Surfer SEO Vs. Frase

updated on
February 6, 2023
Terry Williams
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Frase.io review
VS.

Overview

Surfer and Frase are SEO tools designed to help you create content of the highest caliber. Why? So it can rank well on search engine results pages (SERPs). But if both are meant to improve your rankings, how do you know which option to pick? 

As SEO continues to grow, it’s become as important as ever to optimize content that the Google Search algorithms will like. Doing so will determine the success of your website and business. With that in mind, choosing between Surfer SEO and Frase is a bit of a challenge. 

I’ve used both content optimization tools. What I’ve noticed is that they have their own set of perks and drawbacks. Yes, both tools are similar, but I would say Surfer SEO is better suited for optimizing existing content that you’ve already written. Frase focuses on creating content based on briefs and optimizing the content based on the top SERP pages.

Here’s my detailed comparison between Surfer and Frase and which alternative is better for your SEO campaign:

The Winner

Surfer logo

Surfer SEO

Price
Features
Accuracy
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Surfer SEO Overview

Surfer SEO is a content optimization tool that helps you create engaging content that will rank on the first page of Google. It’s a cloud-based tool that benefits on-page optimization, with a SERP analyzer that you can use to compare your URL with your competitors. This way, you’re able to determine what your content is missing. 

All writers and marketers can use Surfer with their websites and ensure they’re making relevant content based on the proper target keywords. You can also use it to find new keywords that can help update existing content. 

Surfer just recently introduced an AI writing assistant called “Surfy.” It isn’t as good as some other AI writers, such as Jasper AI, but it shows promise. It’s currently still rolling out major updates, so it has the potential to provide more substance down the line. 

Some of the best Surfer SEO features include the following:

  • Keyword Research: Find specific keywords and get deeper insights on LSI keywords, phrases, and topics. These will help you craft powerful content that can relate to your audience. This tool has its limitations, but it’s capable of producing relevant keywords for optimizing content. 
  • Content Editor: One of the better Surfer SEO features, the content editor tool analyzes existing SERPs for a keyword and gives detailed information on the ideal word length, page structure, and terms to use. It also uses Google’s natural language API.
  • Content Planner: This SEO tool relies on natural language processing to group keywords for a specific niche and determines what topics they’re suited for. In addition, it can also identify users’ search intent. 
  • SERP Analyzer: As mentioned, Surfer has a SERP analyzer that can produce keywords and information about which top pages have produced effective content. How? Through competitor analysis. Running an analysis can also detail which keywords your competitors use and how many backlinks they have.
  • Audit: You can audit existing pages and see if there are any issues with page content, site speed, backlinks, and more.
read full review

Pros and cons

Surfer Pros

  • The content editor gives clear suggestions
  • The interface is easy to sue
  • The audit feature works fast
  • Real-time insight from SERPs
  • Free Google Chrome extension
  • Surfer is constantly updating its software

Surfer Cons

  • The content editor often needs adjusting
  • Only 30 Content editor credits a month for the basic plan
  • Can be costly for beginners

Frase Overview

Frase.io review
Frase Overview
Price
Features
Accuracy
read the frase io review

Much like Surfer SEO, Frase is an optimization tool that allows you to perform keyword research and analyze SERPs to provide information on word lengths, topics, and the number of headings. But Frase does offer a little more as it can create detailed content briefs. 

Overall, this tool offers the ability to view what your competitors are doing to get into the top SERPs. 

