SEO
Surfer vs Frase
Surfer is the more polished on-page optimiser and the one most agencies standardise on. Frase costs less and does a better job of the research stage — pulling questions and outlines together before you write.
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Surfer SEO or Frase — which should you use?
Surfer is the more polished on-page optimiser and the one most agencies standardise on. Frase costs less and does a better job of the research stage — pulling questions and outlines together before you write. Surfer SEO starts at From roughly $99/month (free tier: No free plan.); Frase starts at Entry plans from roughly $45/month (free tier: No free plan; low-cost entry tier.). Prices are list prices and change, so check the vendor pages before buying.
Last updated 3 August 2026
Both tools work the same way underneath: they analyse the pages currently ranking for your keyword, extract common terms and structure, and score your draft against that. Neither knows why Google ranks those pages.
Used well, they stop you missing obvious subtopics. Used badly, they produce keyword-stuffed pages that read like they were written for a scoring widget — which is now easy for both readers and search engines to spot.
Side by side
Surfer SEO and Frase in short.
Surfer SEO
Content editor that scores drafts against ranking pages, plus audits for existing content.
- Free
- No free plan.
- Paid from
- From roughly $99/month
Good at
- Content Editor is the smoothest of the bunch and integrates with Google Docs and WordPress
- Audit tool tells you what to change on pages that already rank
- Widely used, so freelancers already know it
Weak at
- Expensive for a single writer
- The score encourages over-optimisation if you chase 90+
Frase
Research, brief building and content optimisation in one, at a lower price point.
- Free
- No free plan; low-cost entry tier.
- Paid from
- Entry plans from roughly $45/month
Good at
- Best-in-class at the research step: pulls SERP questions, headings and sources into one brief
- Cheaper entry price for solo writers
- Answer Engine and question mining help with FAQ sections
Weak at
- Editor feels less refined than Surfer's
- Optimisation scoring is less trusted by agencies
The differences
Where they actually diverge.
| Feature | Surfer SEO | Frase |
|---|---|---|
| Research and briefs | Good | Better |
| On-page scoring | Better | Good |
| Entry price | ~$99/month | ~$45/month |
| Google Docs integration | Yes | Limited |
| Site audit of existing pages | Yes | Limited |
Pick one
Which one fits you.
Choose Surfer SEO if
- You publish several pieces a week with a team
- You want to improve existing pages, not just write new ones
- Your freelancers already work in Surfer
Choose Frase if
- You're one person and $99 a month is too much
- The hard part for you is research and outlining
- You write FAQ-heavy pages
When neither is the answer
Read the top five results yourself, note what they all cover and what none of them do, then write. That's the whole method these tools automate, and doing it by hand for the first ten articles teaches you more.
Questions
Common questions.
Does hitting a high content score improve rankings?
There's no direct relationship. The score measures similarity to pages that already rank, which is a useful completeness check and nothing more. Original information and links move rankings; term coverage just stops you leaving gaps.
Are these AI writers?
Both include AI drafting, but their value is the analysis. Publishing unedited AI drafts is a fast route to thin content and Google's spam policies on scaled content abuse.
Prices are list prices published by each vendor and change often — check the linked pricing pages before you buy. We take no affiliate commission and nobody pays to appear here.
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