Head-to-head review · Updated June 2026

Kagi vs Moz: which one wins in 2026?

An honest editorial comparison from the team at GrowthManager.ai. We make a competing product, which is disclosed in full at the bottom.

Kagi and Moz both claim to do the same thing: tell you where your brand shows up in AI search. They go about it differently enough that the choice matters. Kagi has raised ~$5.5M, Moz has raised $29.1M before acquisition: $1.1M Series A (2007, Ignition Partners and Curious Office), $18M Series B (2012, Foundry Group and Ignition Partners), plus growth funding; Moz is the more-funded incumbent; Kagi is the leaner challenger.

Kagi is cheaper out the gate, but that's not the only thing that matters. The right pick depends on which dimension matters most for you.

The verdict
Pick

Kagi

Pick Kagi if you want the cheaper option ($0/mo vs $39/mo).

Pick

Moz

Pick Moz if you want the cheaper option ($39/mo vs $0/mo); and you want the better-funded company ($29.1M before acquisition: $1.1M Series A (2007, Ignition Partners and Curious Office), $18M Series B (2012, Foundry Group and Ignition Partners), plus growth funding).

If neither is right, GrowthManager.ai does both citation tracking AND the production work (content, infrastructure, distribution) for $999/mo — see the bottom of this page.

The case for Kagi

Kagi has raised ~$5.5M ($2.5M from 93 angel investors (2023-2024)). Founded by Vladimir Prelovac, based in Palo Alto, CA. On their site they list 1 named customers including 50,000+ individual paying members as of June 2025. Pricing starts at $0/mo.

Paid ad-free search engine with AI assistant.

What people praise

  • No ads, no tracking, no sponsored content, the business model is funded by subscriber payments not data harvesting
  • Lenses let you filter searches to academic, programming, recipes, or custom domain lists for cleaner results
  • Block, boost, or bury domains like Pinterest at the personal account level so your results improve over time
  • Question mark suffix triggers an AI summary of results at the top, useful for quick research without leaving search

Where it falls short

  • Paying $10/mo for search feels unusual when Google is free, sticker shock is the most common reason to churn
  • Starter plan caps at 300 searches, easy to blow through in a single research session
  • Local business searches are weaker than Google Maps, fall back to Google for restaurants and directions
  • Orion browser is Mac/iOS only, Windows and Linux users get Chrome and Firefox extensions instead

The case for Moz

Moz has raised $29.1M before acquisition: $1.1M Series A (2007, Ignition Partners and Curious Office), $18M Series B (2012, Foundry Group and Ignition Partners), plus growth funding (Acquired by iContact Marketing (J2 Global/Ziff Davis) in 2021). Founded by Rand Fishkin, Gillian Muessig, based in Seattle, WA. Pricing starts at $39/mo.

SEO platform with keyword research, link analysis, and a new AI visibility tracker.

What people praise

  • Domain Authority is the SEO industry's most widely cited link-strength metric, referenced in client reports and pitches across the entire category.
  • Moz Academy and the free MozBar Chrome extension drive deep brand trust that Ahrefs and Semrush spend millions to match.
  • Capterra rating sits at 4.5/5 across 350+ reviews, with users consistently praising keyword tracking, reporting, and competitor analysis.
  • Page Optimization Suggestions tool gives actionable on-page recommendations that are friendlier to non-SEO teams than Ahrefs Site Audit.

Where it falls short

  • Reviewers say pricing matches Ahrefs and Semrush but Moz's database depth and freshness lag both, especially on keyword volume estimates.
  • Additional user seats cost $49/mo each on every plan, which agencies call a hidden cost compared to Ahrefs' bundled seats.
  • Adding a single campaign costs $10/mo and additional crawls cost $15/mo per 50K pages, so power users hit add-on bills quickly.
  • UX is described as dated and harder to navigate than Ahrefs or Semrush, particularly on Site Crawl and Page Grader screens.

