Surfer SEO (Positive Surfer)
Content scoring for Google, plus tracking of brand mentions in AI answers
Overview
Surfer, now branded Positive Surfer after France's Positive Group bought it in October 2025, scores drafts against the pages ranking for a keyword and guides writers on terms, headings and structure. It also drafts articles, audits existing pages and tracks how AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews mention a brand.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 19 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- 50 AI prompts tracked, refreshed daily
- Mention gap and brand sentiment
- 5 brand spaces and Brand Knowledge
- MCP
- Create or optimise 120 documents
- Track 10 pages
- Surfy AI assistant and Humanizer
- 360 documents and 3 seats
- 25 AI prompts, refreshed weekly
- Plagiarism checker and rank-drop detection
- 50 AI prompts refreshed daily; 5 brand spaces
- 1-click internal linking and cannibalization report
- Custom voices and templates; MCP
- 100 AI prompts refreshed daily
- Unlimited documents and brand spaces (fair use)
- API access, personalised onboarding and a dedicated success manager
- SSO and enterprise-grade security
- Custom limits and white-label
- Advisory programme and priority support
Use cases
What you can produce with Surfer SEO (Positive Surfer)
- A live Content Score with term, heading and structure guidance for a draft, based on the pages ranking for its keyword
- Full SEO-optimised article drafts from Surfer AI, plus in-editor rewrites with Surfy in a custom voice
- Tracking of brand mentions, sentiment and cited sources across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews
- An audit of your own pages with rank-drop alerts, connected to Google Search Console
- Topical maps and keyword cannibalization reports
- Surfer data in AI agents through the MCP server (Pro and above) or the API (Peace of Mind)
- Keyword data inside Google results from the free Keyword Surfer extension
ASEAN Perspective
Surfer SEO (Positive Surfer) in Southeast Asia
Surfer SEO is actively used by APAC digital agencies and content teams in Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia who operate in English-language markets, and the SERP analysis works reliably for Google.com rankings relevant across the region. However, the platform has no dedicated support for Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Vietnamese, or other regional languages, limiting its utility for brands targeting local-language search in Southeast Asia. USD pricing starting at $49/month annually is manageable for Singapore-based teams but represents a meaningful cost barrier for solo practitioners in lower-income ASEAN markets. Teams focused on multilingual SEO or vernacular content in the region should supplement Surfer with local keyword tools or consider regional alternatives.
Surfer remains one of the most usable on-page optimisation tools: the Content Editor turns SERP research into concrete guidance a non-specialist writer can follow, and the AI Tracker extends the same idea to how AI assistants describe a brand. MCP access on Pro and above lets agents use Surfer data directly.
The costs add up. API access needs the $299-a-month Peace of Mind plan, there is no free plan, and prices are quoted on yearly billing. Teams working outside English should trial it on their own language first. A strong choice for content teams; heavy for a solo blogger.
What we found
Surfer, now sold as Positive Surfer, is a content-optimisation tool made by Surfer Sp. z o.o. in Wrocław, Poland. France's Positive Group bought it in October 2025; Positive's announcement put Surfer at about 150,000 active users and roughly 12,000 customers, mostly in North America. Its core is still the Content Editor, which scores a draft against the pages ranking for a keyword and suggests terms, headings and structure. Around it sit Surfer AI for full drafts, Surfy for in-editor rewriting, an AI humanizer and detector, Topical Map, Content Audit with rank-drop alerts and a free Keyword Surfer Chrome extension.
The pitch has moved to AI search. The AI Tracker monitors how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode mention a brand, with sentiment, cited sources and a "mention gap" against competitors. In October 2026 Surfer's MCP server left beta for Pro and higher plans, recommendations began drawing on AI-visibility data, and Agent Analytics, which reads server logs for AI-crawler visits, entered closed beta. The interface also gained French and Polish, and a WordPress plugin now opens the full Content Editor.
Listed prices are yearly-billed rates. Discovery is $49 a month ($59 paid monthly) for 120 documents; Standard $99 ($119) brings 360 documents, three seats and 25 weekly AI prompts; Pro $182 ($219) adds daily tracking of 50 prompts, internal linking, cannibalization reports and MCP; Peace of Mind $299 ($359) adds unlimited documents under fair use, API access and a dedicated success manager. AI Search Analytics alone is $82 ($95), and Enterprise is quoted. There is no free plan, though Positive advertises a 7-day trial.
On Trustpilot, Positive Surfer scored 4.2 from 223 reviews when read on 19 October 2026, with ease of use praised and value for money divided. Surfer says it works in every language; ASEAN teams writing in Thai, Vietnamese or Bahasa should test output before committing.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
Notable facts
- Surfer was bootstrapped entirely — no VC funding — and grew to $15M ARR on less than $1M in total marketing spend.
- The company was founded by five co-founders at a Polish digital agency in Wrocław and became globally known partly thanks to word-of-mouth at the Chiang Mai SEO Conference.
- Surfer holds ISO 27001 certification and runs 100% on European infrastructure, a deliberate data-sovereignty stance.
- After the October 2025 acquisition by French group Positive, Surfer now operates as part of a €70M-revenue European marketing platform — one of three SaaS companies Positive acquired that year.
Frequently asked questions
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Surfer SEO (Positive Surfer)'s official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Surfer SEO (Positive Surfer) unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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