Google Keyword Planner vs Mangools (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Google Keyword Planner grades higher than Mangools: 2.8 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Google Keyword Planner grades higher on value for money, the free plan and platforms. They get the same grade on features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Google Keyword Planner
Free keyword ideas, search volumes and bid estimates inside Google Ads
Mangools
Bundle of five SEO tools led by the KWFinder keyword research app
Which one is for you
Pick Google Keyword Planner if
- Fits if you're planning Google search ads and need a budget
- Works for getting volumes for a list of keywords without paying, if you have an Ads account
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want SEO difficulty or a rival's rankings, as it shows neither
- Not for you if you'd rather not enter billing details just to research keywords
- Tight if your niche is tiny or in health or finance, as those keywords may return nothing
- Watch out: volumes are rounded 12-month averages, and each keyword is capped at 80 characters and 10 words
- Watch out: the Ads account must be in Expert Mode, and the screens are made for ad campaigns
Pick Mangools if
- Fits if you're a blogger who mostly needs keyword ideas and difficulty scores
- Works for local keyword research down to city level
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need daily rankings, as they update weekly below the Agency plan at $97.70
- Not for you if you want technical site audits, which none of the five tools does
- Tight if you research in bursts, since lookups are capped per 24 hours, 100 on Basic
- Pricey if you pay monthly, at $61 for Basic against $37.70 billed yearly, with refunds only within 48 hours
- Too light for teams on Basic, which has no extra seats; sub-users on higher plans share one set of limits
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAGoogle Keyword PlannerGood | 2.0GPAMangoolsFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree, from Google itself, with keyword ideas, monthly volumes, bid ranges and forecasts, and an API for developers. Nothing in it costs money; the catch is the Ads account it needs. | CBasic is $37.70 a month on yearly billing ($61 monthly), exactly this category's middle. That buys 100 keyword lookups a day, 200 tracked keywords and 500 AI prompts. Paying monthly costs a lot more, and refunds only run for 48 hours. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree with no cap, but you need a Google Ads account with billing details entered and setup finished before ideas show, and Smart Mode accounts have to switch to Expert Mode. | CA free plan with no card: 5 keyword lookups every 24 hours, each showing 15 related keywords. Enough to see how it works, not enough to do research. There's no trial of the paid plans. |
| Features | CIdeas from words or a site, volumes for your own list, top-of-page bid ranges and budget forecasts. It's built for ads, though: no organic difficulty, no competitor rankings, and low-volume or sensitive keywords may show nothing. | CKeyword research down to city level, SERP checks, rank tracking, backlinks from Majestic's index, domain metrics and AI answer tracking on every plan. The gaps: rankings update weekly except on Agency, and none of the five tools audits your site. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. The tool itself is simple, but getting to it means a Google Ads account, billing details and Expert Mode, and the screens are made for ad campaigns. | CNo rating on record. The tools are pitched at bloggers, but daily lookup caps and setting up rank tracking take some getting used to. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, inside Google Ads, with keyword ideas, historical volumes and forecasts also available through the Google Ads API. No desktop or phone version on record. | CWeb plus a browser extension, with Looker Studio the one integration on the listing. No desktop or phone app. |
| Best for | free search volumes and ad cost estimates | keyword research for bloggers |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Google Keyword Planner and Mangools. How we grade
Where they differ
- Mangools also covers rank tracking and backlink analysis.
At a glance
| Google Keyword Planner | Mangools | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $37.70 per month, billed annually ($61 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Free with a Google Ads account. Billing details must be entered and account setup finished before keyword ideas can be used. | Free plan, no card needed: 5 KWFinder lookups per 24 hours, each showing 15 related and 5 competitor keywords, plus the free mini tools. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Mangools (CodeCat s.r.o.) | |
| Price read from | business.google.com | mangools.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Google Keyword Planner
- Needs a Google Ads account with billing details entered and setup complete, and accounts in Smart Mode must switch to Expert Mode.
- Built for ad planning: it shows bid estimates and ad forecasts, not organic difficulty scores or competitor rankings.
- Keywords with very low volume or in sensitive areas such as health or finance may return no results.
- Each keyword is limited to 80 characters and 10 words.
Mangools
- Rank tracking updates weekly except on the Agency plan, which updates daily.
- Basic has no extra seats; sub-users on Premium and Agency share the parent account's limits.
- Lookups reset every 24 hours, so heavy research days can hit the cap.
- Refunds are offered only within 48 hours of a payment.
Key features
Google Keyword Planner
- Keyword ideas from words or a site
- Enter phrases about a product or service, or any website, and get a list of related keyword ideas to filter, group by theme and save to a plan.
- Average monthly searches
- Shows how often a keyword and its close variants are searched, averaged over 12 months by default, by location and network. Volumes are rounded and exact-match only.
- Top-of-page bid ranges
- Low and high bid estimates, roughly the 20th and 80th percentile of what advertisers paid for a top-of-page ad over the last 30 days.
- Forecasts by budget
- A saved plan forecasts clicks, impressions, cost and conversions for a chosen budget and bid strategy, refreshed daily from the last 7 to 10 days of data.
- Volumes for your own list
- Paste or upload a CSV of keywords to get search volumes and forecasts for them, then turn the plan into a Search campaign.
- Google Ads API access
- Developers can request keyword ideas, historical metrics and forecasts through KeywordPlanIdeaService in the Google Ads API.
Mangools
- KWFinder
- Find keyword ideas with search volume and a keyword difficulty score, by keyword or by the domain that ranks, for locations down to city level.
- SERPChecker
- Inspect localized search results with SERP features and metrics for every ranking page; each check counts as one SERP lookup.
- SERPWatcher
- Track rankings for 200 to 1,500 keywords; updates are weekly, or daily on the Agency plan. Desktop and mobile count separately.
- LinkMiner and SiteProfiler
- Browse a site's backlinks, drawn from Majestic's index, and get an overview of any domain's SEO metrics.
- AI Search Watcher PRO
- Included in every plan: monitor up to 500 prompts across several AI models, with unlimited monitors and multiple checks per prompt.
Plans
Google Keyword Planner
Free$0
Keyword ideas, monthly search volumes, top-of-page bid ranges and forecasts, for anyone with a Google Ads account.
Mangools
Free$0
5 keyword lookups per 24 hours with 15 related and 5 competitor keywords per lookup.
Mangools Basic$37.70
per month, billed annually ($61 billed monthly)
1 user, 100 keyword and 100 SERP lookups per 24 hours, 200 tracked keywords updated weekly, 100,000 backlinks a month, 500 AI prompts.
Mangools Premium$52.70
per month, billed annually ($81 billed monthly)
3 extra seats, 500 keyword and SERP lookups per 24 hours, 700 tracked keywords updated weekly, 500,000 backlinks a month.
Mangools Agency$97.70
per month, billed annually ($141 billed monthly)
5 extra seats, 1,200 keyword and SERP lookups per 24 hours, 1,500 tracked keywords updated daily, 1.2 million backlinks a month.
Ways to pay less
Google Keyword Planner
No public discounts listed.
Mangools
- Annual discount
Save up to 35% with annual billing
Mangools' FAQ puts the saving from annual plans at up to 35%. Basic is $452.40 a year billed annually against $61 a month billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Google Keyword Planner or Mangools?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Google Keyword Planner is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $37.70 a month for Mangools. Google Keyword Planner is free, and Mangools starts at $37.70 per month, billed annually ($61 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Google Keyword Planner or Mangools?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Google Keyword Planner and Mangools have a free plan.
Which platforms do Google Keyword Planner and Mangools run on?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Mangools lists a browser extension. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.