# Yoast SEO review (2026): is the free plan enough? > WordPress SEO plugin with content analysis, schema and sitemaps Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that sets titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, XML sitemaps and Schema.org structured data, and grades each post for SEO and readability as it is written. Yoast SEO Premium adds AI-drafted metadata, a redirect manager, internal linking suggestions and the Local, Video and News SEO plugins. Higher plans add WooCommerce tools and weekly checks of how AI chat answers mention a brand. - **Category:** SEO Plugins & Apps - **Made by:** Yoast BV - **Website:** https://yoast.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if your site isn't on WordPress, as Yoast for Shopify and the Google Docs add-on are separate products. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, Yoast SEO has a free plan, and paid plans start at $118.80 per year for 1 site, ex VAT. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** 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. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | Read from https://yoast.com/product/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress/ on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Yoast SEO before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Bulk discount from 5 subscriptions** (Other savings): 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. Source: https://yoast.com/discount/ ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - WordPress site owners who want SEO guidance inside the post editor - Writers who want readability feedback alongside SEO checks - WooCommerce stores that need product schema and cleaner store sitemaps ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. Yoast SEO writes your meta tags, sitemaps and schema, and grades each post for SEO and readability while you write it in WordPress. The free plugin checks one keyphrase and has no redirects or link suggestions at all. Premium is $118.80 a year for each site before VAT, and none of it runs outside WordPress. - **Value for money: C.** Premium 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: B.** The 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: B.** Content 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: C.** No 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: B.** Web 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. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Yoast's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among SEO plugins and apps - Yoast SEO's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 49 of the 78 other SEO plugins and apps we grade, and level with 10. - It stands best on features (B, above 53 of 78) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $9.90 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $9.99 for the category: 23 of the 58 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. 1 tool scores higher and costs less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/seo-plugins ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** The plain part of Yoast SEO you could make: schema markup and internal linking. What surrounds it you could not. The 5 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. It costs $118.80 a year. - You could make: Schema markup and internal linking: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: A score built from what the top results for each keyword cover. - You could not: The same prompts asked of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers every day, and the answers kept. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Semrush, Wincher and Elementor among them. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Semrush, Wincher, Elementor, Google Site Kit, WooCommerce, Advanced Custom Fields, Algolia, Jetpack **Tags:** Schema markup, Content optimization, Internal linking, AI features, AI search visibility ## Alternatives - [Rank Math](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rank-math): WordPress SEO plugin for meta tags, schema, sitemaps and rank tracking. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/rank-math-vs-yoast-seo) - [All in One SEO (AIOSEO)](https://toolgpa.com/tools/aioseo): WordPress SEO plugin with schema, redirects, link suggestions and AI. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/aioseo-vs-yoast-seo) - [SEOPress](https://toolgpa.com/tools/seopress): WordPress SEO plugin with a free edition and site licences from $49. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/seopress-vs-yoast-seo) - [The SEO Framework](https://toolgpa.com/tools/the-seo-framework): WordPress SEO plugin that fills in meta tags and schema automatically. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/the-seo-framework-vs-yoast-seo) - [Slim SEO](https://toolgpa.com/tools/slim-seo): WordPress SEO plugin that sets meta tags and schema with no setup. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/slim-seo-vs-yoast-seo) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://yoast.com/product/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress/ - https://yoast.com/product/yoast-woocommerce-seo/ - https://yoast.com/product/yoast-seo-ai-plus/ - https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/ - https://yoast.com/discount/ - https://yoast.com/refund-policy/ - https://yoast.com/pricing-update-july-2025/ Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/yoast-seo Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).