Longshot AI vs Frase 2026: Which AI Writing Tool Is Actually Worth Your Money?

Here's a bold claim to start with: most AI writing tools are solving problems you don't actually have. But if you're running a small business and genuinely trying to figure out whether Longshot AI vs Frase is the right call for your content workflow, you're asking a smarter question than most people bother with. I've been down this road — testing tools, paying for subscriptions I forgot to cancel, and quietly regretting at least half of them. Both Longshot AI and Frase promise to help you create SEO-optimized content faster, but they go about it in pretty different ways. This comparison is for content marketers, small business owners, and solo operators who need real answers — not a sanitized feature dump.

Let's dig in.

Quick Comparison: Longshot AI vs Frase at a Glance

Longshot AI: What You're Actually Getting

Longshot Ai

Longshot AI positions itself as an AI writing tool that actually cares about accuracy. Honestly? That's not nothing. In a world where AI tools confidently hallucinate statistics and cite sources that don't exist, Longshot's built-in fact-checking feature is a genuine differentiator — and one that's weirdly rare at this price point.

Key Features

• FactCheck Mode — Longshot flags potentially inaccurate AI-generated claims and cross-references them against real sources. For industries where accuracy matters (health, finance, legal-adjacent content), this is a big deal. Like, actually a big deal.
• AI Blog Writer — A full end-to-end workflow that takes you from keyword to draft. It's not the fastest tool out there, but the output tends to be more grounded than what you'd get from some competitors.
• Content Templates — Covers the usual suspects: product descriptions, social posts, email sequences, landing pages. Nothing revolutionary, but solid.
• SEO Optimizer — A basic but functional integration that helps you hit keyword targets while writing.
• Plagiarism Checker — Built in, which saves you a separate tool subscription. (Fun fact: Copyscape alone costs extra per search, so this bundling adds up.)
• Team Collaboration — Shared workspaces and user roles make it workable for small content teams.

Pricing

Longshot AI runs about $29/month for the Pro plan billed monthly, which covers unlimited content generation for most users. There's also a Team plan around $79/month for collaborative features. Pricing has shifted a bit over the years, so always check their site for current rates before you commit.

Best For

Businesses publishing in sensitive or fact-heavy niches — think health, finance, SaaS documentation, or anything where a hallucinated statistic could cause real problems. If you've ever had to issue a correction on a published article, you know exactly why this matters.

Frase: The SEO Researcher's Best Friend

Frase

Frase is the tool that SEO professionals tend to reach for when someone asks about content briefs and SERP research. It's been around long enough to earn real trust in the content marketing world, and its research capabilities are — I'll just say it — genuinely impressive. Honestly, I think the content brief builder alone is worth the price of admission for most content teams.

Key Features

• Content Briefs — This is Frase's crown jewel. It pulls the top-ranking pages for any keyword, extracts headings, questions, and key stats, then bundles everything into a brief that actually helps writers understand what Google wants to see. Briefing a freelancer has never been easier.
• AI Writer — Generates content based on your brief. It's solid, though the research side genuinely outshines the pure writing output. Don't buy Frase primarily for its AI writing — buy it for the research.
• Topic Score — Shows you how well your content covers the key topics compared to top-ranking competitors. It's weirdly satisfying to watch that score climb from 42 to 78 as you add sections.
• SERP Analysis — Word count data, domain authority, question extraction from People Also Ask — all wrapped into one dashboard instead of you cobbling it together from five different tabs.
• Optimize Mode — Paste in existing content and get optimization recommendations without starting from scratch. This is genuinely great for refreshing older posts that used to rank and have slipped.
• Integrations — WordPress, Google Search Console, Google Docs, and Zapier connections open up solid workflow possibilities.

Pricing

Frase starts at around $15/month for the Solo plan — that's 1 user, 4 articles per month. The Basic plan is roughly $45/month for unlimited articles, and the Team plan runs about $115/month. Here's the catch that trips people up: the AI writing add-on costs an extra ~$35/month on some plans. So if you're budgeting for the $15 plan and expecting full AI writing, you're in for a surprise at checkout. Always read the fine print.

