VidIQ vs TubeBuddy: Which Is The Better YouTube SEO Tool In 2023?

When it comes to affiliate marketing, creating a YouTube channel is the first thing that comes to mind.

As such, bloggers, influencers, and popular personalities on any social media platform never shy away from creating videos on YouTube. In fact, according to Susan Wojcicki (YouTube CEO), over 500 hours of content is posted on the video-sharing platform every minute.

That means we get 720,000 hours of new content every single day.

But with so much competition, getting your video up there and making it reach the target market is no less than a Herculean task.

So, apps and browser extensions that help with keyword research, YouTube SEO, and other aspects of channel management become necessary.

But which of these third-party apps is the best for growing your YouTube channel?

Well, let's find out in this comparison guide between two of the most popular YouTube tools: VidIQ vs. TubeBuddy.

VidIQ Vs TubeBuddy Overview

• They both offer free versions
• Both allow you to view best video tags 
• Both have free browser extensions to use

Is YouTube Studio Not Enough?

Now, before we get started, you must be wondering, What's wrong with YouTube Studio?

Why pay for yet another video tool when YouTube already has one?

While YouTube Studio (formerly Creator Studio) is quite effective in managing your channel, monitoring and monetizing your video content, and engaging the audience, it is not equipped with any video SEO features. 

For instance, a feature like "Competitor upload alerts" is beneficial for checking others' content and analyzing trending videos.

But with YouTube Studio, you cannot do that.

Neither can you conduct keyword research nor expect any type of optimization. Add to that the difficult eligibility criteria for monetization and regular algorithm updates.

As such, the good old Creator Studio is not sufficient, and YouTube creators have been demanding alternatives on online forums.

Now let's see an overview of VidIQ Vs TubeBuddy below.

What Is VidIQ?

VidIQ was designed with a focus on keyword and video topic research. However, it offers a host of YouTube SEO features, including video title optimization, video tags, and more.

YouTube SEO

VidIQ

4.0

ViqIQ is a youtube SEO tool that gives you access to advanced analytics. This way, we can see how many views our videos have gotten and what kind of audience they attract. With these insights, it'll be more accessible than ever for us to create high-quality content!

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Key Features

1. YouTube Keyword Research

VidIQ is hands down the best keyword research tool for YouTube.

Its functions are similar to that of SEMrush or Ahrefs, as you just have to type in a term and get key data within seconds.

You even get a list of keyword variations, the SEO score and search volume of each keyword, competition score on YouTube, etc.

2. Best Time To Post

Currently, this feature is not available in any other YouTube tool despite how important it can be in boosting your engagement.

As the name suggests, it shows the time when most of your subscribers are active so that you can upload a YouTube video on the "best time to post" and gain more engagement.

3. VidIQ Analytics

On the VidIQ dashboard, you can view all the YouTube analytics at a glance. You can see the number of views, likes, comments, and subscribers on your account and check where the most views come from.

Although it isn't as easy to navigate as the new YouTube Studio, we still feel that the in-depth analytics help a lot more in understanding your audience and uploading content accordingly.

4. Embed URLs

With this feature, you can view the sites that have embedded your YouTube videos. Consequently, you can find where you are generating more views and focus on promoting your videos on those platforms.

5. Subscriber Analysis

This is another one of the many great features offered by VidIQ only. Through this tool, you can get a gist of what your subscribers watch when they're not watching your videos.

Of course, this works for only those subscribers who already use the VidIQ Chrome Extension.

While it may not always be useful, you'll be able to know what your audience is interested in and make newer content accordingly.

6. Top Playlists

Creating playlists is essential for YouTube creators as it ensures more engagement on a bunch of videos altogether.

So, finding out how one's playlist performs becomes important, too, but not many tools have such a feature.

That's when VidIQ earns an edge over others with its "Top Playlists" feature, wherein you can check the number of views and engagement rate of each playlist.

This way, you'll be able to understand what attracts your viewers and the ideal number of videos for maximum retention.

7. Trending Videos

This feature is included in the VidIQ Google Chrome Extension. Basically, you search for a keyword and find the trending videos on the sidebar.

While you can find the most-watched video with a simple search on YouTube, you'll never know whether the video got the views recently or a decade ago.

But with this "Trending Videos" feature, you'll know what's relevant now and make videos accordingly.

8. VidIQ Boost

This one is a paid feature that allows you to "boost" a predetermined number of videos each month. The Chrome Extension helps you optimize various aspects of the video like titles, thumbnails, video descriptions, and more.

However, like every other SEO tool out there, you must use your better judgment while selecting suitable keywords for video titles and descriptions.

Although most of the keyword suggestions made by VidIQ are great, sometimes the AI makes no sense, so you must watch out!

