iSpionage vs. SE Ranking vs. SpyFu

iSpionage is ideal for when you want to get a feel for the competitor landscape for a potential client. You can just pop in, throw in the URL, and see which competitors populate, then look at the average spend. I wish I could look back at like yearly average spend, easier (default on last 1 month). But it's great to get quick glimpses and build some quick talking points around that. I don't think it's all that good for organic keyword analysis. I find the organic interface a bit clunky, with lots of information that I don't feel is all that relevant. Stick with paid search insights.

Incentivized

SE Ranking is a fantastic tool if you are a marketing agency or freelancer looking for a single tool for the majority of your SEO work. It also includes B2B tools like their lead generation widget and white label reports that can help you generate new leads for your business. It would get 10 stars if their database was larger to accommodate research for small geographic areas, but they are always expanding their database so it may just be a matter of time. Research SE Ranking has pricing plans available for every budget.

Incentivized

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

• Keyword alerts notifications.
• Competitors analysis.
• Website monitoring.

Incentivized

• Rank racking. It’s really important for us that the ranks are tracked accurately.
• Monitoring of changes made on the website. We’ve found this feature really useful.
• Reports. This includes auto reports and manuals. We can easily and quickly create reports to check our SEO progress month by month.

• 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

• Keyword database is limited compared to other tools
• Limited (though streamlined) feature set
• Less agency-friendly than other tools.

Incentivized

• I really don't think SE Ranking has many flaws. They are also rolling out an app at the moment - SE Ranking Pro - need to test that one.
• Some more video tutorials on the site on how to use some tools would be helpful.
• More in-system popups would be more helpful too.

Incentivized

• 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

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.

They had a huge update recently and the platform is now even better. Although not all the tools are yet in the new design.

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

The support is great but they don't have 24/7 support. And time zones can also be an issue sometimes. On the other hand there are plenty of guides and videos around to get yourself started. I never really needed support for "big" issues. And the help I got was good enough.

Incentivized

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

iSpionage is nowhere near Semrush (and to a lesser extent SpyFu) in terms of usefulness for competitive intelligence, keyword research, or strategic planning. It has nowhere near the depth of data or level of tools available in other tools.

Incentivized

SE Ranking is better than Serpstat or MOZ or Ahrefs when it comes to tracking keyword rankings, but it lacks in every other SEO category, such as onsite and offsite SEO metrics, content analysis, etc... It's a good choice for agencies that are interested in tracking keywords for their clients, but other than that it underperforms in every other SEO category.

Incentivized

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

• It's hard to quantify, but I believe I've saved quite a bit of time and energy in competitor research due to iSpionage
• iSpionage has helped me get more knowledgeable, quicker, to gain trust with potential clients—again, not really measurable
• I've surely maximized my clients' advantage by recommending proper competitive spend based on what I'm seeing in iSpionage

Incentivized

• The website "health" report has allowed us to fix things that Google might find strange or cause us to lose rankings, which has been very helpful.
• It's given us more visibility into what exactly our SEO management company is doing and how they are performing, and if things are changing or not. It's very easy to see right from the dashboard.
• Being able to see how our competitors stack up against us has helped us know where to improve, what to focus on, and how to be even better.

Incentivized

• 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