Surfer SEO is a reliable and effective tool for optimizing content, but sometimes, people cannot pay its premium costs.
If you're searching for an equally powerful alternative, look no further: Here's our roundup of the best Surfer SEO alternatives.
We'll compare each search engine optimization tool on several key factors, such as feature sets, pricing models, ease of use, etc. If you'd like to find out which are best for your business needs, please keep reading this buyer's guide.
As a full-time blogger, I've used Surfer SEO as my content brief builder, word count solution, and writing tool.
I'm hoping you'll find different alternatives, and I've tested each content editor to know which one works.
A complete guide on Surfer SEO Alternatives
There are a few different alternatives to Surfer SEO that you can use to improve your website's search engine ranking. The best competitor is Dashword.
Surfer SEO
Dashword
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What Are The Best Alternatives To Surfer SEO?
After thoroughly examining all the data from the best Surfer SEO competitors, we have made the following recommendations for you.
1. Dashword
Dashword is our top pick for the best Surfer SEO alternatives.
The content optimization tool picks your competitors' blog post outlines and helps you create a new content brief within a few minutes.
On the left-hand side, you get all your keywords and their recommended density so you can write a blog post tuned for the search engines.
Like Surfer SEO, Dashword provides content scoring to guide the writers in real time.
Once you have published the content on your site, the SEO software tracks the ranking of your pages against your competitors and alerts you if you are missing out on any opportunity.
When you compare Dashword to Surfer SEO and other marketing tools, it offers more value for money than its competitors.
Also, it allows you to generate unlimited reports with a monthly subscription of just $99.
If you are looking for the best Surfer SEO alternative without compromising on any feature, then Dashword is the right tool for you.
Key Features:
- Unlimited reports for your relevant keywords
- It shows the outlines of competitors to generate your own.
- Suggests the right keywords and frequently asked questions to include in your content
- Content scoring feature to guide writers
- Tracks the performance of published content
- The content monitoring feature allows you to find new opportunities
- Economical than Surfer and other SEO tools.
Best Alternative
Dashword
Eddy's Take
Dashword is the new kid on the block regarding SEO tools, but don’t let its inexperience fool you.
This software is here to compete, and it’s doing a great job of it. In my experience, I believe Surfer SEO is starting to feel the heat with this sleek newcomer in the competitive SEO arena.
Favorite Feature:
Annual Discount:
Contact site
Ease of Use:
9/10
Pricing:
$39 - $249 per month
2. Frase
Frase is one of the top competitors of Surfer SEO when it comes to generating a content brief. The AI writing tool allows you to generate an SEO-optimized content brief within 6 seconds.
It analyzes your competitors for your target keyword and suggests introductions, outlines, FAQs, and conclusions. And if that doesn’t excite you, it also offers paragraph paraphrasing features.
The keyword suggestions are similar to Surfer SEO as Frase also analyzes your top competitors for a target keyword and then suggests the appropriate keyword density.
The analytics features of the on-page SEO tool won’t disappoint you either; they allow you to track the performance of important keywords. Frase suggests high-opportunity keywords that are relevant to your niche.
When you compare Frase with Surfer SEO, the only downside of Frase is that it features something other than an in-built keyword research tool.
And if you use SEMRush, Ahrefs, or any other AI SEO tool, Frase does the job perfectly.
On top of that, Frase charges you almost half the subscription fees you have to pay for Surfer.
So, if you are looking for a budget-friendly Surfer SEO alternative without compromising quality, Frase must be your pick.
Key Features:
- Get automated content brief within a few seconds
- Content scoring to help you write SEO-optimized content
- Allows you to share documents with editable links
- Integration with Google Search Console
- Multiple writing templates
- Content editor feature similar to that of Surfer
- Frase Add-on offers keyword research, SERP Analyzer, and AI writing abilities.
Eddy's Take
Frase is an intelligent choice for your blogging business, offering an innovative approach to content optimization compared with Surfer SEO. Make sure you consider it part of your content marketing strategy.