9. Competitors

This feature allows you to compare your account to that of a competitor or multiple competitors. As a result, you can get an idea of how your channel fares in terms of engagement.

This is perfect for viewing other content creators and seeing what works for their channel.

Pricing

1. Basic Plan at $0/month

• Basic email support

• Three daily ideas

• Basic video analysis

2. Pro Plan at $7.50/month

• Email and chat support

• Ten daily ideas

• Bulk YouTube video descriptions

3. Boost Plan at $39/month

• Inline tag recommendations

• 50 daily ideas

• SEO title and description recommendations

4. Boost+ Plan at $415/month

• Priority email and chat support

• Monthly coaching call

• Personalized tips and tricks

• Analytics deep dive

Pros

• Smooth and easy-to-navigate interface
• Certified by YouTube
• Beneficial for understanding competitor analysis
• Multiple features for YouTube optimization
• Includes a free plan for beginners

Cons

• Very limited features in free versions
• Expensive plans

What Is TubeBuddy?

TubeBuddy is yet another YouTube SEO Chrome extension used by many as it is easy and safe to use.

It integrates seamlessly with your YouTube account, allowing you to use its premium features right from the get-go!

Key Features

1. Videolytics

The Videolytics panel is located on the right side of your YouTube browser, showing a gist of the video performance. You can also see the tags used by the creator, some important social media statistics, and more.

This feature is helpful in comparing your videos/channel to competing videos/channels and keeping yourself motivated to create better YouTube content!

2. Keyword Explorer

This SEO tool is imperative when you're getting started and want to plan your videos.

All you have to do is add any keyword on the Keyword Explorer, and you'll find its SEO score, search volume, and competition. 

Consequently, you'll be able to generate suitable keywords for your channel and rank higher on YouTube. It's another arsenal I keep within my affiliate marketing tools.

3. Suggested Tags

This feature recommends tags for you to use in the description. Moreover, depending on the tags you choose, the software will suggest better, more suitable tags.

4. Translator

Want your videos to reach audiences from different countries? Then this feature is your best bet!

With the Auto Translator, the titles and descriptions of your videos can be automatically translated for the viewers.

As such, your videos will appear as related videos under ones that are popular among audiences that probably don't even speak your language.

However, you must sign up for the Legend plan to use this feature. Thereafter, you can click on "Translate" in the tag tools, and you'll see the top languages suggested by TubeBuddy.

Now, choose the language you want and generate auto-translated tags for your video. Simple!

5. End Screen Templates

We were particularly impressed by this convenient feature offered by TubeBuddy.

Basically, you can choose a video to use as an end screen template and use it for your future videos. So, you don't have to create a new end screen for each and every video.

6. Thumbnail Generator

This awesome thumbnail tool helps you select stills from the video to use as a thumbnail.

Alternatively, you can upload pictures from your computer or use a solid color background.

And here's the fun part, you can overlay the selected image with other images, texts, shapes, logos, and emojis!

7. VID2VID Promotion

This is one of the promotion tools offered by TubeBuddy, which we think is quite useful in increasing your overall engagement.

With this feature, you can promote your YouTube videos on all of your video descriptions. As a result, you'll earn more views on the promoted videos.

8. Scheduling Of Publications

Sometimes you may not have the time to upload a video at the "best time to post," but you can't postpone or prepone the upload as it may ruin your engagement.

That's when you can schedule the publishing date and time for video upload while the rest of the uploading and processing steps have already taken place.

9. Video Tests

Ever wondered if you could test the performance of your video before uploading it? Well, TubeBuddy lets you do just that with its A/B testing feature.

While you cannot test the main video content, you can check how the title, description, thumbnail, etc., will perform after publishing the video.

Pricing

1. Free Plan at $0/month

• Advanced video embed

• Emoji picker

• Comment formatting

2. Pro Plan at $2/month

• Default upload profiles

• End screen templates

• SEO studio

3. Star Plan at $7.60/month

• Demonetization double check

• Bulk update end screens

• Scheduled publish and video update

4. Legend Plan at $19.60/month

• Auto translator

• Video A/B tests

• Retention analyzer

Pros

• User-friendly software solution
• YouTube certified with a strong affiliate program
• Affordable plans with perks like 4K graphics and soundtracks
• Video SEO, time-saving and promotion tools
• Excellent customer support

Cons

• It May be difficult to understand for beginners
• Accepts PayPal only for affiliate payout

VidIQ vs. TubeBuddy- Comparative Study

1. Ease Of Use

Both TubeBuddy and VidIQ are fairly easy-to-use SaaS products.

Once the installation is complete, you'll just have to review some of the features and work your way through mastering them.

Moreover, you get a host of informative blogs, tutorial videos, and more to help you learn the A-B-C of YouTube SEO.

However, we do feel that TubeBuddy has a slightly more confusing visual representation that may overwhelm first-time users, especially those with no SEO knowledge.

2. Keyword Research Tools

The keyword research tools are essential to get started on YouTube and establish your channel.

VidIQ features a Scorecard that displays the number of views, keywords in titles and descriptions, and the top creator. Additionally, you can view the "interest over time," related and top queries, and trending videos on the sidebar.

We also liked the Trend Alerts and Keyword Inspector, which help you recognize trending content and check the related keywords of those videos.

On the flipside, TubeBuddy offers a Search Explorer that offers deeper insight into any search query. The "Keyword Score" and "Keyword Stats" also specify the overall score and high-performing keywords in the metadata, respectively.

Not to forget the "Videolytics" panel that shows the video ranks of each tag. And like VidIQ, this software also boasts a "Keyword Explorer" but only in the web app.

So, in this aspect, both the tools score the same in our books!

3. Browser Extensions

The browser extension of VidIQ is the Scorecard panel that gives you a peep at your performance against the competitors.

The panel is divided into different sections, so "Overview" and "Channel" showcase the number of views, subscribers, and watch time data.

Additionally, the real-time stats bar shows the performance of various time stamps. Finally, the SEO score shows the probability of your video ending up in the search results.

You'll also find a Channel Audit tool with which you can check the monthly progress.

On the other hand, TubeBuddy offers the Channelytics tool to view advanced channel analytics. You can see the stats, views, and uploads of any channel in real-time!

Moreover, Videolytics shows likes, comments, views, SEO, social media metrics, and more.

4. Thumbnail Generator

Both VidIQ and TubeBuddy allow YouTube content creators to generate thumbnails from the video or upload images and backgrounds.

You can also customize the thumbnails with frames, texts, emojis, etc. Plus, both these tools allow you to make templates for future thumbnails.

5. Browser Support

VidIQ supports two of the most widely used browsers- Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. However, TubeBuddy clearly outweighs VidIQ in this aspect as it supports the aforementioned browsers as well as Microsoft Edge and Opera.

6. Affiliate Program

Both of these outstanding YouTube management tools boast high-paying affiliate programs. While VidIQ pays 25% to affiliates using its sales, TubeBuddy pays 30% on the basis of app downloads. Moreover, the latter supports affiliates with workshops, training videos, and monthly newsletters.

Both the tools use their affiliate marketing software and pay via PayPal.

7. Web Applications

The web app for VidIQ features video analytics like views, comments, engagement, traffic sources, and more. It further allows you to check your embedded URLs, video trends, search queries, the best time to post, and viewer countries.

On the contrary, the web app for TubeBuddy is divided into four data sections. First is Health Report, which highlights stats regarding views, comments, subs, engagement, traffic sources, etc.

Next is Channel valuation, which integrates with SocialBluebook.com and displays your suggested price for branded content.

The Retention Analyzer identifies trends in audience viewership and boosts your overall retention. Lastly, Usage Stats checks the actions of your channel.

8. Competitor Research Tools

Both the tools show similar competitor insights that can help boost your performance further. However, you will see different channel statistics on different platforms.

As such, the web apps show channel-to-channel comparison, and you can check the total and weekly engagement simply by adding the channel URL or ID.

Alternatively, the Chrome extensions offer video and channel analytics with graphs for better understanding.

However, TubeBuddy notifies you every time a competitor uploads a video. On the other hand, VidIQ shows the competitors' trending videos during a certain period.

9. Demonetization Prevention

Demonetization is every YouTube creator's nightmare!

Your channel could get demonetized for using copyrighted content, spreading hate speech, showcasing things that aren't supposed to be shown, cyberbullying, and more. As such, even using controversial terms can land you into trouble.

That's why VidIQ identifies controversial keywords in your titles, descriptions, etc. TubeBuddy does the same along with reviewing already demonetized videos with the Demonetization Double Check tool.

10. App Integrations

In this aspect, VidIQ falls way behind by allowing Facebook integration only. In hindsight, TubeBuddy integrates with multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Patreon, Amazon Alexa, MagicLinks, and Social Bluebook.

11. Tag Management

On uploading a new video, VidIQ recommends a list of rank tags for the video. You can even check the tags used in previous videos and copy the same.

We also liked the keyword template option as it is convenient and time-saving. Not to forget the channel-wide tags and bulk SEO generated for all of your videos at once.

TubeBuddy also suggests high-ranking tags, and you can check the tags used for previous videos on Videolytics. We recommend copying frequently used tags and creating a list for quick access while uploading future videos.

The tag sorter is another interesting feature on TubeBuddy that allows you to reorder, drag-and-drop, and auto-rank keywords.

12. Member Perks

VidIQ members can get discounts on various apps while acquiring music, videos, and graphics. Of course, the amount of discount varies for each plan.

