
If you run a WordPress site or are an SEO expert, you might have probably come across the Yoast plugin, or maybe heard about it. For years, it has been the be-all-end-all SEO plugin for the majority of WordPress bloggers.
It is indeed an incredible plugin that costs $89 for a premium option and promises tons of excellent SEO results. But the question is, is it worth the investment? And are there other plugins that can offer the same services at a much lower cost?
Well, let’s start by dissecting its pros and cons.
YOAST pros
- Editing meta tags- Yoast makes editing and updating your page titles and meta description tags super easy, and efficient.
- XML Sitemaps- Sitemaps helps Google locate and index your content in the instant where your site’s internal link structure fails to do so. With Yoast plugin, you can easily create a sitemap from the dashboard and submit it to Google Search Console for indexing.
- Setting different social media meta tags- This is where Yoast excels best in. It offers the option of editing the featured images of your post whenever you share it on social media.
- Internal links counter
- Advanced SEO tech such as Canonical URLs, ability to set links to no-follow, and provision of robots.txt files.
Cons
- It is expensive compared to the services offered
- Accidental keyword stuffing. The free version doesn’t consider the different variants of a keyword, such as plurals
- Its customer support is also not that helpful as they often if not always redirect you to their how-to videos.
Now that you have an idea of what Yoast is and its pros and cons, let’s take a look at its alternatives.
SEOPress

Developed from an idea to 10k+ installs in a single year, SEOpress has drastically proven itself as the single best alternative to Yoast. It has incredible upsides compared Yoast which is why we use it, and recommend everyone to.
First, SEOPress is designed to be a light-weight yet fully packed SEO plugin, unlike Yoast. Consequently, it gets the job done without at all slowing down your website.
Secondly, it comes in two packages; a fully loaded free version that will get all the basic SEO done, and a pro package that costs $39 only, as compared to Yoast that costs $89.
Visit this link to check the features of both packages.
Some of the unique features that SEOPress offers are; ability to set up google analytics complete with custom dimensions, and download tracking in the free package and Google Analytics Event Tracking for tracking external links.
Additionally, the pro version allows you to integrate your site with Majestic and WooCommerce, and to optimize Google Map Local Business Listing among other extra features.
The free version will definitely give you access to more features than Yoast’s free version. That is if you cannot afford the premium option.
SEO Framework

It is not entirely satisfactory to compare Yoast and SEO Frame, as they cater to different users. While Yoast is mainly aimed for SEO newbies, SEO Framework primarily focuses on SEO specialists or people who at least have the basic SEO knowledge.
However, they can still be compared regarding features and price.
First, SEO Framework offers one of the most expensive premium options; a free option and 3 premium options costing $49, $99, and $229. However, the difference in pricing comes from access to different extensions.
It’s a little bit expensive considering that you can still get most the basic extensions on Yoast. Nevertheless, without the need for different extensions, you can easily and comfortably optimize your site through the free version, and still access tens of free extensions. This is the reason why SEO Framework is gaining popularity so fast.
When it comes to customer support, Yoast offers 24/7 customer support through emails and forums, while SEO Framework does not provide any.
All In One SEO

This plugin has been in existence since 2007 and has had over 50 million downloads. It caters for both beginners and developers, thanks to its easy-to-use platform, and the advanced features and API that are dedicated for developers.
It offers both free and premium options with the premium options ranging from $68 all the way to $559, depending on the features and extensions supported. For the premium options, you would expect to get advanced support for WooCommerce; SEO for tags, custom taxonomies, and categories; video SEO module; and access to knowledge center and support forums.
The free version has 57 language translations and features an array of incredible features. Some of which can only be accessed in the Yoast premium option.
SEO by Squirrly

One thing that sets Squirrly SEO plugin apart is the assisted SEO feature that comes in handy especially for the SEO beginners. It offers a free version, and two premium versions costing $29.99 for the pro version, and $79.99 for business.
Ideally, if you were to compare Squirrly’s business version and the Yoast premium option, Squirrly is far much better and still $10 cheaper. For example, it allows you to make up to 500 daily Google rank requests and ranks on demand. All of which are limited in Yoast
Final Verdict
First things first, never fall for the temptation of creating shoddy content thinking that SEO plugins will help you rank higher. These are just algorithms which only work if your content receives readership. The easiest and most effective way of ranking higher on search engines, whether you use SEO plugins is quality content.
The idea should be to use SEO plugins as complementary tools to bring your content in front of your readers.
With that said, here is my final advise.
All these SEO plugins are excellent and outdo each other in one way or another. To be fair, I wouldn’t say Yoast is terrible because it’s not. It has been and continues to be one of the best SEO plugins in the market.
However, I have personally tested all of them, and I would say SEOPress is the best. And it is okay if you think otherwise. This is just my opinion which does not make yours wrong.
I would advise you to go ahead and try all of them out and see which is best. However, if you don’t have that time, I would recommend you go with SEOPress. It’s cheap and very effective.