# Yoast SEO — SEO

Yoast SEO by Yoast BV holds a panel rating of 1.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2.5/5), as of 2026-10-21. Provenance: provenance unknown; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Yoast BV (https://yoast.com)
- Category: [SEO](https://whats-best.ai/software/seo.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): provenance unknown
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/yoast-seo
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/yoast-seo/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/yoast-seo/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-21 · evaluated 2026-10-21 · oldest source captured 2026-10-20

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Yoast BV
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

Yoast SEO is a WordPress and Shopify plugin judged strongest on pricing transparency (5 to 7) and data portability (3 to 6): every tier carries a public price with VAT treatment stated — €118.80 / year (ex. VAT) for Premium, €178.80 / year (ex. VAT) for WooCommerce SEO, €358.80 / year (ex. VAT) for AI+, $19 / 30 days (ex. VAT) for Shopify — alongside a free plugin, and its data sits in the customer's own database. Keyword and content and reporting and API both sit at 4, on per-post keyphrase and readability analysis with Semrush keyword figures and a documented REST API. Weakest are technical audit (1 to 2), where the captured pages document crawl hygiene toggles rather than a site crawler, and rank and index data (0 to 1), where performance figures arrive through Site Kit by Google. Sovereignty spans 1 to 3 with no sovereignty attributes on record. The judges split on data portability: five scored 6 while the in-house SEO lead scored 3, over whether current-state exports suffice when no retention period is stated.

**Speaks for it:**
- Public prices with VAT treatment stated for every tier — €118.80 / year (ex. VAT) for Premium, €178.80 / year (ex. VAT) for WooCommerce SEO, €358.80 / year (ex. VAT) for AI+, $19 / 30 days (ex. VAT) for Shopify.
- A free WordPress plugin, a 14-day Shopify trial and a published refund policy.
- Focus keyphrase with synonyms plus up to four related keyphrases, multilingual readability analysis, and Semrush search volume, intent, difficulty and trend figures.
- A documented REST API included in the free plugin, delivering metadata in two output formats to any frontend framework.
- SEO data stored in the customer's own WordPress database, with keyphrase and redirects CSV export and settings transfer between sites.

**Held against it:**
- Captured pages document crawl hygiene toggles rather than a site crawler, and the vendor states its crawl settings 'do not have any effect on the crawl rate of a website'.
- Performance metrics arrive through Site Kit by Google and keyword figures through Semrush, with no public information on a proprietary rank or backlink index.
- No sovereignty attributes on record beyond contracting entity Yoast BV and a published privacy policy, with no public information on hosting location, subprocessors, certification or a data processing agreement.
- We found no public information on how many sites a license covers, on seat costs, or on renewal pricing.
- We found no public information on scheduled or white-label reports, multi-client management or stated API rate limits.

**Best for:**
- You run content on WordPress and want per-post keyphrase and readability feedback with Semrush keyword figures.
- You are building a headless frontend and need SEO metadata delivered through an API in the free plugin.
- You want your SEO data to live in your own database with CSV exports and settings transfer between sites.
- You want every tier priced publicly with VAT treatment stated before you commit.

**Avoid if:**
- You need a crawler-driven technical audit of your site, with Core Web Vitals or issue prioritisation.
- You need rank tracking or backlink data collected by the vendor itself.
- Your procurement requires a documented hosting location, subprocessor list or certification.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price.

| Criterion | The In-House SEO Lead | The Agency Owner | The Technical SEO | The Content Strategist | The Data Analyst | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Crawling & technical audit | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Keyword research & content guidance | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Rank tracking & index quality | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Reporting, integrations & API | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Data portability & exit | 1.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| European sovereignty | 0.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **1.5/5** | **2/5** | **2/5** | **1.5/5** | **2/5** | **1.5/5** |

### The judges

- **The In-House SEO Lead** (v1.0): Owns organic traffic for one large German site and reports on it monthly. Wants German-language keyword data that is not an afterthought, rankings she can defend when they disagree with Search Console, and audit findings specific enough to become a developer ticket.
- **The Agency Owner** (v1.0): Runs forty client sites and rebills the licence. Wants multi-client management, white-label reports a client can receive unedited, and per-seat costs that do not punish a growing team. Reads "contact us" on a pricing page as a margin problem.
- **The Technical SEO** (v1.0): Lives in crawl data and log files. Wants JavaScript rendering, crawl budget analysed, indexation diagnosed rather than listed, and regressions caught between crawls. Treats an issue list sorted by count rather than by traffic impact as busywork.
- **The Content Strategist** (v1.0): Decides what gets written and can only commission so much. Wants topic clusters, honest opportunity sizing, cannibalisation caught before it happens, and briefs scored against what actually ranks rather than against keyword density.
- **The Data Analyst** (v1.0): Wants the numbers in the warehouse, not in a PDF. Cares about a documented API with published credit costs, bulk historical export, and whether three years of ranking history leaves with the customer or dies with the subscription.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Knows every vendor claims the largest index and the most accurate rankings, and that no buyer can check either. Reads instead for what can be held to: refresh frequency, stated limits, credit costs per endpoint, and what the invoice does when the team adds a seat.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

No sovereignty finding yet.

