SEO is the secret sauce of most high-traffic and profitable websites.
If you learn the art of properly optimizing your content to rank higher in search engines, you’ll attract more visitors, increase your site’s authority, and ultimately boost your revenue.
To improve your content rankings, you need access to the SEO tools like Surfer SEO.
Surfer SEO is a powerful tool for content optimization, but it has its own limitations. Some people might find it difficult to use or too expensive.
So, in this post, we’ll discuss some of the best Surfer SEO alternatives that offer similar features at affordable prices. Youโll discover;
- A handpicked list of 12 tools like Surfer SEO
- Their pricing and features
- What makes each of them unique and more
Table of Contents
12 Best Surfer SEO Alternatives
1. Semrush: Best Surfer SEO Alternative
Hands down, Semrush is the MOST powerful SEO toolkit on the planet. If we had to pick only one SEO tool for all of our content marketing needs, it has to be Semrush.
Why should you go for Semrush over Surfer SEO?
Here are a few biggest benefits of using the Semrush SEO toolkit.
Massive keyword database: The #1 reason most people use Semrush is because of its keyword tool as it offers a huge database of over 23 billion keywords.
To get started, enter any seed keyword and the tool will generate hundreds (if not thousands) of keywords instantly.
Hereโs one of the examples;
As you can see, it gives you all the important metrics including monthly search volume, 12-month search trend, keyword difficulty, keyword intent, average CPC, competitive density, SERP features, and much more.
Worth every penny: Most people think that Semrush is expensive as its pricing starts at $129.95 per month. But itโs worth every penny you pay for. Why? The reason is it offers 55+ SEO tools under one roof.
No other SEO tool gives you so many tools for one price. Thatโs why over 10 million users are using Semrush for SEO purposes.
Huge backlink data: Did you know that Semrush has a database of 43 trillion quality backlinks? Using their Backlink Analytics tool, you can spy on any website to discover its backlinks along with its sources.
It also gives you an Authority Score metric that helps you analyze the backlink quality of all the links. If youโre looking for a powerful link building tool, you should definitely check out Semrush.
Semrush Pricing: Semrush offers the following three pricing packages with free trial. Click here, for step by step guide to claim free trial.
1. Pro: If youโre starting, go with this plan, which costs you $108.33 per month (if paid annually).
2. Guru: This plan is suitable for agencies and small businesses. It costs you $208.33 per month (when paid annually).
3. Business: If youโre looking for an exclusive plan from Semrush for large agencies and enterprises, go with this plan. This plan costs you $416.66 per month (when paid annually).
It also offers a 14-day free trial which can be claimed using the following link.
2. Frase: Best Content Optimization Tool
Frase is one of the top content marketing tools that uses artificial intelligence to research topics, write, and optimize high-quality SEO content for you.
It is also one of the #1 rated AI software tools on Capterra, used by thousands of SEOs and content marketers around the world. It gives you all the tools you need from keyword research to content writing to optimization.
Why choose Frase over Surfer SEO?
Here are a few benefits of using Frase over Surfer.
Automatically generate optimized content: The primary reason to use Frase over Surfer is that it creates SEO-friendly content automatically for you. It offers a writing tool called โFrase’s AI Writerโ which helps you come up with ideas and create content on any topic.
Hereโs what it looks like;
As you can see, it gives you a content editor where you can use the AI tool to create SEO-friendly articles.
Quick note: Make sure to cross-check the content written by ANY AI tool because the content can be inaccurate sometimes.
Identify content gaps: Most people struggle to get better rankings with their content. Do you know why? They miss A LOT of things within their content.
Thatโs why finding the missing opportunities in your content is essential. Frase helps you easily find content gaps to create high-performing content.
Gives you a ton of templates: Frase offers a wide range of AI templates that help you create almost ANY type of content you want.
If youโre curious, hereโs a list of some of the templates offered by Frase AI;
- AI content generator
- Introduction generator
- Outline generator
- Paraphrasing tool
- Paragraph rewriter
- Blog title generator
- Description generator
- People also ask
- Product description
- Slogan generator
- Summary generator
- Value proposition
- Sentence rewriter
As you can see above, from introductions to people also ask questions, titles and summary – you can create any content you want.
