Best AnswerThePublic Alternatives & Competitors for 2023 [Compared]

HomeCategoriesContent MarketingAnswerThePublic

Alternatives

Our Top Picks

All AnswerThePublic Alternatives

Compare

Are you looking for a top alternative to AnswerThePublic?

First and foremost, AnswerThePublic is one of the best keyword research tools when it comes to understanding your target audience.

It's a favorite for bloggers and known for it's ease of use and ability to generate multiple relevant topic ideas.

However, it might not be the perfect tool for everyone.

There are some factors which may push a user to look for other alternatives to this tool.

To start with, it doesn't include search engines other than Bing and Google.

Users who want unlimited searches may feel its too pricey as this option is only available with a monthly subscription.

Others feel its less technical and in-depth than other keyword research tools.

We will take a closer look at 10 AnswerThePublic alternatives, both free and paid, highlight their functions, and lastly, look at how they compare and differ in this guide.

Answer The Public Alternatives

1. Semrush Keyword Magic Tool

The SEO powerhouse Semrush, has several keyword research tools, one of which is their industry-leading Keyword Magic Tool.

Claiming to have the largest keyword database available, SEMrush has access to 20 billion keywords and can be harnessed for both PPC and organic search campaigns.

The Keyword Magic Tool is also smart at understanding which keywords are semantically related to one another. This alone will save you plenty of time and energy since many other keyword research tools are not so skilled in this area.

In 2020, Semrush introduced a new feature to the Keyword Magic Tool; Mini Keyword Overview. It allows users to get keyword overview metrics right near their keyword which allows one to save time on assessing keyword potential.

Price: Pro Plans are $119.95/month. A Guru Plan is $229.95/month while a Business Plan is $499.95/month.

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Discover how difficult it would be to outrank your competitors in Google’s top 20 for your target keyword.	You can’t save keywords within the platform-you can only export them as an Excel file.
Accurate search volume metrics show you how many monthly searches there are for any given keyword.	SEMrush only accounts for Google searches, it doesn’t account for any other search engines.
View keywords in topic-specific subgroups and identify related long-tail keywords.	The user interface is quite complex and requires some prior knowledge of SEO.
Identify less competitive long-tail keywords and key phrases that are generally easier to rank for.	No filtering by city, only by country, which is a downside if localized data is important to your business.
Keyword Gap feature shows you which keywords your competitor sites rank for that your site doesn’t.	Full access to the Keyword Magic Tool is only through a pricey subscription to the platform.

Best for: Businesses looking for a complete SEO toolkit that comes with one of the industry’s most powerful and accurate keyword research tools.

2. Ahrefs Keyword Generator

Ahrefs is another great Answer The Public alternative if you’re looking for seriously in-depth keyword research that will kickstart any SEO content strategy.

With their own keyword database of over 10 billion keywords in 170 countries, Ahrefs is one of the SEO market leaders when it comes to offering the best keyword research tool.

Enter a seed keyword and Ahrefs will load up to 150 related keywords as well as 50 question related phrases.

Ahrefs also tells you how hard it will be to rank for certain keywords, providing a difficulty metric that shows you how many backlinks you’ll need to rank.

Price: Keyword Generator Tool is free for limited searches without many of the filters. If you want access to the full scope of the tool as well as other Ahrefs SEO tools you’ll have to pay for a subscription.

A Lite Plan for just 1 user is $99/month with plans increasing depending on the number of users and sites. A top tier agency plan is $999/month.

Ahrefs Keyword Generator vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Identify keyword ideas for Amazon, YouTube and Bing as well as Google.	Platform can be overwhelming if you’re new to SEO.
View the monthly search volume, as well as the Keyword Difficulty Score which estimates ranking difficulty on a scale of 1-100 for each keyword.	User interface can appear dated and clunky.
Relies on Clickstream data to provide unique click metrics.	Doesn’t make relevant content suggestions.
Filtering system is weaker than other platforms like SE Cockpit.	Competitor analysis of keywords isn’t included in the free version.
Questions feature is weaker than other user query focused keyword research tools.	Viewing all keyword suggestions requires a full-priced monthly subscription to Ahrefs.

Best for: Businesses and agencies who want an all-in-one SEO toolkit and are happy to fork out for a high priced monthly subscription.

3. Moz Keyword Explorer

Moz’s Keyword Explorer is an excellent Answer The Public alternative if you’re looking to carry out thorough keyword research.

With a database of 500 million keywords, Moz has a solid foundation of keyword research. Known for their in-house created Keyword Difficulty metric, it’s much easier to know which keywords to target.

Each keyword search will bring up around 1000 keyword suggestions along with SERP analysis.

One of the best things about Moz is that their search volume rates and CTRs are highly accurate.

Price: A freemium version allows up to 10 searches a month, otherwise you’ll need to pay for a full subscription to Moz Pro. $99/month for their standard plan with other plans ranging in price up until premium costing $599/month.

