Redirection vs Yoast SEO (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Redirection grades higher than Yoast SEO: 3.0 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Redirection grades higher on value for money and the free plan. Yoast SEO grades higher on features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Redirection
Free WordPress plugin for managing 301 redirects and 404 errors
Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugin with content analysis, schema and sitemaps
Which one is for you
Pick Redirection if
- Fits if you're moving a site or changing its URLs and need lots of redirects
- Works for anyone fixing 404 errors on a WordPress site without paying
Look elsewhere if
- Too light for your whole SEO setup, as titles, sitemaps and schema need another plugin
- Skip it if your site isn't on WordPress, as there's no standalone app
- Watch out: the current version needs WordPress 6.6 or later and PHP 7.4 or later
Pick Yoast SEO if
- Fits if your site runs on WordPress and you want SEO checks shown while you write
- Works for writers who want readability notes next to the SEO ones
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if your site isn't on WordPress, as Yoast for Shopify and the Google Docs add-on are separate products
- Tight if you stay free, since redirects, link suggestions and AI drafts all need Premium
- Pricey if you run several sites, as each needs its own $118.80 a year and bulk discounts start at 5
- Watch out: AI Brand Insights on AI+ checks 5 questions once a week, and another brand means another $358.80
How we grade them
| 3.0GPARedirectionVery good | 2.6GPAYoast SEOGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree, with no paid edition: the whole plugin, its logs, conditional rules, imports and exports, REST API and WP-CLI access come from WordPress.org at no cost. | CPremium is $118.80 a year for one site before VAT, about $9.90 a month, a bit above this category's cheaper quarter ($8.25). WooCommerce SEO is $178.80 and AI+ is $358.80, each for one site or brand. |
| Free plan and trial | AEverything is free and there's no premium version, so there's no cap or locked feature to run into. | BThe free plugin writes meta tags, canonicals, sitemaps, schema, breadcrumbs and llms.txt, and checks one keyphrase per post. One site could run on it, but redirects, link suggestions and AI drafts aren't in it at all. |
| Features | CRedirects with regex and conditions, automatic redirects when permalinks change, 404 logs, redirect logs and Apache or Nginx output. It does redirects fully, but that's a smaller job: no titles, sitemaps or schema. | BContent and readability checks, meta tags, schema, sitemaps, redirects, internal link suggestions, Local, Video and News SEO, and an AI crawler blocker. It covers the whole job, with redirects and links on Premium only. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. A simple redirect is quick, but regex, conditions and server rules take some learning, and you build every redirect yourself. | CNo rating on record. It sits in the WordPress admin, but each post needs a keyphrase set before the checks tell you much, and there are site-wide settings to go through first. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, inside WordPress, with a REST API, PHP hooks and WP-CLI. It writes to Apache .htaccess, exports Nginx rules and imports from other redirect plugins. | BWeb only, inside WordPress, with no app of its own. It works with Semrush, Wincher, Elementor, Site Kit, WooCommerce, Advanced Custom Fields, Algolia and Jetpack. The Shopify version is a separate product. |
| Best for | free redirects and 404 tracking in WordPress | SEO checks inside the WordPress editor |
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: Redirection and Yoast SEO. How we grade
Price against what you get
Redirection has no paid plan and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Yoast SEO starts at $9.90 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7.
Yoast SEO scores higher, and starts $9.90 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other SEO plugins and apps on the chart, none scores higher than Redirection for less, and 1 scores higher than Yoast SEO for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Redirection is open source, according to its own site.
- Yoast SEO also covers AI search visibility, content optimization, schema markup and internal linking.
At a glance
| Redirection | Yoast SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $118.80 per year for 1 site, ex VAT |
| Free plan | Everything is free: there is no premium version. Redirects, 404 tracking, logs, conditional rules, import and export, and the REST API and WP-CLI access. | Free plugin from WordPress.org: SEO and readability analysis for one keyphrase, meta tags, canonicals, XML sitemaps, schema, breadcrumbs, llms.txt and a bulk metadata editor. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | John Godley | Yoast BV |
| Price read from | redirection.me | yoast.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Redirection
- It runs only inside WordPress; there is no standalone app.