Similarly, TubeBuddy members can avail themselves of deals and discounts on popular video editing apps like Filmora.

13. Bulk Updates

While it may not be necessary for the beginning stage, bulk edits gain importance after you've created a bunch of YouTube videos.

As such, you can use VidIQ to bulk edit and copy end screens and cards. On the other hand, TubeBuddy facilitates bulk updating, deleting, and copying playlists, end screens, and cards. Also, you can make bulk edits on metadata, which is quite a functional and impressive add-on!

14. Customer Support

VidIQ offers a help center and a virtual chatbot for one-on-one support. On the contrary, TubeBuddy provides customer support in the form of a virtual assistant, support/helpdesk tickets, and a knowledge base.

15. Social Media Marketing

Both the software solutions allow video sharing on Facebook, with TubeBuddy allowing it on Twitter as well. Further, both track engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit.

16. Mobile App

The mobile app for VidIQ consists of all the SEO-related features that can help you with tags and keywords. Plus, the app is free to download.

TubeBuddy also has a free mobile app but with limited features. To make the most of this app, you either have to opt for a paid plan on the browser extension or pay $2.99 every month to access the Mobile Unlimited plan.

17. Comment Management

VidIQ only allows you to create pre-written, frequently used phrases like, "Thank you for the comment," "Stay tuned for the next video," etc.

TubeBuddy allows that, along with a bunch of other features like comment filtering and identifying comments from Patreon supporters. It takes the concept of comment management a notch higher by allowing creators to reply to comments from the YouTube notification window itself.

We were further fascinated with the comment word cloud that gives an easy-to-view, pictorial representation of the majority of comments on your YouTube video.

18. Value For Money

As mentioned above, VidIQ offers four plans with discounts for multiple YouTube channels and for those who opt for the annual billing scheme.

TubeBuddy offers more variety with five plans, including the Enterprise (custom) plan. It provides discounts similar to that of VidIQ, along with one for non-profit entities. Hence, TubeBuddy is more affordable and brings more flexibility with the custom plan.

But before we announce the winner of today's battle of the best YouTube marketing tools, here's a breakdown of which software is suitable for whom...

Who Should Use VidIQ For YouTube Videos?

VidIQ is a great video marketing tool for creating trending videos, researching keywords with high search volume, and analyzing competitors' views per hour (VPH). So, it is ideal for any YouTube creator who wants to make it big on the platform, and honestly, who doesn't?

Who Should Use TubeBuddy For Their YouTube Channel?

Although TubeBuddy scores high in most of the factors considered in the comparative study, we still believe it is suitable for creators with specific requirements.

As such, if you are moderating large YouTube accounts and need to interlink multiple videos, go for TubeBuddy. It is also helpful in bulk processing and A/B testing, which is, again, a requirement for larger accounts.

Alternatives To TubeBuddy And VidIQ

1. Keyword Tool (keywordtool.io)

As the name suggests, this tool helps find keywords/topics that your viewers would be interested in based on their YouTube search requests. Entering various keywords on the search bar will display suggestions in the form of hashtags, questions, and more.

2. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

This keyword optimization tool boasts the largest database of YouTube keywords, so you really cannot go wrong with it! On searching for a keyword, you can check its clickstream data, click percentage, and search volume locally and globally.

You can also take advantage of the keyword idea reports to come up with fresh and promising content.

3. TagsYouTube

Last but not least, here, you can add a keyword and get a bunch of related tags for your videos. Plus, this tool offers advanced title and description settings and a thumbnail generator.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can you use TubeBuddy and VidIQ together?

You definitely can, but for beginners, the dashboard might become too cluttered and confusing. Hence, it is best to choose one according to your goals and requirements.

Or, if choosing one out of the two best video marketing tools gives you FOMO, pay for one and try the free version of the other!

2. Who should not use TubeBuddy and VidIQ?

If you are expecting these tools to boost your channel overnight, let us warn you now- that's not going to happen.

There's only so much an SEO tool can do to push your video. At the end of the day, the viewers are going to judge your channel based on your content and how much value it brings to the table.

So, start by creating good quality content and then use these tools to boost them and eventually win the race of search traffic!

Verdict- VidIQ vs. TubeBuddy

With many exciting features and free tools, TubeBuddy seems to have the upper hand in today's comparison.

After all, it supports more browsers and offers more variety in customer support. Plus, the plans are more affordable and customizable.

Yet, VidIQ gets brownie points for its advanced analytics and easy-to-use interface.

Also, its mobile app is much better than TubeBuddy, and new creators can learn a lot from the regularly-updated blog section.

However, the final decision comes down to your aim behind creating a YouTube channel and its requirements, and your budget for such tools. Regardless, both TubeBuddy and VidIQ offer many features that can help you get those 4,000 watch hours on YouTube.

And later, who knows? You might even bag the silver button!