- Jan 17, 2015
- 4,969
- 4,402
I've heard like a million dozen times, that RankMath just overpowers Yoast.
But how much of this statement is true?
I'm going to do a simple review of this two plugins, taking Rankmath list of 63 "features" and comparing them.
They have created this chart to compare them, but it's obviously skewed to benefit their position with a lot of crosses in the other side:
https://rankmath.com/wordpress/plugin/seo-suite/#comparison
First of all. Shall I compare Rankmath with Yoast FREE as Rankmath is FREE? I seriously doubt that a brand like MyThemeShop is going to keep this free forever. So I think currently is not fair to compare a beta-free-product as Rankmath with a mature-paid-product as Yoast in the free version exclusively.
For this comparison I'm going to consider the current free element of Rankmath as a clear advantage but I'm sure that users like @Festinger can confirm for sure that this is something that can be dealt with, without much of a hassle
1. Wizard: Both have one, nothing special
2. Interface: Everyone to his own taste
3. GSC: Both offer similar options (includes point 5)
4. Embedded Google Trends: Git Gud
6. Contextual Help: Nothing special, we are all SEO pros.
7. Automated Image SEO: I'm not sure if Yoast doesn't offer this. +1 to Rankmath
8. Sitemap: Both have one
9. Rich Snippets including, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15: I'm currently using Schema PRO plugin which is compatible with Yoast NOT with Rankmath. I think that Schema PRO is better and more mature plugin for this task, so I would not rely in Rankmath beating Schema Pro in this aspect. Also the lack of compatibility makes me suspicious. Going for Rankmath in this case (for me) is simply disabling all the schema capabilities, but if you don't want to get some Schema specific plugin like this one, I think that Rankmath is fine for this job (better than Yoast at least). +1 or -1 depending on the user
16 + 17: News and Video sitemaps: Not yet implemented, are they saving this for the premium version?
18: Ping SE: Git Gud
19. Code Quality: Nice to know it.
20. SEO Analysis: This is interesting. I always like this type of insights to feed my perfectionism vicious desires. +1 to Rankmath
21. Local SEO: Not sure what Rankmath do here, but looks awesome, like the point 7 +1 to Rankmath
22. Single Items SEO: Similar to Yoast, Including 41
23. Contact information shortcode: Time ago I was looking for this and could not find a simple plugin that did this easily. It seems that Rankmath loves gold plating. -1 to RankMath for goldplating
24. Linkbuilder: Here I have to say that Yoast Premium beats down RankMath. But since Rankmath is free and this is a similar feature, this is more or less, a draw
25. Redirect: Similar to 24, Yoast Premiums offers this and its pretty awesome with extra functionality (not just a redirector). But considering that Rankmath is plain free, another draw
26/27. Breadcrumbs: Both have this
28. 404 monitor: I'm not sure how this is done. Nothing that good ol' Screaming Frog will not palliate, but if this is super-automatic, it's always awesome to have it. +1 to Rankmath
29. Redirect Attachment: This is a magic trick. Who says that this will further promote your search intent? Update that super-cool über-linked attachment, promote your site from that attachment, but don't redirect FFS. -1 to Rankmath for promoting bad practices
30. Social Media graphs: Including: 35+36+51. Both have the same feature
31. Yoast Importer: Including 33 for AIO. Really awesome. They should also create an exporter for those who want to leave when they put this for $30/month
32. Fake play icon overlay for SM: Not sure if this is gold plating but definitely an overkill. I thought they were building a reputation
34. Verification Tools: Both have this.
37. Compatibility Check: Fine
38. Focus keywords: They offer 5 keywords, similarly to Yoast Premium. This is +1/2 to Rankmath, since its free.
39. Meta-things: Similar in both, including 40.
42. Google Graph: Not sure what this does... But I think Yoast does this as well. Not a great deal, this is just for self-brand featured snippets.
43. Bulk editing: This is a cool feature! Specially after auditing with SF +1 to Rankmath
44. Compatibility things: Including 45, I'm going to do a special comment on this in the bottom of this review
46. Facebook Authorship: Ego is always important. Not sure if Yoast do this. Pre-emptive +1/2 to Rankmath
47. Separator character: Same for both
48. Social media account: Same for both, similar to 42
49. Primary Category: Same for both
50. Social and Snippet Previews: Same for both (includes 52)
53. Global Meta: This is a dangerous option. Better not to have it. Similar to 29, -1 for bad practices
54. Super support: Yeah, a lifetime free plugin for sure. Or something is hidden in the little My Theme Shop pandora box.
