Until recently, many users chose the Yoast SEO plugin thanks to its simple setup process and valuable content suggestions.
But Rank Math is fast establishing itself as the new powerhouse, sparking the Rank Math vs Yoast SEO debate.
While both options can serve users with different expertise levels, Rank Math offers more options for anyone seeking to dig deeper into their website’s SEO.
This detailed guide will introduce and compare the two plugins to ensure you make an informed decision.
Yoast vs Rank Math: An Overview
These quick Yoast SEO and Rank Math introductions will set the stage for our more comprehensive comparison.
What Is Rank Math?
Despite being a new SEO plugin, Rank Math is the brainchild of an established MyThemeShop development team.
This WordPress SEO upstart was launched towards the end of 2018, although it was still in development several years before.
What Makes Rank Math Stand Out?
This massive popularity can be attributed to the plugin’s advanced Google Search Console integration that lets you monitor most of your site’s data from your WordPress dashboard.
The plugin cuts on time wastage and provides valuable insights from Google Search Console, enabling you to identify the sections that need work.
Rank Math offers two pricing structures.
The Pro version is available for $129, while its Business counterpart goes for $429.
But the platform’s special “launch offer” enables you to get the subscriptions at $59 and $199, respectively.
Rank Math Pros
- Its impact on your website performance is minimal
- Relatively easy to use
- Intuitive
- Excellent SEO analytics and data
- Great social media integration
- Remarkable page SEO optimization
Rank Math Cons
- The numerous features can overwhelm beginners
- Some image features have low clarity
What Is Yoast?
Yoast SEO was launched in 2010 and is, from far, the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress.
In many ways, users deem it as the de facto plugin for SEO.
The plugin has more than 288 million downloads to date.
The Yoast SEO plugin stands out because it optimizes content for visitors and search engines by providing Readability and SEO analysis as you create content.
Generally, you’ll deliver better content and boost your page’s rankings by focusing on synonyms and related keywords.
Users seeking more licenses don’t require a discount code for it.
You’ll automatically receive your discount from as low as two licenses, which applies to all Yoast plugins.
Yoast SEO Pros
- The plugin is user-friendly and accessible
- You can use it as an SEO proofreader
- It helps you fix your flaws
- It blocks content scrapers from accessing your RSS feed
- The tool offers accurate keyword suggestions
Yoast SEO cons
- The tool is poor at understanding intent
- It can be pedantic since it doesn’t know when and how to break the available rules appropriately
- You’ll waste more time searching
Rank Math vs Yoast: Features
Rank Math and Yoast are the most notable names in WordPress SEO, but they have considerable differences.
Here’s a comprehensive comparison of what the two plugins have to offer.
Supported Themes
The following themes are compatible with Rank Math:
- Deep Theme from Webnus
- Flothemes from Flothemes
- Astra from Brainstorm Force
- Polite from Template Sell
- Divi Theme & Page Builder from Elegant Themes
- Blocksy from Sergiu
- Betheme from Muffin Group
- Attesa Multi-Purpose Theme from Andrea
- MyThemeShop Themes & Plugins from MyThemeShop
On the other hand, Yoast supported themes include:
- Ereco
- The Fox
- Lendiz
- Disto
- Motive
- Mr. SEO
- Nutritix
- The Ark
- Foxiz
- SeedOne
Both plugins are supported with vast themes, and your choice will depend on your needs and SEO goals.
Plugin Compatibility
Any plugin that uses WordPress Codex can work with Rank Math.
