Prime SEO vs Yoast vs Rank Math vs AIOSEO: AI Features Compared (2026)

ChatGPT now answers over a billion queries per week. Perplexity hit 100 million monthly active users. Google's AI Overviews appear on 47% of US search results.

Meanwhile, your WordPress SEO plugin is still optimized exclusively for ten blue links.

That's the gap this comparison addresses. We tested five WordPress SEO plugins -- Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress, and Prime SEO -- against two sets of criteria: traditional SEO features (the stuff that's mattered for 20 years) and AI search features (the stuff that matters starting now).

The results might surprise you. The biggest plugins by install count are not the most prepared for where search is heading.

The quick comparison (feature matrix)

Before we go deep, here's the full picture in one table. Scroll right on mobile.

Feature	Yoast SEO	Rank Math	AIOSEO	SEOPress	Prime SEO
Price (annual)	Free / $99	Free / $59	Free / $49.60	Free / $49	Free / $59
Active installs	5M+	3M+	3M+	300K+	New
AI SEARCH FEATURES
LLMs.txt generator	No	No	No	No	Yes
LLMs-full.txt	No	No	No	No	Yes
AI Bots Manager	No	No	No	No	Yes (16 bots)
AI Crawler Stats	No	No	No	No	Yes
AI Visibility Score	No	No	No	No	Yes
robots.txt AI rules	No	No	No	No	Yes
TRADITIONAL SEO
SEO Metabox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XML Sitemap	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Schema / JSON-LD	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Redirect Manager	Premium	Yes	Pro	Pro	Yes (free)
404 Monitor	Premium	Yes	Pro	Pro	Yes (free)
Breadcrumbs	Yes	Yes	Pro	Pro	Yes (free)
Image SEO	Premium	Pro	Pro	Pro	Yes (free)
Robots.txt Editor	Limited	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IndexNow	Premium	Yes	No	Pro	Yes (free)
Migration Tool	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WooCommerce SEO	Premium	Pro	Pro	Pro	Yes (free)
AI CONTENT
AI Title/Desc	Premium (limited)	Premium	Pro	No	Pro
AI Bulk Generator	No	No	No	No	Pro
AI Content Score	No	No	Pro	No	Pro
Video Sitemap	Premium	Pro	Pro	Pro	Pro

Let that sink in for a second. Every AI-specific search feature -- llms.txt, AI bots management, crawler tracking, AI visibility scoring -- exists in exactly one plugin. And the traditional SEO features that other plugins lock behind Pro? Prime SEO includes most of them in the free tier.

Now let's look at each plugin in detail.

Yoast SEO: The original, showing its age

Yoast SEO essentially created the WordPress SEO plugin category. It launched in 2010, and for years it was the only serious option. That history matters -- millions of sites run on Yoast, and the plugin has deep WordPress integration.

What Yoast does well

Content analysis is Yoast's strongest feature. The traffic light system (red/orange/green) for SEO and readability has taught an entire generation of content creators what "optimized" means. The readability analysis is genuinely useful -- it checks sentence length, passive voice, paragraph length, and Flesch reading ease.

Schema markup got significantly better in recent versions. Yoast now automatically generates Organization, Website, Article, and BreadcrumbList schemas. The structured data graph approach connects all these schemas into a coherent knowledge graph.

Integration with WordPress is seamless. Yoast was built for WordPress from day one, and it shows. The metabox feels native, the settings integrate with the block editor, and updates rarely break anything.

Where Yoast falls short

Bloat. Yoast has grown into a massive codebase. It loads admin notices constantly, upsells Premium on every page, and the settings area has become a maze of options across multiple submenus. For a simple task like editing your robots.txt, you're navigating through layers of UI.

AI search features are nonexistent in the free version. Yoast has added an "AI Generate" feature in Premium, but it only creates titles and descriptions -- two fields. There's no llms.txt support, no AI crawler management, no awareness that AI search engines exist as a distinct category.

Pricing is steep. At $99/year for a single site, Yoast Premium is the most expensive option on this list. And features like redirects, IndexNow, and Image SEO -- free in other plugins -- are locked behind that paywall.

The free version is increasingly limited. Over the past two years, Yoast has moved more features into Premium, making the free version feel like a demo.

