Rank Math vs Yoast SEO

Rank Math and Yoast SEO are both WordPress SEO plugins, but they draw the line between free and paid in very different places. Rank Math's free version supports up to five focus keywords per post and ships with 16+ built-in schema types; Yoast's free version caps you at a single focus keyphrase and reserves its wider schema options for Premium.

Both plugins generate meta tags, XML sitemaps, and schema automatically as you publish, and both offer a way to see search performance data through Google Search Console. Rank Math's pitch is free-tier depth across the board; Yoast's is a guided, AI-assisted writing workflow bundled into a $118.80/year Premium subscription with the largest install base of any WordPress SEO plugin behind it.

Quick verdict: Choose Rank Math if you want a deeper free tier — multiple focus keywords, 16+ schema types, and Search Console data built in at no cost. Choose Yoast SEO if you want the most widely used option with an AI-assisted writing workflow and don't mind paying $118.80/year for its Premium-only tools.

Rank Math vs Yoast SEO at a glance

Numbers above are StatWP's own estimates, derived from WordPress.org's bucketed reporting rather than an exact figure the directory publishes, and update automatically rather than reflecting a fixed snapshot.

Feature and starting price at a glance

Rank Math's price is quoted in EUR directly from its own pricing page; Yoast's is confirmed in USD from its own pricing page. Currencies aren't directly comparable without a live exchange rate, but the structural gap below holds regardless.

Yoast's $118.80/year licenses exactly one site. Rank Math's Pro tier, at €7.99/month, covers an unlimited number of personal sites — for anyone running more than one personal WordPress property, that's a materially different price-per-site even before counting the free-tier keyword and schema gap above.

Worth noting: Yoast SEO's free version limits you to exactly one focus keyphrase per page — targeting a second phrase requires the $118.80/year Premium plan. Rank Math's free version supports five focus keywords out of the box, with no paid upgrade required to go beyond one. Swap the plugin names in that sentence and it stops being true: Rank Math didn't build its reputation on a stingy free tier, and Yoast's free/paid line is drawn specifically at that one-keyphrase limit.

What does Rank Math actually do?

Rank Math's own site leans on packing capability into the free tier:

• An SEO Analyzer running 30 diagnostic tests against known ranking factors.

• A free-tier Search Console integration surfacing keyword impressions and click data, with a dedicated multi-keyword Rank Tracker (500+ keywords, 12-month history) available in Pro.

• 16+ schema markup types free, including FAQ and HowTo, expanding past 20 with Pro's advanced schema builder.

• Google Search Console integration and one-click migration tools from competing SEO plugins.

It positions itself as “the most powerful way to get the BEST SEO tools for WordPress,” with feature breadth as the central pitch.

What does Yoast SEO actually do?

Yoast's own site leans on guided workflow and AI-assisted content help rather than raw feature count:

• Real-time SEO and readability guidance while writing.

• Automated redirect management for moved or deleted content.

• AI-drafted titles, meta descriptions, and content plans (Premium).

• Schema aggregation aimed at AI-readiness, plus a bot blocker to control which AI systems can use site content.

Yoast markets Premium specifically as reducing the expertise needed - “tells you what to fix, drafts what's missing” - rather than adding raw feature count for its own sake.

What features does each one have that the other doesn't?

Rank Math's advantage is free-tier depth - multiple focus keywords and deep schema support that Yoast reserves for Premium are available in Rank Math's free version.

Yoast's advantage is its AI-drafting workflow and bot-blocker tooling, aimed squarely at the current shift toward AI-driven search and content scraping - a more recent, narrower focus than Rank Math's broader free feature set.

Which should you actually use?

If you want multiple focus keywords, extensive schema, and Search Console data without paying for a premium tier, Rank Math's free version already covers that ground. If you'd rather have a guided, AI-assisted writing workflow and don't mind paying for it, Yoast Premium's more editorial approach - plus the largest support community of any WordPress SEO plugin - is the more mainstream default.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Rank Math and Yoast SEO?

Rank Math includes more advanced features - multiple focus keywords, extensive schema - in its free version. Yoast SEO keeps a narrower free tier, capped at one focus keyphrase, and reserves features like multiple-keyphrase optimization and AI-drafted content for its paid Premium version.

Is Rank Math better than Yoast SEO?

For free-tier feature depth, yes - Rank Math includes more for free. Yoast SEO holds a larger install base and a longer track record, and its Premium tier adds AI-assisted drafting Rank Math's free tier doesn't match.

Can I switch from Yoast SEO to Rank Math without losing my SEO data?

Rank Math includes a one-click migration tool specifically built to import settings and metadata from other SEO plugins, including Yoast.

Does Yoast SEO have a free version?

Yes - the core plugin is free, capped at one focus keyphrase per page, with Premium adding multiple keyphrases, AI content drafting, and included add-ons for local, video, and news SEO.

Does Rank Math track keyword rankings for free?

Not with a dedicated rank tracker. Rank Math's free version surfaces Search Console impressions and click data inside WordPress, but its own site lists the actual Rank Tracker - up to 500 keywords with a 12-month history - as a Pro feature.

See the live, current numbers for either plugin any time on StatWP's Rank Math page or StatWP's Yoast SEO page, or run this comparison yourself with StatWP's compare tool.