Keyword Research:
Both eRank and Sale Samurai will present all the details you need for every keyword that you search (the most important details are the monthly search volume and the competition). Also, both of them will present a full list of other related keywords and their data.
In terms of user experience for this feature, I would prefer to use eRank as the full list of suggested keywords will appear underneath your search, making it much easier and faster to scan all keywords and find additional relevant keywords to use. With Sale Samurai, you will have to go through several pages to look at all the keywords.
Competitors’ Analysis:
If you want to check all the details of your competitors’ listings and mostly your competitors’ tags, both SEO tools present this data. However, it takes less time to check competitors listing with Sale Samurai as you only need to copy and paste the URL under the Search tab – Single Listing.
With eRank, you will have to copy and paste the shop name and click Analyze, then eRank will analyze all these shop listings, and for you to check a specific listing, you will have to click on the specific listing from the list.
Estimating the Competition:
Sale Samurai – when doing keyword research and looking at the competition number for each keyword you search, when the competition is high (about 50k listings), Sale Samurai wouldn’t show you the exact number or an estimate of it. Instead, it will show the number 50,100.
eRank – when doing keyword research with eRank, you will have a more accurate estimate of the competition for each keyword, so if you still want to go ahead with a highly competitive keyword – you will still be able to compare a few competitive keywords and to identify which one is less competitive than the other.
Pricing:
Comparing Sale Samurai cost and eRank cost – if you go with eRank’s basic plan (which is enough for most Etsy businesses) – you would pay $5.99 a month (there are no yearly plans), and you can cancel your plan any time. That means that with eRank, you would pay only $71.88 a year.
If you choose the yearly plan of Sale Samurai (with is the most cost-effective), you would pay $99.99 a year (if you choose to pay monthly and have the option of cancelling your subscription any time you choose – you would pay $9.99 a month, which is an extra $20 on the yearly plan).
To sum up – if we compare the monthly cost of both these tools, then eRank is $4 cheaper every month (almost a $50 difference for a year). If we compare the Sale Samurai yearly plan cost to eRank, then Sale Samurai would be $28 more expensive than eRank ($100 – $72).
User Experience:
Both of the tools are pretty user-friendly, and with both tools, you can start working in minutes as they are very easy to navigate and find what you’re looking for. However, because of the white background of eRank and also the way the data is presented with colors and graphs and sections, I would say that from a user experience perspective, I find eRank to have a better user experience.
Tutorials:
Sale Samurai has video tutorials which make the whole process much easier for beginners, while eRank offers written guides. Don’t get me wrong, it is very easy to start with both eRank and Sale Samurai without watching any tutorials, and the navigation is pretty simple, however, to save time and make it more user-friendly, I would absolutely prefer watching video tutorials then, reading a guide.
Sale Samurai VS eRank – Which SEO Tool am I using?
Currently, I am using both paid versions of Sale Samurai and eRank as I got used to using different features with each tool. For example, for checking competitors listing, I am using the Sale Samurai’s Single Listing analyzer feature, but for keyword research, I would prefer using eRank as I really like the way all the data is presented (including the tags cloud) and because how easy it is to find additional relevant keywords.
However, most of the features are covered in both these SEO tools, so if I needed to choose just one of the tools to use, I would prefer to go with eRank.