55. Author pages: Similar to Yoast
56. .htaccess/robots editor: Similar to Yoast (includes 58)
57. Exporter, for itself: Always better a Yoast exporter, to decide when Rankmath leave freedomshire
59. Strip category base: I'm not sure if this permits stripping CPT slug base. If someone has tested this please comment. Also, I would like to see how this feature behaves with certain plugins like Polylang which don't like much this changes... If it works with CPT slugs and is full compatible with plugins like Polylang +2 to Rankmath. Meanwhile, I will leave this for the future reviews. I may test it.
60. RSS Optimization: Never tried this in Yoast. Seems cool? +1/2 to Rankmath
61. SEO metabox for categories: Similar in both
62. Remove Stop Words: Yoast used to offer this functionality, but now it doesn't (or I could not find it the last time I searched for it). This is a controversial topic, but I love it. +1 to Rankmath until I find this in Yoast
63. Detailed Documentation: Always great, but Yoast is the best in this. -1 to Rankmath.
Compatibility List (following point 44+45):
Rankmath is a newcomer in this aspect. They claim to have compatibility with:
https://rankmath.com/compatibility/
1. Elementor
2. WP-Rocket
3. AMP for WP
4. My Theme Shop (not sure about this)
5. Astra
6. Spreadplugin
7. WooCommerce
Nevertheless, to say, that this compatibility list, is just the tip of a huge compatibility iceberg of Yoast. This is what maturity gives in exchange...
Just saying some:
1. ACF
2. WPML + Polylang
3. All CPT creator plugins, like Toolset, Jetengine, CPT UI, Pods (with all the SEO metabox and all that shit)
4. Schema Pro (as we mentioned above)
5. Most sliders (like Smart Slider o Rev)
6. The Events Calendar
7. And a lot of specific mods by dozens of plugins like bbPress...
So essentially Yoast, literally CRUSHES Rankmath in this aspect.
Conclusions
To make a full honest review, I should be also looking to Yoast list of features, and maybe we may also find some that Rankmath don't provide. I will save this for the 2.0 review. If you read Rankmath features at first, like 7th 20th, 21st and 43rd features, it seems like Rankmath is pretty awesome.
Obviously for those who are full free and don't want to upgrade to Yoast Premium, Rankmath at the current state of free-art is superior.
But if you buy on Schema Pro and Yoast Premium, except for some features like 7+20+21+43 and also 28+38+46+60+62, seem to be a great deal, but over the top, are things that can be solved manually. In return, we will need to sacrifice a lot in compatibility, something that cannot be solved manually.
Not sure how Rankmath behaves with CPT and some features that are over the air for me, and would like to test in the future for a more comprehensive review, like 59.
So in conclusion, I think that Rankmath is currently the greatest alternative to Yoast, but does not fully deserve the attention it is receiving. Most users switched to Rankmath with the infamous Yoast image de-index issue, and their poor ORM over the topic, blaming the community instead of assuming the responsibility. For most this was a faith-lost action, for me this was a lesson-learnt situation.
Like what happened with fidget spinners or Apple products, suddenly a see a lot of fanatics that stand for this as if Yoast team was the. But seriously, as I said multiple times in the review, maturity is a grade, and Yoast has a lot in this aspect.
Future directions
I will sandbox one of my biggest sites and first, try that super awesome Yoast Importer (31), to see how much is done over the procedure.
Then I will be testing all those bullets I'm not fully aware of.
If they manage to solve the issues I've stated adequately, maybe I will become a new Rankmath advocate in the review 2.0, but meanwhile, I can hardly recommend Rankmath with big confidence.
Final Note
This is both a review and also an open question to see non-biased-fanboy opinions I would like to see others experiences that may have tested the issues I have stated to see if someone has found a solution, or if they are plainly unsolvable. Be aware of this.
Edit #1
I completely forgot the paid Yoast plugins like
1. Yoast Local SEO
2. Yoast Local SEO for Woocommerce
3. Yoast Video SEO
4. Yoast News SEO
5. Yoast WooCommerce SEO
That provide more modularity and ultimately solve 16+17+21 Rankmath topics and some more.
But how much of this statement is true?
I'm going to do a simple review of this two plugins, taking Rankmath list of 63 "features" and comparing them.
They have created this chart to compare them, but it's obviously skewed to benefit their position with a lot of crosses in the other side:
https://rankmath.com/wordpress/plugin/seo-suite/#comparison
First of all. Shall I compare Rankmath with Yoast FREE as Rankmath is FREE? I seriously doubt that a brand like MyThemeShop is going to keep this free forever. So I think currently is not fair to compare a beta-free-product as Rankmath with a mature-paid-product as Yoast in the free version exclusively.
For this comparison I'm going to consider the current free element of Rankmath as a clear advantage but I'm sure that users like @Festinger can confirm for sure that this is something that can be dealt with, without much of a hassle
1. Wizard: Both have one, nothing special
2. Interface: Everyone to his own taste
3. GSC: Both offer similar options (includes point 5)
4. Embedded Google Trends: Git Gud
6. Contextual Help: Nothing special, we are all SEO pros.
7. Automated Image SEO: I'm not sure if Yoast doesn't offer this. +1 to Rankmath
8. Sitemap: Both have one
9. Rich Snippets including, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15: I'm currently using Schema PRO plugin which is compatible with Yoast NOT with Rankmath. I think that Schema PRO is better and more mature plugin for this task, so I would not rely in Rankmath beating Schema Pro in this aspect. Also the lack of compatibility makes me suspicious. Going for Rankmath in this case (for me) is simply disabling all the schema capabilities, but if you don't want to get some Schema specific plugin like this one, I think that Rankmath is fine for this job (better than Yoast at least). +1 or -1 depending on the user
16 + 17: News and Video sitemaps: Not yet implemented, are they saving this for the premium version?
18: Ping SE: Git Gud
19. Code Quality: Nice to know it.
20. SEO Analysis: This is interesting. I always like this type of insights to feed my perfectionism vicious desires. +1 to Rankmath
21. Local SEO: Not sure what Rankmath do here, but looks awesome, like the point 7 +1 to Rankmath
22. Single Items SEO: Similar to Yoast, Including 41
23. Contact information shortcode: Time ago I was looking for this and could not find a simple plugin that did this easily. It seems that Rankmath loves gold plating. -1 to RankMath for goldplating
24. Linkbuilder: Here I have to say that Yoast Premium beats down RankMath. But since Rankmath is free and this is a similar feature, this is more or less, a draw
25. Redirect: Similar to 24, Yoast Premiums offers this and its pretty awesome with extra functionality (not just a redirector). But considering that Rankmath is plain free, another draw
26/27. Breadcrumbs: Both have this
28. 404 monitor: I'm not sure how this is done. Nothing that good ol' Screaming Frog will not palliate, but if this is super-automatic, it's always awesome to have it. +1 to Rankmath
29. Redirect Attachment: This is a magic trick. Who says that this will further promote your search intent? Update that super-cool über-linked attachment, promote your site from that attachment, but don't redirect FFS. -1 to Rankmath for promoting bad practices
30. Social Media graphs: Including: 35+36+51. Both have the same feature
31. Yoast Importer: Including 33 for AIO. Really awesome. They should also create an exporter for those who want to leave when they put this for $30/month
32. Fake play icon overlay for SM: Not sure if this is gold plating but definitely an overkill. I thought they were building a reputation
34. Verification Tools: Both have this.
37. Compatibility Check: Fine
38. Focus keywords: They offer 5 keywords, similarly to Yoast Premium. This is +1/2 to Rankmath, since its free.
39. Meta-things: Similar in both, including 40.
42. Google Graph: Not sure what this does... But I think Yoast does this as well. Not a great deal, this is just for self-brand featured snippets.
43. Bulk editing: This is a cool feature! Specially after auditing with SF +1 to Rankmath
44. Compatibility things: Including 45, I'm going to do a special comment on this in the bottom of this review
46. Facebook Authorship: Ego is always important. Not sure if Yoast do this. Pre-emptive +1/2 to Rankmath
47. Separator character: Same for both
48. Social media account: Same for both, similar to 42
49. Primary Category: Same for both
50. Social and Snippet Previews: Same for both (includes 52)
53. Global Meta: This is a dangerous option. Better not to have it. Similar to 29, -1 for bad practices
54. Super support: Yeah, a lifetime free plugin for sure. Or something is hidden in the little My Theme Shop pandora box.