- It manages redirects and 404s only; titles, sitemaps and schema need a separate SEO plugin.
- The current version supports WordPress 6.6 or later and PHP 7.4 or later.
Yoast SEO
- It runs only inside WordPress; Yoast SEO for Shopify and the Google Docs add-on are separate products.
- Each paid subscription covers one site, billed yearly before VAT; bulk discounts start at 5 subscriptions bought together.
- Redirects, internal linking suggestions and AI drafting need Premium; the free plugin has none of them.
- AI Brand Insights runs one weekly analysis of 5 questions per brand, with no extra runs; another brand needs another subscription.
Key features
Redirection
- Redirect manager
- Create redirects for any URL without editing Apache or Nginx, with regular expressions, query parameter matching and automatic redirects when permalinks change.
- Conditional redirects
- Redirect only for logged-in or logged-out users, a WordPress capability, browser, referrer, cookie, HTTP header, IP address, server or 404 pages.
- 404 tracking
- Logs every 404 error on the site, groups them to show where to focus, and lets them be redirected in bulk.
- Redirect logs
- Records each redirect with visitor, browser and referrer details and a hit count, with search, filters, export and controls to limit IP collection.
- Apache and Nginx output
- Redirects can be saved to .htaccess so Apache handles them, or exported as Nginx rewrite rules.
- Import, export and APIs
- Imports from other redirect plugins and .htaccess, exports to CSV, JSON and Nginx, and can be run through the WordPress REST API, PHP hooks and WP-CLI.
Yoast SEO
- Content and readability analysis
- Red, orange and green ratings in the editor for SEO and readability. The free plugin checks one keyphrase; Premium checks up to five, with word forms in 20+ languages.
- Technical SEO and schema
- Writes meta tags, canonical URLs, XML sitemaps, breadcrumbs and Schema.org data automatically. Premium outputs more schema types and joins them into one graph.
- AI metadata drafts
- Premium drafts SEO titles and meta descriptions page by page or in bulk, and nothing saves until it is approved. There is no separate AI subscription or credit pack.
- Redirects and internal links
- Premium prompts for a redirect when a page is moved or deleted, imports redirects by CSV, suggests internal links while writing and finds orphaned posts.
- AI crawler controls
- Manages an llms.txt file on every plan; Premium adds a bot blocker for AI training crawlers such as GPTBot, CCBot and Google-Extended.
- AI Brand Insights
- On the AI+ plan, a weekly report on whether 5 set questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity mention the brand, with sentiment, citations and competitor ranking.
Plans
Redirection
Free$0
The whole plugin from WordPress.org, with no paid features.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO$0
The free WordPress.org plugin: content and readability analysis, meta tags, sitemaps, schema, breadcrumbs and llms.txt.
Yoast SEO Premium$118.80
per year for 1 site, ex VAT
AI titles and descriptions, 5 keyphrases per page, redirect manager, internal linking, Local, Video and News SEO plugins and 24/7 support.
Yoast WooCommerce SEO$178.80
per year for 1 site, ex VAT
Everything in Premium plus product schema, product content checks, store sitemaps, canonicals and AI metadata for products.
Yoast SEO AI+$358.80
per year for 1 brand, ex VAT
WooCommerce SEO plus AI Brand Insights: a weekly check of 5 brand questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, with sentiment and citations.
Ways to pay less
Redirection
No public discounts listed.
Yoast SEO
- Other savings
Bulk discount from 5 subscriptions
Yoast takes 5% off 5 or more subscriptions of the same product bought in one order, rising to 40% off 75 or more; 100 or more is quoted.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Redirection or Yoast SEO?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Redirection is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $9.90 a month when paid by the year for Yoast SEO. Redirection is free, and Yoast SEO starts at $118.80 per year for 1 site, ex VAT.
Which has a free plan, Redirection or Yoast SEO?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both Redirection and Yoast SEO have a free plan.
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.