AnswerThePublic vs Surfer
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Surfer is the stronger AI pick in SEO Tools: it has a visibility score of 12 versus 0.4 for AnswerThePublic, and ranks ahead in 100% of the answers that name both.
Choose AnswerThePublic if…
- You want a free plan to start
- AI answers describe it more positively (100% vs 43% positive)
Choose Surfer if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (12 vs 0.4)
- Content optimization focus
- Strong AI search visibility
- High ratings on G2 and Capterra
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 2
| Metric | AnswerThePublic | Surfer |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 0.4% | 12% |
| Change vs last week | New | New |
| Rank in SEO Tools | #41 | #8 |
| Share of voice | 0.2% | 4.4% |
| Mentions this run | 1 | 23 |
| Positive in AI answers | 100% | 43% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
AnswerThePublic 0pp · Surfer 0pp over 0 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Surfer leads on 3 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
1 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | AnswerThePublic | Surfer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top SEO tool options for B2B SaaS companies | AI Mode | #7 | #6 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | AnswerThePublic | Surfer |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat tiers | Flat tiers |
| Entry price | Free; paid from $10 / mo | $49 / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Support | Priority customer support | Customer Support (24h, Mon–Fri), Knowledge Base, Surfer Academy, Personalized Onboarding |
| Headquarters | — | Wrocław, Poland |
| Employees | — | 51–200 |
| Funding | Pre-sale round | — |
| Best for | Entrepreneurs, consultants and small businesses that need fast keyword and question data to build content strategies, along with teams that monitor business searches | Marketing and SEO teams, agencies, in-house content teams and individual content creators who want to grow organic traffic from Google and AI search. |
Plans side by side
AnswerThePublic
Surfer
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
AnswerThePublic
Profile in progress.
Surfer
- Content optimization focus
- Strong AI search visibility
- High ratings on G2 and Capterra
- Scalable optimization for content teams
- Limited backlink research
- Fewer reviews than Semrush
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “AnswerThePublic vs Surfer”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/answerthepublic-vs-surfer, data of Nov 2, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.