Growing an audience
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Both cover seo & discovery and research & trends. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| SpyFu | vidIQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $39 | From $16.58 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | Yes | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
| Covers | SEO & Discovery, Research & Trends | SEO & Discovery, Analytics, Research & Trends |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | YouTube |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Every keyword a competitor has bought or ranked for
SpyFu is built around one question: what is the other site doing. It keeps more than a decade of history on which keywords a domain ranked for, which ads it ran and what it paid, which is the part the general SEO suites treat as a side feature. For research on a competitor rather than maintenance on your own site, it is the cheaper specialist.
Our note
SpyFu is the cheap way to answer one question well: what is the competition ranking and bidding on. Pair it with a free rank tracker rather than treating it as a replacement for a full SEO platform.
YouTube research, and a coach that reads your channel
vidIQ is a browser extension and an app that puts keyword, competitor and thumbnail data next to the video you are about to publish. The part people stay for is the AI coach, which reads your own channel rather than giving general advice. Its suggestions are worth arguing with rather than following.
Our note
vidIQ and TubeBuddy overlap enough that paying for both is waste. vidIQ is the better research and ideas tool; TubeBuddy is the better bulk-editing one. Pick by which job you actually have.
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.