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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Substack

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ASubstack is a subscription-based newsletter publishing platform.N/A

    Surfer SEO

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/ASurferSEO, from Polish company Surfer, is presented as a modern tool for SEOs and marketers for efficient and comprehensive on-page SEO optimization.

    $119

    per month

    Pricing
    SubstackSurfer SEO
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Standard
    $119
    per month
    Pro
    $219
    per month
    Peace of Mind
    $359
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SubstackSurfer SEO
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Discount available for annual billing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SubstackSurfer SEO
    Considered Both Products
    Substack Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Surfer
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    83%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    83%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    SubstackSurfer SEO
    SEO
    Comparison of SEO features of Substack and Surfer SEO
    Feature
    Substack
    -
    Ratings
    Surfer SEO
    8.1
    3 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Keyword analysis00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
    Backlink management00 Ratings4.01 Ratings
    SERP ranking tracking00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    Page grader00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
    Competitive analysis00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
    Site audit / diagnostics00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
    Site recommendations00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Task management00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    SEO Channels
    Comparison of SEO Channels features of Substack and Surfer SEO
    Feature
    Substack
    -
    Ratings
    Surfer SEO
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Local SEO00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Mobile SEO00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Global SEO00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    SEO Platform & Account Management
    Comparison of SEO Platform & Account Management features of Substack and Surfer SEO
    Feature
    Substack
    -
    Ratings
    Surfer SEO
    8.0
    2 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Multi-domain support00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Integration with web analytics tools00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SubstackSurfer SEO
    Small Businesses
    Quora Blogs / Spaces (discontinued)
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Serpstat
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Blogger
    Score10 out of 10
    Yoast
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Quora Blogs / Spaces (discontinued)
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Google Trends
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SubstackSurfer SEO
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.7
    (6 ratings)
    9.6
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SubstackSurfer SEO
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Substack Inc.
    I think Substack is better for people who want to set up a personal-facing branded website vs people who just want to post random musings every so often. Monetization is better there than any other collective publishing platform as well as organic reach via email. Substack also allows you to build direct relationships with your readers via emails and own them 100% which is great long-term if you use it to pivot to another site or another form of writing/content creation. Substack would be less helpful for someone wanting to write as a part of a group, not individually, or someone who's unwilling to put their personal brand behind their content. It's less optimized for SEO (which other platforms allow you to do) and can be harder to curate content based on your interests (you really have to go in knowing what you want vs finding it on the fly).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Surfer
    Surfer is well suited for:
    • Creating (and resisting) articles and web pages to increase their SEO relevancy for a keyword.
    • To identify NLP terms and the frequency of terms to be added to the page
    • To find internal linking opportunities
    • To plan pillar pages/topic clusters
    Surfer is not a tool for
    • Technical SEO
    • Crawl Audits
    • Serp / Keyword Tracking
    • Project Management
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Substack Inc.
    • Because it has a very high Domain Authority ranking relevant backlinks in a published article will help make my store more searchable.
    • Substack is very easy to work in. The toolset they provide may not be as extensive as other platforms but it is certainly enough to create a meaningful, interesting post.
    • Substack is very focused on creating a community of writers that support each other. They run an ongoing email campaign that reinforces their focus on building a community of writers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Surfer
    • Analysis for on-page ranking factors
    • Competition analytics
    • NLP Analysis for webpage content
    • Content SEO scoring
    • Content editor with details about what to rank for
    • Plugin that helps with search data on Google
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Substack Inc.
    • editor is on the primitive side - it's wysiwyg, but missing some embed options
    • integrate with google analytics
    • percentage cut that Substack takes can become a burden as your revenue grows. Problems scaling.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Surfer
    • Can improve their algorithm to serve better for technical articles
    Read full review
    Usability
    Substack Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Surfer
    Because, I've been using this tool since many years and I haven't looked for any other tool when it comes to content optimization
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Substack Inc.
    Medium is not so good for running newsletter. I find the mail that a user gets is very easily readable. Also as a creator it's very easy for me to track the analytics and monetise my blogs unlike Medium. Blogger is a very old technology. The kind of integrations and the support for Markdown / different media is very great in Substack.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Surfer
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Substack Inc.
    • I haven’t made any money from it
    • Can be disheartening when you realise you’re putting in maximum effort for minimum audience
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Surfer
    • SuferSEO has helped us rank in the top 10 for results that are over 1M in search volume
    • SurferSEO gives our team the ability to rank quicker than without the tool
    • SurferSEO helps us close prospects by showing them the depth of our analysis and knowledge.
    • SurferSEO makes our agency look and feel like a professional that knows what they are doing
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots