Anyone have or used both? Someone convince me it makes more sense to pay through the nose every 6 months for SEO PS vs. MS (which also runs on the Mac)

Umm - really Market Samurai is just rank-tracker features (doesn't I believe cover the other tools at all as I see it i.e. competitor backlinks and data that SEO spyglass pulls, optimisation of web-auditor and management of backlinks for link-assistant).

Agree that at present it does pull search volume data from google - which is a nice feature - well would be if it really worked - read on... (and we have been told that this feature will very soon be included in rank-tracker)... so for that one feature it has an advantage at the moment.

Secondly MSamurai does not work for markets and languages outside of ones present locale (i.e. if you want to get data on a market / language in which your IP address is not located, your data will be incorrect... so this is a big issue and actually makes Market Samurai useless to myself at the moment).

Hope comments help - cheers, Asiaplay

I downloaded it and actually ended up buying it. Very comprehensive, includes in depth competition data, back link profiles for competition, competition data takes into account other factors like domain age, backlinks from .gov and .edu sites etc. Very cool. Has a Rank Tracker module as full featured and comprehensive as LA's. Also has what I think is more up-to-date "link partner finding" functionality, as it allows you to search for and post in related blogs, forums etc. and then gives detailed PR, Backlinks for each. It will even find related content for your keywords and will analyze that as well. Runs on a Mac (Adobe Air), all in one single app with a nice clean interface. $87 total. No charges for any future updates. I'm a happy camper right now

Happy to hear you found it useful - I agree has some nice data features that link-assistant should take note of as well.

Unfortunately I did the same - downloaded it and tested it... but decided not to buy (mainly as the data was all related to the IP where I am based and therefore incorrect for markets / languages I deal in outside of here - basically useless for any SEO purposes outside my locale... and noble-samurai were unfortunately unable to offer any solution for that big problem... as you will see in their forum, every 2nd post is on incorrect data it pulls).

In addition, I also didn't buy, as I personally felt that it does a lot, lot less than link-assistant products at present...

But happy someone raised the product here (so everyone including link-assistant staff can take note and decide themselves)...
Some things in it, are good I do agree (and I wish that it did work while waiting for rank-tracker to incorporate locale based google search volume and other search volume tools such as baidu, naver and yandex tools)...
Personally I really don't see market samurai as anywhere near a replacement to link-assistant (it really doesn't help for many SEO issues and the power of SEO spyglass and the other link-assistant tools should never be understated as I see it) - it is useful however as an additional software which adds some data which might be useful to some.

Cheers - Asiaplay

All the features you named are available in SEO PowerSuite, plus we have many more than that. Moreover, we are constantly updating software to any SE shifts and sways so that the tools produce correct data. Same way we add requested features, release major improvements every once in a while and add more and more regional search engines - that is why we charge more.

They have quite a bit more features as well, including pulling related content to help write articles, link finding module that pulls in related blogs, squidoo and hubpages to get your links on. All their updates are included in their one time fee which is about 1/3 of what you guys charge. What I really loved initially about SEOPS was Website Auditor, but I soon realized that the "advice" it was giving was bogus. Every project I started, it told me that my KW density was too high for the one use of my KW. In some cases it said my KW density should be 0% but the prominence should be 8% or something. It's a great concept, but I'm not going to pay $2-300 every 6 months for that. I'm pretty happy with Market Samurai right now and I've gotten the number 1 Google spot for the phrase search for one of my keywords on a very hot niche for a domain I bought only a month ago. I'll keep an eye on you guys and hope you change your bogus "Live Plan" pricing structure and improve the accuracy of Website Auditor, but for now, I'm taking advantage of your 30 day MBG.

I am shopping around right at this moment. This thread is very helpful as I am still in an undecided mode. I haven't tried MS yet, but plan to test it out before making a final decision.

The only thing I find that is a deterrent for me at this point is the high price for SEOPS. I run a 3 man show. Do you offer multi-user license? Also, I can't find anywhere on your site about the type of license (i.e., is it perpetual or subscription?) that you charge.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Hi there,

Try out both... I must admit since I posted, I do now use the "SEO Competition" feature on Market Samurai...
Reason is that, that produces is a nice one page summary that makes deciding on which keyword will be easy or hard to have a chance on ranking for e.g. shows # backlinks, domain PR etc.)
This summary on one page for seo comparision with top 10, is missing in link-assistant tools unfortunately (and I hope they add it.... THIS IS A HINT LINK ASSISTANT STAFF - as this was an add-on that some people suggested goes into web-auditor, but perhaps would fit better into ranktracker, as it is a sorting out keyword ranking ease table, which more closely relates to the keyword research exercise, which is presently done in rank-tracker with link-assistant tools... the MS version could even be improved upon and averages for top 10 for page Domain age, Page PR, lowest # BL page, higest # BL page and count data for onpage attributes i.e. a nice summary for each keyword that goes into keyword research KEI page of rank tracker ).

I however use link-assistant tools for search volume and competition data - as prefer to work on accurate data.
Also tools like seo-spyglass, webauditor, link-assistant and there features do not appear in Market Samurai.
Rank tracker, has additional features compared to that module in Market Samurai and does calculate rankings for country / market / search engine (i.e. can be set to work with locale).

Recently Market Samurai have added another couple of modules, which can be useful for link building or affiliate sorting out...

Really the tools are perhaps going different directions at the moment and their is use in both of them now.
However I would still prefer link-assistant tools over Market Samurai at the moment if I had to choose between them.

So perhaps download the free trials (test accuracy of results manually), watch the videos and decide for yourself...

Hope comments help - cheers, Asiaplay