Moz Keyword Explorer vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Easy to navigate with a clear user-friendly layout.	Only English international keyword results.
Strong keyword search accuracy.	No ability to target specific local regions which is bad news for local businesses.
An organic competition metric helps you select keywords with less competition.	No monthly keyword data available.
Create saved keyword lists to refer to later.	No integration with Google Sheets.
The ‘are questions’ filter helps you build relevant content plans.	Can’t view desktop versus mobile monthly trends.

Best for: Businesses looking for user-friendly keyword research tools that come with plenty of helpful resources to kickstart an SEO strategy.

4. Wordtracker Scout

If you’re just getting started with keyword research, remember to consider how the competition approaches their keyword strategy.

Sometimes the competition can provide the best keyword data you need to enhance your own SEO strategy.

While you can obviously snoop around on your competitors’ sites and figure out some of their keywords, this is a time consuming and tedious task.

You’re also only human so will probably miss out a few keywords no matter how hard you look.

Install the Chrome extension Wordtracker Scout and all you have to do is hover over the competition’s content, press W and you’ll generate a word cloud of their top-performing keywords.

Their keyword generator has access to 320 million Wordtracker keywords and an additional 95 million search engine keywords powered by Semrush.

Price: There’s a free browser extension while access to their keyword generator starts at $27/month for a Bronze Plan with a top tier Gold Plan costing $99/month.

Wordtracker Scout vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Easy to uncover your competitors’ top used keywords for each web page.	No user queries provided.
Analyze keyword performance metrics to guide your strategy.	No seasonal data or cumulative month data.
Simple user interface makes it suitable for users with all levels of SEO knowledge.	Despite the pricey monthly subscription, there are no other SEO features offered, only keyword research.
View metrics like search volume, competition and their own opportunity metric.	Help resources could be improved to be more detailed for first-time users.
Produces up to 2,000 keywords in just one search.	Data can be inaccurate or irrelevant.

Best for: Businesses looking for a highly in-depth keyword research tool that is similar to SEMrush without paying the more expensive price tag.

5. Keyword Tool Dominator

Keyword Tool Dominator Landing Page Snippet

While Google gets all the glory when it comes to search engine results, it’s important not to forget about other search engines that could be equally important sources of organic traffic for your site.

Keyword Tool Dominator identifies the top 10 searched keywords on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Google, Walmart, and YouTube.

This is a great keyword research tool if your business is an eCommerce company and you’re looking to write optimized product descriptions for your site.

Price: A freemium option gives users up to 2 daily keyword searches per search engine. For unlimited access to the full suite of keyword research tools, Keyword Tool Dominator offer an E-commerce bundle at $79 and a Keyword Tool Suite at $139.

Keyword Tool Dominator vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Simple for anyone to use whether that’s seasoned SEO pros or beginners.	No monthly payment plans, only lifetime payments.
Accurately reflects what users are searching for, making keywords highly relevant for your target audience.	No search volume metrics.
Data is updated in real-time from each marketplace.	Freemium version is limited to just 2 searches per day.
Easily identify less competitive long-tail keywords by leveraging the autocomplete databases of different search engines.	The browser extension only works on Google Chrome.
Search across 16 different Amazon Marketplaces.	Layout is basic and outdated.

Best for: eCommerce businesses looking to fully optimize product descriptions and product-related content on their site.

6. QuestionDB

Closely comparable, QuestionDB is a direct Answer The Public alternative. Identifying questions users are entering into search engines, QuestionDB uses Reddit to source these user queries.

Users often post more personal or in-depth questions on Reddit, and harnessing the platform is a great way of uncovering people’s concerns that they want answers to.

Reddit can also be an online gathering space for those with more niche interests or ideas so if your business falls into a niche industry it’s likely there are relevant sub-threads.

Use QuestionDB to source new topics for blog posts and other content.

Price: A freemium version gives you up to 10 searches per day while a Pro Plan offers unlimited searches for $10/month.

QuestionDB vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Access a database of over 48 million questions.	Some of the questions aren’t related to the keyword or phrase entered.
Identify unique niche angles to your content by using Reddit as opposed to Google or an equivalent search engine.	Limited information source and simplistic nature of the tool means you’ll want to use it in combination with other keyword research tools.
Sort results by popularity so you answer users’ most pressing questions.	No keyword metrics provided.
Export relevant data as a CSV.	More of a topic research guide as opposed to serious keyword research.
Easy to use for beginners.	Doesn’t bring up results for more unique or less popular topics.

Best for: Businesses in niche industries looking to identify content gaps on their site and create ultra-relevant content that’s useful.

7. WordStream

WordStream has some of the most powerful keyword research tools in the SEO marketplace and is an excellent Answer The Public alternative if you’re looking to get serious about content and keyword research.

With access to a staggering 1 trillion keywords, WordStream puts its money where its mouth is.

