Short answer
- GEO software monitors whether AI engines mention you; it does not change what they find.
- A GEO agency does the work that changes the answers: facts, evidence pages, answer pages and the third-party trail.
- If you have an in-house marketer with time, software plus a checklist may be enough.
- If you lack the time or the English writing capacity, an agency is usually cheaper than hiring.
What each one does
| GEO software | GEO agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Tracks AI mentions | Yes, automated | Yes, usually with a tool plus manual checks |
| Fixes crawl and entity problems | Flags some | Fixes them |
| Writes evidence and answer pages | No | Yes |
| Builds third-party trail | No | Yes |
| Typical published price | About $29–$495 per month (monitoring tools' public price pages, 2026) | Commonly $3,000–$20,000+ per month for US agencies; BeautyGEO $5,200 per year for suppliers, from $1,500 per month for brands |
When software is enough
- You have someone in-house who can write accurate English pages about your products.
- Your crawl access and company facts are already clean.
- You mainly need to watch competitors and report trends.
When an agency makes sense
- Nobody has time to write and maintain evidence and answer pages every month.
- Your English content is thin, or your facts are inconsistent across the web.
- You need help with directories, trade media and other third-party sources.
Questions to ask either one
- Can I see the raw AI answers, not just a score?
- Who controls the prompt set, and can I add my own prompts?
- Which engines are covered, and how often?
- Do you promise rankings? (A good answer is no.)
More on choosing a provider: how to choose a GEO agency and GEO agencies compared.