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A few years ago, Frase became incredibly popular for being a cheap alternative to tools like Clearscope and MarketMuse. But now that the Appsumo deal is long since over and the fanfare has ended, was the tool overhyped? 🤔
If there’s one thing the internet has taught us, hype doesn’t mean good. So, to help you avoid the hype and focus on building winning content, we’ve got nine Frase alternatives worth considering.
But first, let’s dig into why people choose Frase.
Just a heads up!
This blog was created by the team at Outranking, a trusted content analysis tool for digital marketers. In this review, our team analyzed nine tools, some of which are competitors with Outranking. This content is for informational purposes only.
Frase is a content automation tool for optimizing long-form content like blogs with its AI-driven outline builder and first draft creator.
The tool is divided into two areas: Frase Content and Frase Answers. The Content tool is Frase’s main selling point, while the Answers tool lets you create a chatbot that uses data gathered from your website using Frase’s crawler.
For this review, we’ll look at its content tool. While the answer tool is neat, it doesn’t do much in building winning content.
Frase Content is used by marketing teams at well-known organizations, including e-Learning provider Coursera, and marketing agencies, Digitas and Merkle. With this, it’s attracted some respected companies.
You might have called Frase the “new kid on the blog a few years ago.” But since its humble beginnings, it’s refined its tool to delve heavily into AI content with its own custom system.
Frase has gained a fairly large following (mainly from its Appsumo deal). So, this raises the question…
Frase is beloved by many for two main reasons: it’s cheap and simple. Below is a deeper dive into the cost and simplicity of Frase’s content editing tool.
Frase is affordable for most people — whether you’re a solo freelancer or have a whole marketing team. Some content optimization tools can go as high as $140 per month for a single account!
Here’s a breakdown of their plans:
Every Frase plan gets automated content briefs, content scoring, and a content editor. It also integrates with Google Search Console and a content outline builder.
Frase holds all the information you need on the right side of the screen. Your research and optimization tools (two of the most important) are found at the top. You can also automate outline building, track link data, and use AI templates to build your content.
The optimization process makes it easy to discover where you are topically lacking. It divides things into topical and keyword clusters, which you can adjust based on your priorities. So, knowing what to talk about if you want to rank isn’t difficult.
If you don’t want to do any writing, Frase even goes as far as to automate outline and first draft creation. But these AI-based features might not give your business exactly what it needs.
Being cheap and easy sounds like a great start, but not all content writers love Frase. Here are five drawbacks you can expect from using Frase:
Frase’s outline creation system is completely automated and guides you easily through the process. Frase lets you create a content outline in two ways:
To be clear: directly copying anything isn’t a good idea in SEO. While Google technically doesn’t have a duplicate content penalty, it will penalize your website for directly ripping text from someone else’s website.
AI-driven heading generator sounds like a great alternative in theory, but it uses the same data. So, to avoid being penalized by Google for plagiarism, you’ll need to manually edit your headers (eating away your time and creative energy). 😬
Frase’s content optimization tool focuses on Natural Language Processing (NLP) analysis and optimization. This means it puts a fair emphasis on keyword density, which isn’t always helpful in ranking your articles.
For content strategists to get real value from these optimization tools, they must provide more than keyword data. Frase solves this to some degree by providing topic clusters, but can sometimes make decisions to request an absurd number of keywords or penalize your score for overdoing it.
Meanwhile, tools like Outranking have identified that focusing on density is a detriment to good writing. In fact, our experience is that the minimum keyword density should be around 1%, (once in every one thousand words), leaving room for semantic topics. So, you’ll find more flexibility through Outranking, resulting in natural, high-quality writing that’s topically relevant.
Because Frase only focuses on keywords, its optimization score can mean very little. So, while it’s easy to fill the bar and become optimized, Google might recognize your focus on keyword stuffing (putting in keywords where they don’t naturally fit) to be a sign of bad content.
Frase’s platform is a hub of too many features. If you’re just starting with content optimization tools, Frase can feel overwhelming — you have to dig around a lot of fluff before finding the features you want.
And because Frase supports a chatbot and an optimization platform, its focus is split. This confusing combo means you have to manage two dashboards, one of which you might not need if you want optimized content.
This split focus raises concerns regarding which tool Frase will focus on in the coming updates.
Another important reason to look for a Frase alternative is that AI writing doesn’t come out of the box. For whatever plan you subscribe to on Frase, you’d need to pay $35 per month extra to unlock unlimited access to its AI writing functionality.
Not too long ago, it was clear that Google was still defining its stance on AI. But, now that it’s invested in Bard (its own AI toolset), Google has shared that AI content has just as much chance to rank as human-created content.
This means that any tool that doesn’t include AI as a main feature isn’t considering a business owner’s flexibility in choosing between human and AI writers. Keep this in mind as AI content writing tools continue to evolve.
Need Proof? 🕵️ Read how Slaterock Automation publishes up to 40 articles each month with the help of AI!
So, if you decide to pay for the add-on, what do you get? Generally speaking, it’s an AI tool that doesn’t like to follow your instructions.
Frase’s AI tool is built into its outline builder, main content screen, and through a separate list of templates. When you provide those instructions as part of the outline builder, Frase will often ignore your instructions. This doesn’t always happen, but the infrequency can waste your time.
For example, if you ask it to write a short article (below 1,500 words), you might get something closer to 5,000. While more content sounds great on paper, you’ll find yourself spending a lot more time editing.
At least, that was our experience:
Experimentation will also tell you that Frase’s AI system doesn’t understand tables, bolding, or anything that creates ready-to-publish content.
Outranking is all ears!👂Experience for yourself just how well our AI wizard can charm your audience 🪄
This table gives you the rundown for the 9 Frase alternatives we recommend.
| Tool Name | Key Features | Pricing | Pros | Cons |
| Outranking | AI-powered content writing, domain data assessment, smart internal linking system, complete content workflow | Starts at $69 /month ($7 first month) | In-depth analysis of improvement opportunities, excellent AI content writer, great discounts for annual subscribers | Less emphasis on keyword research |
| SurferSEO | Competitive analysis from keyword research to content finalization | Starts at $19 /month | Great content editing platform with an excellent NLP editor | Lite plan is limited to 40 articles per year; AI features require you to pay per article |
| MarketMuse | Page and site-level insights, inventory, topic tracking, and competitive content analysis | Starts at $149 /month but features a free plan | Robust feature set for editing individual content pieces | Limit of 10 queries, very expensive |
| Dashword | Content grading, brief creation, and NLP content creator | Starts at $99 /month | User-friendly interface, decent pricing | Limited plan flexibility and few keyword research tools |
| Scalenut | 40+ AI writing templates, NLP key terms, chrome extension, integrated SEO editor | Starts at $39 /month | An excellent user interface, built-in keyword tracking features, great templates | AI templates are limited to blog creation, and it has a bit of a learning curve |
| SearchMetrics | A content writing tool built as part of a comprehensive search engine toolset | Starts at €89 /month | Complete toolset, customizable reports | Dated user interface, pricing can get expensive |
| Page Optimizer Pro | AI/NLP writing tools, support for unlimited domains | Starts at $27 /month | Solid EEAT optimization tools, competitive analysis | Provides limited data |
| Semrush Writing Assistant | Writing interface built as part of Semrush’s marketing tools | Starts at $119.95 /month | User-friendly interface, easy-to-follow content recommendations | Expensive, comes with other tools unrelated to content improvement, and has no AI writing tools |
| NeuronWriter | Comprehensive, AI-based content writing platform similar to SurferSEO | Starts at €19 /month | Affordable pricing, user-friendly interface, excellent NLP suggestions | Team editing features are limited to highest tier plans |
As you can see, a lot of the alternatives above offer the same features as Frase, if not more! Below, we’ll walk you through these Frase alternatives and tell you what they’re best for.
