SpyFu starts at roughly $39/month (around £31, annual) and specialises in competitor keyword and ad-history research — but by design, it doesn't offer a technical site audit. Illumae is £40/month per domain and combines a site audit, keyword research, and AI content generation with direct publishing in one subscription.
SpyFu is built specifically around competitor intelligence — seeing the exact SEO and PPC keywords a competitor ranks and bids for, their historical ad copy, and (via its RivalFlow AI tool) page-level content-gap analysis comparing your pages against higher-ranking competitors. It's a genuinely strong, focused tool for that specific use case. What it explicitly doesn't offer is a traditional technical site audit, and its rank tracking updates weekly or monthly rather than daily.
Illumae covers keyword research and competitor-informed content differently — through content gap analysis feeding directly into AI article generation — and adds a technical site audit and direct CMS publishing that SpyFu doesn't have. This isn't a claim that Illumae's competitor ad-history data matches SpyFu's specialised depth — what follows is an honest breakdown of where each genuinely fits.
How Illumae and SpyFu stack up across the full SEO workflow.
| Feature | IllumaeBest all-round | SpyFuCompared |
|---|---|---|
| AI article generation | Full pipeline: brief, fact-check, publish | |
| Automated publishing to your CMS | ||
| Technical site audit | ||
| Keyword research | ||
| Rank tracking | Real-time tracked | Weekly/monthly updates |
| Backlink checker | Backlink prospecting focus | |
| Competitor PPC ad history | ||
| Content gap analysis vs competitors | Via RivalFlow AI | |
| Google Search Console integration | ||
| Schema markup generator | ||
| Per-domain subscription | ||
| Starting price | £40/mo per domain | ~£31/mo ($39) Basic, annual |
Comparison based on publicly available SpyFu pricing and feature information as of 2026. SpyFu pricing is billed in USD; GBP figures are approximate.
SpyFu's Basic plan is roughly $39/month (around £31) on annual billing, focused on competitor domain research, keyword overlap, and ad-history data — genuinely useful for competitive PPC and SEO research, but with no site audit at any tier and rank tracking that updates weekly or monthly rather than daily.
Illumae is £40/month per domain and includes a technical site audit, daily-tracked rankings, and unlimited AI article generation with direct publishing — a broader day-to-day SEO and content toolset, at a slightly higher but still comparable starting price.
SpyFu's core specialty — historical competitor keyword and PPC ad data, seeing exactly what a competitor has bid on and how their ad copy has changed over time — is more specialised and mature than anything Illumae offers, since Illumae doesn't track competitor PPC advertising at all.
SpyFu has no technical site audit at any plan tier, and its rank tracking updates weekly or monthly rather than daily — if either of those is needed alongside content generation, Illumae covers all of it in one subscription with more current data.
You can add your existing tracked keywords directly into Illumae's Keyword Research tool, and connect Google Search Console in a couple of clicks to bring in your real performance data immediately. Most users are fully set up within 15-20 minutes.
No — SpyFu doesn't offer a traditional technical site audit for checking issues like broken links or missing meta tags at any plan tier. It's focused on competitor keyword and ad research rather than your own site's technical health.
SpyFu's keyword rankings and traffic estimates update weekly or monthly depending on the data type, which is slower than daily-tracked alternatives including Illumae — worth knowing if you need to catch ranking changes quickly.
Not full article generation — SpyFu's AI tools (SpyGPT, RivalFlow) focus on competitor content-gap analysis and brand mentions in AI responses, not drafting complete articles the way Illumae's AI content generation does.
Yes. Illumae is priced per domain at £40/month each, with no per-seat charges — an agency managing 3 client sites pays £120/month total, each domain getting its own full toolset.
Yes. Illumae offers a free plan that includes 3 AI article generations, keyword research tools, a content calendar, and a basic dashboard. No credit card is required to sign up.
Get instant access to the best all-round SEO tool for growing businesses.