Handling so much data, you might assume the user interface would be overwhelming but WordStream manages to keep things simple, presenting keywords in a visually appealing format. ‍

The best thing about WordStream though is that it’s free for the first 30 searches.

Price: Free with limitations or custom pricing depending on number of daily searches.

WordStream vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Install their Create SEO Content browser extension and receive instant suggestions for target keyword suggestions.	Some users may not like the idea of providing an email address.
Identify keywords with lower competition levels with the Niche Finder Tool.	Site can be sluggish and run slowly when you’re performing searches.
Filter keyword results by industry and location.	Keyword research is limited to search engines - no keyword research for video, shopping or app ads.
Share your email address and receive all the keywords directly to your inbox.	Seems like Google Adwords but only rebranded.
Search volume, CPC and competition metrics are provided.	Tools can seem basic to SEO pros.

Best for: Small businesses who already have a site with some content and want to increase their keyword research without going too in-depth.

8. SE Cockpit

If you find other keyword research tools too simplistic and you’re ready to dive deeply into complex keyword research, SE Cockpit could be the right Answer The Public alternative.

Like many other keyword research tools, first, you need to give the platform a seed keyword and it will generate a list of keywords for you to choose from.

Unlike other keyword research tools, SE Cockpit will give you loads of details when it comes to organic competition, traffic estimates and search trends.

If you’re used to Google Keyword Planner, a lot of the data and metrics will look familiar since CPC, monthly searches and phrases are all directly pulled from the platform.

Price: A Personal Plan starts at $25/month while a top tier Agency Plan is $75/month.

SE Cockpit vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Use over 100 filters to find the keywords you want to use - eg. filter for keywords that only get above 20k searches each month.	Requires a steep learning curve to adjust to the huge variety of technical features.
View a ratio of the keyword’s competition compared to its search volume.	The interface can feel the opposite of user friendly and appear very clunky and difficult to use.
Find out how difficult it is to rank for any given keyword based on the top 10 results.	Doesn’t help with question-related keywords, you’ll have to identify user queries from the keywords yourself.
View important competition metrics for the top 10 pages in the results including total backlinks and Moz Domain Authority.	Not really beginner-friendly.
Simple bar metrics consider the monthly search volume, first-page competition, and commercial intent for each keyword.	Results are pulled from free Google SEO tools and just packaged differently.

Best for: Advanced SEO experts looking to dive deeply into keyword research.

9. Also Asked

Also Asked is another keyword research tool that’s ideal for working out what your target audience is asking Google.

Grouping questions and queries by topics, Also Asked helps you to get better at recognizing content gaps across your site.

Learn to answer your users’ questions and concerns and watch as your ultra-relevant content organically climbs search rankings.

Price: Free.

Also Asked vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Uses "People Also Asked" data, giving results for more longtail searches as well as showing the relationship between these topics and questions.	No search volume metrics provided.
Perform searches based on different countries and languages.	Currently can’t export to CSV or Excel.
Mines data from Google to show which queries users are entering the most.	Doesn’t give you actual keywords, only relevant questions.
Clear mind map presentation gives users a visual representation of user questions related to the seed keyword/phrase.	Can seem like more of a topic suggestion tool as opposed to a serious keyword research tool.
Easy to use and understand for beginners.	No competitor analysis provided.

Best for: Businesses searching for relevant blog post topics their users will love.

10. Bulk Keyword Generator

Bulk Keyword Generator Landing Page Snippet

Bulk Keyword Generator is the right Answer The Public alternative for your SEO strategy if you run a local business or are looking to hone in on local SEO.

Filtering by industry, the keyword research tool generates keywords based on your niche.

To kickstart your keyword research, first, you need to select your industry type followed by your geographical location and the platform will generate a list of highly relevant keywords.

Price: Free.

Bulk Keyword Generator vs. Answer The Public

Pros	Cons
Easy to use and navigate for beginners.	User interface is basic and not very aesthetically pleasing.
Rank higher in local Google search results.	Works well for local businesses, it’s not suitable for larger online businesses.
Produce unlimited lists of keywords.	Keyword lists are sometimes limited for more niche businesses.
Export lists of keywords as CSV documents so you can refer to them later.	No metrics like keyword difficulty or search volume provided.
Site is speedy to load and pull up keywords.	Keyword suggestions are basic and seem suited to someone only just starting in SEO - not an advanced pro.

Best for: Businesses providing local services, for example, cleaning or carpentry, who want to boost their appearance in local search results.

Summary of Answer The Public Alternatives

While AnswerThePublic is a powerful tool for generating relevant topic ideas and understanding users’ frequently searched queries, it’s best used in combination with other keyword research tools.

Try some of these Answer The Public alternatives and discover which ones are best for your business’s needs.

Whether you need help with local SEO, ranking in eCommerce sites or to increase your blog’s relevancy, these keyword research tools should give your business the boost it needs to perform well in search results.