Moz Pro and SpyFu: side-by-side
A side-by-side comparison of Moz Pro and SpyFu — features, pricing, strengths, and where each tool falls short.
Moz Pro and SpyFu occupy different corners of the SEO tool market, and the buyer choosing between them usually has a specific use-case problem rather than a generic "I need SEO software" itch to scratch. Moz Pro is a full-stack SEO suite built around site crawling, rank tracking, link analysis, and its well-known Domain Authority metric, with AI visibility dashboards layered onto Medium and Large plans. SpyFu is purpose-built competitive intelligence — its entire value proposition is exposing what any domain has ever ranked for organically or spent money on in Google Ads, backed by 18-plus years of historical data.
The pricing gap is real and meaningful. SpyFu's Basic plan starts at $29 per month, while Moz Pro's entry point is $49 (Starter, single site) or $99 for the Standard plan that unlocks three sites and 300 tracked keywords. SpyFu's Pro + AI plan, which removes row-export caps and adds RivalFlow's AI content improvements, sits between those Moz tiers. For teams primarily doing competitive research — mapping a rival's ad copy history, reverse-engineering a competitor's top organic pages, or building negative keyword lists — SpyFu delivers more specialized firepower per dollar.
Where Moz Pro earns its keep is in managing your own SEO program: auditing your sites, tracking your keyword portfolio across up to 25 properties, building content briefs, and leaning on Domain Authority for link prospecting and reporting. Both tools deal in third-party estimated traffic data rather than verified first-party figures, so neither replaces raw Google Search Console data — though Moz does offer a GSC import and SpyFu's GSC integration is limited to its RivalFlow feature on higher-tier plans.
What each tool is
Moz Pro
Moz Pro is a long-running SEO platform offering keyword research, rank tracking, site crawling, link analysis, and the well-known Domain Authority metric. Newer plans add AI visibility dashboards and prompt tracking across LLMs.
SpyFu
SpyFu is a competitive intelligence tool focused on Google Ads (PPC) and organic search (SEO) research. It allows users to search any domain and download the keywords they have ever bought on Google, the ads they have run, and the organic keywords they rank for. The platform also includes rank tracking, backlink research, keyword grouping tools, a ChatGPT integration, and an AI content improvement product called RivalFlow. SpyFu is sold as a self-serve SaaS product with monthly and annual plans targeting marketers, agencies, and PPC practitioners.
At a glance
Moz Pro
Full-stack SEO Suite
Veteran SEO platform with Domain Authority, link research, and audit workflows.
Moz Pro Standard
- •Starter $49/mo — single website
- •Standard $99/mo ($79/mo annual) — 3 sites, 300 kws
- •Medium $179/mo ($143/mo annual) — 10 sites, 1,500 kws + AI tools
- •Large $299/mo ($239/mo annual) — 25 sites, 3,000 kws + 4 AI dashboards
SpyFu
Competitive Intelligence
A competitor keyword research platform best known for exposing rivals' PPC and SEO strategies using 18+ years of historical search data.
Basic
- •10,000 row limit on search results and data exports; 1 live site tracking project
- •Pro + AI plan unlocks unlimited search results, exports, and 15k tracked keywords; 1 user included, $30/additional
- •Team/Agency plan adds 5 included users, 50k tracked keywords, unlimited tracking projects, and RivalFlow for 5 sites
- •Annual billing saves 25% (effectively 3 months free) across all plans
- •18+ years of historical data available on all plans
Feature comparison
Side-by-side feature breakdown across pricing, data, workflows, and collaboration.
| Feature | Moz Pro | SpyFu |
|---|---|---|
| Data & coverage | ||
| Native Google Search Console integration | GSC import available | Partial |
| Keyword research database | Moz proprietary KW database | 13.1B keywords |
| Backlink index | true (Link Explorer) | Yes |
| AI search visibility | AI Visibility Dashboards (Medium+) | — |
| SERP feature tracking | — | Yes |
| Workflows built for you | ||
| Quick wins (pages 1 click from page 1) | No | No |
| Content decay detection | No | No |
| Weak & dead URL identification | No | No |
| AI content briefs | 2-50 briefs/mo by plan | Partial |
| Collaboration & sharing | ||
| Magic-link read-only sharing | No | No |
| Seats included on entry plan | 1 user | 1 user |
| Multi-property dashboards | — | Yes |
| Pricing & value | ||
| Entry plan price | $49 Starter / $99 Standard | $29/mo |
| Free tier | free Moz Community account | No |
| BYOK option | No | — |
| Competitive intelligence | ||
| Paid search (PPC) competitor data | — | Yes |
| Traffic estimates for any domain | — | Yes |
| Audience demographics | — | Not publicly documented |
| Historical data depth | — | 18+ years |
The differences that actually matter
Price floor and plan structure
SpyFu's Basic plan is $29/month — the lowest entry price of the two — though the 10,000-row cap on all search results and exports makes it feel constrained for high-volume research. Moz Pro's true functional entry point for most teams is the $99/month Standard plan (or $79/month on annual billing), since the $49 Starter covers only one site. SpyFu's Pro + AI plan, which lifts all row caps and includes 15,000 tracked keywords, costs less than Moz's Medium tier ($179/month) and may cover more ground for competitive-research-heavy teams.