Rank Math: Feature-rich, but complex

Rank Math disrupted the WordPress SEO space by offering almost everything Yoast Premium did -- for free. That strategy worked. It grew from zero to 3 million installs in a few years by being the "more features, less cost" alternative.

What Rank Math does well

Feature density in the free version is Rank Math's calling card. You get redirect management, 404 monitoring, schema markup with 20+ types, advanced meta tags, local SEO basics, and Google Search Console integration -- all free. For pure feature count, Rank Math's free tier is hard to beat.

Schema markup is arguably the best in the market. The schema builder lets you create custom schemas with conditional logic, and the library of predefined types covers nearly every Schema.org specification. If you run a recipe site, event listing, or local business, Rank Math's schema options are deep.

Content AI (Premium) provides AI-powered content recommendations based on competitor analysis. It suggests related keywords, questions to answer, and content structure. It's not generation -- it's optimization guidance.

Where Rank Math falls short

Complexity. Rank Math tries to do everything, and it shows. The settings area has over 15 module pages. New users often feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, toggles, and configurations. The setup wizard helps, but there's still a steep learning curve.

AI search readiness is zero. Despite being the most feature-rich plugin on this list, Rank Math has no llms.txt support, no AI crawler management, no AI-specific optimization tools. Their "Content AI" feature is about traditional content optimization, not AI search visibility.

Upselling has increased. Recent versions show more Premium prompts in the free version. Features that were once free have moved behind the paywall.

Resource usage can be higher than competitors. With all modules enabled, Rank Math adds noticeable overhead to admin page loads. On shared hosting, this matters.

All in One SEO (AIOSEO): Solid but conventional

AIOSEO has been around almost as long as Yoast (since 2007). It rebranded and modernized in 2020, and the current version is a capable, well-designed SEO plugin. It sits comfortably between Yoast's simplicity and Rank Math's complexity.

What AIOSEO does well

User interface is clean and modern. AIOSEO's redesign brought a polished settings experience that feels less cluttered than Yoast or Rank Math. The setup wizard is one of the best -- it asks clear questions and configures the plugin sensibly for your site type.

Link Assistant (Pro) analyzes your content and suggests internal linking opportunities. For content-heavy sites, this is genuinely useful for building topical authority.

Local SEO is strong in the Pro tier. Multiple location support, business hours, payment methods, and a location map -- it's a solid local SEO toolkit.

Where AIOSEO falls short

The free version is thin. AIOSEO locks redirects, 404 monitoring, image SEO, breadcrumbs, and video sitemaps behind Pro. The free version covers basics -- metabox, sitemap, and schema -- but little else.

AI search features are absent. Like the others, AIOSEO has no llms.txt support, no AI bots management, and no specific features for AI search engine optimization.

Pricing tiers are confusing. AIOSEO has four Pro tiers (Basic, Plus, Pro, Elite) with different feature sets. Figuring out which tier includes the feature you need requires reading fine print.

SEOPress: The underrated lightweight option

SEOPress is the smallest plugin on this list by install count, but it punches above its weight. It's built by a single developer (Benjamin Denis), and it prioritizes clean code and performance over feature count.

What SEOPress does well

Performance is SEOPress's strongest advantage. It's the lightest SEO plugin we tested -- minimal database queries, small footprint, fast admin pages. If you're on shared hosting or care deeply about site speed, SEOPress is worth considering.

No ads in the free version. While Yoast, Rank Math, and AIOSEO show Premium upsells throughout the admin, SEOPress keeps its free version clean. No banners, no nag screens, no "upgrade now" overlays.

Content analysis uses a checklist-style approach that some users prefer over Yoast's traffic lights. It's straightforward and doesn't try to gamify SEO.

Where SEOPress falls short

Smaller ecosystem. Fewer integrations, fewer third-party extensions, and a smaller community mean fewer resources when you get stuck. Documentation is good but not as extensive as Yoast or Rank Math.

AI features are limited. SEOPress recently added some AI capabilities in its Pro version, but there's no llms.txt, no AI crawler management, and no AI-specific optimization tools.

Schema options are more limited than Rank Math or AIOSEO Pro. Custom schemas require manual JSON-LD input rather than a visual builder.

Prime SEO: Built for AI search from day one

Full disclosure: this is our plugin. We'll be as factual as possible and let the feature comparison speak for itself.

