One plugin charges you for table stakes. The other hands you the entire toolkit and walks away. Here's why I burned down my Yoast setup across 47 sites — and never looked back.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Rank Math gives away what Yoast desperately wants you to pay $99/year for. Redirects. 404 monitoring. Schema that actually impresses Google. I call this 'Free Tool Arbitrage' — weaponizing free features to outmaneuver competitors who are bleeding money on premium subscriptions. Yoast isn't bad; it's just become the AOL of SEO plugins. Reliable, nostalgic, and quietly bleeding relevance.
Best for:
Best for:
Forget green lights — they're SEO security blankets. After auditing 800+ pages and migrating 47 sites, I reveal which plugin actually builds authority (and which one just sells you peace of mind).
0 wins for Yoast SEO • 4 wins for Rank Math • 1 ties