Competitive intelligence depth
SpyFu's defining advantage is 18-plus years of historical PPC and organic ranking data spanning 13.1 billion keywords and 152 million indexed websites. You can type any competitor's domain and immediately see their estimated Google Ads spend history, every ad copy variant they've run, and their full organic keyword footprint. Moz Pro does not offer PPC competitor intelligence at all — its competitive features are oriented toward keyword gap analysis and link comparison, making it a weaker choice if Google Ads research is any part of your workflow.
Site audit and owned-property workflows
Moz Pro has a genuine crawl-based site audit workflow that SpyFu largely does not. SpyFu has no documented technical SEO audit module — it does not crawl your site for broken links, missing meta tags, or crawl errors. Moz Pro's crawler runs across your tracked sites on Standard plans and above, surfacing on-page and technical issues. If diagnosing your own site's health is a primary use case rather than researching competitors, Moz Pro is the more complete tool.
Backlink research and Domain Authority
Both platforms include backlink research, but they differ in what they surface. Moz Pro's Link Explorer is built around Domain Authority — a proprietary Moz metric that is widely cited in the SEO industry for evaluating link equity and prospecting targets. SpyFu includes backlink searches across its plans, but exports are capped at 10,000 rows on Basic. Moz's DA is a named deliverable that clients and stakeholders recognize; SpyFu does not surface an equivalent branded authority score.
GSC integration and first-party data
Moz Pro supports Google Search Console import across its plans, allowing you to blend your verified traffic and query data with Moz's proprietary estimates. SpyFu's GSC integration is documented only within RivalFlow — its AI content improvement tool — available on Pro + AI and Team/Agency plans, not as a platform-wide data source. Neither tool replaces raw GSC analysis, but Moz's broader integration gives teams working from their own verified data a more grounded starting point.
Where each tool wins and falls short
Moz Pro
Strengths
- Long-running brand and rich educational ecosystem
- Domain Authority is widely recognized
- Newer AI visibility dashboards on Medium+ plans
Weaknesses
- Third-party estimated data, not your real GSC
- Higher-tier features (AI dashboards, prompt tracking) gated
- No GSC-grounded quick wins / decay / weak-URL workflows
- Add-on costs stack quickly (extra dashboards $20 each, etc.)
SpyFu
Strengths
- 18+ years of historical PPC and organic ranking data — one of the deepest archives publicly documented
- Extensive PPC competitor intelligence including ad copy history, keyword spend estimates, and negative keyword recommendations
- 13.1 billion keywords and 152 million websites indexed, with 7.2 trillion search results
- RivalFlow AI tool identifies content gaps relative to competitors and suggests page-level improvements
Weaknesses
- Basic plan imposes 10,000-row caps on all search results and exports, limiting utility for high-volume research
- GSC integration is documented only within the RivalFlow AI feature, not as a core platform-wide data source
- Traffic and keyword data are third-party estimates, not first-party verified figures
- Audience demographics data is not publicly documented in the scraped sources
Who each tool fits
Moz Pro
Best for
- •Teams that rely on Domain Authority as a core metric
- •Established SEO programs comfortable with Moz workflows
- •Buyers who want a stable, mid-market full-stack suite
Not ideal for
- •Founders who want first-party GSC action workflows
- •Teams priced out of $99-$299/mo monthly tiers
- •Anyone whose Moz value is mostly DA scoring
SpyFu
Best for
- •PPC practitioners who want to reverse-engineer competitors' Google Ads keyword and ad copy history
- •SEO teams needing competitor organic keyword data and backlink gap analysis
- •Agencies that require white-labeled reporting and multi-domain competitive research
Not ideal for
- •Teams whose primary workflow is built around their own Google Search Console data — GSC integration is available only on higher-tier RivalFlow features
- •Sites that need a deep technical site audit or crawl-based SEO workflow
- •Users on the Basic plan who need unlimited data exports — row caps apply at that tier
Which should you choose?