Prime SEO launched in January 2026 with a specific thesis: the next decade of SEO will be dominated by AI search engines, and WordPress sites need tools built for that reality. Instead of competing on 15 years of accumulated traditional SEO features, Prime SEO focuses on the gap no other plugin fills.

AI search features (the differentiator)

This is where Prime SEO is fundamentally different from every other plugin on this list.

LLMs.txt Generator creates and maintains both llms.txt and llms-full.txt automatically. You select which post types to include, organize content by sections, and the plugin generates the files with proper Markdown formatting. Updated automatically when you publish or edit content. Learn more about llms.txt.

AI Bots Manager gives you granular control over 16 AI crawlers: GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Claude-Web, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, Bytespider, Meta-ExternalAgent, Amazonbot, Cohere-AI, YouBot, CCBot, Diffbot, FacebookBot, and OAI-SearchBot. Quick presets let you Allow All, Block Training (allow search, block model training), Block All, or set custom rules per bot. See the full AI crawlers list.

AI Crawler Stats tracks which AI bots actually visit your site, how often, and which pages they request. This is data no other SEO plugin provides. You can see if GPTBot visited your site last Tuesday, which URLs it crawled, and how your AI traffic trends over time.

AI Visibility Score gives you a quick assessment of how AI-ready your site is. It checks llms.txt presence, AI bot access rules, schema markup, content structure, and more.

Robots.txt AI Rules automatically adds the correct User-agent directives for AI crawlers based on your AI Bots Manager settings. No manual editing of robots.txt required. Set up robots.txt for AI bots.

Traditional SEO features

Prime SEO covers the essentials:

• SEO Metabox with visual SEO score (0-100), live Google preview, character counters, multiple focus keywords, and real-time content analysis
• XML Sitemap with sitemap index architecture, image sitemap, custom post types and taxonomies
• Schema Markup with Knowledge Graph, WebSite, Article, FAQ, HowTo, Recipe, Event, Product, LocalBusiness (40+ subtypes), and Book schemas
• Redirect Manager with 301/302/307/410/451 types, regex support, query string preservation, and hit tracking
• 404 Monitor with automatic logging, referer tracking, and one-click redirect creation
• Image SEO with auto-generated ALT and TITLE attributes
• External Links Manager with automatic nofollow and new tab settings
• Breadcrumbs with shortcode, PHP function, and BreadcrumbList schema
• Instant Indexing via IndexNow API
• Robots.txt Editor with 5 pre-made templates

All of the above is free. No Premium paywall.

Pro features ($59/year)

• Generate All with AI -- one click fills SEO title, meta description, OG title/description, Twitter title/description, and focus keywords (6 fields + keywords). No other plugin generates all social meta in one click.
• AI Bulk Generator -- find all posts missing SEO data and generate titles and descriptions in batch. Progress tracking, pause/resume, undo support.
• AI Content Score -- 15-point analysis of how AI search engines view your content.
• Video Sitemap -- auto-detects YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, and Bunny Stream videos.

AI-specific features: the detailed breakdown

This is the comparison that matters most for 2026 and beyond. Let's look at each AI search feature and how the five plugins handle it.

LLMs.txt support

LLMs.txt is a proposed standard that gives AI language models a structured overview of your website. Think of it as a curated table of contents specifically for machines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

Plugin	LLMs.txt	LLMs-full.txt	Auto-update
Yoast SEO	No	No	N/A
Rank Math	No	No	N/A
AIOSEO	No	No	N/A
SEOPress	No	No	N/A
Prime SEO	Yes	Yes	Yes

Only Prime SEO generates both files. The plugin creates them automatically based on your content, organizes links by sections, and updates when you publish or edit posts.

AI crawler management

Sixteen known AI crawlers visit websites regularly. Managing which ones can access your content -- and which are blocked from using it for model training -- is a growing concern for publishers.

Plugin	AI bot controls	Number of bots	Quick presets
Yoast SEO	No	0	No
Rank Math	No	0	No
AIOSEO	No	0	No
SEOPress	No	0	No
Prime SEO	Yes	16	4 presets

The other plugins offer robots.txt editors where you could manually add AI bot rules -- but you'd need to know the exact User-agent strings, and there's no UI to manage them. Prime SEO's AI Bots Manager shows each bot with its name, company, purpose (search vs. training), and an on/off toggle.