Here are some of Frase’s standout features:

  • Content Brief/Outline Builder: The brief and outline feature offers a lot of versatility as it can provide useful information, such as insights from People Also Ask SERP and sites like Quora and Reddit. 
  • Question Tool: Frase’s question tool is a great resource for finding material and has a content-planning component that helps reveal subjects. You can also use the keyword box to get a list of questions and sources. 
  • Content Editor: Similar to Surfer’s content editor, this SEO tool analyzes SERPs and supplies a wealth of keyword information. It may not be as good as Surfer’s, but it gets the job done. 
  • AI Writer: The AI Writer is really quite impressive. Again, it’s not as superb as Jasper AI, but it can lend a helping hand whenever you have writer’s block and need some ideas.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • The brief and outline generator works well
  • Provides comprehensive insight on SERPs
  • The AI writer is impressive
  • The help and support are very responsive

Cons

  • You only get 30 briefs on the basic plan
  • Add-ons can be pricey
  • Frase can get glitchy

Surfer SEO Vs. Frase: Features

Okay, now that I’ve gone over the basic overview, let’s dive into comparing the key features between Surfer SEO and Frase in better detail:

Content Creation

Surfer SEO uses a powerful AI content creation tool that produces SEO-optimized content based on a certain keyword. It can do it within seconds, which is one of the most notable aspects of Surfer. All you have to do to achieve this is enter a keyword and provide a few instructions to the Surfer SEO tool, such as what type of tone you’d like your content to have. You can create as many copies of a keyword as you want without the worry of plagiarism looming over you. 

The content creation feature in Frase can also yield incredible results. It creates SEO-optimized copies with one single click. Yes, it’s that easy. If you’re experiencing writer’s block, you can use this feature to help snap you out of it. All you need to do is enter the context of the content you want Frase’s AI writer to create. Then, you choose the length of the content and the creativity level. Once you’ve chosen the settings for the content, you just have to click the “Write For Me” button, and you’re set!

Final thoughts: As I mentioned earlier, Jasper AI is still the best AI writer around, but Frase’s AI is almost as good. The fact that you can instruct it and control the tone of your content gives it an extra edge.

Content Planner

When it comes to the content planner on Surfer SEO, you can expect it to generate complete strategies related to many relevant topics within a matter of minutes. If you want to find relevant keywords for topics, Surfer can do just that and generate numerous ideas faster than you may expect. 

With Frase, you can create content briefs within a few minutes. The SEO-optimized content briefs are based on your search query. The best part? It has the potential to write complete briefs in seconds. It’s that fast. Just enter a specific keyword, and it will create a complete content outline for your content needs. Furthermore, Frase offers custom-made brief templates that are more convenient for you when making content briefs on your own. 

Final thoughts: It truly is a matter of Surfer SEO vs. Frase when discussing the content planner feature. Both SEO tools have distinct perks. Surfer allows you to find relevant keywords and topic ideas, while Frase lets you create content outlines that can help you write a blog post, page content, and more. What it comes down to is which tool will suit your content needs.

Content Optimization

Ranking on Google’s first page means you’ll need to optimize your content. Surfer SEO can help you there. It can analyze your content based on hundreds of ranking factors and offer suggestions to help you improve. The SERP analyzer breaks down your work into a content score, backlink score, image optimization, and more. Your score will determine how likely it is that the specific page of your website will show up on page one of Google. 

Frase provides a topic score for your page content against various search engines. The score can reflect how well your content is written for said search engines. Additionally, Frase gives you a competitor score based on your keyword and content topic. What’s even better is if you write content with Frase, you can get keyword suggestions and optimize your content on the go. 

Final thoughts: Surfer SEO and Frase are both fantastic tools for SEO-optimized content. However, I will say that Surfer offers more in-depth analytics and reports about your content after comparing it to other competitors. The topic model on Frase is great for identifying the main keywords you should have in your content, but Surfer gets you more out of the optimization feature.

Content Editor

Surfer SEO and Frase both have strong content editors, but Surfer’s content editor is truly the selling point of this SEO tool. There’s nothing quite like it, which makes it one of a kind. 

Both tools give you a score out of 100. With Surfer, anything over 60 is considered a solid score. There are so many good things to say about Surfer’s content editor. It’s laid out exceptionally well, and you can hook it up to Google Docs, which makes it much easier to write your content and keep up with the keywords. 