Best For

Content marketers, SEO agencies, and small business owners who want to make data-driven decisions about what to write — and then actually write it faster with AI assistance once they know what they're targeting.

Feature-by-Feature Breakdown: Where Each Tool Wins

User Interface & Ease of Use

Look, Frase wins this one, and it's not particularly close. The dashboard is clean, the workflow is intuitive, and new users can typically run their first content brief within 15 minutes of signing up. I timed this. Longshot's interface is functional but feels a bit busier — there are more options visible at once, which can be genuinely overwhelming when you just want to get something written.

That said, Longshot's onboarding has improved noticeably over the past year. It's not bad. It's just not as smooth as Frase.

Core Functionality: Two Tools, Two Different Problems

Here's where it gets interesting — and where I think a lot of comparison articles get it wrong. These tools aren't really competing head-to-head because they're solving different problems.

Longshot's core value is accuracy. The FactCheck feature is legitimately useful. It doesn't catch everything, but it catches enough to save you from embarrassing errors in published content. If your niche demands factual precision, this alone might justify the subscription.

Frase's core value is research and optimization. The content brief builder is best-in-class for AI tools at this price point. The topic scoring system gives you a measurable target to hit — which is useful both for your own writing and for briefing freelancers who need clear direction.

Neither tool replaces a skilled human writer. But Frase does more to make that human writer more effective before they type a single word.

Integrations

Frase edges ahead here too. The Google Search Console integration is genuinely useful — it lets you see which of your existing pages are underperforming and prioritize them for optimization without doing a manual audit. Longshot integrates with WordPress and Google Docs, but there's less depth in terms of workflow automation.

If you're using Zapier to connect your tools (and honestly, more people should be), Frase gives you more to work with. Longshot's integration story is still developing — and has been for a while, if I'm being honest.

Pricing & Value: The Math That Actually Matters

This is where things get nuanced. Longshot looks cheaper at entry ($29/month vs Frase's $45/month for unlimited articles), but Frase's $15 Solo plan makes it more accessible for someone just getting started who doesn't need high volume.

The catch with Frase is the AI add-on pricing. If you want full AI writing capabilities, you're often looking at $45 + $35 = $80/month. That changes the math considerably — suddenly Longshot at $29 looks like the better deal for a solo operator.

Longshot's pricing is more straightforward. What you see is closer to what you actually pay, which I appreciate more than I expected to.

For pure value: Frase's research capabilities justify the cost if you're doing serious SEO work. If you mainly need AI-generated drafts with fact-checking built in, Longshot is the better deal.

Customer Support

Frase has a more developed support ecosystem — active community forum, chat support, and a solid knowledge base. Response times are generally good. Longshot offers chat and email support, and while the team is responsive, the community is smaller and less active. If you learn by lurking forums and reading how other users solve problems, Frase gives you a lot more to work with.

Mobile App

Neither tool has a dedicated mobile app as of early 2026 — both are browser-based. They work on mobile technically, but the experience isn't optimized for small screens. If you're writing on your phone regularly, pair either tool with a dedicated mobile writing app and use these for desktop research and drafting sessions.

Security & Compliance

Both tools use standard encryption and data security practices. Neither has published detailed SOC 2 compliance reports as of this writing, which matters if you're handling sensitive client data. Frase has a more detailed privacy policy and clearer data handling documentation, giving it a slight edge for businesses with stricter compliance requirements.

Pros and Cons

Longshot AI

Frase

Who Should Use Longshot AI?

Longshot AI makes the most sense if:

• You're in a fact-sensitive niche. Health, finance, legal content, B2B SaaS documentation — anywhere a fabricated statistic or wrong claim could damage your credibility or cause real harm. The FactCheck feature isn't perfect, but it's a meaningful safety net that most tools don't even attempt.
• You want simpler pricing. If you hate fee structures full of add-ons and surprise costs at checkout, Longshot's more straightforward billing is genuinely easier to budget around.
• You need plagiarism checking included. Bundling this saves you a separate Copyscape or similar subscription — which, depending on your volume, could be $10–$20/month by itself.
• You're writing primarily for AI-assisted drafts and don't need deep SEO research tools baked into the same platform.