Outranking isn’t just your average SEO tool. We’re a comprehensive content creation and optimization powerhouse offering various features to create engaging content, improve website performance, and outrank your competitors. 💪
Outranking takes content optimization beyond NLP (which is where Frase stops) and helps you find the right semantic keywords. These semantic keywords focus more on topical relevance (not keyword stuffing). With Outranking, you can follow a proven system to double your organic traffic.
With Outranking, you get a full-stack AI writer out-of-the-box that will automatically generate every single element of your content — including SEO titles and meta descriptions. We’ll also help you generate high-level content outlines based on intent, create a personalized content brief, and insert internal links on auto-pilot. At the same time, we keep an eye out for any duplicate content that may be flagged as plagiarism.
Every one of our features is incredibly useful, no matter what kind of content you’re creating. Whether you’re a beginner or veteran SEO or content writer, navigating Outranking’s features is as easy as it gets! 💯
You also get access to a powerful stack for building a content strategy and a team collaboration portal so that every team member knows what’s happening in your content pipeline without downtime:
Outranking’s keyword research and on-page optimizations helps make my website more competitive on Search Engine Results Pages!
Jesus G. on Capterra
In all, Outranking is the best Frase alternative.
| Outranking | Frase |
| Fully featured content editor with a plethora of data points that go beyond NLP optimization | Focused heavily on NLP optimization |
| AI-driven content platform that creates briefs and writes for you | AI writer is an add-on |
| Exceptionally easy outline creation | Outline creation is complex |
SurferSEO evolved from an SEO-only optimization tool into a full-stack content planning, execution, and optimization tool. In terms of keyword research and content metrics, SurferSEO outclasses Frase. SurferSEO allows you to create content using either the Content Editor or their newly launched AI writer (Surfer AI).
With the Content Editor, you get a portal where you can generate relevant keywords, create an outline, and then create articles all while receiving real-time content optimization scores. With the Surfer AI Writer, the tool also makes optimized articles for you. But everything good comes with a price with SurferSEO.
But you don’t have to pay extra for the tool’s AI-outline generator. However, the AI outline generator is weak, as it copies and pastes headers into your content. Thankfully, not everything you get through SurferSEO requires money.
SurferSEO also features a free keyword research tool built into Google Chrome as an extension. The extension is the best part of Surfer for many of its users. Still, most of what you get through Surfer requires paying hefty costs, which frustrates its users.
SurferSEO promises a lot of features, but many of them are add-ons. For example, the basic LITE plan starts at $19 per month but doesn’t include the AI writer or plagiarism checker. 🫣 Each article you create using the AI writer is charged $29 per piece.
| SurferSEO | Frase |
| Powerful keyword research tool | Limited keyword research |
| AI-written articles are paid per piece | $35/month extra gets you access to the AI editor |
MarketMuse is another Frase alternative that uses AI to perform a full website analysis and gives you personalized insights to help you know what works. The platform automates content auditing and offers recommendations for optimization. It considers your domain, current content, and how it performs in search.
Some of MarketMuse’s features include its content planning to help you prioritize high-quality topics worth the effort. Next, MarketMuse’s content briefs give you recommendations on article structure, titles, subheadings, word counts, etc. You can also share these briefs with your writers to ensure you get high-quality content.
MarketMuse allows easy content cluster creation and analysis to help you build topic clusters using your existing content. You can also examine your competitor’s content clusters to see loopholes you can exploit.
But, much like other tools, the value of what you get is questionable.
MarketMuse does offer a free plan that gives you the basics but without the essentials like content briefs or domain analysis. However, the cheapest paid plan starts at $149 per month, which is quite pricey.
| MarketMuse | Frase |
| Offers a free plan with limited features | High-level content planning insights |
| HIgh-level content planning insights | NLP keyword optimization is the focus |
Want a closer look? 🧐 Check out our article, Frase vs. MarketMuse: Which SEO Tool Is Better?
Dashword is a great Frase alternative for content-writing teams. The platform focuses heavily on the content writing workflow, from creating briefs to optimizing content for SEO and SERP performance. It also monitors how your content performs after it’s been published.
