SpyFu vs. SurferSEO

SpyFu

SpyFu

131 Reviews and Ratings

SurferSEO

SurferSEO

14 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
SpyFu	Score 7.0 out of 10	N/A	SpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search engine optimization and paid listings management platform touts the ability to lower costs and raise rankings via a Kombat-oriented approach... basically a cute way of saying "it makes comparisons" of how well your site does in niche…	$39 per month
SurferSEO	Score 6.1 out of 10	N/A	SurferSEO, from Polish company Surfer, is presented as a modern tool for SEOs and marketers for efficient and comprehensive on-page SEO optimization.	N/A

Pricing

SpyFu

SurferSEO

Editions & Modules

Basic: $39
per month
Professional: $79
per month
Team: $299
per month

No answers on this topic

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
SpyFu	SurferSEO
Free Trial
No	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

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More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	SpyFu	SurferSEO
Considered Both Products	SpyFu Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu SpyFu is a good tool and it certainly provides a good starting point for any basic PPC or SEO campaign. I dont believe it has the comprehensive features that a tool like Ahrefs has, as it doesnt have the granular data these tools possess. However, it is still well worth using … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu I use Ahrefs for Site audit, Keyword Research, Backlink analysis, and some parts of competitor analysis. SpyFu I always wanted to keep primary, but it's not doable with the limitation of their database, which forces me to use Ahrefs for that reason. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu It's a great little tool that offers pretty much everything you can get from Moz or Semrush at a fraction of the cost. My company uses a few different tools but I always come back to SpyFu because it is so easy to use and their build-in reporting is great. Incentivized Helpful? Rohit Langde Marketing Manager Chose SpyFu SpyFu is more cost-effective than both (Ahrefs and SEMRush), but we have to compromise on the data's accuracy. However, the data reporting and user interface of SpyFu make it easy to decipher. For Paid Ads keyword lookup, we prefer SpyFu to any other tool maybe, because it's … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu Hootsuite and Google Analytics Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu I've used SEMRush as well. SEMRush does organic SEO analysis better than SpyFu and backlink research. I find the data more intuitive. I much prefer SpyFu for their advertising/PPC analysis and use SpyFu when researching competitors' advertising campaigns. These are the main two … Incentivized Helpful? Lisa Arrington Digital Marketing Manager Chose SpyFu Compared to SEMRush or Ahrefs, neither of the competitors stacks up against SpyFu in terms of competitor insight of paid ad performance. It can even identify specific ad copy changes, which can be crucial for high-demand periods like Black Friday. In my opinion, SpyFu is an … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu Spyfu fails to hit the mark at least when it comes to SEO since both Ahrefs and Semrush has a bigger directory and fetches data from more countries than Spyfu does, however Spyfu offers a great deal when it comes to cost effective solution to almost every digital marketing … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu SpyFu has what we needed from SEMrush, and Spyfu is more reasonably priced. Spyfu does not have some of the higher level and specific tools, but is great for the price. Incentivized Helpful? Tyler Heaps Director of Marketing Chose SpyFu SpyFu offers the best keyword research platform out there. I have used this for many companies that are still using this tool today. It's always been one of my first marketing software recommendations to companies I work with. For those who understand digital marketing such as … Incentivized Helpful? EV Elias Van Son Sr. Paid Search Specialist Chose SpyFu I spent years exclusively using SEMrush for this kind of competitor PPC data, and have used Moz in the past on several occasions. I feel that SpyFu is more well-rounded and provides deeper insights than these other products, and honestly, it's just more updated as well. Easier … Incentivized Helpful? JK Jonathan Kagan VP Chose SpyFu Currently we actively use SEMRush and Similar Web, along side SpyFu. To be honest, the platforms are fairly interchangeable. Each one has one or two unique things that the other doesn't have. None of it is totally earth shattering. So often it comes down to price, and SpyFu is … Incentivized Helpful? KJ Kathleen Jasper CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Chose SpyFu Better price. Much easier to use. Incentivized Helpful? Kathryn Johnson Marketing Specialist Chose SpyFu I haven't used other platforms because our webmaster suggested it. Incentivized Helpful? Jake Hundley CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Chose SpyFu When it comes to assessing the competition, SpyFu is fantastic. I prefer its competitor analysis features much more than SEMRush or any other platform out there. That is what I use SpyFu for. Regarding reporting and integrations, it doesn't quite seem like it's the best option … Incentivized Helpful? George Louvis Owner Chose SpyFu I haven't checked any competitors. SpyFu was the one I found first and it works so well that I never needed to look for an alternative. I can't imagine trying to do my job without it. It's that good. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu It isn't fair to compare these two tools overall. They have a few shared pieces, but SEMrush is much more expensive but includes many more tools making it a full SEO suite. When looking strictly at the shared tools from both companies (the competitor keyword tools), they stack … Incentivized Helpful? BM Bill Martin Director of Search Chose SpyFu It is comparable with SemRush and others Incentivized Helpful? Ruben Diaz SEM Campaign Manager- Independent Contractor Chose SpyFu I've only used SpyFu. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu We use Moz for tracking Keywords monthly, and we also use it more for backlink research. We like the keyword research available in SpyFu better than Moz. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu Personally, the only tool I use as often as SEMRush. If you have the SEMrush paid version, I personally choose to use that over SpyFu. SpyFu is the best free search analytics tool online though. It has the greatest offerings in its free pack and allows you to have the most … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu They both give me great value, I use them together to get the best results. SimilarWeb gives me a holistic view of a website's traffic - it includes both organic and paid traffic, while SpyFu gives only organic traffic results. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose SpyFu We looked at SEM Rush, but for the price, we decided to give SpyFu a chance. SpyFu is very affordable compared to other similar tools. I think that I can overlook some of the lack of intuitiveness of the platform given the low monthly price. Incentivized Helpful? Frank Watson CEO Chose SpyFu On keyword insights, SpyFu wins - Other elements covered Screaming Frog has better information. Incentivized Helpful?	SurferSEO Verified User Anonymous Chose SurferSEO Surfer is designed to automate the process of content optimization. The team behind it is continuously working to add more features to improve this. Incentivized Helpful? Naz Haque Google Consultant Chose SurferSEO Semrush's content and page optimisation tool is quite poor; it's not in the same bracket as Surfer. Frase is a good alternative from a cost perspective (if not paying the AI writing functions), it's cheaper, and Frase's keyword/topic heatmaps are quite unique. Incentivized Helpful? Joseph Kahn Head RankingZealot at Hum JAM Chose SurferSEO Frase gives a lot of content to use, but it doesn't give you the factors you need to rank. This is ultimately why we use SurferSEO over any other editor tool that is out there. The analytics are number one to the entire space. Incentivized Helpful?

