Marketing & SEO

Should you build your own Frase?

SEO/GEO content platform for research, briefs, optimization, and AI writing

With trade-offs · the basics, with limitations
Price $49/moEstimated savings $468/yrEstimated time multi-dayCategory Marketing & SEOCatalog votes 0

A content-brief generator over SERP pages and an LLM is reachable, but Frase's workflow combines SERP retrieval, scoring, editor UX, AI-search tracking, and reporting.

ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.

The complete prompt
Build me a content-brief generator to replace Frase. Requirements:

- A Node CLI: `brief "<keyword>"` writes ./briefs/<keyword-slug>.md.
- Fetch the top 10 results for the keyword from Serper.dev (key in .env).
- Scrape each result with Playwright plus Readability: title, H2/H3 outline,
  word count, and any questions found on the page.
- Send the aggregate to an LLM (key in .env) to produce the brief: suggested
  title and angle, a target outline, questions to answer, terms competitors
  cover, and a word-count range.
- `score <draft.md> "<keyword>"` re-checks my draft against the brief: which
  terms and questions are covered or missing, with a plain coverage percentage.
- Cache scraped pages in ./cache/ keyed by URL so re-runs cost nothing.
- Flat files only, no database; no accounts, no telemetry, the only network
  calls are the SERP API, page fetches, and the LLM.
- Out of scope: an editor UI, rank tracking, team workflows. Briefs are
  Markdown, I write in my own editor.
- README: which keys to get and the rough per-brief cost of the SERP API.

The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR

Original prompt preserved in English.

What would building your own look like?

Retrieve top pages, summarize topics/questions/headings, generate a brief, score a draft against terms, and export to a doc.

What you will need

Why paying can still make sense

They pay because writers need a repeatable research/editor workflow, not a pile of scraped pages.

What you lose

xSERP data pipeline

xoptimization scoring

xteam workflows

xAI-search tracking

xeditor polish

xreporting

prior art · use these instead of building, if you’d ratherDanswer/OnyxOpen-source enterprise search/answering app; not a Frase clone, but prior art for retrieva↗
Share on X ↗"I just replaced Frase ($49/mo) with one prompt"
Plans and pricing

How much does Frase cost?

In your currency · US DollarChecked on 10/20/2026
Monthly billing
$49/mo
Per year
$588/yr
Annual billing
$468/yr20% cheaper than paying monthly
Buy on the official site

You complete the purchase on Frase’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.

PlanMonthlyAnnual (per month)What is included
starter$49/workspace$39/workspace1 seat; 1 site; 10 articles/month; 50 page audits/month; 3 Frase Guard pages.
professional$129/workspace$103/workspace3 seats; 5 sites; 40 articles/month; 250 page audits/month; 15 Frase Guard pages.
scale$299/workspace$239/workspace5 seats; 10 domains; 100 articles/month; 1,000 page audits/month; 50 Frase Guard pages.
enterprisecustom-Custom sites, seats, article volume, audit volume, governance, security, and support.

Free tierno free tier (7-day trial only)

Billing termsmonthly + annual (about 20% lower on annual billing)

Additional costsExtra seats cost $29/month; optional article/audit overages can add usage charges, but public unit rates are not disclosed. FraseCMS paid hosting starts at $19/month after its free 100,000-pageview/25 GB level.

verified 2026-08-14 · source ↗

Build or buy

Is it cheaper to build or buy Frase?

Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.

Subscribe
Build it yourself
Horizon
Subscribe$936
Build it yourself$3,560

Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.

Starting hours estimated from the analysis (multi-day). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).

Frequently asked questions
Can I rebuild Frase?

Kinda. The core of Frase is buildable in a weekend with the prompt on this page, but there are real gaps: SERP data pipeline, optimization scoring. Read the honest list above before committing.

How much does Frase cost?

Frase costs about $49/mo (Starter, checked 10/20/2026), which is $468 per year.

What do I lose by replacing Frase?

Honestly: SERP data pipeline; optimization scoring; team workflows; AI-search tracking; editor polish; reporting. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Frase?

Yes: Danswer/Onyx (Open-source enterprise search/answering app; not a Frase clone, but prior art for retrieva). Using prior art is also vibecoding; the prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.

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