KeySearch vs Rakko Keyword (2026): which should you pick?

Pick KeySearch if

• Fits if you run a blog or niche site and want the main SEO jobs for about $20 a month
• Works for hunting long-tail keywords a small site can rank for

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you track lots of keywords, as Starter stops at 80 and Pro at 200
• Skip it if you want keyword data in your other tools, as there's no API on record
• Not for you if you want longer than a week to try it, as there's no free plan
• Watch out: Foresight and team sharing are Pro only, at $40 a month on yearly billing
• Watch out: AI writing runs on monthly credits, 5,000 on Starter, and the listing doesn't say if the trial needs a card

Pick Rakko Keyword if

• Fits if you write for Japanese readers and want suggest data from Rakuten and Amazon
• Works for a budget of a few hundred yen a month, at ¥660 for Entry on yearly billing

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you can't read Japanese, as the site and support are in Japanese
• Not for you if you want to try paid features first, as there's no trial and no refund mid-term
• Tight if you pay monthly, since that costs twice the yearly rate, and plans can't be downgraded without cancelling
• Watch out: lookups through AI tools burn credits 5 times faster on Light, and the API needs Standard
• Tight if you stay free: 50 credits a week and no search volume at all

KeySearch

• There is no free plan after the 7-day trial, only a set of free stand-alone tools.
• Rank tracking is capped at 80 keywords on Starter and 200 on Pro, low next to dedicated rank trackers.
• Foresight and team collaboration are only on the Pro plan.
• Refunds can be requested within 30 days of the first purchase, according to the terms.

Rakko Keyword

• The site, support and keyword data are aimed at Japan; prices are in yen including 10% consumption tax.
• There is no free trial of paid features, and cancelling mid-term brings no refund.
• Monthly billing costs twice the annual rate; plans can only be upgraded, not downgraded, without cancelling.
• Use through AI tools burns credits faster, 5 times on Light and 1.5 times from Standard, and the API itself needs Standard or above.

KeySearch

Keyword research and difficulty

Look up search volume, cost per click and a difficulty score for keywords by language and country, with filters for long-tail ideas.

Live SERP and competitor analysis

See which pages rank for a keyword and what keywords a rival site ranks for, along with a backlink checker and URL metrics.

Foresight recommendations

On the Pro plan, Foresight reads a site's niche, authority and rankings and suggests keywords it could win and pages worth improving.

AI content assistant

Builds outlines and drafts from the pages that already rank and checks topic coverage. AI use is metered in monthly credits.

Rank tracking and site audit

Track positions for 80 or 200 keywords depending on plan, and audit up to 2,000 or 5,000 pages a month for technical problems.

YouTube research

Research keywords for YouTube and look at the videos that perform well in a niche.

Rakko Keyword

Suggest keywords from five engines

Pull search suggestions from Google, YouTube, Amazon, Rakuten and Bing; paid plans add search volume, difficulty and an expanded list of up to 10,000 or more.

Competitor keyword research

See which keywords and pages bring a site its search traffic, with estimated visits and trend charts; 50 to 10,000 results per lookup by plan.

Headings and co-occurring words

Extract the headings and the words used most by the top 20 results for a keyword, to plan an article's structure.

Rank checks

Check where up to 50 URLs rank for a keyword on Google or Yahoo, to position 30 on the free plan and 100 on paid plans, by region and device from Standard.

Bulk search volume

Look up current Google monthly volume, CPC and competition for a list of keywords at 0.02 credits each, with a minimum of 10 per request.

AI article drafts and MCP

Generate titles, headings and article text from the top results, and connect Claude, ChatGPT or n8n through MCP from Light or the API from Standard.

KeySearch

• Starter Plan$20

  per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly)

  200 keyword searches a day, 80 tracked keywords, 2,000 audited pages and 5,000 AI credits a month. No Foresight.

• Pro Plan$40

  per month, billed annually ($48 billed monthly)

  500 keyword searches a day, 200 tracked keywords, 5,000 audited pages, 15,000 AI credits a month, Foresight and team sharing.

Rakko Keyword

• フリー (Free)¥0

  50 credits a week for suggest keywords, competitor keywords (50 results), rank checks to position 30 and other basic lookups.

• エントリー (Entry)¥660

  per month for 400 credits, billed annually (¥1,320 billed monthly)

  Search volume and difficulty, 800 competitor keywords per lookup, 1 user. A suggest search costs 1 credit, a site lookup 3.

• ライト (Light)¥990

  per month for 1,000 credits, billed annually (¥1,980 billed monthly)

  1,000 credits, 2,000 competitor keywords per lookup and MCP access for AI tools at 5 times the web credit cost. No API.

• スタンダード (Standard)¥2,475

  per month for 3,000 credits, billed annually (¥4,950 billed monthly)

  3,000 credits, 10,000 competitor keywords per lookup, API access, 100-URL bulk site checks and 5 simultaneous users.

• プロ (Pro)¥4,950

  per month for 6,300 credits, billed annually (¥9,900 billed monthly)

  Standard's features with 6,300 credits a month and 10 simultaneous users.

• エンタープライズ (Enterprise)¥9,900

  per month for 13,500 credits, billed annually (¥19,800 billed monthly)

  Standard's features with 13,500 credits a month and 25 simultaneous users.

KeySearch

• Annual discount

  Two months free with annual billing

  KeySearch's pricing section offers annual billing with 2 months free: Starter is $20 a month instead of $24, and Pro $40 instead of $48.

Rakko Keyword

• Annual discount

  Half price with annual billing

  Rakko Keyword's pricing page marks annual billing as 50% off: Standard is ¥29,700 a year instead of ¥4,950 a month.