But here’s a list of plugins that work perfectly with Rank Math:
- TOC Pack – Table of contents for Elementor from dbjpanda
- LuckyWP Table of Contents from LuckyWP
- Page Builder from SiteOrigin
- Themify Builder from Themify
- SimpleTOC from Marc Tönsing
- WP All Import from Soflyy
- JetEngine from Crocoblock
- FooGallery from Brad Vincent
- Weglot Translation Plugin from the Weglot Translate team
- Oxygen Builder from Soflyy
- WPBakery from WPBakery
- Affiliate Held from Affiliate Held
· WPSSO Core from Surnia Ulula
- WP-Spreadplugin from Thimo Grauerholz
- Elementor from Elementor
- HQ Widgets for Elementor from HQWebS
- PostX from WPXPO
- WP Event Manager from Ashok Dudhat
- WooCommerce from Automattic
- WPML from OnTheGoSystems
- Ad Inserter from Igor Funa
- GeoDirectory – Business Directory from GeoDirectory
- Ultimate Blocks from Imtiaz Rayhan
- WP Rocket from WP Rocket
- Modern Events Calendar from Webnus
- Media Cleaner from Jordy Meow
- AMP for WP from AMP
Yoast, on the other hand, is compatible with the following plugins:
- Google Tag Manager For WordPress
- Microsoft Clarity
- WP Super Cache
- AMP
- WP Rocket
- WP-Optimize
- NitroPack
- Admin Menu Editor
- Site Kit from Google
- Monster Insights
- Autoptimize
- Two Factor Authentication
- User Role Editor
- Public Post Preview
- Nested Pages
- W3 Total Cache
- WP Activity Log
- Compress JPEG & PNG images or Optimole
- UpdraftPlus Sucuri or WordFence
Rank Math seems to be compatible with more WordPress plugins than Yoast SEO.
However, your preference will depend on what you need for your site.
Rank Math vs Yoast Which Offers More Features?
An SEO plugin’s features are of the utmost consideration.
Read on to find out how the two WordPress tools compare in terms of features.
Rank Math Features
Rank Math offers the following free features:
- SEO titles and descriptions – For creating templates that automatically align with the content and manually adjusting individual content descriptions and titles.
- Social media description – You can set the images and text for Twitter and Facebook.
- Focus keyword analysis for multiple keywords – Insert one or several focus keywords to find out your web content’s optimization level for the keywords.
- XML Sitemap – You can make your XML sitemap more customizable than you’d find with the default sitemap feature on WordPress.
- Structured data or schema – You can set up a schema markup throughout your site and control the markup for respective pieces of content.
- Search Console – Link your website with the Google Search Console to view analytics within your WordPress dashboard and submit sitemaps.
- Knowledge Graph Local SEO – The feature optimizes your website for local SEO.
- Image SEO – Boost image SEO and set title and alt tags automatically.
- Internal link suggestions – The plugin suggests the content on your website that you can link to as you navigate the editor.
- Link Counter – For counting the external and internal links within your content.
- Breadcrumbs – For adding breadcrumbs to your website
- Redirections – This enables you to create and manage 302 and 301 redirects.
- 404 Monitor – This feature monitors your site for this error and redirects it to other pages.
- Basic WooCommerce SEO – For setting shop and product titles or descriptions.
- Google Analytics – You’ll use it to view information and track code.
Rank Math also offers the following Premium Features:
- Google Trends integration
- Keyword rank tracking
- Google News SEO sitemap
- Google AdSense earning history
- Multiple local SEO locations
- Automatically watermark images on social media
- More predefined schema categories (over 20 types)
- Google Video SEO sitemap
Notably, all these Rank Math features are modular, and you can easily disable the ones you aren’t using.
Yoast Features
The basic components of Yoast SEO include:
- Set meta descriptions and SEO titles – This feature lets you create templates relevant to the content and manually tweak SEO descriptions or titles for individual posts.
- Focus keyword analysis – Users can enter a focus keyword to ascertain how optimized their content is for it.
- XML Sitemap – With this feature, you can develop a customizable sitemap that’s better than the detailed WordPress feature.
- Sitewide schema – The plugin lets you include a schema markup on your site.
- Social media descriptions – You can regulate images and text for Twitter and Facebook.
- Basic WooCommerce SEO – This includes descriptions and titles for shop and product pages.
- Cornerstone content – The plugin lets you mark every important page as Cornerstone. This optimizes them and adds more internal links.
- Search Console – You can verify your website with Search Console.
- Content schema type – Rank Math lets you set a custom schema type for all your content.
- Link Counter – Know how many internal links are in your content.
- Breadcrumbs – You can also equip your site with breadcrumbs.