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Integrations**
- Google docs addon: yes [S1]
- Products: Yoast SEO · Yoast SEO for Shopify · Yoast SEO Premium · Yoast SEO AI+ · Yoast WooCommerce SEO · Yoast SEO Google Docs Add-On [S5]
- Refund policy: yes [S10]
- Site kit: Site Kit by Google · yes · yes [S9]

**Legal**
- Company: Yoast BV · Yoast BV [S5]
- Copyright: Yoast BV [S4]
- Customer count: 13+ million [S1]
- Entity: Yoast BV · Yoast BV [S1]
- Entity: Yoast BV [S2]
- Entity: Yoast BV [S3]
- Entity: Yoast · Yoast BV [S6]
- Entity: Yoast BV [S8]
- Entity: Yoast BV [S10]
- Entity: Yoast BV [S11]
- Policies: Terms of service · Terms of use · Cookie notice · Refund policy · Review notice · Report abuse [S1]
- Privacy policy: yes [S1]

**Pricing**
- AI plus includes: WooCommerce SEO features plus AI brand monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude; brand reputation monitoring; full on page and technical SEO; Academy and 24/7 support [S1]
- AI plus now includes: Google Docs Add-on, WooCommerce SEO, Premium, Local SEO, News SEO, Video SEO [S1]
- AI plus price: Yoast SEO AI+ · 358.8 · yes · year [S1]
- AI plus price: excluded · 358.8 [S8]
- Free availability: yes · yes [S2]
- Premium includes: free features plus AI-enhanced optimization, internal linking suggestions, redirect automation, Yoast SEO Academy access, 24/7 support [S1]
- Premium includes: Local SEO · Video SEO · News SEO [S5]
- Premium price: Yoast SEO Premium · 118.8 · yes · year [S1]
- Premium price: 118.8 · yes [S2]
- Premium price: 118.8 · yes · year [S4]
- Premium price: Yoast SEO Premium · 118.8 · yes [S3]
- Premium price: excluded · 118.8 · year [S5]
- Premium price: yes · Yoast SEO Premium · EUR · 118.8 [S7]
- Premium price: excluded · 118.8 [S8]
- Premium price: 118.8 · yes · EUR · year [S10]
- Premium price: 118.8 · yes · year [S11]
- Shopify free trial: Yoast SEO for Shopify · 14 [S1]
- Shopify price: Yoast SEO for Shopify · 19 · yes · 30 days [S1]
- Woocommerce includes: Premium features plus product visibility, AI product titles/descriptions, tailored product page SEO analysis, Academy access, 24/7 support [S1]
- Woocommerce now includes: Google Docs Add-on, Local SEO, News SEO, Video SEO [S1]
- Woocommerce SEO price: Yoast WooCommerce SEO · 178.8 · yes · year [S1]
- Woocommerce SEO price: excluded · 178.8 [S8]

