Creating high-quality content for SEO AEO is a challenge. No matter how detailed your article is, there’s no guarantee search engines will reward it with a high ranking. They don’t just care about how much information you pack into a piece.
Instead, they look at how well your content covers a topic and satisfies user intent. This is where content optimization tools come in. In this guide, we'll compare two of the most popular options, Frase and Surfer SEO. By the end, you'll know which tool is best suited for your needs.
If you want to speed up the content creation process, Arvow's AI article writer SEO can help. It uses artificial intelligence to help you quickly create optimized articles that rank well on search engines.
What is Frase?
Frase is an AI-powered platform designed for content creators, marketers, and SEO professionals who want to streamline research, create detailed content briefs, and optimize their content for better search engine rankings. Its combination of AI-driven research, outlining, and content optimization tools makes it particularly valuable for anyone producing content that needs to perform well on Google.
Key Features of Frase
Content Brief and Outline Builder
Frase’s standout feature is its ability to generate comprehensive content briefs and outlines quickly. By analyzing the current top-ranking results for any target keyword, Frase surfaces critical data points such as ideal word count, number of headings, essential questions being asked, and relevant topics. The tool also pulls insights not only from direct SERP analysis but from sources like Reddit and Quora. You can automate content briefs with templates or customize them for each project, making it a powerful asset for structuring content efficiently.
Content Editor
The platform includes a content editor similar in principle to those found in other optimization tools. Writers can leverage this to draft or refine content with guidance from SERP-based data. However, some users find its optimization features less comprehensive compared to specialized tools like Surfer SEO. Still, the integrated workflow moving from brief to draft is helpful for efficiency and consistency.
AI Writer and Templates
Frase integrates an AI writing assistant capable of generating, rewriting, and expanding content. The AI writer excels at overcoming writer’s block, producing SEO-friendly text, and supporting long-form article creation. While it may not always match the nuance of top AI writers, it remains competitive. It includes dozens of native and community-driven templates for tasks like Q&A, listicles, and product reviews.
SERP Analysis and Optimization Tools
Frase provides robust SERP analysis, showing what competitors are doing right and highlighting gaps you can fill. Its suite of optimization features includes keyword suggestions, content scoring, and content gap analysis, offering guidance to align your writing with SEO best practices.
Multilingual and Customization Support
Frase offers support for multiple languages and allows users to define custom AI templates and knowledge bases. This is especially useful for global campaigns or those needing content in more than one language.
Plans and Pricing
Starter Subscription $45/month
Professional Subscription $115/month
Enterprise Subscription Custom pricing
Pros of Using Frase
Exceptional Brief and Outline Generator. Helps you quickly compile detailed and actionable content briefs drawing on SERP, Reddit, Quora, and more.
Streamlined Research Process
Saves hours of manual research by surfacing keyword opportunities, top headlines, and key questions.
AI Writer Utility
Provides high-quality drafts and templates with just a few clicks, great for overcoming creative blocks.
Content Optimization Guidance
Real-time scoring and competitive analysis help ensure your article is comprehensive and targeted.
Excellent Support
Users report responsive support, a helpful help center, and smooth onboarding.
Cons and Limitations
Brief Limits on Entry Plans
Basic plans may limit the number of briefs you can generate each month.
AI Content Still Needs Editing
AI-generated content sometimes requires human review for introductions, conclusions, and refined expression.
What is Surfer SEO?
.webp)
Surfer SEO is a cloud-based tool designed to optimize on-page SEO by analyzing current search engine results and providing data-driven recommendations to improve content ranking. It is widely used by content creators, marketers, and website owners who want to ensure their pages are relevant, comprehensive, and competitive for target keywords.
Core Features of Surfer SEO
Content Editor
The Content Editor is Surfer SEO’s flagship feature. It analyzes the top-ranking pages for a specified keyword and offers real-time suggestions on optimal word count, keyword usage, headings, and content structure. The editor includes a content score that updates as you write, helping you maintain SEO-friendly content.
This score is supported by recommendations to include terms, questions, and subtopics relevant to the keyword, all based on competitive analysis of high-ranking pages. The tool can also auto-generate outlines and facilitate writing with AI assistance when needed.
SERP Analyzer
This feature examines the search engine results pages (SERPs) for a given keyword to uncover why certain pages rank higher than others. It evaluates factors like backlinks, page structure, domain authority, and keyword density, providing insights to replicate or improve upon competitor success.
Audit Tool
Surfer's Audit feature allows you to assess existing pages on your website, highlighting weaknesses such as insufficient content, slow site speed, poor backlink profiles, or missing SEO elements. It benchmarks your page against competitors and advises improvements to increase rankings.
Content Planner
Using natural language processing (NLP), the Content Planner groups related keywords within a niche into focused topics. It helps identify overarching search intent and clusters keywords thematically. This supports an effective content strategy by targeting multiple relevant keywords within a single article or page.
Keyword Research
Surfer SEO includes a keyword research tool to find search terms relevant to your niche. While it provides keyword suggestions and search volume insights, it is generally considered less robust compared to specialized tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush.
