SpyFu 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 2 for SpyFu, and ranks ahead in 50% of the answers that name both.

Choose SpyFu if…

You want a lower entry price ($39 vs $49)
competitor keyword intelligence
PPC intelligence

Choose Surfer if…

You want the brand AI engines rank higher (12 vs 2)
AI answers describe it more positively (43% vs 33% positive)
You prefer a larger, established vendor (51–200 employees)
Content optimization focus

AI visibility side by side

Latest weekly run · Nov 2

Metric	SpyFu	Surfer
Visibility score	2%	12%
Change vs last week	New	New
Rank in SEO Tools	#27	#8
Share of voice	1.1%	4.4%
Mentions this run	6	23
Positive in AI answers	33%	43%

The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.

Visibility score trend

Weekly runs over the last 60 days

SpyFu 0pp · Surfer 0pp over 0 weekly runs.

Engine by engine

Surfer leads on 3 of 3 engines

ChatGPT

3.1%

11.1%

AI Mode

1.1%

9.4%

Perplexity

1.9%

15.6%

SpyFuSurfer

Head to head in AI answers

4 engine answers name both brands

2SpyFu ranked higher

2Surfer ranked higher

Prompt	Engine	SpyFu	Surfer
What are the best SEO Tools tools in 2026?	ChatGPT	#9	#5
Compare the leading SEO Tools platforms	Perplexity	#9	#7
Official website of the top SEO tool vendors	ChatGPT	#9	#12
Official website of the top SEO tool vendors	Perplexity	#10	#11

Features, pricing & fit

Dimension	SpyFu	Surfer
Pricing model	Flat tiers	Flat tiers
Entry price	$39 / mo	$49 / mo
Free plan	No	No
Deployment	Runs on dedicated bare-metal servers from phoenixNAP	—
Support	Email, Live chat, Phone	Customer Support (24h, Mon–Fri), Knowledge Base, Surfer Academy, Personalized Onboarding
Founded	2005	—
Headquarters	Scottsdale, Arizona, United States	Wrocław, Poland
Employees	11–50	51–200
Funding	Other Investors (latest listed round)	—
Best for	Marketers and agencies doing competitor SEO and Google Ads research	Marketing and SEO teams, agencies, in-house content teams and individual content creators who want to grow organic traffic from Google and AI search.