**Product**
- Academy: Yoast SEO Academy online courses, free and premium [S1]
- Advanced tab: indexing control, robots follow, meta robots tags, canonical [S5]
- Advanced tab admin only: administrators · yes [S5]
- AI brand insights shopify: AI Brand Insights available with Yoast SEO AI+ for Shopify [S1]
- AI suggestions: AI-powered generation of optimized titles, descriptions and content [S1]
- Automatic reindexing on save: SEO data is automatically added or updated whenever content or metadata is saved [S7]
- Block useless urls: yes [S2]
- Cleanup settings: yes [S2]
- Content blocks: AI Summarize · Table of contents [S5]
- Crawl optimization purpose: Crawl optimization settings let users omit URLs without SEO value to make crawling more efficient and reduce carbon footprint [S3]
- Crawl settings: Crawl settings let you discard resources and URLs automatically added by WordPress to make the site easier to crawl [S2]
- Crawl settings crawl rate: no [S3]
- Crawl settings location: WordPress Dashboard > Yoast SEO > Settings > Advanced > Crawl optimization [S3]
- Crawl settings ranking effect: no [S3]
- CSV import redirects: CSV import/export of redirects at scale [S10]
- CSV template: yes [S10]
- Dashboard filters: Filterable by content type and category [S9]
- Dashboard inclusion: Yoast SEO · Yoast SEO Premium · Yoast WooCommerce SEO · Yoast SEO AI+ · Yoast SEO for Shopify [S9]
- Dashboard location: WordPress sidebar under Yoast SEO menu [S9]
- Dashboard metrics: impressions · clicks · CTR · average position · organic sessions [S9]
- Dashboard scores: Site-wide SEO and readability scores dashboard [S9]
- Developer abilities: read/update post SEO data via code or AI agents [S5]
- Feature in premium: Yoast SEO Premium [S10]
- Feature parity in release: actual features won't change with the 14.0 release [S6]
- Feed control: yes [S2]
- Filter search terms: Toggle to filter internal site search terms [S3]
- Focus keyphrase: set focus keyphrase enabling full SEO analysis [S5]
- Free plugin: Yoast SEO free WordPress plugin · yes [S1]
- Headless metadata delivery: yes · titles · descriptions · schema [S8]
- Htaccess import: yes [S10]
- Http status codes: 301 · 302 · 307 · 410 · 451 [S10]
- Import other plugins: HeadSpace2, All-in-One SEO, Jetpack SEO [S11]
- Indexables metadata database: Indexables store all page metadata in a separate database table, fetching metadata in one database request [S7]
- Indexables rebuild: full re-build of all front-end code aimed at improving efficiency, removing bugs and increasing speed [S6]
- Insights premium: Premium · Insights tab with most frequent words overview [S5]
- Internal linking premium: Premium · internal linking suggestions [S5]
- Internal linking tips: Indexables give tips on improving internal linking [S7]
- Keyphrase export: CSV · yes · yes · keyphrase scores · URLs · titles · SEO titles · meta descriptions · readability scores [S11]
- Keyword difficulty scale: Keyword Difficulty ranges from 0% to 100%, measuring how hard it is to rank in the top ten [S4]
- New data table: Yoast SEO 14.0 stores data in a new table; post meta kept up to date so they can move back or re-import if needed [S6]
- Page speed benefit: Pages load faster and search engines understand the site better [S7]
- Platforms: WordPress · Shopify [S4]
- Premium audience: Entrepreneurs and in-house marketing teams [S9]
- Premium features: AI-enhanced optimization · internal linking suggestions · redirect automation · Yoast SEO Academy access · 24/7 support [S9]
- Premium includes: Includes Local SEO, Video SEO & News SEO [S4]
- Premium internal linking workout: Internal linking workout in Yoast SEO Premium suggests related posts and pages to link from [S7]
- Premium orphaned content workout: Orphaned content workout lets you decide which content to update, delete or remove from search engines [S7]
- Premium reviews: 4.6 · 819 [S4]
- Premium support: 24/7 [S9]
- Premium upgrade answer: yes [S6]
- Premium upgrade from free: switching from free to premium Yoast should not cause problems with keyword meta tag and title [S6]
- Prevent crawling search urls: Option to add robots.txt disallow rule for internal site search URLs [S3]
- Prevent spam attacks: yes [S2]
- Products list: Yoast SEO · Yoast SEO for Shopify · Yoast SEO Premium · Yoast SEO AI+ · Yoast WooCommerce SEO · Yoast SEO Google Docs Add-On [S6]
- Readability analysis: readability analysis · yes [S5]
- Readability location: Readability analysis page has full details [S9]
- Readability score definition: Readability score based on sentence length, paragraph structure, transition words [S9]
- Real time content analysis: real-time content analysis feedback [S1]
- Redirect pretty search urls: Option to redirect pretty search URLs format to raw format, preserving query params and pagination [S3]
- Redirects import export: yes · yes · CSV · other redirect plugins · CSV file · .htaccess file [S11]
- Redirects internal linking: redirect suggestions and internal linking [S1]
- Refund policy: yes [S1]
- Regex redirect import: yes [S10]
- Related keyphrase premium: Premium · related keyphrase and synonym analysis [S5]
- Related keyphrases limit: 4 [S4]
- Release 14 0 date: Yoast SEO 14.0 · April 28th (2020) [S6]
- Release cadence: every 2 weeks [S6]
- Remove atom rdf feeds: Toggle to remove Atom/RDF feed formats [S3]
- Remove category feeds: Toggle to remove category feeds [S3]
- Remove custom taxonomy feeds: Toggle to remove custom taxonomy feeds [S3]
- Remove emoji scripts: Toggle to remove emoji scripts JavaScript [S3]
- Remove generator tag: Toggle to remove WordPress version generator tag [S3]
- Remove global comments feed: Toggle to remove global comments feed; also disables post comments feeds [S3]
- Remove global feed: Toggle to remove global feed [S3]
- Remove oembed links: Toggle to remove oEmbed links from head of single posts [S3]
- Remove pingback header: Toggle to remove X-Pingback HTTP header [S3]
- Remove post author feeds: Toggle to remove post author feeds [S3]
- Remove post comments feed: Toggle to remove per-post comments feed, linked to global comments toggle [S3]
- Remove post type feeds: Toggle to remove post type feeds [S3]
- Remove powered by header: Toggle to remove PHP version info from response header [S3]
- Remove rest API links: Toggle to remove REST API links from head [S3]
- Remove rsd wlw links: Toggle to remove RSD/WLW links [S3]
- Remove search results feeds: Toggle to remove search results feeds [S3]
- Remove shortlinks: Toggle to remove shortlink output from head [S3]
- Remove tag feeds: Toggle to remove tag feeds [S3]
- Remove wp json API: Toggle adding robots.txt disallow rule for WordPress JSON API endpoints [S3]
- Rest API documentation: 0 [S8]
- Rest API frameworks: any frontend framework [S8]
- Rest API free: yes [S8]
- Rest API included plans: Yoast SEO · Yoast SEO Premium · Yoast WooCommerce SEO · Yoast SEO AI+ [S8]
- Rest API no extra plugins: no · no [S8]
- Rest API output formats: prefabricated meta tag and schema bundle · raw key/value data [S8]
- Rest API structured data: yes · yes · yes [S8]

