Frase vs Surfer SEO
These two are filed under the same heading and answer different questions.
What each would cost your team
For 5 people, both cost the same.
Frase
Prices checked 20 October 2026
- Starter$49
$49 a month × 12
Surfer SEO
Prices checked 20 October 2026
- Discovery$49
$49 a month × 12
Which one fits
The questions that decide between them, from each tool's documented strengths and limits.
Frase if…
- 1You need briefs as much as scores. Frase puts research and drafting in one workflow, so a writer gets direction rather than a grade.
- 2The budget is a solo or small-team budget. Frase's entry plan is a fraction of Surfer's in our data, and it caps articles rather than seats.
- 3You want the results-page research and the draft in the same place, without stitching two subscriptions together for every article.
- 4You publish to WordPress and want the loop closed with Google Search Console, both of which Frase integrates with directly.
- 5You can live with an interface its own reviews call dated, in exchange for the cheapest complete path from keyword to draft.
Surfer SEO if…
- 1You already have a writer you trust, human or otherwise, and what is missing is an objective read on whether the draft can compete.
- 2Content is a team activity with volume behind it, and the cost of one under-optimised article is larger than the subscription.
- 3You are pairing it with a dedicated AI writer. Surfer integrates with Jasper, which is the combination content teams most often assemble.
- 4You write in Google Docs and want the guidance where the writing already happens, rather than in a separate editor nobody opens.
- 5You need audits of pages that already exist, not just guidance for new ones, which is the half of the job Frase does least well.
It depends on what you need
These two are filed under the same heading and answer different questions. Frase is a workflow: research the results page, build a brief, draft against it, publish. Surfer SEO is a measurement: here is what the pages already ranking have in common, and here is how far your draft sits from them. Buyers who expect the second from the first come away disappointed by Frase's writing, and buyers who expect the first from the second are surprised to find that Surfer has no intention of writing anything, since its own description calls it an optimizer rather than a full writer. There is no winner here, because the right answer depends on whether you already have a writer. If you do, whether a person or an AI tool you are happy with, Surfer is the layer that tells you if the draft can compete, and it is built to sit alongside a writer rather than replace one. If you do not, Frase covers the whole chain for a fraction of Surfer's entry price, and covers it adequately rather than brilliantly. Neither is a substitute for knowing what you want to rank for.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Frase | Surfer SEO |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid |
| Lowest listed price | $49 | $49 |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Skills needed | No code | No code |
| Our score | 3.0 | 3.4(better) |
| Published integrations | 2 | 3(better) |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | No |
| Works in several languages | No | Yes(better) |
| Data export | Yes | Yes |
| Team collaboration | Yes | Yes |
| Templates | Yes | Yes |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| Support | Priority(better) |
Plans side by side
Frase
Starter
$49 a month
- 10 articles/mo
- 1 seat
- Billed yearly: $39/mo
Professional
$129 a month
- 40 articles/mo
- 3 seats
- Billed yearly: $103/mo
Scale
$299 a month
- 100 articles/mo
- 5 seats
- Billed yearly: $239/mo
Surfer SEO
Discovery
$49 a month
- Billed yearly
- 120 documents, track 10 pages
- AI SEO guidelines, Surfy assistant
AI Search Analytics
$82 a month
- Billed yearly
- Track 50 prompts daily
- 5 brand spaces
Standard
$99 a month
- Billed yearly
- 360 documents, track 25 prompts weekly
- Team collaboration, WordPress and Google Docs integrations
Pro
$182 a month
- Billed yearly
- 360 documents, 50 prompts daily
- Contentful integration, cannibalization report
Peace of Mind
$299 a month
- Billed yearly
- Unlimited documents (fair use), 100 prompts daily
- API access, Zapier integration, success manager
Questions
Can Surfer SEO write the article for me?
No, and it does not claim to. Surfer describes itself as a content-optimization platform that scores drafts against top-ranking pages, and the drafting is expected to come from a person or from an AI writer you connect to it. That is why its integration list names Jasper. If you want one subscription that both researches and drafts, that is Frase's shape rather than Surfer's, and comparing them on writing quality misses what Surfer is actually for.
Is Frase's AI writing good enough to publish?
As a first draft, generally yes. As a finished article, generally no. Frase's strength is the research and the brief, and its AI credits are a separate cost on top of the plan, which tells you how the product is weighted. Treat the draft as structured raw material that a human still edits. If you are not going to edit, neither of these tools is your problem, because the output will read like everybody else's.
Which one is cheaper?
Frase, substantially, at the entry tier in our data, and that gap is the main reason a solo publisher chooses it. But the plans meter different things: Frase's entry plan limits how many articles you can process, while Surfer's prices the seat. A publisher producing a handful of pieces a month pays far less with Frase; a team producing dozens can find the article cap is the expensive part. Check both against your real monthly volume.
Do I need either of these if I already use an AI writer?
If you have search traffic goals, yes, and this is the clearest case for Surfer. An AI writer optimises for reading like an article; an optimizer tells you whether the article resembles the ones already winning the query. If you have no search goals, both tools are overhead, which Surfer's own guidance says outright. Buy the optimizer for the goal, not for the workflow you happen to enjoy.
Can I use both?
Some teams do, using Frase for the brief and Surfer for the final score, and it is not an unreasonable stack when content is a primary channel. It is an expensive one for anybody else, and the overlap in results-page research means you are paying twice for the same lookup. Start with the one that matches whether you have a writer, and add the second only when a specific gap has demonstrably cost you a ranking.
Do either of them replace a keyword research tool?
Not really, and this is the gap most buyers discover late. Both work from a query you have already chosen: Frase researches the results page for that query and Surfer scores against the pages ranking for it. Neither tells you which queries are worth writing for in the first place, which volumes they carry, or how hard they are to win. Frase gets closest by connecting to Google Search Console, so it can show you what you already rank for, but choosing the target remains a separate job and usually a separate subscription.