Favorite Feature:
Traffic Monitoring
Annual Discount:
Yes
Ease of Use:
8.5/10
Pricing:
$14.99 - $114.99
3. Clearscope
Clearscope is one of the best Surfer alternatives you need to check out as it makes content optimization a breeze.
An amazing feature of the tool is that it allows you to integrate the tools you already use to create high-quality content. WordPress and Google Docs integration offered by the tool takes your content creation game to a new level.
Another advantage of this tool over Surfer SEO is that you can check the readability score on the same dashboard. Instead of content scoring, Clearscope offers content grading like A, A- etc.
The Google Docs style editor and keyword density suggestions make it one of the best content optimization tools on the market.
The only downside is that you may find Clearscope more expensive than other Surfer alternatives, as the subscription starts from $170 per month.
Key Features
- Google Docs style editor to write content in a hassle-free way
- Includes Google Docs and WordPress integration
- Offers multiple user seats to add team members
- Built-in keyword research tool offers convenience
- Supports multiple languages
- Content readability score to help you write human-readable content
- Includes free training and onboarding
- Unlimited sharing of docs allows you to collaborate with your team
- Content grading tool to help you write relevant content
Eddy's Take
For big teams looking to level up their content strategy, Clearscope is a must.
Its powerful brief tool can quickly scale with the needs of your business. They are making it an obvious choice when crafting stellar outlines.
Favorite Feature:
Content Audits
Annual Discount:
Yes
Ease of Use:
8/10
Pricing:
$170 - $1,200 per month
4. Marketmuse
Marketmuse is another Surfer SEO alternative that makes content planning a hassle-free task.
The tool automates content research and prioritizes content that is easier to rank with your domain authority.
When you compare this content optimization software with Surfer and other alternatives, it emphasizes content planning to help you write impactful content that ranks higher on Google.
With automated keyword research and competitive analysis, Marketmuse saves you much-needed time on content planning.
AI-generated content briefs, linking recommendations, and scores make this on-page SEO tool worth your money and time.
Regarding the subscription costs, Marketmuse offers you a free monthly plan with a limit of 15 queries and 10 projects. You can always upgrade to the paid plans if you think the tool is helping your content strategy.
Key Features
- Automates keyword research and content planning for you
- Offers data-driven content strategies
- Provides an AI-generated content brief to save your time
- Content scores to help with content optimization
- Creates entire customer journeys with content
- Allows on-demand content audits, domain analysis, and platform onboarding
- Offers free monthly plan with a limit of 15 queries and 10 projects
Eddy's Take
If you're looking for the perfect "one-stop shop" to help fine-tune your website content and SEO, check out Marketmuse.
They'll get all your search engine optimization needs to be taken care of immediately.
Favorite Feature:
SEO reporting
Annual Discount:
Yes
Ease of Use:
7/10
Pricing:
Free - $12,000/yr
5. Scalenut
Scalenut is one of the popular Surfer SEO alternatives offering guided workflows to write a complete blog post within a few minutes.
The automated NLP usage to create content briefs make Scalenut one of the best content optimization tools you can opt for.
The tool has a master board that lets you handle all the content creation and planning activities in a single place.
Scalenut also offers you a content quality score to help you with content optimization.
Scalenut is not limited to content planning and AI-generated briefs, as the tool offers long-form copywriting services.
You can also use it to create AI-generated text that ranks on Google.
And, if you are not getting the hang of it, an expert writer from the tool’s talent network is just a click away.
AI-generated content briefs, guided workflows, multiple writing templates, and long-form AI copywriting features make it an ideal tool for professionals in the SEO industry.
The monthly subscription to Scalenut starts at as low as $29, making it a budget-friendly tool for individual bloggers.
Key Features
- Comes with guided workflows to generate entire blogs within a few minutes
- Offers automated NLP terms insertion into content
- Includes a master board to handle all content activities in one place
- Offers long-form AI copywriting feature
- Comes with dozens of writing templates to save your time
- Has a content-scoring feature to aid writers
- Creates AI-generated content briefs
- Allows topic clustering to create content strategies
- Provides access to SERP analyzer
- Comes with a dedicated Chrome extension for convenience
- Budget-friendly tool with amazing content optimization features for bloggers
Eddy's Take
With Scalenut, content optimization just got way easier. It's the perfect AI strategist to get you ahead of your competition.