AI Writing Assistant (Surfy)
Recently introduced, Surfy is an AI-powered writing assistant integrated into Surfer SEO. Although relatively new and not widely reviewed yet, it aims to speed up content creation by generating SEO-optimized text based on the provided guidelines.
Plans and Pricing
Essential
$79/month
Scale
$175/month
Enterprise
Custom pricing
Pros of Using Surfer SEO
Clear Optimization Guidance
The Content Editor’s traffic-light scoring system and real-time feedback make it simple to understand and follow optimization steps.
Efficiency
Surfer allows users to research, write, and optimize content all within one platform, significantly reducing the time spent on SEO tasks.
Comprehensive Insight
By analyzing over 500 ranking factors and the top 10 competitor pages, Surfer provides actionable intelligence that aligns your content with current ranking criteria.
Integrated Ecosystem
Seamless linking between keyword research, content planning, auditing, and editing tools improves workflow and accuracy.
Support and Community
Surfer offers robust customer support, educational resources, and an active community to help users get the most out of the platform.
Cons and Limitations
Cost
For beginners or occasional users, the pricing may seem high.
AI Content Quality
Though helpful, AI-generated content (via Surfy) still requires careful human editing for better results.
Get 3 Free Articles when you Sign Up Today!
Stop struggling with content creation. Let Arvow transform your blog with feature-rich, factual articles that rank in search engines in just 30 seconds. Our AI SEO Writer doesn't just generate content; it automatically publishes, formats with images and videos, and intelligently links to relevant sources while maintaining your brand voice across 150+ languages. Join over 25,260 business owners who have turned their blogs into automated traffic machines. Claim your three free articles and discover why we're the content solution that's keeping entrepreneurs up at night.
Related Reading
Frase vs Surfer SEO
Content Briefs and Outline
Frase and Surfer SEO both create content briefs to help writers optimize their articles for SEO. Both tools analyze top-ranking SERP pages for a target keyword to recommend keywords, topics, content length, headings, and related questions.
Frase excels in creating detailed and customizable briefs. It allows users to select specific sections to include, such as writing guidelines, People Also Ask SERP data, SERP research results, topics, headers, keyword-based questions from Quora and Reddit, and interesting statistics. These briefs can be exported and shared easily, making Frase ideal for content writing agencies or teams.
Surfer SEO offers content outlines within its editor under three tabs: Guidelines (writing length, paragraphs, headings, and keyword density), Outline (AI-generated headings and topic suggestions), and Brief (notes and competitor pages). However, Surfer’s briefs are less detailed and comprehensive compared to Frase's.
Content Editors
Both Frase and Surfer SEO provide editors that show keyword recommendations and content scores. Surfer SEO’s editor is highly praised for its layout, integration with Google Docs, and granular keyword density suggestions where keywords turn green as you include them, boosting content score.
However, sometimes suggestions can be irrelevant, and the detailed keyword focus can be time-consuming. Frase’s editor offers lower keyword density targets with more general, but still relevant, keyword suggestions, making it easier and faster to optimize content, though with less granularity than Surfer.
AI Content Generation
When it comes to AI content generation, Frase and Surfer SEO take different approaches.
Frase stands out with a robust AI Writer capable of rewriting content, generating introductions, titles, answers, converting features into benefits, drafting how-tos, and more. This feature significantly speeds up content creation with usable AI-generated drafts.
Surfer SEO provides limited AI content features within its editor (AI-generated titles, headings, and questions with answers). Still, these are generally less polished and more useful as idea prompts than ready-to-use content. Surfer integrates with Jasper AI for extensive AI writing, but requires a separate payment, which increases the overall cost. Overall, Frase’s AI writing capabilities are more comprehensive and practical for complete content creation.
Core Focus and Purpose
Surfer SEO specializes primarily in on-page content optimization. It offers extensive data-driven recommendations to help creators align their content with the SEO benchmarks set by top-ranking competitors. Its main strength lies in making content competitive by focusing on aspects such as keyword use, content structure, word count, and other SEO factors.
Frase, on the other hand, leans toward content research and generation, excelling at producing detailed briefs and content outlines. It’s well-suited for digital marketers who want a tool that facilitates efficient content drafting with AI assistance.
Content Creation and Optimization Tools
Surfer SEO's Content Editor is a feature-rich environment for writing and optimizing content in real-time. Users receive feedback through a "Content Score" that reflects how well the draft performs against the top pages in Google’s results for the targeted keyword. This editor supports collaboration by enabling easy sharing of project links, allowing writers or teams to work together seamlessly. It integrates a strong competitor analysis by examining over 500 ranking signals.
Frase’s Content Editor focuses on quickly generating content drafts using a more advanced AI-assisted writing tool.
Frase simplifies the process by pulling in data from the top 20 Google results, suggesting improvements on word count, keyword usage, headers, and topic gaps. Its AI writing prompts, such as "Rewrite," "Write About This," and others, provide flexible content-crafting options. This makes Frase particularly efficient for rapid content production.
