AEO Audit is a free tool that scores B2B SaaS websites for AI search visibility — how likely they are to be cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews when B2B buyers search.

What is AI Engine Optimization (AEO)?

AI Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring content, entity signals, and technical infrastructure so that AI engines cite your brand in generated answers. It extends traditional SEO to cover ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.

Yes. AEO Audit is free. Enter any B2B SaaS brand and receive a full AI visibility score with prioritised recommendations.

How does AEO Audit score websites?

AEO Audit scores across six pillars: AI Visibility (22%), Brand Authority (23%), Content Quality (18%), Platform Optimization (15%), Structured Data (12%), and Technical AEO (10%). Each pillar reflects specific signals that AI engines use when deciding which sources to cite.

Category · AI Citation Index

Who AI is citing in Developer Tools

No single brand dominates AI shortlists in Developer Tools; fragmentation across 92 vendors, average category score 68.6.

Brands tracked

Avg AEO score

69/100

Citation coverage

of brands cited at least once

Dominant brands

cited > 50% of queries

Discovery stage

The shortlist

When buyers ask AI for the best Developer Tools software

No discovery-stage prompts have been scored against this category yet — once the shortlist cron runs, this section will surface which brands AI cites most.

Evaluation stage

The battleground

How brands fare on comparison queries · category median 39/100

Vercel and Upland Adestra tie at 71 average evaluation score, the highest in the category. Launchdarkly scores 60, Datadog 58. The median evaluation score sits at 39, well below the category average of 68.6, indicating wide variance in how brands perform head-to-head.

machine-learning in Python

Each brand's evaluation score averages how AI responds to head-to-head comparison queries that mention them. Above-median brands win their comparisons more often than they lose.

Trends

Over the last 12 months

Average category score climbed from 65 in March 2026 to 69 in April 2026 across 78 audits. Datadog rose 15 points month-over-month; Launchdarkly fell 8 points. Two months of data limits deeper trend analysis.

Biggest gain

Datadog

+15 pts

Biggest drop

Launchdarkly

-8 pts

Editorial picks

Brands worth watching

Datadog

Scores 78 as a featured candidate and shows the steepest upward trend in the category, gaining 15 points between March and April 2026. Strong evaluation presence at 58 average score.

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Vercel

Ties for the highest evaluation score at 71 across 4 comparison queries. Also hits 78 as a featured candidate, indicating consistent AI citation performance in both discovery and bake-off scenarios.

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Newrelic

Scores 78 as a featured candidate. Observability incumbent with strong AI citation presence, though no evaluation or shortlist dominance data available in this sample.

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Drill down

Subcategories

CI/CD Version Control API Management Observability & APM Feature Flags Error Tracking

FAQ

Developer Tools questions, answered

Which developer tool gets cited most often by AI in head-to-head comparisons?+

Vercel and Upland Adestra both average 71 on evaluation queries, the highest in the category. Launchdarkly follows at 60, then Datadog at 58. The wide gap to the median score of 39 suggests these four brands have stronger citation positioning than most of the 92 vendors tracked.

Is there a dominant developer tool AI recommends for discovery queries?+

No. Across 33 top-level prompts, zero brands registered measurable shortlist dominance. Developer Tools is highly fragmented, with no clear AI-preferred default for broad 'best developer tool' queries.

What is the best observability platform according to AI citations?+

Datadog scores 78 as a featured candidate and is rising fastest in the category, up 15 points in April 2026. Newrelic also hits 78. Dynatrace scores 74. All three represent the observability segment within Developer Tools.

Which developer tool brand is losing ground in AI recommendations?+

Launchdarkly dropped 8 points between March and April 2026, the largest decline in the category. It still scores 60 on evaluation queries, above the 39 median, but momentum is negative.

How do CI/CD and feature-flag tools perform in AI citations?+

The category includes CI/CD, feature flags, and four other subcategories, but top-level data does not break out subcategory citation rates. Launchdarkly (feature flags) and Statsig (experimentation) both appear in evaluation results, scoring 60 and 46 respectively.

What is the typical AI citation score for developer tools?+

The category average is 68.6 across 92 brands. Evaluation median sits at 39, indicating a long tail of low-citation vendors. Featured candidates cluster at 74 to 78, suggesting AI cites a narrow set of brands at high frequency.

Want to know if AI cites your brand for Developer Tools?

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