AI crawler analytics

Understanding which AI bots visit your site helps you make informed decisions about access policies and content strategy.

Plugin	AI traffic tracking	Bot identification	URL tracking
Yoast SEO	No	No	No
Rank Math	No	No	No
AIOSEO	No	No	No
SEOPress	No	No	No
Prime SEO	Yes	Yes (16 bots)	Yes

Prime SEO's AI Crawler Stats dashboard widget shows recent bot visits, top visited URLs, and 7-day traffic trends. This data helps you understand which AI services are actually reading your content.

Robots.txt AI rules

Properly configuring robots.txt for AI crawlers requires knowing each bot's User-agent string and the difference between search crawlers and training crawlers.

Plugin	Auto AI rules	Visual editor	Templates
Yoast SEO	No	Basic	No
Rank Math	No	Yes	No
AIOSEO	No	Yes	No
SEOPress	No	Yes	No
Prime SEO	Yes	Yes	5 templates

Prime SEO automatically generates robots.txt directives based on your AI Bots Manager settings. If you block GPTBot in the Bots Manager, the robots.txt rule appears automatically.

Traditional SEO features: head-to-head

AI search features aside, how do these plugins compare on the basics?

XML Sitemap

All five plugins generate XML sitemaps. The differences are in the details:

• Yoast: Clean implementation, basic options (post types, taxonomies). Image sitemap included. Video sitemap is Premium-only.
• Rank Math: More configuration options, supports news sitemaps. Image sitemap included.
• AIOSEO: Solid implementation with a visual interface. Video sitemap is Pro.
• SEOPress: Lightweight sitemap with good defaults. HTML sitemap option is a nice touch.
• Prime SEO: Sitemap index architecture, image sitemap, XSL styling for human readability. Video sitemap is Pro.

Verdict: All adequate. Rank Math edges ahead with news sitemap support.

Schema markup

This is where differences get meaningful:

• Yoast: Automatic Article, Organization, WebSite, Breadcrumb schemas. Limited manual control. No visual builder.
• Rank Math: Best schema support. Visual builder, 20+ types, conditional logic, custom schemas. This is Rank Math's strongest feature.
• AIOSEO: Good schema support in Pro. Knowledge Graph, Article, FAQ, Product, Recipe. Clean interface.
• SEOPress: Basic schemas. Custom JSON-LD input for advanced users.
• Prime SEO: Knowledge Graph, WebSite with SearchAction, Article, FAQ, HowTo, Recipe, Event, Product (WooCommerce), LocalBusiness (40+ subtypes), Book. No visual builder, but comprehensive type coverage.

Verdict: Rank Math wins on schema flexibility. Prime SEO and AIOSEO Pro tie for second.

Redirect Manager

• Yoast: Premium only ($99/year).
• Rank Math: Free. 301/302/307/410/451 types, regex, hit tracking.
• AIOSEO: Pro only.
• SEOPress: Pro only.
• Prime SEO: Free. 301/302/307/410/451 types, regex with capture groups, query string preservation, hit tracking, fallback redirect, import/export.

Verdict: Rank Math and Prime SEO offer the best free redirect managers. Prime SEO adds query string preservation and fallback redirect.

Pricing comparison

Let's compare what you actually pay for the features you need.

	Yoast	Rank Math	AIOSEO	SEOPress	Prime SEO
Free	Metabox, Sitemap, Schema, Breadcrumbs	Metabox, Sitemap, Schema, Redirects, 404 Monitor, Breadcrumbs, IndexNow	Metabox, Sitemap, Schema	Metabox, Sitemap, Schema	Metabox, Sitemap, Schema, Redirects, 404 Monitor, Breadcrumbs, Image SEO, External Links, IndexNow, LLMs.txt, AI Bots Manager
Cheapest Pro	$99/yr (1 site)	$59/yr (1 site)	$49.60/yr (1 site)	$49/yr (unlimited)	$59/yr (1 site)
Redirects	$99 (Premium)	Free	$49.60+ (Pro)	$49+ (Pro)	Free
404 Monitor	$99 (Premium)	Free	$49.60+ (Pro)	$49+ (Pro)	Free
Image SEO	$99 (Premium)	$59+ (Pro)	$49.60+ (Pro)	$49+ (Pro)	Free
AI generation	$99 (Premium, 2 fields)	$59+ (Content AI)	$49.60+ (Pro)	N/A	$59 (Pro, 6 fields + keywords)
LLMs.txt	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Free
AI Bots Manager	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Free

The math is clear. If you want redirects, 404 monitoring, Image SEO, and AI search features from Yoast, you're paying $99/year and still don't get llms.txt or AI bot management. With Prime SEO, you get all of that free.