55. Author pages: Similar to Yoast
56. .htaccess/robots editor: Similar to Yoast (includes 58)
57. Exporter, for itself: Always better a Yoast exporter, to decide when Rankmath leave freedomshire
59. Strip category base: I'm not sure if this permits stripping CPT slug base. If someone has tested this please comment. Also, I would like to see how this feature behaves with certain plugins like Polylang which don't like much this changes... If it works with CPT slugs and is full compatible with plugins like Polylang +2 to Rankmath. Meanwhile, I will leave this for the future reviews. I may test it.
60. RSS Optimization: Never tried this in Yoast. Seems cool? +1/2 to Rankmath
61. SEO metabox for categories: Similar in both
62. Remove Stop Words: Yoast used to offer this functionality, but now it doesn't (or I could not find it the last time I searched for it). This is a controversial topic, but I love it. +1 to Rankmath until I find this in Yoast
63. Detailed Documentation: Always great, but Yoast is the best in this. -1 to Rankmath.
Compatibility List (following point 44+45):
Rankmath is a newcomer in this aspect. They claim to have compatibility with:
https://rankmath.com/compatibility/
1. Elementor
2. WP-Rocket
3. AMP for WP
4. My Theme Shop (not sure about this
)5. Astra
6. Spreadplugin
7. WooCommerce
Nevertheless, to say, that this compatibility list, is just the tip of a huge compatibility iceberg of Yoast. This is what maturity gives in exchange...
Just saying some:
1. ACF
2. WPML + Polylang
3. All CPT creator plugins, like Toolset, Jetengine, CPT UI, Pods (with all the SEO metabox and all that shit)
4. Schema Pro (as we mentioned above)
5. Most sliders (like Smart Slider o Rev)
6. The Events Calendar
7. And a lot of specific mods by dozens of plugins like bbPress...
So essentially Yoast, literally CRUSHES Rankmath in this aspect.
Conclusions
To make a full honest review, I should be also looking to Yoast list of features, and maybe we may also find some that Rankmath don't provide. I will save this for the 2.0 review. If you read Rankmath features at first, like 7th 20th, 21st and 43rd features, it seems like Rankmath is pretty awesome.
Obviously for those who are full free and don't want to upgrade to Yoast Premium, Rankmath at the current state of free-art is superior.
But if you buy on Schema Pro and Yoast Premium, except for some features like 7+20+21+43 and also 28+38+46+60+62, seem to be a great deal, but over the top, are things that can be solved manually. In return, we will need to sacrifice a lot in compatibility, something that cannot be solved manually.
Not sure how Rankmath behaves with CPT and some features that are over the air for me, and would like to test in the future for a more comprehensive review, like 59.
So in conclusion, I think that Rankmath is currently the greatest alternative to Yoast, but does not fully deserve the attention it is receiving. Most users switched to Rankmath with the infamous Yoast image de-index issue, and their poor ORM over the topic, blaming the community instead of assuming the responsibility. For most this was a faith-lost action, for me this was a lesson-learnt situation.
Like what happened with fidget spinners or Apple products, suddenly a see a lot of fanatics that stand for this as if Yoast team was the
. But seriously, as I said multiple times in the review, maturity is a grade, and Yoast has a lot in this aspect.Future directions
I will sandbox one of my biggest sites and first, try that super awesome Yoast Importer (31), to see how much is done over the procedure.
Then I will be testing all those bullets I'm not fully aware of.
If they manage to solve the issues I've stated adequately, maybe I will become a new Rankmath advocate in the review 2.0, but meanwhile, I can hardly recommend Rankmath with big confidence.
Final Note
This is both a review and also an open question to see non-biased-fanboy opinions I would like to see others experiences that may have tested the issues I have stated to see if someone has found a solution, or if they are plainly unsolvable. Be aware of this.
Edit #1
I completely forgot the paid Yoast plugins like
1. Yoast Local SEO
2. Yoast Local SEO for Woocommerce
3. Yoast Video SEO
4. Yoast News SEO
5. Yoast WooCommerce SEO
That provide more modularity and ultimately solve 16+17+21 Rankmath topics and some more.
Last edited:
