Google Search Console vs Keyword Hero (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Google Search Console if

• Fits if you own a site and want to know which Google searches bring visitors
• Works for finding out why pages are missing from Google's index

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you need Bing, Yandex, Baidu or Naver data, as it covers Google Search only
• Not for you if you can't prove you own or manage the site, as nothing shows until you do
• Tight if you pull a lot through the API, which stops at 50,000 rows a day per search type and 25,000 per request
• Watch out: the BigQuery export needs a Google Cloud project with billing, and use beyond the free level is charged
• Too light for big teams on one property, which allows at most 100 non-owner users

Pick Keyword Hero if

• Fits if you want to know which searches end in a sale or sign-up, not only a visit
• Works for reporting brand and non-brand search growth to a boss or a client

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you're hunting for new keywords, since it only reads traffic you already get
• Not for you if you don't run Google Analytics 4 and Search Console
• Pricey if your site is big, as plans rise with sessions and 250,000 a month is $134 on yearly billing
• Watch out: keywords are matched statistically, not read from Google, and land in a separate Analytics property
• Tight if you want search intent or MCP, which start at Giant for $44 a month on yearly billing

Google Search Console

• Covers Google Search only; Bing, Yandex, Baidu and Naver each run their own webmaster tools.
• You must prove you own or manage the site before you see any data, and a property allows at most 100 non-owner users.
• The API exposes at most 50,000 rows a day per search type, at up to 25,000 rows per request.
• The BigQuery export needs a Google Cloud project with billing; storage and queries beyond the free usage level are charged.

Keyword Hero

• It needs Google Analytics 4 and Search Console, and writes its keywords to a separate Analytics property; the keywords are matched statistically, not read from Google.
• The free plan stops at 2,000 organic sessions a month and keeps no history.
• Search intent and MCP access start at Giant, $49 a month; the BigQuery table starts at Ultimate.
• Plans are priced by organic sessions a month; above 250,000 is a custom contract.

Google Search Console

Performance report

Clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, by query, page, country, device, search appearance and date, for web, image, video and news results.

Indexing and URL Inspection

Review which pages Google has indexed, submit sitemaps and single URLs, and inspect a URL for its crawl, index and serving details straight from the Google index.

Issue alerts

Email alerts when Google finds indexing, spam or other problems, with the affected URLs and a way to tell Google once they are fixed.

Experience and enhancement reports

Core Web Vitals on mobile and desktop, plus reports on rich results from structured data such as recipes and jobs, and on AMP pages.

Links report

Shows which other sites link to yours, as part of the same set of reports as search traffic and indexing.

API and BigQuery export

The Search Console API queries search data, lists sites and manages sitemaps; a scheduled daily export sends all performance data, except anonymized queries, to BigQuery.

Keyword Hero

Keywords restored in Analytics

Matches Search Console queries to Google Analytics sessions, so sessions, bounce rate, page views and conversions show by keyword. The FAQ puts the average match at 93%.

AI assistant traffic

Shows how much traffic ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini send to the site, next to classic organic search.

Search intent

Labels keywords as transactional, commercial, navigational or informational, from the Giant plan up.

Performance reports

Compare keyword performance over time, and from Big up use custom segments and brand, device and country reports.

MCP server

From Giant up, AI clients such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and VS Code can query sessions, conversions and revenue by keyword, page, country, device or intent.

BigQuery export

Ultimate and Ultimate Pro deliver the keyword data as a BigQuery table for your own analysis.

Google Search Console

• Free$0

  Performance, indexing, Core Web Vitals and rich result reports, URL Inspection, sitemaps, alerts and the API.

Keyword Hero

• Little$0

  Up to 2,000 organic sessions a month, keyword performance and comparison, and the Google Analytics upload.

• Big$8

  per month for 10,000 sessions, billed annually ($9 billed monthly)

  1 key event, 1 month of history, custom segments, and brand, device and country reports.

• Giant$44

  per month for 50,000 sessions, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)

  3 key events, 6 months of history, keyword search intent and MCP server access.

• Ultimate$134

  per month for 250,000 sessions, billed annually ($149 billed monthly)

  10 key events, 16 months of history and keyword data as a BigQuery table.

• Ultimate ProCustom

  More than 250,000 sessions and 10 key events on a custom contract, with dedicated support.

Google Search Console

No public discounts listed.

Keyword Hero

• Annual discount

  Save 10% with annual billing

  Keyword Hero's pricing page lists annual billing at 10% off: Big is $8 a month billed annually instead of $9, and Giant $44 instead of $49.