AlsoAsked vs KeySearch in 2026: Question-tree discovery vs a full keyword research suite
One tool maps the questions Google clusters around a topic for as little as $12 a month. The other bundles volume, difficulty, competitor tracking, and rank tracking for $24 a month. They rarely compete for the same job.
AlsoAsked
KeySearch- AlsoAsked returns live Google People Also Asked question trees starting at $12/month with unlimited users. KeySearch returns volume, CPC, and a difficulty score but does not surface PAA question data.
- KeySearch bundles keyword research, live SERP analysis, competitor analysis, backlink analysis, and rank tracking into one $24 or $48/month plan. AlsoAsked has none of those modules; it is a single-purpose PAA tool.
- AlsoAsked supports city-level international targeting across all Google-supported languages at no extra cost. KeySearch's pricing and feature pages do not describe city-level geo targeting.
- AlsoAsked gates bulk searches and API access to its $47/month Pro plan. KeySearch has no API on either of its two tiers.
- KeySearch offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. AlsoAsked has no time-limited trial; non-registered users get 3 free searches a day, and paid plans start immediately at $12/month.
- KeySearch's Foresight feature analyzes your own site's authority and existing rankings to recommend keywords you have a realistic chance of ranking for. AlsoAsked has no site-specific recommendation layer; it returns the same question tree regardless of who is asking.
AlsoAsked and KeySearch get lumped together as budget keyword tools, but they answer different questions. AlsoAsked pulls Google's live People Also Asked data and renders it as a branching question tree, which is genuinely useful for scoping a content brief but tells you nothing about how many people search those questions or how hard they are to rank for. KeySearch is the more conventional pick: volume, CPC, a difficulty score, live SERP analysis, competitor tracking, backlink data, and rank tracking, all under one $24-a-month plan, plus an AI layer called Foresight that recommends keywords your own site has a realistic shot at. If your bottleneck is "what should this page actually cover," AlsoAsked solves that specific problem cheaper than anything else in the category. If your bottleneck is "can I rank for this and how do I track it," KeySearch is the more complete toolkit.
The tools at a glance
AlsoAsked
Live People Also Asked data with intent clustering, bulk exports, and city-level international targeting for content strategy
AlsoAsked does one job: it queries Google's People Also Asked boxes in real time and renders the resulting question tree as a visual graph. Type in a topic and you get the questions Google currently believes a searcher needs answered, branching out several levels deep. Because the data is pulled live, new questions show up within hours of a breaking news event, well before a volume-based tool would have indexed the traffic.
The output format is what makes it useful day to day. The PNG export is something you can hand straight to a writer as a content brief without translating a keyword list into structure first, and the CSV export on the Lite and Pro plans maps cleanly onto FAQ schema. City-level targeting across all Google-supported languages is a genuine differentiator for teams doing international content, since most keyword tools stop at the country level.
What AlsoAsked will not give you is any sense of commercial value. There is no search volume, no CPC, no difficulty score, and no SERP data of any kind. It is explicitly an intent-discovery layer that sits on top of a real keyword tool, not a replacement for one, and the credit-based plans (100 to 1,000 credits a month) mean heavy users can hit limits faster than they expect on the Basic or Lite tiers.
| Feature | Basic $12/month | Lite $23/month | Pro $47/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credits per month | 100 | 300 | 1,000 |
| Unlimited users | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| All regions and languages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| PNG image export | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search history | 24 hours | 1 month | 1 year |
| Deep search | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CSV data export | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bulk searches | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| API access | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pay-as-you-go credits | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
KeySearch
Affordable keyword research and competitor analysis built for fast-growing sites
KeySearch is the more conventional keyword tool of the two: enter a seed term and get related keywords with volume, CPC, and a difficulty score calibrated for mid-market sites, meaning it tells you realistically whether a site your size can compete rather than just an abstract number. Live SERP analysis, competitor keyword tracking, backlink data, and rank tracking round out the workflow, all inside a $24-a-month Starter plan that undercuts Ahrefs and Semrush by a wide margin.
Foresight is the feature that separates KeySearch from a plain keyword lookup tool. Point it at your own domain and it reads your current authority and rankings, then recommends keywords you have a realistic shot at winning rather than a generic list sorted by volume. That is a different exercise from AlsoAsked's question tree, which has no concept of your specific site at all.