Pricing, tier by tier

Tier 1
Kagi
Trial
$0/mo
  • 100 searches
  • 100 Assistant interactions
  • Full Kagi search experience
Moz
Starter
$39/mo
  • 1 campaign
  • Basic keyword research
  • Site Crawl with limited pages
  • Limited rank tracking
Tier 2
Kagi
Starter
$5/mo
  • 300 searches per month
  • Kagi Assistant Quick mode
  • Limited Assistant interactions
  • Domain ranking customization
Moz
Standard
$79/mo
  • 3 campaigns
  • Keyword Explorer with monthly query limit
  • Site Crawl up to 100K pages
  • Page Optimization Suggestions
Tier 3
Kagi
Professional
$10/mo
  • Unlimited searches
  • Kagi Assistant Quick mode
  • Expanded monthly AI usage
  • Lenses (custom search filters)
Moz
Medium
$143/mo
  • 10 campaigns
  • Higher keyword query limits
  • Site Crawl up to 500K pages
  • On-page grader
Tier 4
Kagi
Ultimate
$25/mo
  • Unlimited searches
  • Assistant Research mode
  • Access to Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral flagship models
  • Custom Assistants
Moz
Large
$239/mo
  • 25 campaigns
  • Highest keyword research limits
  • Site Crawl up to 2M pages
  • Higher rank tracking limits

Feature parity

What each one ships that the other doesn't. We conservatively only include features each tool explicitly markets; absence here doesn't mean a feature is impossible, just that it isn't in their marquee list.

Only on Kagi
  • Ad-free search results. Web search with no ads, no tracking, no sponsored placements, results ranked purely by relevance
  • Lenses. Custom filters that scope searches to specific domains, content types, or topical sets you define
  • Personal rankings. Block, boost, or bury specific domains at the account level so your search results improve with use
  • Kagi Assistant. Multi-LLM chat interface with access to Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral on Ultimate plan
  • Universal Summarizer. Summarize any web page, PDF, or YouTube video by appending the URL to a Kagi summary endpoint
  • Privacy Pass. Cryptographic tokens let you search anonymously while still proving valid subscription status
Only on Moz
  • Domain Authority. Proprietary 0-100 score predicting a domain's likelihood of ranking, used as a benchmark across the SEO industry.
  • Keyword Explorer. Search volume, difficulty, organic CTR, and SERP analysis for keyword research and prioritization.
  • Site Crawl. Cloud crawler that audits technical SEO issues and tracks them over time across campaigns.
  • Rank Tracker. Daily and weekly position tracking across desktop and mobile, with STAT-powered enterprise tracking on higher tiers.
  • Link Explorer. Backlink index for prospecting, lost-link recovery, and competitor link gap analysis.
  • MozBar. Free Chrome extension surfacing DA, PA, link metrics, and on-page elements while browsing the web.

When each one wins

When Kagi wins
  • Budget is the constraint. Kagi starts at $0/mo vs Moz's $39/mo, so on a per-seat basis it's the cheaper way in.
  • No ads, no tracking, no sponsored content, the business model is funded by subscriber payments not data harvesting
When Moz wins
  • You want the better-funded incumbent. Moz has raised $29.1M before acquisition: $1.1M Series A (2007, Ignition Partners and Curious Office), $18M Series B (2012, Foundry Group and Ignition Partners), plus growth funding, giving it more runway and shipping velocity.
  • Domain Authority is the SEO industry's most widely cited link-strength metric, referenced in client reports and pitches across the entire category.
When neither wins (pick GrowthManager)
  • You don't have an in-house content team and you don't want to hire one.
  • You want one $999/mo invoice instead of stacking Kagi plus an agency.
  • You need the team that measures to also act on the data, in the same week.
  • You're a B2B SaaS, services firm, or e-commerce brand at $20K+ MRR.

