RankWhy vs Outrank
Last updated
Outrank: An autopilot that writes and publishes 30 articles a month and places links for you, for $99 a month. RankWhy answers "why do these pages rank, and what is mine missing?" with evidence per claim, on your own DataForSEO account, and writes from your facts. This page puts the two side by side. Every figure about Outrank names the page it was read from and the day (last checked 2026-11-05); where a page did not say, the row says so. If something here is out of date, tell us and it will be corrected with the date.
Outrank plans, as published
- Organic Growth Plan: $99 a month or $999 a year; 30 articles a month, unlimited users, AI images, 150+ languages. (outrank.so, read 2026-11-05)
- Add-ons: 60 articles +$85 a month, 90 articles +$160; Human Curated Service $1,399 a month; backlink packages $199, $899 and $1,899 a month. (outrank.so, read 2026-11-05)
- Multi-site discounts: 10% for 2 to 4 sites, 15% for 5 to 19, 20% for 20 to 25. (outrank.so, read 2026-11-05)
Row by row
| Question | RankWhy | Outrank |
|---|---|---|
| Price and what it buys | Free during the beta, no card. Google data runs on your own DataForSEO account (a top-20 SERP is about $0.002 at list price, shown per run); AI steps use credits (300 on sign-up). | $99 a month for 30 articles, images, keyword research and backlinks; $999 a year. (outrank.so) |
| Cost of 30 articles a month | About 30 SERP reads on your DataForSEO account (around $0.06 at list price) plus the writer's credits; no subscription. | $99, about $3.30 an article. (outrank.so) |
| Where the Google data comes from | DataForSEO on your key, named on every number, with the fetch time; every paid SERP is kept as a snapshot you can re-read. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, terms, 2026-11-05). |
| Keyword research | Seed expansion on named channels (Labs suggestions, ideas, related, autocomplete with its prefix, People also ask, also-rank-for, competitor gap, Trends rising), each row with its origin; your Search Console import joined when you have one. | "Automated keyword research" is included; method and data source are not described on the pricing page. (outrank.so) |
| Writing: facts and sources | The writer states only the facts you gave (Truth Ledger), the facts read from your own pages with the sentence quoted, and numbers three ranking domains agree on with quote and URL; everything else is a placeholder. Every outbound link is fetched and checked. | Fact-checking is sold as the $1,399-a-month Human Curated Service ("review, fact-check, and polish every article"); the base plan makes no fact-checking claim. (outrank.so) |
| What a refresh does to your page | Measures your page against the pages that rank (Outrank Diff) and writes a new draft beside it; nothing on your site is overwritten. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, terms, 2026-11-05). |
| Publishing | Drafts only: WordPress and Ghost drafts, a signed webhook to your own endpoint, an Atom feed. Nothing is published without you. | WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Wix, Framer, Notion, Ghost and a custom webhook; "generated and published on auto-pilot". (outrank.so) |
| Backlinks | None, on purpose: no exchange, no network, no purchased links. Referring-domain counts come from your own DataForSEO Backlinks data. | Links placed inside articles on other blogs; the terms say links are published automatically with "no manual preview or approval step". (outrank.so) |
| Audit of pages that already rank | Site Guard, free: from your Search Console import, pages earning fewer clicks than their position should (against your own click-through curve), title and description lengths, queries split between pages with a winner and a redirect list; fixes are suggestions you apply. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, terms, 2026-11-05). |
| AI answers | Asks Google itself (AI Overview from the SERP, AI Mode) on your key and names every cited page; counts shown with the sample size. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, terms, 2026-11-05). |
| AI agents | Remote MCP server with OAuth 2.1 and scopes (read, research, write), 36 task-shaped tools with a cost line, a Claude Code plugin, and the same tools in the account's copilot, which asks before anything that spends. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, terms, 2026-11-05). |
| Who owns the content | You. RankWhy claims no rights in what it writes for you and does not train on it. | You keep your "User Contributions"; the terms do not say who owns the generated articles. (outrank.so) |
| Your CMS login | Stored only if you turn on unattended drafts (AES-256-GCM), used to create drafts, deleted when you switch it off; otherwise used once for the request and dropped. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, terms, 2026-11-05). |
| Trial and refunds | Nothing to refund: the beta is free and your DataForSEO spend is yours, shown per run. | A free start with watermarked articles; first-time subscribers may ask for a full refund within 7 days, then "all sales are final". (outrank.so) |
What Outrank does better
- Thirty articles a month published for you, in 150+ languages, with images, for one price.
- Backlinks placed for you (with the policy risk that carries).
- A paid human editing tier if you want people to fact-check.
Where RankWhy says no on purpose
Publishing live without you. RankWhy makes drafts (WordPress, Ghost, your webhook, a feed) and stops. A page goes live when a person has read it.
Backlinks. RankWhy builds, exchanges and buys no links. Google's spam policies list "excessive link exchanges" and "buying or selling links for ranking purposes" among link schemes (developers.google.com, read 2026-11-05). Referring-domain counts in RankWhy come from your own DataForSEO Backlinks data and are shown as numbers, never a score.
Composite scores. No content score, no authority score, no "opportunity" number without a formula; every figure keeps its source and date.
What to know before you buy Outrank
- Links are published automatically with "no manual preview or approval step". (outrank.so, read 2026-11-05)
- Refunds only within 7 days of the first payment, once per customer. (outrank.so, read 2026-11-05)
Sources
- https://outrank.so/pricing (read 2026-11-05)
- https://outrank.so/terms-of-use (read 2026-11-05)
RankWhy's column comes from our documentation and pricing as of 2026-11-05.
Questions
Is RankWhy an Outrank alternative?
For research, writing from your own facts and auditing what already ranks, yes, on your DataForSEO account. RankWhy does not publish live or build links.