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Rundown vs vidIQ

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Free plan
Both have one
Higher Trust score
vidIQ — 88 vs 68 for Rundown
Best fit
Rundown: creators tracking what competitor channels in their niche are publishing · vidIQ: solo creators under roughly 100k subscribers who need topic and keyword direction
Platforms
Rundown: Web · vidIQ: Web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension
Status
Both up at our last check — Rundown Oct 15, 2026, vidIQ Oct 24, 2026

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

RundownMonitors YouTube channels in your niche and emails a daily brief of trending topics and summarized new uploads.vidIQYouTube growth analytics with AI ideas, thumbnails and coaching

Side by side

FactRundownvidIQ
CategoryYouTube ToolsSEO Tools
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$3.99/mo—
Trust score68 / 10088 / 100
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android, Chrome extension
CompanyTesseravidIQ
Launched—2011
Last verifiedOct 15, 2026Oct 24, 2026

What our research says

Rundown

Built for tracking a niche over time rather than summarizing one video on demand, which is a different job than most YouTube-summary tools do. The daily email brief and channel-convergence flagging are the actual product; per-video summaries are just the raw material feeding it.

Pros

  • tracks unlimited channels even on the free tier
  • the daily brief surfaces trends and overlap across channels, not just single summaries
  • generates timestamped chapters for every monitored upload

Cons

  • summary volume is capped by plan, so heavy monitoring needs a paid tier
  • no browser extension, so it's a separate destination rather than inline with YouTube
  • company details beyond the name Tessera are unconfirmed

vidIQ

The default second screen for creators who optimise before they publish, and the in-page extension stats are the actual product; the AI layer is a convenience bolted on top. An established channel with an editor and a strategist is mostly paying for numbers YouTube Studio already gives away.

Pros

  • the Chrome extension puts stats directly on YouTube pages, which dashboard-only rivals cannot match
  • the free tier is genuinely usable for keyword and trend checks
  • mobile apps keep the daily-ideas loop going away from a desk
  • channel-aware coaching beats generic prompt-and-hope title generators

Cons

  • credit metering means heavy thumbnail or clipping use drains a month's allowance fast
  • pricing is aggressively localised and promo-driven, so the sticker price is rarely stable
  • no public API found; outside data access goes through an MCP connector for AI assistants
  • AI Coach advice turns generic once a channel has a settled niche

Which one fits

Choose Rundown if you need

  • creators tracking what competitor channels in their niche are publishing
  • marketers wanting a daily digest of trending topics in a specific space
  • researchers monitoring many channels without watching every video

Choose vidIQ if you need

  • solo creators under roughly 100k subscribers who need topic and keyword direction
  • researching competitor tags, upload cadence and outlier videos
  • batch-generating thumbnail concepts and title variants before publishing

Rundown vs vidIQ: the questions people ask

Is Rundown cheaper than vidIQ?

Rundown starts at $3.99/mo. vidIQ has a free tier; what its paid plans cost is not confirmed by us yet.

Does Rundown or vidIQ have a free tier?

Both: Rundown has a free tier, and vidIQ has a free tier.

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