Collaboration and Workflow
Surfer SEO excels in collaboration, allowing content teams to share Content Editor links without requiring additional logins. This feature is ideal for agencies, content teams, or those outsourcing content creation who need seamless project sharing and feedback loops.
Frase, while supportive of teamwork, is noted more for its autonomous AI drafting and research capabilities than for collaborative tools.
Other Tools and Features
Surfer SEO offers several additional features, such as Content Audit to score and improve existing pages, Keyword Research, Content Planner for strategy, and SERP Analyzer for competitor analysis. It also emphasizes data-backed optimization for SEO experts and supports auto-optimization and AI-driven content tuning focused on search engine relevance.
Frase includes Outline Builder, Google Search Console integration (GSC Analytics), Wikipedia Concept Map for visual topic mapping, and a Topic Planner (Beta) for long-tail keyword discovery. These tools support early-stage topic development and ongoing site performance tracking.
Pricing and Use Cases
Surfer SEO is often favored by SEO professionals for detailed, data-driven content planning and optimization, especially for websites with existing content to audit and improve.
Frase is preferred by users seeking faster, AI-assisted content drafts and detailed briefs, suitable for agencies and marketers aiming to streamline the full writing and SEO process.
Both tools have similar pricing at business levels, with Frase sometimes being cheaper at entry levels and Surfer slightly more affordable on advanced plans.
Get 3 Free Articles when you Sign Up Today!
Stop struggling with content creation. Let Arvow transform your blog with feature-rich, factual articles that rank in search engines in just 30 seconds. Our AI SEO Writer doesn't just generate content; it automatically publishes, formats with images and videos, and intelligently links to relevant sources while maintaining your brand voice across 150+ languages. Join over 25,260 business owners who have turned their blogs into automated traffic machines. Claim your three free articles and discover why we're the content solution that's keeping entrepreneurs up at night.
Related Reading
Which to Choose
When deciding between Frase and Surfer SEO, your choice largely depends on your specific content needs, workflow preferences, and SEO goals. Both tools aim to help create optimized, keyword-relevant content, but serve slightly different purposes and types of users.
Who Should Choose Surfer SEO?
Surfer SEO is ideal for writers, marketers, and website managers focused on deep SEO optimization and thorough keyword research throughout the content creation process. It excels at providing a data-driven, results-oriented optimization system that supports your writing from draft to published content. This platform is especially beneficial for:
Users who want in-depth SERP analysis to understand competitive keyword landscapes.
Teams aiming to improve on-page SEO with precise, data-backed recommendations and content gap analysis.
Professionals seeking tools that enable scaling content efforts with automation features like Auto Optimize.
Beginners and experts alike who want to ensure content aligns with how modern AI engines understand and rank content.
Surfer’s approach focuses on ranking performance by emphasizing structured content, entity coverage, and continuous adaptation to search engine algorithms, making it particularly useful for SEO teams that value precision and measurable results over speed alone.
Who Should Use Frase?
Frase suits writers, agencies, and marketers looking for fast, efficient, and research-backed content production. It shines in generating detailed content briefs and outlines using real-time SERP insights, which is especially helpful for those producing a high volume of articles with strategic SEO intent. It is designed to:
Help with quick content ideation and brief generation based on competitor analysis.
Streamline the process of producing blog posts, reviews, guides, and landing pages.
Assist those needing to scale content creation while still maintaining quality.
Support users who want an AI-assisted writing environment beforehand, with emphasis on content value to readers, not just algorithms.
Frase is recommended if speed, ease of use, and effective content planning are essential. It provides a cleaner, more straightforward interface with a focus on helpful answers and quick draft workflows.
For users looking to enhance either platform’s workflow, especially teams needing smooth collaboration and project management alongside content creation, integrating Arvow can naturally complement Frase’s or Surfer SEO’s capabilities. Arvow offers streamlined review and approval processes that help content teams maintain quality and efficiency throughout creation and optimization stages.
Stop struggling with content creation. Let Arvow transform your blog with feature-rich, factual articles that rank in search engines in just 30 seconds. Our AI SEO Writer doesn't just generate content; it automatically publishes, formats with images and videos, and intelligently links to relevant sources while maintaining your brand voice across 150+ languages. Join over 25,260 business owners who have turned their blogs into automated traffic machines. Claim your three free articles and discover why we're the content solution that's keeping entrepreneurs up at night.
Related Reading
Get 3 Free Articles when you Sign Up Today!
If you're tired of struggling with content creation, Arvow can help. Our AI SEO Writer quickly transforms your blog with feature-rich, factual articles that rank in search engines. In fact, with Arvow, you can go from zero to 3 articles in just 30 seconds.
Our software doesn't just generate content; it automatically publishes, formats with images and videos, and intelligently links to relevant sources while maintaining your brand voice across 150+ languages. Join over 25,260 business owners who have turned their blogs into automated traffic machines with Arvow. Claim your three free articles today and discover why we're the content solution that's keeping entrepreneurs up at night.
Generate, publish, syndicate and update articles automatically
The AI SEO Writer that Auto-Publishes to your Blog
-
No card required
-
Articles in 30 secs
-
Plagiarism Free