Dashword sticks to the basics, but that’s what makes it great. It simplifies the content brief creation by researching and compiling your ranking competitors’ content outlines. It also allows you to drag and drop titles, headings, and subheadings into your new brief. You can even create customized article elements for the best performance.
Before you hit publish, Dashword’s content optimizer suggests keywords, FAQ to add, and a real-time content score to help you make your content Google-ready.
Another great feature of Dashword is its crawler that monitors your published content to help you identify underperforming pages. It also generates keyword reports on auto-pilot. But, these features require you to pay for its most expensive plan at nearly $350! 😵💫
Despite the high costs of the more expensive plans, it has less than what you get with SurferSEO. But with 100 content briefs, it’s more cost-effective than Surfer. The difference is that Dashword is incredibly new, so it’s got some things to work on.
Dashboard starts at $99 per month for a team of 5 and allows you to create 100k words with its AI writer.
| Dashword | Frase |
| Content-writing-centric tool | Focuses on content writing and general SEO optimization |
| Site-wide crawling to identify issues | Crawling is achieved via integration with Google Search Console |
Scalenut is another AI-SEO platform that offers more utility than Frase. Scalenut uses AI and real data to help you create content briefs. You can plan, create, and optimize your content before publishing.
With Scalenut’s content briefs, you get AI-generated outlines influenced by SERP data. You also get heading and NLP keyword suggestions based on ranking content from your competitors. Finally, you get exact search phrases and semantic terms to help you figure out the intent behind queries important to your brand visibility.
Another good feature of Scalenut is how it generates keyword clusters, including AI-recommended keywords. This helps you save time on keyword research and find the best keywords with the highest ranking potential to include in your article.
Scalenut also features an AI writer and a content editor with a real-time SEO score and auto-fix-it tweaks. And if you need to create copy for customer-facing campaigns, this platform is designed for that too.
The problem is that the platform is made with less care than others. Below is a review of one experience:
Scalenut starts at $20 per month for its basic Essential plan. But it only includes the fix-it and unlimited brand voice and tone on higher price tiers.
| Scalenut | Frase |
| Powerful content optimization based on search intent | More limited in content brief creation |
| Great for content and copy | Best suited to content |
Searchmetrics, now a subsidiary of Conductor, provides a comprehensive content optimization platform that’s heavy on technical metrics to help you make better content decisions.
Searchmetrics, unlike Frase or Outranking, doesn’t offer an AI writer or create content for you. Instead, it’s primarily focused on providing data from your website. The content editor is an optional feature, which you’ll learn more about below.
Searchmetrics stands out by giving you exact recommendations on keywords and content attributes. It also gives you a measure of your page’s health.
The platform’s main feature is a high-level site-wide technical control center that spots issues, tracks content changes, and checks potential crawl errors. All this so you can jump in and make important tweaks on time.
So, plan on upgrading your technical SEO, you won’t find this tool helpful.
Searchmetrics also allows cross-platform collaboration enabling you to share content briefs and edits into popular project management software where your team members are.
Searchmetrics starts at $79 per year. But to purchase a plan and use the platform, you’ll need to contact one of their agents, which can be very frustrating.
| SearchMetrics | Frase |
| Doesn’t offer AI writer with a base plan | Offers AI writer as an add-on |
| Features a high-level technical control center with a page health score | Only focuses on content score |
Page Optimizer Pro was also one of the well-known SEO tools on the market even before their AI overhaul. This tool is another excellent Frase alternative with a feature stack similar to Scalenut. But it places a heavy focus on on-page SEO.
The POP AI writer marries the platform’s native on-page optimization intelligence and the GPT-4 writing software. One great thing about POP’s AI writer is that it can edit and optimize existing pages on your website without needing to rewrite them from scratch.
Next, POP Watchdog is a page monitoring feature that monitors your pages’ performance. But it doesn’t stop there! It gives you actionable insights whenever ranking factors change. It also tells you what tweaks you can make to establish your ranking position should it drop.