Premium Yoast SEO features include:
- Redirect manager – This lets you create and manage 302 and 301 redirects.
- Internal link blocks – You can automatically add a block that includes relevant links.
- Internal link suggestions – The plugin will suggest the appropriate content on your website to link to.
- Related keyphrases – This feature lets you generate relevant keyphrases based on SEMrush data.
- Multiple focus keywords – You can analyze your site’s content to identify the multiple focus keywords.
Yoast SEO has paid add-ons ideal for specific SEO types.
These offer multiple features you’ll likely find in Rank Math’s premium version, but the latter includes several free SEO features.
- Video SEO – This feature lists your videos in Google Videos. It also adds other crucial video SEO enhancements.
- Local SEO – This feature enables you to add structured data for local businesses, supports several physical locations, and enhances your contact us page.
- WooCommerce SEO – It grants you access to additional WooCommerce SEO features like a cleaner XML sitemap, social media graph data, and more.
- News SEO – You can design an XML News sitemap, optimize your website for Google News, and ping the search engine whenever you publish a post.
Rank Math offers more features than Yoast SEO, especially the free versions.
This doesn’t necessarily make it better unless you actually need the additional features.
On the other hand, Yoast SEO’s free version has limited features and charges for multiple features Rank Math offers for free.
Rank Math vs Yoast: How User Friendly Are They?
Generally, the two plugins are incredibly user-friendly.
But here’s how they compare:
Rank Math Usability
The platform wholly integrates with the block editor; hence there’s no meta box option.
You can quickly open it by clicking its icon within the toolbar.
Also, you can access a separate Analytics dashboard for tracking Google Console reports and site traffic data against the premium version’s SEO optimization.
Yoast Usability
This plugin lets you edit via the Yoast SEO sidebar or the meta box.
The former is available for the WordPress and classic block editor, while the latter only comes in the block editor.
Yoast sidebar has one viewing spot for all your SEO options, and you can preview how content will look on different platforms.
Generally, Rank Math is relatively easy to use and navigate than Yoast SEO.
Yoast vs Rank Math: Which One is Better for SEO?
Yoast SEO offers a readability analysis to help you write better posts and boost your SEO efforts.
The platform indicates a green light if the content reads well to an average reader.
It also suggests areas that need improvement via the Flesch reading score if there are problems.
You’ll also get similar readability tips with Rank Math.
But instead of being a separate analysis, they’re part of your website’s overall SEO score.
There’s no significant relationship between readability and SEO, but a positive user experience is a ranking factor.
Therefore, Yoast SEO is advantageous in this area as it can improve your posts’ overall quality.
You’d also want to access tools that offer more than basic article optimization.
For instance, both platforms offer:
- Automatically recognized URLs
- Google Search Console integration
- Social media optimization
- XML sitemapsPost preview
- SEO breadcrumbs
- Schema markup
- Site verification
You’ll get considerably more free tools with Rank Math, including high-performing keyword suggestions and internal linking, which are only available in Yoast SEO’s premium version.
Moreover, you can preview your social network shares, redirect readers to a new page, or use advanced keyword analytics with Rank Math for free.
There are several Rank Math features that you won’t get with Yoast, like the keyword rank tracker.
Other Rank Math SEO features include:
- Image SEO
- Google Trends integration
- Client management dashboard
- Automatic image captions
- Advanced redirects like (410, 307, 302, 301, and more)
- 404 log
- Failed tests and SEO warnings
- Video schema automatic data fill
- Role manager
- Advanced no-follow link options
- Local SEO
Rank Math offers a broader range of SEO options than Yoast SEO.
Safety
Yoast SEO enjoys a long-standing reputation as the go-to plugin.
As with any reputable service, the platform offers robust security structures that block any type of compromise on your site.
With years in business, the developer included vital security buffers; hence you can count on it.
Some users worry about Rank Math’s security capabilities because it’s newer than Yoast SEO, which has been around for ages.
But the plugin comes from an established development team and has built a reputation for the short time it’s been around.
Performance
Rank math performs extraordinarily well.
