Moz vs AnswerThePublic: Keyword Difficulty or Customer Questions, Which SEO Tool Does Your Startup Need?
Moz and AnswerThePublic are often compared, but they do different jobs. Moz Pro is an SEO suite: keyword research with a difficulty score, rank tracking, a site crawler, backlink data and, newer, tracking of how your brand shows up in AI answers. AnswerThePublic, part of Neil Patel's NP Digital, shows the questions, comparisons and phrases people type around a topic on Google, YouTube, Amazon, ChatGPT and other places, which makes it a content-ideas and customer-research tool. We checked both official websites and pricing pages on 3 November 2026 to see what a founder gets from each in 2027.
Quick answer: choose AnswerThePublic if you need blog topics, FAQ questions and the exact words customers use: a free account gives 3 searches a day, and the regular yearly price of the Starter plan is €160 a year (a limited-time offer showed €120 when we checked). Choose Moz Pro if you need to know which keywords you can rank for and to track your rankings: Standard costs $99 a month, or $79 a month paid yearly, with a 7-day free trial on the Medium plan and a free Moz account for light keyword checks. Many startups use both: questions from AnswerThePublic, difficulty and rankings from Moz.
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Moz vs AnswerThePublic at a Glance
Sources: moz.com (Moz Pro pricing, Keyword Explorer, free SEO tools, free trial pages) and answerthepublic.com (home and pricing), checked 3 November 2026. Moz shows US dollars and AnswerThePublic showed euros to our European visitor, so prices are not converted.
The Two Tools in 2027
Moz Pro and Keyword Explorer: keyword difficulty, rankings and links
Moz has sold SEO software for more than 20 years and is now part of Ziff Davis. For keyword research its main tool is Keyword Explorer, launched in 2016, which Moz says covers more than 1.25 billion keyword suggestions and 180 million ranking keywords across 170 Google search engines. For every keyword it shows monthly volume, organic click-through rate, a difficulty score, the minimum Domain Authority of the pages that rank, and a primary search intent written by Moz AI.
- Questions inside Moz: Keyword Explorer has a Questions filter in its keyword suggestions, so Moz can also list question keywords, with volume and difficulty attached.
- Your own rankings: enter your site to see the keywords it already ranks for, including those just outside the top 10, which are usually the fastest wins.
- Grouping and SERP analysis: keywords can be grouped by similar wording into lists, and SERP Analysis shows the link metrics and SERP features of the pages that rank.
- Beyond keywords: Moz Pro adds rank tracking campaigns, a site crawler, Link Explorer backlink data, the free MozBar browser extension and weekly tracking of AI prompts.
Free: Moz's free SEO tools include a keyword research preview, a backlink checker, a Brand Authority checker, a competitive research tool and MozBar. A free Moz Community account gives limited access to Keyword Explorer, Link Explorer and MozBar; Moz does not list the exact free limits on its pricing page.
What Moz Pro costs
The Moz Pro pricing page opens on monthly billing in US dollars. Paying yearly saves 20%:
- Starter, $49 a month: an entry plan "designed specifically for individuals managing a single website". Moz does not list its limits on the pricing page.
- Standard, $99 a month ($79 a month paid yearly, $950 for the first year): 1 user, 3 tracked sites, 300 tracked keywords, 150 keyword queries a month, 5 keyword lists of 100 keywords, 5,000 backlink queries a month, 150 tracked AI prompts.
- Medium, $179 a month ($143 paid yearly): 2 users, 10 sites, 1,500 tracked keywords, 5,000 keyword queries a month, 30 keyword lists, 300 AI prompts. This plan has the 7-day free trial.
- Large, $299 a month ($239 paid yearly): 3 users, 25 sites, 3,000 tracked keywords, 15,000 keyword queries a month, 600 AI prompts.
- Add-ons: $20 a month per 200 extra tracked keywords, $10 a month per 10,000 extra keyword queries, $49 a month per extra user.
The catch for content research: 150 keyword queries a month on Standard is about five lookups a day. That is enough to check the difficulty of a shortlist, but not to brainstorm hundreds of topics, which is where AnswerThePublic fits. More Moz plan details are in Moz vs Mangools.
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AnswerThePublic: the questions your customers type
AnswerThePublic takes one keyword, or now a website address, and returns the searches built around it: questions, prepositions, comparisons and alphabetical lists, shown as its well-known search wheels or as lists. Its homepage promises to show what people search "from Google to ChatGPT", across Google, YouTube, Amazon, ChatGPT and more. Paid plans add search volume and CPC for each result, an XLSX export, and search listening: weekly email digests of new questions people ask around a topic.
- Free: without an account the site showed 1 free search; registering for free gives 3 searches a day, more keyword data and a history of your searches, with no credit card.
- Starter, regular price €160 a year (about €13.33 a month, our calculation): 1 user, 100 searches a month, 1,000 AI prompt suggestions a month, search volume and CPC, 1 search listening alert and 1 keyword list.
- Growth, regular price €792 a year: up to 3 users, 200 searches a month, 2,000 prompt suggestions, 5 alerts, data compared over time and priority support.
- Business, regular price €1,592 a year: up to 10 users, 300 searches a month, 3,000 prompt suggestions and 20 alerts.
- Offer: on 3 November 2026 the yearly plans showed a limited-time price of €120, €594 and €1,194 a year (€10, €49.50 and €99.50 a month billed annually), set to end on 8 November 2026 and renewing at the same price until you cancel. Similar offers may show when you visit, so check the AnswerThePublic pricing page. Monthly prices sit behind a toggle, so we do not quote them.
- Trial and refunds: a one-time 7-day free trial for monthly subscriptions; AnswerThePublic says all other purchases are final and non-refundable.
What is new: every paid plan includes AI prompt suggestions and prompt responses with sentiment, to see how topics come up in AI answers, plus Content Studio, an AI writer that drafts articles from your research and publishes them to WordPress (up to 6, 35 or 80 articles a month, marked as a limited-time bonus). Our comparison AnswerThePublic vs Keyword Revealer covers these features in more depth.
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Moz vs AnswerThePublic: Feature by Feature
Finding content ideas
AnswerThePublic wins here. One seed word returns dozens of questions and comparisons, sorted by type and by where people search, in the words customers actually use. Moz's Questions filter lists question keywords too, but only from its Google keyword index, and each lookup uses one of your monthly keyword queries.
Keyword difficulty and search volume
Moz wins here. Keyword Explorer gives a difficulty score and the minimum Domain Authority of the pages that rank, which tells a young site whether a keyword is realistic. AnswerThePublic's paid plans show volume and CPC, but its pricing page lists no difficulty score, so you still need a keyword tool to judge whether a page can rank.
Tracking results
Moz Pro tracks your rankings (300 keywords on Standard) and AI prompts weekly. AnswerThePublic does not track your rankings; its search listening alerts track new questions in your market instead. They answer different questions: "where do my pages rank?" versus "what are people asking now?"
Price and limits
AnswerThePublic Starter at its regular €160 a year costs much less than Moz Pro Standard at $950 for the first year on yearly billing. But they count different things: 100 question searches a month against 150 keyword queries a month plus rank tracking, a site crawler and backlink data. Both offer a 7-day trial on a monthly plan; remember that AnswerThePublic's yearly plans are non-refundable.
What Changed Since the Earlier Version of This Article
- Moz prices: the old text said Moz's basic plan starts at $99 a month. Moz now lists a $49 Starter plan for one website, with Standard at $99 a month or $79 paid yearly.
- AnswerThePublic prices: the old text said plans start at $9 a month with a $99 lifetime option. The pricing page now shows euro prices to European visitors, from €160 a year regular for Starter, and lists no lifetime plan for sale.
- AnswerThePublic now has data: the old text said it lacks metrics. Paid plans now show search volume and CPC, and the tool added website searches, AI prompt research, Content Studio and sources beyond Google.
- Moz now tracks AI answers: every Moz Pro plan tracks prompts in GPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode.
- Removed: Moz features we could not find on its official pages ("dynamic keyword recommendations"), image links to third-party sites and a generic "common mistakes" list.
Moz or AnswerThePublic: Which Should You Choose?