The gaps show up at the edges: no API on either tier, backlink and keyword index depth that does not match premium tools, and no PAA or question-level data of the kind AlsoAsked is built entirely around. For a blogger or niche site owner running their own SEO, none of that is disqualifying. For a team that specifically needs question-intent research for content briefs, KeySearch does not have a feature for it.
| Feature | Starter Plan $24/month | Pro Plan $48/month |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword research | ✓ | ✓ |
| SERP analysis | ✓ | ✓ |
| Competitor analysis | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rank tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Backlink analysis | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Foresight recommendations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Higher usage limits | ✗ | ✓ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | AlsoAsked | KeySearch |
|---|---|---|
| Search volume data | No | Yes |
| People Also Asked question trees | Yes, live from Google | No |
| Keyword difficulty scoring | No | Yes (mid-market calibrated) |
| Live SERP analysis | No | Yes |
| Competitor keyword analysis | No | Yes |
| Rank tracking | No | Yes |
| Backlink data | No | Yes |
| City-level international targeting | Yes, all languages | Not stated |
| Bulk search / bulk upload | Yes, on Pro plan | Not stated |
| API access | Yes, on Pro plan | No |
| Free trial | No (3 free searches/day, non-registered) | Yes, 7 days, no card required |
| Starting price | $12/mo | $24/mo |
Which should you choose?
AlsoAskedKeySearchAlsoAskedKeySearchAlsoAskedKeySearchThese two barely compete for the same budget line. AlsoAsked answers "what does this page need to cover" and stops there; it has no idea whether any of those questions are worth targeting commercially. KeySearch answers "can I rank for this and how do I track it" and has no concept of the question-level intent AlsoAsked specializes in. Teams doing serious content work often end up paying for both: AlsoAsked to scope the brief, KeySearch to validate and track it.
Bottom line
Get AlsoAsked Lite at $23/month if your actual bottleneck is knowing what questions a page needs to answer, especially for FAQ schema or international content. Get KeySearch Starter at $24/month if you need volume, difficulty, and rank tracking to run an actual SEO campaign end to end. Running both costs about $47/month combined, which still undercuts a single Ahrefs or Semrush seat, and covers a wider slice of the research-to-tracking workflow than either tool does alone.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use AlsoAsked or KeySearch for keyword research?
AlsoAsked is not really a keyword research tool in the traditional sense; it has no search volume, CPC, or difficulty data. KeySearch is the tool built for that job, with volume, difficulty scoring, and competitor tracking included on its $24/month Starter plan. Use AlsoAsked to scope what a page should cover and KeySearch to decide whether the topic is worth targeting.
Does AlsoAsked have search volume or keyword difficulty data?
No, AlsoAsked returns questions from Google's People Also Asked feature only, with no volume, difficulty, or CPC metrics attached. If you need those numbers, KeySearch's difficulty score and volume data cover that gap, or you can run AlsoAsked's question exports through KeySearch's research tool afterward.
Which tool is better for finding content brief questions and FAQ topics?
AlsoAsked is the better tool for content brief and FAQ questions: its visual question tree maps directly onto an FAQ section or content outline, and the CSV export on Lite and Pro plans structures the data for that use. KeySearch does not surface question-level data at all, so it is not the right tool for FAQ or brief research specifically.
Does KeySearch or AlsoAsked have an API for automated workflows?
Both offer API access, but not on every tier. AlsoAsked includes API access on its $47/month Pro plan for scheduling recurring PAA searches. KeySearch has no API on either the Starter or Pro plan, so it is not an option for programmatic keyword data pulls regardless of budget.
Is AlsoAsked worth it if I already pay for KeySearch?
AlsoAsked is worth adding on top of KeySearch if content brief scoping and question-level research are a real gap in your workflow. KeySearch's research module generates related keywords but does not surface the same question-tree data AlsoAsked pulls live from Google, so the two tools are complementary rather than overlapping.
Which tool is cheaper for a solo blogger just starting out?
AlsoAsked's Basic plan at $12/month is the lower entry price, but the 24-hour search history makes it awkward for anything beyond light, occasional use. KeySearch's $24/month Starter plan costs more but covers volume, difficulty, and rank tracking in the same subscription, which is the more complete starting point for a blogger who needs one tool to do most of the work.