Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover seo & discovery. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Exploding Topics | TubeBuddy | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $39 | From $12 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 7 days | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Some of it |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Research & Trends, SEO & Discovery | SEO & Discovery, Analytics, Thumbnails & Cover Art |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | YouTube |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | 1 | None right now |
Trends spotted before they peak
Exploding Topics watches search and social signals and surfaces subjects on the way up, which is a different job from a keyword tool that tells you what is already big. For somebody choosing what to make next, early is the whole value. It is now a Semrush product, and the cheapest plan holds back the CSV export.
Our note
The $39 plan cannot export, so the research stays in their interface. If the point is feeding a content calendar or a spreadsheet, the real entry price is $99.
Only on this side
Bulk YouTube edits and thumbnail A/B testing
TubeBuddy is the older of the two big YouTube extensions and is stronger on the boring half: changing end screens on two hundred videos, finding and replacing a line in every description, sorting tags. Its A/B thumbnail test is the feature people cite most. There is no free plan on the pricing page.
Only on this side
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.