It minimally impacts your memory usage, has minimal errors, and is compatible with the latest WordPress and PHP versions.
The plugin is also lightweight and fast to ensure minimal page loading time.
So it’s safe to conclude that it won’t slow down your site.
Most users complain that Yoast SEO is bloated and contains lots of unnecessary code.
But there’s no big site speed difference when you activate or deactivate it.
Either plugin works seamlessly on WordPress.
Popularity
Yoast is arguably the big name in SEO for WordPress.
It’s been around since 2010 and is the most popular SEO plugin.
Moreover, it’s by far among the most widespread WordPress plugins.
Rank Math is a comparative newcomer, but it’s from a well-established WordPress agency.
Since its launch, it has become the second-most commonly used SEO plugin for WordPress.
In general, Yoast SEO enjoys more popularity than its counterpart.
User Reviews
Rank Math and Yoast have great reviews, but users have different things to say regarding the two.
Yoast SEO has been around for longer, making it the most popular plugin for WordPress SEO.
It has been downloaded over 288 million times.
Rank Math, on the other hand, is arguably the best substitute for Yoast SEO.
The plugin boasts a 4.9-star rating based on 4,837 reviews and has over 500,000 active installs.
Rank Math vs Yoast Pricing
Yoast SEO and Rank Math are free, but the developers offer premium versions with additional features.
Rank Math Pricing
Rank Math offers two premium version plans:
- Pro ($59) – Usable on unlimited personal sites and can track a maximum of 1,000 keywords.
- Business ($199) – Usable on an unlimited number of client and personal websites and can track 20,000 keywords.
These rates are part of the launch offer.
Otherwise, the full list price is $129 for Pro and $429 for business.
Nobody knows whether this will remain an evergreen discounting strategy or Rank Math will alter the pricing.
Yoast Pricing
Yoast SEO has two premium offerings.
The first is the core premium plugin, which costs $99 annually for single-site use.
There are also discounts for multi-site licenses, which include:
- More than two sites – 5%
- More than five sites – 10%
- More than ten sites – 15%
- More than 20 sites – 20%
- More than 30 sites – 25%
- More than 40 sites – 30%
- More than 50 sites – 35%
- More than 75 sites – 40%
- More than 100 sites – 45%
- More than 150 sites – 50%
You can also go for these four premium extensions:
- Video SEO – from $79 annually for one site
- Local SEO – from $79 annually for one site
- News SEO – from $79 annually for one site
- Yoast WooCommerce SEO – from $79 annually for one site
You can also buy all five plugins for $229 annually.
Overall, Rank Math premium is more affordable than Yoast’s; its premium plan supports unlimited sites and has a single premium plan covering all features.
Rank Math Vs Yoast: Stand Out Features
Rank Math has more features than Yoast SEO.
In fact, its free version might have a lot more to offer than its counterpart’s core paid version.
Here are some stand-out features that give Rank Math an edge:
- SEO reports (white label)
- Keyword rank tracking
- Google Analytics integration
- 404 monitor
Of course, the features you want to use will determine the perfect choice, but Rank Math clearly has an edge.
Rank Math vs Yoast Which Is Better?
In this Rank Math and Yoast SEO comparison, it’s pretty clear that both options are excellent for SEO.
There’s no “mistake” in choosing either plugin.
Instead, it’s more about picking what aligns with your SEO goals.
Rank Math leads with more free features, offering valuable tools that Yoast SEO lacks or charges for.
You should probably go for these features if you need them.
Another attractive feature is its ability to disable the features you don’t need.
Yoast SEO is perfect for beginners.
It can help you create quality content optimized for focus keywords.
But you must go premium to enjoy advanced settings.
Rank Math, on the other hand, is a clear winner if you need more profound content optimization and analytics, unlimited keywords, and complete on-page SEO control.
Final Thoughts
Rank Math is right ahead if you’re looking for more features, especially the free ones.
Yoast is ideal if you don’t need the extras, but something to control basic settings like SEO titles and descriptions.
You might also choose it as the “established alternative,” which is definitely advantageous.
