RankWhy vs Search Atlas
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Search Atlas: An SEO suite with OTTO, an automation layer that applies fixes, an AI content suite and publishing to any CMS. 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 Search Atlas 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 If something here is out of date, tell us and it will be corrected with the date.
Search Atlas plans, as published
- Starter $99 a month (50,000 credits, 1 project, 2,000 tracked keywords, OTTO SEO, Content Genius, publish to any CMS), Growth $199, Pro $399, Agency from $999; billed monthly. (searchatlas.com, read 2026-11-05)
- 7-day trial with onboarding on Starter and Growth; credit top-ups $1 per 1,000. (searchatlas.com, read 2026-11-05)
Row by row
| Question | RankWhy | Search Atlas |
|---|---|---|
| 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 one project with OTTO, content tools and 2,000 tracked keywords, metered by credits. (searchatlas.com) |
| 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. | Metered by Universal Credits; article counts not stated as such. (searchatlas.com) |
| 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, 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. | Included in the suite; limits by credits. (searchatlas.com) |
| 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. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, 2026-11-05). |
| 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. | OTTO applies technical fixes and schema to your site ("without manual intervention" per third-party reviews; the pricing page lists it as included). (searchatlas.com) |
| Publishing | Drafts only: WordPress and Ghost drafts, a signed webhook to your own endpoint, an Atom feed. Nothing is published without you. | "Connect and publish to any CMS": WordPress, Shopify, Webflow and custom stacks. (searchatlas.com) |
| Backlinks | None, on purpose: no exchange, no network, no purchased links. Referring-domain counts come from your own DataForSEO Backlinks data. | "Authority building" is mentioned; no exchange or purchase described on the pricing page. (searchatlas.com) |
| 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. | Site audit up to 50,000 pages on Starter; OTTO fixes. (searchatlas.com) |
| 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. | LLM Visibility projects and AI Visibility credits in every plan. (searchatlas.com) |
| 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. | "Atlas Agent" in every plan; MCP not mentioned on the pricing page. (searchatlas.com) |
| Who owns the content | You. RankWhy claims no rights in what it writes for you and does not train on it. | Not stated on the pages we read (pricing, 2026-11-05). |
| 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, 2026-11-05). |
| Trial and refunds | Nothing to refund: the beta is free and your DataForSEO spend is yours, shown per run. | 7-day trial; refund terms not on the pricing page. (searchatlas.com) |
What Search Atlas does better
- OTTO applies technical fixes to your site; RankWhy only suggests.
- Local rank tracking and Google Business Profile tools.
- One suite for content, tracking, audits and AI visibility.
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 Search Atlas
- Everything is metered in credits; reviewers call the system confusing, so read the credit table before buying. (searchatlas.com, read 2026-11-05)
Sources
- https://searchatlas.com/pricing/ (read 2026-11-05)
RankWhy's column comes from our documentation and pricing as of 2026-11-05.
Questions
Is RankWhy a Search Atlas alternative?
For the research and writing with evidence, yes. If you want a tool that changes your site for you, that is OTTO, and RankWhy will not do it.