SEOKEY vs Yoast SEO (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, SEOKEY and Yoast SEO share a 2.6 GPA, both have a free plan, and SEOKEY starts cheaper, at $4.08 a month when paid by the year against $9.90 a month when paid by the year.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
SEOKEY grades higher on value for money. Yoast SEO grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
SEOKEY
WordPress SEO plugin with a site-wide audit and auto fixes
Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugin with content analysis, schema and sitemaps
Which one is for you
Pick SEOKEY if
- Fits if you run WordPress and want technical fixes applied for you
- Works for owners of several sites, with 5 sites at $99 a year
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if your site is not on WordPress, since it only runs there
- Tight if you stay free: Search Console, 404 monitoring and traffic advice need a paid licence
- Watch out: prices are ex-VAT and per year
- Watch out: the WordPress.org page says the free plugin was not tested with the last three major WordPress releases
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
| 2.6GPASEOKEYGood | 2.6GPAYoast SEOGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | A$49 a year for one site (about $4.08 a month, ex-VAT), under 60% of the cheapest quarter of WordPress SEO plugins ($7.99). Five sites are $99 a year. | 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 | BA free edition on WordPress.org with the audit, automatic fixes, redirections and the alt text editor, which one site can use. | 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 | CAudit, automatic fixes, content advice, redirects and 404s, schema and a Search Console link. The Search Console link, 404 monitoring and traffic advice need a paid licence. | 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 store rating on record. It applies fixes by itself, but you still install, audit and connect Search Console. | 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 | CWordPress only, with Search Console, WooCommerce and Yoast named. | 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 | automatic technical SEO fixes on 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: SEOKEY and Yoast SEO. How we grade
Price against what you get
SEOKEY starts at $4.08 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.0 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 $5.82 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other SEO plugins and apps on the chart, 7 score higher than SEOKEY 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
- SEOKEY also covers keyword research and site audit.
- Yoast SEO also covers AI search visibility and content optimization.
At a glance
| SEOKEY | Yoast SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $49 per year for 1 website, ex-VAT | $118.80 per year for 1 site, ex VAT |
| Free plan | Free edition on WordPress.org with the audit, automatic optimizations, redirections and image ALT editor; Search Console and traffic-based advice need Pro. | 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 | SeoMix | Yoast BV |
| Price read from | seo-key.com | yoast.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
SEOKEY
- Runs only inside WordPress.
- Prices are listed ex-VAT and per year.
- Search Console connection, 404 monitoring and priority support need a paid license.
- The WordPress.org listing warns the free plugin was not tested with the latest three major WordPress releases.
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
SEOKEY
- Global SEO audit
- Scores a site's content and technical setup, groups issues by URL or by problem, and prioritizes the actions to take.
- Automatic technical optimizations
- Applies fixes such as sitemap, canonical and robots meta changes, RSS and date-archive clean-up, and category prefix removal.
- Content advice by keyword
- A targeted keyword can be set per page, and the editor gives recommendations for that keyword and for internal links.
- Redirections and 404s
- Manage 301 redirects and, on Pro, view the 404 errors Google has hit and redirect them in one click.
- Schema.org markup
- Adds person, local business or organization markup and breadcrumb markup, and removes hentry markup containing errors.
- Search Console connection
- Pro connects to Google Search Console, submits sitemaps automatically and shows clicks, impressions and position per page.
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
SEOKEY
Free$0
Site audit, automatic technical optimizations, schema markup, redirections, ALT editor and WordPress.org forum support.
Single$49
per year for 1 website, ex-VAT
Pro features for one site: Search Console connection, 404 monitoring, traffic-based advice and priority support.
Advanced$99
per year for 5 websites, ex-VAT
The same Pro features licensed for up to five websites.
Infinite$199
per year for unlimited websites, ex-VAT
The same Pro features licensed for an unlimited number of websites.
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
SEOKEY
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, SEOKEY or Yoast SEO?
As of Nov 12, 2026, SEOKEY is cheaper to start with: $4.08 a month when paid by the year, against $9.90 a month when paid by the year for Yoast SEO. SEOKEY starts at $49 per year for 1 website, ex-VAT, and Yoast SEO starts at $118.80 per year for 1 site, ex VAT.
Which has a free plan, SEOKEY or Yoast SEO?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both SEOKEY 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.