Surfer SEO alternatives for Shopify stores
Surfer SEO alternatives for Shopify stores: Semrush, Alli AI and Enrich Labs, with document limits, published prices and what each does. Tilly's own place in the list is stated plainly.
Written by Tilly. Tilly is one of the apps on this page, so read it knowing that.
Why people look for something other than Surfer SEO
Document caps shape how you write. Surfer's Discovery plan covers 120 documents created or optimised and Standard 360, so a store that rewrites product and collection pages as well as blog posts can find itself counting. source, checked 25 September 2026
The published prices assume a year. Surfer's pricing page lists plans billed yearly, from $49 a month for Discovery, which suits a settled team better than a store still testing whether content works for it. source, checked 25 September 2026
AI visibility is a separate line. Surfer sells AI Search Analytics on its own at $82 a month billed yearly, so a store that wants both writing guidance and AI tracking is looking at two plans or the larger tiers that bundle them. source, checked 25 September 2026
Someone still has to write. Surfer's assistant and humanizer help a writer shape a page, but the store needs that writer, and the time to brief them, before any of it pays off. source, checked 25 September 2026
The shortlist
Each figure comes from the tool's own pricing page or Shopify listing and links to it with the date we read it. Tools without a Shopify listing we could read have no rating in the table rather than one borrowed from a review site. Tilly is one of the options and wrote this page.
| The shortlist | Lowest published paid plan | Free plan or trial | Shopify rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tilly | $49/month | 100 credits, once, no card | Not recorded |
| Surfer SEO | Discovery: $49/month billed yearlysource | Not recorded | Not recorded |
| Semrush | SEO: $139/month billed monthlysource | Free plan: 1 demo project and 10 reports a daysource | Not recorded |
| Alli AI | Business, annual: $249/month, $2,990 billed annuallysource | 10-day free trial on all planssource | Not recorded |
| Enrich Labs | Starter (enrichlabs.ai): $39/month, 200 credits a monthsource | Free plan on Shopify: 3 AI chat questions and 3 SEO blog articles a monthsource | 4.6 out of 5 (17 reviews)source |
Tilly
Best for: a store that has been paying for writing guidance but has nobody writing. Tilly's SEO agent chooses topics from your customers' questions, writes each post with product links and a cover image, and publishes to your Shopify blog after you approve it.
Watch out for: No AI visibility reports and no on-page editor for your own writer's drafts. If you have a writer you rate, Surfer helps them in ways Tilly does not.
Pricing: 100 credits free. The Store plan is $49 a month billed monthly for 500 credits; a post with its cover is 15 credits, the SEO audit free.
Semrush
Best for: a team that wants research breadth before writing: keyword research, competitor insight tools, a site audit and position tracking, in one account.
Watch out for: It does not write for you, and its entry SEO plan is $139 a month billed monthly, which covers 5 websites; a single store uses a fraction of that.
Pricing: A free plan with 1 demo project and 10 reports a day. SEO $139, Starter $199, Pro+ $299, Advanced $549, all monthly. source, checked 25 September 2026
Alli AI
Best for: a store whose problem is technical rather than editorial, and which wants changes deployed across the whole site, with keyword tracking, a link builder and a weekly crawl alongside.
Watch out for: It is priced by sites and pages, starting at the Business plan's 5 sites and 1,250 pages, so it fits agencies better than a one-store brand.
Pricing: 10-day free trial; Business $299 a month billed monthly or $249 billed annually; Agency $599. source, checked 25 September 2026
Enrich Labs
Best for: a store that wants blog posts written by an AI assistant inside Shopify, with social content and help launching Meta and Google ads in the same app.
Watch out for: Credit allowances vary widely by plan, 200 a month on Starter against 2,000 on Pro Plus on its own site, so check how many credits a post uses before choosing a tier.
Pricing: A free Shopify plan with 3 SEO blog articles a month; paid from $39 a month; 3-day free trial. source, checked 25 September 2026
How to choose
If you have a writer, keep them and give them the best guidance you can afford; that is Surfer's home ground, and Semrush's research makes a good companion to it.
If you do not, pay for writing, not guidance. Tilly and Enrich Labs both write posts for Shopify stores; compare how each chooses topics, how many posts a month the plan you would buy really gives you, and whether it publishes to your blog or leaves you a draft.
If the site itself is the problem, with missing meta, slow pages and thin collections, fix that first. Tilly's audit and Alli AI both look at technical issues; the difference is whether you want fixes deployed automatically or written for you to approve.
Whatever you choose, measure it the same way: impressions and clicks from Search Console for the pages the tool touched, over at least a quarter.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest Surfer alternative?
Enrich Labs has a free plan on Shopify with 3 SEO blog articles a month, and Semrush has a free plan with 1 demo project and 10 reports a day. They do different jobs from Surfer, so compare what the free plan actually lets you finish.
Can Tilly optimise posts my writer has already written?
Tilly's SEO audit finds problems across the site, such as missing meta or schema, and writes the fix. It is not an editor for scoring a writer's draft the way Surfer is.
Do I need AI search tracking?
It is new and worth watching, and Surfer and Semrush both offer it. For most small stores the first gains still come from answering customers' questions well on their own site.
Is Surfer good for Shopify?
It works on any site, including Shopify, as a writing tool. Whether it is good for your store depends on whether you have someone to write; the tool guides a writer, it does not replace one.
Who wrote this list?
Tilly. Every competitor fact links to its source page with the date checked. If a price has changed, the report link reaches us.
Written by Tilly. Tilly is one of the apps on this page, so read it knowing that. Report an error.
See this on your own store
Paste your store URL. The first pass takes about a minute and needs no account. Save a card (nothing is charged) and Tilly reads the whole store and works out who buys from you.