4 categories · RankedSurfer SEO
Surfer SEO is an AI visibility and SEO content optimization platform for SEO specialists, content managers, marketing agencies and in-house teams who optimize content for search engines and AI search · surferseo.com ↗
Gane, the publisher, sells software in SEO, Content marketing, AI visibility and AI marketing agents, where this product is measured. It is measured there by the same method as every other product. How the conflict is handled.
Strongest at mid-market, contested with Semrush. Ranked 68 of 68 for enterprise buyers.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Ranked first, contested: Semrush has 18%.
Ranked first, contested: Semrush has 20%. 4 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Conductor is first at 50%.
Why models recommend it
“Surfer SEO is the default recommendation for most content teams because it balances on-page scoring, keyword research, and a content editor in one interface.”Claude Haiku 4.5 · Comparative question · first choice
“The best content marketing platform for a company with a limited budget is Surfer SEO, which offers good optimization at a lower cost, starting at $89/month.”Llama 4 Maverick · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“the consensus in 2025-2026 reviews is that Surfer SEO hits the best balance of price, on-page workflow and AI-assisted optimization”Muse Glimmer 30B · Direct question · first choice
“Surfer SEO is the consensus leader for mid-market companies that want AI-search visibility connected to content briefs”Claude Haiku 4.5 · Direct question · first choice
What gives them pause
“Avoid premium-heavy tools like Clearscope, SurferSEO, or Frase”Grok 4.20 · Budget-constrained question · warning
“Content graders and brief builders—for example, Surfer, Clearscope, or Frase. They can help with research and coverage, but don’t treat a score... as a ranking formula.”GPT-6 Luna · Negative question · warning
“Surfer SEO is the mid-market benchmark for content optimization... For pure page-level NLP scoring, NeuronWriter is the direct, cheaper swap to Surfer.”Muse Glimmer 30B · Budget-constrained question · warning
“NLP Content Optimization Tools (e.g., Surfer SEO, Clearscope, Frase) ... Blindly following these scores often leads to keyword stuffing”Gemini 3.5 Flash · Negative question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Surfer SEO, over the 193 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 132 | 5 | Compare → | |
| 119 | 30 | Compare → | |
| 115 | 11 | Compare → | |
| 88 | 8 | Compare → | |
| 86 | 0 | View → | |
| 55 | 13 | Compare → | |
| 48 | 14 | Compare → | |
| 45 | 5 | View → | |
| 37 | 4 | View → | |
| 35 | 12 | View → |
What the models named instead of Surfer SEO →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Surfer SEO's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- SEO specialists, AI visibility teams, content managers, marketing agencies, in-house teams, and businesses optimizing content for search engines and AI
- Price stated
- AI Search Analytics 82 USD per month billed yearly; Standard 99 USD per month billed yearly; Pro 182 USD per month billed yearly; Peace of Mind 299 USD per month billed yearly; Discovery 49 USD per month billed yearly; Enterprise Custom Tailored packages
- Starting price
- 49
- Free plan or trial
- Get a FREE AI Visibility Audit—straight to your inbox. No account or credit card required.; Try Surfer for free
- Integrations
- 6 · 7 (its own pages disagree)
- Certifications
- ISO 27001
- Hosting
- Europe
- Customers named
- Bolt, ClickUp, matthewwoodward.co.uk, Diggity Marketing, Mongoose Media, My Content Pal, Hostinger, Planable
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 169 of the 193 answers that named Surfer SEO and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
291 of the 323 domain citations in answers naming Surfer SEO came from a third party's page. Thirty-two were to the publisher's own pages (the Gane Index), which the models cite like any other source; they are not counted as a third party.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Grok 4.20 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Kimi K2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
What it publishes
| Kind | Pages | Last 90 days | 2025-10 to 2026-09 | Latest | Categories named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog | 256 | 166 | 2026-09-17 | SEO | |
| Conference or event | 30 | undated | SEO | ||
| Case study | 29 | 29 | 2026-09-09 | SEO | |
| Comparison | 11 | 5 | 2026-09-25 | ||
| Glossary or explainer | 11 | 2 | 2026-09-09 | SEO | |
| Template or tool | 2 | 2 | 2026-09-09 | SEO | |
| Webinar or virtual event | 1 | undated |
Most recent
- 2026-09-25Llm scraped ai answers vs api results comparison
- 2026-09-172026 ai seo workflow blog
- 2026-09-17Ai citation report blog
- 2026-09-17Ai citations first 100 words blog
- 2026-09-17Ai content detection blog
- 2026-09-17Ai content optimization blog
How it is countedHide how it is counted
Every page surferseo.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.