- You have no budget yet: the free Moz account and free Moz tools for difficulty checks, AnswerThePublic's 3 free searches a day for questions, and Google's own data. See Keyword Tool vs Keyword Planner.
- You need blog topics and FAQ questions: AnswerThePublic. It shows what people ask in their own words.
- You need to know which keywords you can rank for: Moz Pro, or Moz's free Keyword Explorer for a few checks.
- You want to track rankings and backlinks: Moz Pro. AnswerThePublic does neither.
- You publish every week: both. Questions from AnswerThePublic, difficulty and rankings from Moz.
- You want one all-in-one suite instead: see Ahrefs vs Moz, Moz vs SE Ranking and our Semrush alternatives.
- Backlinks matter most: Moz vs Majestic compares Moz's link data with a link specialist.
How to Use Moz and AnswerThePublic Together
- Collect questions. Type the problem your product solves into AnswerThePublic, in the words a customer would use, and save the questions that match what you sell.
- Keep the relevant ones. Drop questions your product or expertise cannot answer well.
- Check difficulty. Run the shortlist through Moz Keyword Explorer and keep the ones whose minimum Domain Authority is close to yours. Our Moz Keyword Explorer tips go deeper.
- Write one page per topic. Answer the main question early and use the other questions as an FAQ section, which also helps AI assistants quote you.
- Track and refresh. Track the page in Moz, and add new questions from AnswerThePublic's search listening alerts when they appear.
How Founders Use Keyword and Question Research
Question research doubles as cheap customer research: the questions people type show their worries, their budget and their words, which helps your landing page and your sales calls. If nobody searches for the problem you solve, validate your startup idea with real customers before you build. For more ways to find topics, see our free content ideas generators, Long Tail Pro vs AnswerThePublic and Ubersuggest vs Keywords Everywhere for Neil Patel's other tool. Our hub on SEO and keyword research tools for startups compares more tools by stage.
Ideas only pay off when you publish. The F/MS AI SEO Tool turns your keywords and questions into articles written to rank on Google and to be cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, and the AI SEO blog explains how it works.
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FAQ: Moz vs AnswerThePublic
What is the main difference between Moz and AnswerThePublic?
Moz Pro is an SEO suite that scores keyword difficulty, tracks rankings and analyses backlinks. AnswerThePublic shows the questions and phrases people search around a topic, so it is a content-ideas and customer-research tool.
Is AnswerThePublic free?
Partly. On 3 November 2026 the site allowed 1 search without an account, and a free account with no credit card gives 3 searches a day. Paid plans add more searches, volume and CPC, alerts and AI features.
How much does AnswerThePublic cost?
The regular yearly prices are €160 for Starter, €792 for Growth and €1,592 for Business (euros shown to European visitors). A limited-time offer showed €120, €594 and €1,194 a year until 8 November 2026.
How much does Moz Pro cost?
Standard costs $99 a month, or $79 a month paid yearly; Medium $179 ($143 yearly) and Large $299 ($239 yearly). Moz also lists a $49 Starter plan for one website.
Does Moz have a free version?
Yes. A free Moz Community account gives limited access to Keyword Explorer, Link Explorer and MozBar, and Moz offers free SEO tools such as a keyword research preview and a backlink checker. Moz Pro also has a 7-day free trial on the Medium plan.
Where can I submit a guest post about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Get a quality backlink.
Does AnswerThePublic show keyword difficulty?
Its pricing page lists search volume and CPC, but no keyword difficulty score. Use Moz Keyword Explorer or another keyword tool to judge whether a question is realistic to rank for.
Can Moz find question keywords?
Yes. Keyword Explorer has a Questions filter in its keyword suggestions, with volume and difficulty for each question. AnswerThePublic shows more phrasing variety and sources beyond Google.
Can AnswerThePublic replace Moz?
No. AnswerThePublic does not track rankings, crawl your site or analyse backlinks. It is best used next to a keyword tool, not instead of one.
Which is better for a startup in 2027?
Start with the free versions of both. If you write content every week and need ideas, AnswerThePublic Starter is the cheaper first purchase; if you need to pick winnable keywords and track rankings, Moz Pro is the stronger tool.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