SpyFu is the sharper pick for any team whose core workflow is competitive research — particularly PPC practitioners who need 18 years of Google Ads history at a $29 entry price. Moz Pro is the better fit for SEO programs that need a managed suite covering crawling, rank tracking across multiple sites, link analysis, and Domain Authority-based reporting, despite its higher cost.
Choose Moz Pro if…
- Your team tracks keyword rankings and site health across three or more owned properties and needs a single managed dashboard to cover them all.
- Domain Authority is a required deliverable in your client reports or link-prospecting workflow — Moz's DA is the industry-recognized version of that metric.
- You need structured AI content briefs (2–50 per month depending on plan) alongside keyword research rather than just competitor-gap suggestions.
- You're on the Medium or Large plan ($179–$299/mo) and want AI visibility dashboards to monitor how your brand appears across large language model outputs.
Choose SpyFu if…
- You run Google Ads and need to see a competitor's full keyword and ad copy history — SpyFu's core PPC intelligence feature covers 18+ years of spend estimates and ad variants.
- Your budget is capped closer to $29–$39/mo and you primarily need competitive organic keyword and backlink gap data rather than a full site-audit suite.
- You work in an agency context and need white-labeled reporting across multiple client domains using a single competitively-priced tool.
- You want to surface competitor content gaps and page-level improvement suggestions through RivalFlow AI without paying Moz's Medium-tier prices.
Frequently asked questions
What buyers ask when weighing Moz Pro and SpyFu.
Yes, meaningfully so at the entry tier. SpyFu's Basic plan is $29/month versus Moz Pro's $49 Starter (single site) or $99 Standard. Annual billing brings Moz Standard down to $79/month and saves 25% on SpyFu plans. For teams whose primary need is competitive research rather than site auditing and rank tracking, SpyFu delivers more targeted value at a lower price.
No. SpyFu does not have a documented crawl-based technical SEO audit module. It will not scan your site for broken links, missing title tags, or crawl errors. Moz Pro does offer a site crawl and audit workflow across its paid plans. If technical auditing is part of your workflow, Moz Pro is the appropriate choice between these two tools.
No. Moz Pro does not offer Google Ads competitor intelligence — no ad copy history, no estimated spend data, no negative keyword recommendations. SpyFu's core identity is exactly that PPC research capability, backed by 18-plus years of historical Google Ads data. If PPC competitor research is a requirement, Moz Pro cannot fill that role.
SpyFu has 18-plus years of documented historical PPC and organic ranking data, covering 13.1 billion keywords across 152 million websites. Moz Pro does not publicly document a comparable historical depth for competitive keyword data. For longitudinal competitor analysis — seeing how a domain's ad strategy or organic footprint evolved over years — SpyFu's archive is a genuine differentiator.
Moz Pro offers a free Moz Community account that provides limited access to tools like Link Explorer with capped queries. SpyFu does not offer a documented free subscription tier, but it does let visitors run preview searches on the public site without an account and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans. Neither provides a fully functional free tier for ongoing use.
SpyFu's Team/Agency plan includes five user seats, unlimited tracking projects, white-labeled reporting, and RivalFlow for five sites — features specifically designed for multi-client agency operations. Moz Pro's Large plan ($299/month) handles 25 sites and 3,000 keywords with four AI dashboards, but extra dashboards cost $20 each. Agencies whose core deliverable is competitive intelligence and PPC research will generally find SpyFu's agency tier more purpose-built.
Domain Authority is a Moz-proprietary metric and is central to Moz Pro's link analysis and prospecting workflows. It is widely recognized in SEO reporting and client communications. SpyFu does not offer an equivalent branded authority score. If DA appears in your client reports or is used internally to qualify link prospects, that is a concrete reason to favor Moz Pro — SpyFu simply does not replicate this metric.
Yes, both tools include rank tracking. Moz Pro Standard tracks 300 keywords across 3 sites; Medium tracks 1,500 across 10 sites; Large tracks 3,000 across 25 sites. SpyFu's Basic plan includes one live tracking project with no documented keyword cap stated for it, Pro + AI adds 15,000 tracked keywords and up to 10 projects, and Team/Agency goes to 50,000 tracked keywords with unlimited projects.