Features

SpyFu

SurferSEO

SEO

Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
	SpyFu 6.6 Ratings 16% below category average	SurferSEO 7.7 Ratings 1% below category average
Keyword analysis	7.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Backlink management	6.00 Ratings	00 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking	6.00 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Page grader	7.80 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Competitive analysis	7.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics	7.20 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Site recommendations	6.00 Ratings	00 Ratings
Task management	6.10 Ratings	3.00 Ratings

SEO Channels

Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
	SpyFu 5.8 Ratings 27% below category average	SurferSEO 7.0 Ratings 8% below category average
Local SEO	5.00 Ratings	6.00 Ratings
Social SEO	5.00 Ratings	00 Ratings
Mobile SEO	8.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings
Global SEO	5.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings

SEO Platform & Account Management

Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
	SpyFu 7.2 Ratings 16% below category average	SurferSEO 7.0 Ratings 19% below category average
Multi-domain support	6.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings
Integration with web analytics tools	8.50 Ratings	00 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	SpyFu	SurferSEO
Small Businesses	Nozzle Score 10.0 out of 10	Nozzle Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Advanced Web Ranking Score 8.2 out of 10	Advanced Web Ranking Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprises	Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com) Score 8.5 out of 10	Dupli Checker (DupliChecker.com) Score 8.5 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	SpyFu	SurferSEO
Likelihood to Recommend	7.0 (0 ratings)	8.0 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	10.0 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Usability	7.0 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Support Rating	7.6 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	SpyFu	SurferSEO
Likelihood to Recommend	If you have a Google ads PPC campaign and then I would say this is more or less essential if you want to know what your competitors are doing. You can get very useful data out of it even if you subscribe for one month. And the pricing is very reasonable. Even if you don't use Google ads, I would say this is still useful for your SEO/SMO team since it gives you a great idea of what keywords and traffic your competitors are working on. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	SurferSEO is a powerful and technical SEO tool for any writer to rank on Google. It would be too much information, even overwhelming at times, for someone who has never had experience with this kind of work before, but there's tons of detailed knowledge available when it comes to understanding the features that are most relevant while still meeting your goals in mind. Incentivized Joseph Kahn Head RankingZealot at Hum JAM Read full review
Pros	Keeping a tab on competitors organic and inorganic activities Helps identify where the competitor is getting the backlinks from. Identify competitors top content and the keywords that's bringing them traffic Get proper information of their current and past ADS run on Google. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	SEO visibility Content Optimization SEO Score Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Cons	As with any database, their keyword database has limits, so the data returned is relative to their database, not necessarily the full picture. When SpyFu database or scoring chances, the data provided can spike, thus causing confusion among stakeholders, we're reporting to. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Integrating better keyword data Full Site SEO Auditor (independent of copy) Technical Factor analysis Incentivized Joseph Kahn Head RankingZealot at Hum JAM Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	Love this tool but would like insights from all 3 major search engines not just Google. I would also like deeper understanding of the placement for local businesses on Google Places/Maps. Insight into mobile search rankings and best landing pages per industry would also help :) Overall, SpyFu is a necessity for serious search marketers. Chris Romero SEM Manager Read full review	No answers on this topic
Usability	SpyFu is an easy to use tool, and has a self -explanatroy dashborad to generate the data needed to provide insights into any B2B SEO and PPC campaign. It is not comprehensive, but it certainly provides good enough insight to make it a valuable part of any agency tool stack Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Because, I've been using this tool since many years and I haven't looked for any other tool when it comes to content optimization Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Support Rating	SpyFu comes with a link to tutorial videos. I recommend you watch them. The software is capable of so much you really need to watch the videos and learn how to get the most out of it. When I have a question 90% of the time it's there. When it isn't, and I reach out to them, support is always quick and concise. Incentivized George Louvis Owner Read full review	No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered	I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I liked the ability to use both in our keyword research for both paid and organic marketing. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Semrush's content and page optimisation tool is quite poor; it's not in the same bracket as Surfer. Frase is a good alternative from a cost perspective (if not paying the AI writing functions), it's cheaper, and Frase's keyword/topic heatmaps are quite unique. Sufer has a better UI and a shorter learning curve. It has an advantage in that it offers internal linking recommendations, which Frase lacks. Surfer also has limited competitor analysis (backlinks and page speed), which Frase does not. Both tools allow you to choose the number of competitors on the SERPS Incentivized Naz Haque Google Consultant Read full review
Return on Investment	Helping us track our ranking. It helps solve the problem of ambiguity when it comes to Google Ads. It makes the strategy more clear. You can sift through lots of different online analytics to find the information, but it takes way too long. SpyFu has it all in one place! Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Surfer has been a key tool in the past to help us rank many clients We've been able to help clients reduce word count on pages that were stuffed or vice versa using Surfer The results from using surfer on an article were easily seen within 3 months on average. Incentivized Naz Haque Google Consultant Read full review
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