Clearscope

Clearscope tells writers what a page needs to cover to rank. Enter a target search, and it reads the top results and gives you the terms, questions and headings to include, then grades your draft from F to A++ as you write in its editor, Google Docs or WordPress. It also watches your published pages for slipping rankings, can draft content, and now tracks whether ChatGPT and Gemini mention your brand for the questions you care about.

It does the same core job as Surfer, which is already in the library. Clearscope is cleaner and easier for writers and has unlimited users on every plan; Surfer is cheaper to start, has more features (audits, AI writing, internal links) and suits solo marketers. Frase is the budget option with more built-in drafting.

The catch is price: Essentials is $129 a month for 50 tracked pages and 20 drafts, with no yearly discount shown and no free plan. It is built for teams publishing a lot, not a business writing one blog post a month.

• Content marketing teams
• SEO agencies
• Freelance writers
• B2B software companies

Content teams and agencies publishing SEO articles every week who want writers to hit a clear quality bar.

• Content grading

  Grades a draft against the top-ranking pages and lists the terms and questions still missing.

• Topic exploration

  Finds related topics and questions to plan articles around a subject.

• Page monitoring

  Watches published pages and flags ones whose rankings or traffic are slipping.

• Drafts

  Generates a first draft from a brief that already covers the key terms.

• AI search tracking

  Tracks whether ChatGPT and Gemini mention your brand for chosen questions, and what searches they run.

• Google Docs and WordPress add-ons

  Writers get the grade and term list inside the editor they already use.

• Our pick

  Essentials

  $129/mo

  Small content teams publishing weekly.

  • 50 tracked pages and 50 tracked AI queries
  • 20 topic explorations and 20 drafts a month
  • Unlimited users

• Business

  $399/mo

  Larger teams and agencies.

  • 300 tracked pages and 300 AI queries
  • 50 topic explorations a month
  • Dedicated account manager

• Enterprise

  Custom

  Big publishers with security needs.

  • Custom limits
  • SSO
  • Custom agreements

Prices in USD unless noted, checked 22 October 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on their site before you buy.

Ways Clearscope can slot into your week.

1. 1

   Set a bar for freelance writers

   Send each writer a Clearscope report and ask for an A grade before the draft comes back.

2. 2

   Refresh old posts

   Find pages that are slipping, re-grade them against today's top results and add what is missing.

3. 3

   Plan a topic cluster

   Use topic exploration to map the questions people ask around your main service, then brief one article per question.

4. 4

   Check AI search mentions

   Track the questions customers ask ChatGPT about your category and see if your brand shows up.

Clearscope sits between your keyword research tool (Semrush or Ahrefs) and your CMS. Writers use it inside Google Docs or WordPress, so it does not change how they work.

The closest alternatives to Clearscope in the library, best rated first.

• 

  Ahrefs

  4.4

  Best for keyword research

  Compare with Clearscope
• 

  Microsoft Clarity

  4.3

  Best for finding checkout drop-offs

  Compare with Clearscope
• 

  DataForSEO

  4.0

  Best for SEO research from Claude Code

  Compare with Clearscope
• 

  Frase

  4.0

  Best for Building SEO content briefs fast

  Compare with Clearscope