**Support**
- Channels: email · chat · self-help resources [S1]
- Channels list: 24/7 Premium Support · Yoast SEO WordPress help · Yoast SEO Shopify guide · Yoast SEO training · Developer Documentation · SEO Checker [S6]
- Developer documentation: yes [S1]
- Free forums: yes [S1]
- Free plugin: a free version of the plugin exists [S6]
- Help center: yes [S1]
- Help page: https://yoa.st/support [S6]
- Premium 24 7: 24/7 · yes · premium subscription [S1]
- Premium 24 7: 24/7 Premium Support offered [S3]
- Premium 24 7: 24/7 [S8]
- Premium 24 7: Premium · 24/7 [S11]
- Premium availability: 24/7 support for Premium [S4]
- Premium support: Premium · 24/7 [S2]
- Premium support: Premium · 24/7 [S5]
- Premium support 247: 24/7 · yes [S10]
- Reviews: 819 · 4.6 [S5]

20 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/yoast-seo

## Questions

### Is Yoast SEO European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Yoast SEO is based.

### Where does Yoast SEO store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026.

### Does Yoast SEO have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Yoast SEO?

As of 21 Oct 2026, the panel rates [SE Ranking (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/se-ranking), [Semrush (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/semrush) and [SISTRIX (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/sistrix) highest among the other 32 SEO products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [SISTRIX](https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/sistrix) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Yoast SEO alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/yoast-seo/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- We found no public information on compliance on the pages we read (yoast.com, yoast.com/features/crawl-settings, yoast.com/help/yoast-seo-settings-crawl-optimization, yoast.com/keyword-research-yoast-seo-semrush, yoast.com/help/optimize-your-content-with-yoast-seo-sidebar, yoast.com/indexables and 5 more). If the vendor publishes it somewhere else, send us the page.
- 5 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 4 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 legal fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor page: https://yoast.com (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S2] Crawling & technical audit — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/features/crawl-settings/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S3] Crawling & technical audit — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/help/yoast-seo-settings-crawl-optimization/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S4] Keyword research & content guidance — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/keyword-research-yoast-seo-semrush/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S5] Keyword research & content guidance — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/help/optimize-your-content-with-yoast-seo-sidebar/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S6] Rank tracking & index quality — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/indexables/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S7] Rank tracking & index quality — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/innovations/indexables/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S8] Reporting, integrations & API — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/features/rest-api/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S9] Reporting, integrations & API — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/features/seo-dashboard/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S10] Data portability & exit — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/features/redirect-manager/csv-import-export/ (checked 2026-10-20)
- [S11] Data portability & exit — found from sitemap: https://yoast.com/help/yoast-seo-tools-import-and-export/ (checked 2026-10-20)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Yoast SEO — SEO", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-21. https://whats-best.ai/software/seo/yoast-seo

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/952?target=page