An ercule alternative for devtool companies

Literally.dev vs ercule

Q: How much does ercule cost?

ercule publishes pricing for its app (free and $59 a month) but not for agency work as of August 2026. Literally.dev publishes its price: $4,990 a month with a 3-month minimum.

Q: Does ercule measure AI visibility?

ercule's SEO and GEO service uses coverage reports built on GA4 and Search Console data and describes LLM optimization frameworks. It does not describe an AI visibility tracker. Literally.dev runs its own pipeline that checks where you rank in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.

Q: Who writes the content?

ercule describes an experienced team with technical writing and documentation expertise but does not publish who writes or whether they are engineers. Literally.dev matches each piece to a hand-vetted engineer.

Q: Can I use ercule's app with Literally.dev?

Yes. The app reads your GA4 and Search Console data and does not conflict with our work. We add the AI visibility layer and the content.

Q: Should we build an in-house AEO team or hire an agency?

An in-house hire gives you one generalist. An agency gives you a team, the tooling, and the publication network on day one. The people best qualified to write technical content are engineers, and most of them would rather build product. We bring the engineers, measure where AI ranks you, and place the content where AI assistants read. You keep your team on the product.

Q: Self-serve AEO tools or a full-service agency?

A self-serve tool shows you where you stand. It does not write the content, get it published, or get it cited. We run our own measurement pipeline and pair it with engineer-written content and distribution, then re-measure at day 85 so you see what moved. If you already have writers and distribution, a tool may be enough. If you need the work done, you need the agency.

Pick ercule if you want content systems, analytics, and automation around a team you already have. Pick Literally.dev if you want the content written by engineers and the AI results measured.

Literally.dev

Literally.dev is AEO-first: engineers write the content, our own pipeline measures where AI assistants rank you, and distribution with guaranteed placements is built in, for $4,990 a month.

ercule

ercule is an organic growth agency with a developer-tooling client list, an SEO and GEO service, content engineering, and its own analytics app. Agency pricing is not published.

Let's Chat Get a free AEO analysis

A word from the founder

Andrei Gaspar, Founder of Literally.dev

What each costs

Both prices below come from public pages. Where a vendor does not publish a price, we say so instead of guessing.

Literally.dev

$4,990 / month

3-month minimum engagement

Published. The price is for The 90-Day AI Recommendation Sprint: 10 engineer-written articles a month, distribution, a guaranteed publication and newsletter feature, and a live AEO dashboard.

Let's Chat

ercule

Not published

The ércule app has published plans (free and $59 a month). Agency engagements are quote-only.

Verified against ercule's published pages on 2026-08-28. Prices change. Check their site before you decide.

Side by side

Facts from each vendor’s own site. A line means the vendor does not say, not that the answer is no.

Capability	Literally.dev	ercule
Team
Who writes the content	Hand-vetted engineers, the top 2.7% of experts	Experienced team with technical writing and docs expertise; model not published
Where the team is based	Oslo, Norway; core team in Europe	—
Built for	DevTool and tech companies	DevOps, data, and developer tools
Content
Content volume	10 articles a month in the Sprint	—
Technical documentation	Yes	Documentation expertise listed
AEO and measurement
Named AEO service	Yes	SEO and GEO
AEO baseline audit before work starts	Yes	Coverage and gap reports
AI visibility measurement	Owned pipeline (xEO), live dashboard	Own app on GA4 and Search Console; no AI visibility tracker described
Results re-measured and reported	Yes	—
Distribution
Publishing and distribution handled	Yes	—
Guaranteed monthly publication and newsletter features	Yes	—
Commercial
Pricing published	$4,990 a month	App only; agency work is quote-only
Minimum term	3 months	—
Performance guarantee	We keep working free until the numbers move	—
Time to start	5 days or less	—

Verified against ercule's published pages on 2026-08-28. Prices change. Check their site before you decide.

Who should pick which?

Pick ercule if

You want content engineering, automation, and analytics around an in-house team.
You want an agency that ships software alongside services.
SEO coverage and gap reporting is what you need most.

Pick Literally.dev if

You want AI visibility measured on real buyer questions, before and after.
You want engineers writing under real bylines and the content placed off-site with guarantees.
You want a published price and a 90-day sprint with a performance guarantee.

What our clients measured

Higher Conversion

5×

AppSignal readers converted at five times the rate of their old content. Measured in 90 days.

* AppSignal engagement, 2026

Seen by AI

4.4×

QA.tech mentions in AI search grew 4.4× after we took over their content.

* QA.tech engagement, 2026

Launches That Land

Product of the Day on Product Hunt for a QA.tech launch we backed with content.

* QA.tech launch, Product Hunt

Chris — Head of Marketing, QA.tech

Antonija — Content Lead, Aviator

Armend — Founder, GlassFlow

“I worked with 5-8 content/marketing agencies and you guys are the best experience I ever had.”

Chris — Head of Marketing, QA.tech

The 90-Day AI Recommendation Sprint

In 90 days, when your buyers ask AI what to use, your name comes up. Our analytics prove it.

Baseline audit: where AI ranks you today, on 25–50 real buyer queries
Live AEO dashboard — watch your rankings move
10 articles a month from the top 2.7% of experts — hand-vetted engineers, posted where AI reads
Guaranteed feature every month in a top tech publication with 4M+ readers
Guaranteed feature every month in a major tech newsletter
A 90-minute marketing workshop to nail your strategy and titles
A content strategy session every two weeks
Day 85: we re-run your baseline and show you exactly what moved
BONUS: you join our client network — amazing tech companies that promote each other with guest posts, backlinks, and mentions