Which plugin should you pick?

There's no single "best" plugin -- it depends on what you need. Here's our honest recommendation based on use case.

Choose Yoast SEO if...

• You're already using it and everything works fine
• You value stability and a massive knowledge base
• You don't need redirects, 404 monitoring, or AI features
• You're willing to pay $99/year for Premium features

Yoast is the Toyota Camry of SEO plugins. Reliable, well-known, gets the job done. Just don't expect it to prepare your site for AI search.

Choose Rank Math if...

• You want maximum features in a free plugin (traditional SEO)
• Schema markup is critical for your site (recipe, event, local business)
• You don't mind complexity and are comfortable with many settings
• AI search readiness is not a priority right now

Rank Math is the Swiss Army knife. More tools than you'll probably use, but they're there if you need them.

Choose AIOSEO if...

• You want a clean, modern interface with good defaults
• Link Assistant (Pro) for internal linking optimization appeals to you
• You run multiple local business locations
• You prefer a more guided setup experience

AIOSEO is the middle ground -- less complex than Rank Math, more features than Yoast free.

Choose SEOPress if...

• Performance is your top priority
• You want an ad-free experience in the free version
• Your site is simple and doesn't need advanced schema or AI features
• You prefer a lightweight, privacy-focused approach

SEOPress is the plugin for minimalists who care about clean code and fast pages.

Choose Prime SEO if...

• You want to prepare your site for AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude)
• You need redirects, 404 monitor, Image SEO, and IndexNow without paying for Pro
• You want LLMs.txt and AI crawler management -- features no other plugin offers
• You're starting fresh and want a modern plugin built for 2026, not 2010

Prime SEO is purpose-built for the transition from traditional search to AI search. If you believe AI will reshape how people find information online (and the data strongly suggests it will), Prime SEO is the only plugin actively building for that future.

Already using Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, or SEOPress? Prime SEO includes a one-click migration tool that transfers all your SEO data -- titles, descriptions, focus keywords, Open Graph, canonical URLs, robots settings, and even redirects.

See the full feature comparison

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Prime SEO alongside Yoast or Rank Math?

We don't recommend running two SEO plugins simultaneously. They'll create duplicate meta tags, conflicting sitemaps, and schema conflicts. Instead, use Prime SEO's migration tool to import your data, verify everything transferred correctly, then deactivate the old plugin. The entire process takes about 2 minutes.

Is Prime SEO too new to trust?

It's a fair concern. Prime SEO launched in January 2026, so it doesn't have years of track record. However, the codebase follows WordPress Coding Standards strictly, passes Plugin Check without errors, and has been tested on WordPress 5.6 through 6.9. The plugin stores all data locally (no external dependencies), and the migration tool creates a backup before importing, so you can always roll back.

Do AI search features actually affect rankings?

AI search engines work differently from Google. They don't "rank" pages -- they decide which sources to cite when answering questions. Having llms.txt, proper schema markup, and AI crawler access makes it more likely your content becomes a cited source in AI-generated answers. The shift is still early, but AI search traffic is growing at 34% CAGR. Preparing now costs nothing and positions you ahead of competitors who wait.

What happens to my SEO data if I switch plugins?

Nothing is lost. SEO meta data (titles, descriptions, focus keywords) is stored as WordPress post meta. When you switch plugins, the data stays in your database. Prime SEO's migration tool reads the old plugin's meta keys and copies the values to Prime SEO's format. Your original data remains untouched -- it's a copy, not a move.

Which plugin is best for WooCommerce?

All five plugins support WooCommerce to some degree. Yoast and Rank Math have dedicated WooCommerce modules in their Pro versions. AIOSEO offers WooCommerce SEO in its Plus tier. Prime SEO includes Product schema with proper pricing, availability (including BackOrder status), and review markup in the free version. For basic WooCommerce SEO, any of these plugins work. For advanced product feed optimization, Rank Math Pro or Yoast Premium have the most mature WooCommerce integrations.