POP’s Content Editor is another great feature that allows you to edit your content just like you would on your website content editor. At the same time, it gives you SEO suggestions along the way. You also get an optimization score, term counts, and advanced features like a private URL on higher tiers. This allows you to share edited content with your team members.
Page Optimizer Pro’s tool stack starts at $27 per month, and unlike Frase, you can access their AI writer. But unless you need the technical SEO tools, you’ll find POP more challenging than useful.
| Page Optimizer Pro | Frase |
| Features GPT-4 AI writer | Offers AI writing as an add-on |
| Provides detailed, actionable insights on improving page performance and monitoring | Doesn’t specify page monitoring |
Semrush is one of the most popular SEO tools on the market, but not for its writing assistant. Its Writing Assistant is a smart content editor that gives you deep insight into optimizing your content for search engines. You get keyword recommendations, a readability score to help improve your sentence and grammar structure, word count suggestions, and suggestions on tone.
The Semrush writing assistant also features a built-in plagiarism and originality checker to ensure your content is unique. However, unlike most tools on this list, the Semrush writing assistant doesn’t include a true AI writer and won’t create content for you. But you get to enjoy real-time data on the keyword strategies powering the top-ranking pages for your target topics.
At Outranking, we’re here to make sure your content is original every time! Here’s how you can take charge of your content’s uniqueness 👇
Also available as an add-on, you can export your content to Google Docs, MS Word, or WordPress. Although the Writing Assistant doesn’t have clear pricing, you can purchase the Guru plan for around $229 per month. True, that’s pricey, but it unlocks the full potential of Semrush.
| Semrush | Frase |
| is One of the most widely used tools on the market | Relatively newer platform |
| Includes a built-in plagiarism checker | Doesn’t include a plagiarism checker in the content editor |
The NeuronWriter platform offers you a content editor built to target user intent and helps you create content that makes the most sense. With NeuronWriter, you start with a keyword you want to rank for and get a detailed competitor analysis. This analysis is based on metrics like keyword difficulty, word count, etc.
NeuronWriter doesn’t have a writing assistant, but like Page Optimizer Pro, it features a GPT-4 integration to help you quickly create articles.
NeuronWriter also focuses on NLP optimization, giving you suggestions on NLP terms to include, including a content score to help you improve keyword match, use of semantic keywords, readability, and other important metrics.
But, like other NLP-focused content editors, the focus on keyword density isn’t helpful. Also, most of its other features are incredibly similar to SurferSEO.
Suppose you’re wondering what topic to write next or add new subheadings. In that case, the NeuronWriter gives you a cluster of trending topics from search engines — including Google, YouTube, and popular FAQs — to get the most relevant content.
NeuronWriter starts at €19 per month (about $21 per month). But only the higher tiers include plagiarism checks, integrations, and advanced AI templates.
| NeuronWriter | Frase |
| Features GPT-4 AI writer integration | Offers the AI writer as a paid add-on |
| Gives you great ‘Next Content Ideas’ | Only provides generic keyword clusters |
Outanking ensures your content writers and their content are on a high level. No more skimming competitor pages and trying to create rinse-n-repeat content! Unlike some of the other Frase alternatives above, Outranking comes with its plagiarism checker and auto-fix feature built in.
Next, Outranking helps you simplify your SEO writing workflow, with SEO titles, intent-based outlines, and briefs personalized to your brand. Outranking is also one of the few SEO tools that automatically insert internal links to properly distribute link juice among your pages.
When using Outranking to build a content strategy, the level of detail you get is unrivaled. We build keyword clusters with more information on volume, CPC, backlinks, SERP position, etc. You can also use Outranking to mock-crawl your website to find issues and fix them so you don’t lose your rankings on SERPs.
Finally, Outranking is one of the few SEO and on-page optimization tools with built-in collaboration tools — not just add-ons. Keep all your team members in sync effortlessly! See for yourself:
