply mechanism if the audit says something you disagree with.

Can you use both?

Yes, in sequence. The Hint Co. audit and read first, to understand the current state and identify what should be fixed. AEO Engine second, to execute the fixes if you want a managed service. This ordering gives you a diagnostic anchor to hold any execution partner accountable to.