If you’re trying to choose from Rank Math vs Yoast, here’s my experience: I made the switch from Yoast to Rank Math because it offers more functionality without slowing down my site. Later on, I upgraded to Rank Math Pro—and honestly, it far outperforms Yoast Premium.
Just to be clear, Rank Math doesn’t currently offer an affiliate program, so there’s no incentive for me to favor it over Yoast. But after using both, I can say with confidence that Rank Math delivers more features with less clutter. If you’re thinking about switching, this might be the right time. Rank Math and Yoast
1. Why I Chose Rank Math Over Yoast
I decided to move away from Yoast SEO Premium in early 2020, and here’s why:
- Performance Issues: Yoast added unnecessary weight to my site—it was one of the slowest plugins I had, according to tools like Query Monitor and New Relic.
- Too Many Ads: The Yoast dashboard felt cluttered with constant ads, and I even had to install an extra plugin (Hide SEO Bloat) just to clean it up.
- Limited Schema Options: Yoast’s schema support was minimal. Beyond HowTo and FAQ schema, it didn’t offer much flexibility. I found it confusing and had to rely on a separate plugin to manage schema types like reviews or recipes.
- Image SEO Limitations: Yoast didn’t automatically add alt text to images. This meant I had to manually insert alt attributes for every image or find a dedicated image SEO plugin.
- Redirect Manager Wasn’t Free: Unlike Rank Math, Yoast made users pay for a redirect manager—even though several free options are available that do the job well.
- Unjustified Pricing: At $89 per year, Yoast Premium felt overpriced. The features it offered—like internal link suggestions and content insights—felt unnecessary for anyone with solid SEO knowledge. And based on what I heard, their support wasn’t particularly hands-on or tailored.
2. Rank Math vs Yoast SEO – Feature Comparison
When it comes to features, Rank Math clearly offers more than both the free and premium versions of Yoast SEO.
While many of the core differences are highlighted in typical side-by-side comparisons, Rank Math includes several advanced tools that Yoast Premium doesn’t offer—such as automatic image alt tag generation, more flexible and powerful schema support, enhanced analytics, and a more lightweight build.
Like Yoast, Rank Math uses a modular system, allowing you to toggle individual features on or off based on your site’s needs.
3. Rank Math vs Yoast SEO – Performance and Speed
Speed is a major factor, and over time, Yoast has become heavier and more bloated. When testing with tools like New Relic and Query Monitor, Yoast consistently showed up as one of the slowest-performing plugins.
To put it in perspective: Yoast has over 87,000 lines of code, while Rank Math runs on about 51,000. On top of that, the Rank Math plugin file is roughly one-third the size of Yoast’s. Since site performance is a big focus for me, this difference in size and speed played a huge role in my decision to switch.
Another downside with Yoast is its aggressive advertising. The dashboard is filled with promotional messages unless you install a separate plugin like Hide SEO Bloat just to remove them, which feels unnecessary.
4. Rank Math vs Yoast – Schema Integration
Schema markup is one of Rank Math’s standout features. It supports 18 different schema types, including review, FAQ, video, recipe, and course, all designed to improve your content’s visibility in search results.
Rank Math automatically adds schema where relevant, like including video schema when a video is detected, reducing the manual effort involved in optimization.
To use schema in Rank Math, simply edit any page or post and scroll down to the Rank Math section. There you’ll find a dedicated area for schema. It displays any schema already applied (like article or video), and you can also add custom schema types. Just choose the schema type, enter the required information, and Rank Math takes care of the rest—no additional plugins required.
5. Rank Math vs Yoast – Image SEO
Rank Math saves a lot of time by automatically adding alt text to images—a feature that’s especially useful since WordPress no longer handles this by default. Without it, you’d typically need a separate plugin or manually enter alt attributes for each image.
With Rank Math, you can use the image filename as the alt text. So, as long as you name your images properly before uploading them, Rank Math will use that name for the alt attribute. This streamlines your workflow and reduces the need for additional plugins.
6. Rank Math vs Yoast – Analytics
Rank Math Pro offers built-in analytics that pull data from Google Search Console and present it in a much more visual and user-friendly format.
You’ll see red and green arrows next to your posts to indicate whether performance metrics have improved or declined over time. It also includes a ranking position chart to help track how your content has been performing historically—something Google Search Console doesn’t show as clearly.
The only downside is that enabling these analytics features can add extra code to your site, which may slightly impact loading speed.
7. Rank Math vs Yoast – Redirect Manager
Yoast requires you to upgrade to their Premium version to access a redirect manager, but Rank Math includes this feature for free.
Even better, if you’re migrating from Yoast to Rank Math, the plugin lets you import your existing redirects during the setup process. This helps you consolidate functionality and eliminates the need for an extra plugin. Like Yoast Premium, Rank Math can also create automatic redirects when you change a page or post URL.
8. Rank Math vs Yoast – Social Media Optimization
Both plugins support social media optimization, but many users overlook this step—and it’s an important one. Properly optimizing how your content appears when shared can improve engagement.
To set this up, open the editor for a post or page and scroll down to the plugin section. Click on the “Social” tab, where you can upload custom images for platforms like Facebook (1200 x 630 pixels) and Twitter (1024 x 1014 pixels). You can also customize the title and description shown on each platform, ensuring your content looks polished and clickable when shared.
9. Rank Math vs Yoast – Google Autocomplete Suggestions
When you type in a focus keyword in Rank Math, it offers suggestions pulled directly from Google Autocomplete.
While it may seem like a minor feature, it’s a real time-saver. Instead of switching tabs to search manually, you get keyword ideas right inside the plugin. This is especially helpful for beginners, helping them avoid picking irrelevant or low-volume keywords. Plus, it reinforces that Google Autocomplete remains one of the most effective ways to discover keyword opportunities—something I still rely on regularly.
10. Rank Math vs Yoast – Content Analysis
Both plugins offer built-in content analysis tools to guide your on-page SEO.
However, Rank Math stands out by recommending the use of a table of contents—something Yoast doesn’t highlight. It’s surprising how many long-form articles skip this entirely, even when they run over 3,000 words.
I had my designer create a few CSS styles and reusable HTML blocks for a table of contents, which I now add to every post. Not only does this improve navigation for readers, but it also allows users to link directly to specific sections in your content—something that can help your articles earn jump-to links in Google search results.
Final Thoughts: Rank math vs yoast?
After using both Yoast and Rank Math extensively, it’s clear to me that Rank Math is the better choice—especially if you care about having more features, better performance, and less plugin bloat.
From automatic image SEO and built-in schema types to advanced analytics, redirect management, and real-time keyword suggestions, Rank Math packs a punch without slowing down your site. And the best part? Many of these features come included for free—features that Yoast locks behind a paywall.
If you’re serious about growing your website’s traffic and want an SEO plugin that actually helps you work smarter, Rank Math is a no-brainer. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade your current setup, Rank Math gives you everything you need to optimize your site like a pro.
Ready to switch or get started? Try Rank Math today and see the difference for yourself.