Yoast SEO is the leading WordPress SEO plugin, boasting over 10 million active installations. As one of the originals, it remains a top choice among WordPress site owners. However, Rank Math is rapidly gaining traction, surpassing 3 million active installations.
Having used both plugins on my WordPress sites, I’ve observed their unique strengths and weaknesses. In this article, I compare their features, explore how they work, and help you decide which one is the best fit for your website.
Comparing Yoast SEO and Rank Math: An overview:
| Yoast SEO | Rank Math | |
| Usability | 10/10 – Easy for anyone to use, navigatable layout. | 10/10 – Clear interface with simple instructions |
| Configuration | 8/10 – Simple and straightforward setup process | 9/10 – Simple configuration with advanced setup |
| Keyword optimization | 7/10 – 1 keyword per post or page, additional site keywords require a premium plan | 9/10 – 1 main keyword per post, 5 site keywords in the free account |
| Popularity | 10/10 – The all-time #1 SEO WordPress plugin | 7/10 – Not as popular as Yoast SEO, but is rising |
| Pricing* | 6/10 – Free for one site, $99 / per site for premium | 8/10 – Free for one site, $96 for unlimited premium |
*The free version of each plugin can be used on one site with a single account. While it’s possible to bypass this limit by using different accounts for each site, it’s generally not worth the extra effort. For web designers or agency owners managing multiple sites, opting for a paid version is a simpler and more efficient choice.
More free features with Rank Math
Rank Math provides many features for free, with a subscription required only for advanced upgrades. The free version includes:
- SEO titles and meta descriptions
- Social media descriptions
- Multiple keyword analysis per page/post
- XML sitemap
- Basic local SEO schema and optimization
- Image SEO
- Internal link suggestions
- 404 monitor
- 301 and 302 redirects
- Basic WooCommerce SEO
These features are modular, allowing you to enable or disable any that you don’t need.
Yoast SEO provides many similar features, but some—like 301 and 302 redirects, multiple focus keywords per page/post, and local SEO—are only available in premium add-ons. The WooCommerce SEO plugin costs $79/year, and the Local SEO plugin is an additional $79/year.
Yoast offers bundles to reduce costs, but if you’re on a tight budget, Rank Math provides the same functionality for free, making it a more cost-effective choice.
Better readability analysis included with Yoast
Yoast SEO stands out with its readability analysis, which separates the readability score from the overall SEO score, making it easier to assess your content. Since search engines consider readability in rankings, clearer and more engaging content performs better.
It uses the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease test to evaluate sentence length, syllable count, transition words, and passive voice usage. Plus, it provides detailed improvement tips.
With the inclusive language feature enabled, it also analyzes content for seven factors, including age, gender, disability, and socioeconomic status.
These readability factors boost your search ranking by making content easier to understand and keeping visitors on your site longer. Google recognizes this engagement and ranks your site higher in search results.
In contrast, Rank Math includes readability within its overall SEO score, making it harder to gauge separately. It also provides only basic improvement suggestions.
Here’s how Yoast SEO and Rank Math rank the same test page:
Yoast provides a clearer readability assessment and actionable tips for improvement directly on my site. In contrast, Rank Math simply shows a “2 Errors” message with vague details. To get improvement guidance, I have to click a question mark icon and read a generic help article on their website.
Rank Math Offers More Global SEO Features for Website Builders
Setting global SEO options saves time by applying baseline settings across your site, allowing individual adjustments as needed. For WordPress users with builders like Divi, Elementor, or Beaver Builder, editing each page manually would be overwhelming.
Both Yoast SEO and Rank Math offer default global SEO settings for posts and pages. However, Rank Math stands out by providing more global SEO configurations for various content types and website builders—even in its free version, surpassing Yoast’s paid plugin.
Rank Math integrates with multiple website builders, automatically displaying relevant settings when compatible themes or plugins are installed. For example, with Elementor, you can globally configure SEO for landing pages. Pair it with the Elementor Header & Footer Builder plugin, and you can optimize templates, widgets, and more.
In its free version, Yoast allows global SEO settings for only three content types: the home page, posts, and pages. If you use a builder like Elementor, you can also configure landing pages, but there’s no option for widgets or templates. While Yoast integrates with Elementor, it only supports SEO settings for individual pages—not global configurations like Rank Math.
Both Plugins Simplify Tracking Your Page and Post Optimization
Both Yoast and Rank Math provide a clear visual representation of your content’s optimization. You can see it in the main Pages or Posts section of your WordPress admin panel and on individual pages or posts.
Both plugins use a color-coded system—green for good, yellow for needs improvement, and red for poor—making it easy to assess optimization at a glance.
Yoast uses color-coded dots to display SEO and readability scores separately, making it easy to assess both aspects at a glance. This separation is a small advantage Yoast offers.
Rank Math, on the other hand, shows an SEO score out of 100 with similar color coding but doesn’t separate readability. Instead, it provides keyword, schema, and hyperlink data, allowing you to quickly evaluate internal and external linking—an important ranking factor for Google.
Both plugins display the SEO optimization level on individual pages in multiple locations.
Yoast SEO highlights it in two places:
- In the upper-right corner, using traffic light indicators next to the Yoast logo.
- In the Yoast SEO box at the bottom of the page (scroll down below the content to locate it).
Rank Math displays it on the right side of the individual page, with the overall score in the upper-right corner.
Rank Math offers more AI features, but they come at a higher cost than Yoast.
With the rise of AI, it’s no surprise that both Rank Math and Yoast have introduced AI features. While I haven’t tested these specific tools, here’s how they differ based on official information.
Rank Math has fully embraced AI with its Content AI module, which includes over 40 AI tools and 125+ curated AI prompt templates. These tools assist throughout the SEO process, from generating ideas to optimizing content for search engines. For example, Content AI allows you to:
- Receive personalized content suggestions for your target audience.
- Get insights on meta tags, OpenGraph, and other key elements.
- Enhance your content with options like Write More, Improve, Summarize, and Fix Grammar.
Content AI is an add-on subscription available for both the free and premium versions of Rank Math, starting at $60/year ($48 for the first year).
Yoast, on the other hand, takes a more cautious approach with AI, offering two limited beta features. Yoast AI Generate helps create optimized titles and meta descriptions, while Yoast AI Optimize suggests edits for posts, such as adding more keyphrase words to the introduction, which you can choose to accept or ignore. These features are included in the premium version, with no additional cost.
Yoast vs. Rank Math: What should I be using as my SEO plugin?
Having used both Yoast SEO and Rank Math, and tested their latest features, I can confidently say that either plugin is a strong choice for WordPress site owners. They complement great content, helping boost your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your site. Here’s my breakdown:
Why you should choose Yoast SEO:
- You need assistance with both SEO and content readability.
- Your site is in a language other than English (Yoast supports 18 languages besides English).
- You’re interested in learning more about SEO (Yoast offers free and paid courses that are great for beginners looking to expand their knowledge).
Why you should choose Rank Math:
- You have more than one websites.
- You want access to a broader collection of free SEO features (and scale more affordably).
- You want more globally controlled SEO settings.
Yoast SEO has long been the dominant player in the WordPress SEO space, but Rank Math has quickly gained ground, with over three million downloads and a five-star rating. Are you thinking of switching to Rank Math, or will you stay with Yoast?