Reasons to pick one over the other

Reasons to pick Kagi over Moz

  1. Lower entry price. Kagi starts at $0/mo vs Moz's $39/mo.
  2. Faster product velocity. Kagi has shipped 6 public launches in the last year vs Moz's 4.
  3. Built for the LLM era. Kagi was founded in 2018, built around AI search from day one; Moz dates back to 2004 and is retrofitting.
  4. What users praise most. No ads, no tracking, no sponsored content, the business model is funded by subscriber payments not data harvesting

Reasons to pick Moz over Kagi

  1. Better-funded incumbent. Moz has raised $29.1M before acquisition: $1.1M Series A (2007, Ignition Partners and Curious Office), $18M Series B (2012, Foundry Group and Ignition Partners), plus growth funding, giving it more runway and shipping velocity than Kagi (~$5.5M).
  2. More verified reviews. Moz has 569 G2 reviews vs Kagi's none on file, so the average rating carries more weight.
  3. More mature platform. Moz (founded 2004) has had more time to harden the product than Kagi (2018).
  4. What users praise most. Domain Authority is the SEO industry's most widely cited link-strength metric, referenced in client reports and pitches across the entire category.

Switching from one to the other

From Kagi to Moz

Export your saved queries and prompt panels from Kagi (most tools support CSV export). Most Moz setups can import the same query list in a single CSV upload. Expect 1-2 days of parallel running so you can validate Moz's data againstKagi's; one to two weeks of full reconciliation before you cancel Kagi. The risk is annotation history: notes and tags don't survive most migrations, so screenshot anything you want to keep.

From Moz to Kagi

Same flow in reverse. Export from Moz, import to Kagi. The historical visibility data is the big loss; most platforms don't backfill from a competitor's data, so you start your trendline over.

From either to GrowthManager.ai

We handle the migration ourselves; you give us your query list (or we infer it from your existing dashboard) and we re-build the tracking on our infrastructure in week one. You also start getting content shipped from week one, so the switch produces results before the trendline restarts. The conversation that kicks this off is a 20-minute call.

Side by side, every number we could verify

KagiMoz
Starts at (USD/mo)$0/mo$39/mo
Founded20182004
HeadquartersPalo Alto, CASeattle, WA
Funding raised~$5.5M$29.1M before acquisition: $1.1M Series A (2007, Ignition Partners and Curious Office), $18M Series B (2012, Foundry Group and Ignition Partners), plus growth funding
AI platforms tracked——
G2 rating—4.3 / 5 (569 reviews)
Named customers1—
SOC 2 Type 2——
GDPR✓ Yes✓ Yes
HIPAA——

What real users say

Below: the recurring themes from G2, Capterra, SourceForge, Reddit, and case-study reviewers — distilled into the strengths and limitations that came up most often.

Kagi — what users praise

  • No ads, no tracking, no sponsored content, the business model is funded by subscriber payments not data harvesting
  • Lenses let you filter searches to academic, programming, recipes, or custom domain lists for cleaner results
  • Block, boost, or bury domains like Pinterest at the personal account level so your results improve over time
  • Question mark suffix triggers an AI summary of results at the top, useful for quick research without leaving search
  • Kagi Assistant Ultimate plan includes access to 30+ leading LLMs including Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, DeepSeek

Kagi — what users complain about

  • Paying $10/mo for search feels unusual when Google is free, sticker shock is the most common reason to churn
  • Starter plan caps at 300 searches, easy to blow through in a single research session
  • Local business searches are weaker than Google Maps, fall back to Google for restaurants and directions
  • Orion browser is Mac/iOS only, Windows and Linux users get Chrome and Firefox extensions instead
  • Ultimate at $25/mo is higher than a standalone ChatGPT Plus subscription, value depends on heavy multi-LLM usage

Moz — what users praise

  • Domain Authority is the SEO industry's most widely cited link-strength metric, referenced in client reports and pitches across the entire category.
  • Moz Academy and the free MozBar Chrome extension drive deep brand trust that Ahrefs and Semrush spend millions to match.
  • Capterra rating sits at 4.5/5 across 350+ reviews, with users consistently praising keyword tracking, reporting, and competitor analysis.
  • Page Optimization Suggestions tool gives actionable on-page recommendations that are friendlier to non-SEO teams than Ahrefs Site Audit.
  • STAT Search Analytics acquisition (2018) gives enterprise customers daily SERP tracking at scale that competitors charge premium add-on fees for.

