YouTube content creation has evolved into a massive industry over the years. With over 2 billion monthly active users and over 500 hours of video content being uploaded every minute, YouTube has become one of the most popular video-sharing platforms in the world.
Individuals and businesses alike have capitalized on this platform to create and distribute various types of content to a broad audience, but as more people upload, the competition becomes tougher and that’s why you need different tools to stay ahead of the game. That is why we are going to compare the two most popular YouTube creator tools that give SEO and other advantages over other creators those being Tubebuddy and VidIQ.
First, we are going to compare some of the basics of these two YouTube competitors and what are their pricing, features, SEO, Support, Bulk tools, Extensions, Analytics, and more before we get to more individual approaches to them.
| C O M P A R I S O N | Tubebuddy | VidIQ |
|---|---|---|
| Free Version Available? | Yes | Yes |
| Price of the cheapest subscription plan? | 5,99$/month* | 7,50$/month |
| Browser Extension Available? | Yes (Chrome & Firefox) | Yes (Chrome & Firefox) |
| Customer Support? | Yes via email | Yes via email & Chat (Paid version) |
| Are translation Tools available? | Yes on the Legend plan | None |
| Competitor Tracking? | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Application? | Yes | None |
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools? | None | VidIQ has AI that suggests video ideas that would perform well and you can search keywords with AI too or talk to Personal AI Coach |
| Bulk Tools? | Yes for thumbnails and video descriptions (you have the ability to find, replace and append text) | Yes for Video descriptions |
| Enterprise Partnership/Support? | It exists, but no transparent pricing for it, there is, however, an option to claim a free demo | No, but there is a Group coaching service available which is somewhat similar |
| SEO Analysis? | A Lot of SEO tools, but perhaps not as many as VidIQ has to offer | Bunch of different metrics on seeing things about keywords and seeing rank on YouTube tags |
| Outside Extension Dashboard? | Yeah, but a quite limited one | Yup they have rather a neat dashboard for tracking all types of data |
| Sponsorships? | Magiclinks is available after reaching 10,000 subscribers (from personal experience it’s not too amazing partner) | None by the look of it |
| Affiliate/Referral program? | Yes, anyone can join | Yes, anyone can join |
| Thumbnail Creation? | None | None |
| Support outside of YouTube? | None | A Tiktok integration exists |
TubeBuddy is a popular YouTube management tool that offers a wide range of features to help creators optimize and grow their YouTube channels. It was formed back in 2014 by Phil Starkovich and currently has over 5 million users worldwide as of right now.
When we start comparing these two services they were a lot more similar in the past, but as more time has gone on Tubebuddy has become more focused on the utility side of things including bulk tools, translations for tags and descriptions, health reports, retention analyzer, exporting tools, and demonization checker for example.
There is also a bigger community around Tubebuddy I would say and they have good forums where people can collab and get information about basically anything related to YouTube out there. Just like VidIQ, there is a multitude of different tutorials and guides they have created that even non-subscribers can benefit from, which can make a real impact on the channels you run on YouTube.
Pros +
- They have considerably cheaper plans vs. VidIQ (You can get a -20% Discount with code SUGI from all subscriptions)
- You can do a couple of social tasks and you get the highest tier subscription for free for a month or two
- Decent Free plan that includes a lot of features
- Bunch of translation tools that can be really helpful for overall channel SEO
Cons –
- The dashboard website can have sometimes a bit annoyingly long load times (kinda laggy), its a minor thing but worth mentioning
- Not as extensive SEO tools as VidIQ
- Chrome extension sometimes unresponsive on the first login
VidIQ is a trendy YouTube management & optimization tool that provides creators with a wide range of features to help them grow their channels and maximize their content’s reach. The tool offers a suite of tools that help creators with keyword research, video optimization, competitor analysis, and audience engagement.
VidIQ was founded in 2012 by Rob Sandie & Todd Troxell, who recognized the need for a tool that could help YouTube creators optimize their content and grow their channels as of this current point, they have over 1 million users in their platform/extension.
When we start to look at the Strengths of VidIQ lot of it really stems down to SEO and their new AI tool that can generate descriptions for videos, come up with keywords that have low competition, Video ideas, and titles among other neat things. They are a lot more of an SEO tool that gives you valuable data about your rankings, traffic, and anything related to retention/geographics of your YouTube channel, while Tubebuddy gives more tools to do adjustments and fixes on your content.
Pros +
- The AI Tools are very powerful and can give a massive edge if you know what you’re doing
- VidIQ Dashboard is very well designed and
- The extension gives a good breakdown of channels and videos you view on YouTube
Cons –
- It’s kinda missing some niche QoL tools that Tubebuddy has like translators
- Slightly more expensive alternative compared to Tubebuddy
Now as closing thoughts, there are clear strengths for both of these services which are gonna help you with your YouTube channel to grow organically more. While there are perhaps lacking from the sponsorship side of things and building out a direct collab platform to connect creators, there is a unique value that both of them bring to the table and that is why depending on what you are looking for you should go one with that caters to those needs.
Obviously, both of them have free versions which is a great reason to just try both of them before making a subscription to their services. Now if you are looking to make more Passive income with your YouTube channel, go check out some of our articles on our site including Gaming Affiliate Programs and many others.