WPSSO Core vs Yoast SEO (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, WPSSO Core grades higher than Yoast SEO: 3.0 against 2.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
WPSSO Core 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.
WPSSO Core
WordPress plugin for Schema markup and social sharing meta tags
Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugin with content analysis, schema and sitemaps
Which one is for you
Pick WPSSO Core if
- Fits if you run WooCommerce and want each product variation in your markup
- Works for sites adding schema on top of an SEO plugin they already use
Look elsewhere if
- Too light for your whole SEO setup, as there are no redirects or content checks
- Watch out: Premium is licensed per site address, so a staging site needs its own licence beyond one free dev subdomain
- Tight if you stay free, as YouTube, Vimeo, review-app and short-link data need Premium
- Watch out: licences can't be transferred, and the refund window is 30 days
- Skip it if your site isn't on WordPress 6.0 or newer, as it runs nowhere else
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
| 3.0GPAWPSSO CoreVery good | 2.6GPAYoast SEOGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | APremium is $49 once for one site, with updates and support for the life of that site. That's less than a year of this category's middle price. Bigger licences fall to $17 a site at 25 sites. | 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 | AThe Standard edition on WordPress.org has no caps: schema markup, social tags, WooCommerce product markup and free add-ons for feeds, FAQ pages, breadcrumbs and sitemaps. Premium adds data from YouTube, review apps and link shorteners. | 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 | CSchema for 500+ types, Open Graph, X Cards and Pinterest tags, every WooCommerce variation as its own offer, and add-ons for merchant feeds and sitemaps. It does markup fully, but that's a smaller job: no redirects or content checks on record. | 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. It needs WordPress 6.0 and PHP 7.4.33 or newer, and the extras come as separate add-ons to install and set up. | 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. It works with WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, Rank Math, WPML, Polylang and Elementor, builds Google Merchant and Meta feeds, and Premium pulls data from YouTube and Judge.me. | 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 | schema and share tags on top of an SEO plugin | 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: WPSSO Core and Yoast SEO. How we grade
Where they differ
- WPSSO Core is open source, according to its own site.
- Yoast SEO also covers AI search visibility, content optimization and internal linking.
At a glance
| WPSSO Core | Yoast SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $49 one-time for a lifetime license on 1 site | $118.80 per year for 1 site, ex VAT |
| Free plan | The Standard edition on WordPress.org is free: Schema JSON-LD, social meta tags, WooCommerce product markup and the free add-ons. | 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 | JS Morisset | Yoast BV |
| Price read from | wpsso.com | yoast.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
WPSSO Core
- Runs only inside WordPress; it needs WordPress 6.0 and PHP 7.4.33 or newer.
- Premium is licensed per WordPress site address, so a staging site needs its own license; one dev. subdomain per license is free.
- Data from YouTube, Vimeo, review services and URL shorteners, and development-version updates, need Premium.
- Licenses cannot be transferred; the license page states a 30-day refund policy.
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
WPSSO Core
- Schema JSON-LD markup
- Writes structured data for more than 500 Schema types and subtypes, aimed at clearing the field errors Google's Rich Results test reports.
- Social meta tags
- Open Graph for Facebook, X Cards, Pinterest Rich Pins and oEmbed for LinkedIn and Discord, with image sizes cropped for each site.
- WooCommerce product markup
- Replaces WooCommerce's single-offer markup with every variation as its own offer, adding GTIN, MPN, brand, shipping time and return policy fields.
- Free add-ons
- Separate add-ons build Google Merchant and Meta catalog feeds, FAQ pages, breadcrumbs, ratings and reviews, sitemaps and REST API output.
- Works beside other SEO plugins
- Can run with Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework or WP Meta SEO to add to the structured data they output.
- Service data in Premium
- Premium pulls video details from YouTube, Vimeo and Wistia, review data from Judge.me and Stamped.io, and short links from Bitly or TinyURL.
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
WPSSO Core
Standard$0
The free edition hosted on WordPress.org, with Schema markup, social meta tags and the add-ons.
Premium, 1 site$49
one-time, lifetime license for 1 site
Premium features, updates and support for the life of the registered site, plus data from services such as YouTube and Bitly.
Premium, 2 sites$80
one-time, lifetime license for 2 sites
$40 a site; the vendor suggests it for one production and one staging site.
Premium, 5 sites$135
one-time, lifetime license for 5 sites
$27 a site. A 3-site license is also sold, at $99.
Premium, 10 sites$220
one-time, lifetime license for 10 sites
$22 a site. A 15-site license is also sold, at $285.
Premium, 25 sites$425
one-time, lifetime license for 25 sites
$17 a site, the lowest per-site rate on the license page.
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
WPSSO Core
- Lifetime license
Premium is a one-time lifetime license
WPSSO sells Premium for a single payment that covers features, updates and support for the life of each registered site, with no yearly renewal.
- Other savings
Free development-site license with each purchase
Each Premium license also covers dev. on the same domain under the same Authentication ID, so a developer can build a site before moving it to production.
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, WPSSO Core or Yoast SEO?
As of Oct 23, 2026, WPSSO Core starts at $49 one-time for a lifetime license on 1 site, and Yoast SEO starts at $118.80 per year for 1 site, ex VAT.
Which has a free plan, WPSSO Core or Yoast SEO?
As of Oct 23, 2026, both WPSSO Core 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.