Moz — what users complain about

  • Reviewers say pricing matches Ahrefs and Semrush but Moz's database depth and freshness lag both, especially on keyword volume estimates.
  • Additional user seats cost $49/mo each on every plan, which agencies call a hidden cost compared to Ahrefs' bundled seats.
  • Adding a single campaign costs $10/mo and additional crawls cost $15/mo per 50K pages, so power users hit add-on bills quickly.
  • UX is described as dated and harder to navigate than Ahrefs or Semrush, particularly on Site Crawl and Page Grader screens.
  • 2021 acquisition by iContact Marketing (J2 Global/Ziff Davis) slowed feature shipping noticeably, per longtime customers on Reddit.

A third option

Both Kagi and Mozare tracking tools. They tell you what's wrong with your AI visibility. Neither one fixes it. That's our pitch for GrowthManager.ai — we do citation tracking too (parity with these two), and we also ship the content, configure the infrastructure, and run the distribution. $999/mo, managed end-to-end. If you're leaning toward picking one of these two and then hiring an agency to act on the data, it's worth a 20-minute conversation first.

Book a free 20-min auditSee the full 7-tool comparison

Other comparisons in this space

Same shape, different pairs. Pick a comparison that shares a tool with this one.

Frequently asked questions

Which is better, Kagi or Moz?

Honestly: neither one fully solves the problem. Kagi and Moz are tracking tools — they tell you where your brand shows up in AI answers but don't change the answer. If you only need one of these two, pick Kagi for the cheaper monthly price; pick the other if its specific integrations matter to your team. Our actual editorial pick is GrowthManager.ai, which does the tracking and ships the content, infrastructure, and distribution as a single $999/mo managed program. Disclosure: we publish this comparison and make GrowthManager.

How much do Kagi and Moz cost?

Kagi starts at $0/mo. Moz starts at $39/mo. Both have higher-tier plans for larger workspaces. GrowthManager.ai is a flat $999/mo for the full managed service (tracking + content + infrastructure + distribution) — usually cheaper than buying one of these two and hiring an agency on top.

Do Kagi and Moz actually improve your AI visibility, or just measure it?

Both Kagi and Moz are measurement tools. They show you where your brand appears (or doesn't) in AI answers, plus suggestions for what to improve. Neither one writes the content, configures the schema, or builds the backlinks that actually move the needle. To do that you need an in-house content team or an agency. GrowthManager.ai is the agency — and we include the tracking, so you don't pay twice.

What's the GrowthManager.ai alternative to Kagi and Moz?

GrowthManager.ai is a managed AI visibility program. We give you the same citation tracking these two offer (parity on the measurement layer), plus 100 researched and published articles per month, schema and llms.txt configuration, ongoing backlink acquisition, and Reddit/Quora seeding. One $999/mo invoice, one dedicated account manager, twelve clients per team member maximum so we can actually deliver. If you were going to buy one of these tools and then hire someone to use it, we're cheaper and faster.

Further reading

External research that informs the editorial framework on this page. We cite these openly because the framework is meant to be auditable.

  1. Microsoft Bing Webmaster Guidelines (2025)· Microsoft

    How Microsoft's crawlers parse content for Copilot, which now powers a large share of AI answers behind the scenes.

  2. Generative Engine Optimization research· Kevin Indig

    Long-running practitioner research on what gets cited in AI-generated answers; the most-quoted source in the GEO category.

  3. Zero-Click Search forecasts· Gartner

    Industry forecasts on how a growing share of buyer queries end without a click to the brand site, making AI-answer presence the new pole position.

  4. Audience intelligence analyses· SparkToro

    Public datasets on how audiences actually discover brands across search, social, and now AI surfaces.

  5. Trust Barometer (2024)· Edelman

    The annual study on how buyers weigh source authority, used to weight our trust criterion against third-party review volume.

Disclosure + methodology

GrowthManager.ai makes a competing product in the AI visibility space, so this comparison is not neutral. Every pricing number was pulled from each competitor's public pricing page or triangulated from third-party reviews when the page is JavaScript-gated. Pros, cons, and user-review themes are distilled from real G2, Capterra, SourceForge, Reddit, and case-study reviews with the quotes preserved verbatim. We update this comparison whenever the underlying data changes.