Frase Pricing: Frase offers a 5-day trial for only $1. If youโre unsure about the tool, you can try it for $1.
If youโre convinced Frase is for you, here are three pricing options Frase IO provides.
1. Solo: Go with this plan if youโre just starting. It costs just $14.99/mo ($12.66/mo if paid annually).
2. Basic: This plan lets you write 30 articles per month, costs you $44.99/mo ($38.25/mo if paid annually).
3. Team: This plan lets you create unlimited articles. It costs you $114.99/mo ($97.75/mo if paid annually).
3. MarketMuse: Free Surfer SEO Alternative
MarketMuse is an excellent Surfer SEO free alternative. It is a widely used AI tool that can help you with content planning and optimization.
If youโre looking for a tool that offers personalized SEO recommendations to boost your content rankings, MarketMuse is an excellent choice for you.
Why should you try MarketMuse over Surfer SEO?
Here are some of the reasons to try MarketMuse in 2025.
Content audit: The BIGGEST benefit of MarketMuse is it offers a powerful AI to conduct an in-depth content audit.
It can analyze your entire website, telling you which of your existing posts need a proper update along with suggestions.
Hereโs what it looks like;
Helps you with content briefs: MarketMuse offers content marketing tools that help you generate content briefs for pages that need to be created or optimized.
The best part? It uses AI (artificial intelligence) to provide you data-based recommendations. Thatโs how you can improve your overall website rankings.
Keyword research: MarketMuset offers an incredible keyword research tool that helps you find profitable keywords for your website. You can use it to see keyword coverage by topic relevance.
You can also use MarketMuse to perform in-depth analysis on specific topic, including search intent breakdown and competitive analysis.
Hereโs what it looks like;
As you can see above, you can easily audit your existing pages to see the relevant keywords along with their difficulty and authority. That way you can easily decide whether to optimize your existing pages around a topic or create a new post.
MarketMuse Pricing: MarketMuse offers the following four pricing packages.
1. Free: As the name suggests, this is a free plan from MarketMuse.
2. Standard: This plan costs you $149 per month ($1500 if paid annually).
Discover powerful Answer the Public alternative and unlock your keyword research potential.
3. Team: This plan costs you $399 monthly ($3900 if paid annually).
4. Premium: This plan offers advanced features, personalized data, and content intelligence. It provides custom pricing based on your usage.
4. RankIQ
If youโre looking for an affordable alternative to Surfer SEO, try RankIQ. It is one of the high-rated SEO tools that can help you create perfectly optimized content within minutes.
It offers a unique feature called โTitle Graderโ, which analyzes the top 30 search results to find out which keywords Google likes best in titles.
Features of RankIQ:
- Hand-picked keyword library, which has a huge collection of keywords with high traffic and low competition
- AI SEO report to identify top-performing topics
- Content optimizer tool which scans top-ranking pages and helps you find the best keywords to use in your content
- Rank tracking tool to automatically check your site’s positions in the SERPs
RankIQโs pricing starts only at $49 per month!
5. Clearscope.io
Clearscope has an extremely easy-to-use interface compared to Surfer SEO for content creation. It also has a WP plugin so you can integrate WordPress with the click of a button to get SEO recommendations, Content Grade, word count, etc.
Features of Clearscope:
- Unlimited projects
- Generate unlimited AI content outlines
- Keyword discovery to identify relevant keywords
- Built-in content editor with on-page SEO recommendations
- Add unlimited users
It comes in two pricing plans;
- Essentials plan costs you $189 per month where you get 100 Content Inventory Pages ($25/month per additional 100 pages), 50 monthly keyword discoveries, 20 monthly Content Reports.
- Business plan costs you $399 per month where you get 300 Content Inventory Pages ($15/month per additional 100 pages), 50 monthly keyword discoveries, 20 monthly Content Reports.
6. RankMath Content AI
RankMath is one of the widely used SEO plugins in WordPress. RankMath has an exclusive AI content creation tool that helps you effortlessly create SEO-optimized content.
You can choose from 40+ templates to create high-converting articles with just 1 click!
The best part? Everything is integrated within WordPress so you donโt have to waste time in copy-pasting from Google Docs or MS Word. Hereโs a quick video explaining its capabilities.