When you’ve entered a main keyword in the Surfer SEO editor, it turns green and notifies you how many times you should use the keyword. Your score will also increase the more NLP terms you use from the keywords list. The only drawback I’d bring up is that Surfer can often display irrelevant keyword suggestions. 

Frase is a very similar optimization tool when it comes to editing content. The most glaring issue here is that it provides a much lower keyword density and suggested terms compared to Surfer SEO. A lower density can make it easier to include them all in your content, but it doesn’t give you as much leverage to rank higher as Surfer. 

Final thoughts: I would be lying if I said that Surfer’s content editor wasn’t the clear winner in this category. It works much better than the content optimization tool that Frase offers.

Support

Customer support is always a welcome inclusion to any type of SEO software. On Surfer, you can see an intercom chat button on every single page. It’s simple if you need to message Surfer’s support team, and it signifies whether support is online or away. 

Most customer support teams will keep you waiting for what feels like hours, but not Surfer SEO. You can expect an average response time of 2-3 minutes if they’re online. If you have any SEO questions, they can find you an answer. 

Frase has an AI-powered chatbot known as the “Frase Answer Engine.” You can ask any questions or search for related terms, and it will show you results and/or redirect you to a live chat if it comes up empty. 

Final thoughts: Both Surfer SEO and Frase offer strong customer support options, but I have to give it to Surfer. The quick response times and easy access to fast answers can’t be ignored.

Pricing

Surfer SEO Pricing Plans

Surfer SEO offers three pricing options, including:
$59/month

Basic Plan

With a monthly $59 and an annual pricing of $49, the plan provides 10 content editors and 20 audits a month. You also receive free NLP for the first month.
$119/month

Pro Plan

The Pro plan is much higher at $119 a month with annual pricing of $99 a month. You get 30 content editors, 60 audits a month, unlimited NLP, and the option to invite three team members to use the service.
$239/month

Business Plan

You can expect a monthly pricing of $239 and an annual price of $199. The plan offers 70 content editors and 140 audits each month. You also get unlimited NLP, a white labeling feature, API integration, and the option to invite up to ten team members.
Each plan comes with the content planner and SERP analyzer tools. You can also find some free tools, such as a free Chrome extension, content editor, and AI outline generator.

Frase Pricing Plans

Similarly, Frase also has three pricing options, including:
$19.99/month

Solo Plan

The most affordable plan would be the Solo plan. You can get it at a monthly price of $19.99 or an annual price of $16.99. This plan offers 7 document credits and one user seat. You also get an SEO add-on with all plans at $35 a month.
$44.99/month

Basic Plan

The Basic plan comes at $44.99 a month or an annual pricing of $39.99. You get 30 document credits, one user seat, and unlimited document sharing.
$239/month

Team Plan

You can get the Team plan at $114.00 a month and annual pricing of $99.99. The team plan offers you unlimited document credits, 3 user seats, and the ability to add seats for $25 a user. You also get the unlimited document-sharing feature.
All Frase plans come with content scoring, project status setting, content editor, team project folders, and automated content briefs.

Final thoughts

The pricing heavily depends on which plan fits your needs. Surfer’s pricing is much higher, but it offers many features. Compare the Surfer SEO and Frase pricing plans, and you’ll see that Surfer is the more affordable choice in the long run.

The Verdict

Now, the question remains: Which content optimization tool do you choose, Surfer or Frase?

I have to recommend Surfer SEO as it offers you more bang for your buck. You can use it to create content in a matter of seconds, perform proper keyword research, and figure out what type of content is perfect for your site. What more could you need? Aside from the SERP analyzer that provides competitor analysis. With these features, you’ll be able to get strong SEO content in no time. 

For more information and reviews about the latest software in the SEO industry, contact me at SerpFocus today!

The Winner

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Surer SEO

Price
Features
Accuracy
try it today

From The Author

Terry Williams

With over 10 years optimizing sites, I've boosted search visibility for brands through customized strategies. Currently, I develop effective SEO solutions for a top agency, immersed in the latest trends and innovations. Read my full bio.

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