MarketMuse
Verified Oct 16, 2026 ActiveContent strategy software that inventories a site, models its topics and tells you what to write, update or merge.
Listed on EffectHub ·
Pricing
- Pricing model
- Freemium
A Free plan gives one user 10 queries a month with no site inventory or briefs. Optimize (1 user, 1 inventory, 100 topics, 5 briefs a month), Research (3 users, 1,000 topics, 10 briefs, unlimited queries) and Strategy (5 users, 10,000 topics, 20 briefs, all nine brief types) are listed without prices; every tier links to a demo booking, and a free trial is offered.
Use tool ↗About MarketMuse
MarketMuse builds an inventory of everything a site has published, scores it against a topic model of the subject area, and ranks what to create, refresh or consolidate - quick wins, competitor gaps and topic difficulty specific to that site. From the plan it produces content briefs (nine types on the top tier, article briefs lower down) and an Optimize editor that grades a draft on structure, depth and expertise, with a generative assistant the company is careful to say does not write the content for you. It is aimed at content teams and agencies running programmes of dozens of articles rather than solo bloggers. MarketMuse, Inc. was founded in Boston in 2013 by Aki Balogh and acquired by Siteimprove in October 2024; the plans are quoted on a demo call.
- Platforms
- Web
- API
- Not confirmed
- Last verified
- Oct 16, 2026
Verified sources
- Plans Free (1 user, 10 queries/month, no inventory or briefs), Optimize (1 user, 1 inventory, 100 topics, 5 briefs/month), Research (3 users, 1,000 topics, 10 briefs), Strategy (5 users, 10,000 topics, 20 briefs, all 9 brief types) - no prices, each linking to a demo; footer MarketMuse, Inc., 77 Sleeper St, Boston, MA (15 October 2026)marketmuse.com ↗
- Founded July 2013 by Aki Balogh in Boston, Jeff Coyle joined as co-founder in 2014; acquired by Siteimprove in October 2024; legal name MarketMuse, Inc. (15 October 2026)marketmuse.com ↗
- Content inventory, patented topic modelling, cluster and competitor-gap analysis, briefs and the Optimize editor with a generative assistant that does not write content for customers (15 October 2026)marketmuse.com ↗
Is MarketMuse legit?
We don’t label tools safe or unsafe. Below are the records we checked ourselves, each with the date we read it.
- Domain registered
- Mar 12, 2008 (18 years ago)Registry record (RDAP), registrar GoDaddy.com, LLC, looked up Sep 6, 2026
- TLS certificate
- Issued by Let's Encrypt, valid until Dec 22, 2026Seen in our own connection to the site on Oct 16, 2026
- Last checked
- Oct 16, 2026The site answered
- On the market since
- 2013The vendor's own material, read by us
- Operated by
- MarketMuse, Inc., United StatesOur research, card verified Oct 15, 2026
Pros & cons of MarketMuse
MarketMuse is the strategy end of content SEO: it is less about polishing one article than about deciding which fifty to write, which twenty to refresh and which ten to merge, scored against your own site rather than a generic keyword list. That planning layer is what Clearscope and Surfer do not really offer, and it is why agencies and in-house teams with a real backlog pay for it. The price is the catch - the paid tiers are quote-only and have been positioned well above the per-article optimizers - and the Free plan is a demo, not a working tier.
Pros
- Inventory and topic model score opportunities against your site, not a generic difficulty number
- Nine brief types on the Strategy tier, including cluster and link-structure guidance
- Optimize grades drafts on depth and expertise instead of keyword counts
- Operating under Siteimprove since 2024, so vendor continuity is less of a worry than with a small SaaS
Cons
- No prices on the pricing page; every tier goes through a demo call
- Free plan is ten queries a month with no inventory or briefs, enough to look but not to work
- No API or integrations listed on the public pages
- Single site inventory on every listed tier, so multi-site agencies need to ask about scaling
Best for
- Content teams and agencies planning programmes across hundreds of pages
- Sites with a large back catalogue that need to decide what to refresh or consolidate
- Strategists who want briefs grounded in a topic model of the site rather than a single keyword
Not for
- Solo writers who want a cheap per-article optimizer with a published price
- Teams expecting the tool to draft finished articles, which the vendor says it does not do
Watch out: Tracked-topic and brief quotas are per month and per tier (5, 10 or 20 briefs), so a team that expects unlimited briefs will hit the ceiling quickly; get the quota in writing on the demo call.
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MarketMuse head-to-head
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