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 8.6 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
Features
SpyFu
SurferSEO
SEO
Comparison of SEO features of Product A and Product B
SpyFu
6.6
52 Ratings
15% below category average
SurferSEO
8.1
3 Ratings
5% above category average
Keyword analysis
7.052 Ratings
9.03 Ratings
Backlink management
6.040 Ratings
4.01 Ratings
SERP ranking tracking
6.044 Ratings
9.02 Ratings
Page grader
7.829 Ratings
9.03 Ratings
Competitive analysis
7.051 Ratings
9.03 Ratings
Site audit / diagnostics
7.232 Ratings
9.02 Ratings
Site recommendations
6.031 Ratings
9.01 Ratings
Task management
6.120 Ratings
6.92 Ratings
SEO Channels
Comparison of SEO Channels features of Product A and Product B
SpyFu
5.8
39 Ratings
26% below category average
SurferSEO
7.0
1 Ratings
8% below category average
Local SEO
5.033 Ratings
6.01 Ratings
Social SEO
5.028 Ratings
00 Ratings
Mobile SEO
8.029 Ratings
7.01 Ratings
Global SEO
5.035 Ratings
8.01 Ratings
SEO Platform & Account Management
Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Product A and Product B
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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