For a small publisher the cheapest fit on the pricing pages read on 29 Sep 2026 is Surfer Discovery at $49 a month billed annually (120 documents) or Frase Starter at $39 (10 articles); Clearscope starts at $129 a month but has unlimited users, which suits a team of editors. The three do not count the same thing: Surfer counts documents, Frase counts articles, Clearscope counts pages tracked and drafts. So the useful question is not “which is cheapest” but “which unit matches how I work”.
Three vendors, three units
| Attribute | Surfer | Frase | Clearscope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit that limits you | Documents (editor items) and pages tracked | Articles a month | Tracked queries, pages, topic explorations, drafts |
| Entry price | $49 a month annual, $59 monthly (Discovery) | $39 annual, $49 monthly (Starter) | $129 monthly (Essentials); annual not shown |
| Mid | Standard $99 annual, $119 monthly: 360 documents, 3 seats | Professional $103 annual, $129 monthly: 40 articles, 3 seats | Business $399 monthly: 300 queries, 300 pages |
| Top listed | Peace of Mind $299 annual, $359 monthly: unlimited (fair use) documents, 10 seats | Scale $239 annual, $299 monthly: 100 articles, 5 seats | Enterprise, custom |
| Users | 1, 3, 5, 10 by plan | 1, 3, 5 by plan | Unlimited on all listed plans |
| AI visibility tracking | Separate AI Search Analytics plan, $82 annual, $95 monthly | Included on every plan | Not listed on its pricing page |
Sources: the three pricing pages, checked 29 Sep 2026; annual prices are per month billed yearly. Full plan tables are in the pricing tracker.
The ladder at three usage levels
Cheapest plan that the page states covers the level. This is our reading of the stated limits, and the units are not identical, so it is a guide, not a ranking.
| You produce or optimise | Surfer | Frase | Clearscope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 pieces a month | Discovery, $49 annual | Starter, $39 annual | Essentials, $129 (20 drafts and 20 topic explorations included) |
| About 40 pieces a month | Discovery still allows 120 documents, $49 annual | Professional, $103 annual (Starter has no overage, so it cannot stretch) | Essentials covers 20 drafts; extra drafts are listed at $50, and the page does not say whether that is per draft or per pack |
| 100 pieces or more | Standard (360 documents), $99 annual | Scale, $239 annual | Business, $399 |
Reading it: at low volume the per-document allowances make Surfer look cheaper than Frase per piece, but a Surfer “document” is an item in its editor, not a finished article with a draft attached. Frase’s article count includes generation. Clearscope charges for depth of tracking and offers the only unlimited-user plans, so its cost per editor falls as the team grows. The Frase review has the overage arithmetic ($5 per extra article on Professional and a break-even near 67 articles a month).
The currency label on Surfer
The Surfer page’s own code sets USD as its default currency and refers to a Cloudflare rewrite of the label to EUR. When we read it from a European connection the same numbers carried a euro sign; the figures did not change. Treat the numbers above as USD list prices and confirm the label your own location shows before you buy. The Surfer review covers this in detail.
Which to pick
- One writer, occasional posts: Frase Starter is the lowest number on the three pages and includes AI-visibility tracking, but it stops at 10 articles with no overage.
- An SEO who edits many drafts and wants a scoring editor: Surfer, where 120 documents come with the entry plan.
- A team of editors, few queries tracked in depth: Clearscope, because users are unlimited on every listed plan.
- You mainly want to see whether AI answers mention you: Writesonic sells that first with articles attached; see also best AI writing tools.
None of these prices tells you whether a higher optimisation score improves rankings. We did not measure that; and Google’s own documents do not say a third-party score is a ranking input. See does Google penalise AI content and how to write SEO posts with AI.
Method
Researched from the three pricing pages, read 29 Sep 2026. Surfer’s monthly prices come from the page’s price data (annual $49, $99, $182, $299 against monthly $59, $119, $219, $359). Comparisons of units are our reading; the rest is the vendors’ figures. A 14-day trial is listed by Clearscope and 7 days by Frase.
Cost per optimised article across Surfer, Frase, Clearscope and NeuronWriter: four-way cost comparison.