Favorite Feature:
5-minute blog post
Annual Discount:
Yes
Ease of Use:
8/10
Pricing:
$29 - $149/mo
6. Content Harmony
Content Harmony is sixth on our list of top Surfer SEO alternatives.
The SEO tool functions like Scalenut and offers data-driven guided blog workflows. The tool analyzes search intent and suggests keywords with recommended density to include in the content.
You can also spy on your competitors for the content structure they follow for similar content.
Content Harmony comes with a content grader that helps you write relevant content for your website or blog.
Finally, the tool lets you include important questions from sources like Quora threads and People Also Ask (PAA) on search engines.
Key Features
- Creates AI-generated outlines within minutes
- Provides a Keyword Report after SERP analysis
- Allows you to share content briefs with other content writers or team members
- Categorizes your keywords according to the search intent analysis
- Shows you the competitor outlines
- Provides frequently asked questions in the content
- Comes with visual content analysis features
- Content grader helps writers to create impactful content
- Offers free onboarding and training sessions
Eddy's Take
Content Harmony has a treasure trove of excellent tools, making it hard to decide where to start.
But don't worry, as you can take their free onboarding session, and you'll be writing winning content briefs in no time!
Favorite Feature:
Primary intent
Annual Discount:
Yes
Ease of Use:
7./10
Pricing:
$99 to custom pricing starting from $1,000 per month
7. Outranking
Outranking is an AI platform that helps users create a topical strategy while highlighting authority gaps and content priorities.
The SEO platform generates content briefs in a few minutes after analyzing your competitors.
The AI writing ability of the tool allows it to generate factual content by going through the competitor's content.
Users of the Outranking tool also get to create an ROI-driven keyword strategy using clustering algorithms.
This Surfer SEO alternative may seem expensive to some, but it is worth a try when considering its value.
Key Features
- Generates SEO-optimized content outlines within a few minutes
- Creates content briefs with AI
- Gathers facts from top-ranking pages or even custom research sources
- Comes with a keyword clustering feature to create a topical content strategy
- Includes content scoring feature to help content writers
- Offers internal linking support
- Allows optimization of existing content with related keywords suggestion
Eddy's Take
Outranking provides an all-in-one solution to SEO. You can easily use this as an alternative to Surfer's features.
Favorite Feature:
AI Content Optimization
Annual Discount:
Yes
Ease of Use:
7/10
Pricing:
$79 - $219 per month
8. Neuronwriter
Although Neuronwriter comes last on our list of best Surfer alternatives for high-quality content optimization, its unique features make it a worthwhile investment.
The content optimizer tool makes the content creation process easy with the help of NLP suggestions for your target keyword and other related keywords.
Features like content scoring and competitor analysis make the tool useful. You can also know the length of a blog post and write it based on its suggestions.
As you may have guessed, Neuronwriter also comes with an AI-writing assistant based on the GPT-3 model. With such powerful SEO features, your content planning can always go right.
Key Features
- Provides NLP-based suggestions with keyword density
- Generates high-quality content outlines within a few minutes
- Offers content scoring for the convenience of writers
- Helps you find new content ideas with desired user intent
- Comes with an AI-writing assistant and built-in templates
- Budget-friendly Surfer SEO alternative
Eddy's Take
Looking for a powerful tool to write better articles?
Then try NEURONwriter. This competitor of Surfer SEO takes the effort out of content teams, partly due to their partnership with Contadu.
Now you can crank up your writing without breaking into a sweat.
Favorite Feature:
Content Outlines
Annual Discount:
Yes
Ease of Use:
7/10
Pricing:
Special Pricing on Appsumo
Things To Consider When Researching Surfer SEO Competitors
When researching the best Surfer competitors, there are a few key things to consider.
