TL;DR: Yoast is solid, well documented and the safe pick for agencies. If you want the most out of the free version, RankMath is the better fit. If you want a lean, specialised workflow, take a look at SignalWP.
What Yoast SEO gets right
- Proven since 2010 — if something breaks, someone has already solved it and documented it in the forum.
- Stable updates with no breaking changes. Important for client sites.
- Cornerstone Content and internal linking suggestions are a real differentiator.
- Complete schema API — clean and easy to extend.
- Best multilingual integration with WPML and Polylang.
Where Yoast annoys
- Aggressive upsells. The backend constantly nudges you toward premium features — even for routine tasks.
- The traffic lights. The famous "readability analysis" with red/green dots encourages mechanical writing. Google doesn't care about Flesch reading ease.
- Redirects in Pro only. 404 management belongs in the free version.
- Price. ~$99/year per site is steep — RankMath offers comparable features for half.
Yoast SEO Free vs. Premium
| Feature | Free | Premium (~$99/year) |
|---|---|---|
| Meta titles & descriptions | Yes | Yes |
| XML sitemap | Yes | Yes |
| Schema markup | Basic | Extended |
| Redirect manager | No | Yes |
| Internal linking suggestions | No | Yes |
| Multiple keywords per post | No | Yes |
| Workflow export | No | Yes |
Who is Yoast for?
Yoast is the right choice when you're not the only one working on the site. Editors and clients feel at home instantly because the plugin has the same workflow everywhere. The documentation is unmatched.
Yoast is the wrong choice if you're a solo operator, on a tight budget and don't need the hand-holding. Then RankMath is objectively better equipped.
What Yoast (and everyone else) doesn't solve
All classic SEO plugins answer the question: "What does this one page look like right now?" What they don't answer: "What has changed since last week?" and "What matters next?" That's exactly why we're building SignalWP — as a complement to (or replacement for) classic plugins.