Features of RankMath Content AI:
- Keyword research
- Blog post outline generator
- Personalized content suggestions
- The ability to create in multiple languages
- Bulk generation of SEO titles and descriptions
RankMath content AI has 3 pricing plans;
- Starter plan costs $4.99 per month where you get 7500 monthly credits
- Creator plan costs $8.99 per month where you get 18,000 monthly credits
- Expert plan costs $14.99 per month where you get 45,000 monthly credits
7. KeySearch
If you want to simplify your websiteโs SEO and rank high for competitive keywords – give a try to KeySearch.
As the name suggests, KeySearch finds less competitive keywords no matter what niche youโre in. You can also use it to find all your competitorsโ top-ranking keywords along with their current keyword rankings, overall search volume, CPC, etc.
Features of KeySearch:
- Keyword research
- Live SERP Analysis
- Competitor Analysis
- Backlink Checker
- YouTube Keyword Research
- SEO Auditor
- AI Content Assistant
- Rank Tracking
KeySearch comes in two pricing options;
- Starter plan costs you $24 per month where you can conduct 200 keyword searches per day, 80 tracked keywords per month, 2000 audited pages per month and 5000 AI credits per month.
- Pro plan costs you $48 per month where you can conduct 500 keyword searches per day, 200 tracked keywords per month, 5000 audited pages per month and 15,000 AI credits per month.
More Tools Like Surfer SEO
Looking for more Surfer SEO alternatives in 2025? Check out these top-rated options.
8. SE Ranking
SE Ranking is a comprehensive content marketing platform that helps you with SEO-friendly content creation.
With SE Ranking, you can easily generate high-quality content using its AI writer. You can also choose from 10 tones of writing voice to create content that resonates with your target audience.
9. Content Harmony
If you want to primarily focus on content strategy and planning – Content Harmony is a great Surfer SEO alternative to try.
It offers features like keyword research, search intent analysis, AI-driven topic modeling, and content brief creation. It also provides a content brief template so you can create great content regularly.
10. Conductor.com
Conductor is an all in one platform which uses AI to create content that drives traffic and optimizes SEO for better search rankings.
You can use it for topic research, get AI-powered SEO recommendations and create SEO-friendly content. Conductor has a content guidance feature thatโs incredibly helpful. By simply inputting a URL, you can instantly see your website’s performance against competitors.
11. SEO Clarity
SEO Clarity is a powerful content marketing tool that has a huge 32+ billion keyword data. Its advanced features, including SEO topic research, competitor analysis, and content optimization, make it a useful toolkit for all kinds of content creators.
12. Dashword
Dashword can be used exclusively for generating content briefs, content optimization and track monitor the rankings of your pages. Using Dashword, you can easily track website traffic trends and get alerts if any of your pages are losing traffic.
What is Surfer SEO?
Surfer is an SEO toolkit that offers multiple features to provide you with real-time feedback on the overall on-page optimization of your website.
You can use Surfer SEO to perform keyword research, audit your content, and get better SEO recommendations to increase your search traffic.
Hereโs what its content editor looks like;
As you can see, the tool will give you real-time suggestions to make your content SEO-friendly.
FAQs About SurferSEO Alternatives & Competitors
Here are some frequently asked questions about SurferSEO alternatives and some of its alternative SEO tools.
MarketMuse is a free alternative to the Surfer tool, as it offers a free plan which can be used by one user where you can perform 5 queries per month.
Frase offers a comprehensive list of tools that help you quickly research, write, and optimize SEO-friendly content, whereas Surfer has a limited set of tools. So Frase is much better when compared to Surfer SEO.
Free Resources:
- 10 Best Alternative to KWFinder
- 11 Best Keywords Everywhere Alternative Tools
- Top 10 PREMIUM Semrush Alternatives & Competitors
- 14 Best Ahrefs Alternatives for All SEOs
Final thoughts on Surfer SEO free alternative
When choosing an alternative to Surfer SEO, consider factors such as pricing, specific content features and integration capabilities.
There are a few tools like Semrush, SE Ranking, Frase, etc that can help you with content creation and optimization. Other tools like KeySearch are mostly helpful for keyword research.
The best tool depends on your content needs. Have any more questions? Let us know in the comments.