Who Should Use Frase?

Frase makes more sense if:

• Content briefs are a core part of your workflow. Whether you're briefing freelancers, managing a small content team, or just want a clear roadmap before you write, Frase's brief builder is excellent. Full stop.
• You're focused on organic search performance. The SERP analysis, topic scoring, and Search Console integration create a cohesive SEO workflow that Longshot simply doesn't match.
• You need to refresh existing content. Frase's Optimize mode is a practical tool that other platforms dramatically undervalue. Paste in your old post, see what's missing compared to current top-rankers, fix it. Simple.
• You want an active community. Learning from other users speeds up your growth on any platform, and Frase's community is legitimately helpful.
• You're starting small. The $15 Solo plan lets you test the waters without a big financial commitment — just watch that AI add-on upsell.

The Verdict: Longshot AI vs Frase in 2026

Here's the deal — there isn't a single "best" answer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. It genuinely depends on what problem you're trying to solve.

Choose Frase if you're running an SEO-driven content operation and need better research, better briefs, and better optimization data. It's the more mature tool for the content marketing use case, and the interface reflects years of real user feedback. Most content marketers and small business owners focused on organic growth will be happier with Frase — I'd put that figure at roughly 70% of the people reading this comparison.

Choose Longshot AI if accuracy is non-negotiable in your niche and you want fact-checking baked into your workflow. It's a more specialized tool, but for the right user, that specialization is genuinely valuable in a way that no amount of SEO features can replace.

My honest take? If I were starting from scratch today, I'd start with Frase's $1 trial, build a few content briefs, and see if the workflow clicks with how I actually think. If I were running a health or finance blog where a single wrong claim could tank my credibility, I'd give Longshot a serious look first.

Don't sleep on trying both. Each has a 5-day or limited free trial, and the best tool is always the one that fits how you actually work — not the one with the most impressive feature list on paper.

• 👉 Try Longshot AI: Longshot Ai
• 👉 Try Frase: Frase

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FAQ: Longshot AI vs Frase

Is Longshot AI better than Frase for SEO?

Not really. Frase has significantly stronger SEO research tools — SERP analysis, topic scoring, content brief generation, and Google Search Console integration all give it a clear edge for organic search-focused work. Longshot has basic SEO features, but that's not what you're buying it for.

Can I use both Longshot AI and Frase together?

You can, though it's an expensive combo. Some content teams use Frase for research and brief creation, then use a separate AI writing tool for the actual drafts. Whether the overlap justifies double the subscription cost depends on your volume and budget — for most solo operators, probably not.

Does Frase's $15/month plan include AI writing?

The Solo plan at $15/month does include some AI writing features, but full AI writing access typically requires the add-on at around $35/month extra. Always check Frase's current pricing page before committing — their tier structure has changed several times, and what's true today might not be true in three months.

Is Longshot AI's fact-checking actually reliable?

Useful but not foolproof — and honestly, I think some people oversell it. Think of it as a helpful second pass, not a replacement for real research. It flags potentially inaccurate claims and prompts you to verify sources, which is more than most AI tools bother to offer. But don't publish anything in a sensitive niche without doing your own verification on top of it.

Which tool is better for beginners?

Frase, pretty comfortably. The workflow from keyword to brief to draft is clear and well-guided, and most new users feel oriented within their first session. Longshot has improved its UX, but there's still more of a learning curve before you feel comfortable navigating all the features.

Are there good alternatives to both tools?

Yes — and this is worth knowing before you commit. If neither feels right, take a look at Try Surfer SEO for SEO content optimization, Jasper if pure AI writing quality is your main priority, or Semrush if you want to combine content tools with broader SEO capabilities. Each solves a slightly different slice of the content creation problem, and one of them might actually be a better fit than either tool in this comparison.