Pricing:
Different SEO tools offer different pricing structures. Please compare each tool's cost to ensure you are getting the best value for your money.
Features:
Each Surfer SEO alternative offers unique features that may benefit your specific needs. Consider which content optimization feature is essential for your website and determine which tool provides them.
Some of the features I considered:
- How good is the content score?
- Does it suggest relevant keywords?
- Can you import it to other content generation editors like WordPress?
- Is it easy to create a content outline?
Community:
SEO tools like Surfer SEO often have many users willing to share their experiences and recommendations.
Look for forums or conversations where people discuss these tools to ensure you get the most comprehensive advice.
Support:
It is essential to look for customer support when researching different tools. Ensure the tool offers a reliable customer support team to answer any questions.
Ease of Use:
Finding a tool that is easy to use and understand is essential. You want to save time figuring out the features, so ensure your tool is user-friendly.
Customer Reviews:
Finally, read customer reviews for each content optimization tool before deciding which is best for your website. Reading reviews can provide valuable insight into a tool's features and overall effectiveness.
You can find the best option that fits your needs by researching Surfer SEO competitors.
Compare pricing plans, features, community feedback, ease of use, and customer reviews to determine which is correct.
With the right tool in place, you can optimize existing content of your website for better Google search results and increased visibility.
What is Surfer SEO, and why do people like it?
Surfer SEO is a powerful SEO tool that helps businesses increase their online visibility and generate more organic traffic.
It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze the existing content on a website, identify potential content optimization opportunities, and recommend actionable tasks for improving search engine rankings.
If you've tested different AI writers and are tired of the same old output that every wrapped GPT offers, then Surfer will change your mind.
Compared to other AI writing tools offering a one-click solution, Surfer lets you customize every section to include E-E-A-T into your content. Is the output perfect every time? No, of course not.
But with proper editing and optimization, you can produce blog articles that rank on the first page of search engines.
- Automatically includes semantically related keywords that fit naturally in your blog post
- Less than 20 minutes to get an article that is 90% done
- You can add custom knowledge to fulfill Google's E-E-A-T Factor
- Saves you money as you don't need to hire a blog writing service or freelancer
- At times, the custom knowledge won't work properly
- The output won't be as good if there is no competition since Surfer pulls data from the top-ranking pages
- It can be expensive for a solo blogger
The platform also offers real-time competitor analysis so users can track how their SEO strategies compare to their competitors.
With Surfer SEO, businesses can optimize their websites quickly and efficiently, resulting in higher rankings and increased visibility.
People like Surfer because it's an effective optimization tool that saves time and provides accurate results. It has a user-friendly interface, making it easy for beginners and experts.
It also provides helpful recommendations for improving website performance and searches engine rankings, making it an invaluable asset for businesses.
In short, Surfer SEO is an ideal tool for businesses looking to maximize their online presence and drive more organic traffic.
Why Do You Need An Alternative To Surfer SEO?
While Surfer SEO is a great tool to help businesses optimize their websites, some may have better options.
Certain businesses may require more specific optimization strategies or a higher level of customization than what Surfer SEO provides.
Also, some users may need help with the interface.
For these reasons, many businesses may need to explore Surfer SEO alternatives that provide more specific results and a better user experience.
Alternatives like Dashword, Frase, and Clearscope offer keyword research tools, content analysis tools, and link-building capabilities.
The best Surfer SEO alternative may provide more detailed SEO optimization strategies than Surfer SEO, allowing businesses to quickly improve their website performance and search engine rankings.
Also, an alternative to Surfer SEO may offer a more intuitive user interface, making it easier to get the most out of the content optimization game.
Ultimately, businesses should evaluate their needs and consider alternative solutions if Surfer SEO doesn't meet their requirements.
With the right combination of tools, businesses can optimize their websites efficiently and effectively.
Final Thoughts
Although Surfer SEO is a great tool, many other alternatives can provide similar or even better results.
We’ve listed some of the best alternatives, so check them out and see which works best for your business.
Have you tried any of these tools? What was your experience? Let us know in the comments below!
